Cordell Family Weekly Prayer Requests

1). ENGLISH CLUB 
I started my weekly English Bible club last week. We meet every Tuesday night. It is a small group but a really fun and good group. I'm still thinking through our plans for the semester and what Bible passages we will tackle. Pray for the Holy Spirit to do the work of salvation in the hearts of his people through this group and that God will use the English club to advance His Kingdom in L'viv. 

2). PROJECTS GALORE
I'm really busy these days. There is a lot going on and I have my hands in all sorts of projects related to our team, church and the publishing ministry. Life feels very busy. Pray for God to bless all these projects and my efforts but also pray that I would keep Jesus as my focus, foundation and priority in the midst of much activity.   

3). ДРУЗІ - Ukrainian word for "friends". The word sounds like "druzi". 
Anya and her children spent a lot of time with our family 3 years ago. They even joined us at church a few times and came to our summer VBS. Since then they sort of disappeared from the radar. We were so excited to see them yesterday at church... for the first time in a very long time. It sounds like they had a good visit and may come again. Pray that God would bring them back into our church community and give them a new heart to believe the Gospel. 

Thank you for reading and praying with us.
Grace & Peace
Bradley and crew

Seeing them as Daughters

The Daughters of Bulgaria is an MTW ministry to women caught in human trafficking.

“Simon, ‘Do you see this woman?’” (Luke 7:44) Of course Simon saw her—a sinner, a woman of ill repute, someone to avoid. Jesus pushed Simon to see that his pride and external-focused religion were strangling his heart and blinding him from “seeing” the woman as He saw her. Jesus saw her heart. She was broken.

Totally unexpectedly, our team started hearing Jesus’ question: “Do you see these women?” Honestly, I didn’t want to see them, but the Lord was doing something we couldn’t ignore—I, as a man, couldn’t ignore. He opened my eyes not to see hookers and prostitutes, but to see with His eyes: to see daughters. Not just any daughter, but my own daughter.

Human trafficking and prostitution became real to us after a long-time “rescuer” from Germany shared how the Spirit’s nudge to network in Bulgaria became unrelenting. So many of the women she met on the streets there were from Bulgaria. We learned from her about our country, and its role as a “feeder” country for human trafficking. She shared but it really didn’t impact my heart—it was too big, too impersonal. What could we possibly do? We were a church planting team. But then she said, “These women on the streets are our mothers, sisters and daughters ... ”

I am a father—but not just a father, I’m Daddy, and my 16-year-old daughter was sitting next to me as these words jolted my core. Suddenly all those nameless, faceless girls we drove by on the streets—I trying not to notice as a Christian man—had faces, and not just any faces but those of my own two daughters.

I realize now, the Lord had to work first in my heart for our team to really “see” these women and prayerfully seek how the Father wanted us to respond. I was looking at the women like Simon—making an idol out of religious/moral purity and seeing these prostitutes only as sexual objects to be avoided and not as daughters needing to be loved.

As I drive our team members to the Ring Road for our weekly ministry visits with prostitutes there, I know I am but a man, weak and in need of God’s grace. I see much that could weaken my resolve towards purity, but it helps to remember my two precious daughters. If one of them were to be enslaved as these Daughters of Bulgaria are, would not my prayer be, “Lord, please send someone to rescue my dear, dear daughter?”

Jesus asked, “Do you see this woman?” For every broken, enslaved, provocatively dressed prostitute on the Ring Road, my answer is, “Yes Lord I see her, and she’s just like my little girl.”

Source: MTW website

Connecting God's People

Baptism of a Turk in Izmir

My friend and collaborator in Muslim in Italy, Francesco Maggio and I traveled last weekend to Izmir, Turkey (biblical Smyrna) to visit with Rev. Fikret Bocek. We succeeded in cementing a relationship between Italian evangelical churches and Turkish Presbyterians from a Muslim background in Izmir. That means simply that we now have at least one Muslim background expert in evangelism that will regularly travel to Italy each year to train local churches in outreach to immigrants and then help churches learn how to assimilate converts into Italian congregations. Tall order, but we now have the best possible people working on it. My role was to connect the two parties together. I’ll take it.

The state of the Turkish church
 Turks, as many of us know, face increasingly serious pressure from the growing Islamisation of the Turkish government and its citizens. Despite the pressure and risks, the evangelical Presbyterian church in Izmir continues to grow, primarily through adult conversion of Turks from both secularism and Islam.

There are two messages in all of this. First, they appreciate our prayers. Second, they exhort us to reach our own lost. If the church can overcome its obstacles in Turkey to promote Christ, so can we. There is another lesson in all of this. The Turkish church is repressed and weak, but it is potent in its gospel witness. God is using it to strengthen what once was the heartland of Christianity and home to the Reformation. That is God’s way for churches and it is God’s way for each one of us. He displays his strength in our weakness.

