HOME!

For all of you who were thinking of us during our trip home to see family, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  The girls were amazing all through the travels and it was good to connect with those we don’t get to see very often. Now that we’re home, reality is sinking in a bit more as we look at the things we need to accomplish in the next 6 months.  Our goal is to get to Brussels by the end of July.  Currently, we are at around 27% monthly support and we need to be at 100% by the summer.  In order to accomplish this, we need 100 more people who would support us at $50 a month.  We believe that what we find impossible God finds easy and because He owns the cattle on a thousand hills this sum of 5,000 a month is nothing to Him.  We’re excited about seeing how God will come through for us. Another thing on our hearts is trying to prepare little talks to give to small groups who are interested in hearing about Brussels and Christian Associates.  We’d appreciate your prayer as we begin to formulate the best way to express our passion for what we will be doing. Last night we met with the core leaders who will run our advocacy group when we are gone.  We see this group meeting supporting us so that we can get to Brussels and to keep us there once we’ve arrived through praise, encouragement and petition.  It is a wonderful group of people who have a heart for missions and especially for Europe.  It was so much fun thinking big dreams together about church planting and even about how we can stay connected across the ocean. So we are home and we hit the road with a running start.  Thanks for taking the time to pray for us! 

Christmas Greetings!

Here’s a little summary of 2007.  Enjoy and Happy New Year!

This year, for us, has held a continuing theme of gifts.  Gifts given and gifts received in a new way.  It was evident at David’s farewell ceremony with the Navy in Aug. that the past 5 years have been a special gift from God to us.  It was bittersweet saying goodbye because we enjoyed our time in the military.  We also, at the same time, realized the incredible gift ahead of us: being mission interns at our church while we raise support to launch to Brussels, Belgium within the next year to plant churches.

            We have now been interning at Tabernacle Church of Norfolk for 3 months and have continued to watch God give us the gift of the body of Christ coming alongside us in our journey to another land.  People have given gifts of time such as babysitting our girls, gifts of prayer for us as we have struggled to find our way in this big transition, and gifts of money by supporting us financially not only for our internship, but also towards our final goal of being funded 100% for Brussels by July of 2008.  We’ve been surprised over and over as God has used people to meet our practical needs for fundraising events.  We could tell you many stories about how God laid on someone’s heart to give the exact thing, and amount we were lacking.  These gifts have built our faith and caused us to be humbled and acknowledge that it is only through us working in community that we will accomplish the task ahead of us.

            We have been given the gift to grow in areas of our lives that we are sure we will use in Brussels.  David has been doing a lot of teaching at the church and both of us are mentoring others while being mentored as well, along with helping plan strategic outreaches and being involved in the international ministry at Tab.  It has grown us to learn how to communicate our needs to others and to allow people to come alongside us in our endeavors.  David is also trying to finish his seminary work while Joanna stays busy as a mom and a supporter in the ministry.  The most difficult challenge for us this past year has been learning how to work together in a new way.  Discovering who can do what best has helped us lighten the load we both were carrying.

            Our family of four has been a constant gift from the Lord.  We’ve been learning in a new way what family looks like in the middle of full time ministry.  The girls have a way of reminding us of our priorities, and it’s amazing the joy and perspective they bring to both of us.  Eleri is 3 and Adley is approaching 2 this coming May.  They both are the best of friends…most days, and are growing not only physically but also spiritually as we see them respond to God working in their hearts.  Eleri especially is recognizing the truths that God wants to help her make right choices and she often says to us “God keeps her safe”.  It’s a blessing to watch Adley, who is not far behind, follow in her sister’s footsteps.

            As we wrap up 2007 we see the gift of friends, family, and ministry.  Just by getting this card we want you to know that we consider you a special gift in our lives from God.  Our prayer for you this season is that you will not miss the most perfect gift of all, the arrival of our King and Savior!  His presence is gift enough for us all.

 

When it rains it pours…

We’ve been seeing lately how much God blesses us and how often He showers His love and grace upon us. This past week was no exception. On Halloween we had the privilege of running the snack shack at the Harvest Festival at church and making money for our internship. It was so beautiful being able to serve alongside our friends and supporters. We even had Steve Adams from Christian Associates staying with us and he was able to come and connect with the people we knew who came to the festival. As most of you know, we needed lots of food donated, and just like God came through for us with our big breakfast event, by the day of, we had nearly every food item donated….including the money for pizza! It is truly amazing to see how faithful our God is and how the body of Christ makes such a difference in the lives around them.

The day after Halloween, Steve gave a talk at TAB church and shared Christian Associates vision for Europe. He also talked a lot about how he desires to see churches and the mission agency connected in an even tighter bond where we can share our resources not only to Europe, but that the church plants in Europe could share their resources with us here in America as well. The idea of a Belgium Summit happening at TAB and connecting all the consortium churches here in Hampton Roads really excites us both. Please pray with us as the vision unfolds.

For those of you who have been praying for Adley who’s had all sorts of random things such as the croup, ear infection, yeast infection, cold, teething etc…..she is finally doing better and sleeping again. That has been a huge answer to prayer for us with how rough this past month has been. My asthma is much better on the new medication, so thank you for praying for me as well. We are learning to trust God about our rental home in Virginia Beach. It isn’t rented yet, so please pray with us that God would bring the right renters our way and that we would trust Him with His timing.

I love rainy days because for me they are such a visual picture of God raining His love and blessings down on my life. We experienced His “rain” in a new way this past week and we once again feel blessed!

Front Yards and Europe

I recently was introduced to the word “Apo-stolen.” This word of course looks remarkably similar to the word Apostle. Now, Apo means “to go before” and stolen gives us the word picture of a plant that sends out runners to establish new colonies. I was immediately reminded of our front yard four years ago. This is when my wife and I moved to our house in Norfolk and inherited a freshly planted front yard. The previous owner had cleared all of the old grass and replanted new, fresh, green, in fewer words, attractive grass. There was of course a problem and within months this grass started to die. Now, in Virginia, there is a grass that some would call “crab grass” but it is commonly called St. Augustine. This is a type of grass that grows by runners and could best be summed up as relentless. This grass is hearty, somewhat messy looking and will take over your entire yard. I suspect that this St. Augustine was present at one time and rooted deep in the earth so it was only a matter of time for it to surface and begin to thrive. I think this resembles the history of the church in Europe. It was once a vibrant Institution influencing the lives of multitudes around and beyond. Today, however, there are multiple generations who have not heard the gospel in a meaningful way. We feel that Europe is at the forefront of global culural trends philosophically, socially, artistically, and politically. To a large degree, as goes Europe so goes the world. How can the church engage this rapidly changing European culture? We believe it is God’s desire to see all people enter into a relationship with him, including the peoples of Europe. Through the Holy Spirit we believe this will happen when we have a passion to manifest God’s kingdom presence by healing the wounded, reaching the lost, making disciples, developing leaders and multiplying missional communities of faith. A grass roots movement is taking hold in Europe and just like our front yard we believe Christ is living, organic, and is moving through Europe.