Lewis Ecker
Church-based Missionary
-- London, England -- |
flip-flops from the street pastors
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foodbank friends
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Zoey and Ashley at the Lighthouse Challenge
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Zach and Angie at the Lighthouse Challenge (we were a house divided)
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Dear friends, I hope everyone is having a peaceful holiday weekend in the US. We are all keeping well in the UK but reluctantly I must admit we need your assistance once again. Let's suffice it to say that we are having financial problems adjusting to the new salary and paying rent and all the utilities. In other words, there's too much month at the end of the money and this is a very serious circumstance we are finding ourselves in this month.
It's no one's fault, I just wasn't expecting the government to take such a LARGE bite out of my pay each month. You've heard me rant about government bureaucracy in the past so I'll spare you this time.
I want to be clear that I'm not saying anything negative about my new job and church, House on the Rock. I love working with HOTR and still love living in London. Everyone is "brilliant" as we say in the UK.
We give thanks for all who have supported us in the past. Therefore, if you still believe in what we're doing in London and you're able to help us again, well, that would be... "brilliant"!! If you can, please send a check payable to First Baptist Church of Clermont, directed to the Ecker family fund. The church address is 498 W. Montrose St., Clermont, FL, 34711.
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Since June the Summer has been keeping us busy. We started off with a quick trip to Liverpool to celebrate Ashley's 18th birthday on the 4th of July. Ask me anything about the Beatles. I'm now an expert on the subject. Then I started the new job on the 11th. That's been going great and I really love it.
Here's a summary of my assignments as Community Pastor:
(1) Begin some sort of alternative worship service to the current Sunday 10am service. This might be a very early Sunday AM service or maybe Saturday night.
(2) Set up some kind of lunchtime fellowship meeting. This will likely be for the elderly or moms with tots.
(3) Revive the ministry to university students locally and give assistance as needed to student ministry already established in Cardiff, Manchester, and W. London.
(4) Give support and oversight to the Foodbank and weekly youth club and start a youth Bible study during the week.
(5) Function as an associate pastor and share the usual duties of pastoral care, outreach, occasional preaching, etc.
(6) Be the contact person for local agencies, charities, government, etc. (7) Develop overseas missions opportunities, likely India and Africa where HOTR already has contacts. (8) Identify new evangelistic opportunities locally and recruit, train, implement, etc. (AND I'm still the street pastor coordinator for Islington.)
Numbers 4, 5, and 6 are already in full swing. The other items are still in the research and planning stage. So you see there's plenty of work to be done.
Angie has been staying busy this summer too with her cooking classes at the youth club and for August she helped run a London version of Junior Apprentice. Like the TV show, young people competed for prizes and an internship. Zoey came in third place in our group and was one of the youngest contestants. Zachary was on the film team documenting all the team projects. Ashley didn't participate but spent a week as an adult volunteer at Soul Survivor (youth camp) and completed her street pastor training.
In August we also had two big events at HOTR. The first was called the London Prayer Challenge. This was a series of revival-like meetings with lots of music and preaching. American songwriting legend, Don Moen, was our guest worship leader (see top photo). Then at the end of the month we had a two-day all-church sports event called Lighthouse Challenge. Zach won two bronze medals for badminton and 100m while Angie won a gold medal for the adult sackrace!! She also participated in co-ed basketball (believe it or not) and her team got silver. I had the flu so could only watch. :(
I'm sure there are some others things I'm forgetting to mention but you get the picture.
Love from afar,
The Ecker Family |
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--"G" is STILL in temporary accommodations but is finally on the waiting list to get placed in a supported group-home for people with mental health issues. PTL
--Islington Street Pastors on patrol the 16th and 23rd of September need your prayers. You probably heard about riots in London... while they were not very close to where we live and ended several weeks ago we still need prayer for peace on our streets.
-- Please pray for the youth club on Thursdays at House on the Rock, that it continues to reach new people in the community.
--Please remember the Food Bank at House on the Rock, pray for donations and volunteers. Pray for individuals and families in need.
--Also, the drop-in ministry at Upper Holloway Baptist, Kings Cross Baptist, St. Stephens, Union Chapel, and All Saints Church; pray for increased funding and volunteers.
--Our ministry to university students is called The Rock Foundation. Please pray for me as I'll be helping to lead a week of training sessions for the leaders from Cardiff, Manchester, and London, 12-16 September.
--Please pray for me as I need wisdom to plan/implement projects outlined above at HOTR.
--Please pray about our financial situation. Angie and Ashley are looking for babysitting jobs to help ends meet.
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