April & May Prayer Update

Hey everyone, I am really sorry that we totally missed sending out an April update.  So many fun and new things are going on, and we are excited to share with you!  We are so thankful for all of you and your prayers, and also for your support in other ways.

Health Update:  We have been pretty healthy of late, and have been sleeping much better in general.  We are so thankful for this, it is amazing what a great night sleep will do!  I had a check up recently (Mark) and I decided that I should address my breathing issue that I believe started while staying in moldy places in Romania.  My doctor has me on some allergy medicine to see if that takes care of it, since it seems to be an ongoing reaction.  But since starting that I’ve felt more congested, it seems to be doing the opposite of what it is supposed to.  I am going to talk to the doctor about it to see if a different medicine would be better, and I am also seeking prayer and asking for the Lord to heal this.  Please pray for clarity (pun intended) and healing.

Last week Raelyn and I were playing on the couch, tickling, and she launched herself into the arm of the couch, which gave her a big gash above her eye.  It was very deep so we took her to the ED at the children’s hospital where her doctor is also.  She ended up with 3 stitches, she did really great through the whole thing, which took 3.5 hours because at one point a major trauma patient came in which required the attention of all of the doctors.  We prayed from our room for the people affected.  By now she is healing well and the stitches are supposed to be coming out on their own.  We are thankful that nothing worse happened, and are asking for the Lord to minimize the financial impact this visit may have.

Church Position Transition: I am preparing for my transition to be the Director of Outreach and Enfolding.  I and the other two people who are coming on staff will be commissioned into our new roles on May 19 during our worship service at 10:00.  There are many exciting things happening, and lots of prayer to discern where the Lord is leading.  I am forming a team to lead our summer outreach activities, which we usually call prayer walking or listening evangelism.  We will go out each week in teams of two and talk with and pray with our neighbors.  I am also giving leadership to another different neighborhood outreach ministry.  We are following our approach to ministry in which we sense Jesus leading, pray for discernment, ask Him to show us steps we can take, then take steps in faith, and continue to pray as something new is birthed.

Our worship leader/coordinator has also recently stepped down so we are each pitching in to help fill that void, namely in the coordinating part.  We are praying for God to show us how he will fill that spot for our congregation.

CYM:  As I make this transition I am praying for more help with our children and youth ministries, ideally there would be a volunteer coordinator that would be able to help with the running of these ministries.  There will be a lot on my plate through this transition so praying for  God to send/call people to help with these two areas!

In our youth group we have had some disrespect and teasing crop up recently so we’ve met as a leadership team and have a plan to address it.  Unfortunately many of the kids who we’ve been having problems with are very inconsistent so it’s hard to make any headway.  Please pray that Jesus works in their hearts to make them more like him, to give them love for others and respect for the leaders.

Also, we are gearing up to go to camp in North Carolina again with some of our youth group.  I will be co-directing again, and we have a couple apprentice directors who will be working with us to spread the load around a little.  We have a great team forming and are praying for the God to call the youth that need to come.  The topic is the Gifts of the Spirit.

Prayer Ministry:  Prayer ministry is still really busy, we’re seeing many people experiencing healing at emotional, physical and spiritual levels.  It is really exciting to see the Lord work, and also really busy scheduling for Rebecca.

Family: For many many years we’ve had adoption on our hearts.  We were tremendously blessed last year when we were able to adopt Raelyn.  We’ve been wondering about God’s timing for next steps and on Easter our pastor played a video of a family who were adopting a boy from Columbia.  We both felt moved and sensed that it’s time to start.  We had a call today with an adoption agency, we are looking at international and are exploring the options.  Would you please pray for God’s leading and blessings, on us and the to be adopted child, and for his provision of the finances that we’ll need to do that.

Vacation: Soon we’ll head up north to the Leelanau area for a week long vacation!  We are really excited, and have some planning left to do, even as it is coming up so quickly.  Please pray for time to prepare and for a wonderfully restful time.

