World Christian Conference - Early Bird Registration Deadline

World Christian Conference
Friday, February 17, 2012 to  Monday, February 20, 2012 (Presidents Weekend)
Venue: Redwood Christian Park
15000 Two Bar Road, Boulder Creek, CA
Theme: Entrusted - Stepping out with God's favor (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
I've been there 3 times before and it's always a great missions conference that encourages me to draw closer to God.

Register: http://wcfellowship.org/wcc/2012/

Early Bird Registration Deadline is January 8th!

Kurt and Sally's recent testimony

Our recent testimony is given at
http://www.wcfellowship.org/newsletter/VOM_Nov2011.pdf
on pages 2-3.

I also highly recommend the World Christian Fellowship prayer meetings, which are featured on page 6.

I will be at the banquet featured on page 7 with our booth set up.
The World Christian Conference is coming up in February and I will be there along with our national director Patrick Fung. This will be my fourth time to this conference.  It has always been well done and God has moved.

NE Cambodia Photos

Some photos from when we lived in Banlung, Ratanakiri in 2009

Volunteer to make a difference in East Asia

I am recruiting and selecting new volunteers in the Bay Area to make a difference in East Asia through OMF International's Bridge Asia program.  See http://www.omf.org/omf/us/get_involved__1/volunteer

Hudson Taylor Spiritual Secret

I don’t know how many of you have read Hudson Taylor Spiritual Secret, but it is an excellent account of the life of the man that started our organization in 1865.  He was the first to take missionaries (especially female missionaries) and the Gospel to inland China. He was one of the first missionaries to take on traditional Chinese dress in order to not allow clothing to distract from his ministry.  I recently listened to the audio book from http://christianaudio.com/

I was struck by how much suffering Taylor went through and yet was able to depend on the Lord and continue in His service.  He lost both children and a wife in China. Now-a-day’s missionaries don’t seem to have nearly as much suffering as our predecessors.   

International Student Fellowship

The Friday evening International Student Fellowship (ISF) we are involved in at Valley Church in Cupertino is still growing.  Our last gathering  I counted 65 people including students and volunteers.  We are doing character studies and learned from the life of Daniel, a man who remained strong in the face of great challenges, last night.   Pastor Dennis leads a Bible discussion before the fellowship, as well as on Sundays.  A month ago we started a class called The Journey.  It is a class for Christians and non-Christians to explore the Christian faith. 

SALLY'S CONDITION

Sally had oral cancer removed just after our second son was born 2 years ago.  She lost 2 inches of her lower jaw, and 7 teeth, in the surgery.  As a result, she did not have a bite for over a year.  This caused the upper teeth to move until her bite was restored.  For the next year she is doing orthodontics.  Then she will be ready to replace the lower teeth with dentures.  Pray for her speech and especially eating ability to improve as she re-trains her tongue.  

Kurt is representing OMF International at the Engage for God conference this weekend.  http://www.engageforgod.com/
Looking forward to hearing Jason Mandyk, author of Operation World, the prayer guide for every country in the world!

Insightful and controversial documentary

I just watching a documentary which looks at one of the reasons that the author / filmmaker believes many teens leave the church. In his opinion, the age segregation in churches is contributing to the problem.  Sunday school was started as a ministry to children that were not going to church but was later adopted by churches and used for Christian children as well.  This has encouraged fathers to delegate spiritual instruction to the Sunday school teachers and youth pastors.  Instead, pastors should equip parents to train their own children and allow children to worship in the congregation with their parents.  This is how most churches do it world-wide, from what I have seen.  It is powerful for children to see their parents worshipping God.  Easier said than done, but definitely something to search the scriptures.  This is something I have been wanting to study in depth ever since I heard Pastor John Piper give a Biblical basis for having children learn along with their parents in the assembly of believers (I think he quoted Exodus).

The answer given in "Divided, the Movie," is in scriptures like Ephesians 6:1-4, Psalm 78:5-6, Deuteronomy 6, & Proverbs.  The movie gives a lot of good statistics and interviews, but doesn't go into the exegesis of the scriptures so much.

The documentary can be viewed for free until Sept. 15. After that time it will be available for purchase for about $20. It's located at:

http://www.dividedthemovie.com/

It's definitely worth your time to watch this insightful and controversial documentary .

What is Mobilization?

