Ministry and Location Change and Summer Camp News

Ministry and Location Change (Important update from Jim)

This is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The past few weeks I have awoken each morning quoting Psalm 118:24. No matter what the day may hold it realigns my confidence in the LORD who holds me fast. We are in the midst of our busy summer season. Five interns, four Americans and one Slovak, are serving with excellence alongside us as we have taken part in a week of school visits and completed our first of three evangelistic English camps. We have jumped back into ministry wholeheartedly here in eastern Germany after our one year exile from the country to remain compliant with the Social Security Agreement between Germany and the USA. 

Upon our return Josiah Venture leadership approached Lina and me asking us to step into a role of providing missionary member care for the KAM team, Josiah Venture’s flagship national organization in the Czech Republic. In the process of seeking the Lord, He is going before us and opening the way. We are excited for this opportunity. There are some 75 members on that team and we are being asked to join them to provide needed shepherding and care. Lina holds a Master’s Degree in Missionary Member Care and currently serves on the JV Member Care team. Just this last weekend the Lord provided a flat in a house with a large garden. This will mean a move to Ostrava, Czech Republic in mid-September.

Second floor of the house where we will live in the Czech Republic.

What does that mean for Josiah Venture in eastern Germany? Dave Patty, Josiah Venture President, and I have stepped up our search for a German national country leader. We have been meeting a number of German leaders in search for whom the Lord has prepared in advance to take Josiah Venture Germany forward. As part of this process we have asked Matthias Richter to come on half-time to begin doing youth leader training here in the eastern part of Germany. Matthias has such a heart for youth and volunteer youth leaders. We are excited to have him on board with us. 

 In the interim, I am being asked to maintain the relationships we have established in Germany, to include periodic in-person visits to this region. Dave Patty is taking point on strategy and vision. Matthias will begin doing training seminars. 

 The harvest here is plentiful and the workers are few. Would you pray with us that the Lord of the Harvest would raise up a German national JV Country Leader. We are both excited about what God is taking us to in the Czech Republic and saying good-bye well to all of our relationships here in Leipzig. God has and continues to open doors in this region and we are seeing His movement advance. 

 Thank you for standing with us in prayer and financial support. God is so very faithful and we are rejoicing in all that He is doing here.

Summer Camp News

We are so thankful for our 5 Summer Interns! Because the schools have such a late summer vacation start in Germany, last week we were able helped with a camp in Slovenia. Over 50% of the campers were Ukrainian who are just learning the Slovene Language and understand little or no English. This led to some unique challenges, such as double translating of every talk and instruction. The first two days were pretty discouraging and overwhelming, but we had a great group of camp leaders that were willing to be flexible and change many big pieces of the camp to better fit the campers. God truly used this, and by the end of camp, many of the campers began to be open to talking about, and even the possibility of believing in God!

This week-end we are doing an outreach to Ukrainian teenagers here in Leipzig - going kayaking, having games and a bbq in a local park, and doing a big in-city scavenger hunt! Pray that many young people will come and that we can invite them to the camp with our Leipzig church and get them connected with our youth group community!

We have two more camps before our interns leave on August 17: July 25-30 is our camp in Brandenburg, near Berlin, and August 5-12 is our camp with our church here in Leipzig. We have a Short Term Team coming from Knott Avenue Christian Church in Anaheim, CA coming to help out with our Leipzig camp!

Update on Emma

Emma continues to be fragile yet resilient! We are so thankful for her medical team, but mostly for her incredible parents. Nate and Caitlin are continually so positive in every situation. When told that Emma will probably have to wear glasses, Caitlin said, "Oh, that's ok. Nate and I both wear glasses." When told that they will have to have an appointment in August to see if she has any long-term hearing loss, Caitlin said, "Oh, that's ok. She can wear a hearing aid and Nate and I have been wanting to learn ASL (American Sign Language) anyway." They continually amaze me with their attitudes toward "everything Emma"! Please, continue to pray for her heart, that she will soon be able to get off of oxygen, and that she will be able to get off of her feeding tube. She is such a delightful and happy baby, but no wonder with such delightful and positive parents! God has truly blessed us!

Of course, if we have a picture of our precious Emma, we must also include one of Noah!

Prayer Points:

• Pray for our Ukrainian outreach July 15-17
• Pray for our Brandenburg Camp July 25-30
• Pray for our Leipzig Camp August 5-12
• Pray for us as we will be packing up and moving to Czech over the next 2 months (We plan move to by September 15)
• Pray for continued healing and health for Emma

Please, let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers!

