+ 1 - 1 | § ¶February Newsletter 2008
February 2008: Happy Valentine’s!
Can you believe it? It’s Gone! For some reason January is always one of the fastest months of the year! Now we have the privilege of looking back and seeing if we improved our lives like we planned at the end of 2007. My dreams are off to a slower start than I desired. I haven’t lost as much weight as I wanted—I haven’t raised as much money for Orphans or for our future mission in Ukraine—and even construction work has been slow. However, none of that is cause for despair. In fact, hope is growing as I search the Scriptures to understand Jesus’ ways of living and thinking. We always race against the clock but realize that life and ministry is a process. Step-by-step we move towards our goal of securing financing for ministry overseas while growing in our relationship as newlywed’s and our relationship with our Father in Heaven. Keep praying and believing with us...
A Lesson in Discipleship
America the Beautiful...or Busy! One thing I noticed about Ukrainian culture that is different—people are never too busy for friends! After we arrived in America, I started calling people as I drove through cities where friends live...and if I was lucky enough to reach them on their cell phone—I would ask them, “hey, we are in town for a few hours, want to do something?” I soon remembered that Americans like you to schedule at least a week in advance, but usually a month. In Ukraine, a quick call, or just stopping by...friends always welcomed us!
Do you remember the story of Mary and Martha? Martha was serving Jesus and asked him to scold her sister Mary for just “sitting at the feet of Jesus”. We naturally would think Jesus should have scolded her—after all, Martha wanted help and she was serving Jesus and guests. However, Jesus’ shocking answer was, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part”. Wow!
As we head up the path of discipleship, we do right to remember what is important. TIME with Jesus and TIME with people! How often do we put tasks, cleaning our house, or even serving Jesus above spending time to actually KNOW HIM! Ministry is only the OVERFLOW of your relationship with Jesus. We, task-oriented individuals, would do well to start CHOOSING the “good part” and spend more time with our Lord and friends!
Current prayers!
Ukraine...pray for the best methods to help reach Ukraine for all missionaries there.
The English Club and my Russian studies.
Pray for future churches and individuals to support this ministry in all areas—prayer, moral, and financial.
Pray for our Discipleship meetings that started in January—as we begin the new journey of personal discipleship with people in Wisconsin.
Thanks for prayers...for Catherine’s continued healing from cancer and her husband Mark who is shipping out to Iraq very soon.
Prayers of thanks—for the over $1,800 raised for Kid’s projects overseas!!!
Continued prayer for decisions that we are making in ministry!
Keep praying for baby Noah Schwendinger, his skull needs to be formed back into shape, from birth, so he has a correcting helmet now.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶January Newsletter 2008
January 2008: Happy New Year!
Welcome to your New Life...right? Maybe you have some new goals this year, whether it be financial, physical, or spiritual—you know it is time to reevaluate your life. Of course, we can change anytime we want to—but this is the “fresh year” and you might want to take it a step higher with the Lord’s Help. We have a few new goals—spiritual disciple leadership teaching—as well as, physical and financial goals. However, our ministry needs to take steps to be more productive and financially sound. Our prayer for the New Year to have God’s perfect direction in ministry, fund raising, and helping people. This will include reevaluating our Newsletter. Next month, we need to cut down on the 215 Newsletters a month. Some people I know pray for us, some pray and support, but some might not want it—please let us know if you want to keep getting a paper Newsletter.
This January 2008
We will be speaking at a few places this month, including:
January 6th—Blue River Valley Church
January 13th-Lancaster Cong. and Bethlehem E&R
January 20th—Lima Union (Hailey Jo dedication)
January 27th—Christ Community Church
The Orphan Christmas Project 2007/8
This is the LAST MONTH—you can give Christmas gifts to kids! Yes, I know you’ve probably given more than you thought you would at the beginning of the season—but, if you just forgot and wanted to give to an Child who has no parents or relatives—you still can!
We have planned projects for late January as we anticipated later gifts. Also, kids in Ukraine are happy anytime that they get celebrated, not just specifically on Christmas day (as Ukraine “can celebrate” Christmas on 3 different dates). Yes, it’s too complicated to explain. Therefore, if you want—gift $20, $40, $80 or $100 to a Orphan Christmas Project today!
We have raised over $1,000 for kids so far, which means we are able to do 2 kids projects, we would like to do 3-4 more, if the money comes in. Thanks so much for your support—your PRAYERS and FINACIAL support makes it all possible. Jesus will reward you openly!
Current prayers!
-Ukraine...they have a new Prime Minister - pray for the transition.
-The English Club—keep them in prayer as the move to the new “Coffee House” style.
-Russian Studies—pray for me to find routine with Studying Russian here.
-Keep praying for financing for ministry overseas and God’s work!
-Thanks for prayers...for Catherine Dieter who is doing better, after being diagnosed with cancer, please keep praying for complete healing.
-Pray for people’s compassion to rise this Christmas AND gifts to kids around the world to flow!
-Pray for all the decisions and work of the ministry that we are currently doing!
-Keep praying for baby Noah Schwendinger, his skull needs to be formed back into shape, from birth, so he has a correcting helmet now.