Music:  I’ve been really enamored by the music of the hammered dulcimer, and have recently purchased one so that we can learn to play it.  I’ve been praying for a special gift to play this so that it can be a blessing to us and others.  Thanks for praying along with us about that!

Thanks again for praying!  Please let us know if there are ways we can pray for you!
Mark, Rebecca & Raelyn

PS, enjoy some pictures!

March 2019 Prayer Update

Hey everyone, happy spring!  Well I know I shouldn’t be too optimistic but with all the sunshine we’ve had and nicer temps it sure is nice to know that the worst of the winter is behind us.  We are so thankful for all of you and your prayers, and also for your support in other ways.  We hope that this update finds you well and remember that if there is anything that you need prayer for please let us know, we’d love to reciprocate.

Health Update:  Raelyn’s teeth seem to finally be in!  She slept well for a few nights before she caught a cold and then wasn’t sleeping again because of that.  Rebecca caught it at the same time.  I thought I’d escaped it but came down with it about a week and a half ago, right after they were done with it.  It’s still hanging on to me but I’m feeling better each day.  We’ve enjoyed some full nights of sleep and WOW, what a difference that makes!  Praise Jesus!  Raelyn seems now to be struggling with another cold or allergies, we’re not sure which, but it’s not too bad thankfully.  Thanks for all of your prayers, we are hoping that this continues now for a long time.

Church Position Transition:  I’ve always had a heart for outreach and when we came to Gold Ave Church we knew that the harvest was ripe here in this neighborhood.  We started off working mainly with the children and youth, hence my title of Director of Children and Youth Ministries.  These ministries have been very fruitful and blessed over the years.  I have enjoyed also doing some neighborhood outreach and prayer for the neighbors, and over the last year have been feeling a shift in my calling more towards this.  I also have been feeling drawn to improve how we connect with visitors and how we help people become a part of our church family, from serving to finding opportunities to grow spiritually.  I’ve been discerning this with the pastors and we have really sensed the Lord leading.  Therefore I will soon be transitioning to be the Director of Outreach and Enfolding.  We have two others who have been in a similar discernment process, and they will both also be coming on as Urban Missionaries, one as Pastor of Care and Connection and the other as Director of Spiritual Growth and Communication.  Together we three will form the Worship and Care Team, under which the children and youth ministries will be.  We are laying the foundations for being an equipping church and we feel like we are on the verge of an amazing harvest, so we want to be ready!  I am excited for this shift and where the Lord is leading, and ask for your prayers for continued wisdom and discernment as we go in this direction.  (we are working on our job descriptions, already discerning new ministries, etc so we do need lots of wisdom!)

CYM:  As I make this transition I am praying for more help with our children and youth ministries, they need some administrative leadership so that I can focus on my new initiatives.  I have been working with the teams for a while now to empower them to function without much intervention from myself, so that is great.  I also plan to continue in our Middle/High School youth group as it still encompasses both areas of my ministry of outreach and enfolding.  Would you please continue to pray for more workers in these ministries, and specifically a few people who would like to and are able to help administratively?

Youth group continues to go well, we have seen the youth open up so much lately, we’re going through the book of Mark and asking some very deep questions.  We’ve prayed for healing and for their spiritual growth in the last few weeks and they’ve been experiencing answered prayers!  We continue to face difficulties too with their schedules and with different challenges, including clear enemy interference, so we ask that you pray for protection, wisdom and love in this ministry.

Leadership Development Retreat:  We had asked for prayers for this special weekend that took place about a month ago.  Raelyn had a great time with grandparents and slept well, praise Jesus.  We enjoyed the retreat, we were also very challenged to grow by what we learned.  The topic was the Eneagram, which is a “personality type” tool which focuses on how we are each created in the image of God and how we can invite him to work in our areas of brokenness.  It was very helpful to identify and understand why we act and react how we do, what areas we need healing, and how to invite the Lord into that.  We have both been growing much since then, we are thankful that Jesus continues his healing work to this day!  We pray for more healing to happen, as we move towards wholeness in our relationship as a married couple, our relationships with Jesus, and with others.

