Hey everyone.

Well, Christmas is creeping up on us, but it seems there is still too much to do until then.

We just celebrated Connor’s 13th birthday. Tim had started doing discipleship with him when he turned 7 and hopes to do so until he moves on to college. Along the way they are marking the significance of this spiritual journey. This year as Connor turned 13 (Dec 12) they celebrated a coming of age ceremony.

One of Tim’s friends asked if he and his son (Dec 3) could join in the ceremony and so Tim’s men’s group gathered around and celebrated with them. Connor memorized 2 Timothy for the event and recited the 2nd chapter. Then each man in turn gave them words of wisdom to take with them into this net chapter.

What a joy it has been to watch Connor become a young man who loves the Lord. Please celebrate with us by sending up a prayer of protection for him.

As promised we are posting our progress bar. We are hoping to raise $12,000 in special gifts that will help us make it through 2010. We have received $375
to date and a monthly $25 gift. Keep praying with us that we would hit our goal and be able to continue our ministry to future GEM missionaries without distraction.

We are also praising the Lord for a Christmas Concert Weekend past in Klosterneuburg which was attended by 26 people. Pray that the Lord continues to use the believers to spread the Gospel.

Greetings again and Happy Thanksgiving.

Well, our last Candidate Orientation has come and gone. We had 17 individuals, some heading to France, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Spain. What a privilege it is to be able to walk along side these individuals as they went through our orientation, were appointed and are now raising their support so they can get overseas and engage on a dark continent.

Thank you all for your prayers. It was an incredible time. While Tim served out 7, 14 hour days, the rest of the family did incredibly well in supporting him. Also, this was Tim’s first time carrying the full responsibility for the Euro Quest (short termers) portion of the orientation, and he survived. :)

It is truly amazing to be able to speak into each of these individuals lives and then to be able to continue following their path as Tim now coaches them through this next leg of their journey.

Here is a picture of our group we just sent out.




PRAYER:

We would also appreciate your prayers. A short while ago Tim’s Mom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is currently undergoing Chemo therapy. Please pray for her as she goes through this time. My sister was able to visit with Mom and dad for a couple of weeks as someone gifted her with miles to fly back from Prague and be with them as Mom got her first burst of Chemo. We are planning on visiting them over Christmas too. It’s been a while since they’ve seen the grandchildren and we look forward to some quiet family time together, with them and my two brothers + family in the area.

May you and yours have an incredible Thanksgiving. We thank the Lord for provision and that we are able to continue to have an impact on the continent of Europe in so may ways.

Thank you for your continued prayers, Tim, Jennifer and the kids

Prayer

Just a few thoughts.
I have picked up the book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Spirit by Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
In it he speaks so aptly about prayer.:
A visiting minister said to the congregation one day:
“you can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning.
You ca tell how popular a pastor is by who comes on Sunday night.
But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.”

CH Spurgeon said:
“the condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, ad from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness I prayer.”

Wow, how does this grip you? I wonder what churches would, could look like if we embraced some of these concepts.
On that note, please pray for us this week as we have 18 new candidates here for training, as they are prepared for ministry in Europe. Pray that the enemies hand would be stayed and that his attempts to interrupt would be foiled.
Tim and Jennifer

Fall tidbits

Hey all again.
Well, we had our first snow on the last day of summer here in Monument, and yesterday we had 85 degrees again. We love Colorado.

The fall semester is in full swing. Jennifer has begun teaching her classes and is loving it. The added benefit of having a wife that teaches strings is that it costs nothing for lessons for our girls. Katya is learning the Cello and Marika is learning the Violin, while Connor continues to work on guitar.

Well, there are new and exciting things happening here. As we prepare for our next Candidate Orientation October 31st, we are moving our last group into full swing with our coaching program. As we do this we are piloting a program called the Tangible Kingdom. (http://www.tangiblekingdom.com/)

We will be walking through this directed learning and living, experience over the next 12 weeks. We have assembled a group of 20 missionaries, appointees and home office staff to discover how this material might be useful to our ministries in Europe in the future.

Please be praying for us as we launch into this cohort and seek Gods direction. There is much enthusiasm and as we reach into this area of creating community, living intentionally and seeking opportunities to witness and bring the Gospel to where the people are, we look forward to seeing what God has in store for us.

