As we’ve announced for a few months, liberti church east is the grateful recipient of a grant from the Lilly Endowment.  This grant will fund my own sabbatical this summer, as well as funding some training for our elders, elders-in-training, deacons, and deacon-in-training.

During the next few weeks the Huber family will be at some of our sister churches: liberti Fairmount on May 22, Jacob’s Well NJ on May 29, and liberti center city on June 5.  On June 12th I will return to participate in the commissioning of deaconess AnnMarie Schultz and to receive prayer for our family as we head to Colorado on June 18th.

While in Colorado, we will be renting the home of a retired pastor in the town of Boulder.  I’ll attend the a29 lead pastors conference June 20-23 and then will begin a regimen of worship, rest, and study for the next 8 weeks.

A few of you have asked how you can pray for me and my family (thank you so much):
1)  Pray that God would bless this time of worship and rest.  The word for “sabbatical” has the same root word as “sabbath”—which literally means “rest” in Hebrew.  Pray for deep renewal and rest as I pull back from the pressure of normal ministry life.  Pray for renewal spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  I’m wired naturally for face-paced action and getting things done--- resting in this way will not feel natural to me.

2)  Pray that God would bless this time of worship and prayer.   I’m hoping to spend extended times praying for the liberti churches and for the region.  Psa. 27:8     “You have said,  ‘Seek  my face.’ My heart says to you, Your face, LORD, do I seek.”  It was 10 years ago that the vision to begin planting liberti churches first took shape.  Pray that God grants some clarity to the vision for my life for the next season of ministry and for liberti.

3)  Pray that God would bless this time of worship and family.  We are going to be able to do some fun things as a family in the mountains of Colorado and hopefully get a lot of exercise.  We will be in a beautiful part of God’s creation.   We desire to enjoy the scenery and mountains in a way that turns awe and fun into gratitude and worship for an amazingly creative and glorious God.  Pray that I love God by loving my family well and that God blesses the time that Christine and I have with the kids.  Pray especially for our time with Hannah, who is 16.  This will probably be the last time we’ll have this kind of extended time with her before she goes to college.

4) Pray for all the elders, elders-in-training, deacons, and deacons-in-training as they undergo coaching, counseling, and mentoring this summer.  Pray that God grows them in their gifts, wisdom, and in their love for God and for people--- and pray that they would see and understand more of God’s love for them in Jesus!

I’m deeply grateful for God’s kindness in giving us the gift of this sabbatical.  Also, I’m truly and deeply thankful for you, the covenant community of liberti, for letting me do this.  You have consistently been a supportive and encouraging community to me and my family and the other leaders at liberti.  I’ll be preaching again on Sunday, September 4th (Lord-wiling). We hope to be able to have an end of the summer party/bbq and have all the servant-leaders share something that they learned over the summer.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of what God wants to do both in us and through us for his glory in this city and region and for our joy.

Press on,
Pastor Steve