Wisconsin Support Trip Update

As most of you know, we left on Friday for a support raising trip across WI. We started off in high hopes of visiting with someone almost every 2 hours over the weekend. It would have been crazy. We ended up meeting with 6 different families and it was WONDERFUL.

Before telling you about all of that, though, I thought it was great that God likes to remind us of things while we’re going through them. On Sunday, at church, the pastor preached on two different things – one in Sunday school and one in the main service.

The first lesson was being available to God. He talked about people in the Bible like the boy with the bread and fish in the feeding of the 5,000, or Esther, or Noah and how God “doesn’t look at ability, He looks at availability.” He then asked three questions (really read over them a couple times and think about it):

1. Are you available to God?
2. Are your possessions available to God?
3. Do you allow your spouse/family to be available to God?

What does that look like? When he asked the first question, I’m like “yes, I feel like I will allow God to use me wherever He wants to”, but then when he asked about my possessions (my car, my house, my stuff) and my family (my husband), I had to stop for a second. Do I allow God to use Steve in whatever way He wants, or do I think “Man, that could be time we’re spending together?” or “That person is just taking advantage”. It was a hard thing to look at.

The second sermon was on the blind man mentioned in Luke 18:35-43. Really paraphrasing his sermon he talked about how at first the man yelled to Jesus, was shushed and then yelled louder – after that, when he was brought to Jesus, even though it was obvious, Jesus had him ask for his sight one more time. He talked about the power to coming to Jesus with what we need – that even though Jesus knows, we need to ask! After the man received his sight, the people didn’t just follow him, but they praised along with the man.

We have learned to ask God straight out for what we need (WE NEED SUPPORT) and know that not only is He listening to us, but in His time and in His way, He will answer our cry – and we were definitely able to praise him during this trip that we took this weekend.

So, I want you all to praise along with us for the wonderful and encouraging support raising trip we just had! We want to give glory and praise to God alone! God is good (can I get an “all the time”?).

If any of you would like to meet with us, please let us know – we would love to share our ministry with you. Just email us at steveandjessinfrance@gmail.com or call 651.216.1792 at any point.

Steve's Turn

Hello, it is Steve making another appearance. We are trying to get back into the habit of blogging so Jess and I will take turns writing. Friday I sat down and figured out exactly when we will be able to pay off my student loans. February 4th all of my school loans will be paid off. I am very thankful for the job God has provided for me and ask that he continue to bless us with the ability to pay off my school loans as we prepare to go to France. Technically my internship was supposed to end and the end of summer, but I have been able to continue on which has been great. I love working, especially for such a great company. It is just amazing that God has provided in such a great way. I can only think of it as God providing us with the ability to go to France without having to worry about raising more money for loan payments while we are in France. Because there is no specific end date for my internship so far I have found myself worrying that it will end before we leave for France or all of the loans are paid off. But then I remember Philippians 4:6-7 which says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. " It also help that the kids sing this as a song every week before Sunday School so it gets stuck in my head for the entire week. It's funny how that works.

We are going to WI to share with friends and family about our future work in France so if you are in that area we would love to meet with you, and whether you are or not you can pray for safe traveling and God leading people to partner financially. Jess will share next week about how the trip went. The End.

New EVERY Morning

Lamentations 3: 22-26

²² Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

Good morning – I just thought I would share that verse with you this morning. “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning” – AMEN! As we start of this week, we want to remember that. That God grace, mercy, and love is new every morning and his faithfulness is great!

We’ve had a busy week this last week, but got a chance to just settle down and relax this weekend. We were also able to draft up another prayer letter, so you should be receiving that soon!

Here are our prayer requests and praises for this week!

Prayer:

• Ø RIGHT NOW if you could say a prayer for Steve, he has a presentation in front of the big wigs at Medtronic at around 11(??) today.
• Ø That our prayer letter would bring new partners to help us reach our goal of 50% by the end of September
• Ø For the Girls Group that I organize and our Sunday School classes as they start up that God would be doing great things in these children
• Ø For a more consistent time to spend time with God together and on our own – our schedules have been crazy and it seems like we’re sneaking in times here and there instead of building our day around time with God.

