An Unexpected Turn

    It has been over five months since we’ve left our home in Ireland, and with a car load of stuff, drove onto a ferry headed toward England where we were going to live and help start a church plant. Or so we thought…  Most all of you know and have read or heard about our story thus far… However, things have recently took an interesting turn for us since we've been back here in the States. Although it was an extremely rough ride getting here from where we were and where we thought we’d be, we have seen God’s work throughout it. Because of this, we have been able to join in on a lot of things we wouldn't be able to do so otherwise, and to be with friends and family has been a blessing. At first, it was not obvious why God was having this happen to us, taking us back to America; we were just glad to be in a country that accepted us! 
    It took some time to recover, as we settled and came to terms with being here and okay with the situation. Thinking this may just be a detour, or set back to what we were planning on doing, our goal was still to head back to England once we sorted out our visas. Keeping in touch with our friends in Bath and updating each other with our plans. However, within the last two months as I said before, our lives have taken a very interesting turn. Looks like God has a complete different plan in the making for us. In talking with our friends in Bath, it feels as if God is saying it isn’t the right timing to start a church plant, and therefore they have nothing to offer us to “come alongside of”. Hearing this news, along with some relief, caused us to wonder… what’s next for us?
    Funny enough, over the past two years the state of Colorado has been itching at Sebastian’s heart for some strange reason. Always in the back of his mind, at times on mine, in our conversations and prayers, etc. But we really didn't know the reason, couldn’t pin point it - although we knew we were still called to some sort of ministry. So when all of this went down, and since it was looking like we were done in Europe for the time being, he had an inkling to get a hold of somebody out there to see what it would look like to be involved in ministry. So he contacted his buddy who he knew was a Pastor near Denver, just to see what he had to say. Long story short, he has offered Sebastian a job as a pastor at Calvary South Denver, which is located in a town called Littleton, just south of Denver (hence the name). His job would entail mainly be the facilities manager, along with other things as well ie; missions pastor, pastoral care, helping out with worship, etc. It does sound like a lot - however it’s nothing he hasn’t done before.
    At first, the offer seemed a little too good to be true - an answer to a “back of the mind prayer” and we didn't want to move too quick in accepting. So to say the least, a lot of prayer and supplication went into this decision as we waited for the right and clear answer of weather or not to take this job or not.
    Last week we were flown out by the church to meet the staff, see the area, etc. It was a great time of learning more about the church, meeting lovely people and to see what God is doing over there. With all that being said, with the Lord as our unpredictable guide, and our open hearts to take another leap of faith, we have officially accepted this job. We feel this is where were supposed to be and are nervous yet very excited to be moving to Colorado at the beginning of fall.
    We ask that you would please pray for us as we get ready to make this move. For as most of you know, when we left England, we were intending to come back so of course we only took a couple of bags with us, and left everything else behind. Since then all of our stuff - household things, books, guitars, computers, clothes, camping gear, our car, etc. have been graciously left in four different friends homes, in their attics, most all of it in Bath. Very grateful for friends that allow us to take up space for what we thought would be two months. We will be traveling back this summer to get everything sorted out - things we need and things we don’t (like all of our European appliances). As far as our house situation goes, we will literally be starting all over from scratch once we find a place in Littleton. That being said, if you feel like supporting us until August, it would be a huge help as our moving costs will be around $2500 to get our things back to the States.
        This means that we will no longer be “missionaries” that lived from people generously giving financial support. This thought makes our eyebrow crinkle and head turn for we’ve only known to be in that field while married. Although now still in ministry, we’ll have a “normal people” job/income. This all starts for us the first week in September so please pray the move back from Europe goes well, as well as the move to Colorado from California.
   

    To all of our wonderful prayer, financial, encouraging supporters -
       

    To say we couldn’t have survived without your prayers while living in Waterford would be an understatement. There were seasons when we truly felt a much needed army backing us up to get through the next day, or frankly the next hour. There were seasons that through and through God proved to be faithful and never doubted us to do His work in that city, even when we thought we had doubted Him. So thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for seeking out Jesus on our behalf. What a treasure it is to know that your heart was and hopefully still is for the salvation for the city of Waterford.


    We and you both know that the Lord is our ultimate provider, we stand on that truth and I pray we don’t waver in it. Although, how He provides for each one of us, is by doing so through one another. He specifically put us, the Müllers, just a couple of married earth dwellers trying to do what God wants them to do - on your hearts to give each month a sum of money, in order for us to live somewhere that's a bit foreign, where it rains nearly every day, in a tiny city of 50,000 people, serve in even a smaller church with 120 people, to work in a coffee shop where you meet the most unlikeliest of people, and where long term friendships have been made - just to name a few. We couldn’t be more thankful to God for all of you to have been able to do what we did, have the experiences we had, even those times when the check wasn't as high as we thought we needed - God ALWAYS came through and it really kept us on our toes in trusting Him with our finances. We are truly blessed be have been graciously supported by God through you. So thank you for coming along side us for what has been an incredible two and half year journey in the city of Waterford, Ireland!


    To God be the glory!
       

With love,

    Müllers

Wayfaring Strangers

Wayfaring Strangers.

