www.joshuaandjoanna.com

Joanna and Joshua Fleming are appointed with TEAM as church planters in Trieste, Italy. We designed this website to keep our friends and family updated as well as answer questions that we have been asked about our ministry. Please feel free to contact us via the feedback page and let us know what you think.

As the new year begins, Joshua and I are ever more passionate to get to the mission field. Besides the usual prayer for new financial partners, please pray with us for the following upcoming events that need to take place to make it happen:

Joshua presenting his ordination paper to our church elders (probably by the end of this month) followed by presenting his paper to an ordination committee.
We are aiming to attend the final training required by TEAM in February.
Wisdom about selling or renting our home and when we should put it on the market.

While we haven’t had any supporters drop us during these hard economic times, it has been difficult for churches to partner with new missionaries. Please pray that the Lord would lead us as Joshua talks with pastors and church leaders. Please pray that the Lord would bring the people He has planned to be a part of our future ministry in Italy. Please pray for new ideas and creativity. Most of all please pray that the Lord would keep us from taking our eyes off of Him and becoming disappointed that things aren’t moving “as fast” as we had hoped.

A few weeks ago Joanna started sharing some of her thoughts on a blog. The address is gratoanimo.blogspot.com. She started blogging to keep our friends and family that are around the world updated about our family. Gratoanimo is the Latin word for "Grateful heart/ mind" and was the suffix to my first email address, way back in 1991. It was the address that I used to email Joanna when she was in Costa Rica. I had to change because people couldn't remember how to spell it.

-Joanna is now working part time from home. She absolutely loves being home with our little angel.

-Joanna's family has been staying with us this summer. It is a joy to spend time with them!

-Pray for opportunities to share about our ministry. If you have a church or sundayschool class that would like to learn more please feel free to contact us.

Here it is in a nutshell: Joanna is coming home to be with Charis (working part time from home), one church has decided to partner with us monthly today, it didn't work out with another church last week, Joshua hopes to meet with the elders for ordination in June if possible, we are working on getting a prayer letter out this week with more details. Thank you for praying!

Life with Charis has been nothing but a joy. Joanna and I are savoring every moment with her. We could use prayer because our employer is being inflexible in regard to Joanna working from home or cutting back to part time. There are a number of factors related to that that we have been praying through and we would appreciate you standing with us.

In regard to missions, we would like to thank the several people/ families that have joined our support team in the past few months. In fact we would like to praise the Lord that in this difficult financial time we haven't lost any supporters, but have been gaining toward our goal! Thank you to all of you who are giving sacfificially; may the Lord return your prayers and gifts 100 fold!

Praise the Lord, our beautiful Charis Noelle Fleming was born at 7:54am this morning. We (and many of you) have been praying for this day for more than 6 years. The entire experience was one of overwhelming praise to the Giver of all good things. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and is 20 3/4'' long. Click here to see the first installment of many pictures to come.

Wow, it's difficult to believe that it was nine years ago today that Joanna and I stood before God and man and committed ourselves to each

other. This morning in my quiet time I read Proverbs 18 and found a special nugget in verse 22: "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord". We have gone through the ups and downs that life brings but praise be to the Lord for the rich blessing that he has given me in Joanna May.

The past few weeks have been especially encouraging in our process of getting to the mission field. We have had several one time gifts, several people who have committed monthly and two churches that want to partner with us in ministry! We want to thank all of you who have partnered with us financially or through prayer. We are humbled and encouraged by your support. Please continue to pray for more opportunities as we prepare for the coming of our little one in December.

Today one of Joanna's closest friends, Lyndsey Burt, got engaged! Congratulations to the happy couple! Chris did a great job: secretly flying in from Minnesota, arranging a thoughtful scavenger hunt (including an incredible scrap book that he made), and surprising Lyndsey in the end with a ring. Click here to see pictures.

Today is the memorial service for Joanna's great uncle John Westling and great aunt Pearl Dinkfelt Westling. Joanna and I will be unable to attend the service, but today we remember the lives of uncle John and aunt Pearl. Click here to view the order of service that will be used and here for a "print friendly version."

The sermon on worship that I referenced today from the pulpit can be listened to or read by clicking here. You can read the "book version" of the sermon I mentioned by reading John Piper's Desiring God.

I'm leading worship on September 28th and would appreciate prayer for the service. At St Andrews Evangelical we take an attribute of God and build a worship service around that attribute. On the 28th we will be focusing on God our Foundation. Please participate with us through prayer as we prepare for the service. Pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us in worship, that He will quicken our minds and hearts so that we may acknowledge and adore Christ the Solid Rock!

God was powerfully glorified on August 30, 2008 with the joining of Luke and Soraya in holy matrimony. The service was as much a worship service as it was a wedding. My favorites were signing How Great Thou Art in Spanish, the "Persian Cup of Honey" tradition and the self written vows. Click here to see some pictures from the memorable day.

Joanna and I are in Costa Rica for her brother Luke's wedding. Luke met Soraya while he was living in Indiana. They plan to live in Palmares, Costa Rica while Soraya studies Photography and Luke works and studies in ESEPA seminary.

Today Joanna and I went in for her monthly check up (she is almost 20 weeks along) and received a special gift of grace! The ultrasound allowed us to see the face of our child for first time! What a singular experience. As the nurse completed each stage of the exam the word she kept using was perfect. "Proportions - perfect; blood flow - perfect; heart rate - perfect". Years of praying for a child has confirmed one thing in our minds: every child is a gift of God. As I'm typing this I can't help but think of the tiny hand contracting and flexing and thanking God for this good and perfect gift. Thank you to all of you who have stood with us in prayer.

We started sending out our Summer 2008 newsletter today. All of the paper copies will be mailed out by the first part of next week. You can click on the icon to the right to download/ view the PDF copy of the document.

Now that we have joined TEAM and have been appointed to a location, Joanna and I are now building our support team. Centuries of prosperity and comfort have bred indifference and apathy into the spiritual life of many Italians. We are first and foremost looking for prayer partners. Nothing of eternal consequence will result without prayer. We would love to put you on an email list if the Lord is leading you to commit to regularly pray for us. You can reach us at our feedback page.

We are greatly humbled and encouraged by all of you who have blessed us with your financial generosity, but we still have a long way to go. TEAM tells us that it takes the average missionary18 months to get to 100% of the pledged monthly support needed. Right now we are hovering around 15% total giving and about 35% pledged. Please pray with us as we work toward this goal. If you have a group or church that might want to hear about our ministry, please contact us via the feedback page.

Joanna and I just finished our new "refrigerator guardian". Double click the following picture to view the card. You can "right click the picture and select "save target as" to download it.