Sermon

Thanks to everyone who prayed for Tim this weekend. Though he was nervous about preaching his first time to this congregation (in English non the less), he really enjoyed it immensely. It was wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit knit the entire service together from the music, the prayers and the sermon.

Tim really misses being able to preach. If you think about it, ask the Lord to provide more opportunity for him to do so.

Also be in prayer as Tim is working with another church to start up a brand new youth ministry in town. We have a number of young people in town who have no direction, absent parents, poverty and going in the wrong direction.

We want to reach out to these kids, give them a place to go, a place to encounter God, a place to be safe and experience life change through the Gospel.

We will keep you updated as we continue to work toward our grand opening in September.
Finally, please continue to pray for our financial situation which continues to weigh heavily on us.

Thanks and all our love, Tim and Jennifer

Hello everyone,

many of us love talking to others about Jesus Christ. Many also love finding new ways to engage people in these conversations. This T-shirt will definitely open doors. The coordinates on the front of the shirt point to the location where Christ was crucified. You’ll be surprised how many people become curious and ask about the meaning of the shirt.

In an effort to raise funds to help our monthly deficit, we are selling these T-shirts.
If you would like to order one, please let me know what size you would like and I can send it to you.

Also tell all of your family, friends and study groups about this opportunity.

Thanks, Tim and Jennifer

These are premium screen printed T-shirts. 100% Cotton Premium Weight Tees 6.1oz. and are retailing for $10 (Plus sizes add $2).

Update

Hey everyone.

Well the weeks of summer carry on and my children are lamenting the fact that it’s almost half way over. Last week we had Tim’s little sister and family for a visit. It was great to spend time with them hiking and eating good food. Thanks to the car situation we had two good cars to cart all 9 of us around, safely.

Jennifer continues in her therapy for her neck and back and is showing slow improvement. In the mean time Tim has had a conversation with his orthoped and is slated for total knee replacement in September. They were considering a double knee replacement but due to a preexisting issue with his left leg, they thought they would do one at a time. Time wise this works out as well as Tim has a Candidate Orientation the week of August 14th and then will hopefully heal up in time for the orientation end of October.

Tim will also have the opportunity to preach at our church on July 25th, which he’s really excited about. He has really missed preaching since his return to the US and would covet your prayers as he prepares for this message. May it be from God, to His people in grace and humility.

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

Coaching

Allow me to share with you about some of the people I have been coaching.

FourforFrance is the name of Dave & Jen’s blog.
Over the past year and a half I have had the privilege to walk with them as they have been appointed, through to preparing a trip on the Queen Mary bound for France in July. Over this time our conversations have been many, ranging from discipleship, to prayer partners, to family adjustments, whether or not to sell the house, support raising, marriage, ministry etc.

During this time we have become good friends too, prayed for one another over the phone and I’ve been able to answer a myriad of questions; What about schooling in Europe, what about team, what about language, what about packing, travel etc. We’ve also addressed things like connecting with neighbors, discipling others, processing through church planting and more.

While the journey of coaching is designed to be of assistance to our appointees, to getting them to the other side well, I benefit so much from these relationships as I get to watch God do some incredible things. This family of four is excited about moving to France and becoming a part of a team that will engage in the north of Paris, in an area of lower economic income. The teenage boys own this ministry as much as their parents and Dave and Jen will be a long serving family to the French.

Another family, is headed to the same area in France and we are targeting this fall to get them there. A dynamic family with 5 children and an inner city ministry in Philadelphia, B. and K. are the kind of people we want on a team like this. Their experience will bring a flavor to the ministry that will move right to the hearts of the people.

Coaching has it’s easy and it’s challenging aspects. While on our road together I have been able to walk them through some more difficult times and been blessed to see their humble responses to life’s issues.

Thank you for your continued prayers that allow me to continue preparing the hearts and the paths of those God has called to impact Europe for His Kingdom.

Tim

Sharing good news

As you can see from our progress bar the Lord has done some amazing things in the past couple of weeks. We have seen the Lord raise our support through some genrous donations and get us out of the red. Praise the Lord for His mercy and we thank Him always for you and your generous hearts and prayers.

Another praise is that while we still do not have our car back yet, we have received additional gifts, from fellow workers that will cover ¾ of the cost of the repairs. WOW God!

I hope you can rejoice with us as we do in you for all of your continued faithfulness in His work to Europe.

Please keep praying for Tim as he continues to revamp GEM’s training process for new missionaries. Next week we are launching GEMView, a six week online course, introducing new and prospective candidates to who GEM is. Each week the candidates will view a 5 minute video and then be able to converse with other candidates and the facilitators about the material. This has been in the making since January and we are thrilled to be launching it now, for our June Orientation class.

You can view Tim's Video on Prayerwalking being used in GEMView here Prayerwalking

May God bless your day, Tim, Jennifer and the Kids

Car trouble

Hello dear praying friends.

Well, we took a few days off to visit the mountains while our children were off for spring break. On our way back out of the mountains our engine ceased up. We waited on the side of a busy highway for 2 hours before we were able to get a tow. We praise the Lord for the safety of being able to maneuver the car safely off the highway to the roadside and then while we waited on a 75 mph highway. We are now waiting to find out how soon they can repair the car. Please pray for us as we do not have $4,000 dollars to replace the engine. There is no way we can replace the vehicle for this amount and we really depend on the car to get around in the snow of the mountains.

Thanks for your prayers, Tim and family

Greetings everyone.

Life continues to press forward non-stop. Last week Tim had the opportunity to run a pilot orientation with the newly developed program. We served two families who have now been appointed to France. The time together was incredibly encouraging and the couples were very positive about the new format. Praise the Lord.

Please pray for us as we continue to work on developing the orientation process. Tim and a co-worker are about to launch a 6 week online course as well, designed to help our candidates become familiar with GEM before the arrive for orientation. Each week includes a 5 minute video and a discussion forum.

Beginning with the launch of the online course we begin a season of processing applications, inviting individuals and running a number of orientations. We will have two orientations running consecutively end of May and into the first week of June, another in August and another in end of October. Mean while we will be starting up the online class every couple of months.

Tim will be taking a few days off next week to spend it with the family while the kids are on spring break. We’re all looking forward to a little down time.

Tim’s achillies finally healed again and then the whole family got the respitory flu that was going around. Jennifer had it for 6 weeks and did two rounds of antibiotics. But, thankfully, we’ve all healed in the mean time.

Jennifer is connecting with a lot of school moms and has made some good contacts into the home school groups here, where she may be able to serve with her music. Please pray for us as we seek out the ministries God would have us engage in. We long to connect with unbelievers and bring the light of the Lord to them.

The kids are doing extremely well and we thank you for your continued prayers for them. We’ve heard a couple of times that they miss Austria, but their transition has been better than textbook.

We do appreciate your continued prayers.

From our family to yours, Tim, Jennifer, Connor, Katya and Marika J