Brad & Rhonda Walz
The Lowrance Family
Jason & Brittney Curtis
Scott & Magevney Strickland
CHANGES. For the last eight years, we have had the privilege of serving Jesus in Turkey. Over those years, we have seen Turks, Kurds, Syrians, and others come to faith in Jesus, seen churches planted, and seen our Turkish brothers and sisters now fully engaged in reaching their own people. There is still much work to do in Turkey but we know Jesus will accomplish His will.
During the last few years, Scott has had continued trouble with glaucoma. It is no surprise that during this same time period have seen tremendous movement of Turks coming to faith. And during this same time period, Turkey has made it nearly impossible to get people visas to move to or to remain in Turkey. The enemy has fought back, yet we know who has already won. And during this season, we sense the Lord leading us into a new direction; one we were not looking for but know His hand is guiding us. The enemy gets no credit. After much prayer, this June, our family will leave Turkey.
We have been asked to move to Berlin, Germany and work with training new missionaries to reach Turks, Kurds, and Afghans as well as to work on some projects impacting our entire ten nation area. Germany is home to 7 million Turks, more than any nation other than Turkey. In fact, in our travels there we have often had to rely on Turkish to get around! We just spent several days in one Berlin neighborhood nicknamed "Little Istanbul." Our years in Turkey and our Turkish language abilities were opening doors into the hearts of Turks in Germany!
We are preparing for this quickly coming transition but are still facing a huge wall in our path. We have found a good doctor for Scott in Berlin (which has already resulted in improving eye health after one visit!) but are now waiting on news of the girls getting into an English language school. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany so the kids must be enrolled in a local school. With Kirsten entering 10th grade and Audrey 6th, we do not feel we can put them into a German language school. That leaves us with the JFK school, a joint American-German public school. The school is quite popular and quite competitive to get accepted. In fact, they say to not plan on your kids being accepted. For this transition to happen, we need the girls accepted into JFK and we need to know ASAP. The school will let us know only if they are accepted and sometime between now and July 3. We need an answer in the immediate future. Will you pray with us, believing for an answer within the next week?
We have lots of questions about Germany and the work there. We do see the strategic opportunities of reaching Turks and others in an open context versus our current "creative access" context. We also know that our budget is woefully insufficient for the cost of living in Europe. We estimate we will need about $4,000 in additional monthly support. But we know that our God can and will provide. Please pray with us for provision and new or increased support to make this happen. We have dreams of public ministry centers, strategic partnerships, and the opportunity to train and mentor the next generation of missionaries to reach the unreached. We need the Father to meet the needs to make it happen.
Please pray for the immensely complicated logistics facing us for this move. And finally, please pray for our team members and local partners as this affects them as well.
Thank you for partnering with us in finances and in prayer. Through that partnership, you are part of this! Prayer is the work so keep praying!
Until all have heard,
Scott, Magevney, Kirsten, and Audrey
p.s. If you want to join our support team or increase your support to help with the increased expenses of ministry in Germany, go to s1.ag.org/stricklandgive
During the last few years, Scott has had continued trouble with glaucoma. It is no surprise that during this same time period have seen tremendous movement of Turks coming to faith. And during this same time period, Turkey has made it nearly impossible to get people visas to move to or to remain in Turkey. The enemy has fought back, yet we know who has already won. And during this season, we sense the Lord leading us into a new direction; one we were not looking for but know His hand is guiding us. The enemy gets no credit. After much prayer, this June, our family will leave Turkey.
We have been asked to move to Berlin, Germany and work with training new missionaries to reach Turks, Kurds, and Afghans as well as to work on some projects impacting our entire ten nation area. Germany is home to 7 million Turks, more than any nation other than Turkey. In fact, in our travels there we have often had to rely on Turkish to get around! We just spent several days in one Berlin neighborhood nicknamed "Little Istanbul." Our years in Turkey and our Turkish language abilities were opening doors into the hearts of Turks in Germany!
We are preparing for this quickly coming transition but are still facing a huge wall in our path. We have found a good doctor for Scott in Berlin (which has already resulted in improving eye health after one visit!) but are now waiting on news of the girls getting into an English language school. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany so the kids must be enrolled in a local school. With Kirsten entering 10th grade and Audrey 6th, we do not feel we can put them into a German language school. That leaves us with the JFK school, a joint American-German public school. The school is quite popular and quite competitive to get accepted. In fact, they say to not plan on your kids being accepted. For this transition to happen, we need the girls accepted into JFK and we need to know ASAP. The school will let us know only if they are accepted and sometime between now and July 3. We need an answer in the immediate future. Will you pray with us, believing for an answer within the next week?
We have lots of questions about Germany and the work there. We do see the strategic opportunities of reaching Turks and others in an open context versus our current "creative access" context. We also know that our budget is woefully insufficient for the cost of living in Europe. We estimate we will need about $4,000 in additional monthly support. But we know that our God can and will provide. Please pray with us for provision and new or increased support to make this happen. We have dreams of public ministry centers, strategic partnerships, and the opportunity to train and mentor the next generation of missionaries to reach the unreached. We need the Father to meet the needs to make it happen.
Please pray for the immensely complicated logistics facing us for this move. And finally, please pray for our team members and local partners as this affects them as well.
Thank you for partnering with us in finances and in prayer. Through that partnership, you are part of this! Prayer is the work so keep praying!
