International Justice Mission

Hello All,

This past week was a crazy busy week, I finished my last class for Seminary (hurray), I went to Brussels for a day and helped with a training, I lead a Strengths Finder Seminar (with my awesome guest presenter Caroline) then I preached on Sunday...a full week for sure. Now though I am headed to Morocco for a nice vacation before my family arrives next Sunday.

I would like to direct you all to http://www.crossroadschurch.nl/ for the sermon, if you want to listen to it online. It was a very emotional and talk, but I am told many people liked it. I have been volunteering for IJM in the Netherlands for about 3 months and this past sunday was a the culmination of a year's worth of work for the team trying to set up the office here in The Hague. It was a very special service and I hope I was able to help do my part.

This post is short, but listen to the sermon and look for my pictures from Morocco!! I am looking forward to a true vacation.

I want to thank you all for all of your prayers and encouragement, really this week I relied heavily on the strength of others.

See you all in a week,
Jason Cutshall

Prayer Requests:
1) REST, REST, REST!!
2) Saftey in Morocco. I am not to worried, but I do know things can happen
3) For the safe arrival of my family from Minnesota

Oil spills, Church, Politics and me...

Hello all,

I hope you are all doing well. I am in the midst of a very busy week, but the sudden and pleasant shift in weather here in Den Haag has made life a lot brighter. It is amazing how the last month has been such a whirlwind of travel, activity, and doing. Last week was no exception either.

I was recovering from a great conference in Portugal with most all the Christian Associate Leaders, when I took a trip to Kirchiem, Germany to help scout out a venue for our Staff Conference for 2010. Last Thursday I headed off with Al Dyck to meet up with a couple staff members in Kirchiem, which should have taken us 4 ½ hours to reach for the Hague…Should have. Well we were about 4 hours into our road trip, which was amazing; Germany really does have some spectacular views, and the Autobahn, wow, what a highway.

After cruising around Germany at about 100 mph we came to a dead stop just 20 minutes from our destination. Neither one of us thought it was serious, but after the first hours we soon realized we could be here for a while. At one point I opened my computer and we started watching a movie. There was a period where we didn’t move, not an inch, for about 30 minutes. Well, 2 hours later we started going, as we started moving we noticed that their had been an oil spill. As we drove over the dust they spread over the oil I realized that this was a huge spill, by my guess was about 100 yards long. As we were driving over the spill I took back all the stuff I had muttered under my breath about the German roadworks. They did a great and efficient job in cleaning up this huge spill.

Well due to our little delay, we arrived 2 hours later than we had planned, so in stead of 4 ½ hours in the car we were in the car for about 7, when it was all said and done, that was a long day. We then met with Melinda and Dudley, for another couple hours, recapping the hotels and retreat centers they had visited that week. The next day we took a tour of the grounds, which were very nice; it was like a summer camp in the middle of rural Germany, very nice and peaceful.

After we dropped Melinda off at the train and got Dudley to his hotel in Frankfurt we headed back to The Hague this time with no surprises, it took us 4 hours as it should have. On our way back Al and I were able to have a very good conversation, it was deep and honest and I appreciated the time we shared.

The next big adventure of the past week was finishing my Independent Study for School. This is the last requirement I have for my Master’s, outside of finishing this internship. This weekend was a sprint to the finish line, I read three books out of 9 and wrote 14 pages, and yes I am bragging, because this killed me, but I did it. My study was on the relationship between Church, as institution, and Politics. This is a subject that has interested me for a long time and this was a great way to get my feet wet in the ideas and personal accounts of people who have thought and acted in the political realm. I was challenged by many of the author’s and have a lot more reading and thinking to do. Needless to say this subject is not a simple one, but it is a issue we all face. How do we as Christians, with our allegiance to Jesus, interact with a system that also requires our elegance? This is not just a Dutch question or an American question, it is a question that all believer’s face all around the world, in varying degrees. It is also a subject where bright, honest, believing people disagree completely, the challenge for me in this was deciding how I want to act in this realm. How will I act in relation to political systems? I am not ready to state a view and act on it yet, but I think I am close to buying a cabin in northern Sweden and doing the Thoreau thing, haha, just kidding.

Out of the study my favorite personal account was by David Kuo in his book “Tempting Faith.” David is a good writer and tells about his journey from becoming a Christian in New Jersey all the way up to serving as a special aide to President Bush, it is a very good read. The most challenging book was “the Subversion of Christianity” by Jaques Ellul. Ellul builds a great argument for why Christianity cannot exist along political systems, it is impossible. Ellul take the approach of legal, sociological historian. Ellul’s study of ancient political systems helps him greatly in understanding how Christians interacted with Politics in the past 2,000 years. I recommend this to anyone who wants to be challenged in their understanding, and beware this is a heavy read.

Well, tomorrow I am off to Brussels’ on another one day journey; here I am going to sit in on training for our Field Orientation. Then this Saturday I am giving another Strengths Finder Seminar and Sunday I am speaking for our service, yes a full week.