On the Austria front, please continue to pray for my friend Hadschi, he wrote me again today ad asked for prayer as he tries to gather his thoughts ad figure out what’s going on with his life. It seems that things have just fallen apart all over in his life

Lastly, please also pray for my parents. Many of you know that my dad has been battling with Parkinson’s for some time. Well, my mother was just diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma. Please pray for the both of them as they walk through this next stage of their lives.

Thanks for praying, Tim for us all

Hello everyone.

Well, the seasons are moving ahead, the kids are back in school and loving it. While we still have warm days, we have also been met with some fall-like weather like many of you have.

Ministry

We have already gotten back into the swing of things here. Tim has already been up to Christian Colorado University for a missions-fair. He is also preparing to connect up with Missionary kids on campus. We are preparing our trips for next summer already, putting together a couple of 9 week trips throughout Europe, Internships and other trips. Now we are working at bringing these opportunities to people who feel God’s leading to go.
Our group is also preparing for this year’s Urbana Missions Conference. It is no longer hosted at the University of Champagne as it has grow to over 30 thousand participants.
Our next Candidate Orientation will be end of October, beginning of November. So please be in prayer for us during that time. We will remind you again before then.
In the mean time Tim has started a men’s group at the office. It is a place where we are challenging one another to right living, coming alongside one another and growing together in the Lord.
It has also been a pure delight for Tim to continue coaching the new appointees from our last Candidate Orientation in June. The response to the coaching has been great and Tim is able to really provide an alongside encouragement to a number of them.

Family

The kids are enjoying their first weeks of school. Last semester brought about a lot of stress for Connor who is very bent on getting excellent grades even though we were trying to help him focus on doing a good job, no matter the grade. Some of his stress probably came from being sick ad missing almost 1 month of classes. This semester is going far better for him, he is loving school and feeling free again. Praise the Lord for that. The girls are still doing great and enjoying their classes. All three of the kids are incredible readers too.
Jennifer continues to heal, though she wishes she was able to run, her knee and leg are still slow on the mend. She is enjoying teaching strings and continues to crochet up a storm.

Church

Our church in Monument is moving the coming week, to a larger facility. It appears that the Lord is growing the congregation and so we are bracing for the changes. We have had some very intense conversations with the missions committee, now that we actually exist with a budget. One of our goals is to get our pastor on a short missions trip as he has never been overseas yet. Please pray for wisdom as Tim leads this committee, and every beginning is tricky.

Austria

Please continue to pray for our friend Hadschi. He just recently sent Tim an E-mail and told us that his marriage is over. His wife has decided to live with another man. From his facebook entries we can see that he has experienced some significant pain through this. He is also in a new relationship of his own, with a gal he call, a great Christian lady.
Also continue to pray for Sabse, the gal that Tim is counseling/coaching in Germany via Skype. She seems to have backed off a bit. In the mean we have found someone who has good friends in the next town over and is trying to make connection there.
Thanks for your continued prayers.

Please pray for:

continued healing for Jennifer

for Tim’s mouth – it looks like it is going to cost us a fortune this year. Due to bad jeans (genes) his teeth have always been bad, with his night time breathing machine, it has gotten worse. He has already had to have to crowns this year and needs a bridge ($7,000). And our insurance has already covered their part.

For the many ministries we are participating in.

For our church in Austria that God would bring a couple to Klosterneuburg to step into the work and relieve some of the pressure for our co-workers Joe and Brenda.

Please continue to keep them in your prayers as well as Joe continues to battle with prostate cancer.

Please also pray for our friends Andrea and Arleta in Klosterneuburg, who I am trying to get connected up with our co-workers. Pray that they would attend a service, as they have show real interest in what we are all about.

Pray also as we are trying to launch, locally, as well as with some of our people on the field a 24 month effort toward missional living, here and there.

God bless you all and thank you for your significant part in the work of Christ which is far reaching.

Summer update

Hello everyone.
It has been a busy summer and we are looking forward to school starting again.

Last week we had what we call HMW (Home Ministry Welcome). It is a ministry to our missionaries, a week where we meet there spiritual and emotional needs, encourage them and give them Soul rest. During this time the Missionary Kids are also tended to, loved on and given the tools to deal with transition back to the US. For some of the MK’s it is their first real connection back to the US in 4 years and a lot has changed as they’ve grow older.

