Faith in Faith or Faith in God?

Faith. Try as we might, it can't be manipulated. My "impossible prayer request" for the year has been that we would be able to get all of our support raised by the end of 2012 and be able to leave for language school in France after Christmas. So, we pray in faith that God would grant this request, right? Hmm, I find myself praying in manipulation. "Dear God, I'm having faith so you should answer my prayer the way I wish. See how much faith I have God?" No, that's faith in faith. If I try to have faith so that faith will grant my wish it's a wrong view of who God really is. Obviously, He's not a genie in the sky, but I sometimes treat Him that way.

We know that saving faith is a gift from God. Romans 4 and 5 talk about how Abraham believed God in faith and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Then it talks about how faith is a gift from God and no one would have faith unless God had given it to him. So faith in that sense is supernatural. What grace, right! God gave me the gift of faith so that I could be saved! I could stop there and that gift of faith alone would be enough to satisfy me for life.

However, we are also called to faith. We are called to ask God for things praying in faith. I think I'm learning that this faith is also a gift from God. It's the kind of faith that trusts God when you pray that whatever His response turns out to be, you know He has the best plan in mind. This kind of faith is hard. I know what I want sooooo bad. I think I know what's best for me, but am I really keeping what's most important to God first and foremost in my heart when I bargain with God over the things I want. What if God were to give me what I wanted after my little bargaining session? Would I respond with a thankful heart that gave God the glory for the results? Hmm, I wonder. No, it's best to pray, leave my treasured request in God's hands in know that He is going to handle it with far more care than I would. After all, Philippians 4:6 says to "be anxious for nothing." If I held on to that request and worried and fretted over it, it would not be in the safest hands.

So, tonight I am going to choose to leave my "impossible prayer request" in the safe loving hands of God and trust that if He wants us to have all our support raised by the end of the year, He is able. Oh, how I'd love to worry. I choose not to. God's plan is best ALL the time.

“All down through the history of missions, there has never, ever been a missionary who arrived on the field late! They always arrived in God’s perfect timing!” – Wendell Kempton

Good Bye Old Blue

Ryan's 1989 Toyota Camry died on Tuesday. My dad was on location to pronounce it dead. It served it's purpose well. My dad gave it to us with several thousand miles on it already as a commuter car for Ryan. Two years later and a total of 316K+ miles on it, it finally gave up the ghost. The good news is that my cousin's husband came by and took it away for us. He also gave us $250 for it. Not bad for a dead car.

The bad news is mostly just bad for me. We're back down to being a one-car household again. We'll manage. I might go stir crazy some days, but with fair weather on it's way we can at least go outside. We're hoping that Ryan will be able to cut back more hours at work pretty soon so that he can focus his time and energies more on ministry calling. That would give me a day more a week for me to get out some.

God's been doing some neat things with us lately. I can't give details here, but our support percentage has the possibility of jumping significantly here in the next several weeks, and plans for an east coast trip are coming down the pike.

Please pray for health for our family. AnnMarie has been sick off and on since December. Last night she had a random puking fest with no fever. She's fine today, but we are ready for the sick season to be over.

Continue to pray for our spiritual growth. I have two studies in our home every week. It has been fun, but busy. Sometimes business has the potential of draining you spiritually. Pray I'll be sensitive to the "still small voice."

Buczak Buzz~January 2012

I have writers cramp real bad. You know you have it when you stare at the keys on the keyboard and hope they'll produce something for you. No such luck. Writing just anything helps to get your fingers warmed up though so that's what I'm hoping this sentence will produce.

Ryan and I are excited that with the help of some new monthly committed supporters, we've reached 52% of our requirement (Unofficially. Meaning that some are commitments whose paperwork has not been filed with the main office). Fourty-four percent is official. We are so pleased.

Our Outfit and Passage fund is hanging in there at 93%. This is basically the "shipping and handling" of the Buczaks. It will cover airfair, passports, visas, and getting generally set up in Togo once we get there. Which reminds me, it's time to get Leslie and AnnMarie's passports done!