I will let you all know if I survive this week, haha

Jason

Prayer Requests:
1) Sunday I am speaking and this Sunday is our International Justice Mission Service. We are introducing IJM to the congregation and hoping that many people get on board with Prayer and support for this organization
2) My Health and energy, that I would make good decisions on keeping myself healthy. Life has been very busy and erratic and I need to make sure I am taking care of myself.
3) Pray that God would continue to lead me in my future plans as things are getting much clearer and actually some job offers are coming I am excited, but want to make sure I am following God’s will in this.
4) Pray for our Congregation here in The Hague that God would continue to work in and through the people here.

How big is my family?

Hello all,

Sorry, I did not update last week, it has been a busy month…like expected. I am alive, healthy and getting rested, thanks for all your prayers around the trips and decisions current and upcoming. This week is just as crazy, I have a surprise trip to Frankfurt Germany to meet with a few of the operations staff of CAI, and then next week I have a trip to Brussels Belguim to help with CAI’s Field Orientation for new missionaries. I am looking forward to all of this, but continue to pray for my health and mental focus.

Ok, updating the past two weeks. Let’s see. Last time I wrote I was on a train to Stockholm and since then I was in Stockholm for 4 days helping my friends the Hyltegard’s move into their new flat and, at time, holding their beautiful new baby Ella (3 months old). From there I was back in Den Haag for three nights then off to Lisbon Portugal for CAI’s Leadership Summit. This was a very intense four day conference of all the team leaders from all around Europe, North America, and South America. It was a great conference and for me personally it brought a lot of clarity and focus for my future with CAI. Again, thanks for your prayers around this area as well.

Now the heart stuff. Even though the past weeks have been very draining I have had people coming up to me, praying and supporting me. There are two stories I want to share around this. First is the Fritsch’s in Goteborg Sweden. I first met Marcus Fritsch two years ago in Goteborg. Marcus is a native German, he and his wife Karen were called out of their native Germany to plant a church in Sweden. When I met Marcus I realized very quickly that he was a man of prayer, well over the past couple weeks I realized its not just Marcus, but Karen and there Children as well. When I was in Sweden visiting with the church I was reminded that this small church has been built on prayer and guidance from God.

When I was leaving Goteborg I got a text from Marcus’s oldest son Ollie, who said, he was praying that God would bless me and lead me. When I got this text, it just melted me. Ollie is about 12 or 13, I mean what can you say to that, there is something about a child’s prayers, I was really touched by this. I told Marcus in Portugal that I appreciated him and his whole family for praying for me. I feel as though I have been adopted by the Fritsch’s, even by their kids. I don’t know if I will ever end up in Sweden, but I do know that I will have a family their.

The second story is about Jim. Jim was a guest at the conference in Portugal. Jim is from an organization that has planted 1,000 churches in the last 5 or 10 years. This was one of those strange meetings. I saw Jim in the lobby and something was different, we looked at each other and greeted, then went on our way. A day later the same thing. Then we saw each other and both decided we needed to sit and talk. We did the next day for lunch. Jim and his wife are from Ireland and have ended up in LA via South Africa. Jim is a soft spoken sweet man. Jim is a grandfather figure, humble, caring, and gentle. I don’t know exactly what this relationship will bring, but I asked Jim and his wife to pray for me and he accepted, then Jim said, “Jason we want to support you. If you need anything, let me know.” Then Jim invited me to visit him and his wife in LA this June. I had just met Jim and already he wanted to support me. I was overwhelmed, but it was not totally unexpected. See I had been praying earlier in the day and I felt as though God was creating some connection between us. This was confirmed at lunch.

I have been humbled by the fact that I now have clarity about my future with CAI, but that is not the best thing to happen in the last couple of weeks. The best thing that has happened is that God showed me that he is caring for me. It is a very humbling thing to have a person you just met say, “we want to support you.” It is a humbling thing to have a family pray for you, a family you see maybe 1 time a year. I am excited about the future, but right now, I am grateful and humbled by the present. There is a lot going on, there will always be a lot going on, but it’s those encouraging things that I hang on too. It’s the prayers of a 12 year old over SMS (text) that really keep me going.

Thank you, Thank you all for your support.
Jason

Prayer Requests:
1) Health, Praise I am healthy and pray it will stay that way
2) Relationships here and back home. I am going to be leaving on May 1st for Minnesota. I have made good relationships here and want to continue to learn how to maintain those relationships an ocean apart.
3) Support, I will be returning to Europe, hopefully in the fall. This summer I will be fund raising and working from Minnesota. Pray that God will rise up people to pray for me and to financially support me.
4) My sister’s wedding, Along with the addition of new families. I have been moved very deeply over the past weeks about my own family and how great they are. Pray for my sister and her fiancé, Ben. Praise God that they are such a blessing.