Praise:

Ø Lord willing, we will be paying off my (Jessica's) school loans on Friday J PRAISE GOD!

Ø That God’s mercies are new every morning.

Ø For a relaxing weekend and being refreshed to face this new week.

Ø For lots of French connections this week – I (Jessica) got to meet some French church planters at work on Thursday, and also a student who is looking to pursue French (also have been dreaming in French a lot lately, which is fun J)

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Hello!

Yes, we realize that’s it’s been a while and we realized we kind of dropped off the face of the earth…but WE’RE BACK and better than ever J God has been doing some great things and teaching us some great things in our lives this summer. Too much to even put on one post, but we’ll try…lets go back!

May – While stressing about getting a job, and finals and vacation (only we can stress about vacation, right?) and all the things that needed to be done, God provided in every way. Steve got a job about 2 days before he was planning on calling the YMCA to continue working there throughout the summer. He’s working a Summer Internship at Medtronic (a company that designs and manufactures medical devices). So, basically all summer he’s been doing stuff with defibrillators and pacemakers (or at least that’s what I get out of when he tells me all day). This has given us a chance to pay back HUGE chunks of my school loans and start into his before they start gaining interest! What a huge praise.

June – June was a month of fun things – we were able to spend some time together camping, going on some road trips and amusement parks. We finally learned that we don’t need to have a week off in order to have a great summer. We took advantage of the weekends and the great weather to have some fun.

July – At the shock of seeing July 1^st come around on the calendar and us looking and seeing that our support hasn’t really moved in almost 2 months, we realized that we needed to buckle down on our support raising. There are always excuses though – in May we said we’d wait until Steve was done with school and started his job and things “calmed down”; June came and we said that we’d wait until we got into the swing of things with both working 8-4:30 jobs, but when July came around we had no more excuses – well, except that I was going to be gone for 3 out of the 4 weeks for music festivals and vacations and my mom coming into town.

*Can I just take a break and say I don’t know how people do support raising. I know that it’s a full time job in and of itself and we just can’t seem to balance it. Eventually (as you’ll find out) we learned how to do it little by little, but it just doesn’t seem to come naturally to us. I mean, I get how Moses felt when he told God that speaking wasn’t his strength and he should really pick someone else. It’s been a challenge to just pick up the phone and call someone and let them know about our ministry. We’ve realized we need to stop making excuses and just do what God has called us to do.*

Ok, back to July. Finally, the last week in July, Steve and I, sitting at a Perkins, faced the facts that we’re not going to be able to raise $5,500/month on letters alone, and started writing letters to talk to people one on one. We’re just getting started and hope that the money comes to us in such a way that only God can be glorified.

So…here we are in August. Lives are getting back to “normal” (or our new normal) – Steve’s boss has invited him to stay as long as they can afford them, which we’re hoping, will mean until we leave for France. This has been a blessing as it’s hard to find a job for just 9 months in the Engineering field.

We would love to leave as soon as possible and are still looking for partners in this – so if you’ve been praying about it, give (just click the box to the right). We’ll let you know a little more about support raising later! Keep praying for us! We appreciate it!

Who do we have confidence in?

Hebrews 10 34-35

34. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

We're reading through Hebrews in our young adult group, and these verses really struck me. "you...joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew you had better and lasting possessions, so do not threw away your confidence"

As we're gearing up to leave, some of our biggest fears seem to be about jobs we're leaving behind, or what we get to bring with us, or the fact that we're leaving security for the uncertain, but this verse really convicted me of what I put my confidence in. If my confidence is in my job, money, or possessions, then I'm not really going to be willing to give those up if that's what God calls me to do.

However, if my confidence is in God, it doesn't matter what anyone takes from me, my confidence cannot be taken.

