Fall Update 2014

September marked the end of one of the most significant chapters in our lives so far: our ministry in Romania. With heavy hearts we said farewell to the kids that we had grown to know and love over the last five years.  We assured them that this would not be the end of our relationship, we will continue to hold them in our hearts and prayers and we will be back to visit hopefully in the near future. 

We were blessed to visit some old friends in Finland before we left Europe.  We had such a wonderful and rejuvenating time there and were sad to leave and say more farewells, but we were glad that after more than ten years we were able to reconnect and significantly deepen our relationship with them.

Once we returned home we began reconnecting with family and friends and trying to settle in and adjust to this “new” culture. We looked forward with eager anticipation of finding out what God was planning for us next.  We knew that He had given us the desire to build our own family through foster care adoption and the desire to continue in ministry.  We didn’t search for opportunities before we left Romania because we wanted to keep our focus on finishing well there and not neglecting our ministry because we were too focused on the future.  We decided that we would simply rely on God’s leading when we arrived home.

Two weeks after arriving I (Mark) participated in an outreach at a small inner-city church on west side of Grand Rapids called Gold Avenue CRC.  We had a very blessed time and at the end I briefly met one of the pastors.  The following week we attended a Dunamis prayer conference where both of the Gold Ave pastors were teachers.  They asked us to meet with them to share our sense of call to ministry and what we had been doing in Romania.  The following week we met with them again and they shared that as a church they had been praying for God to send workers to help them start ministries to the growing number of children there and in the neighborhood.  We prayed together and for a few weeks spent much time in prayer asking God if this was the path He was calling us to.  We all strongly felt that yes, God is leading us to step into ministry there.

Because this is a small urban church, we will be urban missionaries serving there with a focus of reaching the hurting children and families of the neighborhood.  God is already moving there and we are excited to be a part of it.  Once we have more details worked out we will begin raising needed support, would you please prayerfully consider partnering with us in this ministry?  We have been so blessed by your financial and prayer support while ministering in Romania and we look forward to continued and new partnerships going forward.  We would also like to eventually move in to that neighborhood, would you please pray for God to lead and provide? Please continue to pray for God to clearly lead us and the church as we partner together to further God’s kingdom.  Praise God for his leading and providence!

 God Provides!

Before we left Romania we needed to sell our car. We were planning on using the money to buy one when we arrived home in Michigan.  After a while of having no success we felt God leading us to sell our car to another organization for less than half the price. After some initial uneasiness we decided to give it to God and trust that he would provide for us when our time of need came.

One week after arriving home we found a car we liked on Craigslist. Through talking with the seller we found out that they were members of our church which lead them to reduce the price for us. We also recieved a donation which exactly covered the difference in price between our car in Romania and this car. We are so blessed and thankful to God that he is faithful and that he is our loving provider!

Click on the picture below and you will be able to download and print off this update!

Our Journey Continues

What have we been doing since our last post?  We have been watching our journey back to the mission field slowly unfold.  So many of us think the mission field is out there, over there, or far away, but it is right here in front of us!  The church has been given the responsibility of taking care of the people around it and reaching out to those who need the good news, not just far away, but right next door.  This morning when I was reading James 2 I was again reminded of how we need to act and not just wish people well.  

James 2:15-16 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

Griffins Game with the Amandas

God has lead us to a church that is seeking to follow Him and really be His church.  There is a great need there for workers/volunteers/planters/harvesters.  When I think about the opportunities there, the vision, and what is happening and could happen in that church there is excitement and the possibilities are endless.

And we can see that God you're moving

A time of Jubilee is coming

When young and old will turn to Jesus

Fling wide your heavenly gates

Prepare the way of the risen Lord!

(Did you feel the mountains tremble written by Martin James Smith)

Hanging out with a couple cute girls!

We will have more details hopefully soon of our exact position and details of how it is all going to work. (We are still in the process of trying to figure out how God is leading.) This much we do know, that at least to start we will be involved in establishing children's worship there.  We not only see the need, but know that kids have a openness to the gospel and can impact families and the entire community. Please join us in prayer for continued faith and obedience for where God is leading.  Pray for funding, housing closer to the church, and community there.  Pray also for the hearts of the kids we will impact and continued prayers for the kids we have worked with in the past.  We know the importance of prayer and perseverance and we are thankful for all of you who are faithful in lifting us up in prayer!

