Hitchman News August 2020

Video production and ministry online!

Ministry Update

When we wrote our last newsletter we were not anticipating that Covid 19 would hang around for this long. We had a number of events down in the diary for September but it looks like things will be getting tighter here again from September 1st and travel will again be restricted. We’ve been putting our time to good use and are feeling blessed that technology allows us to still have an opportunity to share even when we can’t physically go somewhere so we’ll still be preaching and teaching even though it will be from a distance.

We’ve made great progress towards getting our teaching on video! We’ve been creating training videos in the area of member care for Elim’s Mission Academy. We also told you last time that our aim was to get our Four Loves seminar captured on video, we did it! We created four segments which are just ten minutes each with lots of room for discussion in between. It’s been a lot of fun to join in on the discussions with the churches who have already run with this. We’re planning to get a seminar on ‘Improving Communication’ out by November. This is likely to be a video series that can run alongside our latest book "Improving Communication. An essential guide for couples".

We said in our last newsletter that it’s been a steep learning curve to turn our attention to video, Roy is usually the one who edits the videos but as the demand increased so did the need for Lainey to learn this skill too. You’ll be glad to know our marriage survived!

Our days have still been busy with member care, debriefing, and crisis marriage counselling. We’ve really valued your prayers for wisdom as we help people navigate some really strong storms. On the flip side, it’s been fun to see some lovely couples get married and navigate around some crazy challenges that lockdown has thrown at them.

Family

As we look at our last newsletter, when we spoke about the challenge of being at a distance from our kids it’s wonderful to be able to say that Erin & Jonathan are visiting us at the moment and Beth is flying in soon too! We really hope we’ll be able to find a creative way to to see Ryan and also Lainey’s family soon but we’re very grateful for the blessing of visits.

Praise

Thank you, everyone, who prayed for Lainey’s leg to be healed. She is able to walk around on it and navigate stairs now too. The only residue from her running injury is not having the full range of motion in her knee. She has an appointment with the orthopaedic doctor on the 16th of September since the doctor didn’t think it was a tendon injury but inflammation of the bone marrow. She would value your prayers.

Prayer

Please continue to pray for our work-life balance. We’re being mindful about the investment we need to make in our own relationship but would value your continued prayer.
Please pray for those who need our help at this time, that God would bring them breakthroughs in their lives and relationships.