FairHaven Project and Fireworks

It has been almost a month since our last post, and there is a reason... we have been spending all of our free time working on our 96 year old home!  The day after the last post we took possession and immediately started working; getting it ready for us to move in.  This has kept us busy and it seems like time has evaporated.  We will post more about our work there in a later post, since there have been some other cool things going on that we wanted to share about.

We had a group come and help us with landscaping from FairHaven Ministries in Hudsonville.  FairHaven is one of our supporting churches and they offered to send a work crew and the supplies to help us beautify our church grounds.  The group consisted of middle and high school youth who were participating at a camp at FairHaven called Youth Week.

We had a few areas where there were supposed to be flowers but they got overrun with weeds, so the group transformed them...

...into beautiful flower beds.  What an amazing difference!

Here you can see the weeds, they were growing very well there!

This looks a lot better!

Even though our time was short, we were able to share a bit about what God is doing here on the West Side of Grand Rapids.  They also joined us for our weekly prayer meeting where they were challenged to pray for God to work here.  We ate local food for lunch and everyone was amazed by these enormous pizzas from Fratelli's. We enjoyed working with them a lot and our whole church is thankful for their help!

Another thing that we were able to do was go sailing with our friends John and Karen for the fourth of July!

It was a beautiful day and evening!  Since we returned home we had been looking forward to getting out on the boat with John and Karen, it is always a nice relaxing time.

At dusk many boats anchored to see the fireworks.

We had a great view!

It was a very nice time and we are grateful to John and Karen for sharing their holiday with us!

This picture of a moth doesn't really go with anything, but i thought it was so cool!

Lots of things are still going on, many of which we will be writing more about soon.  Would you please continue to pray for the middle school ministry we are gearing up to launch in the beginning of August?  Pray not only for the planning but for God to call many youth to come and to be blessed! Also, please pray for wisdom and discernment about prioritizing house projects and getting them done in a timely manner. Thanks for your prayers!

Kids Games!

Last week we had the privilege of being a part of a VBS program in our neighborhood.  The Bridge Street House of Prayer (BSHOP) put on this VBS at a local school and invited kids in the area to come and learn about God.  

Many kids came and enjoyed the worship, skits, bible lessons, and special classes called Tracks.

 The high school youth group from Caledonia CRC came to help run the program as they learned about the West Side and served there each day.  We served along side of them as small group leaders and were able to share the gospel with many kids who had never heard it before!  This was an eye opening experience as even in Romania most of the kids we worked with had at least heard of Jesus.

We were delighted to teach a special track on the topic of photography. I (Mark) created lessons on the computer using outlines created by Rebecca.  We were able to borrow cameras from another local church so that each child would have their own to use.

Though this class we wanted the kids to learn how to capture the beauty of God's creation in pictures.  We taught simple but important lessons like how to frame the picture, using different types of lighting, and how to take artistic shots.  All of our kids were VERY excited to use the cameras and they did a wonderful job learning to take great pictures!

Here are some of our students.  Below are examples of the pictures that the kids took:

At the end of the week we printed off some of their pictures and had them make a photo collage to take home as a souvenir.  We all really enjoyed working on these and presenting them in front of all of the other kids.  

We had a really great time helping out and are thankful for the partnership that we have with the BSHOP.  We know that many lives were touched, kid learned about Jesus and had a blast doing it.  We pray that the seeds planted will grow and ask God to continue working in the lives of these kids.

We are now looking forward in a few weeks to hosting a middle school arts camp at Gold Ave Church in partnership with the BSHOP.  Kids will be able to learn about many neat things and we will again teach photography.  Would you pray for God to work out the details and to call many youth from the neighborhood to himself?  Thanks for continuing to pray for us and these kids!

Spring 2015 Newsletter God is working in our midst Since beginning to work at Gold Avenue Church on the West Side of Grand Rapids, things have been happening at a breakneck pace. We are thankful to God for how he has been working and hope that the following stories inspire faith and trust in God who guides and provides.

