Easter is such a critical time for the church. Not only do we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus for our sins, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to share our faith with the world around us. In India, the season of Lent begins a 40-day period of significant prayer and fasting, during which many lift the needs of their neighbors, friends, and the world before the throne of grace. Each morning, groups of men and women come to churches throughout the region to pray and hear the word proclaimed. Lent is a serious time for your brothers and sisters, too. They pray for you and lift you in prayer as well. Each year during this season, many are convinced that Jesus is Lord and make a significant decision for themselves that will have profound implications here on earth and in eternity. This is especially important to note because once a Hindu chooses to profess faith in God and God alone through Jesus, his son, they take all other idols out of home and heart. This can lead to shunning, persecution, and even death, especially when their statement of faith is followed by entering into the waters of baptism. A decision to follow Jesus is never taken lightly. This year, we have the profound joy of announcing that at least 21 new brothers and sisters have joined the family! On Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, the services of your partners at the churches in Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam, India, served not only as a call to the world that Jesus Christ is King but also marked that fact with baptisms. Hallelujah! Praise God! Please keep your partners in India in prayer as they continue to serve the Lord with unwavering dedication and perseverance. They are witnessing lives being transformed daily through the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. Despite the high levels of persecution in the country, their spirit remains unquenched, serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration for us all. By Scott Soden Global Partners Coordinator

On Saturday, April 13th, Brethren from across the Southeast Region, representing Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky, gathered for the Southeast Region Annual Meeting. This year, the meeting was hosted by Maurertown Brethren Church of Maurertown, Virginia. Approximately seventy people were in attendance for a day of worship, teaching, fellowship, and service.  Our morning began with corporate worship and messages from Steven Cole, Executive Director of the Brethren Church; Gail Heiston, Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator, and Pat Gravatt, Chair of the Southeast Regional Leadership Team. Scott Soden and Miles Larson sent video updates on Brethren Global Partners and Brethren Church Vitality, respectively. Everence spoke of the partnership and opportunities for congregations, and Nate Riddle from Mt. Olive Brethren Church invited others to participate in a mission trip to Riverside, Kentucky, this coming June. After lunch, various breakout sessions were held. The sessions focused on regional networking and collaboration, church health, and church planting with the GSE (Gatherer-Shepherd-Elder) principles of Vision USA. This year, for the first time in many years, we invited our youth to attend. They were certainly busy, decorating cookies for our lunch, hosting a Jesus-themed egg hunt, and even undertaking a service project. The project was to package cake supplies and a card to be taken to local churches to be distributed to those in need in their local communities. Some of the youth spoke at the end of the day and did a wonderful job sharing about their morning. We appreciate those who attended for the morning; it was great seeing each and every one of you and those who came to share. And thank you to Maurertown Brethren Church for their warm welcome, generous hospitality, and delicious lunch. Gail Heiston Pastor, Bethlehem Brethren Church Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator

March and April were truly months of celebration for Bethlehem Brethren Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As our family grows at Bethlehem, we had the joy of celebrating Easter together, both longstanding members of our church as well as new families we've been blessed to have added recently. Resurrection Sunday was filled with flowers and singing from our Bethlehem Kids. God's message of His death, burial, and resurrection over 2000 years ago resonated with us, reminding us of His continued work in our midst today. We were blessed to celebrate two baptisms in March! Praise God! What a moment of joy to welcome these souls to God's family! Thanks to the portable baptismal provided by the region for our regional churches, we were able to baptize in the church. Ten people were received into membership the following Sunday, and two Sundays ago we received three more people into membership! Three young boys were dedicated to the Lord in March as well. The week before Easter, we held an egg hunt and breakfast. Most of those attending were from our surrounding community. We had a packed house for breakfast, and the egg hunt (which we had to move indoors due to the weather) was a success as those children collected over 640 eggs in about ten minutes! We are grateful to God for how He is moving in our midst and look forward to what He has in the future! Gail Heiston Pastor, Bethlehem Brethren Church Southeast Regional Resource Coordinator

