Download the pdf HERE.

Thanks for your prayers and partnership!  Below are some shots of the ARC in action:

The ARC hosts hundreds of refugees every week!

The ARC also plays host to big outreaches on a regular basis.

The ARC allows us to meet needs, make friendships, and share the hope of Christ.

If you’d like to help us get back to Greece, click HERE to give!

We’d love to ensure that you get one!  Shoot me an email (brett.sanner@iteams.org) with your current mailing address and we’ll make sure that you get your very own (especially if we won’t see you in the Springfield or Chicago area)!

Filed under: Loving the Overlooked Tagged: Contact, Home Assignment, Support ]]> http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/02/03/new-prayer-cards/feed/ 2 bsanner Sanner-2010-4x6PostA-Sample2 http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/01/11/encourage-a-missionary/ http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/2010/01/11/encourage-a-missionary/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:00:42 +0000 Brett & Kristin http://lovingtheoverlooked.com/?p=1361 ]]> Found this post via The Gospel Coalition.  I agree -

10 Ways to Encourage a Missionary

In an effort to learn how we can best encourage missionaries, I emailed some and asked how they would most like to be served and encouraged. This list is drawn from their responses, including many direct quotes.

1. Pray for them and let them know that you are doing so frequently.

2. Send “real mail.”

3. Pray for the people the missionaries serve and not only for the missionaries and their families.

4. Recruit others to pray for the missionary’s area of service (city, people group, etc.) or for the missionaries themselves.

5. Go visit them with the purpose of serving and encouraging them in their work.

6. Send them updates and pictures of you and your family (by mail or email).

7. Ask questions about their work.

8. Continue to be a Christian friend and continue to minister to them.

9. Support them financially.

10. Seek to encourage them when they are on stateside assignment.

Read the entire post (with explanations of each point) here.  Thanks for all your encouragement – we need it and appreciate it!

Your support means so much to us and we want to thank you.  We also want to let you know it is not too late to give a gift before the year ends by going to www.iteams.org/give.  A simple yet secure site has been designed to receive your donations electronically.

Thanks again for your faithfulness and the belief that together we can make a difference. We are grateful for your partnership!

Much Love & Merry Christmas -

Brett, Kristin, Sofia, & Emma

We’ll be back in the States in just over three months!  During this “home assignment,” we’ll be visiting churches, individual supporters, and other ministry partners in order to share face-to-face about what God is doing among refugees in Greece.  It will be a very busy few months, but we’re looking forward to the opportunity to re-connect with everyone!  Our hope is to arrive around mid-January, and spend the remainder of the month with family and friends.  Come February (and continuing through the end of March), we’ll begin visiting churches and ministry partners in earnest.  If all goes well, we’ll return to Athens in early April.

A lot has changed since July 25th 2007, when we first came to Athens.  We arrived as a family of two.  By the time we will return to the US for home assignment, our family (Lord willing!) will have doubled in size.  As you might imagine, the monthly financial support our family needs has also increased.   We need to increase our monthly support by 500 Euros (or almost $750).

What does this mean?  We are praying that God will open the door for us to speak with (at least) 5 new churches!  We’ve been overwhelmed by the support of our home churches (Chatham Christian Church and Thorn Creek Reformed Church), but – due to the growing financial needs noted above – hope to find others that are willing to actively partner with us in the ministry here!  Do you attend a church that is passionate about serving those in need?  Do you know a church in your area that might want to hear more about God’s work reaching the nations through Athens?  If so, could you send us the contact information – brett.sanner@iteams.org – so that we can set up a meeting when we’re home in February and March?  Thanks for partnering with us!

For our Illinois friends, there are rides in Geneva and Lake Zurich (both in the Chicago suburbs).  We’d be honored if you’d ride on our behalf!  Check out the website and email us if you have any questions.

13 Ways to Bless Missionaries Without Paying for Postage

Here are 13 post-office-free ideas to get you started, most of which you could do right now from your desk:

• Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.
• Call or email their parents—Christmas might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.
• Purchase phone minutes for an international calling card through an online service like OneSuite and email them the account number.
• Donate frequent flier miles to them.
• Purchase an iTunes gift card for them. Have it sent to you and email them the account number.
• Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year.
• Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.
• Get friends and family together to create a holiday video greeting for them using Google Video or YouTube. Include lots of people you know they miss.
• Make a year-end gift through their missions board or agency.
• Western Union—the fastest way to send money.
• Call their local florist (not everyone is in the jungle these days) and have flowers delivered, or their local Pizza Hut and have pizza delivered—with corn and shrimp as toppings!
• Donate to a charity that means a lot to them.
• Make a monthly commitment to support them financially.

The new apartment will cost 250 euros more per month.  We believe that it will be money well spent.  If you’re already supporting our ministry, thank you!  If not, would you prayerfully consider joining our ministry support team now? We’re looking to add 250 euros ($350) to our monthly support before the end of June.  Typically, we would make this sort of budgetary change over our furlough.  However, due to a number of factors (timing, family, weddings, etc.), we have delayed our next furlough until February-March of 2010.  In the meantime, would you be willing to help us make up the difference?  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send an email – brett.sanner@iteams.org – and ask away.

You can give online – here – via credit card.  Simply indicate your gift is for “Brett & Kristin Sanner” in the first box (“Where to give”).  Otherwise, you can send a check to International Teams (411 W. River Rd.; Elgin, IL 60123).   Make checks payable to “International Teams” but attach a note indicating that you wish to designate your gift to the ministry of “Brett & Kristin Sanner.”  Thank you so much for your investment in this part of God’s Kingdom!