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

A Year of Praise

God is so good! It's amazing to look back and see all that He has done this year. We wanted to share with you some of the many praises we have seen and experienced in 2009:

Starting up as students.
Being able to have people over and feed them every Sunday afternoon.
Watching relationships bloom.
Being a part of two weddings.
A beloved friend who went home to be with the Lord in December.
Celebrating both Thanksgiving and Christmas with family.
An "In-Gathering" at the Rock House.
Being encouraged by friends and family.
Being blessed at VBS by the children at Grace Church.
Meeting many new friends.
Celebrating with friends who receive their visas.
The two cows and deer that God provided for everyone at the school

We are just thankful for all the provision that God has given us over this last year. Thank you for all the prayers and support that we have received from you all. it has been very encouraging to us.

God bless and happy new year

- The Strozewskis

Cool news in our outreach

This last week while at my outreach, I finally got a chance to have a deeper conversation with one of the kids there about Christ. He was curious, but reluctant, because he believes that he has sinned to much to be saved. I would ask that you pray for him, and that he would ask more questions the next time that I see him. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to work in his heart to hear and understand the gospel of grace and that God would give me the right questions and words to say. Also be praying for all the other kids there. Mike (another New Triber) and I have been trying to build relationships with these kids for about 9 weeks now and they are finally opening up to us. Praise God. Same goes for Amanda's ministry with the teen pregnancy center. The girls there were very much quiet and did not want anything to do with the girls that went to help and teach them some basic skills, but now they are more interested and learning these skills and asking questions about the bible. It is so cool to God working on the hearts of these young people (well younger than us =) ). Class have been going well thus far we have now moved into the phonetics. which is teaching us to listen and write down sounds. So we have been learning all the sounds that we make in English and all the ones we do not. It has been difficult but fun. The reason for this is to better prepare us to learn languages once we get to the foreign field and to help brake down the tribal languages. Writing down the sounds phonetically allows us to be able to read and reproduce them the way we heard them. Please be praying that we would continue to be diligent students as we learn these new skills to help us once we get to the foreign field. Please also pray for the kids that we are talking to in our outreaches also that they may come to know Christ as their savior. Thank you for all your prayers

- john stro

PLEASE PRAY

This last month we only received 79 dollars for the month, due to money transfer thing i mentioned in the last post, where 800 dollars that has been given over a few months was transferred to another account and taken from ours. that hurt our budget quite a bit as you can see the amount we are working with this month. so i would ask that you all be praying that more people will join our support team so that we can reach the minimum recommended amount a month of 2500. Praise God that He has provided another person to support our ministry here and our ministry when we get over seas. Please pray that we will continue to trust God for His provision in these tough times. And that we would be good stewards of what He has already given us. We all thank you for the prayers and support that God has provided to us through all of you.

God bless you all
- your brother and sister in Christ - john and amanda

Prayer requests

Hello!

Sorry there have not been any updates lately, things have been getting crazy busy here. I feel as if the training is now getting up to full steam as we start our phonetics course on Monday. We do have some prayer requests right now.

- Sickness has been spreading around, and a few cases of swine flu here
- Pray that those who are sick get well soon and that it does not spread further

- Also pray for our finances, currently we are at about 50% of the recommended $2500 a month, and due to some errors at the finances office some checks went to us instead of someone else for 5 months and they removed that from our account and put it into the correct account. So that put a 800 dollar dent in our finances and it stung. So we would ask if you could pray with us for God to continue to raise up supporters for us, and if you are interested about joining our support team please email us at jahardname@gmail.com

- You can be praying that I can get a deer this hunting season. Last year the meat was a huge blessing to us, it saved us a lot on out grocery bill and allowed us to have more people over so that we could get to know them and or minister to them.

- Please be praying that we would keep our eyes on Christ and the goal of seeing every tribe tongue and nation coming to know Christ.

Thank you so much for you prayers. We are blessed to have so many people praying for us. It means the world to us, when we get a letter from you guys telling us you are praying it's so encouraging. Thank you!

Thanks and God bless!
- John and Amanda Strozewski

NTM Posted a New Video

Hello!

NTM, the organization we are studying with just put out a new video on the web and we wanted to share it with you. We hope you enjoy it!
If you have 10 or so extra minutes check it out at: http://www.ntm.org/reach/awayo.php
If that link doesn't work go to www.ntm.org/reach click on "share the story" to the left of your page. This page should bring up the video.

Hope you enjoy!
John and Amanda Strozewski <><

First Two Weeks

It feels like these last two weeks have just zipped right by. Starting off, classes are going great. We are currently in Foundational Bible Teaching, Communication, Worldview Analysis, and Learning Styles. We just got back home from working on our group project for Learning Styles. We are creating a media presentation showing a conflict due to people having different learning styles. We will try and get some of the pictures we took up on the blog and explain some of what is going on.

I'm loving working over at the MKEC (Missionary Kid Care and Education Center) for my campus ministry. They will be training me to be a home school consultant. We have also discussed various other training opportunities for me. I look forward to learning as much as I possibly can from them. For my outreach I am volunteering at a Pregnancy Center. My team narrowed down each of our roles into pairs. My partner and I are going to ask them if they want to learn to sew. :) Please be praying as we build relationships with the moms and workers there; we will be visiting the center on Monday evenings.

