Hi! Hope everything is going well for you. Anne and I are doing reasonably well. Her back seems to be
improving. Jonathan, Sarah and Rachel are growing fast. The older two really love interacting with Rachel (Sarah's still a little rough, but she's catching on). The warm spell allowed for a
special winter time trip to the zoo. The kids were thrilled. We're hoping to move into a house sometime this summer (it
might be a little later, but we're hoping to time it with the end of our present lease � Aug. 1). Thanks to a legal settlement from Anne's days as a sub in the Ann Arbor public schools, we've been able
to eliminate all our debt except our car loan and student loans, AND, after Uncle Sam sends us a check, we should have a reasonable down payment. However, due to some support attrition, our growing
family, and the added costs of home ownership, I'm hoping to boost our monthly support base a little in the coming months. Please pray for us in this matter. I'm encouraged by the
relationship that's developing between me and a couple charismatic/Pentecostal ministry leaders on campus. The times that we've taken to share and pray with one another have been tremendous.
What's particularly encouraging is that the Lord seems to be weaving our vision for the campus into a single tapestry. One of the ministry leaders I've been meeting with is Derrick, the
campus minister for United Students for Christ (a local Church of God in Christ outreach). Our groups have done some things together in the past, but nothing significant had come out of them.
Unfortunately, both of our groups have been frustrated by our lack of impact on the general student body. In place of our regular Friday meetings, we're taking time to hold some joint "outreach"
parties in an attempt to both impact the lost on campus and to redirect the frustrated efforts of our students towards something that has purpose and potential (and is fun too)! Our first one will be a
"Green" party on St. Patrick's day. Our North Campus Outreach has had a good start, despite some inconsistent attendance numbers. As you may recall, 5 mainland Chinese have come to
Christ and 1 Taiwanese. While it is hard to tell at this point, it appears that 2 or 3 more of our Mainland Chinese friends may have made a decision to follow Christ. (2 responded to a prayer
invitation and it appears that another has made a private decision, however, sometimes it takes awhile to determine whether they're just being polite and trying to maintain a friendship or if they have made
a genuine decision.) Keep praying, we should know soon! We desperately need some quality kids workers (for ages 2-6) if our North Campus outreach is going to have much of a chance to grow. Most
of our internationals are married with young children. We've lost a few already (understandably) because we don't have sufficient committed people with a strong vision for children's ministry to run a
quality program. This will be crucial if we hope to have any widespread impact among the internationals here, or even the large number of American couples living in the University's married housing
complex, only a couple blocks from our meeting room. Finally, I'm meeting regularly with a couple Chinese men and a Korean man for a combination of practical English help and Bible study.
Pray that God will bless these relationships. Special Thanks
- Thanks so much for your faithful support!
Prayer Focus
- Anne, Me, Jonathan, Sarah, and Rachel
- North Campus Sunday Morning Outreach
- Cooperative efforts with other USC and other charismatic campus ministries
- Wisdom in planning for next school year and summer activities
- That John Seeburger will have his support raised by the end of August.
Financial Needs
- $700 in new monthly support by September (pledge attrition and growing family)
Financial Update Operating Fund Income ('99)
Actual: $1,248.59/mo.
Budgeted: $2,000/mo. Kushner Income ('99)
Actual: $2,641.30/mo.
Budgeted: $3,000/mo. |
