Warners' January/February 2007 Prayer Letter

Hello.

A few people have asked if we could post our prayer letters in our blog. Here's our January/February 2007 prayer letter.

ATB,

Charley and Cheryl Warner
Barnabas International
Vienna, Austria
--------------------------------------------------------
January-February 2007
Vol. 21, No. 1-2

Dear Friends,

“Are we there yet?” If your family has ever taken a long road trip, you have heard this question. We’ve had two very long road trips in the last few months and heard that question often, coupled with “How much longer?” It’s a question we sometimes ask ourselves in ministry as well. We can’t measure our progress on a mileage chart, but we do stop to evaluate how things are going as we endeavor to care for missionaries, train national church leaders, and disciple believers. These are tasks that will continue. There will always be missionaries who need encouragement, emerging church leaders who are being equipped, and Christians in the local church who want to grow. We have ministered to many such people in the past 20 years; their faces are in our minds and hearts as we write, though we usually cannot share their stories. The questions seem more pressing applied to our own children. For Melissa, turning 17 soon, “how much longer?” has a clear answer: three semesters to go before graduation in 2008. Elizabeth’s turn will come just two years later. So are we there yet? We continue to run the lifelong race, determined to be anchored in Christ and faithful to Him. What follows are some stops on the journey.

Travel
Charley traveled to Washington, DC in mid-November to attend two conferences: Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). The ETS conference was especially important because the outgoing ETS President is one of our supporters, Edwin Yamauchi. Ed, thanks for your faithful service to the cause of evangelical theology. We appreciate you! The AAASS conference is the main gathering for scholars in Russian and Central European Studies. It was Charley’s first time to attend this conference. He attended many seminars and workshops on the current political and religious situation in Russia, which is beneficial for doing our ministry to missionaries better.

Future Ministry Travel/Activities
2007
Feb. 2-5 Illinois—Winter Missions Festival at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois
Feb. 5-13 Florida—Global Impact Celebration at McGregor Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Florida
Feb. 23-25 Minnesota—Charley gives a seminar on “Caring for Missionaries on Furlough” at the Midwest Conference on Missionary Care in Roseville, Minnesota (suburban Minneapolis)
March 9-22 California—Visiting Bethany Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Lakewood
March 23- Ohio—Visiting churches and supporters (probable trip)
April 1
June 21 Charley returns to Vienna and immediately goes to Odessa, Ukraine for EAAA Board meetings. Also, our daughter Elizabeth goes to Africa for a summer ministry with Teen Missions.
July 9 Cheryl and the girls return to Vienna

In late November, our entire family traveled by car to Texas (Thanksgiving with Cheryl’s family), and then after Christmas we drove to Florida to see Charley’s family. We were blessed with beautiful warm weather in both places and thankful to spend time with our extended families. In between those two trips, the girls stayed behind while the two of us flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, to share our ministry with potential supporters. This was also a special time of connecting with friends and getting away together. Then Charley stayed on to attend the Pastors to Missionaries seminar, an annual seminar sponsored by Barnabas International designed for those who care for missionaries.

February sees us at missions conferences at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois and at McGregor Baptist Church in Ft. Myers, Florida. At the end of February Charley gives a seminar on “Caring for Missionaries on Furlough” at the Midwest Conference on Missionary Care in Roseville, Minnesota.

March 9-22 we will be in southern California visiting First Baptist Church of Lakewood (March 11) and Bethany Baptist Church in Thousand Oaks (March 18). If you live in California or Florida, we would like to see you. Please get in touch with us so we can make plans to get together.

Finances
We wrote in November that our financial situation has been critical in recent months. Because of several months of shortfall, our account at Barnabas was in the red. We are grateful that some large one-time gifts have helped reduce this deficit. We even received a large gift from an anonymous donor which was very touching—thank you to that quiet, humble soul whose identity we do not know. Also, our house in Vienna has now been sublet to new missionaries who will rent it until we return, and this is a big boost to our month-to-month situation. Some new individuals have joined our regular support team in recent months. Thank you to you, too! However, we have also experienced the loss of some regular support. Therefore, we are still looking for consistent monthly support of around $1,600 per month so that we can return to Austria fully funded. We appreciate your prayers for this and know that God is at work.

Thanksgiving and prayer items
1. Pray for our continued ministries of encouragement among missionaries and national church leaders.
2. Pray for Cheryl as she works from home copyediting books for Barnabas International and helping launch an online magazine, “Encouragement Online,” which debuts in January 2007.
3. Praise for a subletter for our house in Vienna. They moved in on January 6, 2007. Thanks for praying!
4. Pray for new support so that we can return to Austria fully funded.
5. Praise God for Emily’s improved health and pray for the same for Charley.
6. Pray for safety in travels. Our traveling really picks up in early February 2007.

Thank you for your partnership in serving the church and missionaries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. We appreciate you and hope to see many of you soon!


Charley and Cheryl Warner
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communicating with the Warners

Skype over the InternetàOur Skype contact ID is: ccwarner (For more information www.skype.com)
Warners’ Electronic Updates--If you, your church or anyone else you know would like to receive our Electronic Updates, then please send us your e-mail address and we’ll include you.

FURLOUGH ADDRESS:
P. O. Box 88043 warner@barnabas.org (general)
Carol Stream, IL 60188-0043 charley@barnabas.org (personal)
Phone: 630-665-9179 cheryl@barnabas.org (personal)

Tax-deductible gifts for the Warners’ ministry may be sent to:
Barnabas International, PO Box 11211, Rockford, IL 61126-1211 USA