Dear Friends,
The other day I woke up early and thought to myself, “The house is so quiet; I am going to take extra time to read scripture and pray today.” However, within two minutes the kids were up and my aspirations vanished like a dream. The only thing I took from my quiet time that day was Hebrews 10:14 (above). As I look to a new decade, I can rest in the fact that even with my insufficiencies (not enough time to read, pray, parent, be a good husband, win the world to Christ...), God has already declared us perfect in His sight. Furthermore, He is in the process of making us more like Him each day.
When God is in it...
Most churches in Austria grow from living room Bible studies into small congregations that meet in a storefront or a house. If the body grows, they might knock out a few walls to form a bigger meeting room. The first church we worked with in Graz has grown from 130 to around 280 people. Their building is situated in a residential area, and their prayer has been for God to allow the neighboring houses to go for sale. In the last years God has answered their prayers. Two properties right next to the church have been purchased! The last one had a man living in an old house who was very antagonistic toward the church. God took him. His son inherited the house and sold it to the church for €120,000. The church only had half the funding, but by faith they bought the house. Once they began to rummage through the old things left behind, they
found GOLD COINS worth exactly €60,000 to pay for the rest!!
When God is in it….
This FALL I had the chance to take a group of Americans to Graz to help with the building project. The first phase was to renovate the old house into an apartment for their janitor, and use several of the rooms as meeting rooms for youth, elders and children’s ministries. Next year the plan is then to reconstruct the existing church building to a 450 seat auditorium that is expandable to 600!! Please pray for the church in Graz during this challenging phase. As in the times of Nehemiah, these projects rarely go without opposition and conflict. On our final day in Graz, I had the chance to preach in church. Three people indicated making a decision to trust Christ as Savior. One lady (Lydia), whom I spoke with afterwards, is still wrestling with the idea that Jesus is the only way. Please pray for her salvation.
Building into the Future…!!
Please remember to pray for the annual nationwide youth convention coming up in May of 2010 (http://2010.pfiju.at/). I will be the speaker, and we plan to bring a group from the USA to help with set up for this. There will be young people from all over Austria challenged with the topic: Born to Burn! The committee is already working on all the preliminary planning. Please pray for young people to come to know Christ and for believers to recognize their true purpose in life: to be vessels, available for God’s use in His Kingdom. Please also pray for me to be “on fire” for God, the way He wants me to be, so that I can challenge young people to “burn” for God.
Wishing you God’s best for 2010
Bobby, Jen and Kids Parschauer
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