Fall Update

Mark & Rebecca Essenburg Fall Update

Family and Friends, We hope that this update finds you well!  It is has been a little over a year since we returned home from being on the mission field in Romania for five years.  Oh how time flies!  God has led us and richly blessed us in so many ways, we basically had to start over from scratch and let God put the pieces together for us.  These are just some of the ways he blessed and provided: We were able to live with different family and friends for the whole year God provided a very reliable car which was all paid for by generous gifts God led us to a new ministry, making the first connections within a month of being home God provided a great old house which we have been able to restore to beauty with lots of help and hardly any outside labor God has given us many new friends and a wonderful new church family God has provided support that has kept us and our ministry going We could go on and on, praise God for taking care of us and for unfolding his plan for us over this past year.  We are really thankful for all of you as well, we have felt overwhelming love and support that has made what could have been a very hard transition go very smoothly.  Not to say that it's always been easy and that we don't miss our kids in Romania, but we know we are where God wants us to be.  Now we would like to share just a few stories that highlight where God has been at work recently.  Thanks for reading and we hope that you enjoy this update!   God is at work here!   Working at Gold Avenue Church in Grand Rapids has helped us find the answer to a very interesting question: is West Michigan a mission field similar to any other place (like Romania for instance)?  After all, there are so many churches, Christian Schools and religious organizations in the area and many people consider this Michigan’s Bible Belt.  The answer is a resounding YES!  It has been really exciting to see and be a part of how God is working here at Gold Avenue Church!  Here are some examples: We have had around 15-20 neighborhood kids coming to our middle school youth group called GoldRush.  This week we learned about the Old Testament Law and how Jesus came to fulfill the law and give us a new covenant.  We shared the gospel of repentance, forgiveness and salvation (through grace by faith).  When asked if they had heard this before only around half raised their hands!  Then at the end when asked if anyone wanted to help close in prayer, Kayla volunteered (she was one that hadn’t raised her hand).  She began: “Dear God - wait do we say God or Lord?" …then she proceeded to pray. What a beautiful thing, one of God's children learning who he is and how to pray!    As we have been praying for revival and transformation of our neighborhood we have seen God working in amazing ways.  One Sunday morning our pastors felt an overwhelming sense that many people in the church were facing despair in their lives.  So instead of preaching the planned sermon they preached about how deep God’s love is for us, especially when we are hurting.  When they asked the congregation if anyone was feeling despair in their lives, a half dozen people raised their hands and we had an extended prayer time for them.  One of them later shared that they had been contemplating suicide the night before, and barely made it to church, but in coming had been very blessed.   We are so thankful that we have the privilege to be a part of this ministry and that we have opportunities to help and learn even beyond our children and youth sphere.  We have come to realize that the need is great and the workers are few.  Would you please pray that God would raise up more people to help in ministry here, we need help in just about any area that you can think of!

Support Update: God has richly blessed us as we took a step of faith to be support raising missionaries working at Gold Avenue Church.  Through many generous gifts we are nearly fully funded through the end of this year, praise God.  Looking forward however, we only have commitments for 67% of our budget for next year, so we would like to ask that you prayerfully consider how you might be led to partner with us. Follow this link for details, thanks! After months of work we finally completed enough work on our house to be able to move in!  We still have lots of projects which we are chipping away at but it feels so good to have a place of our own again.  We are so thankful for everyone who has helped with our house and for all those that helped us move! Prayer Points:    Pray for God’s blessings on the kids and youth involved in our current ministries -  Children’s Worship and GoldRush Pray for continued leading and guidance for new ministry possibilities - High School Youth Group and Reading Program are a couple on our radar Pray for God’s continued providence in our lives and for more support partnerships Pray for more workers not only at our church but at all churches Pray against spiritual attacks may that come as we advance God's Kingdom