MANNA: Where He guides, He provides

Back in April 2012,  while we were living on Prince Edward Island, Jon had finished his discipleship school & as he prayed about his future, it occurred to him that he was "not designed for the west". So he began looking for an opportunity to travel elsewhere to see how God would direct his path and this search put us in touch with William Levi who said Jon could come on his next trip in 2013.

We returned to the US for a wedding in mid Sept. 2012 and William had asked Jon to begin his involvment by attending a conference in NC with him in late October where they would have a booth to tell others about the work of Operation Nehemiah in South Sudan.  As we prayed, we felt led to ask God if He would provide for us all to go as a family with the Levi's.  At the time we did not even have the money needed to travel back to PEI and were waiting on the Lord.

As time went on, we felt strongly about going and made a plan to see dear friends at the 1/2 way point and to see my brother before the conference.  As the conference neared our church offered to cover a rental car and gas so that we could make the trip more inexpensively instead of flying. This encouraged us to keep believing that we would go and we hoped to stay in the same hotel with the Levi's

When we went to bed Thursday,  before our Sat. planned departure, & we still only had our rental car secured… we had not registered for the conference, nor did we have money for hotel at the conference or food for the 11 day trip.  Very few knew we had any need at all and no one knew exactly what we needed & that we had no resources to draw from. We had no savings and no credit cards to fall back on, only the Lord.

I woke up at 3 am Friday and had an urgency to talk to God… 'Lord, do we start packing tomorrow in faith? Show us if we are wrong about the trip. Please clarify your plan.' etc.  After an hour with the Lord I checked my emails and dear friends had PayPal-ed us some money that would help us secure a hotel room!! With that great encouragement, I thanked God and slept peacefully and we got up later that Friday morning to pack, trusting God would provide the rest.

Later on, the Levi's called to tell us that they had received a generous gift and they were going to be able to cover the conference registration for all of us!! So now all we needed was food and other extra expenses covered.  Earlier in the week mom was not in a position to help out and expressed that. We assured her that we did not expect her help, God would supply somehow. But lo and behold, that afternoon she received a totally unexpected check for something she never thought she'd be reimbursed for and she asked me to run to the bank and cash it and gave most of it to us!! That was God's provision for food & other needed things for the trip!! We were so excited.

We left on time and had a wonderful visit with friends and my brother, Mike and family.  We have a God who cares about relationships and is so faithful to see to it that we are right where He wants us to be!!

Well… here we are, once again... trusting Him to provide for a trip to NC, this coming Friday, June 20, 2014 (Jon's birthday) so that Jon and Roger can attend the FARMING GOD'S WAY training, to equip them in methods of farming in the third world. We invite you to pray with us and expect that God will again provide.  We see, now, His wisdom in God calling us to make our needs known so that you can rejoice with us as He provides and celebrate how very faithful He is!!   As you watch & wait with us, may He be lifted up as our Jehovah Jireh & Father Who sees, and knows and cares… in more ways than just financial!! He is a God of relationship and He is knitting hearts together for His purposes and causing us to cling to Him!

Roger and Jon hope to participate in this week long intensive training in Marion, North Carolina June 22 to 27.   Would you pray with us and if God puts it on your heart, would you help towards this months expenses? which are as follows:

Remaining tuition: $800 for the week of training, room and board.

Rental Car & travel expenses: approximately $600

Operation Nehemiah East Office monthly expenses $1000

= $2400 total

See Jon's blog for more on FARMING GOD'S WAY 

http://fromjoninafrica.blogspot.com/2014/06/exciting-farming-training-opportunity.html

Thank you for your prayer support.  God has been so faithful in the past, we will be sure to keep you posted about the trip as it unfolds. We are excited to go forward as He leads in order to be prepared to help others in Africa.

Humbled and grateful,      Roger, Patty, Jon & Emma

To send support for the Lueken family's work with Operation Nehemiah:

*ONLINE at: * www.operationsnehemiah.org/Nehemiah_Light_House.html

*PayPal* onlighthouse@gmail.com  or plueken55@gmail.com   

*Mail a check made out to Operation Nehemiah*  & send to Operation Nehemiah (East) 86 E. Bacon St. Plainville, MA 02762

STOP-MAIL DATE IS JUNE 14 to be sure it gets to him before his home coming!!!