Prayer Ministry:  Things have been going well with prayer ministry, but it seems like since the Polar Vortex, things have really picked up!  Rebecca has been scheduling all of our healing prayer appointments and our prayer partners, and it is a lot!  There are lots of moving pieces with so many people’s schedules and challenges of finding the time.  We are thankful that we have a great prayer team and that they are excited to see more people receive healing and deliverance.  Please pray for wisdom and perseverance for Rebecca as she continues to be busy doing this, and also for all those who are waiting a while for their appointments because we have so many in waiting.

Thank you so much for praying.  We desperately need prayer coverage and as we continue to step out onto the front lines we need the armor and protection from the enemy’s attacks.  Our church seeks this too as many area churches are looking to us as an example of how the Lord can and does work today.  Thank you for being a part of this awesome work!

February Prayer Update

Hi All, coming at you with another prayer update… we survived the polar vortex and have been enjoying temps that aren’t dangerous to go outside.  It’s been an interesting few weeks, with having to cancel youth group a couple times due to weather and trying to work out who goes out when because one of our cars has winter tires and the other one has not great all seasons.  

Besides the weather our main battle has been one of fatigue due to continued bad sleeping for us all.  Rebecca bears the brunt of this though because when Raelyn wakes up in the middle of the night (medicine or not, even with lots of prayers) she only will go back to sleep if Rebecca takes her into another room to sleep on a different bed.  Her last tooth is coming in but it’s been moving so slow I think that glaciers move faster!  Also some of the time Raelyn is refusing to nap, we’ve had to remove all of the furniture from her room so she doesn’t climb on things and take everything out of her dressers.  The situation is stressful for us, we know we’re not the only ones who have gone through this, it’s just really difficult!  We desire prayers for rest, peace and unity, and for good sleep to finally come!

Speaking of sleep, we are going on a retreat soon for a leadership development class that we’ve been taking at our church.  Raelyn will be staying with Grandparents for the weekend, so we ask for prayer for her sleeping at their house without us.  Please Lord!  We’d also love great sleep, even in a different place which usually makes it harder.  Please pray for a nice time as we deepen relationships and Raelyn enjoys staying with Meme and Grandpa.

Going back a bit, my preaching went really well a couple weeks ago.  The night before we had a big leak in our roof as snow was melting, thankfully we were able to get into the attic and remove the icicles and clear out soaked insulation, so that the damage to our living room ceiling wasn’t too bad.  We felt it was a distraction from what I was doing the next day so we tried to not make too big of a deal of it.  I think that the Lord did wonderful things through the sermon and am glad he gave me the words.  One person afterwards told me that the sermon and some scriptures read by others during prayer time wove together a theme that she had been sensing from the Lord that week.  She said she could see that I had a bright light shining through me while I was preaching, and thats really awesome.  A few others were challenged to make some changes in order to deepen their relationship with Jesus.  If you didn’t get a chance to hear it, you can listen to it here: Acts 19:8-20  Thanks so much for praying!

After that we went to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple days to try to relax after a busy start to the year.  We really enjoyed it, it was our first time and Raelyn loved it a lot.  I’ve attached some pictures at the end.  It was relaxing except for bedtime and no naps of course, but it was fun enough to distract from that.  

Looking ahead, not much is different from last time, it seems like a season of catching up and resting is needed though.  Still trying to discern things for summer ministry and ministry direction in general, as well as if/when we might want to adopt another child, spring house projects, etc… lots on our minds.  We’d appreciate prayer for all this, as well as for protection from the enemy’s attacks, for unity and the joy and peace of the Lord to reign in our hearts.  Thanks so much!

Love,

Mark, Rebecca & Raelyn

January Prayer Update

Hi all, it’s barely January anymore, but I’ll still call this the January prayer update!  As I write this we’re finally experiencing winter in all it’s glory, all I see is white out of every window, and still negative temps!  January has flown by at what feels like a breakneck pace, which has probably been exaggerated by a constant lack of sleep!  Yes, Raelyn has been having trouble sleeping all month save for a few days here and there, she has been getting her 2 year old molars, one at a time and each seems to take about a month to come in!  So we’ve felt like we’re in a fog quite often, yet still having to live life and work and serve the Lord.  

