Introducing VRBC-supported missionaries Steven & Emily Dilla

Recently VRBC began supporting a new missionary family, Steven & Emily Dilla, who have moved to Manhattan with their children Eden and Jonas to plant a church in an underserved area of NYC. Steven previously worked at Fellowship Church and is friends with Amy Goble (VRBC's children's minister) and a few other VRBCers who have attended Fellowship in the past. You can read more about their family and ministry at www.vrbc.net/missionaries. Please see their latest update below, and begin praying for their family as they serve in NYC.

Join us in prayer this year as we are asking God to draw together a group of friends that will be the core of this new church.

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Before we moved to the city someone told us, "winter in New York is difficult." They warned us that people put their heads down, walk fast, don't try anything new, and tend to hibernate in their apartments.

After going through our first solid week where the temperature never crept above freezing we began to experience first-hand what our friend described...

Despite the temperatures, and different rhythms in the city, God has been deepening our roots in preparation for spring.

• After a couple weeks of sickness and doctor visits in January (for everyone but Jonas), we are back on our feet health-wise, and consider it a huge answer to prayer.
• We've been able to mobilize over 100 sweaters and nearly 100 hygiene kits onto the streets of the city to help the homeless through this difficult time. (And more is on the way!)
• Relationships with our neighbors are growing, and we're thankful to share our faith with those closest to us.
• The winter has been difficult for group meetings, but one-on-one meetings have opened up some key relationships with gatekeepers in our neighborhood.
• Planning and training sessions with our supporting networks have helped us continue to prepare a foundation to build on for the coming year.
• In the next few weeks we will begin a weekly meeting in our neighborhood to build relationships, and we're sketching out our next Bible study.

Other pastors in the city continue to remind us the wisdom in walking rather than running. So many church plants don't have the opportunity to take root in lower Manhattan, and as a result they are no longer here.

It's a constant balance of patience and boldness for us. We want to share boldly, serve radically, and see measurable change come to this city through the Body of Christ—the Church. Yet we know that the key to achieve our long-term goals is measured diligence now. We're committed to doing the small things consistently: growing relationships, building disciples, and forming a core team.

Join us in prayer this year as we are asking God to draw together a group of friends that will be the core of this new church. It's a huge prayer, and we are asking boldly for salvations to happen in order to bring some of the people onto this team.

We knew when God called us to New York that it would take a unique vision, with one-of-a-kind supporters to pray, and provide for a totally different way of staring a church. 

So, as always, thank you for walking with us. More-so now than ever. It's amazing to see this work beginning and we're thrilled to be caught up in all that God is doing.

Steven, Emily, Eden and Jonas

PS - if you would like to join in with what we are doing with some of our friends for Lent, you can pick up a couple links here.

Eikon New York  |  917.719.0564  |  hello@eikonnewyork.org