More recent stats

I apologize for posting a similar post just a week later. Upon further examination of the recently published study, I found more recent stats from surveys taken in 2008. Here is some interesting data:

52% of Eastern Germans do not believe in God and only 7.8% say they believe God really exists and have no doubt about it. Almost 60% of Eastern Germans say they don't believe in God and never have, while 13% say they believe in God now and always have. 8% believe in a personal God. 2.5% consider themselves to have a strong belief in God while 46% consider themselves strong atheists. Over the last 10 years, the number of people who are certain about God's existence is slightly decreasing.
 
Please, continue to pray for us as we seek to move to Leipzig and minister in this highly atheist region of the world. We are excited to go but need your help!


To become a financial supporter, just go to josiahventure.com/give/people/191. Thank you!

Stats and Numbers

Are you a number and stats person? Between the two of us, we like looking at survey outcomes and statistics from time to time even though we realize there is bound to be a margin of error with these.

The University of Chicago just published the results of a survey on religious believes across the globe. Their recent survey focused on the US but they compared their outcomes with various intentional studies.

I took some time to look through their findings on Eastern Germany - believe it or not, many studies consider Eastern and Western Germany separately because the culture is still very different in the two parts of the country.

Here are some numbers:
In a 1997 study, 59.7% of Eastern Germans said they do not believe in any God- far more than in any other country involved in the survey!
In a 1998 study, 68.7% of Eastern Germans said they are not part of any religion and 82.4% of people under 30 said they have no religious preference and only 7.3% in this age group said they believe in God without a doubt.
In a 1999 study, only 5.6% of Eastern Germans said they attend a church service weekly - and only 2.3% of under 30 year olds. 15.1% of youth under 30 believe in life after death.

Overall, articles concluded that faith in Eastern Europe is on the rise. That is encouraging and we hope to hear the same become true for Eastern Germany one day.

We appreciate your prayer and support as we plan to minister in this part of the world!

Birthdays and Family

Last week, we had the privilege of visiting my (Ellen's) family in Germany to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday. We enjoyed our time with them very much! Eliana proved to be a great traveler - she did great on the plane, actually seemed to enjoy the landing, and only suffered from jet-lag induced poor sleep for the first two nights. Looks like she is born to be an MK :-)

Today we are celebrating Eliana's birthday with Joel's side of the family - his Mom Lorel, and sister Val and her husband Job and baby Jasper are coming to visit us for two days. Both Eliana and Jasper are turning 1 this week. What wonderful memories!

In the weeks prior to our Germany trip, we began calling many of you to talk with you individually about our missions plans. We have enjoyed each of those conversations as we love to connect with our brothers and sisters in Christ and talk about the mission God has laid in our hearts.

We are currently at 26% of monthly support and 28% of one-time support raised. We are blessed by your donations and commitments to pray for us and continue to trust the Lord that He is able to provide all the need to move to Germany this calendar year.

ADVANCE

A new video has been posted on the Josiah Venture website. If you can't view it below, go to josiahventure.com.

COMING SOON! Dan Hash - ADVANCE Promo from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

2x3 Campaign Outcomes

A little over three years ago, Josiah Venture started the 2x3 Campaign, seeking to double fruitfulness within three years.

During our three year campaign we saw much fruit from our evangelism, disciplemaking, leadership training and healthy reproducing church goals. Josiah Venture also increased capacity at our training centers! Over 8 million dollars has been given towards the 2×3 Vision!

This video explains more (can also be viewed at josiahventure.com):

2x3 Campaign Recap from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

A Fragrant Offering

The journey to the mission field is definitely a walk of faith. We are waiting on God to provide our financial support and give us the final push onto the field. In the meantime, when people repeatedly ask us when we will be leaving, we answer "As soon as we raise our support" or "In God's timing" or simply "I have no clue." I suppose this is just one of many challenges that we will be facing as missionaries and it's good training for what's ahead.

As much as our desire is for the "100% mark" that will allow us to jump on that plane and begin the next Chapter of our lives, God has been blessing us every step of the process - THROUGH YOU! One monthly donation may only make up half of a percent of the total amount but each gift is heart-warming for us. It shows us that you believe in us and in our mission and that you are making sacrifices to support God's work in Germany.

In the last few weeks, we were blessed with several unexpected one-time gifts from dear friends as well as a new monthly supporter. We have also been blessed to add some of you to our prayer partner list. What a blessing to know that almost 50 people/ families are praying for us!!

YOU are a blessing for us; those of you who are giving of your time to pray and giving of your resources to help us meet our future financial needs: A much appreciated family tithing a bonus, a close friend giving very generously, a work friend seeking to support our ministry overseas, a church friend giving an unexpected gift.

We are so thankful to  you!

"Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." 

Philippians 4:17-19

Current prayer requests:
- Wisdom as we are communicating with a few German churches to find out which of them God would want to be George and Carrie's German church home
- Favor as we approach two churches we have prior relationships with and ask them to consider financially supporting us
- Guidance as we approach other area churches without a prior relationship.
- Openness to the Spirit's leading as we approach two more young families about considering joining our team by moving overseas.