Update on Andrew Bunson

Dear friends,
We have been encouraged by the news earlier this week that President Trump and Vice President Pence urged Turkish President Erdoğan to release Andrew Brunson. However, I am disheartened to tell you that apparently the Turkish response to that meeting on Tuesday is a statement of significant accusations against Andrew.
Turkish media is reporting today that Andrew is being accused of being a “Kurdish sympathizer” and a “Gülenist.” These are serious charges, and Andrew needs our prayers more than ever.

Hurriyet, the leading English-language news outlet in Turkey, reported that prosecutors are citing Brunson for “delivering sermons to the Kurds with a ‘special purpose.’” This seems to imply that they believe Andrew has expressed support for an ethnic group that Turkey is currently waging a military campaign against. The Kurds are a minority group in Turkey (primarily located in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country, as well in Iran, Iraq, and Syria) and for many years have unsuccessfully pressed for more autonomy. 
Yeni Şafak, a staunchly pro-Erdoğan news outlet, published an article yesterday under the headline “FETO Chaplain” that condemned Andrew for supporting Islamic cleric Fethulah Gülen, who has lived in the United States since 1999. Gülen leads a loose organization involved largely in education but also in other areas. Gülen and Erdoğan are former allies who had a falling out in 2012 or so, and in 2015 the Turkish government labeled his movement the Fethullahist Terror Organization, or FETO, and classified it as terrorist. Erdoğan blames Gülen and FETO for leading a coup attempt against him last summer that ultimately failed (a charge Gülen denies).

I cannot stress enough how significant these accusations are. In fact, the Turkish government views them as nothing less than treason. 

Friends, it is time to redouble our prayer efforts. Please take time in your worship services this weekend to plead to the Lord on Andrew’s behalf! Also, please make the members of your congregation aware of this turn in Andrew’s situation.  

Thank you and God bless you,
Jeff

The Belize Project

Belize Project Jacobs Farm by Alex Webster on Scribd

The Truth About Missions is That It's a Long, Hard Slog

The Truth About Missions is That It's a Long, Hard Slog

Welcome to my House! (Rutledge update)

Since our return to Zlín from our "visa exile" on February 1^st, we have dug deeper into the language and culture. We were invited to attend our first ball! That was a great cultural experience, especially waltzing with hundreds of Czechs!

Our first ball (a very common thing here in February)

Let us introduce you to some new friends! We began attending advanced Czech classes twice a week and have met some nice people through that. Our teacher, Igor, also teaches elementary school and asked us to do a presentation at his school about America in April! Pray that God will use that relationship to His glory.

We also started private conversation sessions twice a week with a wonderful, Christian lady, Šárka. Although those times with her are very intense and tiring for us, she is giving us exactly what we need and is a real answer to prayer! From her, we are learning how to sensitively discuss spiritual things with Czechs… how to word our questions and things that are cultural “red flags”. Her husband, Samuel, is a true evangelist (rare here). We see God bringing these people into our lives to build relationships with.

Czech conversations with Šárka

From our Czech classes, we have our first Russian friends! There is a couple around our age from Moscow (Valentina and Valerij) and a young lady from Siberia. Her name is Nastya and we have hung out a few times. She confided to us that she has started reading the Bible for the first time! This is exciting to see how the Holy Spirit moves us and puts people together. Pray for Nastya that she would recognize the truth of God’s Word and that she would be protected from false teaching, as she explores other spiritual books.

The bad news is that Jan turned 50! The good news is that we had a great party because of that! We invited our whole church and our whole class and some people we barely know. Out of about 65 invited, 48 showed up and we had a house full. Our house is the perfect place to host a party.  We wanted it to be a time where believers could mix with non-believers and have meaningful conversations and that’s exactly what happened.Praise God for a successful party! 

All of our Russian friends came, as did one of our French classmates with his Czech wife. The Russians said we were much more Russian acting than Czech. Wow. Who knew? Samuel had a long conversation with Valentina and when he told her about how he knew he had security with Jesus from the Bible, she said she was going to go home and check her Russian Bible and see if that same verse was in there! He assured her it would be. Pray that that conversation would open the door for further reflection.

Vikorka (landlady's daughter), Marija (Ukrainian landlady), Valentina (Russian classmate)

Some of you have heard about Mrs. Mikulikova, an elderly lady we befriended at the bus stop near our home. She is very lonely. She was amazed that we invited her to our party and when she saw all the people, she said, “I don’t know how to act here. I’ve never been with so many people!” We took good care of her and she had fun. She said that she had never met so many nice people in one place! Isn’t that the way we want to be perceived by people who don’t know Jesus? Šárka had a long conversation with Mrs. M and when she learned that we knew most of the guests through church, she said, “Oh! Are they a sect?!” Šárka said, “No, no! They are believers in Jesus Christ and I am, too!” They talked a while and then Mrs. M said, “Oh, well, I’m a believer, too, I just don’t know in what!” Later, she sang a John Denver song along with Kevin with gusto! She sang in Czech, while he sang in English. Pray for Mrs. M that she will contemplate what it means to believe in God and crave the love she sensed from many at the party.

Mrs. Mikuliková singing John Denver with Kevin!

