Dec. 2023 Prayer Requests from Cory and Kristiana Miller
The end of November finds us a bit breathless, like the sense of reeling instability you feel when you step into a warm, safe house after staggering sideways through a storm. This Autumn has been a good one, in many ways, but a fierce and full one, too, like the wet wind of the storm, tossing leaves and raindrops and flyaway hair into our eyes, so that every step takes double the energy. The winds howl and slam against the windows, and maybe they are getting colder day by day, but the house still stands. Feeling is beginning to return to our fingers.
As I shared in our last newsletter, October and November were busy for us. I (Kristiana) visited BEG families in Innsbruck, we had multiple visitors, including several GEM-K teens, I attended a GEM women’s retreat in Spain, and traveled immediately afterwards to a BEG meeting of church delegates in central Austria, where I managed to get sick along the way and spent most of the event in a fever, missing almost everything. Rylynn and I applied for our visa renewals, though we don’t know when those will be processed (and hopefully, approved). Cory and Melody will apply for their renewals in mid-December.
Preparations for GEM-K Winter Camp are well underway, occupying a lot of my time and thought. Our search for a service team continues, but we finally have several leads and one confirmed volunteer. Please continue to pray with us over this need. There are a lot more logistics that will need to be managed before we’re ready to welcome teens and staff to Camp, so the work is not over! Winter Camp preparations and Christmas and Advent celebrations and traditions will take center stage as we move toward December. There is some peace and rest in this time of contemplation and good work, though, and we are grateful for that.
Please pray for:
PRAISE God for safety and good homecomings from many travels, and that our family is together again at home for a time. Many ministry trips and visits back-to-back are certainly exhausting, so we are glad to be finished for a while, too!
PRAISE God that Kristiana and Rylynn’s visa renewal applications seemed to have been received smoothly, and pray with us that the whole family receives approval for 3-year visas soon. 3-year visas are certainly not a guarantee, but they would be a wonderful gift to us. We know better than most that any visa renewal is a gift, and in a way, a miracle.
Please pray over GEM-K Winter Camp 2023. Pray that God sends us the right service team and prepares all leaders, volunteers, and teenagers for this special time together. Pray a blessing over the details and the logistics, our health and safety, mercy and good connections for everyone who needs to travel, and joy and meaning in our time together. Pray that God would use this event to his glory, and for the good of every teenager who attends.
Please continue to pray for Rylynn and Melody: for their thriving, true faith, and encouragement for their little hearts. Childhood is generally hard, but childhood between cultures is often harder. Pray with us, if you will, that our daughters would come to true faith in Jesus and love for him, and that they would grow up feeling deeply that they belong, that they are loved, and that there is hope.