Friday, May 27, 2011

Partners in Prayer



These past three months have been times that have reminded us of the need for extended periods in God’s Word and desperate times in prayer.  God has shown us so much and we now find ourselves getting into the real grind of transition.  Transitions are always a challenge but God has been very present through this one.  Joan and I are enjoying the Lord and each other, as we trust Him for the days ahead.  Transitioning can put us face down and in total need of trust.  I can only imagine the challenges the nation of Israel faced as God moved them from Egypt to the promise land over forty years.  I am writing to you today for your help.  We need friends who can commit to partner with us in prayer as we embrace the ministry and life God has for us.

Our days are filled with getting established in St. Louis and setting direction for the missions ministry God has put on our hearts.  This is like a dream come true!  Having the opportunity to focus fully on making disciples through missions and global church planting, not to mention being close to the kids and grand kids, is a real blessing. With so many decisions to be made we want God’s best.  We want to know that every decision is covered in prayer.  Your willingness to pray with us and for us would be greatly appreciated! 

Isaiah 62:6 explains to us how God appointed intercessors for the work He was doing in Jerusalem.  We are asking Him to do the same through all of us as He begins this new work through us.  If you would send us a note to affirm your praying with us we would be greatly encouraged.  Simply e-mail mhaumschilt@gmail.com.  We know when God wants to do something big he breaks and builds into that individual.  Then He calls them to prayer.  The breaking has been happening and now we want to invite you to be a partner in praying with us.  Let us know how we can also pray for you.  We will want to keep in touch so we can share specifics of what to pray for and hopefully encourage you of how our Father is answering prayers every step of the way.

 We love you all so much and look forward to partnering to fulfill God’s great commission to make disciples of all nations as Jesus commanded and equipped us to do. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Let us know of your prayers and how we can pray for you!
Love You,
Mark and Joan

Monday, May 23, 2011

Brokeness


A. W. Tozer has been quoted to say, “When God wants to use a man greatly, He must first hurt him deeply”.  Brokenness seems to be part of the Journey to Freedom as well.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God promises us that His grace is always sufficient.  However, to know that grace and it’s life changing power I must first come to the end of me.  Jesus told us in John 15 that “apart from me you can do nothing”.  These past few months have been a wake up call to how empty I am with out Jesus. 
In these recent days of transitioning from Pastoring to International Church Planting we have found ourselves in the position of dependence on family and friends.   So many have been testimonies to us of the grace of God.  I guess we best know grace when we feel our weakness.  In verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 12 Paul tells me that when I am weak, then I am strong.  It is as if he is telling us to celebrate our weakness.  He advises us to boast about just how weak we really are.   We have been from South Florida to San Diego to St. Louis to Lake of the Ozarks and back.  We have slept in six different homes in four locations and our dog Tobie has found himself a bit confused at times.      
However, it is in times like these that you come back to those things that are most important in your life; the Lord and your family. Our times with our children have been amazing.  Joan and I were able to spend Easter with all the kids and spouses and yes, did I mention the most important member of the family, Allie, our 18-month-old granddaughter!  It has been many years since we had such an awesome blessing at a holiday time.  What a precious time of openness and sharing.  Joan has been able to help Heather get ready for our soon and coming grandson; Chaim Joshua.   Heather is so ready to have what promises to be a “big” baby boy.   Celebrating the things that really count and stopping long enough to enjoy the moments has kept us saying, “ thank you God for all you have given to us”. 
Jacob, one of our patriarchs of the faith teaches about the need for brokenness.  He wanted the blessing of God.  To gain the blessing he first experienced the breaking.  After wrestling with God all-night and unwilling to let go, Jacob pleads for the blessing of God.  God touches his hip and changes him forever.  He would be the one through whom God would call a nation and a Messiah.  His children and their faith were to be a testimony to the world of the nature and character of God.  When God broke Jacob we believe not only his name changed but also his character.  He was no longer a deceiver but a warrior.  His name was changed to identify a chosen people.  Thousands of years later his descendants still bear his name; Israel.  “When God wants to use a man greatly He must first hurt him deeply”.  To be honest we have known some deep pain these past months!  We know however, as Paul proclaims, “these momentary light afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory.  He also encouraged us with the promise that “God works all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes”.  A dislocated hip commemorated the breaking of Jacob.  He probably never walked the same as a result.  Brokenness really does change you.  It can leave you complaining and wanting or thankful and useful.  As for me and my house we choose  thankful and useful.  May God get the glory through these open and empty vessels.

