Dear Friends,

There are just two weeks left in this challenging year. With God’s help we were able to navigate the sudden closing of the church location and the scramble to build a new studio for the webcasting. It’s one thing to make a clean break, but we owed back rent on the church building, coupled with the cost of moving and making a new studio, it looked like a huge mountain to climb. The Lord was good to us and we were able to pay the landlord in full and cover most of the cost of relocating.

OUR GERMAN WEBSITE

The couple in charge of running the German website resigned this year for personal reasons and we were grieved with the loss of this outreach. A little while later we were contacted by a man named Keith who wanted to be of help wherever he was needed. He didn’t speak or read German but wanted to re-launch. With the help of another man who speaks and reads German, the website is back up and running and we are delighted with the addition of two strong Christian men at the ministry. The German website is being refurbished and new material is being posted on it.

A NEW RADIO MINISTRY

While all of this was happening, God surprised us with a blessing which I could not have imagined. I received an opportunity to back on the radio in a limited fashion. I shared some time ago that Aina and I drove up to Oregon officiate the wedding of a couple that has been subscribing to the weekly messages. They contacted an online radio host and recommended me as a guest. A week later, Shannon Davis or Omega Man as he is called, invited me to do a two hour radio program. Technology has rapidly progressed to the point that I could sit in my office and minister on the radio and it was a real pleasure to take calls from listeners as I had done in the past.

God blessed the undertaking and Shannon asked me to regularly be on his show for two to three hours a week. I am reminded of the passage where Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” (1 Cor. 3:6) This is true as many people have sought prayer and been ministered to over the air. There truly is no separation with the Holy Spirit. The end result has been that a number of people are in the process of going through deliverance and living that abundant life promised by Jesus. When Satan tore up our church in February, he didn’t know that what he meant for evil, God would turn around for good. (Romans 8:28-31) God truly is in control!

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

We also experienced a website outage with the websites that saw us down for nearly two weeks and the loss of two Sunday webcasts. The experience was what I imagine the time of the Antichrist will be like when our communication will be cut off from the rest of the world. The closing of the church location has made us dependent upon online giving and the website outage was a financial disaster. We barely managed to pay the bills in November and online giving has been very low in December.

Let me give you a summary of where we stand financially:

1.      We still owe money to one of the contractors that helped us with the new studio.

2.      We have only been able to pay 30% of the social security taxes that are due at the end of the year.

3.      I have only received a partial salary this month.

Would you please pray for us and seek the Lord if He wants you to send a special year end gift for the month of December? Any amount is appreciated; God can multiply whatever you give.

I want to thank each one of you who have stood with us in 2013 and supported us with your prayers and financial gifts. As Paul said in his letter to the church at Philippi, “For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” (Php. 4:16-17) You have been a life line that kept us going throughout a difficult year. I look forward to what the Lord has in store for 2014!

Yours in Christ,

John S. Torell