I have a friend who says that every person needs to have a good barber/hairdresser and a good mechanic. Let me expand that advice to also include a good doctor. I thought about this piece of advice after having recently attended the Natural Church Development (NCD) training in Orlando, Florida. Finding a doctor is not fun. After all, who enjoys having to endure the tedious repetition of going from one doctor’s office to another, trying to find a doctor that is right for you? Answer: No One! And when you do find a doctor, it is often not a rip-roaring good time to go! However, it is necessary for our health and longevity. We need someone in our lives to share with us what we are doing well and what we could improve. Even if we are healthy, an occasional check-up is still a good thing. I believe this is also good for a local church to do. The local church needs a way to assess what it is doing well and what it could improve. Like people, churches can struggle with being healthy. As one author observed, “People do not drift towards holiness, and churches do not drift towards good health.” While there are certainly many church assessments to choose from, I want to share with you some compelling reasons why I believe Natural Church Development is a valuable tool for your church's health assessment. It is used extensively. NCD has been around for over 20 years and has been used in over 70,000 churches on six continents in 84 countries. Put simply: That’s a lot of churches in a lot of places! That means NCD has a track record and extensive data by which to effectively measure church health with a great deal of accuracy and reliability. It measures church health, not church growth. It is easy to equate church growth with church health, and along with it, assumptions such as if your church is growing you must be healthy, and if you're not growing, then you must not be healthy. NCD does not focus on church growth measurements but health measurements. Think of it like health vitals for the church. Here are the vitals the NCD measures: ● Empowering leadership: How well does church leadership empower others to become all that God wants them to be? ● Gift-based ministry: How well are people matched with their gifts to ministries in which they can use their gifts? ● Passionate spirituality: How well are people's faith actually lived out with commitment, fire and enthusiasm? ● Effective structures: How effective is the way your church is structured at achieving your church’s purpose? ● Inspiring worship service: Is the worship service an inspiring experience for those who attend? ● Holistic small groups: How well are people involved in groups where the Bible is studied and applied to everyday situations? ● Need-oriented evangelism: How well does your church identify and help meet the needs of pre-Christians? ● Loving relationships: How well do people in your church practically love one another? It is more than an assessment. Yes, the NCD is known most notably as a tool to measure church health, but it also offers much more. In addition to the church health assessment, Natural Church Development digs deeper into many of the eight factors described above. The NCD offers such things as a spiritual gift assessment, leadership assessment and practical ideas and ways to incorporate each factor into your church. My church has used it. What good would a recommendation be if my church didn’t use the NCD. My church has used the NCD assessment several times, and each time we have found it helpful in assessing our church health, including areas where we need to improve and areas where we are doing well. Recently, we have decided to utilize NCD more fully in helping us achieve our purpose. As I shared at the beginning, we all need a good doctor, and so does the church. It’s not always fun to see a doctor but it is oh so necessary for our health. We often find a doctor on the recommendation of a friend or family member. So, as a fellow church leader and co-laborer, let me recommend Natural Church Development. No doctor is perfect and neither is the NCD. However, I believe the NCD is a great option to help measure the health of your church!

