HAPPY TO SEE YOU HERE!
In this newsletter, you will find:
- Ending international outreach in Romania
- Beginning national outreach in Torrejon
- Family Celebrations
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL WHO FINANCIALLY SUPPORT US THROUGH CITYGATE
As you know, Lauren Edwards has joined us here in Spain. Please make sure that when you give towards Andrew and me, that you choose “Missions: Spain (Maiya)“. If you have recurring giving that doesn’t have my name in the memo, please also update that. If you have further questions please get in contact!
Andrew and I are still short [financially] to be able to pay for a trip to the states. This trip would be a HUGE blessing for our family/framily, as most haven’t gotten to meet their grandbaby, niece, cousin, “lovebug” yet. We would greatly appreciate if you would be willing to pray about giving specifically to help fund our ability to travel (tickets to fly in August, for all 3 of us, are ranging between $2500 & $3500).
Here’s my “book” for the month of June. Grab your preferred beverage, kick back, and let’s jump in!
MINISTRY LIFE
R O M A N I A
As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, our DTS Team was away on International outreach to Romania.
They worked really hard, alongside of Homes of Hope Cluj-Napoca, to build house number 21 for this family of 7 (pictured below). What a blessing it is for this family to now have a place to call their own, and for our DTS team, to see the results of their hard work! Through all of their tiredness, they remained faithful to finish – and what a reward at the end of it all.
National Outreach pt 1: ABA
While the part of our team in Romania was preparing to return, the part of our team that stayed back worked on preparations to be ready to receive the team and continue work in Torrejon de Ardoz, where we would be working with a church, called ABA, for 2 weeks. This was such an experience in itself as Andrew and I both are Americans working with with a church that is heavily influenced by the Brazilian culture. The whole experience definitely allowed room for us to grow in our leadership 🙂.
Andrew also worked on a few things for the base – he helped with the installation of the video equipment in our basement meeting area. This now allows for there to be video in our overflow rooms (especially with all of the babies we have on the base, and mommies needing to step out during our community meetings or whatever) & broadcasting for some of our live events (bboy battles, jams, etc) – for example. This needed to be done as we now have a leadership school going on at our base, with quite a bit of families with children, so there was a great [immediate] need.
After meeting with the pastor, and then later the co-pastor, the desire/need for the church was for there to be something for the children of the church and something for the youth/young adults that would encourage unity within the group as a whole. They also expressed their desire for our team to lead the worship nights.
With that, we led the worship nights while we were there (using one of the nights to also offer a healing night, and saw the Holy Spirit move big time), and we also decided to offer a weekend camp for the youth (overcoming fear) and a 3-day camp for the kids (identity). It was really great to see how our DTS team came together to put on a great 2 nights for the youth of the church, and to hear a few of the testimonies during the Sunday service. During the last night of the youth camp (Saturday night), we decided to have a night of blessing for the students. It was during this night that the Holy Spirit moved in such a big way – filling the church and bringing liberation to many.
During this time, we also had our annual 5-day English camp for our 100% Life Association (our NGO) – our team was full-on with camps during the last week of our outreach in Torrejon. Although during this camp, we don’t directly talk about Jesus Christ, we always take this opportunity to teach on Biblical principles and share God’s love through our conversations and interactions with the children; this year, we taught on identity and how each child is “a work of art” – talking about how the Creator has made each of His creation’s uniquely. Each day, the kiddos learned about different art forms and got to try each form – below is a picture of music day where one of the groups was working on writing a song. It was a good time!
TESTIMONIES
For Sunday service, we had 2 of the youth share a testimony of what God did during the 2 days of camp. One of them shared about how her first time speaking in tongues was during the quarantine back in 2020, but how on Saturday night (of the camp), during the special night of blessings where the Holy Spirit was VERY present, she spoke in tongues again and felt such a freedom to be and to worship more than ever before. She was overjoyed and said that this would mark her life forever. If “I’ll become even more undignified than this” were a person, she would be it!
The other youth that chose to share was actually the pastor’s son. He shared that on June 1st, he received news that he has a heart problem. He expressed how he became really mad at God, because he couldn’t understand how he could go from having perfect health to now having this heart problem. However, during the Saturday night special night of blessings, he gave over his trust to God.