If you saw a wooden house on fire, would you try to extinguish it yourself or would you call the fire department?  Obviously you wouldn't try to put out a house fire by yourself.  That is why we need mobilizers.  Mobilizers have seen the urgency of the need for the gospel in places where the people groups have no churches and no Bible.  Instead of just evangelizing these 1.8 billion by themselves, they share the need with the Lord's church body so that we can all work as a family to share the good news with those that have not heard.  We need goers, senders, mobilizers, welcomers, learners (students of God's plan for the world) and people of prayer.  We all can be learners and prayers.  Watch videos at www.6ways2reach.org

In the last couple months Kurt has been going to World Christian Fellowship missions prayer meetings in Mountain View, San Francisco and Fremont.  This provides opportunities to meet many young adults interested in ministry in East Asia.  Often this has overlapped with Kurt's job of supporting missionaries as they share with groups.

Prayer and Praise Update

PRAY FOR…

• Christian international students to be established and grow in their faith and equipped to take the gospel back home to un-evangelized regions.
• Miss. E and Mr. Si as they serve one year in Cambodia.
• The Lord's continual provision financially.

PRAISE THE LORD FOR…

• His provision in the past financially.
• New friends in our church fellowship.
• Opportunities to serve four missionaries while they were on home assignment.
• Kurt being able to start attending the Cambodian Evangelical Church again.
• Sally’s smooth tooth extraction.

Register for "God Above All gods" Conference by this Sunday

This is just a reminder to encourage you to register for the 

OMF International "God Above All gods" Conference 

Register by this Sunday, September 18 

to take advantage of the $30/person registration.

After about the Sept 21st we cannot guarantee you lunch 

or the conference booklet.

Register here

www.omf.org/us/events 

Pleasant Hill, CA

The flyer is below for more info.

There is a children's program through CEF for Ages 5-11.

Any questions? 

I would love to see you there!

Blessed to be a blessing,

Kurt

for the OMF San Francisco Bay Area Bridge Asia Volunteers

Ministry Finance Update

Our financial support has dropped this year, especially over the summer, while our budget to live in the US has gone up.  Kurt has taken on a part time job with one of our supporting churches as a facilities manager, using his heating and air conditioning engineering background,  to supplement our income.  Please pray that people will join our financial partnership team so we won’t have to cut back on ministry travel around the Bay Area.

If you would like to join our financial support partner team the information can be found at http://www.omfconnect.org/p-20-support-missionaries-and-staff.aspx

Otherwise you can make a check out to
OMF International and mail it
OMF International
10 W Dry Creek Circle,
Littleton, CO 80120-4413

Please include a note that the donation is for the ministry of Kurt and Sally Kovach.

For long-term financial ministry partners I would recommend considering Automatic Donation Plan, which is at http://www.omf.org/omf/us/get_involved__1/give/other_giving_methods/automatic_donation_plan

Thank you,

Kurt

Sally's surgery

Unfortunately Sally's surgery was postponed over a month ago. The doctor numbed her and pushed on the tooth hard and saw that the adjacent tooth moved too much so he realized he needs to take a CT scan first and get ahold of the orthodontist, who happened to be out of the country for a month.  Sally handled it quite well, though it was very disappointing.  Our medical insurance covered the CT scan.  Sally is now scheduled for the extraction next Tuesday the 30th.

What do we need to make a real, lasting impact?

I listened to the book Radical: Taking Back your Faith from the American Dream, by David Platt.  I am struck by the inference that a man or woman in a developing country with few physical resources can make more of an impact for the eternal, Kingdom of God, than a mega-church full of Americans, with an abundance of resources, but lacking the vision to make disciples of all nations. David shares an account of his conversation with an African Christian man in the former camp who told David with confidence that he is going to make an impact for the Kingdom.  “How?” David asked.  “I am going to make disciples, the man responded.”  Are physical resources required to make a real impact?

Devotional question from Hebrews

The Hebrews "had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one." http://esv.to/Heb10.34. Are they out of their minds or do they have a better perspective with their eyes set on eternal possessions?

Conference Early Bird Registration Deadline Extended

Great news!  Due to the amazing response of friends like you and the requests of area churches, we have decided to extend the early bird discount until August 21^th !

Register at  http://www.omf.org/omf/us/get_involved__1/regions_events/northwest_region

If you have already registered, please feel free to invite your friends!

