A big trip

You may have heard that we are coming to America for the next six months starting this May, but you might still be wondering why. Well there are several reasons for this. First, due to the type of visa that we hold we are not allowed to stay in Austria for longer than five years at a time. In order to be eligible to stay for another five years we have to leave for six months. Not only does that mean that we've been here for almost five years already, it means that every five years we will have to do this, unless we can change the type of visa that we get. Now that the church is recognized this might be changing in the future, but for now we are trying to stick to the regulations.
Second, we are due for a home service or what is commonly referred to as furlough. We will be spending some time resting, but this will be no six month vacation! No our main purpose in a home service assignment is renew our ties with our sending church by spending time serving in ministry there as well as reconnect with our current supporters, which leads me to our final reason for coming home...
Support. We've never quite been fully funded during our time here, and that fact has really been felt over the last year. We are really hoping to get our numbers back where they need to be and it's going to take a good chunk of time to get that task accomplished. Also, considering that we may be doing more traveling during our next term it would be good to have a healthy ministry budget. So please pray for us that the Lord will supply all of our needs during this trip. We are trusting that He will.

African Believers

One of Matt’s Nigerian students has had some trouble lately with his residency. He is an asylum seeker and had received a negative judgment on his case. The judge wants him to go back to Nigeria, but his lawyer says that he still has a chance to stay. If you think about it please be in prayer for ND. African immigrants are not very welcome here and there are many negative stereotypes about them, but there are many who come here who are evangelical Christians. Sunday mornings, without fail, we see Africans on the subway, dressed up with Bibles in their hands. God just may bring the gospel back to Europe, through Africans who received the gospel initially from European missionaries generations before. Pray that, if it is God’s will, good men like ND would be allowed to stay here and help spread God’s word.

What Can I Do?

Refugees at "The Oasis"

It was close to 10:30 pm as Matt's cell phone rang.  Since he was out of the room brushing his teeth or something, I picked up the phone from his bedside table and answered it.  "Hello?"  "Hi, how are you?  You doing good?" answered the male, non-native English speaker on the other end.  "Who's this?" I asked, a little leery.  "You don't know me.  I am in Italy.  I have phone number for Austria."  Click.  I hung up without saying anything else, annoyed and convinced it was a prank call.  As Matt walked into the room the phone started ringing again.  "I'll let you answer that," I said, "A crazy person is calling you."  Matt answered the phone, his brow furrowed as he listened to the person on the other end.  Walking out of the room, I heard Matt say, "Yes, I remember you."  "Oh, it's someone Matt knows," I thought, "Now I'm pretty embarrassed about rudely hanging up."

A few minutes later, Matt returned to tell me about the conversation.  It was a man he had met a few weeks before at the Oasis refugee ministry.  At the time, the two of them had had a long conversation about God and Matt had given this man his business card.  Amazingly, through the broken English, Matt was able to understand that this man had not received asylum status in Austria, so had taken the chance to travel to Italy to look for work.  There were no jobs to be found for an illegal immigrant in Italy, so he had pulled out Matt's card, got a hold of a calling card to call internationally, and used the English that he knew to ask Matt if he was aware of anyone in Austria that would hire him (illegally).  Matt had to tell him no, he didn't know of any jobs, and that we would pray for him.

As I sat there processing what I was hearing, I began to weep.  What a desperate situation this man was in!  It seemed like he was reaching out to Matt as a last-ditch effort before possibly getting sent back to his home country which he was fleeing.  And I was touched that God had used Matt to make an impact in this man's life in just one conversation.  I wanted so badly to help this man, to be able to do something, but felt powerless.  "I wish we could do something," I finally said aloud.  "But all we can do is pray," I added, hopelessly.  As I heard my own words verbalized, the light bulb went on.  The first and best thing we can and should do for people is pray!  God doesn't lack the power, creativity and resources to change a hopeless situation.  We've got to trust Him, to run to Him first with all of our worries, problems, and questions--in our lives and in the lives of others.  Ultimately, everyone's biggest need, to be rescued from eternal separation from God, has been provided in Jesus for everyone who believes.  That gift of belief, or faith, requires the power of God to change human hearts.  We can trust the God who changes hearts to be able to provide all of the lesser things in this life as well.

So I rejoice that even when I can't see how things could possibly work out, that I can do something.  I can go straight to the One who can help in all situations.  Thank YOU for laboring with us in prayer!