May 2022 Prayer Requests from Cory and Kristiana Miller
I’ve been thinking a lot about milestones recently. Our family arrived in Austria (on a more permanent basis) about five months ago. Just a few days ago, Rylynn turned eight, and Melody will turn six next month. Cory and I are approaching our ten-year wedding anniversary, too. One day at a time, our lives continue to change in small ways, while the big things hold steady for the first time in a long time, at least for our little family.
Living in Austria, serving missionary teens and families—this is a gift, and one we don’t take for granted. Even as we sink our teeth into work, ministry, and daily life in our new home, I’m hyper-aware of the fragility of this gift, and that awareness grants perspective and makes me grateful.
Since the last time you heard from us, life has been full. My week in England helping with the kids’ program for GEM’s UK First Termer’s Retreat ended dramatically, with almost everyone at the retreat getting viciously ill. The retreat itself went really well, though, with many meaningful interactions, joyful experiences (see photo above), and good work, and even the feverish journey home now makes for a (mostly) funny anecdote… though I’m definitely glad it’s over!
With three recent ministry trips behind me, it feels great to be home again for a little while. Preparations for GEM-K Summer Conference are well on their way, and our core staff team is excited about the proposed theme (more on that later!). We have more logistics than usual to coordinate for this year’s Conference, since it will be the first “normal,” in-person, in-Europe GEM-K Summer Conference since 2019.
Locally, Cory and I have been connecting more deeply with our Austrian church through a weekly “Hauskreis” (like a church small group). This has been a great way to get to know some people in our church, and it’s a regular intensive German challenge, too! We are doing an in-depth study on Psalm 23… all in German. I am preparing to lead the meeting tonight, which will be my first time, as this group encourages each member take turns leading the group conversation. We’re grateful to be part of such a loving and joyful group. Despite the language barriers, particularly for Cory, we laugh a lot when we’re together!
Thank you so much for your encouragement and prayers. Here are some ways you can pray for our family and our ministry this month.
PLEASE PRAY:
PRAISE God for the richness of my (Kristiana’s) recent ministry trips, and that our family is back together again. The girls are definitely happy to have both parents around, and we are grateful to be reunited, too!
PRAISE od for the opportunity to have GEM-K Summer Conference in person again. We’ve really missed this! Even the work of preparing for Conference is a joy, because it means that we will get to see the teenagers we serve very soon.
Please pray over the details of our Summer Conference preparation and planning. Our staff team is almost fully established, but we would appreciate prayer for exactly the right combination of leaders this year. Pray, too, that every teenager who needs this event would be able to come, and that God would already be preparing their hearts for the work he plans to do in them there. Pray for health and safety, both during everyone’s travels and at the Conference itself, and for God’s vivid presence during and blessing on this event.
Please pray for more progress and clarity in our BEG partnership. There have been a lot of steps to setting up this partnership, and many of those have finally been accomplished, but it is still a slow start. I’m eager to serve the families of BEG in a Member Care capacity, as they have asked of me, but the whole process is simply taking time. Pray for patience (for me!), good communication, and mutual blessing within this partnership. Please pray over our family’s complicated medical insurance needs. To eventually renew our visas to remain in Austria, we need medical insurance that is recognized in Austria. Through my role at BEG, I’ve been put into the Austrian system automatically, and I’ve been working on adding Rylynn and Melody to my insurance. It has been a slow process, and unsuccessful so far. We still don’t know how to insure Cory, and trying to gather clear information on this has been frustrating and fruitless. Please pray for breakthrough in this area! We are all fairly healthy right now, thankfully, but medical coverage really shouldn’t wait.
Please pray that our family’s German skills would progress well and quickly. In particular, struggles with German have been frustrating and sometimes isolating for our girls. Their language skills are improving, but they often feel discouraged, especially at church and school.
We are so grateful for you!