If Stress = Lack of Trust, Discouragement = ?

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while since we've posted on here (a month exactly actually).

It's been a long couple months. As many of you know we had a support raising trip to WI at the end of October and were really excited that we're getting everything together and really starting to hit the ground running as far as support raising goes. Really, at that point, nothing could stop us.

Now, fast forward a month ahead - you're looking at two tired, hopeless, discouraged people. One our our main goals with this blog is to really share the ups and downs of our entire process (from support raising, to getting started in France, to leaving). Well, we're in a down.

As much as we've worked these past 6 months, we've barely seen a 5% budge in our numbers - and while we're thankful for that, we have a really long ways to go in a relatively short amount of time.

We are at about 87% of our one-time expenses (including plane tickets, training, ect.) and at 11.33% of our monthly expenses (the $5,500 we need to raise each month). If we're still looking at leaving in August (our projected leave date) we need to raise at least 9% each month (that's about $500/month pledged for the two years we're there).

It's been hard to keep going when we haven't seen any progress - I've found that we haven't been updating the blog, emailing out prayer request, or really talking to others about it at all, which really just makes the problem worse -

So - I would like to cry out to you! Please pray for us!!!! Here are something that we're really just struggling with right now:

Pray for passion for the work we believe God has called us to.
Pray for surrender of all of this to God, through which everything happens.
Pray for peace about God's time line, not ours.
Pray for contentment, that we would continue strong in our ministries here.
Pray for preparation and that we would be continually growing closer to the Lord.
Pray for provision - that God would bring the right people to partner with us at the right time.

Thanks so much - we really appreciate your prayers and support!

Normal Life

Things have settled down quite a bit for us, so much that we did not feel as though we had much to write about the last few weeks. New things in our lives: Snow! We got tons of beautiful snow on Saturday for which we were not prepared. Driving is much easier with an extra 210 lbs of sandbags in the back of our truck. Saturday evening we were able to go to the Skillet/Toby Mac concert with Jess' job and were blessed with fantastic seats. Sunday I taught my 3rd and 4th grade Sunday school class and the lesson was on Seeking God. The lesson was based on the parable of Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:10-14) and emphasized the fact that people only seek things they truly need. The Tax Collector new his need for God. It was a great reminder of my need for God and that I need to be seeking God.

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.