LUEKEN, JOSHUA

TF CATAMOUNT 2-87

FOB SHANK EAST

APO AE, 09364

MANNA in 1984 - Trusting God as we started our life together

Back when Roger and I were engaged & after our year of missionary training with YWAM ended in Feb. 1984, we had committed to travel with a mobile ministry team for 6 months. We also had chosen a date for our wedding of Oct. 7 and we would be arriving home from the tour only 7 weeks before our wedding.  So we had no employment income for a year and a half, only gifts of support from those who supported our desire to Know God and Make Him Known. With this in mind, we told the Lord we would have a wedding according to whatever He provided… from having family only to inviting all the relatives.  So off we went across the country, and while we were on this tour God, through others, took care of so many details… my brother offered us his old car, friends realized I love dusty rose and they gathered bridesmaid dresses from those who they were in a wedding with previously. They even mailed them out to the three friends who were in our wedding and they fit perfectly.  To top it off,  a friend of my mother's, who never married, contacted her and asked if she could be the mother of the bride and pay for our wedding!!!!!  I never expected such overwhelming provision, but God is more faithful than I have ever believed!

We arrived home 7 weeks before the wedding and immediately sent off invitations that my brother had beautifully created and printed for us.  Then we had to find jobs, a place to live and furnishings in 6 weeks… when I think of that now, I marvel at how much peace we had through it all, except for one day in particular, when we headed out...  That day was very stressful and we got in our first real argument. Dear friends, we were staying with, told us we needed a day off, since we had hit the ground running since our return. Frankly, we were ready for a break.  So we went to breakfast and per our friend's suggestion went to see a house that was way out of our league.  With no income for one and a half years & no current employment, we only hoped for a 3 room apartment.  How could we know what we could afford at this point anyway?!  So off we went and when we drove up the driveway into a clearing in the woods, we saw a house that looked like Better Homes and Gardens. It was a 5 year old, 2 story, salt box with floor to ceiling windows with a southern exposure… way nicer than anything we could have ever hoped for!! The lady turned out to be a Christian and she wanted us to have it, so she lowered the rent and offered to sell us the wood needed to heat the house for the winter for what it cost her before it was spit & stacked.  We did not even have the money to give her a down payment, so we borrowed that and the next week Roger returned to the area and he found a job!!

Fall 1984 outside our first home

I still marvel that we actually lived there as we started out.  God so overwhelmingly provided… a couch on the side of the road (our current couch was provided the same way), a table on clearance and chairs from a yardsale that matched. A single friend gave us her queen sized bed, deciding to get herself a single. Wedding gifts took care of kitchen needs and linens etc. and our honey moon was financed by all the monetary gifts we received plus two wedding gifts of cottages to stay in for free that friends and family owned in NH & Maine. Wow! I still marvel at all God did on our behalf!

When things got tough in our marriage, we could always look back and see God's hand of encouragement as we set out together and remember His faithful confirmation of our union. Thus began an an adventure that has taught us so much about the faithfulness of our God!

The adventure continues…..

"The terrible-but-wonderful, humbling heart-link…"

Been doing a bit of wrestling with God these days…

~ Since last summer, we have been seeking Him for His plan for our lives in this season & have taken a a new step to live by faith & go full-time with Operation Nehemiah

~ We have been crying out for our boys in lands far away - Josh serving with the Army in Afghanistan & Jon serving with Operation Nehemiah in South Sudan & those serving with them

~Also crying out for God to heal relationships & we are seeing His hand 

~Also trying to solve Rogers's health issue and the way is getting clearer!

With much out of our control,  our only recourse was to look up!   He has proven Himself so patient & faithful. Though many things are still in process, we are trusting that He is faithfully completing the work He has begun in our hearts and lives and that of others as well.

One of the things He is putting his finger on is the area of finances. For almost 3 years of the past 4, we had no promised income, no savings,  no credit card & without making our needs known, we only asked our heavenly Father and He has so faithfully provided… AND He certainly fine tuned our hearts in the process of waiting on Him. [see some of our MANNA posts]

As we have joined Operation Nehemiah & have stepped away from employment again;  William Levi, who lives by faith,  has urged us to raise monthly support so that we can run the East office of Operation Nehemiah... but we have resisted, wanting to continue solely waiting on the Lord.  Until we recently read something that we have since been wrestling with…

“God has various ways to support those in full-time ministry. Don’t try to dictate to the Lord the means by which you will be supported. Some are unable to bear the sacrifice of their pride to rely on the gifts of others. They decide they will only minister if they can pay their own way. Others fall into the trap of spiritual pride believing that the only way to do God’s work is to have Him tell people to give to them, without their making their needs known. [Ouch!] Still others rely too much on people - they look more to their contacts than to God. If He were to lead them to do otherwise they would have trouble trusting Him...

