News from Joey Rozek and Family

We recently starting supporting Joey and his wife, who we know from  
Calvary Chapel Old Bridge. Here is one of their first newsletters.

With deep-rooted emotion and a strong sense of vision, we set out on February 1 with one-way tickets to our new home in Milton, Cambridge. When we pulled up to our house…words could not express the surprise that awaited us. Sitting quietly and huddled in our living room were six dear friends who paid their way to welcome us and to help us get settled in our new home.  They even painted two rooms for us. With tears of joy, we embraced one another. 

Suddenly the words of our Lord came to mind…” By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35)

It took us longer than anticipated to get everything situated and to get any form of communication working. My bike has been our only form of transportation and has broken records for holding groceries.

It has been interesting learning more about the similarities and differences between British and American culture. First off, Britons and Americans both drive, but on different sides of the road.  Britons and Americans both eat, but one calls it “supper time”, the other “tea time”, and if the British like it, they say, “This is gorgeous!” Football is two entirely different sports…and the other British sports are named after insects and vegetables (Cricket and Squash). They use words like “mate, bloke, brilliant, cheers, smashing and fawn-tawstic and call their pants “trousers.” They are also much more guarded and private than Americans and hardly ever initiate conversation. However, I think it is safe to say that Tiffany and I are will have no problem breaking that sound barrier. All in all, they just need the love of Christ like we all do.

I will share the most exciting news first!  Shortly after we arrived, the Lord connected us with a couple (Mark and Julie Saggers) who have been praying for over a year that a Calvary Chapel would be planted in Cambridge.

Upon our first meeting with them, we found out that Julie came to the Lord about three years ago through some Christian women she met at the last base they were stationed at, since Mark serves in the Royal Air Force.  She has been zealously studying the Bible ever since, through the radio teaching of several pastors that I just so happened to minister and grow up with…Chuck Smith, Jon Courson, Brian Broderson and Lloyd Pulley to name a few.

Tears of joy welled up in her eyes as she told us how thankful she was that we had come here to teach the Word. 

Mark has been an atheist for most of his life and has never really attended church. However, he could not deny the amazing change that has been taking place in his wife, which led him to seek the Lord himself. He recently told me how grateful he has been to have someone he can ask the questions he has been wrestling with for quite some time.

Mark and Julie have already become dear friends and their two girls are getting along great with our children. They come over
every Thursday night as we study through the Bible together. More of our neighbors are hearing about it and many have said
they are interested in checking it out. 

In addition, the Lord has opened the door for me to take a train up to York every
Wednesday to teach a class on the Holy Spirit and Evangelism at the Bible College. It has been very fruitful getting to pour into 20 eager students each week.

We had 6 students join us for outreach this week. I also had the opportunity to teach at Calvary Chapel Norwich a couple of weeks ago while Tiffany was able to attend the Women’s Conference out here.

We came to England with the mindset that ministry should overflow from the love, unity and faith lived out in our own home. It has been a very special time growing deeper as a family and seeking the Lord together daily.  Maddie and Josiah are adjusting well. 

After much prayer, the Lord confirmed it in our hearts to continue home schooling Madelyn for now. She is growing so much and has been memorizing Scripture, like Psalm 23 and recently she said to me, “Daddy, I want to be God’s helper.” “Out of the mouth of babes…!”  Lately, we have been visiting different churches in the area.

It appears that there are two extremes in the churches throughout England. They are either lively but lacking in solid Bible teaching or they are strong in sound doctrine but dreadfully lifeless and full of dead orthodoxy…but we are confident that
God has called us here “for such a time as this to live and give the Gospel by the power of His Spirit for His Glory!

Safe Return of Asia Team

I had the joy of welcoming back our team from Asia. They had been gone almost three weeks. I loved seeing they joy and excitement on their faces, and the welcoming hugs from family. Thank you to all who prayed for them.

News From CC Rio de Janeiro

We just received news from Calvary Chapel in Rio de Janeiro.

Hello everyone! Here is what’s going on with our fellowship…

Carnaval Retreat

We all had an awesome time this year at the retreat. (If you didn’t know, Carnanval is the Brazilian 4-days-before-Lent festival like Mardis Gras, so all the churches usually skip town and go on retreats). We had the retreat at the CC Bible College / Conference Center which is in a city called Campo Mourao – about 20 hours southwest of Rio by bus.

There were over 300 people there, all from Calvary Chapels in Brazil: CC Rio de Janeiro, Sao Vicente, Curitiba, Campo Mourao & Florianopolis. We were privileged to have pastors Brian Broderson (CC Costa Mesa), Jim Gallagher (CC Vero Beach, Florida), and John Randall (CC Brandon, Florida) join us and teach throughout our time there.

I can’t tell you how blessed we all were from the teachings. We were also blessed by the worship, the fellowship, the devotions – everything was amazing. We are very grateful to all the Bible College students and staff who worked to make it possible for us to be there.

We want to say thank you also, to those of you who prayed for this event. Your prayers were answered. Many lives were committed to Christ, others were restored, and the rest of us were just blessed to have a time of spiritual refreshment.

New Believers

There are two special people we want to tell you about. Both have been very cautiously checking things out over the last month or so, and have been slowly coming around to Christ. Both came to the retreat and ended up going forward to be baptized on the last day. The first one’s name in Juliana. She is from California, and is here studying abroad for a while.

Deborah (another Californian here studying, who is part of our fellowship) had befriended her at school and brought her to church. The other’s name is Dino – Dino is from Angola, and is a friend of Miguel (our other Angolan friend in the body).

Both new believers are very open and honest and excited. They also have lots of questions, so please pray for our wisdom in discipling these two precious new believers.

New Building

We are praying that God would open a door for us to be able to move the church. Right now, we are meeting on the fourth floor of an old building above a youth hostel. We aren’t asking for the Vatican, but it would be nice to have a place on the ground. The handicapped and elderly have a lot of trouble getting in.

We are almost invisible to the world. We have a bright yellow-lit sign, but because the street we’re on is so narrow, you would never notice it unless you looked straight up. Unfortunately, there are not many people walking around on our street with their heads cocked back like that.

Prayer Requests

► New building / Financial provision.

► New believers – Juliana & Dino – that they would grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

► Direction with the ministry in Xerem (kids).

► Our ministry to the Angolans – Russell and Alexandre are praying about going to Angola with an Angolan friend (Miguel) in July for 2 weeks.

► English Courses – we will be starting the English classes again soon. This is a huge evangelistic opportunity. Please pray for Russell and Deborah as teachers.

► Bruce and Renata – pray for them as they prepare to move to Sao Paulo where they will visit their family before wrapping up their time here in Brazil and moving to Oregon.

► Worship leader – we have a friend (Cleber) who is a very gifted worship leader in Sao Vicente who is planning on moving up here to help in July. Pray for him as he prepares to move, and pray for us as we wait.

► Please pray for Graciela – she is in the U.S. studying English.

► Also pray for Aline who is studying at the CC Bible College in Hungary.

If you would like to be a part of the financial support for Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro, your check can be sent to:

Calvary Chapel Corvallis
P.O. Box 965 Corvallis, OR 97339
(make the check out to Calvary Chapel of Corvallis and note: Calvary Chapel Rio de Janeiro)

Team Doing Well

Our team in Asia is doing great. I spoke with a couple of them on the phone Wednesday before the service. It was time for breakfast over there. We are unable to post details about specific activities, but know that father is using them.

They will be returning Monday late night.