A Light in the Darkness! Your partners in India continue to work to let the world know that God loves them through services, special projects, relief and development programs, and lighting up the way. In March 2024, the Brethren Church in Rajahmundry celebrated the upgrading of the cross and sign that hangs over the main road right outside the compound. This sign symbolizes the words from John 14:27 that Prasanth spoke when he purchased the land previously seen as cursed: “My peace I give unto you.” For many years, a cross and sign have been hanging, greeting the traveler with this message of peace; now, the entire sign has been cleaned up, and the cross also lights up the night to guide the weary traveler to a place of hope, peace, and light. The cross and sign were hung and dedicated by the laymen's group and prayed over by Nirmala Kumar to mark a significant day and the hope the message brings. Although this makes them a bigger target for radical Hindu groups, the church and its leadership believe that they must continue to shine as a beacon of hope in word and deed for all who seek life, peace, and belonging. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5: 14-16, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Please keep your partners in India and worldwide in your prayers as they continue to be salt and light to their communities. Enjoy the video they created to mark this special day for the church in Rajahmundry. Scott Soden

While walking through the woods as a family recently, we fell into a dispute about the water we had brought along to drink. And by “we” I mean my oldest and youngest daughters. The center of this disputed water claim was the hydration backpack that my eldest was wearing. The problem wasn’t wearing the backpack; the issue was that our youngest wanted another drink every four steps or so. It was a classic power struggle between the youngest child and the oldest. Solutions were offered. “Maggie, stop being annoying,” was one. I wasn’t sure how helpful – or likely – this solution would be. “Ellie, just let me have a drink and stop complaining,” was another possible but unlikely way forward. Finally, I realized that this was a self-limiting problem. Maggie isn’t very big; how much water could she possibly drink? “Ellie, stop and let her drink all of it she wants. Then she won’t want any more for a while, and she’ll leave you alone.” Ellie was indignant. “She’ll drink it all!” she exclaimed. “She won’t drink it all. There’s plenty of water there for everyone.” “BUT SHE’LL DRINK IT ALL!” Ellie would not be convinced, even though she wasn’t wearing some kid-sized hydration backpack that only held a thimble of water. She was wearing my pack, which holds close to two liters of water. All three of my daughters could have drank until their bellies and bladders were full to the top, and there would still have been water left over. But the fear of not having enough runs deep, doesn’t it? Electric cars typically have a range of approximately 10x the average daily commute. But we stick with internal combustion power because we’re afraid electricity might not have the “juice” when we need it. People are filling storage units as quickly as they can be built. There’s a candy dish calling my name from the next room. I’ve already had a few pieces out of it. Certainly, I’ve had enough. Why do I still want more? What is it inside of us that remains unsatisfied? Why does it so often seem like there’s not enough? Before he was King David, he was simply David, the little brother. As the little brother, he got stuck watching sheep because his older brothers had better things to do. While watching sheep, he came to one of the most profound truths about God recorded in Scripture. Just as David was a shepherd over his sheep, God was the shepherd caring for David. The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. What did David have while shepherding? Probably little more than a bit of food, a big stick, his sling, and a few rocks. And yet he lacked nothing. Why? Because the God of the Universe, the creator and sustainer of all things, was his shepherd. He wasn’t worried about the things he didn’t have. He knew what he did have: a Shepherd-God who had delivered him from a lion and a bear. The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. The fear of not having enough is a tool of the enemy. It keeps us from making big plans and dreaming big dreams. Are we afraid to ask God for audacious blessing? Is it a fear that God won’t give us what we need? Or are we afraid that he actually will? Is God the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, or is he not? Is Jesus the master of the fish and loaves, or is he not? In my own life, I’ve felt the Spirit’s conviction that I’m not dreaming big enough. And I suspect I might not be alone. If the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing. Go boldly in the assurance of his care, and seek out the dreams he has for you, your church, and your community.