"We need to get God's way of looking at ministry and money firmly in our minds. We are concerned with what work is getting done and getting the money to see that our goals are accomplished. They are, after all, goals for God's work, aren't they?

“However, the Lord has a far different bottom line. His primary concern is restoring relationships-- between us and Him and between us and each other. This is why He has designed it so that we rely on others for financial support while we do His work.

“Jesus modeled this for us. He supported Himself through as a carpenter during His early adult years, but during the three years of His full-time ministry, He and the disciples had "Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their own means. (Luke 8:3)

“As people give to the work of the Lord, many wonderful things happen… "  ~ Cunningham

This has certainly been true as God has provided through others & in all sorts of creative ways through the years, but we are wrestling with the fact that we do not have the opportunity to freely share the stories of His faithful provision, because we have kept our needs a secret.   

As we thought about this and wondered if God were leading us to share more openly, I saw what rose up in my heart and realized that I [Patty] had become proud of the fact that we have looked to God alone. It has been an amazing adventure living on manna quite literally as day to day, we look to him for bills, or the gas money to get to somewhere He wants us to go, or for food to see us through the next day or so, or to call Jon in South Sudan, etc. etc. and each day He sees us through. But now I see that in the process, no one can appreciate how faithfully He has provided for us. So here I am struggling with letting people know more fully, for fear of what?  I’m honestly not quite sure... but having admitted my pride, I am so thankful I can repent & listen. So we are being compelled to consider making a change as He leads.

We would rather be self-sufficient... but we would miss the terrible-but-wonderful, humbling heart-link that occurs... There is a special bond forever between you and the person who gave to you. You care about them and you pray for them... and naturally want to share news with him about your ministry, reporting what the gift has done in the work of the Lord... [This has been our experience as friends have shared with us & vice versa, but then we read on and we are compelled...]

It may not seem so for a struggling missionary or pastor, but if a giant foundation were to fund his work or some billionaire were to write a huge check, it could be the death knell for his ministry. Missionaries need more than money. They need people praying for them and for the extension of God’s kingdom, engaging with them in spiritual battles through prayer and giving...  At the same time the ministries needs will be met, people will have their personal vision enlarged and will come to see the world more as God does - all because of their giving and the reports they get back from their personal representative “out there”.  And prayer will go up on all sides, doing the work of spiritual warfare that is necessary for anything to be accomplished. None of this would happen if we didn’t depend upon God through others to keep the work of God going...”

“Ask the Lord what steps you are to take.  At times, He may have you tell others about your needs, obey Him. At other times, He may tell you to keep quiet and only make your needs known to Him, obey Him... don’t rule out creative alternatives either, or try to force the Lord to provide for you in a certain way. [as if we can!] All miracles of God’s provision start by heeding Mary’s advice at the wedding of Cana: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” ~Loren Cunningham, Daring to Live on the Edge:The Adventure of Faith & Finances

This quote confirms what Rog said  some caring leaders shared with him recently as he shared our George Mueller stand on finances...   So that is where we are... convicted and course corrected... realizing that God wants us to look to Him for what he’s about in each situation.  

This has been such a helpful and humbling process.  We are so thankful to all our dear friends/family who have prayed for us, and loved us though they may wonder about us. This humbling love of our Lord and from you is what we ask God to fill us with for others  The Lord is humbling His people as He unties His body!! [Ephesians 4:11-13] All glory to Him!

As we all talk to God,  He is bringing us into what He has already planned to do and we get to see Him work in power and love through circumstances we are praying about. As we join together in prayer as the Lord leads, we can celebrate together how God has faithfully intervened!! 

We do have needs here in order to have this office running here in western MA, as well as needs for training this summer, travel so we can share with others about the vision of Operation Nehemiah, and for needs of the people of Borongole.  As His body unites it is amazing what God is doing there! 

If you would like to be a part of our prayer support or monthly support team, as we serve with Operation Nehemiah, please let us know. We will keep you informed of needs and praise reports as He answers "our" prayers. 

Thanks for listening. We are humbled by His love an patience with us.

Roger & Patty, Jonathan & Emma

Humbled by God's help through His people

 We want to testify further of God's faithful hand through relationships.  
We were waiting on God and asking His provision for May rent, which was overdue and graciously a gift came in through Operation Nehemiah which covered 1/2 of it!! We also had dear old friends visit overnite and they had received a generous unexpected bonus & instead of tucking it away for a rainy day, they gave some of it to us! We were both humbled and very grateful, as we had been praying for their finances & God blessed them to bless us!!!  But we still needed $300… We had been talking to God about this and many other things that He brings up as He has you in this place of waiting on Him and that is when we were remembered again something we read, that we since have been chewing on:

"We need to get God's way of looking at ministry and money firmly in our minds. We are concerned with what work is getting done and getting the money to see that our goals are accomplished. They are, after all, goals for God's work, aren't they?