As for the year ahead, we have a lot to accomplish, but it is all within grasp at this point. We have to:
1) get the girls caught up on their vaccinations, 2) finish our Missionary Theology course (which we're half way through), 3) attend an Islamic evangelism course in either June or July, 4) attend Essential Missions Components seminar in July, 5) get my wisdom teeth taken out sometime at the end of the summer :(, 6) attend Field Prep Seminar in November, 7) apply for language school for January, 8) pack up our things and prepare them to be shipped to Togo, and 9) leave for France!!! There are more minute details, but that's pretty much the year at a glance. Our "impossible prayer request" for 2012 is that we would be able to accomplish all these things. We know that nothing is impossible with God. Would you join us in praying that we would meet these goals?

We're still working on setting up meetings with churches and individuals. We prefer meeting with individuals at the moment, but church meetings are always welcome. Just last night, I had a church call and schedule with us. It's fun meeting more of brothers and sisters in Christ, and we love to share our vision for our ministry in Togo! As always, if you're interested partnering with this ministry financially go to www.abwe.org/give and follow the directions on the right had side of the screen in the orange box.

As for family news, life is busy as usual. Our girls are growing. Leslie turned three in late October and AnnMarie will be 7 months old on January 20th. Poor AnnMarie has a fever right now and is requesting that I get off the computer to give her some attention. She has a sore throat. If she's not better tomorrow morning I'll take her to the doctor to get her checked out. You may pray that she gets better before then.

May our Lord bless you as you seek to accomplish your life goals this year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (a little late)! Thank you always for your prayers.

Weekend Prayer Request

Dear Praying Friends,

We’ve got a busy weekend ahead. As a praise report, Ryan recently learned of the opportunity to bring home one of ABWE’s aircraft in which he’ll gain the majority of his remaining 79.2 of 400 hours. Early Thursday morning he’ll be jumping on a commercial flight to Atlanta, GA. On Friday and Saturday he’ll be regaining his proficiency in a tail dragger at ABWE Air headquarters with Herman Teachout and Dale Fogg, on Sunday he’ll probably be attending a southern good ol’ Baptist church (he’ll get to have sweet tea, too. I’m jealous ;-)), and Monday through probably Wednesday he and a friend, Kelly, from the Northwest will be flying the Stinson tail dragger back home.

Please pray for Ryan’s safety all weekend as he flies quite a few hours. Ryan and Kelly will probably be flying in 3 hour segments at a time and stopping to sleep in the evenings. Please pray that they get the rest they need between flights. Please also pray that the weather is good for them. Ryan and Kelly are instrument rated, but it’s always safest to fly VFR (visual flight rules, or visually and outside of the clouds in laymen’s terms).

Please also pray for the girls and me. Though I believe Ryan is a completely competent pilot, that does not mean I might not be tempted to worry from time to time. To keep myself distracted, I will be driving up to my mom’s house on Camano Island and maybe canning apples or playing Settlers of Catan.

I’ll make an event invitation on Facebook in order for all of us to keep up with and pray for Ryan as he flies across the country. If you don’t get “invited” to this event and you’d like to, please write on my wall or request my friendship and I’ll make sure you get “invited.”

Thanks for your prayers for all of us. We appreciate it!

In Christ,

Stephanie Buczak

Buczak Buzz-August 2011

Ten new individual partners and one new church have put us above 45% of our committed monthly support! A special thanks to Triad Baptist Church of Kernersville, NC for voting us in this spring. You’ve given us another good reason to get back down to the south for southern style sweet tea, among other things of course ;-). We love you and miss you. Please say “hello” to our teens in the youth group for us. May our God continue to grow you in the knowledge of his gospel through our Lord Jesus.

Our eventful summer started off with the birth of our second daughter, AnnMarie Grace, June 20^th. She weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 and 3/8 inches long. At two months she’s already about 12.5 pounds. Her beautiful dimples melt Daddy and Mommy’s hearts. Big sister Leslie is also enjoying her baby. She is learning to be helpful by taking AnnMarie’s diapers to the garbage for mommy. Her most helpful accomplishment has been potty training. She is now officially potty trained and even dry at night!

In May Ryan cut back his work with Ace Aviation to four days a week and is able to focus his Fridays on ministry calling and visitation. He occasionally gets to fly as well. At the moment, he needs 82 more hours of flight time to meet ABWE Air requirements.

