[TEAMspinella] Well, it seemed big to us anyway!

This month we did something that seems especially hard to us, although I'm not sure how you'll feel about it. We released our financial ministry partners from any commitment they might feel to keep funding our ministry. I just wrote all our current ministry partners, but there have also been others who have sustained our ministry, through three sponsoring non-profits, four sponsoring churches, and many years of ministry.

We are very grateful to all these ministry partners. They have sustained our ministry, through good times and hard times, and encouraged our hearts.

I think most supported ministry workers feel this way. It's hard to explain how much it means to have people partnering with us in the ministries to which we've committed ourselves. Launching out to do challenging and uncertain things can be very intimidating. Knowing that people (and churches!) are alongside us encourages us a lot. (The same is true for the non-profit orgs that have hosted our ministries.)

So why are Laura and I releasing our ministry partners? We aren't quitting the ministries to which we are committed--and these emails are part of that, but we are recognizing a few realities that have crept up on us:

-we're getting older,

-our personal finances are stable,

-our ministry commitments are increasingly balanced with other commitments, like family and health,

-we can still do ministry going forward, full-time, part-time, or as volunteers, and

-our sponsoring org, paraclete.net, will still be sponsoring us, although our ability to be reimbursed for expenses or receive personal compensation will drop as our funding drops.

Admittedly, over the years many ministry partners have released us before we released them, and partners always make their own decisions about who they fund, but we want to celebrate them (you?!) all, while we're still around to celebrate. Still, in almost every case we invited their (your) partnership, and in view of the factors above, we felt it appropriate to also intentionally release them (you) as partners!

Over the years we often reflected on this question: What is most likely to keep us from continuing the work to which we are committed? Almost always, the top answer was sustaining our internal motivation and resilience. However, this was only true because of our faithful ministry partners!

Everyone who cares about us, works alongside us, prays for us, encourages us, and so on also sustains us. But guess what? The people who have partnered financially in our ministry do all those things too, and they don't forget us because, you know, "where your money is, there goes your heart!"

Would you join me in celebrating what God has done through these special people and churches? Will you lift them up before God as they continue to make decisions going forward about where to put their money--and their hearts?! Thank you.

And as we head into a New Year, thanks to you all for every way in which you have journeyed with us, come alongside us, cared for us, challenged us, hosted us, and sustained us in this ministry journey, which is not yet done--for any of us!

With love in the one who keeps us, Steve and Laura

PS Just to be clear, we're not retiring just yet, just talking about a rather big and perhaps unusual step in our ministry :-). And our biggest fear is that opening our hands this way will lead to a loss of relationships, which we value so highly. So please know that we invite you to stay connected with us!

Also, if you are still motivated to contribute to our ministry, we (and Paraclete) will welcome your gifts, and seek to use them fully, carefully, and well. 

And here's a picture of us in all our senior glory ;-).

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<stevespinella@gmail.com> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CGJpiYCOTf6_45enCT94jSOtYMz4_gcbxWskZWeVZs-Aw%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] What you don't want to hear

This is the week when the Christmas letters come rolling in. Some were early, and of course some will be late. Some will not show up at all. But I realized just now that you don't want to hear one of my broad and/or quirky reflections on some aspect of international ministry life!

What you do want to hear, but don't want to hear, is that I probably have prostate cancer. This is the sort of challenge that upends other challenges. My first response to my primary care physician was that maybe we could just switch immediately into "watchful waiting." I love this term because it means, basically, do nothing. Unfortunately I'm not a very good candidate for that approach.

Instead he suggested that I could get an MRI right away or be referred to a urologist. Of course, I should have said, "I'll take both, please." The MRI, although the insurance company didn't pay for it, gave more clarity. My prostate-specific blood work matched up to a likely cancerous nodule that was clearly visible on the MRI--in other words, even I could see it was there on the images.

At first I didn't want to tell anyone, but that is a dead-end strategy. So my family knows, my colleagues know, and now all of you know also. It is only likely cancer--with this cancer they don't actually diagnose it until they run needles in and grab little chunks. So that's what I have to look forward to next, preferably sooner rather than later.

Now, like breast cancer, prostate cancer is common, and I'm very possibly not the first person you know facing this. So I should warn you that the least comforting words, according to at least one of my friends, are "lots of men get it and you probably will die from something else" or some variation on that wisdom. At his advice, we are making a list, and if you would like to say that, we can put your name on the list! After all, it might be true, and some day I'd like to say, "You were right, I was wrong." When the kids were teenagers and we all had strong opinions, we heard these were the six most beautiful words in the English language. Knowing that, I have said them with greater joy whenever I get the chance, although I could probably say them much more often.

So here you have a candidate for the most unusual Christmas update ever :-). I have discovered that announcing I might die is one way to stimulate people to say nice things to me--if you'd like to join that list, bring it on, please!

I just enjoyed seeing all three of my sisters and brothers-in-law in the last few weeks, and that was great. We are normally quite widely scattered. 

This Christmas Laura and I will be here in Colorado with our three grown-up kids, the two they married well, and this year not one, but three grandchildren, all uniquely cute and definitely well-loved (I'm including the grown-ups, of course) as well as Laura's mom, who is embracing the challenges of being 89 one day at a time, and now worrying about one more thing (the prostate cancer mentioned above)! Martha, you are also uniquely cute and definitely well-loved, as is anyone who has read this far ;-).

Now about those grandkids, etc. Evangeline is 3 now and endlessly entertaining. Cedar was born to Joey and Laura in February and lives just up the freeway about an hour in Lakewood. Isaiah was born in June and lives around the corner with John, Sarah, Evangeline, and Laura's mom, Martha. The three grandkids are all wonderful, but let us also add that they made our family vacation in August quite different. Martha is doing relatively well, still driving around town and enjoying visits both in person and on the phone. We got a 1999 RV last January and have made one trip out of Colorado and various shorter ventures into the mountains, although we did get turned down at one RV resort for being too old and ugly! We made zero ministry trips out of the country, but welcomed multiple families into our home on their trips back. International Women's Connection is meeting again, although outdoor meetups never stopped. Steve still doesn't like computer calls, but has done more of them than ever all the same.

And to make up for the update you didn't want to hear, here's a link to a few pictures:

Merry Christmas from the Spinellas!

With love in Him who keeps us, Steve and Laura

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CGLpi0pB-%2BjJgxntwDZTcXK5trzXyHF1i3Xz4iK4QRDcg%40mail.gmail.com.