Bouman Prayer Letter July 2024
Dear friends,
The past six weeks have flown by, and I (Jeff) am flying back to Budapest today. Julie will follow in a week after spending just a little bit more time with her mom in Pennsylvania – she will fly on August 7-8.
Our six weeks in the US have been a whirlwind of visits to six of our supporting churches, and countless opportunities for meaningful and encouraging engagement with many of our individual supporters and dear friends. It was really great to be able to meet so many members from First CRC – GR; Ann Arbor CRC; Cascade Fellowship CRC; Boston Square CRC; LaGrave Avenue CRC; and Neland Ave CRC – so many we had not been able to meet with during our initial support-raising phase during which Covid prevented in-person meetings. Thank you to all who joined in. We have not been able to see everyone, and we would love to hear updates from you as you are able.
Thank you. To each of you who have taken time to remind us of our friendship, to inquire about our well-being, to assure us of your prayers. Resonate has produced a 5-minute video overview of our work in Hungary here, and I hope you have a chance to watch it and “meet” some of our colleagues and friends in Hungary.
Please pray for us over the next few weeks as we travel separately back to Budapest, and as we welcome six new Cohort Europe young adult volunteers, who will meet each other next week in Budapest for their program orientation – pray for their final goodbyes with friends and family, for their safe travel, their health, and their openness to the wonders that lie before each of them as they step into a year of ministry, learning, and community.
Our year-end financial report showed that we raised 93% of our overall goal for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and we would love to see that go to 100% over the next year. If you have been pondering a one-time or a monthly financial gift, we would welcome your partnership, and if your church is looking to add a ministry in Europe to those you support, we would welcome a few more churches as partners as well. Details for supporting us can be found on our Resonate webpage here. After you tap the yellow “donate” button, you will be asked if you would like to donate in USD or Canadian, and then you will land on a page where you choose an amount, and then on the drop-down menu below you will choose “Missionaries-Europe,” and below that a drop-down menu will be a list of names, and you select Jeff and Julie Bouman. Below that are instructions for entering payment information. Additionally, I would invite you to consider a gift to one or two of our incoming Cohort Europe volunteers, each of whom are coming from communities where it will be difficult to raise the necessary $10,000 for their ministry experience. On the same drop-down list where our names appear, you will also find the names of Anastasiya Plekhava, from Belarus (will serve in Berlin), as well as Hanis Kakaba, from Nigeria (will serve in Budapest). You can find more detail about each of these amazing young people by clicking on the link from their names above. Other Cohort members include the following: Rebekah Shultes (Budapest); Caroline Cordova (Lithuania); Alisha Kuperus (Berlin); and Kevin Walker (Berlin).
Thank you for continuing the journey with us. In many ways the world does not seem to be getting any easier to inhabit, and our mutual care, encouragement, and love are more important than ever.
Blessings and peace,
Jeff and Julie
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