New Zealand & Israel Tours.

As I type, two of our Keynote teams are overseas partnering with various ministries in Israel & New Zealand! You'll find a little blurb about both teams below and a link to a prayer calendar for each team. I encourage you to print those calendar's out and join us in praying for these two teams. Each day there is something specific to be praying for. We'll update you on how the teams are doing as we get email updates [depending on the internet access where they're at].

NEW ZEALAND

Last night we got an email from the team in New Zealand. After over 25 hours of travel, they made it to Wellington, New Zealand! Their trip was great overall. The only interesting thing was one of the flights was delayed because apparently one of the toilets on the plane "exploded"...so they to wait for that to be cleaned up. :) The team will be partnering with various ministries doing outreach concerts all over New Zealand. One additional prayer is for Mia [singer and bassist], as she is in her 5th month of pregnancy while on this trip!

New Zealand Prayer Calendar

ISRAEL

The Israel team [and their luggage] all arrive safely on Wednesday evening. From the update email that we received, they are all very tired and trying to adjust to the time change. As you can see from their prayer calendar, they have a full schedule! For the first half that the team is in Isreal, they'll be leading worship music for the Jerusalem 2008 conference. Then, for the second half, they'll be doing out reach concerts in the Galilee region.

Israel Prayer Calendar

Happy Two Years!

Today, we are celebrating our two-year anniversary! It has been so neat to see God’s hand in the midst of our dating, engagement, and marriage. These past two years have gone by so fast, but they have certainly been fun and a great learning experience for both of us!

A Party & A Visit.

This past weekend was my sister's high school graduation party. It was fun to see everyone come out to congratulate her!


When we were heading back to Dayton after that weekend, we had an extra passenger....Kadie! She came back with us to spend a couple more days. Her and I went to see the Bodies exhibit at the Cincy Museum on Monday. We spent the rest of the time hanging out, shopping, and playing with Moses!



Moses really loved to see his Aunt Kadie too! Now, all the parties, trips, our youth ministry commitment, and school is over. I'm sure that more things will creep up, but right now, so many things have recently been taken off our plates. We are attacking MPD [ministry partner development]! We have been steadily working on contacting people to see if they are interested in joining our ministry partner team through prayer and/or financially. God has provided us financially with 11.2% of our monthly support goal and many, many people on our team in prayer. Praise Him! We can't wait to see what He's going to do next!

-J

Prayer Letter Update

Happy Thursday! Here is a link to our latest prayer letter!

June Prayer Letter

In Him,
The Utts

Encouragement. Take Two.

So, I log on to Crusade's "Staff Web" today to see if there is any news I need to be aware about in the Crusade world. There's a section that answers a frequently asked question from staff members. There's a new question each week. I had to laugh to myself when I saw the title of this week's topic:

MPD During a Difficult Economic Time

[MPD = Ministry Partner Development - what we're doing right now with developing our ministry partner team of people supporting us prayerfully & financially.]

Thanks God for thinking of us in our last post and giving us encouragement with this article. You are amazing! :)

-J

p.s.....If you're curious what the article is about, here it is. [There's a quote that I love that I put in bold/italics. Ellis said that same thing at our new staff training]:

Question

A staff member asks:

"Food and gas prices are up. Many homeowners are in trouble with their mortgages. The dollar is falling overseas. How would you encourage staff members who need to raise support during these troubled economic times?"

Answer

This is not the first time we have faced a challenging economy as a ministry.

During the 1970s and 80s, we lived in a period of rapid inflation, we were in a recession, mortgage rates were increasing drastically and gasoline was scarce due to the oil embargo.

Christy and I were living in New England with a 7% loan on our home. Then I transferred to California where the interest rate on our mortgage doubled to 14%.

During difficult economic times we need to keep a proper view of what is true -- that God really is in control.

I love what my friend Ellis Goldstein says, "From the beginning of eternity, God's net worth has remained constant." None of this has taken Him by surprise -- He still owns everything.

Raising support in today's economy is challenging because many ministry partners are feeling the impact as we are.

But God has blessed this ministry with incredible partners. Our donors are committed to God's work, advancing His Kingdom and the staff members they love and support. They are not rushing out to drop their giving.

In fact, giving to staff members is up about 2.3% compared to this time last year, while overall giving to the ministry has remained about the same.

That tells us that during this tough time, our ministry partners see the importance of continuing to support you, our staff members, while project giving is down slightly.

I would encourage each of you to look at I Chronicles 29 where David talks about how wealth and honor come from the Lord. Also look at II Corinthians 8 where Paul talks about the generosity of the Macedonians.

These two chapters help give a Biblical frame to this discussion and keep our perspective on God's timing, not our own.