Dedicated

This is John, I would like to take a moment to share a few thoughts.

Today we were able to worship with family and witness my cousin Karalynn and her husband Caleb dedicate their son Ephraim. They stood in front of Kingsway Christian Church and vowed to raise their son, as best they are able, to know and love Jesus. Both Mirjam and I are blessed that we grew up in families where we had parents who were dedicated to loving Jesus and teaching their children to love Jesus. 

Dictionary.com defines dedicated as: devoted to a task or purpose; having single-minded loyalty or integrity. Or: exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular service or purpose. So what are you dedicated to? I know that my parents were dedicated to raising me to know and love Jesus (just as Caleb and Karalynn are dedicated to raising Ephraim), but at some point I had to make a choice for myself. Would my life be dedicated to Jesus? Will my life be devoted to, have loyalty toward, and be exclusively allocated toward Jesus? 

So many people dedicate their lives to things that ultimately leave them empty. I have seen people dedicated to sports, careers, entertainment, accumulating riches, boyfriends, girlfriends, all of which have left them empty. Sports injuries happen. Careers end. Entertainment only lasts so long, riches rust and go away..... But Jesus never leaves you empty. In Jesus there is hope, healing, and life. Mark 10 28-31 says this

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

29“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

This weekend marks seven years from when we left Omaha, Nebraska for Salt Lake City, Utah. We were dedicated to whatever Jesus was calling us to do there. Over these past seven years we have seen people surrender their lives to Christ and be baptized, young people grow into leaders, and made many friends. I look back at "John & Mirjam Curry of seven years ago" and I think about how young we were. How naive and impressionable. But we were dedicated. We are missing all of our friends back in Salt Lake City. We are missing the mountains, our house, our neighborhood, and shopping at Winco. But we are dedicated. We are dedicated to Jesus and living a life that tells others about Jesus. We are dedicated to making disciples and planting churches. We are dedicated because we know that life in Jesus is so much better than anything else; and a life dedicated to Jesus will not leave a person empty. 

As we prepare to go to Germany with Kontaktmission we continue to be dedicated to Jesus. If you would like to partner with us either financially or through prayer please e-mail: jcurry2k5@gmail.com.

Reminiscing

A few days ago, after the kids were in bed, I put on headphones and listened to K-LOVE while cleaning the kitchen. The first song to come on was Chris Rice’s “Come to Jesus”

Oh man, I had not listened to that song since 2004. Usually when I hear it come on the radio, I switch stations or turn it off.  Simple reason; I cannot get through this song without crying.

Backstory:  In 2004/5 I was an exchanges student in Clay Center Nebraska. I got to live with a wonderful Christian family in a small town and experience the American way of live. I loved it. But on a Saturday morning in late November, my mom called me to inform me that my grandma’s sister had died. Now you have to know my grandma’s sister had never been married, so she lived with my grandma and grandpa and was truly like another grandma to all of us.  It was a huge shock. Obviously I shared these news with my host parents and I remember vividly sitting on my bed and my host dad coming to talk to me. He hugged me (he is a hugger) and told me to just think about that song and the last verse saying:

“And with your final heartbeat,

kiss the world goodbye

then go in peace, and laugh on Glory’s side,

and fly to Jesus,

fly to Jesus,

fly to Jesus and live.”

Those words have never left me.

Even after so many years, the tears still come at the memory of that night. And the significance those words had. I wish though I had listened to the song over these last years because there is more than one verse. 

Being with Jesus is not just something to look forward to, when you are dying. HE wants to be part of your life now. HE wants to be there in the joy and in the sorrow and through the laughter and tears. In the hardship and when life is as sweet as can be. I needed to hear that. And more importantly, the people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus need to hear that.  

This is exactly why John and I are doing what we are planning to do. Because there are so many people in Germany who live in this religious backdrop but the personal relationship is missing. There are so many people living their lives, alone, not knowing about the saving grace that could carry them through until the end. We hope and pray that we will be used by God to share HIS love with the people of Germany and hopefully break through the ignorance, arrogance, rejection and distrust. I hope that this song inspires you to live this live with Jesus; every day of it, every high and every low, until you “fly home”.

On a different note, we enjoyed a trip to the Omaha Zoo today. Finley loved running around and looking at EVERYTHING! Elea was happy to see all of her favorite animals. Her favorite animal today was the okapi.

Working Upstream

We are encouraged every time we talk to the church leaders in Wüstenrot. They are looking forward to meeting us in person and have been super welcoming already. Having us come and work at/with their church has been a real answer to prayers for them. They let us know that back in January they were praying for God to raise up more people to serve in bringing the gospel to the people of Germany. 

So everything on that side of the ocean seems to be falling into place and we see God’s hand in it over and over again. The church even has a place for us to rent which is super close to the church. We are looking into language courses for John and my dad is already looking at used cars.

