April 21, 2009
Start-up costs…CHECK!!!
Great news everyone!!!
Praise the Lord! We have officially raised our start-up costs of $9,492. That is huge! God is so good. Now, we are working on getting monthly pledges. Currently, we have $1,257 per month pledged and we need $2,895 per month pledged. For you math wizards, that is technically 43% of the way there. Please continue to pray that we are fully funded by August 1st. We expect bigger things and believe that we will meet our goals by mid-July.
So, just in case you are wondering what happens if you give a one-time gift now…that amount will be distributed over the 24 months that we will be in Bosnia. So, feel free to give a one-time gift or pledge a monthly amount. Above all else, we continue to ask for your prayers.
Lastly, we just recently sent out our first issue of The Streus News (our newsletter). If you did not receive and want one, that means that we either don’t have your email address or don’t know that you want to be on our list. Just let us know and we will send one your way.
We love you all very much and thank you for your support and partnership.
So that all may know,
Billy and Jess.
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April 13, 2009
The Streus News Newsletter is coming…
Hey everyone!
We just wanted to let you know that the first issue of the The Streus News Newsletter will be hitting your email boxes soon. Keep an eye out. It should be really soon, but we are still trying to contact some of you to complete our email address list. So, be checking your phones as well. Love you all.
So that all may know,
Billy and Jess
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April 8, 2009
Subscribe!!!
Hey everyone,
I know it has been a few days since we have left a post, but working jobs and raising support is busy business. I wanted to let you know about something cool on the website that I think you should sign up for. If you look on the bottom left under “links,” you will see the words “Subscribe(RSS).” I encourage you to click on that and then click “Subcribe Now” on the next page. This should set our website as a bookmark for you. If it works right, you should somehow receive updates each time we put up a new post. Just a great way to keep updated.
God continues to truly bless us. Please pray that we keep trusting the Lord in His provision. It is funny how the enemy can take something that you know God has control of and sometimes convince you that it is out of control. We had a huge number of support (one-time and monthly) come in at the beginning, and now we have seen a slow down. We have occasionally let this worry us. Truth is, we still have over three months to get everything in. This is just us being real in this process. In short, pray that we stay strong in our trust in the Lord.
FYI…if you know how much you want to pledge and have not let us know yet, go ahead and let us know so we can update our records (even if you are not going to begin giving until later).
We love you all and are blessed to have you on our team!!!
So that all may know,
Billy and Jess
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March 19, 2009
Newbies to the website…
Just in case you have not noticed, there are a couple of new additions to the website.
First, there is now a “How to Give” page. If you are interested in joining our ministry team financially, that page will help you learn how to get started. Of course, if you have any questions or need us to clarify something, shoot us an email at worldstreus@gmail.com or leave a comment on this website.
Second, our web developing genious friend (Dwayne Parton) just made a Donation Meter for us. We are having to raise $10,000 in start-up costs and get $2,900 in monthly pledges, but the donation meter is lumping all of that together. So, the total for the donation meter is $12,900. I hope that makes sense. We wanted a way to keep you updated.
Well, keep us in your prayers as we continue to raise support. God is good and we know that He will provide.
So that all may know,
Billy and Jess.
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March 14, 2009
Learnin’ the web work…
Hey everyone!!! We have had several people ask us if we have any access on our website to be able to give. With these requests, I decided to learn more about how to develop our site. If you have not noticed yet, there is now a “How to Give” page to your left. Therefore, if you want to contribute to the ministry God has led us to, then give away. We cannot begin to tell you how much we appreciate you wanting to join our partnership team! Glory to God!!!
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March 8, 2009
Streu News 03/08/09
ZDRAVO everyone!!!
Zdravo is hello in Bosnian. At least that is what our language program has taught us. We are still in the process of making sure that this program is teaching us accurately. Well, we figured it was about time for an WorldStreus update. Here we go…
The Lord continues to blow us away during the process. We want to thank everyone who has taken the time so far to meet with us in person, over the phone, on facebook, etc. It has been such a blessing to share our story with so many and find deeper confirmation in God’s call to missions in our life as we see more and more people believe in what we are pursuing.