Getting to work alongside of Lauren, and seeing her do her thang here in Spain was really nice. Took us back to the many years before doing camps together, and now here she was putting together 3 camps with a team of our DTS students & staff. What a small world :). Annnddd, it was nice getting to celebrate her birthday a little – I got to make her a cheesecake [classic cheesecake with biscoff crust] which was DELISH!! (pictured below)
FAMILY LIFE
CEEELEBRATE GOOD TIMES…
For the month of June, we got to celebrate the return of our DTS team from Romania (had them over to our house one morning where I was able to make some cookies for the first time in MONTHS), Andrew’s first Father’s day, his 35th birthday, AND baby girl turning 2 months! June also came with baby girl and my first night alone without daddy (he stayed one night over during the youth weekend) – mommy was nervous, but it really was a sweet time for the both of us. We were VERY happy to see daddy when he came home the next day.
Andrew’s birthday happened to come during our outreach time with the ABA Church, so during one of our team times, we took some time to celebrate him together as a team (which if you know him at all, you know he absolutely loved – sarcasm included). The team decided they wanted to have a time to pray over/bless him, which also ended in a time of washing his feet. He’s not a fan of celebrating himself, but I sure do enjoy it :).
C U R R E N T L Y
We are in a region called Galicia, in the northeast of Spain, working with a church in a small pueblo (town) called O Carballiño, Ourense. This is baby girl’s first outreach away from home, and our first one as a family. I am not going to lie and say it has been easy, but I will say that I am so thankful for God’s grace, and the gift He has blessed us with in each other. This has been a learning experience for sure; not only in how to take care of a baby while on outreach (a 2 month old at that), but also learning about the change in the way I do ministry. I am not as hands on as I used to be when it comes to working directly with the team in the day-to-day, but God is using me to bring healing to some just for the love I have for my daughter (not choosing ministry over her, as that is something some of them have lived). Not just my love for her, but also Andrew’s. He is such an incredible husband, daddy, and leader. And let me just tell you – this girl is also already such daddy’s girl…just look at the picure above.
For more current details of our time away from home, you can check out our facebook group (let me know, and I will send you an invite), where I have been sharing more pictures and updates.
Although sweet girl has been doing really well for an [almost] 3 month old, all of the changes have been quite a bit much for her. We have had to take a bit of a step back when it comes to her involvement in the day-to-day activities while on outreach, to allow her to get the rest/sleep she needs. It’s been an adjustment, but thankfully, we have been blessed with a piso (flat) that allows for us to do so.
Now that we have baby girl’s passport, we are pretty much good to go to come out (stateside that is) at any time. The only thing missing are plane tickets. We would love your help with purchasing plane tickets for our trip home this year. We would love for you to pray about how you can help us and let us know. Thank you in advance.
Blessings!
Andrew, Maiya, & Isabela Kuettner
PRAYER REQUESTS
- Base-wide
- More space. As we continue to grow and have multiple schools functioning at one time, we continue to run into the problem of not having enough space (great problem to have).
- Impact
- Summer camp tour. For favor & wisdom over each member as they share the gospel in many places. For God to use each of them.
- Transformation
- DTS Outreach. Protection, favor, & unity as we travel and work with other ministries to share the gospel.
- Guidance for the future season. As we grow as a team and ministry, we want/need help with creating a rhythm and platform for our team/ministry to continue to grow.
- Andrew and Me
- Finances for a trip to the states, as well as taking care of our daily needs.
- Good health. For all 3 of us as we finish up this time on as a family, and have less sleep haha.
- Wisdom for Andrew and me on being husband & wife and parents and missionaries
- Increase in our finances
- Favor with doctors & understanding of the health system here in Spain as parents
- Wisdom and guidance with all the paperwork needed to finish for Isabela
- Opportunities to continue blessing those around us
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
We want to thank ALL of you for being with us in this fun adventure as missionaries. Thank you for faithfully praying and faithfully giving each month.
For those of you who have been with us since the beginning, we would like to ask if you would also pray about an incremental increase. Just an additional 10% each month would go a long way to help us keep up with the costs of living here in Spain, as well as welcoming a new member to our family!
Thank you all soooo much!!
WAYS TO GIVE
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