When God says Go, you Go. And we are so grateful that things are coming together.

Stateside, we are still working on finding people to add to our team of supporters. Right now we are about 25% funded and we are hoping and praying that God will put Germany and the lost there on people’s minds and hearts.

We know that God is working upstream and we will continue to walk in faith. When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, God commanded them to step into the Jordan River. They had to step into the water first before it stopped flowing and piled up in a heap a great distance away. Faith comes first. God is working. We might not be seeing it yet, but he is working upstream and eventually we will be able to see the full effects of it.

Just a few tidbits from our life right now.

>Nebraska thunderstorms are epic.

>Elea is starting to enjoy riding her balance bike that my parents bought for her last summer. She is just a wee bit timid.

>Finley is not timid at all.

>We have a bird’s nest by our front door. The babies hatched a few days ago and we keep checking in on them every day. They grow up so fast.

>Elea rides her bike to the office building every morning to drop off mail and the cafeteria person gives her a piece of fruit every morning. We will be super sad next week when the cafeteria closes for the summer.

>We got a couch for $2.99 at Goodwill!

>We miss our friends in Salt Lake City.

Thank you all for your support. 

A New Normal

This is home right now. Or at least we are trying to make it feel that way. Omaha has always been home to John and me. This is where our story as a married couple began. This is where we spent our college years and this is where John’s family is. Salt Lake City is home too though. It’s where we started our family, where we became parents and found so many dear friends. A home away from home. So it does have a different feel to it, being back in Omaha after having been gone for 7 years. It’s our old “stomping ground” but it is so different being back here with kids now.

I was reading a blog, written by a family who is serving as missionaries in Africa. They were preparing to go back to the States on furlough. The mom was writing how hard it is to prepare to go “back home” when this is “home” . Just going over the millions of things, plans, lists that are swirling around in your head. So many things to plan for, organize, take care of, shop for and deal with.

I can totally relate. This is us right now in a reverse kind of way. This is “home”, but only temporarily. Soon we will be going to a new “home”. (Our poor kids must be so confused) We are only here for 3 months, securing a base of supporters, saying our last goodbyes to friends and family before we head to our new “home” in Germany. We are trying to cram in as many fun activities as possible, but this time really is work. John keeps reminding me, that even though he is not going to a “physical” office, there is so much work to be done, and it is so hard sometimes with kids around to find the time (and energy) to sit down and focus.

We are still sending out more support letters and are having lots of meetings and are scheduling presentations, all while trying to keep a relatively regular schedule for the kids.

We are excited to see what God has planned for us and know that HE is preparing the way. We’ve already seen HIS hand in this; connecting us with some great people and even keeping an eye on John’s laptop when he forgot it at Starbucks. We even had the privilege to speak at two classes here at Nebraska Christian College.

We are so incredibly blessed and humbled that you all are a part of this journey. Please keep us in your prayers.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” EPHESIANS 3:20

( that one time, we were all matchy-matchy on accident)

A New Chapter

On April 28 (Miri’s 30^th birthday), we packed up and left our home of 7 years. It was a really stressful morning and we didn’t even process it all until we were on the road with endless hours of boring road to mull over everything. There were lots of tears. We are so grateful for all the friends we have made in Salt Lake City and we will miss them dearly.  This has been our home; the place we started our family, our first full time ministry.  We will never forget you Salt Lake City.

After a very long day of driving and a last minute change of plans (our Airbnb cancelled on us), we spent a crazy night all packed together in a hotel room in Cheyenne Wyoming.

After very little sleep we set out for the next part of our journey. We drove and drove and drove (for some reason I forgot (or wanted to forget) how long and boring I-80 is) We eventually made it to Clay Center where we stayed with Miri’s former host family. 


We enjoyed a wonderful Sunday at Clay Center Christian Church, even though the weather was ridiculously stormy. It was great catching up and resting up before the last stretch of road trip. Monday we set out from Clay Center to Omaha, where we arrived in the afternoon. John’s friend Taylor was there to help us unload while the kids took naps and we ate dinner together in a room full of boxes.

We are getting settled into our temporary home. We are excited for this time and hope that we will be able to make the most of it. These next few months we will focus on support raising and finding churches and individuals to partner with us in our new ministry. Please pray for us to meet with the right people, for divine appointments, boldness in approaching people, and a whole lot of faith.

We know that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. We’ve already seen His guidance and blessing in having the sale of our house go very smoothly. Also, His protection on the road and guiding our travels to keep us out of the blizzard that had roads closed down only a day after we’d driven there.  Prayers are appreciated for all our well being. The kids have been running a fever, and we are all a little under the weather.

This move could be considered the “first act” in this epic “play” that is about to play out in our lives over the next few months. We are excited for the future and grateful for all the friends who have helped us make it through this transition. Thank you all who have stepped up and pitched in and gone out of your way to be a blessing to us. We love you all!