Dear Special Friend of CMI ,
One of the neatest things we love about serving in this part of the world is getting the reports from some of the churches that we helped to start years ago.
Most of the time our focus is on churches that we are working on helping to start this month or this year. As this year once again we will see at least FIFTEEN NEW CHURCHES started.
But every week I get emails from people in Poland or Macedonia or Bulgaria about churches that we helped to start years ago. Even this week I got a report from a pastor with photos of a church that we started in 2012 in a city in Poland. They told me of some of the individual stories of those that were impacted by the church. They talked about young people, about families and singles who are now attending the church.
Then talked about this church wanting to start another church in a town close to them. How a group of people come every week, from another town to this the new church but they want a church of their own in their own town.
This is a story we have heard over and over throughout the fifteen years now that we have helped these key leaders start churches over here.
It’s exciting for us to see these new churches reaching out, without our help, to reach their countries.
So often missionaries build their ministries around themselves and their gifts and finances. Everything depends on them. We have chosen to do things differently. Once these churches get started, they are on their own. Yes we are there to minister for them, meet with them, counsel with them and encourage them. But they have to make the church go.
We are thrilled to tell you that we have the finances ($4000 each) for TWELVE of the fifteen churches we want to start this year. This is so, so encouraging to us.
Please know when we think about these churches we think about individuals with real challenges and great victories because of their relationship with the Lord. We are so grateful that you have helped us to help them.
Special Family News . . . In a few weeks our youngest daughter Audrianna will be starting University at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Breach, Florida. This is a Christian University that was founded by the relatives of the great nineteenth century minister D. L Moody. Both our boys, Nathan and Ryan also graduated from this school. She was just eight months old when we moved to Hungary and now she is starting this chapter of her life in the USA. Amazing. . .
Serving in Budapest, Hungary,
Jim and Brenda
PS. Would you like to have Brenda or me come minister at your church this summer? Just let us know and we may be able to.