We just spent the weekend in the Dallas/Fort Worth area visiting with friends and family. We want to especially thank Kyle and Jennie Jones for opening their home to us and hosting a cookout party with our friends. It was such a great time!
We also got to have lunch with some family (Billy’s side) this afternoon before we started heading back to Lubbock. Thank you, David and Mary, for opening your home as well for our small family reunion. We truly enjoyed our time with all of you this weekend. If you are confused by the pictures, I forgot to take pictures during the cookout at Kyle and Jennie’s. He took a couple of pictures to prove that the whole thing happened.
Before I sign out, I want to give you a rough update of where we are financially. We have been officially raising support for a little over a month, and we have approximately 60% of our one-time costs and 28% of our monthly pledges committed. God is good!!! Please pray that the Lord continues to provide the funds for us. Our goal is to be 100% funded by July 18th at the latest.
One last thing…please feel free to post comments on the site and talk to us. You have to register, but it is free. We love you all and will keep bringing the Streu News!!!
Billy and Jess.
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February 18, 2009
Keep on keepin’ on…
Dear friends, family, and ministry partners,
Sorry it has been awhile since our last post. The main thing to share with you at this time is the Lord’s faithfulness and provision. If there has been any doubt from the enemy in our mind of whether or not we are moving the right direction, God has been at work of freeing us from it.
We have officially been building our ministry team for less than a month, and we already have amazing stories to tell. We want to thank all of our new ministry partners who have already committed to joining us in God’s work in Bosnia. Also, thank you to all of you who have given us time to tell our story. God is good…all the time!!!
If we have not met with you yet, you may be hearing from us soon. However, you don’t have to wait for us to contact you. If you are interested, then email us at worldstreus@gmail.com and we will be blessed to tell you our story and invite you to join in God’s heart for the nations!!!
I will posting our first gallery soon. We are currently working out some kinks in the website, though. You are all amazing!
So that all may know the Hope of glory,
Billy and Jess.
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February 6, 2009
Jennifer Bellah, “Photographer Extraordinaire”!!!
Jess and I want to thank Jennifer Bellah for the heart of ministry God has given her and the way it spills into the gifts God has given her (which is the way it should work, right?). She is an amazing photographer who was pleased to use her gift to be a part of our journey and the work God is doing in Bosnia. We would recommend her to everyone. Check out her work at www.jenniferbellahphotography.com. You will be seeing her work soon on this website.
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February 2, 2009
Prayers for us…
We have had some of you ask us how you can be praying for us. Well, we will do our best to post prayer requests as often as possible here. Here are some areas you can pray for us (some in preparation for Bosnia and some for right now):
1. For God to give us boldness to share the Gospel.
2. For us to be effective in serving the Lord.
3. For Jess and I maintain communication in our marriage when we are there (we want to make sure that we do not make ministry an excuse to not intentionally make time for one another).
4. For us to be able to learn the language smoothly.
5. For endurance through difficult times.
6. For rich time with the Lord to remain priority.
7. For Jess and I to be fully funded by August 1, 2009.
We will continue to let you know what you can be praying for as needs arise. We love you all and are so blessed to be surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.
So that all may know the Hope of glory,
Billy and Jess.
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January 31, 2009
First Day of Raising Partners
Jess and I just completed our first official day of building our partnership team (supporters). All we can say is, “Wow! God is good!” We were blown away by the generosity and love from our friends in Austin. To all of you that we met with today…thank you! It was such a blessing to get to talk to you about what the Lord has shown us for our lives. We are so blessed to have you come alongside us in the work that God is doing in Bosnia. We love you all.
We can’t wait to see who else is going to partner with us in this. You may soon receive a call from us, so watch out! If you can’t wait to hear our story, feel free to email us at worldstreus@gmail.com.