Tim was able to serve as the leader for the 8-12 year old group of MK’s. Connor served as Tim’s assistant and it was a great time for father and son to work together.

We had 5 youth who kept us on our toes all week. While we did some activities and had some outings, we were able to get down to some root level concerns, such as saying good bye to friends, preparing for a new school, dealing with cultural faux pas and some saying good bye to their adopted country. Tim also had opportunity to connect with some of the teenagers during the week and saw how at least one of the young men went from being very angry to finding a place of safety where he could share and feel accepted.

Jennifer and girls were able to stay on the campus with Tim and Connor where the week was being held. It was a nice change of pace and we all thoroughly enjoyed the Colorado scenery.

Net week we are planning to go on staycation (it’s where you STAY home for vaCATION). We plan to enjoy our own part of Colorado with day trips to places we have not visited yet. This will fit better into our budget than going somewhere this year.

Thank you for your continued prayers.:

Jennifer’s leg and knee are healing well and she should be out of her brace soon.
The children have been having a vacation.
Tim continues to be very involved in many aspects of GEM home office ministry.
And Jennifer is preparing for the fall to teach the strings classes.
Please continue to pray for our financial need. We are still undersupported by $1,000 per month.
Sending you our love from sunny Colorado, Tim, Jennifer, Connor, Katya and Marika

Update

Hi everybody.
Wow, what an incredible week we had with our Candidate Orientation.
Thank you for your prayers. We had a group of 17 candidates whom we were able to approve for service to Ireland, France, Germany, Portugal and North Africa. It was an amazing time with group of people who love the Lord, have come from varied backgrounds and who knit together as a group in an incredible way.

It was a long week and exhausting but the Lord had His hand on it. On Wednesday we did a prayer walk through a residential area of Monument. It was amazing to listen as we walked and prayed for the people of our town. One of our groups eve had the opportunity to talk to someone who was out in the yard and working.

We feel as a Mission that we need to be involved where we are as much as the work overseas.
That all took place two weeks again. Last week Tim took some time off to work around the house. Besides gathering and cutting several quarts of wood for the Winter, Tim and the children cleaned up a ton of branches that needed moved to a space in the garden where we can chip them later. Jennifer has been working hard on her Strings class and violin lessons. She is in fact gaining some notoriety in Monument. She is really loving being engaged with her violin again.

A prayer request. Please continue to pray for Sabse, she is taking the next day or two to really seek the face of God and seek a deeper relationship with Him. Please also continue praying as some of our friends in Germany locate a fellowship of believers that she might get connected with.

Please also continue praying for our friend Hadschi in Austria. He is facing some very difficult decisions right now. He found out that his wife has been cheating on him for years and everybody knew it but him. Sadly he is looking for solace with another woman himself now. Fighting his own demons. Our co-worker is working to connecting up with Hadschi to serve him and stand by him. Please be in continued prayer for the family, with their two young children and this huge mess.

For His Kingdom, Tim, Jennifer ad the Kids

Hello all.

Just wanted to send out a quick note.

Please be praying for my friend John. He is a sheriff’s deputy. I met him at the church where our children attend AWANA. The church has a police presence there for security purposes. At any rate I’ve been able to talk at length with John. He has had some pretty bad experiences with churches through break ups and other. But he has graciously allowed me into conversation with him. He also served as a translator in Germany for the army, so we have found a good common ground. He’s a great guy. Please pray as we are planning to catch coffee together in the next week or so. I am thankful for the relationship that is building and pray that the Lord will open his heart to the possibility of a real relationship with Christ rather than seeing the painful relationships inside of some church contexts.

Also, be in prayer for Jennifer as she finds her way into the strings community in Colorado Springs and area. Many of you have been blessed by her playing and so know what a blessing it is that she is getting connected here. In order to help our family make ends meet in our support shortage, Jennifer will begin teaching a strings class the summer and the fall, through the school district. It is an opportunity that God has provided through relationship and we’re thankful for.

