Dear Epaphras,
Happy 2019 and Merry Christmas ! YES, I know we are a few days late, but, we wanted our Christmas greeting to bypass the clutter and craziness of life under the tree. Here is a passage of scripture we’ve been thinking about this season…
“But, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that, we might receive adoption as sons (and daughters). And, because you are sons (and daughters), God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying ‘ABBA!! FATHER!!’ So you are no longer slave, but a son, and if a son, then also an heir through God…” Galatians 4 v 4 – 7
Think back to the best gift you received this last week. Was it better than this one? Could that gift have been better than your adoption by the living God and the gift of sonship. And, as a result of this gift, you are a full heir of the one true God who owns all, controls all, knows all and loves all? Was that 70 inch TV better than that?!! Was that vacation to an exotic beach better than that?!!
I have nothing against vacations or TVs, we just returned from an awesome vacation. But, those are temporary and usually dependent on having some extra cash on hand, No, my best gift this Christmas came to me this morning as I was reminded by Paul’s letter to the Galatians. It was the renewed realisation that I am His son! And God is my Father! And, I’m in awe again this morning by the reality that He has filled me with His Spirit to remind me of my present and future inheritance! We have been given an ability to live in joy and peace in spite of our circumstances; our health, our bank account, our facebook friends… There is no better gift!
My prayer for you is that you would receive (or revel in the fact that you’ve already received) this awesome adoption! Ok, onto our ministry update for 2018.
2018 in review
The year began back in Bayonne, France and ended here in Kandern, Germany. Yes, we traded foie gras, magret and pate for schnitzel and streusel – certainly a downgrade from a culinary perspective – sorry Germany. We made the move in the middle of the year for three primary reasons : the girls schooling, different health care, and needing to be more centrally located in Europe to increase our reach to our teams. I’ll unpack each of those later.
God was at work in Bayonne and we left the elder board of our church with the church moving into a larger building and a growing congregation. Some long standing conflicts were resolved and God was blessing the leadership and preaching of Junior Damaceno – our franco / brazilian pastor. We miss Bayonne, and we miss our friends of 10+ years in the south west of France. We will certainly be visiting in the years to come and continue to pray for them.
In January, Sara started pinceaux sur planches (brushes on boards) as an outlet for her creativity and way to get God’s Word onto the walls of homes in France! While the ‘business’ side of things leaves a lot to be desired, many boards have been made proclaiming truth like, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,’ and ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace….’ Many of our french Christian friends are timid in sharing their faith verbally, so, boards like these stand as important proclamations in their homes. We pray that boldness to proclaim Christ openly will follow.
In February, Sara’s book, Orphaleena, was translated into french! Distribution has been slow, but, it’s been steady at the same time. It now sits on the shelves of several bookstores across France. We have been able to send copies to far off french speaking countries like Haiti, Senegal and Uganda. There is such a lack of good Bible resources in the francophone world, people have really appreciated the message of Orphaleena – God longs to become our Father !
In March, we made our first trip to Germany to “spy out the land…” It was during that brief survey trip, which many of you prayed for, that we became convinced the Lord was drawing us here to Kandern, Germany. A friend had ‘warned’ us to not visit unless we were ready to make the move. He was right. The 70 plus years of history of educating children of missionaries was irresistible. We knew instantly that Annie and Julia needed to grow in this community! In France they’d never known fellow TCKs (Third Culture Kids) and often felt misunderstood. Here everyone has a hand full of answers to the question, ‘where are you from?’ Uh, I was born in Africa, to American parents, but, I’ve grown up in France and now live in Germany… Now, they are with students and friends who are just a wonderfully ‘complicated’ as they.
In April, Steve’s mom passed away. She beat Alzheimer’s! The terrible disease may have took her from this world, but, it wasn’t able to steal our beautiful memories of her : a loving mother, caregiver, graceful dancer, bold defender, generous provider, hostess, giver, lover of people, etc.. We received so many cards and condoleances from many of you. Mom had SO MANY friends! Thanks to each of you who took the time to visit, call, write a letter in her memory. I’m sure she is dancing in the Lord’s presence as we write this letter.
May was a month of growth for our PIONEERS leadership team in Europe. We added Rick and Christy Gascho as area leaders over Germany, Austria, the Czech republic and Slovakia. Rick and Christy both grew up on the mission field and have been serving faithfully in the Czech republic for 2 decades. Rick speaks German and is already developing church planting opportunities in Germany and Austria! We have teams preparing to preach the Gospel among refugees and newly arrived immigrants.
In June our growing leadership team met in Gijon, Spain. We are now 15 ; 10 area leaders, 4 support members and Steve. We met in June for team training led by a friend and mentor of Steve’s, Tom Lambshed. Tom’s ministry to us over the years has really improved the way we serve together, making us more effective in leading collectively our nearly 300 missionaries in Europe.