Highlights to look forward to:

• Our theme, “God above all gods” and this topic’s relevance to our daily walk
• Larry Dinkins, author and veteran OMF missionary to Thailand, is the plenary speaker.  He will also be conducting a workshop on "Effective Bible Story Telling - How to Captivate Hearts through Narrative."
•  Relevant workshops on application of the missions discipleship journey on both sides of the ocean
• Prayer time for specific people groups and countries of East Asia
• Children’s Program by CEF
•  Networking opportunities with others who are excited about missions

Be sure to tell a friend about this event - 

We hope to see you there!

Studying Cambodian Khmer Language

Two weeks ago I started going back to the Khmer (Cambodian) church in San Jose again.  I hadn't been since before Sally's surgery.  Got busy with the Sunday afternoon missions classes.

OMF East Bay Missions Conference

Hello  - 

Would you like some encouragement to keep God above everything else in your life?
Would you like to know what God is doing among people groups in Asia?
Would you like to learn how you can involved?
Would you like to meet with other people who desire the same things?

This conference is for you!
We hope to see you and a friend there.



OMF International San Francisco Bay Area Bridge Asia Group

David and Vivian Leung, Regional Directors
Vince Chan, Event Coordinator
Joe and Kimberly Chan, Conference Registrars

for info, reply to nwregion@omf.org

Our next mission conference in the bay area will be in october near walnut creek

Trip to Singapore with Opportunity to Preach

Your prayer is vital for the continuation of the ministry of OMF International in East Asia and in mobilization from San Francisco Bay Area.

Kurt has had the opportunity to play a part in helping two young people in their journey to moving to Cambodia this summer for one year. Please pray for these individuals as they step out in faith and see what God is going to do in and through them.

This month the "Global Prayer Digest" focuses on Cambodia. The first story is about our team leaders in Ratanakiri, Kreg and Jenny. Kurt even learned something about them here. Many of the people groups in Cambodia are also covered. Featured are many good, personal, short stories. You can download it free in my Dropbox here.

We all had a great 3 week trip to Singapore catching up with friends, supporters, family and supporting churches. Kurt relieved Sally of child-duty while she took a three day spiritual retreat in a secluded apartment of Singapore. She was really refreshed by the Lord and His Word. The children really enjoyed getting reacquainted with their young cousins. The weather was very hot and humid, which brought back N's skin eczema, but he quickly recovered when we returned to the dry spring weather of California. Sally was able to get some post-cancer surgery dental work done in Singapore. It is always nice when the Christian doctors there give us a "missionary discount."

The Lord has been teaching Kurt some of the reasons why Christians must go through trials and suffering. He had a heart to preach from 1st Peter as he has been meditating on that book for the last two years. So Kurt emailed the pastor at Sally's home church in Singapore and the reply was that this was the book they had been planning to preach from. Kurt was amazed by God's sovereignty when he was given the passage to preach from. There Peter explains that we are called to suffer for doing good. We know that we are called to suffer but it is still a lesson we are learning to accept with God’s grace. Peter says that Jesus endured suffering by being mindful of his Father and giving it to His Father. It is so tempting to try and get through our storms on our own, but not even Jesus did it on His own. He handed over to the Father his accusers, his torturers, their insults, the hypocritical religious system, his scattered disciples, his wailing mother, the apathy of a world that would let Him die without a just trial. He surrendered to the Father their insults and responded not with condemnation. Jesus so trusted His Father would judge justly and work it all out in the end that He gave to the Father the whole messed-us world that would murder an innocent man. He said “NO“ to the temptation to take revenge or to just focusing on His own problems or close his heart in apathy. He said “I will not carry the burden of anger, or the burden of figuring out motives, or the burden of resentment, or the burden of bitterness.” He said, “forgive them for they know not what they do”.

If you would like to listen to Kurt's sermon "Called to suffer for doing good" from 1 Peter 2:19-25, you can download it or listen online here for free. The manuscript is also available here.

Sally is waiting to have a tooth pulled before her braces can be tightened. After a year of braces she should be ready for a denture bridge to replace her lower teeth. Please pray for perseverance.

Praise the Lord for...

• His example in how He endured suffering by giving everything to His Father.
• Provision for Sally's medical and current dental work.
• Great opportunities during Singapore trip for ministry, time with God and building friendships.
• Protection during travel.
  

Please pray for...

• Sally's continued healing and training of tongue.
• Sally's mouth reconstruction.
• Provision for our ministry and personal expenses.
  

Blessed to be a blessing,
Kurt for Sally and the boys
--
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Kurt Kovach
Mobile (Google Voice): 408-320-5551
Skype: kurt.kovach
San Francisco Bay Area Mobilizer
OMF International
Heart for Asia. Hope for billions.