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.

Amazed!?

A picture from us to you!!! Praise God, it finally worked!!! Hopefully it will continue working.

I wanted to share this picture with you all. In it are the ladies from a Bible study I attend on Wednesday nights. They have been such a blessing! Last semester we were studying the attributes of God. This semester we are going through the book Crazy Love by: Francis Chan. It's all about love and our relationship with God.

Even before our study began God amazed me with what He can do. For starters, I was a bit nervous about purchasing the book. As you know finances are rather tight, and I was having trouble justifying buying the book. God totally eased my mind when I was talking with my sister KT a few weeks ago. She had bought the book last semester to go through it with a friend and never did. Thus she was more than willing to mail the book to me so that I may borrow it for the study! God is good! There was no need for me to be concerned.

The first chapter challenged us to think about who God really is. What really struck me was how we often miss the little things that God blesses us with. Such as what we see, hear, touch, and taste. He lavishes us through the diverse colors that we see in a sunset. Or what about all the different kinds of laughter we hear? Think about how nice the sand feels between your toes when at a beach. And what about FOOD! Everything could have tasted like peas, but God had other plans in mind for us. Praise God for the diversity of senses!

God is constantly blessing us all throughout our week. The question is do we choose to recognize them. I am totally guilty of not always recognizing blessings. For example last Saturday it snowed here! Crazy I know! I was not so excited about it because I was thinking... Great another cold week! Winter is never going to go away. Boy was I wrong! As the snow was melting I saw a little bit of green poking out of the snow in various places. And then I looked over by our shed/shack there were clusters of green plants, which will grow to be flowers. Wow! Spring is really on its way. And to top it all off the past few days have been very warm... as in 70 degrees warm! Praise God for the snow to help emphasize to me that spring is on its way!

Serving an Amazing God,
Amanda Stroze <><

PS. Thanks for your prayers regarding finances. We are seeing God working! Please keep praying for us, and we thank you for being apart of our ministry.

Inreach

The Rock House, our church here in Missouri, held an inreach on Saturday. Basically the premise of the event was to reach out and help out the church body with various needs. One of the pastors, John Shelton, was inspired with the idea as the church has been studying through Acts. We all saw how the early church supported one another through meeting various needs. So John Shelton thought, "Wow the economy is a bit crazy right now and things are rough on many families... we can do that, help our fellow brothers and sisters at the Rock House" and thus the idea was born. So they held a "rummage" sale that was free to the church members. Everyone was encouraged to give what they could and those who had needs were encouraged to come and be blessed. It was great! John and I donated a bag of clothes to help out families who needed clothes. When we attended the event on Saturday we were blessed with food. It was awesome to see how the body provided for so many needs. It was such an encouragement to see how the church body provided for the needs of its fellow members.

Both pastors encouraged the church members to voice their needs. Their point was "no one is a mind reader, so how are people supposed to know how they can help when you don't tell them." Funny how this simple concept can seem so profound. We love you all very much and are blessed with your prayers. The reality is we have a need that still has not been met. Our current financial support is at about 30%. What we are receiving right now barely covers our bills. We know that God will meet this need. Please pray that God will move people to support us financially. Also pray that we will use the money we have wisely.

Thanks for your love and support!
John and Amanda Strozewski <><

life's blessings

Family and Friends,

Yay for more updates! The five-plex that John is working on is going up rather well. They have the roof on and a layer of tar paper. John says they are now working on framing the inside of the second floor. This particular building will be able to house five large families. Each home will each have three bedrooms. What a joy to bless a larger family with more bedrooms.

Child care is going well. What a joy it is to say that I love going to work in the morning. We now have 9 kids in the preschool room! It's been a joy and a challenge this semester. The dynamics in the room have drastically changed. We are really noticing the vast differences between five year olds and three year olds. Two of the students need quite a bit of extra attention, they have never been in a preschool setting. I am learning the balance of grace and timeouts for these youngsters. :)

Please be praying for the Milton family, their preschooler is in my room. His mom was hospitalized this week with a blood clot in her leg, and then found out they are no longer going to have a baby. Please pray for this family, as they cope with these new adjustments in their daily lives.

Our Current Prayer Requests:

• Safety for John and the crew on the job site.
• Health - we currently have mild colds. :( No fun!
• Patience for me as I work in the Preschool room.
• Our marriage stays Christ focused.

Amanda Strozewski <><

PS. We are still working on figuring out how to post pictures up. John's computer doesn't seem to do it, and my computer is being rather slow about things and times out before the picture has finished loading. Our appologies.

Back in Roach

Well we have made it back to Missouri safely. Thank you all for your prayers while we were traveling. We both enjoyed sharing our lives and what we are doing here in person with you while in California and Arizona. It is such a blessing to have so many people that pray for us and encourage us while we serve here. I had a chance to catch up with some other co-workers since we have been back; I have heard that the ladies in the preschool are happy to have Amanda back. I also was able to mosey around the job site. We are getting ready to finish framing the second floor and get the roof on. If you could specifically pray for continued safety on the job site as well as health in the child care. Thank you for your prayers and support in our ministry.

See you here, there, or in the air.
Your brother in Christ - John Stro

a quick prayer request

The flu bug and other various ailments have shown their ugly sides this week. (Not that they really had a good side to start with :P) Please be praying for the families who are here to study and for the staff who are here to serve the students. I think we had at least 15 families out sick from the childcare yesterday, that's not counting the number of staff ladies who were out because of illness. The preschool room usually has about 14 kids on average, and for the past few days we have only had 7 kids! Other rooms have been very low in numbers too. Please be praying for everyone as the semester winds down. Only a week and a half left of this semester!

Amanda Stroze <><

People love the cold!?

Winter is on it's way! Temperatures have been dropping, and the leaves have left trees bare. Our days are definitely getting shorter, as it gets dark around 5:30ish. Yet despite the onset of winter, we are thankful for where God has us and how He has blessed us. Our little house has been great and heats up very nicely.

Despite the cold, we were blessed to have Katie, my sister, stay with us last weekend. We enjoyed the time that we had with her and were sad to have her return home.

The cold makes John's work a bit more difficult. He says that he doesn't mind the cold it's the wind that bothers him. His team is doing a great job working on the new five-plex. He mentioned to me the plumbing is looking good and things are moving along very well.

The cold weather has a very interesting effect on the preschoolers I take care of. I can tell when they have been able to play outside verses cooped up in the house. I also find it rather amusing to see them come to school all bundled up. Aidan, one little boy in our class, has his nose peaking out of his hood when he walks in the door, everything else is covered. Yet surprisingly some kids still come in a light jacket in the morning. This makes our lives fun as we raid the mission barrel (a place where we can get various items for free) for jackets, gloves, hats, and other various items.

Winter also means vacation time! We are excited to announce that we will be visiting Arizona and California over the holidays. We plan on being in Phoenix for Christmas, and in Orange around New Years. We are so excited to catch up with you guys face to face!

We thank you so much for your prayers. We would not be able to do this without you. Some old and new requests are:

• Our marriage would remain Christ centered
• Our ministries: John with construction and me with the preschoolers
  
• Our health (we just got flu shots)
• Safe travels when we drive out to Arizona and California
  

Amanda Stroze <><