Not only have we have had our ups and downs throughout the month, last week felt like we were under spiritual attack, which was pretty cleverly disguised so we only discern it after it’s been going on for a while.  I’ve been working on writing a sermon and we’ve been continuing to try to listen to the next steps that God has for us in many areas.  We’ve also seen the Lord working in amazing ways, like healing my back and blessing conversations with people who need to hear the good news.  So it makes sense that the enemy wants to take us out and bring us down.  Most of our church staff have been experiencing this to some extent or another, so I ask for prayer for protection and relief, and for the Holy Spirit to empower us to stand firm.

We have continued to enjoy watching Raelyn grow though, so it’s not all bad!  She is really funny and likes to goof around and roughhouse, she like so ride horsey and play hide and seek.  We’ve enjoyed going to the public museum although the Dinosaurs moved and roared so they were scary, but she loves the carousel.  Raelyn is really into counting: 1, 7, 8, 5, 9… she has the numbers but just needs to get the order down.  She also loves to repeat things and sing too, she’s learned songs that we sing before bed and the other night I taught her to say “Jesus is Lord.”  It is a really fun time and minus the sleep deprivation, things are going really well.

I will be preaching this week Sunday so I’d like to ask for prayer coverage for that also.  I am preaching on Acts 19:8-20 and focusing on remaining in Jesus as the source of life and the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am contrasting that to those who were not connected to Jesus and had bad results.  I will be giving a challenge to commit or recommit lives to the Lord, and this is coming on the heels of last week’s sermon where we were encouraged to be prayed over to receive the empowering of the Spirit, as did the believers in Ephesus.  I am excited about the sermon, and am still working on it after having given it to the pastors and staff yesterday as practice.  Anyone who wants to come is invited as well, church starts at 10am on Sunday at 49 Gold Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504.  Pray also for the weather to cooperate!

Ministry here at Gold continues to go well and as I mentioned we are seeing great fruit as we pray for revival in our church, neighborhood and world.  This month Rebecca is working on scheduling a record number of Healing Prayer Appointments, I’ve been involved in some recently where we saw Jesus bring healing and freedom to deep inner wounds.  It is so exciting to see Him set captives free, bind up broken hearts, and bring the kingdom to earth.  Our Prayer Partner ministry has been busy lately as well, praying for people after the church services.  In addition to praying for strengthening and encouragement we’ve seen healings and freedom com in those short times as well.

The Children’s Worship team has also met a few times to work on improving our ministry to the 3-5 year olds, even as we still need more people to help so that we can re-open our 1-4th grade class.  We’ve had some newcomers in our GoldRush middle/high school youth group and have seen amazing fruit as leaders are learning to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and students are meeting the Lord and confessing sins.  We’ve had a couple older students express interest in continuing to help after they graduate so we are encouraging them to attend church more regularly and focus on their relationships with Jesus.  

With all that is going on we are still fervently praying for more workers, as there is a huge harvest here but we need more workers!  We already have many people who are very involved but we don’t want to burn people out so we need more help.  As we continue to seek the Lord’s will and try to keep up with where he is bringing us, we continue to invite more people to support us in prayer and join us in ministry.  If you know of anyone who might be interested, would you please let us know?

Thanks so much for standing with us in prayer and for lifting us up to the Father, in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We really appreciate you and all that you do for us!

Love,

Mark, Rebecca & Raelyn

Church Christmas Celebration

Merry Christmas! We recently had a Christmas Celebration at our church (Gold Avenue Church) and I wanted to share with you some fun pictures and the story. I wrote in the script we used - our children and youth acted out the story of Jesus' birth and we celebrated with joyous singing of carols. Everyone who came was very blessed and the presence of God was there, reminding us of his love for each and every one of us!

I got to be the lead shepherd, because the sheep and other shepherds needed someone to lead them!

