Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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


Wednesday, September 2, 2009


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.