Our
New Address until
March 20,
2009:
Matt and Rachel
Floreen
852
Sun Grove Drive
Camarillo CA
93010
www.AfricaStories.com
info@africastories.com
February
2009
Issue
#4
Please direct
all
financial
support to:
Grace
Ministries Int’l
Grace Community Church
13248 Roscoe Blvd.
Sun
Valley, CA 91352
(818)
909-5700
www.gracechurch.org/ma
gmi@gracechurch.org
Support
Statistics
Every time we see that someone has
donated towards our ministry in Malawi,
we are humbled. A few precious
people have given so sacrificially that
we’ve been moved to tears.
We
understand that many of you are
experiencing uncertainty in your
personal finances. So when people
commit to support us (especially
monthly!), we recognize that they’re
looking to God with confidence, and
it’s beautiful to see. God is
exalted by that kind of faith.
Rachel and I
long to live a life marked by undying
dependance on God. And it’s
awesome for us to watch our brothers
and sisters in Christ do the
same. We’re thankful for the tiny
glimpse we get of that faith, and look
forward to seeing God bless you (Phil.
4:17).
As
for us, we’re trusting the Lord to
provide the remainder of our monthly
support by next month. It’s a lot
of money, but nothing for Him. We
look forward to writing next month’s
newsletter to tell you what He’s done!
Thanks for
joining us in trusting God!
Prayer
Requests
Please pray
with us!
-
Pray for our faith as we wait for
support. Pray that our confidence
in the Lord’s guidance would remain
firm and would be a testimony to many.
-
Praise the Lord for giving us such a
wonderful opportunity to serve Him and
love the church!
-
Please pray that we would love Jesus
more every day.
-
Pray for the church in Malawi, that
they would continue to grow in
knowledge and grace.
-
Pray for our rest and
encouragement. We’re tired, but
we know that the Lord is our source of
strength and joy. Pray that we
would look to Him and that He would
grant us abundant grace!
Kwacha
We
have a rare opportunity to spend some
time with a great friend and fellow
laborer, Kwacha Simwaka. Kwacha,
a Malawian believer who is currently
studying at The Master’s Seminary in
the LA area, has been Matt’s friend
since 2001 when they met in
Mozambique. When he finishes
seminary, Kwacha will be returning to
Malawi to join the ministry of
International Bible Fellowship with the
Biedebachs and ourselves. Kwacha
is a tremendous blessing to us now as
he teaches us things about Malawian
culture and ministry, and we’re so
excited for his return to Malawi in a
few short years. Please pray for
him as he works hard in
seminary!
|
Life on the
Road!
We’ve
been on the road for 4 out of the past 5
weeks, speaking at churches and meeting
with lots of friends and family.
It’s been a great to catch up with many
of you, and to share our excitement about
our ministry in Malawi. Check out
the filmstrip below of some the people
we’ve been able to see on our
journeys! 
Being Cared
for On the Road
We
have been so loved as
we've traveled!
Here's a list of things that many of you
have blessed us with in the past couple
months:
*
Restaurant gift cards
*
Internet access
* Gas
money
*
Memories of childhood
*
Words of wisdom, counsel, and
encouragement
*
Great tips for little side
trips
*
Prayer - and praying with
us!
*
Good night's sleep
*
Laughter and joy
*
Testimonies of faithfulness that inspire
us
*
Opportunity to play with lots of
kids
*
Time to catch up on email and the
blog
*
Birthday celebrations for both of
us!
*
Love for ministry and Jesus
Christ
*
Messages from far away that cheer our
hearts
* The
chance to catch up on
laundry!
This
is just a short list of
ways we've
been blessed by you. Thank
you so much for your ministry to us as
we've been on the road! We have
loved the opportunity to meet many of
you, catch up with others of you, and see
the body of Christ support and encourage
one another! This truly is a great
adventure!
How You Can
Help
It
has been an incredible joy to
have
many people ask us
how they can
help us! Here are some of our
biggest needs right now.
1.
Pray for us. Rachel and I
aren’t exceptional people, but we serve a
mighty God. More than ever before,
we have seen Him answer the prayers of
His people. See the Prayer
Requests
column for some
specifics.
2.
Consider helping us
financially. This is still a
need too. See the Support
Statistics column for details.
3.
Share your burdens with us. We
value every person that God has put in
our lives. If there’s some way we
can minister to you, we long to know
about it. Even from Africa, it
would be our delight to do anything we
can to serve you.
Our Last Days
in America
It’s
hard to believe that our departure date
(March 20th) is less than a month
away. Here’s how we’re spending our
last days in America:
1.
Speaking at Churches. We have
seen God’s hand in leading us to Malawi,
and we welcome every opportunity to
testify to His faithfulness. We’ll
be at a different church each Sunday
until we leave. (See below for the
details.)
2.
Tying up Loose Ends. Moving
around the world is complicated, and we
have a lot of loose ends to tie up:
getting shots, closing down Matt’s photo
business, selling our cars...
3.
Saying Goodbye. Especially to
those of you whom we have haven’t seen
for a while!
Please to pray
for us during these full days!
Churches We’re
Visiting
Join
us if you can!
March
1 - 8:30-9:30am - Placerita Baptist
Church, Sunday School Class, BSC
100.
March
8 - 9:00-10:15am - Pleasant Valley Bible
Church, Sunday School hour.
March
15 - 8:30-10:00am - Grace Community
Church, Cornerstone Fellowship
Group
Want to Know
More?
The
blog is our online journal of the every
day things we think about and the
adventures we have along the way.
Click here to see
our blog!
We’ll
keep you up to date with everything from
cleaning out our old
apartment...
To
mice and all the other interesting things
that come our way!
Thanks again for
your love and prayers! We are so
blessed to have such a wonderful
community of support!
-
Matt and Rachel
|
Floreen
Newsletter Update