I opened with an introduction and a word of prayer, and then we began...

Scene One: The King Is Coming

Everything was ready. The moment God had been waiting for was here at last! God was coming to help his people, just as He promised in the beginning.

But how would He come? What would He be like? What would He do?

God sent an angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a girl named Mary who was engaged to marry a man named Joseph.

The angel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” You will give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

God was sending a baby into the world to be the King and the Rescuer, the one that God’s people were waiting for. And, for nine months, as the baby grew inside Mary, she and Joseph waited for their son to be born. God was coming to live among them. For this reason, He would be called, Emmanuel, God who came to live with us.

Scene Two: The King Is Born

When Mary was close to having her baby, she and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem, the town where King David was from. But, when they arrived, every home, every room, and every bed was taken. The only place that was left for them to stay was a stable among the animals.

In the quiet of the night, God gave the world his wonderful gift. The baby that would change the world was born. It was God’s own son.

Mary and Joseph wrapped up the baby in clothes, they made a soft bed of straw, and laid him in a manger. They gazed in wonder at him, marveling into the night at their son who was tender and sweet, holy and meek.

Scene Three: The Angels & Shepherds Worship The King

The same night that the baby was born, God placed a star in the sky that shown brighter than all the rest. The star was placed right above the stable where the baby laid as a way to light up the darkness and to show people the way to him.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of angels appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” The shepherds quickly traveled to find the baby and just like Mary and Joseph, they marveled at the newborn king. It was a glorious night!

Scene Four: Three Wise Men Visit The King

Now there were three very wise and important men that lived far far away from Bethlehem. But they saw the same star that God put in the sky when Jesus was born. They knew it was a sign and that a baby king had been born.

They traveled on their camels across endless deserts, up steep mountains, and into deep valleys, constantly following the star that would point them to where the baby was. When they finally arrived to where the star was, they rejoiced with great joy! And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him as they knew He was the true King that God had sent.

Each wise men offered their most precious gifts to the baby. They gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But, the greatest gift of all was that the Prince of Heaven and Almighty God had become a helpless baby. This King hadn’t come to be the boss, but He came to serve and to love.

Song: Noel (Dance by Sarah) Link: Noel by Lauren Daigle

Scene Five: The King Came To Rescue

As Jesus grew up, everything He did shared God’s love. While nothing about him seemed like a king, with no riches, no royal robes, and no earthly crown, Jesus’s words and actions showed the true power and love of God.

Jesus came to the world to rescue, save, heal, and deliver. There was so much brokenness in the world and Jesus came to mend the brokenness with His grace and His peace.

Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead to life, brought freedom to the captive, and silenced the storm with one word. Jesus multiplied meals, became friends with sinners, and washed his own friends’ feet. King Jesus brought hope to a weary world and sweet hymns of joy to those who experienced His love.

Close: Receive The King

From that time until now, Jesus is continuing to make the world new. Now and for all eternity, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, receiving praise and worship with words that say, “This is our King! This is our Rescuer! All Honor and Glory forever and ever! And Jesus invites us today to open our hearts to receive Him as the Great and Loving King. As the song lyrics of “Joy To the World” says, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King and let every heart prepare Him room.” Let’s pray.

Bonus picture of me with two precious little lambs, at our one and only practice the Saturday before!  Merry Christmas!

Finland and Romania Trip 2018

Do you remember what you did two months ago? Maybe? Well we were on our big European vacation! We started out packing up and eating donuts to find our flight was cancelled! After getting that worked out and getting new train tickets, we were on our way. On the way to Finland Raelyn did really well. Those long flights make even us adults a little cranky. And then we almost didn't get into the right part of our train to Vaasa. Thankfully the man Mark was sitting by helped us realize we had to move because the train was going to separate and go into two different directions.  By that time our luggage seemed so heavy, but we made it! Rainer and the boys picked us up and we had a late dinner with the family, like 9pm which is 2pm here, so more than 24 hours after we left our house.

Rainer and Mark, a friendship forged more than 15 years ago!

