Praying for Momentum

A lot has happened in the last 3 months.  I will give you the highlights month by month!  Going forward, I am planning to give you an update once a month.:)

NOVEMBER


We had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving at our apartment with a couple of international students.  A girl from Denmark and a guy from Germany.  I cooked a traditional thanksgiving meal and they loved it!!!  It was a beautiful day here in Florida so we went on a walk and played games with them.  It was a great day all around!!!  Unfortunately, both of them went back to their countries but we hope to stay in touch with them. :)

DECEMBER

We were super excited to welcome Lucy to Florida to stay and Tish to visit and tour the city!  We had been praying for Lucy and we saw God worked all the way through to get her here.  She stayed with us for a few weeks and she has become a part of our family.  She recently moved out to her own apartment, excited for her to expand the net but we miss her at home. 

We have made a connection with a family whose daughter was in Nykki's soccer team.  Their names are John and Mariela and their daughter Isabela.  We had them over for dinner and shared with them that we are here to plant a church.  They are not ready to engage yet but we are continuing to love on their family and show Christ through our lives.  We are planning to get together with them often to build the trust and to share Christ with them.:)


Delivering Christmas cookies to our neighbors.

 The week before christmas, Lucy, Syera and I baked some cookies to pass out to our neighbors in the apartment complex.  It was an opportunity to meet them face to face and we also took the opportunity to invite teenagers to our place for a christmas party.  We had a teen christmas party at our place and we had  teens show up.  We played games and ate snacks.  It was very encouraging for our kids and also a good connection for us with the parents.

Soon after that, we rented a van and drove to Kansas city to spend christmas and new years with our family and to attend the Missions conference at Midtown.  We were encouraged by family and friends.  We were also challenged by the conference in the mission that God has given us hear in Tampa.  We believe God is doing a work here in Tampa and the enemy is well aware of it so he won't give us a break.  We had a couple of unplanned incidents on our trip.  I got in a fender bender while in Kansas city.  It was not what we wanted and financially we knew it wasn't going to be good.  God has a way to try our faith that we sometimes don't understand, so, one wasn't enough, we had a second accident on our way back from Kansas City. In over 15 years Mark or myself have not had any accidents at all.  We manage to have two in a period of one week.  These all amounts to great faith and trust in God.  The great news is that nobody was hurt on either accident.  Praise God for what he did and excited to see how he will provide!!!

JANUARY

We had the honor to host Jeremy and Jenn Green and their girls last week.  They are in America during their winter break from China.  We enjoyed spending time with them and encouraging one another.  They will be at Midtown on tuesday January 28th. :)

We came back home after our trip encouraged and ready to keep laboring and being more intentional and bold with people.  The theme for us this year is "Momentum".  We are trusting God to give us spiritual fruit and more team members so our net can expand and touch more people.


Teens at our place.



God has opened doors with the people here in our apartment complex.  We had another get together with the teenagers last week.  We had 7 all together and we announced to them that this week we are starting a bible study.  We are trusting God to bring those that he wants here.  Last Saturday we were invited over for dinner at one of the teen's parents home.  We were there for 6 hours, talking and building relationships.  We also have two other families that we are making investmensts in.  We are planting and we are trusting God to give the growth.

 Lucy has also had great opportunities at her work.  She has been ministering to one of her co-workers, her name is Jenn.  Now that Lucy is at her new apartment, we are asking God to give her more connections there.

The work is great here and we are laboring together by taking steps of obedience and being sensitive to the Spirit.  We know that we plant and God is the only one that can give the increase.  We need lots of prayer from all of you.  Here are some prayer requests that you can be lifting up to God for the mission in Tampa:

1.  Teenagers will come to the bible study and that His Word will change their lives.
2.  The families we are investing in: The Butler's, The Duncan's, Rob, Jenn and kids.
3.  Lucy's co-worker: Jenn
4.  More team members for the Tampa church plant team.
5.  Re-connection with Mike and Katie
6.  Friendships for our kids
7.  Lucy getting settled at her new place, work and city.
8.  Financial provision.
9.  Asking God for person's of peace.

Praises:

1. We have a teen bible study started!
2. Obviously, Lucy got a job!
3. Many connections have been made!
4. We have Lucy here with us to help in this mission!
5. Our kids have had interaction with other kids!
6. Praise God that nobody got hurt in both of our accidents!!!!


Thank you for your prayers!  We are truly dependant on the Lord and we believe he is at work.  Please send us a note if you have questions or just to share with us what God is doing in your life!

The Lord continues to be Faithful!

We love you all :)

Mark, Astrid, Syera, Dylan, Nykki and Lucy