First Update Letter

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant peace shall not be removed”

As I am sitting down to write this letter, I am thankful of this promise in Isaiah that God’s peace will remain with us regardless of any other circumstances in our lives. Things have been so busy and hectic recently that I know that were it not for the promise that God is in control, it would be impossible to have any real peace and confidence. So before I go any farther, I need to stop and thank God for working in all things. I am writing you this letter to very briefly update you on what is new with me, and most importantly to share with you the exciting things that God has laid on my heart to do.

As of today, my wife and I celebrated our two week wedding anniversary (ok, so we didn’t actually celebrate anything, but it sounded better to say it that way). Hard to believe that I am married, and to many of you, who celebrated with us at our wedding, this is old news. Going back a little farther, I graduated from Grove City College last May, with a BA in English. Since then I have been working as a technical writer, a mechanic, and a few other unrelated fields along the way. And now, Stasi and I are settling in to our apartment in Grove City, Pa.

For the last few years God has impressed on my heart that He has a plan to use the talents and skills that He has given me for His glory. I feel like God has called me to work and use my hands to share His love by meeting the needs of his people. I mostly shrugged this off, however, as something that would never come to fruition. The vision that God had placed in my heart was not one of great evangelistic work, and so I never thought that I would pursue full time missions work.

But praise God, He had other plans. This is where Youth for Christ comes into the picture. As you may or may not know, Stasi recently spent a year in Slovakia, where she had been serving with YFC, working as a photographer and a video editor. It was during this time that God began broadening my limited view of how he calls and uses people for His service. I could no longer avoid pursuing God’s call just because it would not fit into a classical view of full time missions work. I began praying that God would show me how He wanted to use me, and that if God wanted Stasi and me to be married, that He would show us a place where we both could serve Him. Neither of us thought that this would end up being in Slovakia, but after seeing the need at the ranch, the role that it will play in realizing Youth for Christ’s vision for change and revival in Slovakia, and how God could uses us both here as part of His master plan, we both know that this is where we are supposed to be.

I don’t think that I can fully relate to you just how unqualified I feel to be undertaking this. But I do know that our God is able to do above and beyond all that we can think or imagine possible. And since God goes before us, I know that we have nothing to worry about.

I wrote this letter to update you on what has been going on, but Stasi and I would also like to invite you to be a part of the ministry we will have in Slovakia. I don’t believe that God is asking us to do this on our own. And so, we would like you to consider becoming a part of the exciting things that God is doing in Slovakia. If you would prefer not to continue receiving our newsletters, please let us know and we’ll take you off our mailing list. But, we believe that God will raise up a team of people who will join with us in ministry through prayer and financial support, and we hope that you will be a part of that team. Would you please keep us in your prayers, and ask God how He might use you in this ministry?