Mark and Joan.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011


Be still and know that He is God!  Is that not in the Bible?  Do you have any idea how difficult being still really is?   I am reminded no matter how much the Lord wants to do through me He desires greatly to do a lot in me!  The past few days I have watched my head wanting to move foreword and trying to carve out the future.  I find myself asking God for answers and trying to push ahead to gain specific direction.  This too is a stronghold of mine that God wants to set me free of.
God reminds me that He is still refining me, refocusing me and above all becoming the greatest love of my life.   One glorious day with my bride by my side and the perfect environment of Coronado Island surrounding me God spoke!  For me, God usually speaks through His Word and this time was consistent yet dramatically different.  Consistent in that God used His Word Psalms 141:2.  Dramatically different in that I knew this was something for me that would take time to come to fruition.  God asked me to believe Him for two things.  That Luke 10:27 would be real in my life.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself”.  All of Luke 10:27 would be real in my life!  Loving God, others and myself!  Let me be honest, this is no small undertaking.  Loving God and total abandonment to Him was a new reality to a familiar prayer.  I had prayed this often.  Now, I am living it.  Loving others, is this even safe?  God, do you know where I have been?  Love my self?  If I have learned anything through this journey it is I have major issues with me!
The second thing God asked me to believe Him for was to gain intense passion for the ministry that lied ahead.  I hate to admit it but I have had days where I served God because that is what you do.   Was I not saved to serve?  Somewhere through life I learned to put my nose to the grindstone to seek and serve God and do the honorable and right thing.  He has reminded me that He has put His joy in me so that my joy may be made full.  (John 15:11)  The second evidence of being filled with the Spirit is Joy.  I now also know that in His presence is fullness of Joy!  (Psalms 16:11) For the ministry that lies ahead I want to stay awake at night thinking of how to see thousands coming to Christ not stressed over the details of the next day.  I have known in my life days where my engines revved and passion roared.  God, I want it back, I said and He promised to do it.  He asked me to claim Psalms 141:2; “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”  I set this prayer of Luke 10:27 and passion for His work like incense before the Father.  I have laid this prayer before the Lord that it might linger for days and weeks and months.  If necessary that prayer can linger for years but dear God make it true and real in my life. 
So for these days I am learning to slow down be still and let God do His good acceptable and perfect will in my life.  I don’t know what the future holds but do I ever know who holds my future.  I am told God is good all the time and now I know all the time God is good.  He is in control of this world and my life and by the way yours too.  I know that when God is preparing a vessel to be used greatly He always breaks that vessel deeply.  The breaking has happened and now the restoration for His glory.  “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand”.  I will be still and experience Him as my God. 

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Greetings and Catch-up



Greetings family and friends,

Joan and I wanted to have a venue that would allow us to keep up with the many who have asked to stay informed with what God is doing in our lives.  Thank you for the prayers and unbelievable support over the past several weeks. 
We are doing extremely well!  God’s presence has been known with great intimacy and His voice heard with wonderful clarity.   It has become clear that God has had two things He wanted from us.
 One: God does not want part of our hearts but all of them.  There were strongholds in our lives that kept us from being all God wanted to be in us.  I knew there were many times in my life that I was not dealing with stress in appropriate ways.  Joan was sensing for her life a need for greater trust and intimacy in the Lord.  We have found that God has gone so much deeper than we knew He needed to.  Daily He has ministered His Word to us.  “The Lord has appeared of old to me saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.  Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you.  Again, I will build you and you shall be rebuilt.”  (Jeremiah 31:3-4)  While we spent three weeks in San Diego alone with the Lord and each other God spoke clearly every day. 
Two: God has a new work for us.  Not really a new work but a focused work.  Through the years God has given us a passion for house church planting around the world.  We have seen God do so much in the small amount of time we have been able to put into this ministry.  God has made it clear this is the ministry He wants us to invest our lives in.  God really takes His commissioning of us seriously. 
One of the last messages I taught at Sheridan Hills was on the cost of discipleship.  In Luke 9:57-62 Jesus had a message for us.  He explains a disciple is guaranteed of nothing, not even a home.  “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no-where to lay His head”.  The same may be true of His followers.  Joan and I find our selves homeless at the present.  He speaks to a man that was willing to follow God only when his father was dead.  In short, he would follow after he had received his inheritance.  Joan and I often spoke of starting this mission emphases when able to live on retirement.  God wanted it sooner!  The final encounter was with a man who asked to say good by to guests at his house.  This concern appears honest enough.  The issue here is acknowledging the importance of following Jesus without the urgency of following Jesus.  Our urgency was not the same as God’s.  Now is the time and today is the day says our Lord.  We make so many excuses but Jesus made it clear His commission is to be urgent.  
In short, God has had to set us free from so much to get us locked in on His very best.  Joan and I have spent  a great deal of time in the Word and one awesome study has been the book of Galatians while in San Diego.  “It was for freedom that Christ set us free and don’t be entangled to a yoke of slavery”.  (Galatians 5:1)  God’s love, mercy and power combine to give wonderful freedom in Christ.  It is awesome to see God set us free to be greater tools in His hand. 
We have so much more to share and I assure you these posts have only just begun. 

Keep walking in His Grace;
Mark and Joan