We love our local church in Sosnowiec.

Gabi and I have had the privilege this year to step into deeper roles in our church's worship ministry. Gabi is effectively our lead sound person (she has learned so fast and is doing amazing!) and I've taken on the role of worship coordinator. I'm basically our church's worship pastor, but on a volunteer basis 😅

Gabi (as pictured below) has already started training new volunteers and is a huge help to the entire tech side of our ministry. Our pastor is head over heels in his appreciation for what she brings to our team.

I recently lead a luncheon for all of our worship and tech volunteers (pictured above) where we talked about the why's and how's that drive our ministry. It was great to dive a little deeper with our team and think about the purpose of worship in the church, as well as our role in shaping the spiritual formation of people in our church through music.

All of this goes to say - thank you for your prayers for us and our ministry in Sosnowiec! Even though life and ministry with Josiah Venture, EXIT Tour, and CSM has us quite often on the road travelling all across Poland to equip leaders and build up local churches, there's just something special about the place God has given us to call home ❤️

• Third CSM worship training weekend!
  • Our theme for the third CSM weekend was Umiłowani (Beloved). We focused on 1 John 3 and how to understand, experience, and abide in God's love for us. I had each of the students spend some of our time in individual prayer and reflection on the following questions - In what concrete ways do you experience the love and care of the Father? What do you experience in life that makes you feel God's delight in you? There wasn't a dry eye in any of my five small groups throughout the day ❤️
• Shared worship night!
  • We had a wonderful time leading a worship night with our youth group and the youth group from a church in Jaworzno (one town over from Sosnowiec). The theme of the night was "Worthy of my _______" where we encouraged students to both taste and see that the Lord is good, as well as take a hard look at their own lives and search for places they need to offer up to God. He is worthy of my time, emotions, plans, relationships, etc. 
• EXIT Tour local church training!
  • Our EXIT Tour team drove 700km (nearly 450 miles) to Kołobrzeg to lead the local church in a pre-tour training to get them ready for EXIT. This is a brand new partner church for our ministry, and we're so excited to equip and support them in outreach to young people in their city!
• 4-year review!
  • That's right - I've lived and served in Poland for four years now. Time flies! We had a fantastic conversation with JV Poland's leadership team where we summed up the past four years of life and ministry in Poland and initiated important conversations about our roles in the team in the future. I'm incredibly excited to talk more with our leaders about how my role can evolve so I can serve even more effectively and with greater impact within my gifting!
• Gabi passed her semester!
  • A small addition to what I shared last month - Gabi had one oral exam remaining to pass the first semester of her final year back at university, and she passed with ease! She has a few more classes this spring, followed by her thesis defense around the end of June.

Here's what's coming up for us next month:

- 100° - Sto Stopni Conference! I'm currently writing this update from H2O - our training and conference center in southern Poland - where tonight 160 leaders of the next generation in Polish churches will arrive for a weekend conference. Our theme this year is Nie będziesz miał... ("You will not have" [other gods before me]) and we'll be focusing on idolatry in our lives. Please pray for these young leaders! We deeply desire to see them smash idols in their lives and replace that idolatry with true worship of our great God.

- EXIT Tour Kołobrzeg! March 27th - April 2nd I'll be on the Baltic Sea coast in the small town of Kołobrzeg with our EXIT Tour team, where we're leading a tour with both a new church and a new band from the UK. I'm most excited to be bringing four guys from our youth group along with me. Please pray for Tymek, Marek, Tymek J, and Iwo to grow in their faith and boldness as we share the Gospel and a message of hope with teenagers in schools!

- Concert in Berlin! Tymek and I are taking a weekend trip to see a concert in Berlin right before that EXIT Tour. Pray for great conversations and time together in discipleship during our 6-hour train trip there and back!

Thank you as always for your continued prayer and support.

In Christ,

Gabi and Elliott