Spring 2011 Newsletter

Hello Family and Friends!

We hope Christmas and New Years went well for you and your family. We enjoyed spending Christmas in Chicago with the Madsen family, Amanda’s dad’s side of the family. What a blessing it was to see Grandpa Madsen as we have not seen him for 3 years. New Years was rather low key for us this year as we had a brief break from traveling before flying to California to visit with John’s family. Praise the Lord for being able to spend our Christmas break with both sides of the family.

The Lord has been stretching us and growing us in so many ways over the past year or so. The best way to summarize it all would be to say that He has been teaching us to keep our eyes fixed on Him no matter what goes on around us. We have loved and valued our training here in Missouri with NTM. Throughout our time here we have observed a few concerns within the leadership of NTM. Many of the concerns started off minuscule; however they continued to build upon each other. We have looked to the Lord for guidance and have come to the conclusion that NTM is not the best fit for us to serve with overseas. We are still very passionate in serving the Lord cross-culturally, and highly value the training that has been received through NTM.

Another thing that we have learned time and time again is that our own plans can change rather abruptly. At first we were planning on moving back to California after graduation in December, however we were made aware of the possibility of John taking a more in-depth technology course during the Spring semester. He was accepted under the condition that we are still planning on serving overseas. Life got a bit topsy-turvy for a few weeks as we were trying to figure out what Amanda could be doing while John is in classes. Praise the Lord that it was all straightened out and she was asked to work in childcare with the preschoolers. We are so grateful that John is able to take this extra course that teaches him to fix and maintain “common” missionary equipment, and that Amanda is able to be a blessing to the student families with preschoolers.

Thanks so much for partnering with us in serving the Lord. Words cannot express how grateful we are for your prayers and financial support. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have, or even if you just want to chat.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Christ,
John and Amanda Strozewski <><

Prayer Requests:
- Wisdom in discerning what’s next.
- Attitudes while we study and serve here at the MTC.
- Keep our eyes fixed on the LORD.

Surgery

Last week was rather crazy and we apologize for not getting a post up sooner. It all started the Monday before Thanksgiving. I (Amanda) went to see my doctor late Monday morning, not expecting any of this. After multiple tests it was determined that I most likely had a tubal pregnancy and surgery would be needed. Due to not being in any pain at the time I was sent home with instructions to call my doctor if I experience any pain and to come back in for blood tests Tuesday or Wednesday. Well the pain came about 3 AM Tuesday morning, after a phone call to the doctor we were off to the hospital to be prepped for surgery around 7 AM. The surgery went well and lasted about an hour. I was kept overnight and released from the hospital on Wednesday. We were so thankful to be staying at a friends house the rest of Thanksgiving week/weekend.It was a blessing to have some amenities close at hand (at the time I did not move well, or at all). It was wonderful to have the extra space as we had Luke (John's brother), Stella (Luke's girlfriend), and Mike (family friend) come in town from the Bible School in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. It was such a blessing to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. We returned to our apartment on campus late Sunday morning. It's been neat to see how the Lord takes care of us in the little ways such as a ride for John to the hospital on Monday, a wonderful doctor, a home to stay in for a few days, family in town, a hair cut, meals (spaghetti to be more specific), and laundry. Praise the Lord for the body of Christ.

It's hard to put into words how thankful we are for the Lord. I (Amanda) had a lot of peace throughout each step of the way. It was neat to see the Lord provide and sustain us throughout the whole week. We are so thankful for friends and family who came alongside and helped us out.

We would ask that you continue to pray for me as I recover. We do not know yet the time table for when I am considered fully recovered. It has been about a week so far, and I have made a lot of progress, but there are still many times when it hurts to much to move. We think it will take another 2 weeks at least. Please be praying for John as he continues to help me, take care of the household chores, and be a student. Thank you for your prayers. God bless.


Resting in the Lord,
John and Amanda Strozewski <><

recap

Our apologies for being behind on our blog. Here's a quick recap of our summer... the Lord made it possible to see KT in AZ before we drove out to California, we attended a conference called "Resolved" with Grace Church, we celebrated the Fourth of July with John's family in California, on the fifth of July we celebrated 2 year wedding anniversary, we were blessed to share where we were at in the training process with various Sunday school classes with Grace Church in California, Amanda was blessed to spend a week and a half with her parents before John came out to AZ, we were able to attend Faith Bible's "All Church Retreat" (aka Family Camp), Amanda celebrated her 25 birthday with family and friends at Family Camp, and the Lord blessed us with purchasing a minivan the weekend before we drove back to Missouri! It was a busy but very relaxing summer, which was super nice since our first class to start off the semester is/was Dobu!