Please also pray for a new friend Sabse. She's a German gal (early 20’s) who contacted me over Facebook a while ago. Initially she contacted me because we have a mutual friend in Austria. Then one day she saw I was on-line and she texted me and asked if I had walked with the Lord for a long time. I knew immediately where this was going. Since then we have been texting on Skype every week as I counsel her. She is the only Christian in her town outside of Stuttgart. She is alone and trying to figure out how to walk with the Lord in addition to dealing with a number of other issues. Her family is hostile toward her faith and her friends don’t altogether get it. It has been great to see her move from a place of hopelessness to joy in just a couple of weeks. We are also moving toward engaging her friends a little more on faith issues. I also have friends I Germany working on finding a Christian community to plug her into. Please pray with us that her family will see the incredibly irresistible light of Christ and be drawn to it and that she will get connected with other believers in Germany who can become her family and support structure.
Thanks

Tim for us all

broken bones

Hi everyone.

Please be praying for Jennifer. Last Friday Jennifer was skating again and broke her fibula o her left leg. So now one knee is healing (right leg) and one leg is casted (left leg). As a result her doctor has prescribed a bone density test for her.

I’m sure you can imagine how discouraging this can be. Jennifer was out of action for a month or two when she broke her knee, then had the stomach flu for 3 weeks, then bronchitis for 2-3 weeks and now she’s broken her fibula. Basically from December 26th until now she has been sick or in pain and healing. Thanks for your continued prayers -

My dog ate my homework

Well, it wasn’t exactly my homework but rather a pair of glasses. We finally found Tim’s glasses, hidden in our dogs hide-out with his bones and other toys. Nicely chewed the glasses are not much use any longer. Thanks for your prayers everybody, in God’s very own humorous way He did return them to Tim.

Tim’s trip to Illinois.:

The trip east was incredibly busy. He had multiple meetings every day sometimes driving between Wheaton and St. Charles. While we were not able to raise the needed monthly support commitment a dear friend of Tim’s gave a substantial gift which will help stabilize our account through most of the rest of the year.

It was a great opportunity for Tim to be able to stay with Mom and Dad during his trip and to be available to help out when his Mom had a partial knee replacement.

Tim also had opportunity to connect with Wheaton Bible Church as GEM is working together with them to prepare and send church based teams to serve immigrants in Europe. Tim has become part of the preparation team with WBC and is very excited about this opportunity.

The Journey Deepens was also a great time of serving. Thought Tim was sick all weekend and wound up with a sinus infection, he made some good connections with people who are using the weekend to listen and discern what their part is going to be in ministry.

Jennifer, who’s knee is still healing and getting bronchitis after I left, held down the fort with our three children (and a glasses chewing dog) who are already now becoming impatient for summer to come. She continues to help out at the girls school and the teachers have really come to rely on her heavily.

Back at work and business as normal Tim is trying to catch up and step into the new rolls that are developing.

Tim is still in the Mobilization department but is also working with Preparation in the Candidate Orientation process and still developing a Coaching system for our new missionaries.

Working within both departments Tim has become an important part in a developing linear process. Beginning with recruiting, to preparing and equipping and finally walking along side the appointees as a coach Tim is in a significant position to influence and encourage those heading into full time ministry in Europe.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support as we seem to have found a very good place to continue to be able to participate in the significant ministries of a continent we so love.

It was great seeing a bunch of you. The White family

Hey everyone.
Thanks for your many inquiries, no I have sadly not yet found my glasses.
Right now I am hoping that I will in fact be able to get out on my flight and to Illinois today. Our area in Colorado has been pounded by a winter storm for the past two days. We’ve gotten at least 15” of wet and heavy snow.
If I’m able to get out today I will be at Fox Valley Bible Church on Sunday, April 19th and at Wheaton Bible Church May 3rd.
Look forward to seeing a number of you while I’m back. This trip is an important one for us as it serves two purposes. One is that I will be attending a conference the weekend of the 28th for GEM. The second is to hopefully raise some more support.
Please be praying for travel safety
Please pray that as a coach at the conference I will be used by God to aid young people in their decisions making processes
Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom and contacts and enable me to raise the financial support we still need.

