SweetTea

We believe God will do something Big in the next 3 weeks!

Start your Engines...A few weeks ago, on a God ordained beautiful morning, I jumped into my work van and revved the engine ready to take on new day. Little did I know that 2 miles down the road my eager attitude would quickly change into frustration, however, today for some reason my frustration quickly turned into a smile on my face and laughter of uncertainty when I found out my engine blew on my only work vehicle. As I stood next to my van, now parked on the side of the road, I took advantage of the time to let God know that He has an odd sense of humor, but nonetheless, He made me laugh! I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. See, that morning God allowed me to experience a peace of complete assurance and certainty that He is in control and has a reason for everything and that He will supply my needs. So many times I read about that joy and that peace that comes in trials but that beautiful morning I experienced it again, and I love it because I knew that the God of the universe was working in my life!

$6,000 Sweet Tea.“….and I would like to get a #6 with a sweet tea please” as I finished my order at Chick-Fil-A. See, this was my last day to spend with my family before I left for the next 3 weeks for a research study. I had the opportunity to be a part of, what seemed to be, a safe research study that paid out $6000 for 3 weeks of participation. I was so excited to know that God provided a way to pay for a new engine, which would cost $3,000-$4,500. So I specifically didn’t schedule any work projects and cleared my schedule completely for the next 3 weeks.

When I showed up this past Tuesday, they started going through the paperwork and questionnaires. “Ryan, have you had any caffeine in the past 48 hours?" they asked. Right then, I got a sick feeling in my stomach and a faint taste of sweet tea on my breath. Gross, I know but I still had to make a choice, to be honest, and possibly be removed from the study, or to lie and stay in the study and make $6000. I chose to be honest which resulted in my disqualification from the study and they sent me home all for a $1.29 cup of caffeinated tea. Once again all I could do was laugh.

No work, No vehicle, No problem. You know what’s amazing? God knows each and every one of us so well. He is our magnificent creator! He designed everything about us. He knows my abilities and my failures, which are many. God knows everything about me. He even knows that I wont stop working and put my complete trust in His provision until He takes away my work schedule for 3 weeks, takes away my work van until it gets fixed and takes away my money. If I am going to be honest and transparent with you I have to let you know that this life of faith is tough and you don’t always know how we are going to survive BUT ITS NOT WITHOUT JOY! God will do whatever it takes to let me know that it’s not about me but it’s about Him and bringing Him glory. I am so glad that we can be a part of that!

Big things in 3 weeks. For the next 3 weeks we feel God is leading us to focus completely on sharing the ministry God has called us to do with as many people as possible on a one on one basis. If you’ve ever heard me speak, I say this every time “I wish I had enough time to sit down with each and everyone of you and share with you what God is doing”.

There are 15 workdays in the next 3 weeks that I would normally be working. We feel that God will lead 15 people to allow us to share this passion He has given us with them within the next 3 weeks.

You know what would be BIG? If we could get to 50% of our needed support, I would be able to stop working full time and focus on the ministry full time, which will allow us to get to Kenya faster: which will allow us to bring food to the starving children, men and women; which will allow us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to those same children, men and women. We can’t wait to be your hands and feet in Kenya.

We are asking if you would specifically pray for the next 3 weeks that God will open up doors to meet with 15 individuals.

We want to see His glory shine! We know He is up to something great and we are so excited that we can be a part of that plan. We are currently at 31% of our needed support.

PS. We ask that you would continue to pray for our family and the team. Although we have such an urgency to get to Mombasa, God's timing is always perfect! Right now, our family is trusting in Him to provide.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support and the encouragement you are to us!

Ryan and Jayme Kuenkel ~~ Missionaries to Mombasa, Kenya

& Eden
www.team-kenya.com/kuenkels

LastNight

Last Night. Last night our little girl, Eden had her arms wrapped around my neck tightly as I held her in attempt to get her to fall back asleep. While I was holding her in my arms and hearing her small, God-given breaths I could not help but be in awe of how blessed we truly are! Knowing that every single breath we take is an act of His wonderful grace and mercy in our lives. While rocking back and forth in the rocking chair God brought to my mind some memories of the past year that I know only have His fingerprints written all over.

A Place to Call Home. God has graciously provided our family a place to live, rent-free, during our prefield ministry. A special thank you to my parents (Steve and Sandy Kuenkel) for opening up their home to help us save money, allowing us to get to Mombasa more quickly. Over the course of our prefield ministry this will save us over $25,000. Wow!

Free Car. One day when we were traveling up to Harrisburg, PA, with our team, to ABWE for our candidate class. The phone rang and the voice on the other end (who just so happened to be Jayme's dad-Jay Griffin) says, “We have been praying you and feel like God wants us to give your family a vehicle while you are on prefield.” I honestly didn’t have words to talk back as I was in shock of what I just heard. Several months prior we were praying about a vehicle, asking God to help provide, because the 2-door sports car was impractical to travel with a growing family. Praise God!

The Fam. Last night really reminded us to thank God for giving us two healthy, beautiful girls. (Eden-almost 2/ Lily-5months) Watching our little girls grow up is such a privilege and a blessing from our God.

You. As I put Eden back in her bed and gave her a kiss goodnight I started to walk out of the room and the last thing God brought to my mind was you, our partners. I stopped in the hallway to think of how many of you have prayed, served, encouraged and invested in the ministry God has called us to do. The overwhelming feeling of gratitude towards God filled my heart. We know God has specifically placed each and every one of you in our lives for a particular reason. Together we get to share and see the marvelous miracles God performs each and every day that shows His magnificent glory. We can't wait to be your hands and feet for God's glory in Mombasa Kenya. Together, we are at 31% of our needed support to go to Africa to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

[Part3of3 tomorrow.]

