Leaving on a Jet Plane…

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is Friday…most of our bags are packed and last minute chores finishing up. This is a record for us, usually we are packing right down to the wire. This year we had to vacate the apartment a week early (another missionary family is coming in) and move to the speakers’ apartment… what a blessing!!

 

The four months have passed quickly and, as always, we are torn – ready to go back but wanting to stay longer for there is never enough time to see everyone or spend enough time with family and friends. We thank God for all of you, our partners, for your consistent prayers and generous giving. We thank God for the opportunity to see many of you as we traveled from our home base at the Hawthorne Gospel Church in NJ – north to Toronto, south to Florida and west to Fort Scott, Kansas. We wish we could have spent more time with all of you.

 

As we return to Athens we need your prayers. I (Tim) will continue the work with the Greek Evangelical Church, as we desire to see“lives and communities transformed by the power of God.”  My job will involve mobilizing prayer for this to happen, envisioning and doing what I can to enable the church to share the good news of the gospel in our community.  Pray that God will use his church to reach people who are in darkness. Pray also that the church, going through a deep economic crisis, will experience God’s sovereignty and power and as a result will have a deeper knowledge of the Father. Pray also for safety as the crime in our community is on the rise. Our church was broken into TWICE in June! Pray also that the vision will spread from our church to other churches in Greece. Our 20/20 vision is to see twenty churches serving their communities by 2020.

Donna is also looking forward to serving the refugee women and children with Helping Hands ministry. Because of our home assignment she missed this year’s family camp. Reports from camp were encouraging, with a few people making decisions to follow Christ, but I will let Donna share more about it in the near future. Please pray for Donna and the ministry at Helping Hands.

Sunday, two days from now, we embark on our new adventure. We look forward with expectation what God will do. We are grateful that we are on this new adventure with you. We will keep you informed through regular e-mails and also through postings on our blog which we have renamed “Dispatches From The Front.”  God willing we will be back on our next home assignment September 2014.

In Christ love

Tim and Donna

Generosity

We arrived in the States three weeks ago and have already traveled 2000 miles! We traveled first to Florida were we spent 10 days with family enjoying the sun and had the opportunity to share what God is doing in Greece at Osprey Baptist Church.

We flew back to NJ and hit the ground running.  So far we’ve spoken at woman’s group, a missions conference, a chapel service and tomorrow Donna speaks at another woman’s group and I share Friday at a youth group.

Next week we have the wedding of our oldest son Matt to Emily Adler. What a gift she is to Matt and to our family. Please pray for Emily’s dad who is extremely weak – that he will be well enough to attend the wedding.

Today I had another encouragement from the Lord. I had an opportunity to share about our work and give a challenge from the Word at the chapel service of the middle school here at Hawthorne Christian Academy.  Afterwards, a young girl came to greet me. She introduced herself and then handed me a crumpled up dollar that was in her hand. “The Lord told me to give it to you” she said.

I remember when I was her age how important my quarter was because on morning break I could buy two cookies and a pint of milk; I would never give up my quarter! Alisha sensed God telling her ‘give your dollar’ and she did. Her faith and obedience humbled me.  Like the widow in Luke 21:1-4, this young girl gave everything she had for her lunch. God was also confirming to me that he would build His kingdom through weak, insignificant people- by the world’s standards- that He empowers. Little is a lot in Gods hands!

One of the teachers, an old friend also came and slipped me a note with this verses from 2 Corinthians 9:10-15. God’s generosity expressed through people, even through a young 13-year-old girl, once again overwhelmed me!

We will be busy right through middle of May with many miles to travel. We appreciate your prayers. In April we will be in Massachusetts and Kansas. We are humbled for the love you have for Christ expressed through your generosity.

Be blessed,

Tim and Donna

PS. Our mobile number is 609-577-9725 and the home 973-427-2358 Love to hear from you.