However, the Lord has a far different bottom line. His primary concern is restoring relationships-- between us and Him and between us and each other. This is why He has designed it so that we rely on others for financial support while we do His work.

As people give to the work of the Lord, many wonderful things happen… " 

As we continued to pray earnestly, the Lord provided exactly the remaining amount through a dear family member whom we had not spoken with in a very long time. It brought conviction about having neglected this relationship and an renewed desire to pray more for him and others, trusting the Lord to meet our needs as we do… Much of our time can and has often been taken up praying about own needs, but as He faithfully supplies in unexpected ways, we are encouraged to trust that He sees our need, and He wants us to care about others more in prayer.

So again I ask HOW CAN WE PRAY FOR YOU?!!! 

How can we pray for you?

Each day we look to the Lord for the direction for the day's activities and for what we need to follow Him where He is taking us. On this day, we had our usual morning time and later we were emailing an update, but several of the emails got kicked back again, so I felt I should take the time to contact these dear friends to see if I had there updated info.

The first call was to an old friend from over 30 years who I had reconnected with a year ago. She was doing well back then in spite of having lost her husband, but this time when I called she declared "It was God that you called, I really needed to talk with someone." She had been through trial after trial (as have we) since our last conversation, so we had a lot in common and it was so wonderful to pray & look to the Lord together! Thank You, Lord, for using even emails not getting through to connect us on a personal level… we still can't figure out why her email will not work for me, but I surely do not mind picking up the phone and having the opportunity to pray together!

The second contact confirmed a change in email address, but also brought us into a friends life when they were at a place of having done all that they could and desperately needing God to intervene on their behalf. We have been able to go back and forth sharing scripture and things the Lord has given each of us as encouragement, as we all wait on God for things that are totally our of our control!

It was becoming very clear to us that our volunteering to help get the word out about the needs in South Sudan, involves a lot more than just that... God intends for our contact with others to be mutually beneficial!

So on this day we were course corrected in our focus.  Yes, we are called to share the needs and trumpet what God has done and is doing in South Sudan through Operation Nehemiah, but those we contact have needs as well, and we have the awesome privilege of taking time to pray for that which concerns them. We are being brought into the adventures that God is doing in a country far away, as well as in the lives of people we know right here! Oh, what a blessing to see a need, bring it to our heavenly Father, weeping with those who weep both near and far and then celebrating what He does in answer to those cries.

SO TELL US… HOW CAN WE PRAY FOR YOU??

"His primary concern is restoring relationships - 

between us & Him and between us & each other. 

This is why He has designed it so that we rely on others… 

while we do His work." 

~ from DARING TO LIVE ON THE EDGE: The Adventure of Faith & Finances 
by Loren Cunningham

MANNA - Look to God alone!

I had to repost this testimony of God's hand in our lives… This has become a marker… a reminder of God's faithfulness and the reality that He sees and knows and is on the job!!

On Wed. Sept. 18th, two days before we had to take Jon to the airport on his second trip to South Sudan, we had two options to take Jon and his four duffle bags of donated items and one of personal belongings to the airport on Friday. Our van had died the month before and God had faithfully provided various options to get us wherever we needed to go and we had not missed a venturing out since we lost our van. Later that morning, I found out we could not use my sister's car b/c my mom's car was going into the shop for repair on  Friday.  Later on Wed., our friends who weekly left their car here for us to use Thursday thru Monday let us know they had to take their car back to Maine for the weekend. So I was simply going to let folks know via email, that we needed help getting Jon to the airport Friday morning, but I suddenly felt strongly that we should not share our need and just ask God. 

Later, Wed. evening, I was tempted to let folks know,  I even composed an email, but before I could push "send", I felt strongly that I should not send it, & to LOOK TO GOD ALONE! 

Thursday morning after Roger left for work and Jon and Em left for the last day of working at the organic farm, some one came to the door!……………… and it was Josh!!! 
(who is stationed about 6 hours away at Fort Drum)  I screamed and cried, and I could not believe my eyes!!! Then it took me about 10 minutes to realize that Josh was our ride to the airport!!! So while I was composing that email the night before, Josh was actually on his way to surprise us!!

