Hi Friends, Family, and Supporters,
This isn't your typical update on how much we have brought in this week. Although that is very important to us, I believe what I am going to share with you right now is just as important.
Being a missionary can be difficult. Missionaries, whether US or World, have to become accustomed to new surroundings. They may, at times, question God's call. It can be a lonely place. I don't think anybody ever wakes up in the morning and says "I want to be a missionary and I can't wait to experience all the uncertainty that comes with the calling." Seriously.
The Lord has been using this time in my life to help me understand a few things:
1. I am not in control and that's okay, and
2. I do not have to justify the calling that God has on my life.
I want to spend a few minutes discussing sharing my calling versus justifying my calling. Most of you know that I work as a school counselor, I am finishing my dissertation, and I work with Chi Alpha. On the support raising trail, people have asked Tom, myself, and others around us, why I cannot just work and support the ministry. For years and months, I have struggled with having to justify that I am called to work with college students just as much as Tom is. Thankfully, the Lord has provided work for me so that we can actually support raise and still have food on the table. My work in the university as a doctoral student has opened opportunities to minister to faculty, peers, and students. Over the last month, God has begun to show me that I don't need to justify my calling to people. He has placed me where He has because He has a plan for all of this. The favor that I have received in my field, in relationships, in presenting research, and writing has been overwhelming. I want to share my calling not have to justify what I am doing. God has reminded me that He is the one that justifies the calling that He has placed on my life. I pray that the Holy Spirit prepares hearts to receive what we share about the vision and calling God has given us. I believe that God has already prepared the way and I am not allowing myself to feel like I have to justify my calling anymore.
What is "justifying your calling" mean? It means that you feel like you have to CONVINCE people that God has called you. In the New Testament, did the disciples have to justify that they were called? No. Even Paul, who persecuted Christians, did not have to justify his calling. He shared what God had done in his life and others came alongside him to support that calling. "Sharing your calling" is the opportunity to share what God has been doing through your life and the vision that He has given you. It's about answering clarifying questions but not about justifying what you are doing. God is the one that justifies our calling; I pray that people will see and feel that calling.
Can I tell you how freeing this has been for me? The call of God has become so much more exciting to me rather than a thorn in my side, which is how I was feeling for some time. It has allowed me to share more openly about what God is showing me without worrying about how it will be received on the other end.
Praying that God uses you this week in the mission field that He has called you to!
Blessings,
Charity
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Another Update :)
Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,
We hope that you are all doing well! So excited to tell you that we are now officially at $1455! God has been so faithful. Thank you for believing in the call God has on our life! It's so exciting to report to you weekly the faithfulness of God in this support raising process. If you have been meaning to support financially, please click the Missions Giving tab towards the top of the blog to pledge your monthly support.
We can't resist showing you this video about how our work is worship: click here. Worship is more than what we do on a Sunday morning or the songs that we sing to God in the car or the shower. Worship is a lifestyle. It can be more than working in a church; it can be working in the Marketplace (your jobs) to be the light into the darkness. It's serving as an employer or an employee. It's offering your life as a 'living sacrifice' to reach your coworkers, neighbors, family, and friends.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:1-2
May God show you how you can worship Him in the Marketplace this week!
Much love in Christ,
The Kurz Family
We hope that you are all doing well! So excited to tell you that we are now officially at $1455! God has been so faithful. Thank you for believing in the call God has on our life! It's so exciting to report to you weekly the faithfulness of God in this support raising process. If you have been meaning to support financially, please click the Missions Giving tab towards the top of the blog to pledge your monthly support.
We can't resist showing you this video about how our work is worship: click here. Worship is more than what we do on a Sunday morning or the songs that we sing to God in the car or the shower. Worship is a lifestyle. It can be more than working in a church; it can be working in the Marketplace (your jobs) to be the light into the darkness. It's serving as an employer or an employee. It's offering your life as a 'living sacrifice' to reach your coworkers, neighbors, family, and friends.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:1-2
May God show you how you can worship Him in the Marketplace this week!