I also think it's interesting that the Bible says "do not THROW AWAY your confidence." It makes me think that when we put our confidence in anything but God, we're waisting it, because those things are not lasting - they're fleeting.

My question for you (and for me) is, are we wasting our confidence? Are we throwing it away on things that can be easily taken? Are we not following (or afriad to follow) what God wants us to do because our confidence is in something other then Him?

Lord, please help me to be confident in You and nothing else but You. God help me to be willing to completely surrender my life to You, and not keep any part for myself. Calm my irrational fears because I know that You have and will continue to take care of us. Amen.

Is what we believe really real to us?

It's a rainy Saturday morning here in St. Paul, and seems like the perfect morning to write in a blog. I know I'm supposed to keep posts short, but I feel a long one coming on, so bear with me.

Like Steve mentioned in the last post, it's been a crazy week, or really, weeks (plural) since we've returned from Denver. It's really challenged our focus, drive, enery, and attention span. I know that when the devil knows that we're on fire and really running after Christ, he wants to do anything and everything he can to divert our attention from that.

I challenged my girls Sunday School class to be reading through John this week. We're talking about it in church, and I've been challenging them to give out gospels of John for months now, but we never actually read through it on our own (lately at least). It's amazing that in this Gospel, Jesus makes no mistake to let his people (us) know who He is.

Just in the first chapter it says he is:

• The Word (vs. 1, 14)


• God (v. 1)


• Creator (vs. 3, 10)


• The Light (vs.4-5)


• Grace and Truth (v. 17)


• The Lord (v. 23)


• Worthy (v. 27)


• Lamb of God/Taker of sin (v. 29, 36)


• Teacher (vs. 38,49)


• Son of God (v. 49)


• King of Isreal (v. 49)

All I can respond to that is WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE. How can we not shout that? How can we go about our day when the Light, the Creator, the Lamb of God wants a personal relationship to us?

I once heard someone say that the reason people ignore Christ is because if Christians REALLY had what they say they have, they would act different. Not just being "better" then the person next to you, but if we REALLY believed that we have a personal relationship with the ONE who takes away the sin of the world and give us a life, we would be shouting it from the rooftops. But we don't. I don't. Most Christians don't. So...that begs the question. Do we believe that what we believe is really real? Let me say that one more time....do we believe that what we believe is really real? If so, then how would our lives look different?

I know mine would. I would not be scared to share the Gospel with EVERYONE because I knew that I found the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would not have to schedule in time to read my Bible and pray because I would realize that I have a personal relationship with the CREATOR of the World and maker of all things. I wouldn't worry about the little things because the One who takes care of me gave it to me and He can do with my life what He pleases.

Just ponder on that for a bit (I know I will) - Do you believe that what you believe is really real?

Just to give credit where credit is due, these throughts came from a combination of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project".

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, concerns, and prayer requests on our blog. We love to hear from you.

Just to let you know, our next week blogs will be about France (which, considering it's called FOCUS ON FRANCE, would be good). We will be posting different facts and also our reasons for wanting to go to France. Thanks for following. We really appreciate you all!

The beginning of this week was a stressful one for me (Steve). I had a long engineering assignment due Tuesday and a French presentation Wednesday that I hadn’t started. That was just the start of the week. I had to keep reminding myself (and Jess would remind me too) to take deep breathes and take one day at a time.

The other thing that helped me through the week was Romans 5:1-5

“1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but w] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

I was very encouraged by this passage.

The second half of the week I had a homework assignment for my Advanced Analog Integrated Circuits class (yes, this class is as much fun as it sounds). The class is extremely challenging and when I started the assignment I knew how I needed to start and how it should end. The steps in between were hazy so I worked on it Wednesday and did not get far.

Thursday morning I received an email from my professor who had solved the tedious middle part save for a few steps and posted his work online. I realized it is great to see how he worked through the problem because it gave me an idea of how to do the last few steps. The parallels our walk with God, we need people who are able to teach and guide us as we grow with God.