October, School, Thanksgiving, and Anxiety

Hello Friends Family, and Internet Wanderers!

I hope the past month has been a good one for you! Today will be a bit of a shorter post as many of the things which I brought up last month are still relevant. (edit: was going to be shorter and then I just kept writing) But that being said there is still much that I am thankful for. I think we can all relate that sometimes the current month looks very similar to what has already happened last month :)

Thanksgiving.

This past week has been an amazing time of leaning into and learning about how God works and desires that we make disciples. Last week I had the privileged of traveling to Abbotsford BC and attend my denominations annual study conference and AGM. At it I was able to hear many great speakers offer profound words about how to build ministries and grow disciples. Yet as valuable as the speakers were I found the greatest blessing to be the opportunities I had to connect with peers, mentors, and those intelligent woman and men that make up the denomination. Specifically there is one person who I value highly but don't connect with much who spoke some significant truth into my life that I am still processing. But ultimately I am so thankful for the ability to travel to a conference, to be inspired by the teaching, and to feel supported by the church community.

In October our church had our annual fall banquet and I must say it is one event I look forward to each year. In our small church of less than 100 regular attendee's we saw over 160 people come to church over thanksgiving to be fed and hear a gospel message! Evangelism is often on my heart and for a small church with a small budget we don't often put on big events to draw crowds, but once a year on thanksgiving we pull out all the stops and it was amazing to see every area of the church come together to make this happen!

Financially my fundraising is doing incredibly well and that is all thanks to you who are reading this. As of my writing this I am currently funded up to May 2018, that is 6 months ahead of where I need to be! Words cannot express my thanks to God and to you for your faithful giving. Only a few years ago I would never have thought I could work in a role that involves fundraising, let alone thrive. I pray that you may be as blessed as you have blessed me!

Prayer Request

I must confess that this month has been the most difficult so far in terms of balancing school and ministry. I mentioned last month that my school has been difficult this year, and that is becoming even more evident in October and into November. Part of the struggle has to do with the particular courses but I think more than anything it involves not being able to say no to people. Along that vein I have noticed that my schedule is essentially full and there is no flex time to allow for things that regularly come up, or to spend time dreaming for the future.As such I don't really plan ahead and have started to feel like I am having to play catch up. Please pray that I can learn how to manage my time well, to know when and how to say no, and to not get overwhelmed with the many requirements/assignments I have. Please also pray for wisdom in choosing courses for next semester that I will find ones interesting, but with a reasonable course load.

Often of late I have been finding myself stressed out at how busy I am, yet as I am writing this and going over my schedule it does not seem like too much. As such I am starting to wonder how much of my stress is due to my being busy (some weeks are 60 hours or so but most are 45) and how much is due to my own anxiety. Please pray for me as I pray and reflect on this. The past few months I have noticed myself becoming more and more anxious and I am not sure if the source of that is as valid as it should be, or if something else is afoot.

Last month I also asked for prayer about a conversation with a high school and potentially having a christian group in it. So far due to circumstances beyond my control, this has not happened and I am praying about it a lot. I am unsure if this difficulty is the enemy undermining something or the Spirit telling me that now is not the time. Please pray for wisdom to move forward on this and the other issues of the past month of learning how to live well on my own.

Thanks so much for your partnership in prayer!

God Bless
- Stefan Klassen