Dobu is basically a "mock village" that is a part of our training. We get to work with a language helper to learn their language and the Dobu culture, using a trade language (in this case English). We have had a blast thus far! It's amazing how much time and energy goes into learning a new language and culture. Also this is our only class until the end of October and then we will start our Practical Skills course.

Our major prayer request at this time is for wisdom, and discernment. Since returning to the MTC we have been processing a lot of information, and various emotions. We love the Lord so much and look forward to serving Him cross-culturally in the years to come where-ever He may have us. Thanks again for your prayers, your love, and support. If it weren't for you all we would not be where we are today.

John and Amanda Stro

New Home

Yep! You read correctly. John and I moved out of our home into a two bedroom student apartment. All in all the move went very smoothly. Our apartment is less than 1/4 of a mile away from the house we were living in. :) Praise the Lord that we had many helping hands, as John was sick throughout part of the moving days.
Majority of the moving was done prior to our Easter break as we were blessed to have Jim, a friend from California, visit us for a four day weekend. We were all able to relax throughout majority of the break since most of the moving process had been done. Praise the Lord for all the helping hands that made the move a smooth transition. If you would like to see more pictures of our home check out my facebook page.


The Lord has blessed us with beautiful weather the past few weeks. A man from John's outreach heard that we enjoy having people over for food and fellowship, and gave us meat. What a blessing it was to host a potluck bbq by one of the creeks on campus. Everyone enjoyed the sunshine, food, and even a game of miniature croquet. :)

Thanks for praying for my health. I am feeling much better. Please be praying for John's health. His back has been acting up again. He has trouble sitting for more than an hour at a time, which is not so great when we have classes. He's currently seeing a chiropractor to hopefully fix his back by the time we visit California for the summer. Thanks for your prayers!

~ Amanda Strozewski

current prayer request

Hi from Missouri. Classes have been absolutely wonderful. We are currently studying Animism and will start a grammar class tomorrow. Animism continues to remind us to keep a person's worldview (the eye or the “lens” through which one views all aspects of life)in mind as we teach others about who God is, who man is, and the relationship between the two.

Our prayer request is for my (Amanda's) health. I have been very tired for the past month, and have been sleeping a lot more than normal. I find it very difficult to wake up in the morning, and when I do wake up I don't feel rested. I become exhausted rather quickly from normal simple activities around the house and campus. I'm finding it more and more difficult to keep up with my regular student activities here at the Missionary Training Center. I went to a doctor last week and had a basic blood test done. Everything showed up as normal, and no I'm not pregnant they checked. Please be praying for my doctor to have wisdom in the next step to take.

Amanda Strozewski <><

PS. God is so good in reminding me that He knows what's going on. I was doing my homework tonight and Phil 4:6-7 came to mind... “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Awesome

i just got back from my outreach at the teen center about 10 min ago, but i could not wait to share this news. Today there was a small number of kids there, namely 2. But that afforded me the opportunity to actually have a good conversation with them both. But that is not the awesome news. it is actually kind of funny. i was able to share the gospel with them, but what started the conversation was my tattoos. i have romans 3:19-28 on my arm and that started some questions about the word. I told them it was my very verses because it talks about how we are hopelessy condemned by the law, but in those versus it states "but God" those two words are the bases for my hope. we are totaly lost but God sent His son as a sacrifice for our sins. That led to more questions. I would ask you all to pray for these two guys austin and scott. that they would come next week and that there would be a small number of people there so that we can continue the conversation about Christ. just to clarify why i ask for a small group is the fact that i am the only leader there on tuesdays and that makes it very hard to sit down and talk to these kids while trying to maintain order. and average night is 10+ ages from 13-17 so it is hard to do this alone on that day. please also pray that more of the students here will decide to join this outreach. we could really use the extra help from them. thank you all for your prayers they mean a lot to us.
- your brother in Christ - john stro

Snow

Hello everyone,
We had a blast getting to know a lot of you over Christmas, and catching up with old friends. I have a quick prayer request. For awhile now we have had decent weather, decent being around 30ish. Thursday and Friday we got about 4in of snow. Friday there were 4 cars off in the ditch right in front of the school entrance. Being Sunday now...well we are stuck in our house. The roads out side of the training center are supposedly good to go, but the roads here though cleared have a nice thin sheet of ice on them. We live kinda in the middle of a little hill. I took about 4-5 tries to get up it, and got about 10-15ft from the top each time. It is slick here. So I guess we are kind of snowed in with only 4 inches =). I would ask that you guys be praying for all the other students and staff for safety on the roads today. It does not seem like much but it does not take much ice to be dangerous. So please be praying. Thank you so much for your prayers and your eagerness to be a part of this ministry before the foreign field and on it. It has been very encouraging as we head out on the path God has laid out for us. God bless. Your brother in Christ - John Stro