ForgiveUs

Forgive us. If you are receiving this email it is because you mean a lot to us. We ask that you forgive us. God has recently shown us that we have been taking our closest friends and family for granted. God has placed you in our lives for a reason and we know that reason is to bring glory to our Savior. Every time we choose to hoard the praises and the struggles that God, in His grace, has brought to us in our lives we are robbing Him of His glory.]

We love to share with you all the great things God is doing in our lives but for some reason we resist to share the struggles and hardships in our lives. Our pride robs you the opportunity to pray for our struggles and to see God's redemptive glory shine. Forgive us! We want to be real and give God the glory due Him and see miracles happen through this partnership.

For the next 3 days we will be sending you 3 stories and share with you something BIG we believe God will do in the next 3 weeks.

Stolen. We were awakened at 5:30am by a police officer knocking on the door. She informed us that there were some vehicle robberies in the neighborhood. Ryan had about $2000 worth of tools stolen from his construction work van.

Bad Timing. That same week the van was in desperate need of new tires...another $500!

Rent. Then our tenant renting our condo decided to stop paying his rent for several months and now he owes us $3800 of rent and past fees. And now we are left with a condo to sell in a tough market.

Angry! “God, I thought you called us to Africa! Then why does it feel like You are making it impossible to get there?” were the questions of frustration I had as I sat at the kitchen table late one night. Then God brought to my mind the memory of when I was in Africa looking around at the mud huts and tin roofs as the smell of trash and sewage permeate the air, and I see with my own two eyes starving children, men and women who are merely looking for their next meal. At that moment my apparent “problems” were belittled in comparison. As I look at the genuine problems of these poor starving children, men, and women God reminded me that this problem too is belittled in comparison to the desperate need of Jesus Christ. God has called us to go to Africa to be the hands and feet, to supply the starving children, men, and women a meal to eat and to bring the greatest news of all, the love of Jesus Christ and the hope that only He can give.

::Part2 tomorrow::

goodbye and goodluck Airman Griffin

<< [uncle Bryan and little Lily]

Bryan and Sarah leave for the US Airforce Base in Guam tomorrow. We have really enjoyed the time they were able to spend at home with us. God really blessed the time we were able to have as a family, making many great memories. We will miss both of them very much here, but there is no better comfort than knowing that you are in God's will. This is what God has for them right now, so there is no safer place for them than Guam! :) And what an amazing experience for them to have-spending a few years on the beautiful island of Guam! Please join us in praying for them-that they would have safe travels over there and God would just protect them as they are there! Thank you!

Bryan-thank you for your service, we love you VERY much! Sarah-I am so glad to call you my sister-in-law, have fun and take care of my brother! :) I know you will. Love you!

kct. check.

we finished our Kingdom Come Training the week before last. it went really well. we both enjoyed it a lot and feel as if this will really profit our prefield ministry. tomorrow we start what is called the 'coaching' process, where we will be assigned someone to help us put together a strategy and keep us accountable in doing our part!

this was all made possible because of a donor in our church. thank you - to whoever you are - for your generosity and your love for God and for the Kenyan people. because of you our prefield ministry will now be more effective and hopefully enable us to get to Mombasa faster!

welcome home Airman Griffin

Jayme's brother, Bryan Griffin, recently graduated from the Airforce Academy at the Sheppard Airforce Base in Texas. he is now home until the beginning of September, then him and his wife, Sarah, will be leaving for Guam-where he will be based for a few years! we are so glad to have him home right now and spend time with him!!

thank you for your service- we love you!!

kct. week 1...check.

we completed our first week of Kingdom Come Training last week…it went really well. we really enjoy our trainer-Hoy. he makes it very interesting, so the hour and a half each night goes by pretty quickly. there are 2 other couples in the training with us, one of which is also ABWE missionaries that actually attended candidate class with our teammates, Alisa and Michael Paul Leek.

anyway-KCT seems like its going to be really good and we are praying that it will be a big help to us in our ministry. God will definitely use this to stretch and grow me but i am looking forward to it!

here goes the start of week 2. please pray for us this week!

:: HAPPY NEW YEAR ::

we can't believe it's already 2010! that year just flew by! maybe watching our little girl grow up made it just that much faster!! we had a lot of ups and downs this year but overall God was SO GOOD! he has really blessed our family and has brought us through many things as He teaches us and grows us!

as we look back at 2009...the year we officially became missionaries with ABWE and became commissioned by our home church in March, it is amazing to see how God has worked! our family was able to visit several churches in 2009. we found out we are expecting another little girl. God has answered so many prayers for us this past year: providing us with a vehicle, selling our condo and providing a place for us to stay, just to name a few!

we are definitely looking forward to this next year - 2010! we cant wait to see how God is going to work and we are excited for another year to serve Him and grow in Him!

:: it's a girl!! ::

this past week we were able to get an ultrasound done by our friend melissa - also a member of TK. she works at a pregnancy center in lebanon. after looking around for about an hour or so melissa was able to determine that it was definitely a girl! :) eden is going to have a little sister! we are very excited!! sisters are the best so im so glad eden and this new baby will share that special relationship!

:: eden turns ONE ::

i cant believe our little princess is already one year old!! it seems like we were just bringing her home from the hospital...time flies! she has changed so much over this past year which is crazy to think about as well! from just laying there and sleeping all day to now shes such a busy girl-crawling everywhere, almost walking everywhere, talking all the time - shes just growing up so fast! its so fun to watch her!

saturday we had a big birthday party for her - a monkey birthday for the monkey lover! she did so good. she was interested in all her gifts-it was so cute watching her expressions as we opened each one. and because she isnt too fond of getting her hands dirty she did not dive into her cake and make a huge mess like most one year olds do-but after we gave her a spoon to use she dove right in! so cute!

thank you God for the great year you have given us with little Eden!