Nappanee First Brethren Church (NFBC) has been busy these last few months ministering and reaching out to its local community. Since last fall, they’ve rolled out several new ministries and community outreach initiatives that offer hope, healing, and the Gospel to the community. Last October, NFBC launched "Life Groups" which go beyond traditional small groups to connect with communities and serve as mini "house churches." One of the stated goals of Life Groups is to serve as a vehicle for congregants to reach out to unchurched friends and neighbors. The initiative has been met with a good amount of success and has resulted in a number of people becoming reconnected to church through the ministry of these Life Groups. Tom Anders, Senior Pastor of NFBC, notes, "When you start doing what the Lord wants, people start coming out of the woodwork." Beginning in January 2024, NFBC became a local affiliate of Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery, now being used by more than 3500 churches, was birthed out of Saddleback Church in the 1990s, is a Christ-centered 12-step program that uses the principles outlined in the Beatitudes to bring healing to peoples’ “hurts, habits, and hang-ups.” These might range from drug and alcohol addiction to trauma and relational wounds to grief and mental health. On Thursday nights, Celebrate Recovery meets at NFBC. The first hour is the large group session, which includes worship, a review of the Celebrate Recovery principles, a lesson, and testimonies. Then, there’s a brief refreshment time before people move into their small groups, organized by the specific issue the group addresses. The success of Celebrate Recovery extends beyond the meeting, though, as one of its tenets is that participants must engage with a church community. Although Celebrate Recovery is a ministry not intended for outreach, a few participants have found a home at NFBC. Part of the launch of Celebrate Recovery was to air a few radio spots advertising the new ministry on the local Christian radio station Pulse FM. With several satellite towers, Pulse FM has a reach covering roughly half of Indiana and Michigan. Once those radio spots were up and running, NFBC’s advisory team began to feel God inviting them onto the airwaves in a bigger way, and began investigating what it might take to start a regular radio show on Pulse FM. Once the question was asked, God started opening the doors. A parishioner with a metal roofing business was approached and asked if the business would be interested in underwriting the program. “Doing this would cost less than our monthly spend on Facebook!” was the enthusiastic reply. With the sponsor secured, Pastor Tom was ready to bring the Word to the airwaves weekly. And on Sunday, February 4th, 2024, “Living Life Victoriously,” hosted by Pastor Tom Anders, went on the air. You can tune in at 8 pm every Sunday night on Pulse FM to hear his teaching if you’re in the broadcast reach or listen online at pulsefm.com!

“‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:20-21 Faithfulness is risky and rewarding. It requires more than just maintenance. Turning a profit points to a job well done. These were the thoughts that challenged our congregation as we reflected on what God has handed Goshen First Brethren Church over the decades. Being a new pastor here, this was an education in history that hit home a few times as I saw family names on plaques and pages, recording the story of GFBC. The conclusion was clear: if our story was the parable of the talents, we were the servant blessed with five (Matt. 25:14ff). But the challenge came when we considered what that servant did with those five talents. He “went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.” (v. 16) This is in contrast to the servant called “wicked and slothful” who buried his one talent, keeping it in pristine condition just as it was given to him (vv. 24, 26). When we considered this example of faithfulness as risk-taking and profit-making versus hiding and maintaining, the “talent” of our building came into focus as one of the blessed deposits with which we have been entrusted. So what does faithfulness look like? This particular building has stood for almost 100 years, with a few additions here and there. The space is abundant and well-kept, but like many church facilities, the lights were off five days of the week. On top of that, my wife and I are native to this area and already own a home, so the same was true for the 5-bedroom parsonage next door. Through the dedication of trustees and volunteers throughout the years, both have been kept in pristine condition. So, we asked the Lord and pondered together what faithful, risky, profiting would look like at 215 W Clinton St. The answer came a couple of months later from a neighbor with a ministry connection. Downtown Ministries is a Christian non-profit organization that seeks to offer second chances to folks in Elkhart County who face adversity of many kinds. Their efforts include transitional houses for women and children, job skills training, financial classes, and addiction recovery. Each one of these initiatives happens in partnership with local churches through individual Christians coming alongside people to offer the