Here is his story: 
On Tuesday, Josh realized that it was possible that he would not see Jon for at least 11 months and could be longer, since when Josh returns from Afghanistan, Jon could be spending months in Africa again. Since he had not put in for a pass a week ahead as required, he thought of getting off work as early as possible on Thursday, driving 6 hours home to spend a couple of hours here and driving back to report on Friday am. He pitched this to his sergeant who suggested he still try to put in for a pass. So they submitted it Tuesday night. Hopeful, Josh looked into getting a rental car in town, but there were none available! So he looked into an on base rental, but the cheapest was $400 and Josh only had $300 to his name, so he waited. On Wed. around noon, a friend told Josh that if he got a pass, he could use their car! Later Wed., he was at a platoon meeting and his sergeant was assigning him work for Thursday and Friday and he thought to himself, "I did not get the pass." The next thing he knows is that his sergeant is yelling at him, saying, "Lueken!!! Get out of here! Go home! I don't want to see your face!" Josh was stunned and wasn't sure what to think & his other sergeant said, "Do you want me to make you low crawl all the way to the parking lot?" So he ran out of there, gathered his things, got the vehicle and was off and on his way at the same time I was composing the email to let folks know we had a need of a ride.   He did not tell us he was coming as he wanted to surprise us, so he contacted my brother, Jeff, who lives next door. He arrived very late while we were in bed and stayed at their house till morning, when he wandered over to our house, giving me the shock of my life!

I said to Roger that a million dollars and a limousine ride would not be as great as having Josh with us and all going the airport together as a family!!  God is so good! and He sees and knows our need! Even when there is a simple human solution to meet our needs, waiting on Him first is far better!! I often need to recall this to mind as the children of Israel did.

"I remember the days of long ago; 

I meditate on all Your works and 

consider what Your hands have done." 

Psalm 143:5

MANNA - Silver and gold have I none...

William Levi, head of Operation Nehemiah  www.operationsnehemiah.org,   had called us from South Sudan early Saturday morning, May 10th , but we had missed his call. 
When we finally realized he had called, we were heading out on a prayer walk… so we listened to his message and heard that they needed $3500 in order to finish helping to build the sister church in another village and for other projects they wanted to complete in the next two weeks before they return to the USA on May 26th.  In his message he asked if our East Office had any funds, but we did not have anything to help, so we decided to take our prayer walk and call after we had prayed. We also talked with the Kirkman's who were keeping an eye on donations coming in at the West Office.  They had received a call from William in the middle of the night, so they knew the need and after checking the mail for new donations they determined there was $700 available, so after much prayer, we called William to report that. When we finally reached William in the early afternoon here/ evening there God had already provided all that they needed!! (we believe from there in South Sudan!)

Oh what a joy to not have everything we need, so that we are forced to look to God alone and find Him more faithful than we ever hoped. 

YOU ARE FAITHFUL!! 
That reminds me of a new favorite song… FAITHFUL
by Steven Curtis Chapman

I am broken, I am bleeding, I'm scared and I'm confused,
but You are faithful. Yes You are faithful.

I am weary, unbelieving. God please help my unbelief!
Cuz You are faithful. Yes You are faithful.

I will proclaim it to the world. I will declare it to my heart
And sing it when the sun is shining. I will scream it in the dark.

You are faithful! You are faithful!
When you give and when You take away, even then still Your name is faithful!
You are faithful!
And with everything inside of me, I am choosing to believe
You are faithful.

I am waiting for the rescue that I know is sure to come,
cuz You are faithful. Yes You are faithful.

I've dropped anchor in Your promises, and I am holding on,
cuz You are faithful. God You are faithful.

I will proclaim it to the world. I will declare it to my heart
And sing it when the sun is shining. I will scream it in the dark.

You are faithful! You are faithful!
When you give and when You take away, even then still Your name is faithful!
You are faithful!  And with everything inside of me,
I am choosing to believe You're faithful.

So faithful…

Though I cannot have the answer that I'm wanting to demand,
I'll remember You are God and everything is in Your hand.
In Your hands you hold the sun, the moon, the stars up in the sky,
for the sake of Love, You hung Your own Son on the cross...to die…

& You are faithful… Yes, You are faithful...
When you give and when You take away, even then, 

great is Your faithfulness!   Great is Your faithfulness!

And with everything inside of me,
I am choosing to believe You're faithful!
Oh, oh, oh...
Oh, oh, oh...
When you give and when You take away, even then still Your name
is faithful! You are faithful!
And with everything inside of me, I am choosing to believe...

...You're faithful…

Songwriters
MOORE, GEOFF / CHAPMAN, STEVEN CURTIS

Read more: Steven Curtis Chapman - Faithful Lyrics | MetroLyrics