Jazzlovers

For any of you Jazz lovers out there. A friend of ours, (Deanna Witkowski: Liturgical Jazz) from Wheaton College just did an interview with NPR radio about her new Sacred Jazz CD out in time for Easter (now past, sorry). Check it out.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102998647

Santa... no Tim is comming to town

Sorry It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog. Between Jennifer’s broken knee and a 3-4 three week bought with a bad stomach bug in our home, we’ve been pretty busy. Tim has also been working on getting his Christian Life Coaches certification and finished last week.
Why you ask? As part my position in Mobilization and Preparation I will be developing a system of internal coaching for missionaries. We will assign coaches to our new appointees who will walk alongside them through their first couple of years on the field. As a number of mission organizations have already implemented coaching at this level they are finding an increased value in longevity and health of their missionaries. This is too where we see a great need and GEM is moving in this direction.

Also, Tim is coming to town. Some of you will remember the ‘Journey Deepens’ that Tim attended in Pasadena last October. A conference designed to help potential missionaries identify what part God will have them play in furthering the Kingdom of God. He will be attending the upcoming conference in Elgin, April 24-26. He will be in town though from April 19th through about May 3 or 4.

Tim is still working out schedules right now and will let you know what Sunday he will be where.
Some of you may want to host an evening where Tim will be able to present our current ministry opportunities to new friends. Thanks to a number of incredible year-end gifts from you our account was able to get back out of the red and into the black. Now we are excited to see how God is going to raise the remaining $1,000 we still need per month.
Looking forward to seeing many of you soon.

Timothy, Jennifer, Connor, Katya and Marika

Hello everyone.
I know this is a quick follow-up to the last Blogpost, but I thought this was exciting and would covet your prayers for.
Many of you will remember my friend Hadschi, the radio announcer in Klosterneuburg, who loves the Lord. He has continued to stay in the catholic church with hopes of reforming it from the inside out. He just wrote me and asked if the church in Klosterneuburg was still there and suggested it might be time for him to visit.
That is a huge step for Hadschi. Please pray that the Lord removes the barriers and that he would visit with the body of Christ in our town and that he might find the fellowship of believers truly inviting.
Thanks again for your prayers and enjoy the excitement as we watch God continue to unfold the ministry in Klosterneuburg.

Tim for us all

We just received the following E-mail from our co-workers in Klosterneuburg.

"We returned to Austria on Dec. 30 and are getting more and more settled back into life and ministry here in Vienna. Our time in the US was quite productive, but it is good to be “home.”

Just a little piece of encouragement: yesterday we went to our first Klosterneuburg worship service since getting back here. There were only about a dozen of us, but it was a nice atmosphere. Fritz gave his first sermon.

We also had a guest. Evidently it was Michelle´s second time there. She found out about us through the webpage and came on her own!! Michelle´s visits are yet another ongoing impact of your time here."

It is exciting to see God use what He enabled us to do, in partnership with you. Fritz is preaching and a guest through the website. Your coming alongside us in prayer and financially, your gifts and prayers will continue paying dividends for years and centuries to come. This is the sort of investment that won't be affected by any economic crisis.

Please continue praying for our brothers and sisters in Austria and the church in Klosterneuburg.

Encouraged, Tim and Jennifer

www.egk.at

January

What is a patella?

It is your knee cap, the thing that Jennifer decided to break in half the day after Christmas. She and the children were skating and while she was doing a back cross over she went down, hard. She is spending most of her days in bed keeping her knee immobilized and taking sufficient pain medication to keep her mildly sedated.

What is a group of trees?

It is not something you want to see coming toward you when your car is sliding off the icy street. I was on my way this week to pick my son up from guitar practice when the road turned but not my car. It wedged itself into a small group of trees and wrapped one of the wheels around one of the trees. The trunks were all between 3 and 6 inches thick so they were small. I was not hurt since I was not going fast at all. It took me and then a tow truck most of the evening to un-wedge the car. I was able to drive it home but I have not yet had time to identify the full extent of the damage.

What is praise?

Praise is what we have to share with you. As we mentioned in our last Blog, our account has been in the red for a couple of months now and we extended an invitation to you to come along side us to bring our account back into the black. Well, the Lord used many of you to bless us in an incredible way. Our account is back in the black with enough to help us deal with the monthly shortfall for a couple of months at least.

What is prayer?

Prayer is what we need for:
Jennifer’s knee, that it will heal quickly and that the pain would lessen every day.
Please also remember to pray for our continued monthly support shortfall.