Rev. Keith W. Loesch, Director Phone: 703 494-0602 2031 Cheltenham Court Email:
[email protected] Woodbridge, VA 22192 www.WittenbergEnglishMinistry.com “Notes from the Castle Church Door” 2014 MINISTRY UPDATE, No. 4 – November 12, 2014 Dear friends and ministry partners, A Blessed Year of Ministry! Our English worship services began in May and concluded with flying colors on Reformation Day! The 13 assigned pastors arrived every two weeks like clockwork and came from 13 different states. They were guided, oriented, assisted, and supervised by our four Deputy Directors, who once again did a yeoman’s job of organizing our ministry and managing the WEM office located in the Wittenberg Information Center. In spite of the scaffolding and other construction issues, our pastors conducted the services so that the people who attended could celebrate their faith in Christ and rejoice in their connection to the Reformation – and both pastors and people were richly blessed! Overall, 2014 saw the third largest attendance in our 18 years of English services at Wittenberg. Only the Oberammergau Passion Play years of 2000 and 2010 had greater attendances than this year. We anticipate that the next three years could have record-setting attendances due to the Luther 500 Reformation Celebration in 2017. Though the Castle Church and the Town Church were closed much of the year, tourists still poured into Wittenberg to see the Luther sites. There was much disappointment at not being able to see the churches as they had expected. Skillfully, our pastors helped them through it by proclaiming the salvation of Christ and the faith of the Reformation.