DECEMBER 2007

A belated Merry Christmas and a down-to-the-wire Happy New Year.

We've enjoyed a nice couple of weeks with family and friends that culminates tonight (December 31st) with celebrating my brother Glen's wedding.

We're looking forward to getting back to our home in Vajta and getting back to work with preparing for the upcoming semester. Jeremy will be again leading the Sunday night chapel service for the college and this semester, teaching the book of Philippians as a Tuesday night elective class.

Still hoping to see something come into place for an Ireland outreach trip this year, but we'll see what happens with all of that.

Thanks again for all of the support this past year, and our prayers for a blessed 2008 go out and up for you all!

Loads of blessings,

Jeremy, Christi, Ian, Leah, Kara, and Mikayla

NOVEMBER 2007

Highlights from November?

Christi’s birthday… some great guest speaker’s here at CCBCE (Tom Dickerson from New Jersey, Rich Chaffin from California, Jim Gallagher from Florida)… Ian losing more teeth… Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving day… a nice bout with a (rather violent) stomach flu, and, all in all, just continuing to try to lead, bless, and minister to our students here at the college.

Ireland Prayer

Jeremy and two of the students here have been meeting together every week to pray for Ireland. We’ve been lifting up the missionaries and fellowships that we know, as well as the churches in Ireland in general. In his book, Consuming Fire – The Hope of Revival among the Nations, Pastor Brian Brodersen makes this comment: “I believe there is the possibility that God in these days might want to work in a special way, pouring out His Spirit, bringing revival to the Church and an awakening to the nations. Both history and the character of God ought to cause us to hope for such things.” Revival is our hope and prayer for Ireland – that the churches in Ireland would be filled with the Holy Spirit and that the believers would begin to reach out to the lost of the land. Please join us in praying for Ireland, her churches, her pastors, and her lost people!

While we're on the subject, I'd like to encourage you to read this article. It is about the tremendous lack of knowledge in Ireland about the basics of Christianity. Please pray!!

CCBCE

Almost done. That is a relatively crazy thing to write. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It certainly does, and it does more so when you’re having fun and staying busy as well! We’ve had a blessed semester so far, and we’re trusting the Lord to continue to speak to the students these last couple of weeks.

Christmas

We will be in California for three weeks after the end of the semester. Please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you while we’re there, and we’d love it even more if we’d be able to see you while there, too!

Thanks for praying for us!

Lots of love and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jeremy & Christi & the kids

OCTOBER 2007

OCTOBER 2007

And here we are again: one more month has come and gone. Autumn once again - our fourth since coming back to Europe in '04.

So, what happened this month? I'm glad you asked!

CCBCE Ministry
School has been moving along at a pretty steady pace. It has been an absolute joy to teach the book of Acts again, and Sunday night chapel has been great as well. I have to say, I think co-teaching the gospel of John with Pastor Jason has been my favorite time (don't tell that to my Acts class!). We have also hosted a number of conferences this fall, and that is still such a great blessing to offer a place of refreshment for people that are serving Jesus throughout the year and (literally) from around the world.

The kids
Still doing great. They're talking about and praying about two things all the time now: #1, visiting Jeremy's family at Christmas, and #2, Jurica (more on him in a minute). Ian & Leah are still doing a great job with school - they get that from their mother (they love school). Kara and Mikayla keep Christi busy at home as she spends time teaching them and loving them and trying to keep them out of trouble - they get that from their father.

Jeremy & Christi
We're well, but - to be honest - we're a bit tired right now. It has been a great year in so many ways, but for whatever reason (I don't know... four kids, two dogs, seeking adoption, three to five classes a week, Jeremy still working on his master's degree via correspondence.... ), it has also been a long year. We want to finish out this semester well, and we don't want to neglect anything that the Lord has for us. Please pray!

Jurica
Not much for news, but we were able to go to Vukovar, Croatia last week (Oct. 24-26) to try to get some information. (Many thanks to you that were praying for the trip!) What's the latest? Not a whole lot. Jurica is on the other side of Croatia with his uncle, but it doesn't sound like really good news for him. The children's home is trying to regain custody of him, and so that might be a bit of a process. He is still not adoptable at this point, but we'll see what happens. Our friend Laci (pronounced, 'Lot-see', not 'Lacy') is the pastor of a church in Vukovar, and he has been helping us out quite a bit. He is hoping to meet with Maria (the social worker in charge of Jurica's case) on Monday (November 5th) to see what the status is with him and his situation. Please pray that he'll be able to get some details about Jurica for us (what his birthday is, do they have any idea about where his case is at, how is he doing, are there any chances of him being put up for adoption, etc, etc).