Back in Germany and Emma Grace

Leipzig 

Yes! We are back in Leipzig! It is so good to be home. We have reconnected with people every day, had youth group twice, and been to church twice! I am reminded again about how blessed we are to be here and with all the incredible relationships! 

Recent Game Night at Youth Group

Ukraine

Josiah Venture is very immersed in helping with the refugee situation. As of Saturday, March 26, Josiah Venture has sent 38 buses into Ukraine with over 92 tons of food, medical, and various supplies. The food brought and transported provided over 245,000 meals. Once the buses arrived, they are unloaded and returned, filled with refugees. We have five hubs where over 1,600 women and children have entered, been cared for, and are being placed in semi-permanent locations.
Since being back, Jim has driven almost 600 km helping move Ukrainian Refugees. There are many refugees here in Leipzig and we look forward to getting to meet some of them. 

At this moment, Josiah Venture has distributed over 65,000 printed booklets called "22 Days of Encouragement in Difficult Times" to Ukrainians. Every Psalm has a title at the top (such as "Hope") and an intro paragraph to prepare them for the Psalm. Pray that God's Word would speak powerfully to each soul who reads it. 

Summer Interns

We are also very excited that we will have 5 interns coming to help with camps this summer! Please pray that God will provide all the financial and prayer support they need to minister this summer, and that God will use them in a mighty way. 

They will arrive May 25 and after a week of training in the Czech Republic, will be with us until August 17. 

Emma Grace

I know that many of you have been praying for our precious granddaughter, Emma Grace. Here is the latest update from yesterday (March 28) from her mom, Caitlin: 

"Emma had her next procedure. She just came out of the operating room and is in recovery here. We are getting ready to move her to a room for over night. We are being told that we will most likely be able to go home tomorrow!

"Her procedure told us that she has still a very severe case, but we are attacking it head on. She doesn't have a large main pulmonary vein on her right side (since it detached) but there are two smaller ones that are trying to keep up. One of the smaller veins was open while the other was not, so a stent was placed in the unopen one to help it. So now Emma has two stents, one on each side of her heart. We are still praying for a miracle for her to keep her veins going." 

Please continue to pray for Emma, as the next few weeks and months are critical.

Emma after returning to her hospital room after the procedure.

Pray

Here are some prayer points:

1. Continue to pray for Emma, that her blood vessels will grow strong, open, and flexible and stay attached to her heart.
2. Pray for us as we continue to reconnect with people and our ministry here in Germany.
3. Pray for our 5 Summer Interns, that they will raise all the support they need to come help with camp ministries this summer.
4. Pray for the people of Ukraine, that God will protect them, that Believers will be strong be witnesses, and that the war will end.

Back in Europe

 Our one year out of Germany is almost finished! We are spending the last 2 weeks in the Czech Republic. Over and over again during this year, we have seen God's perfect timing. We would plan something, and our plans would be blown away, yet when the dust settled, we always saw God's hand leading us to the right place in exactly the right time. Even coming back to Czech. We had no idea when we planned coming back at this time that Josiah Venture would be receiving refugees from Ukraine and that we would be able to help in this.

Please, pray for all the refugees from Ukraine, for all their family members staying behind to fight for their country, and that God will protect Ukraine and keep it free from oppression.

Ukrainian Refugees on Bus

Coming back to Europe also means leaving family and loved ones in the US and Bangladesh. What an incredible gift from God that we were able to spend so much time with both of our grandchildren.

Noah watching TV with Daddy.

Emma Catching up on her reading in the hospital

Please, continue to pray for our little Emma Grace. She is 11 months old now and weighs 15 lbs.! What a blessing to see her grow. She is still on oxygen and a feeding tube. Pray for her heart, as the blood vessels attached to the heart are very fragile. Pray that they will strengthen and stay strongly attached. She had a stent put into one of the vessels last month and that has vastly improved her oxygen levels. We are so thankful for the good medical and therapy care that she is receiving.

We will be able to return to Germany on March 16! We are so excited to continue ministry in person, rather than on zoom. We already have two retreats planned with two of our youth groups over the next few weeks.

We are also gearing up for summer camps. We have 5 interns coming to help us out. Pray for them as they raise their support over the next few months.

We are so thankful to God for each one of you and that we had the opportunity to see so many of you in person over this last year. So many of you hosted us and provided things that we needed during our time there, including letting us borrow your autos! We are so thankful for the family of God all over the world.

Kimberlee Cather and her husband Doug open their home to us for the entire time we were in Colorado. Here is "Auntie Kimba" holding Emma Grace with Nate and Caitlin.