Gross Family Update

12-7-08

Dear Family and Friends,

Rachel and I wanted to write you all because we really want you to know what God is doing in our lives. We are earnestly asking for you to consider praying for us as we enter into a completely new season of our lives that currently is very open-ended. We feel that it is crucial for believers to lift one another up in prayer during these times and agree with each other that God's Kingdom would come here on earth, as it is in heaven!

In case some of you don't know, we would like to start out from the beginning.

In March of 2008, I (Jimmy) was given the opportunity to be the Executive Director over a large continuing care retirement community here in South Dallas. I sought the Lord a lot about this opportunity because it was a major decision, as you can imagine. Plus, this opportunity presented itself during Josef's 7 month intensive care stay in downtown Dallas. The main reason I was particularly interested in this community was because it was a not-for-profit ministry. Well, after nearly 3 months of e-mails, assessment tests and interviews, I was hired. It was the highest level position I have had in my 7 year career as a licensed nursing home administrator.

Throughout the months as Executive Director, I wavered in wondering if this was really what I was supposed to be doing. I was questioning what I really wanted as far as ministry. Did I really want to ultimately be doing this kind of ministry? Why did I keep feeling compelled to minister to people at the hospital where Josef was? Why was God providing opportunities for me to pray and minister not only to residents, but also employees, friends, and even strangers in an increasing capacity? Why, though, did I still want more?

Throughout the months God used many situations to lead me to a final awakening of my heart. Some were extremely difficult, but led to more desperation for God in both my life and Rachel's. The awakening has really been a process over many years but had not fully come to fruition until late this fall when I heard clearly from the Lord that He did want to use me in ministry, but this wasn't the ministry that He would fully bless me/us in. I heard the Holy Spirit in many different ways (through dreams, prayer, and counsel) say that I was utilizing my gifts and talents that He had given me, but only at their half potential. The choice would be mine about what I was to do with those gifts and talents, but to not act now would mean missing out on His best plan for our lives.

***All of what we are giving you all today is an abbreviated story as you can imagine, but for the sake of time, we are trying to summarize.

I'll continue. After hearing God clearly, I now had to tell Rachel what He told me. As I told Rachel that I believed God was calling us to full-time family ministry, she was supportive. She only hit me 3 times. JUST kidding! Yes, I (Rachel) was supportive but I had my moments!

If indeed God was calling us (which we believed He was), then He would provide because He has never, ever let us down before. We haven't always understood everything, but we have always trusted and loved Him regardless of the things that haven’t made sense. And to quote Bill Johnson (awesome pastor, teacher, author, etc.), we don't focus on why but "what now?"

Rachel and I both have a heart to see people saved, healed, set free and delivered from bondage…and that is why we are doing what we are doing. We are following our hearts and we firmly believe the Holy Spirit is leading us.

Back to Jimmy’s work story: In October, exactly 7 months to the day (not intentionally) of my first day at this retirement community, I presented my resignation. Over the next 30 days as I worked out my notice, I had multiple confirmations from employees, residents, family, friends, etc. revealing that they were not surprised at all about this decision and believed this was of the Lord.

The resignation was completely by faith. I resigned having no job lined up but believing that God would provide me another job. Over this awakening process, I felt the Lord leading me to go back to a ministry training school, specifically, Christ for the Nations here in South Dallas. This was another surprise for Rachel, , but, she gave me her blessing. I am enrolled to start school in January 2009, attending classes from 8-12 Monday through Friday. It is a one year program. I am enrolled in the School of Missions and School of Pastoral Ministries believing that as we take this leap of faith, God will show us what the next step is after completing the program. We believe God is calling us to live on the campus among the students as the beginning of our full-time ministry. On campus, they have a 24-hour International House of Prayer, daily worship, children's ministries, etc. CFNI partners with many ministries that are effectively leading and demonstrating the love of Jesus around the world.

Continuing: We placed our much-loved house on the market for sale or lease, I signed on with a temp agency (in which I've had no work from yet ), and began notifying many of my contacts of my availability to work/find a job that would be able to compliment my school schedule at CFNI. So, where are we today?

We are in a place of complete dependence on Jesus right now! We have no back-up plan (Isn't that just what God loves? No back-up plan with complete dependence on Him? It's the best time for Him to show that even our dreams can't exceed what He really wants to do for His people!)

Here is what we are asking you to pray and agree with us about:-Someone to lease or purchase our house by the beginning of January.

-Someone to adopt or be foster parents to our 2 dogs – ideally for at least a year while we are at CFNI. (No dogs allowed)

-God to provide Jimmy a job and/or the resources for our family that would cover all current, moving, and future living expenses. Our ultimate desire would be for Jimmy to not have to work outside of the home or the CFNI campus during this season, in order for us to carry out our family ministry vision.

-Jimmy to sell his car by January 1st for enough to pay off the loan. (We are downsizing to one car).

-Rachel to have grace and a special anointing to home school Meg and Ava at the same time while caring for Josef.

-Josef to be completely healed. He is still on continuous oxygen. We also are believing for his teeth to turn from yellow to pearly white! (His teeth are just coming in and appear discolored because of all of his antibiotics during his hospitalization). He also is starting Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy within a month.

-Our health insurance needs to be completely taken care of. (God has already done some amazing stuff about this but a few things need to be wrapped up).

-For the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal to our hearts the Father’s plan for us and burn away anything that is not pleasing to Him in our lives.

-And lastly…for our family to easily adapt to our new environment! It is a lot of change but we are all excited. We are really going to miss our home, dogs and our great friends and neighbors across the street.

We would like to thank, once again, everyone who stood in the gap for Josef all of those critical months this year. We believe your prayers were the key to Josef’s survival. This is a surreal time for us right now, as we are remembering Rachel’s first hospitalization last year just after Thanksgiving and then the days leading up to Rachel’s water breaking on the morning of December 18th, 2007, and then of course Josef’s 1st birthday on December 26th. We know many of you have seen pictures of him, but we wish you could see him in person and hold him. His spirit and his smile are a true testimony that Jesus held him all of those months and has blessed him with a heart, we believe, for the nations.

Many Blessings and much love to all,

Jimmy and Rachel

***Please forward to anyone we may have missed or would be interested.


Prayer/Encouragement/Support:

James H. and Rachel L. Gross
1632 Glen Valley Irving, Texas 75061
Jhg1468@aol.com rachegross@yahoo.com