Much love in Christ,
The Kurz Family
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Update :)
Hi Friends, Family, and Supporters,
I know many of you have asked about an update regarding Tom's most recent journey to northeast Ohio and our budget. You asked, and now you receive. :)
Tom (and Jeremiah) had the opportunity to travel to northeast Ohio last week to meet with pastors and churches regarding our work with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. Tom was blessed to share our heart and passion for students and the NEED for Chi Alpha support on campus. During this process, we picked up a supporter and have a few verbal commitments. We would say it was fruitful! :) We continue to pray that God would go before us and prepare hearts. We believe that before we make any phone calls or have face to face meetings that the Holy Spirit has already stirred hearts to hear and see the call of God on our lives.
Many people have shared their concern for the deadline of April 2014 that was placed before us. We want each of you to know that the deadline has actually been a blessing! We are able to express the urgency of the students' need and our need to get to campus. I think it puts a larger priority on completing the Faith Promise form (paper or online) for people who have verbally committed to support financially. Currently, we are at $1345.00 in monthly support with a few verbal commitments that have not been processed. This is HUGE. This last month and a half has been a testimony of God's calling on our lives. Churches and pastors have been encouraging and reminding us that we are right where we need to be. The encouragement that God gives through people is what is sustaining us. Support raising is difficult. Seriously.
Most recently, a Chi Alpha student at OSU became a monthly supporter and she challenged other students and alumni via social media to give, no matter how small, in order to get us to campus faster. You see? God is in this. He is SO in this. So blessed.
Will you continue to pray that God will lead us to the people that He wants us share with? We believe that God is strategically working on hearts to support His work at OSU. If you have been meaning to give or if you have verbally committed and never completed your form, will you do that today? Each day as we check the file to see the activity on the account, it is SO encouraging to see the names of those supporting us. We pray for each of you that God will use you right where you are because that's your mission field. He has called you to your place of employment, your community, your church, your family "for such a time as this." It's not an accident; God was very intentional.
Blessings,
Charity
I know many of you have asked about an update regarding Tom's most recent journey to northeast Ohio and our budget. You asked, and now you receive. :)
Tom (and Jeremiah) had the opportunity to travel to northeast Ohio last week to meet with pastors and churches regarding our work with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. Tom was blessed to share our heart and passion for students and the NEED for Chi Alpha support on campus. During this process, we picked up a supporter and have a few verbal commitments. We would say it was fruitful! :) We continue to pray that God would go before us and prepare hearts. We believe that before we make any phone calls or have face to face meetings that the Holy Spirit has already stirred hearts to hear and see the call of God on our lives.
Many people have shared their concern for the deadline of April 2014 that was placed before us. We want each of you to know that the deadline has actually been a blessing! We are able to express the urgency of the students' need and our need to get to campus. I think it puts a larger priority on completing the Faith Promise form (paper or online) for people who have verbally committed to support financially. Currently, we are at $1345.00 in monthly support with a few verbal commitments that have not been processed. This is HUGE. This last month and a half has been a testimony of God's calling on our lives. Churches and pastors have been encouraging and reminding us that we are right where we need to be. The encouragement that God gives through people is what is sustaining us. Support raising is difficult. Seriously.
Most recently, a Chi Alpha student at OSU became a monthly supporter and she challenged other students and alumni via social media to give, no matter how small, in order to get us to campus faster. You see? God is in this. He is SO in this. So blessed.
Will you continue to pray that God will lead us to the people that He wants us share with? We believe that God is strategically working on hearts to support His work at OSU. If you have been meaning to give or if you have verbally committed and never completed your form, will you do that today? Each day as we check the file to see the activity on the account, it is SO encouraging to see the names of those supporting us. We pray for each of you that God will use you right where you are because that's your mission field. He has called you to your place of employment, your community, your church, your family "for such a time as this." It's not an accident; God was very intentional.
Blessings,
Charity
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Update!
Dear Family, Friends, and Supporters,
If you are living in Ohio, we hope you are out enjoying the nice weather today! Heat wave?! ;)
We wanted to take a minute and update you regarding our progress towards our support raising goals! God has been so faithful to us; He is constantly reminding us that He has called us to OSU and Columbus. He reminds us that He is gathering people to support the ministry. He reminds us that this is a process that He is coordinating. We must listen and be guided by the Holy Spirit!