Our Ukrainian landlady also came with her college-aged daughter and it was very good to reconnect with her. Kevin was telling them stories of romance… how he felt God brought us together and how God brought our son-in-law, Theo, to Abby and how that was an answer to prayer. He could tell that they were touched by those stories and maybe it was a new thought to pray about those things. They attend an Orthodox church at Christmas and Easter, but they are interested in the spiritual things we have shared.

There is something about a social event in your home that endears people to you. We hope to have many more parties like this! These stories are snapshots of our life here and the kinds of people we meet. All of these people want to spend more time with us. That can only be God, working behind the scenes, creating mutual interests and opportunities.

In addition to all this, we bought a car! Yay! It is a Czech-made car, a Škoda Fabia 2010. We also bought some patio furniture, which we christened at the party. Next on our list to buy are some bicycles.

Spring is slow to come to this part of Europe. We have had temperatures reach 60, but the nights can still be below freezing and there is not a bud in sight. Late May will bring us the Spring that you may be having in the South in March. We're looking forward to it!

Pray for us to be aware when God is matching us with new friends. Sometimes we don’t realize when God has put someone in our lives for a purpose. However, when Nastya told us she was reading the Bible for the first time, I felt like God was waving a flag at us and pointing to her, saying, “Pay attention to this relationship!” Got that message, God!  

Pray that we would have wisdom as we talk with new friends! Pray that we would say YES to every invitation, and even if we are tired, that God would give us the energy (because you know, I’m 50 now…).

Pray that it would become clear to us all, how God wants us to use our time.

Pray for our next outreach event, Ladies' Day, on April 8th.

Pray that our Czech language would continue to progress, because it’s literally at act of God to speak correctly when you have to decline 7 cases, 3 genders, living and non-living, singular and plural with every word. Oh yeah, and watch your pronunciation!

Thank you all for your interest in our lives and ministry here.

Free Pastor Andrew

Pastor Andrew Brunson (left) has been behind bars in western Turkey since October – because officials suspect he’s a ‘terrorist’. In fact, he and his wife, Norine, love Turkey and have served its people for the past 23 years.

Pray that Andrew will be released immediately so that he and Norine can continue their ministry at Izmir Resurrection Church.

Their nightmare began on October 7 when they were summoned to Turkey’s Interior Ministry. They thought they were being called to a meeting to discuss their application for permanent residency. Instead, they were arrested and detained.

Norine was released after two weeks but Andrew was charged with having links to the Gulen movement which the Government blames for last year’s attempted coup. More than 40,000 people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the failed plot.

In the past four years, at least 100 pastors serving in Turkey have reportedly been denied visas or permits, and forced to leave. Several pastors have been accused of being ‘a threat to national security’. Many fear the Turkish authorities are taking advantage of current insecurity to clamp down on Christianity.

• Ask God to protect, encourage and strengthen Andrew. As a foreigner, the American pastor has to apply to the Ministry of Justice for each family visit, while Turkish prisoners are allowed such visits once a week. Pray that Andrew will be freed soon.
• Pray that Andrew’s fellow inmates will be touched by his witness.
• Pray that Christians in Turkey will stand firm in their faith and not be discouraged by the recent crackdown.

Please write to Turkey’s Minister of Interior, H E Süleyman Soylu, asking for Andrew’s release, using the sample letter and contact address given on this webpage. Find out more about our ministry to Prisoners of faith here.

(Sources: The Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, Middle East Concern)

Back in the Czech Republic

Back in The Czech Republic! It's great to be here. Now that we have our visas, we can be here legally. We want to thank all of you for supporting us during our long wait, so that we could serve the Czech people.

We came back to a country full of snow. We had to spend the first night back in Prague due to the snowy road conditions.

This week we have started looking for a car and we will also be fine tuning exactly how our work here will roll in the future. We would appreciate your prayers for these 2 items this week.

God bless!

Kevin & Jan

Our new visas

Jan built a snowman!

Cordell family weekly prayer requests:

1). ARCHITECT MEETING
Last week, Bradley participated in 3 subgroup church building project meetings. The meetings were productive and positive. This week (Thursday) we have a design meeting with our architect to officially launch architectural plans. Pray for this meeting to go well and that God would bless the design phase.... one of the most critical aspects of this project. 

2). MEN'S MEETING
All the men of the church gathered today (Monday) to discuss various topics related to the church and to pray together. We meet about once a quarter. Our hope and prayer is that this gathering of men will soon lead to future church elders, deacons and ministry leaders. Pray for God to grow, develop and provide men to lead the church body in L'viv.    

3). ДРУЗІ - Ukrainian word for "friends". The word sounds like "druzi". 
The Hoyda family (or at least some of them) joined us on Saturday evening for some food and fellowship. We have come to love and cherish this family. Lia in particular is a very good friend of the family (she has helped us with childcare for 4 years). Unfortunately, this family does not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Please pray for our relationship with them and ultimately for the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin and open their hearts to the hope of the Gospel. 

If you have the time and energy to pray more, then please 
click here for foundational prayers that are always needed.

Thank you for reading and praying with us.
Grace & Peace
Bradley, Sara, Hannah, Becca & Ben