support and hope of Christ. As one can imagine there are many people facing this type of adversity in our area, and DTM needed to expand to meet that need. The conversation began with our empty parsonage becoming a safe haven for a single mom seeking a fresh start. But that vision quickly ballooned into keeping the lights on in our building as beacons of hope throughout the week. Currently, the tenant in The Clinton House (parsonage) is working through the DTM classes, started a new job, is receiving spiritual, medical, and mental healing, and is an active member in a local church. The facilities are buzzing at GFBC with classes offered almost every night of the week, that all include a meal shared between students and Christian mentors. Sixteen teens graduated Jobs for Life last year, as well as thirteen adults with more completing the program during just the first quarter of this year. Faith and Finances classes will meet and offer the first Spanish-speaking class in the fall of 2024. Over 20 volunteers from various churches have been trained as champions and allies for these folks, and the need is only growing. Since the partnership began between GFBC and DTM, three more transitional houses have been acquired and connections are being made with local law enforcement, the local school system, and other ministries to bring hope to Goshen. In essence, our partnership with DTM is akin to an investment brokerage, taking the capital of our building and trading with it in the open market of community impact. DTM has leveraged our facility to create positive growth in people’s lives, the community, and the Kingdom. Last year, multiple students came to faith in Christ through Faith and Finances and were baptized as members of a local church. In the Kingdom economy, the risk of loaning our building is paying dividends in a big way. While there's much work ahead—logistics, connections, and equipping disciples for this task—the lesson we've learned at GFBC is clear: Kingdom growth involves investing what we’ve been given, not merely maintaining it. The ongoing risk in this partnership is met with tangible rewards, reminding us that God works through our blessings, like buildings, to build His Kingdom. Our “talents” are not just for our benefit but are opportunities, rather, obligations for investment. “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.” (Matt. 25:29a) Grace and Peace, Austin Kaufman Pastor Goshen First Brethren Church

It was 8:30 a.m. on a frigid winter’s day. The four cranky kids, who woke up an hour earlier than normal, were packed into our family minivan and eating breakfast on the way to a church that was several hours away. Our snarky 12-year-old, Josiah, shouted to us from the backseat, “Why do we have to go to another church? Can’t we just stay home and relax?” Let me share a little of the backstory. Sarah and I (David) moved to Indiana six years ago and were so excited to be part of the Midwest Region of the Brethren Church. I had spent a good portion of my life at Oasis Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona, where the closest (and only) nearby Brethren Churches were over two hours away in Tucson. Despite the distance, our three Arizona churches always saw each other as family. We gathered in the summer for church camp near the Mexican border and held a joint church service once a year in addition to other trips down to Tucson to see these friends. When we moved to Indiana, we could not believe our good fortune that there were over 30 Brethren churches in our region! A plan started to form that we now jokingly refer to as “The Brethren Tour.” It started with a strong desire to befriend the Brethren (our people!) and connect with Brethren leaders across the region. So, the scene of packing up the minivan early on a Sunday morning has become a normal one for our kids. We are on a mission to visit every Brethren Church in our region and make as many friends along the way as we can. You might be wondering, as we were at the start, what we would discover on our travels. I am pleased to inform you that God is on the move! Here is just a glimpse of the incredible things He is up to throughout the Brethren communities that we have visited in the past few years. Huntington First Brethren welcomed us with open arms as we started our tour with the church closest to us. They later hosted a church planting and church renewal gathering led by the Midwest New/Renew team, and 10 Brethren Churches were represented. We were really getting some traction on our goal to befriend Brethren at this point! It was at that event that I first met Cole Westwood, a fellow Army Veteran and pastor of Corinth Brethren Church. With that connection, we headed north to Corinth Brethren Church one sunny Sunday morning. We got to hear the testimony of Grace who had spent the summer as a counselor at The Brethren Retreat at Shipshewana, someone we’ve continued a friendship with since. Not too long after I started to meet with the Midwest New/Renew team monthly to talk about church planting and church revitalization, a fellow team member, Fred Youngen, and his church, FBC South Bend, hosted an incredible prayer meeting where Brethren from all over came to pray together and worship God. A very