Very Dear Friends of Renewal Ministries,

The years are going fast, aren’t they? As I look back at all that has transpired this past year, I’m amazed at how much the Lord has accomplished with our humble team.

At our bi-weekly Bible studies, there are now sometimes as many as twenty-five of us in attendance, including volunteers, part-time employees, and some alumni who have a “lifetime pass” to attend our Bible studies whenever they want. So far, the main takers on this are Gary and Anilu Seromik, Elizabeth Rouhana, and my wife, Anne.

There also is tremendous fruit borne through the efforts of our very noble country coordinators. There are about twenty of them, spread throughout the world, our true partners in significant missions in each country we serve.

We’ve done missions in thirty-six countries this year. These are not just statistics; these are thousands of lives touched by being delivered from serious sin or demonic oppression, healed, given the courage to persevere through suffering, encouraged to share the Gospel with others, given the grace to love in difficult situations, and so much more that only God knows.

We also have impacted hundreds of thousands of souls through our expanding media. We’ve just completed taping twenty-six new half-hour programs to be broadcast over EWTN and on our YouTube channel for our forty-second year of The Choices We Face, the longest running Catholic TV program in the world. We were sad to see Sr. Ann Shields retire after thirty years of producing new episodes of Food for the Journey, although you can still access her program on our website. Thankfully, Rachel Herbeck picked up the torch with Burning Hearts, an appropriately named radio program that airs every weekday. You can access Burning Hearts here.

Over the past year, our YouTube videos have garnered over a million views, and six-thousand new subscribers have joined our channel. If you haven’t already, you too can be notified of each new video by going to our YouTube channel, clicking the subscribe button, and opting to receive notifications by clicking the bell.

In addition to all this, Peter and Debbie Herbeck, Rachel Herbeck, Pete Burak, Steve and Katie Norman, and I have had opportunities to preach and teach in many places, strengthening the faithful throughout Canada and the US, as well as countries far afield.

Very close to home, in southeastern Michigan, we have an amazing expansion of outreach to high school boys and girls, through regular weekly visits and periodic retreats to about eight area schools and through our record-breaking summer camps (which each experienced their highest-ever number of campers this year). A team of our high school girls even ventured to Washington State to help conduct a similar camp for girls there.

We see these local initiatives as producing disciples who will eventually serve in various places around the country, as they go to college, get jobs, get married or enter religious life, and be agents of evangelization wherever the Lord plants them.

We also just completed our annual meeting with our country coordinators and board members. This year, they came together at a nearby retreat center to interact with our staff and plan future initiatives. It was a very inspiring experience for all.

At the board meeting, we accepted the resignation of Tom O’Brien, who had served for over thirty-two years. We also accepted the resignation of Deacon Dan Foley, who had served as chairman of the board since 2011. We promptly elected him as vice-chairman, to serve with Bishop Robert McClory of Gary, Indiana, who was elected our new chairman.

We also have more staff news. This is the last newsletter that Heather Schultz, our wonderful editor—and more—for the past ten years, will be editing. We are sorry to see her go but are inspired to see how she continues to look for where the Lord is calling her to serve, in this case, in her own parish as the director of communications and office manager. We are confident that the newsletter will remain in very capable, and very faith-filled, hands with our new editor, Jessica Jenkins. I want to bid fond farewell to Heather and a warm welcome to Jessica, who has been serving as our excellent receptionist for two-and-a-half years.

Your support of Renewal Ministries makes possible all this and more. If you could consider remembering Renewal Ministries in a special end-of-the-year gift, we would be most grateful, as will all those your gift helps us reach.

Gratefully yours,

Ralph