“EMMANUEL – GOD WITH US!”

December 13, 2017

Dear church family @ IBCZ,

We celebrated Christmas 2016 in Minnesota, USA with all our family (3 children and 10 grandchildren). It was so good to be all together again and enjoy each other. While in MN Jim and I negotiated to purchase a town house in Mount Pleasant, Charleston, SC conditional to a year end closure. (All completed electronically without physically seeing the house! Great realtor and lawyer!!)

Jan. 1st 2017 came and we were the owners of 1605 Hopeman Lane! When we returned in mid January the house was even better than we expected. Praise God!

Our possessions started to return to us and the packing cases came out of storage. (Did they multiply when we were not looking?) We were so thankful to have a place we could call home and thankful too to pack away our suitcases that had accompanied us since August as our wonderful friends hosted us in SC, Spain and U.K. Also thankful to our friends who came to help unpack, sort out, put up pictures and do 101 other tasks so willingly. Gradually most of the boxes were emptied as things found their new homes and out of chaos, some form of order emerged as more furniture left in order to make space.

As always, at the turn of the year Jim and I had joined in prayer: ‘Lord, You know us and have gifted us for your service. Show us where and how we can serve you for your glory.’ 

Time passed by quickly as we met our new neighbors and unpacked still more whilst trying to establish a routine. We were surprised by an email from IBCZ in April. God was at work! July 6th saw us en route for Zurich to serve as Interim Pastor @ IBCZ for six months (now extended until June ’18). We knew that this was of God but did not know much about Swiss life (we are learning fast!) It has been an adventure with the Lord as our guide. At times feeling like a fish out of water but knowing that this was His idea, not ours. We are blessed and certainly can look back in amazement at how we have been guided by our Precious Lord!

You have blessed our hearts and we are so grateful for this opportunity to serve among you. There is no doubt that during this Christmas season we will miss our family and friends in the U.S. and U.K., as well as friends in different parts of the world. We praise God that He has blessed us to spend Christmas in Switzerland with you. God is so Faithful and we are so thankful! May this Christmas season be a time of love, joy, peace as we worship Christ the Lord. We enter the New Year full of Hope and Joy as we seek to follow our Precious Lord. May you enjoy family and friends over this Christmas Season. Emmanuel!

With our love,

Jim and Anne (McVicar)