Simply put, we want what is best for him, and we believe that the best for him (for any child really) is to be in a place where he's going to learn about Jesus and have an opportunity to grow up in a Christian environment. If that is with someone else, great. If that is with us, than we'll be thrilled. We plan on doing whatever we need to do in order to find out what we can do for him. As they say in Croatian, "Bogzna" ("God knows"). Thanks for joining us in prayer for this and for Jurica.

Other Prayer Needs...
Please pray for Christi as she'll be sharing at a women's retreat the first weekend of November, and for Jeremy as he shares at a men's retreat the same weekend. Never a dull moment around here!
Please continue to join us in praying for Ireland - Jeremy's hope is to see an all Ireland Calvary Chapel conference happen sometime in the spring.

Thanks again for everything - we're grateful to have friends and family that love us and take such good care of us!

Jeremy, Christi, Ian, Leah, Kara, & Mikayla

SEPTEMBER 2007

PRETTY GIRLS

And here we are again - at the end of another great month.

Highlights of September? Glad you asked.

Back to school!
Bible College classes kicked off at the beginning of the month, and well, so far so good. Jeremy is teaching Acts as well as leading the Sunday Night Chapel service and co-teaching the Gospel of John with Pastor Jason.

Ian and Leah also started up school - 3rd and 1st grades respectively. They're doing well and are giving their teachers a hard time... a hard time coming up with more work for them to do!

Christi is staying busy with boxing (yes, you read that correctly... send her an email and ask her about it), co-leading one of the ladies' prayer groups, doing some school with Kara, and everything else that comes with being the mother of four kids (and two puppies)!

Please keep praying for...
Jurica - we're still looking into adopting this little boy from Croatia and are hoping to take a trip in October to meet him and find out what we'll need to do with the adoption process

Ireland - that more pastors and churches will be raised up

Transport - that the Lord will provide us with a vehicle in His good time

CCBCE - that God will really get a hold of the hearts and lives of our students

Pastors Tour - we hosted a tour of several different Calvary Chapels in Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia: please pray that God will use that trip to get more churches involved with reaching Europe for Jesus

One of our students, Andras, will be going to the hospital this Tuesday (October 2nd) for a blood test; he has some sort of blood disease and is pretty scared.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support! It is greatly appreciated (especially with how poorly the dollar is doing)!


Blessings,

Jeremy & Christi,
Ian, Leah, Kara, and Mikayla

August 2007

Greetings from Vajta! We do hope you’ll pardon the tardiness of this letter. Here a few of the things that happened in the last 31 (or so) days…

The Summer Conference Season is officially over and it was a great one. More than 1,900 guests passed through our doors and we heard many great reports from people that said they were blessed and refreshed. We had a great group of volunteer workers for our “Summer of Service” program and that provided a big help.

Leah turned six on the 29th! She’s so big now! She started the first grade today (Monday the 3rd of September) and is doing great. (Along with some Legos and some cool clothes, she got a new puppy and named her Daisy.)

Ian was baptized at the pool here! He has been asking for the last year or two and so we asked him again what it is all about and he explained that he wants to follow Jesus. It is amazing to see his heart as well as his sisters’ hearts growing in the love and awareness of Jesus. Ian will be in the third grade this year.

Kara & Mikayla are also growing and growing. No “official” school for them this year, but Christi will doing a lot with them at home while their big brother and sister are at school in the mornings.

We had a wedding here two days before school started which was a blessing, but… just one more item on the list of things to do in between finishing the conference season and getting ready for CCBCE to begin. Phew! After the wedding, Christi, Ian, and Kara all danced the night away. Jeremy, Leah, and Mikayla went home and watched Ice Age 2 and ate popcorn.

Ireland: there was an outreach (I might have mentioned this in our last newsletter) on the west coast of Ireland at a town called, Lahinch. I’m still waiting to hear how that all went and I’ll try to pass that along when I hear back.

Jeremy played at a percussion performance here in Vajta for a community day and in another little town as well. Jacint, one of the cooks here at the castle, invited Jeremy to join him in doing the all percussion performance. It was very cool and apparently a big hit with a lot of the young people in both places.

Bible College also got underway today with the first day of orientation. Jeremy will be sharing with the students at the weekly Sunday night chapel service for the school and also teaching the book of Acts two days a week. We’re looking forward to a great time of ministry with the students and are excited to see what God might have in store for them during these next few months.

No vehicle yet, but we’re still asking the Lord about that one. If you feel so inclined to join us in praying for this, there are six of us and we’re still looking into the possibility of adoption, so… a nine-seater would be the way to go in your prayers. Thanks!

That pretty much sums it up for the month of August. Another chapter concluded and another one right on the other side of the page.


Loads of blessings,


Jeremy, Christi, Ian, Leah, Kara, Mikayla, Lola, and Daisy