Later in June I (Steve) had the blessed privilege of returning to Haiti to teach at a YWAM DTS in the north of the country – you’ll recall I lived and served there from 1988-1992. Sadly, the infrastructure hasn’t improved much, there is still so much squalor and poverty. BUT, God is raising up an army of Gospel heralds and sending them to surrounding nations and we trust to the ends of the earth ! Please keep the YWAM team in Cap Haitian in your prayers. Annie joined me for the week of teaching on God’s Father heart. It was an awesome experience to share with her. One student even pointed out that my relationship with Annie emphasised what I was teaching on God’s fathering of us. That was a huge affirmation in our parenting!
In July we made the BIG MOVE to Germany and into a new-to-us home. God gave us the grace to weather the move, in spite a terribly dishonest and poorly run moving company, who, in the end weren’t able to bring all our belongings. But, in God’s grace, two of our dear friends, Christophe and Laurent, rented a van, purchased a case of Red Bull, and drove the 27 hours round trip in just under two days, delivering the rest of our stuff. Thank you again Christophe and Laurent!
In August we began renovating the first floor of our house. It’s been much, much slower than we imagined.
Sara has been helping a local coffee shop with their signs. Uncharted Grounds is managed by a good friend of ours who loves Jesus. The shop is run by two Syrian refugees who are growing in their knowledge and love of Jesus and making awesome coffee. Sara has been designing signs for them and their business is increasing as a result – well I’m sure there are other factors but the signs are beautiful!
In September the girls started school at the Black Forest Academy (BFA). Julia’s comment to Sara at the end of the first week basically sums up their experience so far. “Mom! It’s incredible! It’s like the teachers actually love their jobs and the students!” We attended the commencement ceremony and were floored by the Christ centered nature of the school and its far reach to the nations – kids from as far as Korea, Egypt and Venezuela! For 60 years BFA has been educating children of missionaries so that their parents can more effectively do their ministries. BFA’s mission is to provide a quality, international Christian education that equips students to influence their world.
Steve has been involved in several international working groups with PIONEERS. For example, he and a team of 5 other members are looking at how we might restructure our organisational leadership to streamline and better facilitate church planting at the ground level. We’ve always loved PIONEERS value on keeping decision making as close to the team level as possible.
Steve is also helping start a missiological reflection group within PIONEERS. So, what exactly is ‘missiology?’ Basically, if you combine ‘theology’ and ‘missions,’ you get missiology which is the practice of staying true to Word of God and communicating Christ and the Gospel effectively across cultures, specifically in a missions context. The third group Steve is a part of is helping start a discipleship training school (DTS) network within PIONEERS. PIONEERS DTS schools will be a network of schools across the globe where young people from diverse international backgrounds come together and learn about God, get discipled and engage missions in a communal, life on life, team based atmosphere. Thank you in advance for praying for these 3 initiatives.
In November we were grateful for the ministry of Shane and Heather Snesrud. Shane (a skilled bricklayer) and Heather (an encourager) were sent by the River Church in Faribault, MN to help us finish the flooring of our first floor hospitality and meeting facility. We are so grateful for the boost of encouragement they were to us and the project!
November, as usual was filled with international travel to Thailand where the International leadership team of PIONEERS met with other senior level leaders. None of us are looking for one more meeting to attend. And, Its awesome when such international meetings have a direct impact on churches being planted among the unreached. That is our goal as we meet, to focus our leadership efforts on proclaiming the Gospel and planting churches among the unreached. And, we must ever keep that goal in front of us.
Looking ahead to 2019
Looking ahead to 2019 we are excited about several things, a few of which are listed here. We will develop these initiative further in the weeks and months to come.
- God is raising up a member care team for Europe
- God helping us start a Discipleship Training School for Europe
- Prayer and fasting for the Basque people of southern France and northern Spain
- Our Biennial Regional conference – Euro-Connect 2019 – will be held in Slovenia this April
- Annie is going on a short term mission trip to Russia
- We will be in the USA this summer visiting Coronado, Orlando, Northfield, Faribault, Chicagoland and a city near you ???
Finances
As you know all workers in PIONEERS depend up financial partners who give generously. The Lord has blessed us with an amazing team. Many of you have been with us for years! And, we are grateful. At the end of last year we had a ‘huge’ budget shortfall. But, this year, due to several factors, our shortfall has been drastically reduced. Many of you increased your giving and we received an inheritance from Steve’s mother which allowed us to purchase a home here in Germany cutting our cost of renting by about 70%. Annie and Julia’s schooling is now more expensive, but, the cost of living in Germany is slightly lower than it was in France. All that to say, that Instead of being short $1850 a month, as we were at the end of 2017, we are now only short $360 per month. God is good! If you are not currently donating to our ministry, would you please pray about joining us in this way? You can do so in several ways, each of which are described here on our website – Donating to the Currey’s Ministry with PIONEERS
Prayer
In addition, and equally important, we are in continual need of intercessors and prayer partners to join our ministry of church planting leadership here in Europe. The need for more missionaries, the need for the eyes and hearts of Europeans to be opened to the Gospel, open doors for preaching, and the defeat of our enemy are all things that will only be accomplished in prayer. We need you! Please click here to sign up for our prayer team. And, if you know other intercessors who might be interested, please recruit them for us! Feel free to forward this email to potential intercessors.
We are excited about what God has in store for us in 2019.
For Christ’s Kingdom in Europe.
Steve, Sara, Annie and Julia Currey