Last week we met with our Missionary Care Team for the very first time. This team is made up of individuals from Edgewood Bible Church and serve as our representative team here in the states. We look forward to growing with these individuals who share our desire to share Jesus with those who have never heard of him. If you’re from EBC, it’s not too late to join. Shoot us an email and we’ll be sure to invite you to the next meeting.

Goals for the coming months:

1. Raise our support level to 50% by the end of August.

2. Attend an Islamic evangelism course next summer.

3. Attend Essential Missions Components (EMC)* next July (50% requirement to attend).

4. Take a Missions Theology course after EMC.

5. Attend Field Prep Seminar (FPS)* next November (85% requirement to attend).

6. Be fully supported by the beginning of December next year.

7. Leave for French language school in Albertville, France at the beginning of January 2013.

*EMC and FPS are mission courses held at ABWE headquarters in Harrisburg, PA.

Our primary goal of course is that God is honored through us here, in France, and in Togo as we share and teach about Him. Please join us in praying over these goals. We love to talk about Togo, so let us know if you’d like us to share our story with you face to face or by Skype if you are far away.

Your Servants to Togo,

Ryan, Stephanie, and Leslie, and AnnMarie Buczak

Buczak Buzz~March 2011

We have lots of new readers this letter. Welcome! We’re glad to have you join us on our journey to Togo, West Africa!

Last fall was busy. We visited nine churches from late September to mid November from North Carolina to Eastern Washington to just a few miles away in Tukwila. We were privileged to be served by believers who desire to see the Gospel of Jesus spread at home and around the world. It was good for us to be back in North Carolina where we got to see old friends, meet new ones, and say goodbye until eternity to our dear friend, Carroll Crowell. There is such beautiful fellowship to be had with believers from all over the place!

On October 29^th, we celebrated Leslie’s 2^nd birthday! We love this little kid so much. She certainly keeps us on our toes. She can be very funny at times. She loves to “fwy” with Daddy. He throws her up in the air and she laughs. Then she says, “Watch this Mommy!” and makes Daddy do it again and again.

Not long after Leslie’s birthday, we found out that we are expecting another little one. This one is expected to show its little face sometime in early July. Mommy is happy to be through the dreaded morning sickness of the first trimester now. She feels much better, but still feels sluggish much of the time.

Our support level has risen two percent since our last letter! The Lord has called more individuals to give. We are so pleased to be a part of their ministry to the nations, specifically Togo. Our goal for this year is to be at 50% committed monthly support by the end of the year and 100% by the end of 2012. We’d like to invite you to join us in taking the gospel to West Africa with an airplane. Would you consider committing to .5% ($33) or 1% ($66) of our needed monthly support?

Surprisingly, Ryan has been able to get a few hours of flight despite the grey Washington winter we’re having. We’ll all (Washingtonians) be happy when the sun comes out and Ryan will get to fly more frequently. He has about 318 or so hours and only needs about 82 more to meet the requirements to leave for Togo. Many of the hours he’s gotten through the winter have been free!

Prayer Requests:

To be honest, right now it’s hard to know how to ask for prayer. There are some things we just can’t ask for prayer for in a public prayer letter. After sharing my concern with a veteran missionary, she suggested that we ask you to pray for the things we cannot mention. In other words, think about things in your life that you need prayer for that you might only share with those closest to you. We probably need prayer in those similar areas in our own lives. Pray for us as spouses, that we would be patient with one another and sensitive to each others’ needs. Pray for us as parents, that we would have wisdom as new behaviors arise with our two-year-old. Pray for our walk with the Lord, that we would not allow discouragements to distract us from our goals. Some of these things and others you know very well how to pray for. We trust the Holy Spirit will guide you.

Pray for people in Togo. It may be a few years before we get there, but pray that the Lord would be working in people’s hearts now. We know He is and we look forward to seeing whose lives he allows us to be a part of, but your prayers in this regard will have an impact on people who may not have otherwise been blessed with Salvation and a glorious eternity future. Be specific with your prayers. Though you don’t know the names of the people you are praying for, God does.

We have been called to go to Togo. You may be called to pray or give to this ministry to Togo. We are all a part of a team that God has put together. Thank you for backing this endeavor for His glory.

Many Blessings!

Ryan, Stephanie, and Leslie Buczak