God has blessed our family immeasurably.
Recently we've had some friends stand up and say "we're going to sponsor your newsletter". Which means we can now mail out newsletters at no cost to ourselves other than time! God is great!
You should be seeing the new one very soon. It'll also be online at www.gimpel.tv/newsletter..
God has blessed us so much, but at the same time, He is preparing us to do battle with the enemy.
Ephesians mentions that God has appointed us to do the good works which He has planned for us to do. And we are going about that task. Who knows what works those will be day to day, but we go with a heart of submission to minister to everyone we can, and are in turn ministered to by the Spirit.
There are certain topics in Christian culture which are hard to broach. One of them is spiritual warfare.
The key ingredient in spiritual warfare is knowing your identity in Christ. (Eph 1:1-14). There really isn't a formula or a technique, because it isn't our power that defeats the enemy but it is God's truth. It isn't a power encounter it is a truth encounter.
In knowing this, we have been teaching our kids who they are in Christ and as a comfort to us, they really already know much of the promises they have in God. They know God loves them, made them, and protects them. For this we are thankful.
The other night, around 2am, our cell phone rang. As is our practice I answer the phones after hours, but my wife had woken up first and answered, confusedly and then hung up. The phone rang again and then I answered.
It was obviously a wrong number, and the caller was inebriated, and was saying lewd things. I hung up and turned off the cell phone.
If we do not have eyes to see, and recognize that there are spiritual aspects to life, then we could simply see this as a minor annoyance. Another possibility is that it was the enemy trying to fatigue us. If we fail to recognize that, in the morning we could be grumpy, bicker with each other, etc, which would completely distract us from glorifying God which is our chief aim.
There is a great sermon on this issue from Andy Stanley from Northpoint.org called "exposing the matrix". It is a series of well done dramas and sermons that expose the plans of the enemy. (unfortunately I can't find the link to it jsut yet, I think they took it down)
So I found myself at 2am, simply praying and praising God so that my thoughts would not stray into the arena of anything other than focusing on God, because that, is the goal of the enemy.
This is why you, as prayer partners become so important to us. That you would pray for our protection, for our strength. That we would not fail in this mission together, that as those going we would not fall victim to the many snares and would instead glorify God in whatever means He has planned for us.
We covet your prayers. Sincerely, we thank you for praying for us.
Please pray that the enemy would not hinder our visas. That the paperwork would flow and our visas would arrive in good time so that we would not have to reschedule flights.
thank you.
