We wanted to share with you our vision for working with Operation Nehemiah to raise support, so that we can continue to volunteer to serve those over in South Sudan that could never pay us for these services; and so that you can be a part of what God leads us to do as we serve Jonathan, the Levi family and the people of Borongole (Bore-ong-go-lay), South Sudan and beyond.
The greatest need is for prayer. We have been earnestly waiting on the Lord and cried out to God, He has been humbling us and addressing stuff in our hearts that we did not see, as we wait on Him. Our need is not just temporal, but spiritual...
A little history to trumpet God’s faithfulness in the past...
We were with YOUTH WITH A MISSION (YWAM) as missionaries for more than 7 years between 1983 & 93 and most of those years we lived here in the states with monthly missionary support. When the boys were little, we were with YWAM NY & lived in an apartment in NJ. Our monthly support was $900, which covered rent $700 and utilities and God supplied over and above that. He even supplied for us to go from there for further training to Scotland. Read how God provided last minute on our blog post ‘MANNA: It was February 28, 1993. He has faithfully seen us through a variety of employment and ministry scenarios since. (Pictured-Lueken family 1992)
More recently, while volunteering with Unashamed Ministries in Canada from 2010 thru 2012, we had no promised support, no savings and no credit card to fall back on, and God faithfully provided. Yet how many of you know the endless stories of His faithfulness since we were silent about our needs? As we have prayed and waited on the Lord, He has been encouraging us to again make our needs known to raise up prayer and monthly financial supporters.
Roger has had some health issues that surfaced over the past year or more that considerably effected his stamina and stability. Meanwhile, as we felt called to be more involved with Operation Nehemiah, Roger was frustrated that his involvement was so minimal and frankly we needed his input. As he sought the Lord and saw doctors it has been a time of patience as we wait for issues to be uncovered...the doctors finally decided he needed to be on a CPAP machine for sleep apnea but that has jeopardized his bus drivers license that he has had for so long. Right now he could not drive bus anyway, without a certain length of time on the CPAP machine. There are other also other unexplained issues, so stepping away from employment while his health issues are being resolved was taken out of our hands and we hope and pray that in the months ahead things will continue to improve giving Roger more time and stamina to work on ministry.
We have definitely been in Manna mode. There have been countless times where we had no idea how we were going to go somewhere or what we would eat the next day and we have not missed a meal and He has always provided the means that we would be where He wants us to be. We celebrate how faithful God has been!!
“We are usually more aware of our temporal needs than of our spiritual, and our Saviour by degrees raises our desires from the one to the other. We are invited to pray for the supply of our temporal necessities, but these are trivial in regard to the necessities of our souls.” ~ Ezekiel Hopkins
We were with YOUTH WITH A MISSION (YWAM) as missionaries for more than 7 years between 1983 & 93 and most of those years we lived here in the states with monthly missionary support. When the boys were little, we were with YWAM NY & lived in an apartment in NJ. Our monthly support was $900, which covered rent $700 and utilities and God supplied over and above that. He even supplied for us to go from there for further training to Scotland. Read how God provided last minute on our blog post ‘MANNA: It was February 28, 1993. He has faithfully seen us through a variety of employment and ministry scenarios since. (Pictured-Lueken family 1992)
"FAITH IN A FAITHFUL GOD WILL STRETCH US TO THE LIMITS
OF OUR PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, SOCIAL, INTELLECTUAL, & SPIRITUAL BEINGS,
TO KNOW GOD, & IN THE KNOWING TO DISCOVER THE VAST POTENTIAL
OF A LIFE LIVED BY FAITH."
OF A LIFE LIVED BY FAITH."
We share all this to trumpet God's faithfulness as our Provider, but also as our Father. We have not had any promised income over the past months and there have been many times, having spent the last of our funds for the needs of that day, God has over and over again proven He sees, He knows and He cares. For a prime example, see our blogpost ~ “MANNA: God Knew”
He also cares most about what's in our hearts. When there have been delays & things have been provided later than we would want, the Lord has worked in our hearts bringing up fears & doubts, & more to the surface. He has convicted us, humbled us, & forgiven us in His mercy. We have been blessed by His loving discipline more than we could have ever known.
[to be continued PART II: OUR FAMILY'S ROLE WITH OPERATION NEHEMIAH ]
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