interesting side note: FBC South Bend owns the website that 90% of the churches in our denomination are currently in repentance for coveting their neighbor’s digital property: FirstBrethren.org. Funny enough, we have also met several people along the way who think the official name of our denomination is “First Brethren.” Next, I received an invitation to preach at my good friend Cory Smith’s church, Goshen FBC on Veterans Day. I showed up in my Air Force dress blue uniform and shared about the incredible love Jesus has for military members and veterans, as seen in His interaction with the Centurion in Matthew 8. This started a tradition of sorts, and for the past three years, different churches have invited me to preach on Veterans Day weekend, including Warsaw First Brethren (such loving people!) and College Corner Brethren, who have become our good friends. College Corner has invited our family to join them a number of times for worship, and they are such an encouraging and friendly group of people. Before we ever visited this church (that is nowhere near the corner of a college), I had met and become quick friends with Duane and Bonnie Truss who were volunteers at the VA where I work full-time as a Chaplain. They spoke so highly of their church, College Corner, that I knew we had to visit. Continuing the Brethren tour, we crashed the Sunday morning service at North Manchester FBC. Even though we were ten minutes late, Linda Immel (who would eventually become another good friend) greeted us at the door and made us feel right at home. We loved seeing so many young people gathered together in worship in this congregation and were blessed to be invited over to lunch afterward by Kurt and Heidi Stout, who showed us the mini-farm in their backyard. Since this first encounter, I have grown to love Kurt’s heart for God’s people and his creative ideas for growing the Kingdom. Somewhere along the way, we saw in the regional newsletter that David Loi was going to be guest preaching at Muncie FBC. We jumped at the chance to join our nearby Brethren for this opportunity of a lifetime! I am filled with joy to report that we were not disappointed. David Loi shared his heart for his two children and our Heavenly Father in such a powerful way, that I was brought to tears. In addition to that, we were blown away by the worship team at Muncie FBC! Because of this, Sarah later suggested to the Big Event planning team that this worship team be invited to lead the Saturday night worship at The Big Event last August. I pray those of you who joined us for The Big Event were as blessed as we were to have them lead us into the presence of God! By this time, people were starting to notice that the Millers were popping up all over the place like that speedy animal in the Whack A Mole game. Our friends Lee and Stephanie Compson were on to us and invited us to Milford FBC. While there, Lee let us share with their congregation what God has been up to at Unchurch, the house church that Sarah and I co-pastor in Marion. To our daughter Kloey’s delight, they sang her favorite song, Sanctuary. After worship, I got to meet a very friendly fellow military veteran who has been an integral part of the church’s Gatherer-Shepherd-Elder church revitalization team. In addition to visiting these great churches across the state of Indiana (Illinois, we haven’t forgotten you!), Sarah and I had the opportunity to lead the teen week with Camp Shipshewana called Blaze Camp. We had over 40 kids in attendance from all over the region. We have already had fun seeing some of these teens at different churches we have visited and even a few at Brethren Conference. One of the highlights of the week of conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan was the dinner with the Midwest region on the last night. We ended up sitting at a table with Larry and Bev Baker, who are so full of God’s love and joy that we could not help but become good friends with them. Larry actually turned the tables on me a couple of months ago and attended a service I was leading at the VA hospital. As you might imagine, The Big Event was a dream come true for our family. With all those Brethren in one place, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Sarah was on the planning team and had asked me to emcee the Saturday evening service. I absolutely loved hearing the stories that evening of what God has been up to around the region and the world (thanks to Latha Kumar). It was also wonderful to spend more time with the friends we had made on our travels and build new friendships. Sarah and I hope to see many of you there again next August. Though we have made some headway in The Brethren Tour, we are far from done. We may move a little slower and with more chaos having four kids in tow, but that is part of the fun. Here is the cool part: if you are in the Midwest Region, you could be our next stop. If you want to invite us to your church, reach out to Sarah and me at DSMiller1@gmail.com. Here is a tip: If you have us over for lunch after your church service, you get bumped up in line. For those across the nation (and world), try visiting a nearby Brethren Church and make some new friends. Hope to see you soon! David Miller, Pastor UnChurch Marion, Indiana