Until all have heard,
Scott, Magevney, Kirsten, and Audrey
p.s. If you want to join our support team or increase your support to help with the increased expenses of ministry in Germany, go to s1.ag.org/stricklandgive
Joe & Noemi Szabo
Dear family, friends and partners in ministry,
Warm greetings from Springfield, MO. We have been back in the USA for about 3 months, making visits to ministry supporters in WI, MI, MO, and FL. We will continue on the road until our budget goals are met for our next term of missionary service. Thank you to all our CURRENT AND NEW PARTNERS for your PRAYERS AND GIVING. It means so much to us!
We are scheduling missions meetings and services for the first half of 2025. Please contact us if you're interested in having us.
We still need new partners to pray and to give generously for our budget goals to be met. We have about 60% of cash raised. We'd like to raise at least $2,500.00 in new commitments asap.
Below you will find some recent pictures and captions about some of our team members serving in Southern Europe. It is a privilege to serve the Lord of the Harvest!
With love and appreciation!
JOE & NOEMI SZABO
Warm greetings from Springfield, MO. We have been back in the USA for about 3 months, making visits to ministry supporters in WI, MI, MO, and FL. We will continue on the road until our budget goals are met for our next term of missionary service. Thank you to all our CURRENT AND NEW PARTNERS for your PRAYERS AND GIVING. It means so much to us!
We are scheduling missions meetings and services for the first half of 2025. Please contact us if you're interested in having us.
We still need new partners to pray and to give generously for our budget goals to be met. We have about 60% of cash raised. We'd like to raise at least $2,500.00 in new commitments asap.
Below you will find some recent pictures and captions about some of our team members serving in Southern Europe. It is a privilege to serve the Lord of the Harvest!
With love and appreciation!
JOE & NOEMI SZABO
Kent & Leslie Linneweh
"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open"
~ Corrie ten Boom... Dutch WWII heroine ~
...It's about losing your grip.
As our supporting churches and friends know, we have been transferred to Europe OnBoarding for AGWM Europe. Our adjustment to the United States has been more difficult than we imagined. Twenty years in another country can change your world view and the strings that pull on your heart. These days, we awake to much more sun, the dreary rain of The Netherlands now a fading memory. We eat more KC BBQ and say "good bye" to Dutch Rookworst and boring boiled potatoes. We can now park in a lot at a store and not have to pay $7 an hour for the "convenience". But, saying "good bye" to the churches God allowed you to start is another thing, entirely! Words fail to describe that feeling of loss. To be honest, we still feel we could have started yet another church in a new Dutch city, but "wanting" and "knowing" what God has for you are two different things!
We cannot thank you enough for the privilege of representing you in Missions these last 22 years! Only... yes only, because of your understanding that Europe is (as Dan Betzer so bluntly put it), "the darkest, most untouched continent on the face of the earth", have we been able to start, or be a part of starting, 5 new churches in The Netherlands!
So... THANK YOU! But, our job is not yet done.
Through your continued support we can help make sure that God's new recruits actually "get there". Thank you for believing in this next generation... you are our "champions"!
To reference Corrie ten Boom, again... There are times to hang on and there are times to let go. When the familiar becomes too comfortable, and your roots become to brittle and inflexible... sometimes God needs to pry us away from the "easy" and back into the unknown. That's where He lives. Never in the comfortable but always in the unpredictability of active Faith.
What is God asking of you to "let go of" today? Where have you become overly comfortable? Perhaps, He is asking you to enter into the unknown. Perhaps, the Lost of Europe are calling? Can you hear them?
"Thankful" is not the right word to offer you. Blessed to call you Friends and Partners may be better... but Fellow-Journeymen in Faith is... the Best!
Kent and Leslie Linneweh
~ Corrie ten Boom... Dutch WWII heroine ~
...It's about losing your grip.
As our supporting churches and friends know, we have been transferred to Europe OnBoarding for AGWM Europe. Our adjustment to the United States has been more difficult than we imagined. Twenty years in another country can change your world view and the strings that pull on your heart. These days, we awake to much more sun, the dreary rain of The Netherlands now a fading memory. We eat more KC BBQ and say "good bye" to Dutch Rookworst and boring boiled potatoes. We can now park in a lot at a store and not have to pay $7 an hour for the "convenience". But, saying "good bye" to the churches God allowed you to start is another thing, entirely! Words fail to describe that feeling of loss. To be honest, we still feel we could have started yet another church in a new Dutch city, but "wanting" and "knowing" what God has for you are two different things!
We cannot thank you enough for the privilege of representing you in Missions these last 22 years! Only... yes only, because of your understanding that Europe is (as Dan Betzer so bluntly put it), "the darkest, most untouched continent on the face of the earth", have we been able to start, or be a part of starting, 5 new churches in The Netherlands!
So... THANK YOU! But, our job is not yet done.
Through your continued support we can help make sure that God's new recruits actually "get there". Thank you for believing in this next generation... you are our "champions"!
To reference Corrie ten Boom, again... There are times to hang on and there are times to let go. When the familiar becomes too comfortable, and your roots become to brittle and inflexible... sometimes God needs to pry us away from the "easy" and back into the unknown. That's where He lives. Never in the comfortable but always in the unpredictability of active Faith.
What is God asking of you to "let go of" today? Where have you become overly comfortable? Perhaps, He is asking you to enter into the unknown. Perhaps, the Lost of Europe are calling? Can you hear them?
"Thankful" is not the right word to offer you. Blessed to call you Friends and Partners may be better... but Fellow-Journeymen in Faith is... the Best!
Kent and Leslie Linneweh
