Joy in Heaven!!

Gene has been ministering to a friend from work for about the last 18 months.  Randy has gone through some major life changes this last year or so and was just calling out for help.  The Lord used Gene to plant and water the seeds of hope for this man.

Just this morning, Gene and Randy met for coffee at McDonald’s on Hwy 94 in Kenosha. Randy was just unloading all of his heart and the pain that he has been going through.  Gene looked him straight in his eyes and told him “Randy…Jesus can give you hope, joy and peace…no matter what your circumstances are!”  Then he shared his testimony with him and encouraged him to seek the Lord in his life.

Randy told Gene he was ready and realized his need for a Savior and that he thought he should find a church so that he could make that happen.  Gene told him “Brother, you don’t need to go to a church to find Jesus…you can ask him into your heart right here at this little bitty McDonald’s!”  So…Gene prayed with him, Randy accepted Jesus as his Savior and let’s just say that there is much joy today in heaven!!

This is just the very beginning of a new life for Randy…please pray for him as he begins his walk with Christ!!  He’ll need discipleship and a church home.  He lives near Burlington, so if you know of a church…please contact us.

What a privilege it is to share the hope that lies within you!  We encourage you to share your hope in Jesus with those who the Lord brings across your paths!

“…I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” – Luke 15:7

Behind the scenes….

On the surface, it might seem that there has been a lull in our ministry plans… but, I can assure you (from the looks of my laundry room and the dismay of my family as they look for clean clothes), there is a flurry of activity “behind the scenes”:

Since the beginning of 2010, we have had

2 Mission Support Team meetings

1 pastoral meeting

3 action/planning meetings

sent out two batches of support evaluation letters

attended our KMUSA Team Retreat in the Smokey Mountains

…and I am starting work on our Spring newsletter.  I am homeschooling Ethan and Kiara and Hunter is working fervently to keep up his good grades as he moves through these last few months of  his Sophomore year.

We are waiting for some pieces of information to come in to help us with our preliminary plans and goals for this year and before May, we will have some very exciting news to share with you!  But, we can’t let the “cat out of the bag” just yet…

Please continue to pray for our family and ministry…and stay tuned!!  More mission updates to follow in the next few weeks.

Hope…

http://www.northeastcc.org/483635.ihtml

Please take some time to watch this interview (about 17 min.).  It is from a series on “Hope: 30 Days to Live.”  The woman being interviewed is my sister-in-law’s cousin.  Take some time to evaluate your life and spend time on what matters…

On a personal note:  I have been feeling this unsettled-ness and an urgency in my heart for many months now…our time here on earth is so short!  In the blink of an eye, anything could happen and our lives and the lives of our families and friends would be changed forever.

We personally know of young friends and family who have recently passed or have had accidents and life-changing illnesses come upon them.  In a moment, their lives changed and it changed for those around them as well.

Many of us believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life…that there is no other way to the Father, except through Him and we have put our hope in that.  What are we doing with that belief?  Are we sharing that with others?  Are we witnesses of the love of Jesus to our spouse, our kids, family, friends and co-workers?

Or has our witness taken a back seat to the non-essentials in life and the things that don’t really matter?  What are we spending our time on?  Who are we spending our time with? These questions keep going round and round and round in my mind:  if I really believe that Jesus is the way, what am I doing about it?  What is my witness like?  Am I giving glory to God through my thoughts and actions?  How can my life impact others for Christ?

May your life be a witness for Christ… share the “reason for the hope that is in you” and His gift of eternal life with others.

Trust

As I was reading my Bible this morning, I was looking for some answers to some of the many questions that Gene and I have been asking these last few months…  I came upon Psalm 20 and rather than giving you a long list of things to pray for for us…I ask that you please take a moment to read what I read.

My request would be to please pray this Psalm with us…that the Lord will show us His will and guide us in this next step of preparations as we press on towards the goal He has set before us. May your weekend be blessed and thank you for standing with us!

“May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!  May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!  May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!  May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices!

May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!  May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners!  May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.

O LORD, save the king!  May he answer us when we call.”