Our jet lag wasn't too bad, but Raelyn had a hard time adjusting to the time change and often woke up at night needing to play a bit before going back to bed. She did really well though, once we accepted her inability to sleep. The Lorenz family helped us feel right at home and on vacation! They did everything for us except chew our food ;) It had been 4 years since we saw them last, but besides the obvious growth in the "children," we reconnected so fast and it was like only a few months had passed.

They left their trampoline up for Raelyn, and she loved it so much! It was great to have an activity for her when she just needed to get out some energy or crankiness. She loved playing with everyone, but especially Kalle. He has braces and she loved his teeth jewelry. Almost as much as she loved going up the stairs. It was so nice that we didn't have to chase her every single moment!

We took a couple of nice long walks around their house in Finland. Finland is the same latitude as Alaska so it is very beautiful and has many forests. We were able to have many good conversations as well. It was nice to slow down, enjoy tea, conversations and try the licorice ice cream!

Lea, Katri, Rainer, Mia. 15 years ago when we got married, the two then young girls were so excited to come and see my dress. They still remember our wedding! 

The whole family L-R (bottom): Lea, Mark, Raelyn, Rebecca, Katri, Rainer 

top: Silas, Lasse, Mia, Kalle

We are thankful that we were all able to be together! Lasse goes to school out of town and Lea is away at college, but they were both able to come home for the weekend. We enjoyed our stay with them immensely.

After our long weekend in Finland, we flew to Romania. We arrived in Romania already adjusted to the time, so that was a nice bonus! We were able to be very flexible with our schedule and join h2h activities when it worked for us. We stayed at an airbnb in the city. This was nice because it allowed us to invite guests to our place and have it feel private. 

Raelyn the acrobat! She did well, and we even managed at least a little nap every day!

Our first full day we went to the orphanage which we had worked in since our first trip in 2007. Things have changed a lot since then, mostly the kids. Those who were young then are now about ready to age out and leave. Also the foster care system has grown a lot and many of the kids are now in families or back with their own families. So there were less kids and different kids there on this trip. It kind of felt like starting over, save a few kids we know really well. One of the reasons we really wanted to make it there this year is that our sweet little Alina is now 17! She finished school at 10th grade and is just waiting. We don't know where she will end up, so we really wanted to see her.

Raelyn had a blast with the kids who wanted to play with her.

 These girls kept calling her Cadence. Cadence was there with her family in the summer :)

The second full day we were able to see two of the young adults who made a big impact on us. Elena, who wrote us the letter in 2008 that made us prayerfully consider coming full time to Romania. And Marius. And if you know us at all, you know who he is! He was able to stay with us part of the time and it was so good! We felt like we were able to regain that close feeling of friendship and he got to meet and be loved by Raelyn. She had seen Marius on video chat before and she just attached to him from the start. It was like she understood that he is a part of our family.

 She loved to sit on his lap and feed him. Well, she loved anything and everything with him.

 Elena. We saw her a couple times and had a nice time having desserts and walking through the city. She is very dear to us and we were thankful for the conversations we had.

We went to another orphanage we had worked a little at. We also went down to the boy's transition house for the opening of the girls & boys transition programs. We went a saw very briefly an older lady from that town who was always telling us we had to have children. She was so happy to meet Raelyn. She depends on her grown children for financial support. We may complain here about social security, but we are really fortunate and have much to be thankful for. 

We also saw Florin & Ramona and were able to here about their active involvement in their church. It was refreshing to hear about young adults eager to cooperate with the Holy Spirit! 

We also spent time with Jen & Jenny, Cristi & Amy, Tom & Gila and others we know well from the five years we served in Romania. We have many, many more pictures and stories. In short, Romania still has that home feeling. We still love seeing our kids, although most are in their 20's now! 

Our animal lover

Oh yeah, we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in Romania. We did go out to a nice restaurant and had a very romantic time...with our toddler :) It really wasn't an after thought, being with the kids we love and miss deeply was very special.

 Until next time...praying for all of these precious kids!