We are excited to announce that we are at…drumroll please…$1315 in monthly support! We need be at $2000 no later than April, but this is AWESOME progress! For those of you wondering, our total monthly budget is $2800.
If you have not submitted your monthly faith promise, you can do so by clicking on the 'Missions' tab towards the top of the page. The 'Missions' tab will lead you to our Assemblies of God Missions Giving page.
So excited to get to campus! Your monthly giving helps us to get there faster. Give away! :)
Many blessings!
The Kurz Family
If you are living in Ohio, we hope you are out enjoying the nice weather today! Heat wave?! ;)
We wanted to take a minute and update you regarding our progress towards our support raising goals! God has been so faithful to us; He is constantly reminding us that He has called us to OSU and Columbus. He reminds us that He is gathering people to support the ministry. He reminds us that this is a process that He is coordinating. We must listen and be guided by the Holy Spirit!
We are excited to announce that we are at…drumroll please…$1315 in monthly support! We need be at $2000 no later than April, but this is AWESOME progress! For those of you wondering, our total monthly budget is $2800.
If you have not submitted your monthly faith promise, you can do so by clicking on the 'Missions' tab towards the top of the page. The 'Missions' tab will lead you to our Assemblies of God Missions Giving page.
So excited to get to campus! Your monthly giving helps us to get there faster. Give away! :)
Many blessings!
The Kurz Family
Monday, February 10, 2014
CRUNCH time...
Hi Family, Friends, and Supporters,
Have you ever been in that place where you are asking God, um…"what are YOU doing?" Well, we have for sure been in that place for a while now regarding support raising. When we moved to Columbus, we thought, well surely this money is going to come in quickly because we know that we are called to do campus missions with Chi Alpha at Ohio State. We got involved on campus minimally during the fall semester with the anticipation that our budget would be raising by the end of the semester or by the start of the spring semester. That didn't happen. We prayed and asked God to show us what we were missing. Did we not talk to the right people? Were we not supposed to be on campus?
God showed both of us, as well as our Chi Alpha leaders and friends, that we needed to get off of campus. So at the end of the 2nd spring semester Chi Alpha meeting, Steve, our state director, announced to the students that we would not be returning to campus until our budget was raised. Yikes. We have been off of campus for at least 4 weeks now and have been pushing through support raising. About 3 weeks ago, our state director gave us a deadline to raise at least $1000 a month towards our budget in the next 90 days. Almost 21 days of the 90 have passed. The URGENCY is being felt by both of us and we are hoping that you are feeling it too! Students at Ohio State are in need of hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of receiving support from campus missionaries. THEY NEED YOU! Actually, they need you to support us so that we can do what we are called to do there! I don't believe that God moved us all this way and worked out all of the details to leave us hanging now. Do you? I believe in a God that has a DIVINE purpose and plan! I can't tell you that I know all that He is doing, but I can tell you that we have never felt urgency like we have before…an urgency to share the Gospel and teach students what it means to live out their faith in the Marketplace. Will you consider supporting us? If you have been considering, will you take the step forward to give? If so, click the "Missions Giving" tab at the top of page, which will take you to our giving page.
I will be using our blog to keep you all informed of our progress! Let's believe that this won't take 90 days! :) And for those of you that are supporting us, thank you for believing in the work that God wants to do through us! You are such an encouragement.
In Christ,
Charity
Have you ever been in that place where you are asking God, um…"what are YOU doing?" Well, we have for sure been in that place for a while now regarding support raising. When we moved to Columbus, we thought, well surely this money is going to come in quickly because we know that we are called to do campus missions with Chi Alpha at Ohio State. We got involved on campus minimally during the fall semester with the anticipation that our budget would be raising by the end of the semester or by the start of the spring semester. That didn't happen. We prayed and asked God to show us what we were missing. Did we not talk to the right people? Were we not supposed to be on campus?
