Dear family and friends:

We made it!! We have reported to our ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ’s Global Media Outreach. “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do this.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24) We can’t thank you enough for your support, your encouragement, and your persistent prayer. This has been a marathon that I had expected to be more of a 5K. Or, really, it’s not so much a marathon as a relay—a team race that we have run together. Like a microcosm of the Christian life, it’s something I was utterly incapable of doing in my own strength, yet it still demands all of my own strength in unexpected ways.

Like the example set by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, God made His call plain to us and we willingly answered it. In so doing, although it is through your partnership that running this race became possible, yet we became servants to you all. Many have sympathized with us, through the length and difficulty of this process which has been so crushing to our sense of self-reliance and independence. But it has been necessary for us to “strive lawfully,” as 1 Corinthians 9 goes on to say. It also has given us opportunity to see God override the inherent challenges of our unique situation as well as our own considerable shortcomings.

To avoid making it sound like I’m over-spiritualizing the process—let me be the first to set it forth in plain English: “it ate my lunch,” so to speak. Not that I ever really thought I had the skills necessary to raise support for a lifetime of ministry, but, as I have said so many times, we were called to “point C,” and moving from “point A” to “point C’ requires going through that “point B.” I was naïve in a lot of ways, blissfully so. I have to return, though, to my final assessment of the situation—God superintended. We have emerged less reliant upon our own and others’ abilities, resources and emotions, more tough-minded and determined to practice deliberate, unrivaled worship of and dependence upon, our Sovereign Lord. In the process, we have been schooled in how to draw strength and encouragement from the faithful, Spirit-motivated attitudes and actions of others.

We just now want to return the favor—you have been a part of the work God has been doing in our lives! Making a commitment to us, whether financially or in prayer, is a costly act of worship; and a call to join our team is no less an encounter with the Living God than our own call to full-time ministry. Your involvement in this launch can forever be a reason to glorify God and can be something to remember for eternity. Is that hyperbole? Only if we disregard what God’s Word teaches us. Those we win for Christ are our “joy and crown…at His appearing.” (Philippians 4:1)

I want you to know, I have personally reached 137 individuals for Christ since beginning to counsel seekers at the Ministry Response Center . 63 others have rededicated their lives to Christ. Rachael’s is one of the most exciting stories. In August, she wrote the following question in response to our http://www.jesuswho.org/english site:

“I am unsure about my relationship with God. How do we know that the Bible is true in every way? I mean... I see the Bible as a biography, but just because a biography about someone says "so and so did this and this and this at this time on this day in this year" means I'm going to believe it... where is the solid proof or evidence?”

After some months of correspondence, we have seen Rachael go from having her questions answered, to seeing God working in her own life, to trusting Jesus as her Savior, to becoming a bold Christian witness in her high-school the other students recently turned to for answers when a starting athlete was suddenly killed in a tragic auto accident:

WOW... God's strength is so AWESOME and OUTRAGEOUS. He has just currently pulled me through the most questionable time ever. Everybody expected me to be the one to answer all the questions and tell them why God had done it. All I could say was i don't know…and, wow, people were harsh. My friends and i have never been through anything like that. And it was one of the hardest times for us to stand in our faith. They just don't understand it. They don't see that there is good to come out of all of the bad. There's gotta be. And I can say that there was. I had another friend that through this incident gave his life to Christ, and has been written down in the book of life. How WONDERFUL and SPECTACULAR!!!!! Anyhow. umm... if ya would, keep me and my friends and my school in your prayers. It's been a rough time, and it isn't over yet. And I've gotta give this speech/ mini message thing at church tomorrow evening. That oughta be exciting :)

That’s what it’s all about! Real people moving from doubt to disciple-makers! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for sticking with us through our entire process of building our team so that we could realize the call of God on our lives and reach the world for Christ. We want to encourage you to press on! To “not grow weary in well-doing. In due season, we shall reap if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) Exciting things are ahead for both of us, as we explore ways to use streaming video in Gospel presentations online, (Mike has a strong background in video optimization and programming.), and evangelistic e-cards, (Cindy has wonderful talent and many years in greeting card and holiday design), in fresh ways to win, build and send others like Rachael all over the world.

Love, in Christ,

Mike and Cindy
”One Day Closer” ( Rom. 13:1)

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