Hello friends and family,

We thank you once again for keeping us in your hearts and prayers. 

Please know that we think about you regularly and pray for you often. We’ve begun a new routine where each night we look at the Christmas cards/family cards we’ve received from many of you, and we pray for whichever family is at top of the stack that night. 

Please email millicansinczech@gmail.com if there are specific ways we can pray for you!

Jared is flying to Spokane right now for a short 4-day trip. He’ll cram in one wedding, a church service with Faith Bible Church, a family gathering, and a few meetings with the staff of Faith Bible Church. Oh, and he’ll be mailing our tax documents of course. Please pray for Claire and our three kids (soon four) while he is gone!

In this update: Our latest activities, a current financial need, an ongoing financial need, lots of fun pictures throughout.

Our Latest…

Sickness: Probably as in the States, a wave of various flu viruses has swept this area of the world. We got hit with one of them. It is safe to say it was probably one of the worst we’ve experienced, but we are ok now!

Language learning: The sickness forced a loss of about two weeks of study. Additionally, our teacher had a major surgery, which had her out for an additional 3 weeks. But we are back in the swing of things. The name of the game is diligence, patience, trust and humility. Pray we would practice these things by being brave to practice speaking more!

Ongoing men’s training & counseling club: As Jared sits around the table at the men’s training group every two weeks, memories of the wide eyes and energetic theological conversations he saw among new seminary students in California come to mind. These 8 men are eager to learn, and a lot is being asked of them for their studies. Pray their eagerness for knowledge, godliness, and abilities would keep growing and be fruitful!

The counseling club has taken a slightly deeper dive into more of the homework that goes along with ‘Quieting a Noisy Soul.’ Each of us are learning to ask better questions about our thinking and how it relates to our spiritual growth and the truth of God’s word.

Visa renewal: It’s almost been a year already! Claire has diligently pursued our visa renewal through the help of an agent we have hired. Thankfully the process hasn’t been too cumbersome, though it is never straight forward.

Taxes: We had a major surprise with taxes owed. Long story short: Reimbursements for some major expenses from our year of settling in bumped us into a higher tax bracket, requiring us to pay much, much more than we ever have. It seems that, from the help of a few of our supporting churches, we will be able to cover this shocking expense. Please pray the details of that iron out well and thank God for his provision!

Present Financial Need…

During our visa renewal process we learned that we would need anywhere from $8,000-$10,000 to pay 2-years health insurance renewal. This amount is due in the next month.

While we would have liked to save for this, encountering higher costs here in CZ than anticipated has prevented that. Additionally, we did not know we would be paying for two years in advance this time, whereas we only paid for one year the first time.

If you are willing and able to help, please email millicansinczech@gmail.com to let us know, and we can explain how to go about doing that. Thank you for considering this.

Ongoing Financial Need…

We are reviewing the budget and our expense patterns for the past year. We knew it would be probable that this first year would reveal some necessary adjustments. While the amount isn’t determined yet, we know we will need to increase our monthly support moving forward. We tell this to you now so you can begin to pray about the possibility of helping.

Some causes for this need are: Higher expenses for rent and utilities than we hoped, more expensive health insurance, and the need to increase savings for future furloughs and emergencies.

Lord-willing, in the next few weeks we will be able to determine a specific amount, which should set us up for more consistent expectations for the future.

Until Next Time…

A brief note on a church need: Please pray we would find a building to either buy or rent. The church is getting too big for the current space. We aren’t in a position to do a new church plant yet, so a larger space would be better for now.

Acts 17:26-27 is a verse we remember often as we consider God’s sovereignty, not only over our lives but over the world and history. If God rules time, nations, rulers, and geographical boundaries, he certainly rules our small life as well. The same is true in your life. Pray for us, as we pray for you, that by his grace our lives would be used by him so that more people will believe, repent, and love Him for the King he is.