Back in Germany

Simple title for a very big event in our lives. After a year and 4 months of being away from our home, we have finally made it back to the Germany! We have now been here for a month and finally feel almost fully settled again. Matt has started back to work at the base and Elaina is back in preschool starting this week. I, Gillian, am home with Emeth but continue to connect with the YWAM, church, and local community.

---

Covid

Things are different then we expected, but we also expected that to happen as well. We have been surprised by the relaxed nature of covid rules as there was less then 10 incidences in our state since we arrived. Tomorrow we will have to wear masks again in public places but other then that, we can still gather and all seems like nothing happened, almost.

Base Life

When we left in March 2020 there were about 50 staff at YWAM Herrnhut, now there is around 25-30 and we don’t see them all at once. So things seem much more quiet then usual. We would usually be starting 3 training programs with around 50 students and no there is only one training program and it has 11 students currently. Local ministris have increased and so less people are at the base during the day. So all in all, its a very different atmosphere then it was before.

As Matt and I focus on our new ministry here, the equipping and mentoring of current staff, this is all really works in our favor, though it is an adjustment nonetheless. We have found so great opportunities to connect with old and new staff and make plans with leadership on how we can further help the greater community with trainings in fundraising, tools for resiliency in missions, and member care. It is a slower process then I thought it might be. But since this has not happened at our base before, introducing it in a way that works for this location and in a way that we can do is involving more tuning and conversations. But it is worth it and we already see the need and the fruit of taking the time to listen and help our staff.

Family Life

As it has been a slow start in ministry, it also has been a slower start to feeling settled back at home. We didn‘t fully realize how much we had changed until we stepped back into our ‘old shoes’ you could say. We are happy to see that we have improved in ways to avoid burnout and setting up healthy bourndaries to help our family thrive, not just ministry. We are also happy to hear that many of our friends have had the same realizations through the last year that we would lead to a healthier way of life and therefore some accountability for us as we all go through it together. We have seen our kids settle in and learn fast. Seeing them so happy and settled is a great relief for me. But we ask for your continued prayers as it is still a process for us to get used to many new/old things again and we find ourselves tired easily by things that would have been easy for us before we left in 2020. I think this is not uncommon after covid on a global scale but we still ask for your prayers as we grow our capacity once again.

---

All that to say, thank you for your prayers and continued support. Sorry for the long silence since we arrived here. We will be sending our a video update soon so you can see all that I have been writing about.

God Bless!

Gillian Dean