John's campus ministry is grounds crew. His team takes care of the campus grounds. What a great crew! They were weed-whacking earlier this week. John came home exhausted, but his area looked great! On Tuesdays John will be doing his outreach with teens at a new center. Please be praying for him as he builds relationships with the teens.

The Klines, will be our staff mentors. We had dinner with them last Wednesday, and enjoyed catching up with them. They are good friends of John's parents when they went through Bible School. Rumor has it they were in John's parent's wedding! We look forward to spending time with the Klines while we are here as students.

Thanks so much for your love and support! It means so much to us to know that we have people standing behind us in prayer, and encouraging us to keep moving forward.

John and Amanda Strozewski <><

Visiting Uncle Bob and Aunt Raye

Wow What a great time we had visiting John's Uncle Bob and Aunt Raye! Most of the weekend was John and Bob heavily discussing hunting, while Raye and Amanda enjoyed getting to know each other. What a joy it was to sit back and relax. On Saturday they took us to the site where the initial point for surveys of the land, for the Louisiana Purchase. It was so interesting looking and reading about the science and history behind this particular area. If you look carefully by John's shoulder you may be able to see the gap in the trees that creates the base line for the surveys. It was also Amanda's first experience in a swamp. Praise God the mosquitoes were not as hungry as anticipated.

We also enjoyed the drive out and back. It was interesting to note the changes in the land. It was fascinating seeing all the ranches, and farms that would stretch for miles on end. One unusual thing we noticed, while driving out to visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Raye, were the number of buses parked in people's lawns. We entertained ourselves by coming up with theories about how they got there. Our favorite was that the bus drivers felt compelled to go off-roading and then got stuck. :P Who knows!? We also entertained ourselves by counting the number of "off-roading" buses. And the grand total was 20! Yay for random!

School starts soon!!!

So here we are 6ish days before school starts!!! I am super excited and John is getting there. What a blessing it was to take a year off but the teacher in me wants to get back into a classroom and learn. :P Silly I know. School here doesn't just contain classes, there is work detail, outreach, and E-link.

Work detail is basically a program that was established for students to help out around campus/ learn new skills. Students are asked to put in about 8-10 hours each week. I will be working at the MKCE (Missionary Kid Care and Education Center). I am excited to join the team of missionaries that currently work there. I can't wait to learn what they have to teach me. I will be trained later on this semester to be a home-school consultant. (Basically a go to person for homeschooling moms.) We aren't sure where John will be...he could request to be back on the construction crew, but he wants to see where they will put him. We will find out the first week of school.

Outreach is basically where students plug in helping out the local community. There are many different avenues in which people do this. Some women help out at the local pregnancy center, and other women to women ministry opportunities. There is a rehab center that a portion of the guys help out with. There is also a Young Life program out here that a number of students help. Plus a few more opportunities. Not sure where we are going to plug in just yet. We are waiting to hear about each of the different ministries.

E-link is a program where students/couples are partnered with a staff/couple. Basically a discipleship program. We are excited to see which couple we are partnered with!

Classes won't officially start for us until after the first week of starting up. We have a week of orientation. :P Not so excited about that but it's needed! Please be praying that we are patient during this particular week.


Other Prayer Requests:
-Our visit with John's Uncle Bob and Aunt Raye. They live in Tennessee and we are going for a short trip before school starts.
-We use our time wisely as students.
-Child Care: there is not enough staff to properly run it this year so all female students are to work one morning a week. Some of the students I have talked with thus far are very upset with this decision. Please pray for their attitudes! It's a great opportunity to serve our fellow student Moms.
-Our marriage would be Christ focused. One year down... so far so good! ;)

California

Vacation Bible School (VBS) was a blast. We had two days that were "scheduled" for us to speak and the other days we were "floaters." On Monday we jumped right in and filled in for a teacher who went home early. It was fun figuring out where and what we supposed to be doing with the third graders. The kids were great and just went with the flow. Tuesday we spoke to the kiddos and adults about languages and the importance of learning a culture. We were amazed at how attentive the kids were. On Wednesday, John stayed home due to a migraine, but I was able to fill in an open spot in the nursery. I enjoyed my time with them but was thankful when their parents came to pick them up. ;) Thursday we spoke once again to the kids and adults, and were amazed with how much they remembered. We were able to bring a few things from Brazil to show. They loved the bow and arrow! Friday was spend helping transfer pictures for a slide show presentation for the parents. What a joy it was helping out in different ways!

We have a prayer card made!!! The idea formed while helping out with VBS. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do and it helps as a reminder to pray for us. :) We are beginning to distribute them.

John and Amanda Strozewski <><

PS. We will be in Phoenix on the 10th of July until the 22nd of July. We look forward to catching up with family and friends in the area.

prayer

So here we are a week from taking a month long trip to visit family and friends in California and Arizona. Words can't explain how excited we are to see everyone. Please be praying for our time to be honoring to God. We are excited to share what God's been doing here and to hear what God's been doing there. Pray that we will be a blessing to those who have blessed us throughout out lives.