Children's Worship We started our first new ministry at church and it has been a great blessing.  Young children go downstairs during the church service to hear a Bible story, worship, practice listening to what God is saying to them through scripture and to practice praying for each other. One parent recently shared that they are seeing fruit already and greatly encouraged us that God is working through this ministry.  Please pray that God continues to build up the faith of these children and continues to bless this ministry and all those involved. Romania Trip We had the privilege of traveling to Romania to take part in the baptism of one of our closest kids - Marius.  It was such a joy to spend time with him and to witness him publicly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is his Lord.  We also were able to go to many of the places we used to work and to see the kids there.  We were greeted with many hugs, kisses, and tears of joy for the very short but sweet reunion.  We enjoyed seeing the kids again so much! Please pray that God will strengthen Marius' faith and help him get through the trials he faces.  Pray that God will watch over all of the kids we love in Romania and that they will be safe and well cared for. New (Old) House Since returning to Michigan we have been living with family and friends.  Even though it has been a huge help to us, we have been asking God to provide us with a place of our own.  After only three weeks of searching we found a wonderful 1919 bungalow with five bedrooms and lots of character.  We are in the process of buying it and are excited to move in soon.  We are praying for help with furniturebecause we don't have much left since going to Romaina. If you or someone you know has gently used furniture that you have been meaning to donate somewhere, please let us know. Please pray that we will be able to move in soon and that living there will bless us and the neighborhood.

Support Update: God has richly blessed us by providing in amazing ways.  In just a few short months we have reached 66% of our needed monthly support. Added with one time gifts we are nearly fully funded for the rest of this year! Please pray that God will raise up more partners so that we can reach 100% of our long term support commitments. Other Happenings:  We are planning to start a Middle School Ministry soon as an outreach to the kids of the neighborhood.  We will also be partnering with other local organizations for several VBS Programs and Block Parties throughout the summer.  We will run a Summer Reading Program for elementary students.  We have already been blessed with some great volunteer teams but there is still a great need for many more workers, especially in Nursery and Sunday School ministries.  Please pray for God to send more workers, and prayerfully consider if He may be calling you to come and use your gifts with us at Gold Ave Church. Please check out a list of ministry opportunities here: Ministry Opportunities List Thank you so much for your love, support, and prayers.  God is doing so much and we are glad to be a part of his work; we trust him to lead each step of the way.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people who desire to build us up and support us, and we pray that God richly blesses you as well! With Love, Mark & Rebecca Essenburg

Special Romania Trip

When we left our home in Romania last fall we told our kids: We will be back to visit.  It wasn't a question of if, it was a question of when.  It was important for them to hear that so that they knew that our leaving wasn't final, they would see us again.  It was also important for us because they had been our kids for the last five years of our lives and it was very hard to leave them.  Having the hope of staying connected and seeing them again lessened the sting of leaving them and starting over again.

Marius, on the left, is one of our closest "kids" (really a young adult) in Romania.  We have known him for years and did a lot together while we were there.  Like most of the kids we worked with in Romania, Marius went through a lot as a kid and ended up at the orphanage.  Things have been hard and he has gone through a lot of pain and hurts.  As our relationship grew so did his desire to learn about God, so our last year there we studied the book of John and we saw changes taking place in his life.

After we left we continued talking with Marius and continued to pray for him.  Others who were still there continued to work with him and mentor him, and even though there were and still are many ups and downs, he decided to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized!  This was something we couldn't miss so we bought some airline tickets (about three weeks before hand!) and headed over.

We were able to spend much of our week in Romania with Marius.  We spent a lot of time hanging out, doing devotions, talking about questions he had, and ministering to him when he struggled.  

We are so thankful for how God works in people's lives and that he gave Marius the gift of saving faith.  How joyous it was to watch Marius profess his faith in Jesus in front of the whole church and be baptized.  Would you please join us in praying for Marius and all of the others we worked with who have taken this step of faith?  Pray that they will be able to overcome their past and live into their identity as children of God who are loved by him no matter what.  Pray against the attacks of the enemy as he tries to drag them down however he can.  Pray that they will minister to others and that God will be glorified through their lives.

We spent the rest of our time visiting kids that we know at various orphanages.  It was so good to see our kids again, they occupy such a large spot in our heart and we missed them so much.

We led our youth group again by sharing the story of how God has led us since we have been back in America.  We also talked about hearing God and knowing his will for our lives.

We surprised many of the kids who didn't know we were coming for our visit.  It was great to see their faces and hear the squeals of joy, but best of all to enjoy the big hugs they gave us!

We praise and thank God for giving us the opportunity to see our kids again!  Please continue to pray for them, that they will be well taken care of and that they will come to know God!