Giving up the little things…

This is just one of those notes that may seem trivial to some and you may think “hmm….why such a big deal?”  But I thought maybe it is ok to be transparent even about the little things

When we first started sending out newsletters and updates, we wanted it to be personal.  We didn’t want people to feel as though they were just a name on a list or a number and so, I have always handwritten out the envelopes….I would think about the person and pray for them, put a stamp on the envelope and ask God to bless those receiving our newsletter and also to bless our ministry.  Well…the last few times, it has been taking longer and longer for me to get the newsletter out in a timely fashion because there are more people on our list and it has been taking me longer and longer to get them written out.

Gene has been encouraging me to have them printed out for awhile and so I finally am taking his advice.  As I am preparing to get our newsletter out of our house and into yours, I want you to know that you are important to us and that we appreciate you!

Earlier today, I had coffee with my accountability partner and she told me it was ok to let it go and to look at the bright side…our group of praying friends has grown to the point where I can’t keep up with handwriting envelopes and notes to all of them and that is a good thing!

So…as I learn to let the little things go (which is very hard for me because I like things to be a certain way…),  I am thankful that the Lord has brought more and more people into our lives who care about what is happening to His people in Austria.  We hope that as we continue to move forward in our preparations that you will continue to pray for the Austrians, our family and for us.

Please know that we are thankful for you and that we appreciate you…our ministry wouldn’t be where it is today without your caring about us and standing behind us in our call!

Road trip recap

We had an amazing time in KS, OK and TX during our road trip for the 2009 School of Missions!

We flew out of O’Hare on Sat. Oct. 10 and into Oklahoma City Airport and then drove to our first stop in Laverne, OK.  We stayed with Marvin and Vickie Garrison, chairman of the 2009 School of Missions and pastor of FCC in Laverne.  We had great conversation and fellowship with everyone we met.  We shared our vision of bringing the gospel to the Austrians with the congregation during the morning worship service and had lunch with everyone afterward.

From Sunday afternoon to Thursday, we were road-tripping it, going to 5 other churches in 5 other cities in the tri-state area of OK, KS and TX.

Everyone we met was fabulous and put us up in their homes, motels and even a renovated store front converted to apartments (http://www.buffalocentennial.com/WoollyBison/index.html).  There were yummy lunches and dinners and the fellowship was very encouraging and uplifting.  People in the 12 churches had been praying for the missionaries for about 6 weeks before they even arrived at the churches…it was so humbling to hear them come up to us and tell us how they had been praying for us and were so excited for us to be there!

It was exciting to share His call on our lives…to be His witnesses to another people group across the ocean.

We have never been to this part of America before and it was definitely different from Wisconsin!  We traveled for miles and miles and miles and saw narry a tree!  We did see, however, a turtle and tarantula in the road, white-tailed deer, antelope and elk!  We drove through incredibly beautiful flatlands and gorgeous mountains…amazing to see all the variety of beauty that the Lord has created for us to enjoy.

We now have prayer partners that stretch from Southwestern US all the way to Florida…it is so amazing to see how the Lord’s hand worked in arranging this incredible road trip for us and we look forward to what His next plan for us will be.

School of Missions

Dear Praying Friends…

We are preparing for our trip to KS, OK and TX…we leave on Sat. 10/10 and return on Fri 10/16.  We would ask that you please keep our children in prayer this week as they will be staying with friends and family while we are gone.

Please pray for:

- Our safety in traveling:  we fly to KS on Friday and then, drive to 6 different cities throughout the week.
- Our children:  they will be staying with friends and family while we are gone.  They have school and football practice and games to play while we are gone.  Thanks to our caregivers who will make sure they don’t miss a beat!!
- The church missions teams and congregations we will be sharing our message and presentation
- The host families that are housing and feeding each missionary family that is a part of the School of Missions.
- Our message and mission presentation, that God will be glorified and that we esteem the name of Jesus.

We appreciate you all so much and are thankful for your support of what we are doing.  We pray that there will be fruit from this road trip and that our time of sharing His message brings us closer to serving Him full-time in Austria!

We will try to post updates via our blog while we are gone and will be sending you notes when we do.

May God bless you this week!

Gene and Amy