We fly out to Phoenix the morning of June 16 and then drive to California the following day. We then will be driving back to Arizona around July 10 and flying back to Missouri July 22. Praise God for the provision of tickets and a vehicle to borrow. Please pray for safe travels as we fly and drive this summer, look forward to seeing you all and God bless.

Stroze <><

Coming up

Only three more days left of this semester!!! What an exciting time it has been serving here at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) this semester. So what now... the semester is over. There is still a lot that needs to be done over the summer. MTC hosts a week long "Refresher Course" for all of the New Tribes Missionaries from the States. We will be helping the campus get ready.

Traveling is also a part of our summer. We are planning on visiting California and Arizona mid June through mid July! We are excited for another opportunity to reconnect with family and friends in the area. John will be traveling to Wisconsin the beginning of August. His buddy, Grayson, is getting married and has asked John to be a groomsman. :)

We will be students in the FALL!!! Starting in August we will be students, and go through the training! We are very excited! Please be praying as we begin preparing. One of the needs we are facing is purchasing another laptop. Amanda's laptop was getting extremely sluggish, so her sister Katie gave her her old one. Well Katie's old laptop is faster but it has a mind of it's own as it randomly shuts down. :( Not good. So we are working on looking into investing a more reliable laptop.

Life

Hello from Roach, Missouri! (The name of the town is priceless!) Seasons are changing once again, yet this state can't make up its mind. Last week was rather cold and this week has been very warm. Yay for Missouri weather!

Life in child-care has been a bit crazy this week. We were low on staff, due to sickness and other reasons. Chelle, one of the women I work with, took an emergency trip to visit her father in Florida on Monday. He is home with the Lord as of Thursday night. Please be praying for her and her family. Please also pray for all the ladies who work in child-care as this week has been difficult, due to it's abnormality. Pray that everyone will be refreshed this weekend and ready to begin a new week. (I found out next week will be a lot like last week. Please be praying for the ladies who are working and please don't forget the kids.)

Construction of the five-plex has been moving right along. We are just about finished with the wiring. Things have been moving fast it seems. I have been learning a lot that will help me serve better where-ever God has us in the future. I have really enjoyed learning everything. I am currently wiring the electrical panel for the last unit, the guys here that know the most, have been very willing to teach me anything I ask as we are going along. This has been a great learning experience. We just had the first 2 units rough in inspected and they passed with some minor alterations. We are praying that we can get the last three inspected by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. From there they will be insulated and dry walled, while we are finishing up the siding. Pray that we can stay focused on why we are here building so that others can train and learn here and go reach the unreached. We all have a part to play to further the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth, some give, some pray, we build. Would you guys also keep in your prayers funding for the building projects here. God has been blessing us through and through, for this building, and as we move forward in planning for the new classroom building and more housing please pray for wisdom as that moves forward and the finances. Your prayers have been a real encouragement to me and Amanda as we serve here, thank you. If you could also keep in your prayers our goal, it is to get this built, so the new missionary students can live in them by August first. Please pray for continued safety on site.

There are four more weeks left in this semester here at the Training Center. Please keep the students in your prayers. Please pray they finish strong. Pray for adjustment as many will be leaving campus and serving others over their summer break. (There is one group that is headed to Indonesia.) Pray for the children here on campus as they know things are changing due to the parents packing up.

The end of the semester also brings transition even among the staff. Please be praying for people to fill in where others have stepped out. For example... us! It has been a joy serving here at the training center; however it is time for us to begin the training in the fall. That leaves one less person in child-care and one less person on the new construction crew. Please pray that God will bring people along to serve where we had served.

Praise and prayer

First I will go with the prayer request because it is needed right now. Our crew chief broke his collar bone over the weekend and due to it not setting right he is going into surgery today. If you could be praying that the surgery goes well and that he has a speedy recovery. As for the praise the building project is going smoothly, but slowly without Todd on the site. We have passed our first inspection, and are currently getting 2 of the units ready to be sheet rocked. The sewer and water have gone into a few of the units already, the main thing we need right now is the electrical put in. Pray that it can get done soon so we do not fall behind schedule and it's ready for students in the fall. We have also got a modular building to help with our classroom space until we can get the new ones built. It was a real blessing, to get it for the price we did.

As for Amanda and I, we are doing well, the warmer weather has been a blessing, it just sort of lifts our spirit to get out of the cold. Work gets started quicker and we get more done with the warm weather. Also thank you for your continued prayers and support we are both glad to have people praying for us all over, and just being apart of this ministry here.

Your brother and sister in Christ,
- John and Amanda Stro

ps. A picture will be added later today :) It just needs to be taken!


Update on Todd~
Todd's surgery went well. It took a bit longer than anticipated as the surgeon found a three inch gap in his shoulder bone. He had an overnight stay in the hospital and is currently home resting. Please be praying for a speedy recovery. He is getting a bit anxious to be back into the swing of things.