More Than a Place to Live

Do any of you have strange "hobbies"? Well, I (Ellen) have to confess to one: I like looking at apartment listings online, just for fun. I have been looking at apartments in Leipzig for a while - first for budget research and later just because I get a kick out of looking at floor plans. (Yes, I did want to be an architect for a while until God guided me another way.)

Our first apartment in Germany will be more than just our home. It will also be our office and a meeting space for the whole Josiah Venture Germany team. In the future, we may even get a chance to house an intern or missions trip visitor. And as even now, we will be using this space to minister to young people in the church.


The cost for rent and utilities for this type of apartment in Leipzig will be about $1500 (or 1150 Euros). That is about 18% of our monthly budget. That is our support raising goal this months!

To raise this amount, we will need 30 people to donate $50 a month or 15 people giving $100 a month. Would you consider being one of these supporters?
 

Thank you for being a part of our ministry through your prayers and encouragement. To become a part of our support team as a financial supporter, please click here.

Envisioning the day...

We received a beautiful email from Friedemann Volke, the pastor of the German church we will be joining upon our arrival. He told us about a work day at their daughter-church, working to finish some rooms in the building. He says that as he looks at the rooms which are still filled with construction material and covered in dirt, he envisions us doing youth ministry training there one day. (I hope not too much of the sentiment is lost in translation.)

Together with another church, they have also begun preparations for next summer's church camps - their theme: Robin Hood (seems to focus on standing up for what is right). Currently, their camps are for a young audience: 9-12 year olds, and 12-15 year old. We join Friedemann in his hopes that we will be able to add an English camp for high school age students during the summer of 2013.

To be a part of making that happen, go to www.josiahventure.com/give/people/191 and please remember to pray for us!

To read more about Josiah Venture's youth ministry training programs in Eastern Europe, click here.
To read more about English camps, click here and consider reading some of these JV blogs about last summer's camps:
            Collision with Christ
            What is JV Doing This Summer
            An Unlikely Story

And for your personal enjoyment, here is a banner for the Leipzig church summer camp:

Are you excited?

I love this commercial because it reminds me of how excited I am about being a part of God's kingdom work. How about you? Are you the guy who can't contain his excitement or the one wondering what's wrong with him? I hope that all of us will be contagiously excited about being a part of God's plan for His people.

This commercial also expresses how absolutely psyched Joel and I are about the opportunity to go to Eastern Germany with Josiah Venture. We can't wait to be a part of what God is doing among the young people in Leipzig!

Would you continue to pray for us as we prepare to go? We are still in need of much financial support, so would you remember us in your year-end giving and your financial plans for 2012? And when you become a part of our team through prayer and/or financial support, I hope you get just as psyched about what God is doing through you in former East Germany!

Our Future Church Home

We are excited to tell you that the "EFG Jacobsstrasse" has agreed to be our church home in Germany. They were one of the churches we visited a year ago on our second vision trip around Southeastern Germany.

This congregation has been faithfully praying for us and about having us join them. Their pastor, Friedemann, passes along updates about our progress regularly and has been a very helpful resource as well as a new friend to us. The church had send Friedemann to ask us about joining around the same time as we asked him the same thing. Only God's timing is so perfect.

When we visited we were excited about the church's involvement with young people, their cooperation with other area churches (very common strength among German churches), as well as the potential of their facility and church grounds (including a small adjacent soccer field, an apartment set up for missions trip visitors, and central location of the church).

The EFG Jacobsstrasse also has a daughter-church (church plant) in nearby Schkeuditz, still without a youth group. We hope that, as our team grows, we will be able to send a team member or family to start a youth group at this church plant.

EFG stands for Evangelische Freikirchliche Gemeinde, and this denomination is a part of the German Baptist Church.

Welcome, Carrie and George!

We are very excited to announce that our close friends Carrie and George Vera are now officially a part of the JV Eastern Germany team.
A little over a year ago, God first laid on their hearts to consider joining us and Josiah Venture in former East Germany. As it became more clear to them that God was opening doors and calling them to full time mission work, they began conversations with Josiah Venture and - as you already know from a previous blog update - they were able to attend Josiah Venture's spring conference in the Czech Republic in May. They completed their application process over the summer and are now officially accepted. It happened just in time for Josiah Venture's fall orientation, which they were able to attend last week.
George and Carrie have a heart for reaching young people for Christ and have worked with youth in various settings. We believe our personalities and areas of strength will complement each other and make us a good team. George and Carrie have a 20 months old daughter and are expecting their second child in March of 2012. They are now also in the process of raising support in hopes to move to Eastern Germany by next fall.
We will keep you updated as their profile goes up on the Josiah Venture website. Would you pray for them as they prepare to move overseas and raise support? Would you prayerfully consider supporting both of our families and the Josiah Venture ministry in Eastern Germany?
Please, also pray for us as we still hope to recruit more team members even while we are still in the support raising process. Thank you for your support.