Kolczyk Kronicals, Christmas 2011
And they called Him Emmanuel meaning, God with us! Matthew 1:23
From our house to yours, Judy and I would like to send you Christmas greetings and blessings during this holiday season celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. May His peace surround you as you meet with family and friends!
This ministry year has been such a blessing. We added Moody Bible Institute to our regular campus visit route and Martin is there one week out of every month. Also, the Lord brought many young people to us and they are now in different application stages to serve in internships, academic internships, summers, Love Europe, 2012, and career and special assignments. With a spiritual awakening in Europe, the Lord is calling a bunch of new missionaries and our fields can hardly handle all the blessings coming their way as they do ministry. This new, young generation is searching and using technology in ways that most governments can’t shut down and the Gospel can be proclaimed that way making the harvest huge. However, once people come to Christ, in order to grow in their faith, they still need churches and fellowships to plug in to. The need for missionaries is still there and that personal witness is the biggest means of seeing people come to Christ and grow. Often it comes about through personal evangelism one on one, with families in their neighborhoods, or on college and school campuses.
We are impressed at the caliber of students joining SEND and other missions and their heart for the Gospel. But because of problems in our society, the breakdown of the family, and financial problems, it has become harder to raise support. Often the focus within churches is no longer on global missions and this adds to the problem. When we hear what some groups within our government are now voicing about taking away the charitable contribution deduction from our income tax, it will get even harder. We have always looked at our finances as belonging to the Lord anyway, tax deduction or not, and that won’t change if this comes about. One almost has to ask this question: “Would the real Christian please stand up?”
With processing all the students the Lord is sending our way, a week’s training in the home office the first full week in December, our ministry within our home church and partnership with an E-Free church in former East Germany, and campus travel, we have a full plate. We would covet your prayers for traveling mercies and health as we are on the road. Martin is helping to mentor and coach new area representatives SEND has added in areas other than our own, doing the same type of ministry.
As we take part in missions conferences on our campuses, we often bring in home service missionaries to give our students a new flavor on missionary life. This helps students who are getting ready for ministry as they hear stories and experiences from these seasoned missionaries and are able to ask them questions.
We often talk about singleness on the field and that it is OK to serve as a single of either sex! Way too often, young people think they have to be married to be on the field or to serve, but we ask them “Why can’t the Lord bring a spouse to them on the field?” We have seen this happen and it would be God’s choice, far better than what a student might find!
SEND requires that missionaries are married for at least a year before leaving for a field to serve! Moody even requires that they can’t get married the same year they are doing their internship! So students have to deal with these things campus by campus depending where they go for their education
We are looking forward to spending time with our family at our home through the Christmas Holidays! We now have three grandkids in Christmas programs and the forth one another year older with a better understanding of what this is all about, it will be a new experience! We already are enjoying some German Christmas baked goods that remind us of the Bavarian region and, with the Internet, German Christmas music plays in our home. We display some handmade items from Europe that friends and family gave us and we remember earlier years of childhood and upbringing so our grandkids get a glimpse of the “good ole days”.
We would like to thank you for your partnership in the Gospel and ongoing prayer and financial support! Our team effort is yielding great spiritual fruit all over the world. What a blessing it is to stand hand in hand to see new workers that join His harvest fields. We must remember - …”the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Martin & Judy Kolczyk
Our contact information:
Martin & Judy Kolczyk, 695 West Washington Street, Marengo, IA 52301
Martin’s cell: 319-551-6332
Our webpage: www.kolczyk.org
E-mail: sendmidwest@send.org
Our blog: http://sendmidwest.blogspot.com/
Please send your support to: SEND International, P.O. Box 513 Farmington, MI 48332
Attn: support for Martin & Judy Kolczyk
(P. S. We are in need of an additional $300/mo. to be fully supported.)