God showed both of us, as well as our Chi Alpha leaders and friends, that we needed to get off of campus. So at the end of the 2nd spring semester Chi Alpha meeting, Steve, our state director, announced to the students that we would not be returning to campus until our budget was raised. Yikes. We have been off of campus for at least 4 weeks now and have been pushing through support raising. About 3 weeks ago, our state director gave us a deadline to raise at least $1000 a month towards our budget in the next 90 days. Almost 21 days of the 90 have passed. The URGENCY is being felt by both of us and we are hoping that you are feeling it too! Students at Ohio State are in need of hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of receiving support from campus missionaries. THEY NEED YOU! Actually, they need you to support us so that we can do what we are called to do there! I don't believe that God moved us all this way and worked out all of the details to leave us hanging now. Do you? I believe in a God that has a DIVINE purpose and plan! I can't tell you that I know all that He is doing, but I can tell you that we have never felt urgency like we have before…an urgency to share the Gospel and teach students what it means to live out their faith in the Marketplace. Will you consider supporting us? If you have been considering, will you take the step forward to give? If so, click the "Missions Giving" tab at the top of page, which will take you to our giving page.
I will be using our blog to keep you all informed of our progress! Let's believe that this won't take 90 days! :) And for those of you that are supporting us, thank you for believing in the work that God wants to do through us! You are such an encouragement.
In Christ,
Charity
OSU Chi Alpha at SALT 2014 in Indianapolis, IN
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters:
We hope that you had a GREAT Christmas remembering and celebrating the real 'Reason for the Season!' Below are some pics from the OSU Chi Alpha Party:
Our Group Pic
Oh you know…just Justin under the mistletoe. :)
Courtney! (Volunteer Staff)
Adrienne, Warrior Princess, fighting Steve, a Reindeer.
Andrew and Ryan
Tom practicing as Santa.
Jon and Courtney sporting new 'staches!
Omar and Adrienne
Charity and Janelle
Janelle and Adrienne
Please pray as we prepare to attend the Great Lakes Chi Alpha SALT 2014 Conference: Metamorphosis, Become New Through Jesus beginning January 2, 2014 in Indianapolis, IN. We will be taking four students! Tom, Charity, and Laura (one of the volunteer staff members) are the leadership attending from OSU. Please be praying that God will show Himself to the students and that they will have an authentic encounter with Him! Looking forward to sharing testimonies when we return!
We are continuing to raise our budget so that we can be full-time at the start of the new semester on January 6th. If you are considering a financial gift, please remember that you can receive tax credit for 2013 through December 31st. Please consider helping us be full-time at the start of this new semester! The students NEED Jesus and they NEED you to help us bring Him to them!
Happy New Year!
With Love,
The Kurz Family
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Oh where oh where has this semester gone?!
Hi Friends, Family, and Supporters,
I know that it has been awhile since we have posted but I wanted to take some time and update each of you! We have had such an awesome semester getting to know the students and volunteers. Tom and I had a few opportunities to share at the Thursday night meetings. I had the opportunity to work on developing the worship team. I have been mentoring the worship leader and helping him to create a solid team who loves Jesus and loves to worship Him. We attended the Ohio Chi Alpha Fall Breakaway at the beginning of October. Here is a silly picture of the group:
We had such a GREAT time at Fall Breakaway getting to know the students and watching them hunger after God! We are looking forward to our last semester get together tomorrow night as we celebrate Christmas together. Look for those pics soon!
On the support raising front, we have gained quite a bit of ground. We are praying that the last $900 will come quickly. We have some people that have promised to pick us up come January 1st so we are praying that between those faith promises and others that we pick up in the next few weeks that we will have this raised. This is such a trying process. Very grateful that I have a job to help us cover expenses. Living in Columbus is EXPENSIVE but God has been faithful to us providing what we need. Will you consider joining our team by supporting us financially and prayerfully? The students at The Ohio State University need Jesus and they need you to support us so that we can have the opportunity to pour into their lives. Universities and colleges are some of the 'darkest' places in the world. Evil is concentrated on the college/university campus. We are believing God to provide the financial need because we know that He has called us "for such a time as this." Many blessings to each of you! We love you!
Sincerely,
Charity
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