Dear support team,

Thank you so much for all of your love, prayers and support.  We have much to share but time is limited so the quick update will have to do for now.

ECW opening:
At East City Wesleyan Church, we had our official opening service on Sunday (August 10th).  This weekend is an Open weekend at the Church Centre.  Starting with a Youth Rally tomorrow night (Aug 15th) – we are bringing in a live band, The Ember Days, who played at our NZ Wesleyan Methodist Youth Camp.  We are expecting at least a hundred teens.  We’ve encouraged our teens to invite several friends and we’ve also invited the other Wesleyan Methodist churches in the area. Then on Saturday, from 10am-5pm we have an open day where we will have ministry and community facing displays, worship and special music in the auditorium, games for kids and teens, a sausage sizzle, car wash etc. all open for the public to enjoy.  On Sunday we have a invite-a-friend focused service in the morning, than games in the park for the teens in the afternoon and a service in the evening featuring a local puppetry group (a couple of the members are from our church) doing a black light show telling the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Check out the website for more info – www.ecw.org.nz.  Please pray for us this weekend – the whole church is putting in many hours of work to make this weekend a success and have a wide impact for Christ with many people in our community.

National Resource Centre opening:
ECW’s new Church Centre is also home to the National Resource Centre of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand (WMCNZ).  On August 23^rd we will have the official opening for the National Resource Centre with a dedication service and festival celebration.  Several of our WMCNZ churches will be represented there and contribute to the festival with a special worship service.  Our Tongan, Fijian, Rotuman, and Chinese congregations will all bring cultural items.  It should be a great evening and we pray it will be a blessing to our wider national church.

Uth Service:
On August 31^st our SURGE teens will be taking on all of the roles of the morning service (except for the preaching, they’re letting Drew do that).  We have been so proud of the leaders in our youth group, especially the Uth Worship Team who have led some worship songs at our Family convention in June, our opening services, and regularly lead worship at SURGE.  They will lead all of the music for the Aug 31^st morning service and several other teens will do other roles like, reading scripture, leading in prayer, running the sound, projection and video, greeting at the door, etc.  I know Drew and I will be beaming with pride that morning and it will be a fitting last Sunday at ECW for Drew and I (for only a few months, hopefully).  Please pray for our teens as they take on these roles and for unchurched family members who will hopefully attend this special service – that they would find a loving and caring people who show them the love of Jesus.

Home Ministries:
In early September we are heading back to Canada.  With all of the activities leading up to our departure, you can imagine we are going a bit crazy.  There is so much to do before we leave in order to get all of the plans in place for our ministries to run smoothly in our absence.  We hate to be away for so long but we have some great teams of people trained up and ready to keep things running.  Please pray for those who are taking on the extra tasks during the next free months in our absence that God would give them the energy and help to do them well.  Pray for us as we do all the necessary tasks to leave things organized and well planned.  Pray for us as we enter the support-raising phase once again – that God would open doors and His people will respond to the needs of His kingdom down under here in “Middle Earth”.  We are specifically praying that we would raise our support by December so that we will be able to return to NZ in early 2009 so that we can be at the next Wesleyan Youth Camp and so that we can run our 3^rd annual Xtreme Summer Challenge.  This summer program for the teens has been a huge success for the past 2 years.  And pray for our time with family and friends – we are getting so excited to see our friends and family (and as many of you as possible) – that amongst the busyness and pressure of reaching our support goal that we would really have some meaningful time spent with those who mean so much to us.

While we are back in Canada we hope to visit with several of you.  Our dates have not been completely confirmed but we plan to be in Ontario around Sept 6^th -15^th and then in New Brunswick until just before Christmas.  My mother, Gloria Inman will be helping us book churches and other visits while we are home.  Please feel free to contact her (506 273 2069) or email us if you are interested in having us visit you or your church during that time.

Blessings,
Amy & Drew Donovan
Global Partners Missionaries to Auckland, NZ