The Melting Pot with good friends

Step by Step

We miss our kids back in Romania but at the same time we have been blessed by reconnecting with our friends and family here at home.  It has been great to be able to do this at a slower pace than when were were only home for one month each year.

 Another new thing is that Rebecca has been trying out many new gluten free recipes.

Here are some doughnut holes and apple cider.

Japanese milk bread

Macarons

Dinner rolls

We have been enjoying the nice fall here and had a visit from some deer in the yard.

The colors this fall were spectacular, in Romania we missed all the maples (also the syrup).

We know that God has brought us back here to start our family through foster care adoption.  There are many steps that we need to take in order to get there and that is what we have been trying to figure out lately.  I have felt God calling me to stay in ministry and have been trying to figure out what that will look like.  God has been guiding us to meet new people at an urban church in downtown Grand Rapids through an outreach and then a Dunamis prayer conference.  We are now talking with the pastors there about the possibility of building up a children's ministry.  We are praying and ask for your prayers that God would clearly lead us and all those involved and that he will open the right doors for us.  There is so much to figure out but we know that it is all in God's hands and that where he guides he provides.

Keeping Busy in GR

Since we have been back we haven't experienced a shortage of things to do.  One of our first tasks was picking out cell phones and plans, a much more daunting experience than in Romania.  There are also some things that we can do here that we couldn't do in Romania.  We always saw pictures of ArtPrize but never were able to make it until this year.  

We visited the beautiful city of Grand Rapids on a very nice warm and sunny fall day.

There were really cool sculptures all over town.

If you look really closely you can see here that this dragon is facing off against an army of tin soldiers.

We really enjoyed the color of this one and the encouraging scripture passages written on it.

This awesome mural was a work in progress when we came to see it.

This was the overall winner of the competition.  We got to visit the museum of contemporary art for free and even ate some artesian gelato!

We have also enjoyed seeing some very beautiful color in the trees.

We spent a lot of time looking around for a car, and we were blessed to be able to find one on our 11 year anniversary!  We found this 2007 Honda Fit Sport on Craigslist, it was a bit high priced for us but we thought we would go and check it out anyway.  When we got there we saw this immaculate, one owner car that has been taken care of amazingly.  We talked a little about Romania and the person selling it recognized us from church!  We didn't even have to negotiate down the price because they offered it to us at a lower price than they were willing to take from anyone else.  We are thankful to God for setting it all up and are very happy with our new ride.

We have also been keeping busy visiting family and friends and getting settled in here.  We are already involved with the children's program at church and we will surely find other serving opportunities.  Our next step is to discern what God has in store for us as far as jobs go.  Please pray for clarity, guidance and providence as we search.  Please also continue to pray for us and our kids in Romania as we are missing each other.

Trip to Finland

Just before we returned to America from Romania we took a wonderful trip to visit some friends in Finland.  We were friends with the Lorenz family way back in our college days. The last time we saw them before they moved was shortly after our wedding.  We kept in touch through the years and wanted to visit and we finally had our chance.

Here we are with Rainer, Katri, Lea, Mia, Lasse, Kalle, and Silas.

The Lorenz property is very beautiful with large rocks all over and they also have a garden.

The house is really nice too, it was built in the 1800's.

We went to a huge meteorite crater to see the migrating Cranes.  There were thousands of them and they were very skittish so you couldn't get very close.

The boys found some antique farm equipment to play on.

The girls hung out with Rebecca by one of the barns we sat next to.

While there checking out the birds there was a nice wind so we thought we would try flying some kites. It was our first time flying this type of kite that you can steer; we all had so much fun.

Here is Rebecca flying her kite.

Rainer and I looking like twins.

Katri introspectively looking into the distance...

We got to spend a lot of time with the kids while they were doing their school work.  Here they were showing Rebecca their animal habitat project.  I helped with some math problems and Rebecca helped with biology.  We also shared a lot about Romania and what it is like there.

The family took us out to eat at a cafe in town where Lea works.  We had a wonderful salad and then had some wonderful desserts! The two in front of us were gluten free and they were all delicious!

We went on a hike in the Kvarken Archipelago, a beautiful area on the sea where the land is rising out of the sea.  New islands are being created over time as the pressure left from glaciers is relieved.

The natural beauty here is stunning, and you can see that we also had wonderful weather.

We roasted hot dogs and then made some s'mores.

We had such a wonderful time with the Lorenz's, we truly felt like we were part of the family.  It was hard to say goodbye but we know we will be thinking about and praying for one another.