The bible is full of stories of men and women of God that have traveled and went to different lands to spread the good news that God loves us. Most of those journeys were never easy, they were long, arduous and often times ended in death. David was an exile in his own land hunted down by his former friends. Paul was shipwrecked, stoned, left for dead and finally beheaded. Nate Saint flew to spread the gospel to an indigenous tribe of people in Ecuador. He flew to spread the love of God, but was met with his death. I guess my point is being a Christian has never been historically easy. Jesus explained this to us in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” One of this biggest parts of being a christian is suffering with Christ. This does not always happen through persecution, often times we suffer with Christ just through our daily lives, at nobodies fault but the evil world that we live in. When Paul explains his sufferings to the church in Corinth, he mentions many different aspects. Telling of his stoning and beatings, but he also describes in 2 Corinthians   11:25-26 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. - 2 Corinthians 11:25-27. Bisdes direct persecution from people. Paul suffered in the will of God. Paul toiled horribly in the will of God, Paul failed at church planting, Paul got whole cities mad at him, he incited riots all because he was trying to proclaim the name of the only God that truly loves and adores us. Everything in this world was against Paul, not just the people. Even though Paul failed at times, even though he suffered more than pretty much any christian alive today - he kept going. He kept true to the great commission and went into all the world he did not stop and go home because funding didn't go through or because he did not have a place to stay or a bed to sleep in or because his life was in danger. He gloriously explains this in Philippians 3:7-11 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
The past two months have been one of the most testing experiences of my life, it has shown me the smallness of my faith. These trials have revealed that everything we have is worthless it can all be lost In a second. It has revealed the evil inside me, it has broken down my soul to where I felt nothing at all, where I cried out in pain until I felt no more. By comparison my wife and my trials are really not that bad, and this is one of the reasons why I am so humbled. We did not face death, starvation or even direct persecution for our faith, but yet I was shaken to the core, and when that core was laid bare I did not like the very little trust that came forth or even the overt anger that I felt.
To give you some background - I was one of a few Pastors at Calvary Waterford Christian Church in Waterford, Ireland. Along with leading worship, teaching, discipling, and maintenance, I also worked in our Church’s coffee shop, Portico, which is right in the city center. Though it was not always an easy ministry, it was, fulfilling and we were blessed to see God work in it every day.
On December fifth, just two days after getting back from our yearly trip to the states where we successfully raised support for the coming year, we received a letter from the Irish Immigration that we had five and a half weeks to get out of the country, or else. This was obviously not what we had been expecting, we were in the process of renewing our visas but nearly everyone we knew that had recently renewed had been accepted. This came as a shock to us but yet after prayer and really seeking out God he spoke the word “GO” to me. I now had a clear direction we knew that It was not the Irish moving us on - but God moving us on. So we looked for places to “Go”. We contacted friends in Hungary, England, California, and Canada. It seemed confirmed to us that we should head for a visit to Bath, England as a friend of ours was in the very infant stages of starting a ministry there. He had been praying for people with our gifting to come along side him so we went. Looking back now on this section of our journey I cannot say that my faith was severely shaken, I had seen God work like this before and I was not too worried that he would lead us into the next step. We packed up everything we owned into our little Rav-4, took a ferry over to Wales and drove the three hours to Bath. Because England does not give you a passport stamp on the ferry, we had to take a trip out of England to prove to Ireland that we were gone. So the next morning we were off to Switzerland to visit friends as the tickets were quite cheap and we had a place to stay. The whole time we were in Switzerland I could not wait to get back to Bath and start our new life there. I was excited about this next big step. In my human thinking I believed because everything had worked out that I must be on the right path, that I must be in Gods will. However I was only right about one part of that statement. We were in Gods will, however not necessarily because everything was working out.
I have now only come to understand that our success does not mean God success or will is confirmed. Not to say that I did not know this as head knowledge the whole time but knowing something and experiencing something can be very different. As I was saying, the experience has brought me to a totally different picture of what it means to suffer as a christian. But don't think too badly of my weakness because this story is just getting interesting, and I had yet to get to the end of the rope fastened to the anchor of my soul. The real story begins on our flight back into Bristol which is just outside of Bath where we were going to visit with the future intention of moving there.
Flying back into Bristol was a bit nerve racking because this is where we needed to get our visitors visa in order to stay in the country while my Swiss Citizenship was finalized. I however had a peace and was very confident that there was no reason for them not to give us a visitor visa. After all, we were just going to visit friends and help out with the church until we could make more permanent arrangements. We were not doing anything against the law or shady so there was no need to be troubled. But because we did not receive any landing cards to be filled out on the plane, we were given them at immigration, in a rush I put down that we wanted a visa for six months. Six months would give us plenty of time to get ourselves in order ( six months is the max for a visitor visa.). Because of this, it solicited a further barrage of questions wanting to know what we were doing in the UK and how we were supporting ourselves during this time. I explained that we were doing voluntary outreach and helping with a church. All because I used the term “voluntary” we were then detained for five hours separated at different times and questioned.  They finally let us out of the airport around 11pm but only after they confiscated our passports and told us we had four days to get our lives together and get out of the country. Once again we had to move. We needed to repack what we could and go somewhere and wait for my Swiss Citizenship and Passport to come through. All this so we could continue to live in Europe. Now we were left trying to figure out again three weeks later where we should move until we could come back to the UK with a more stable visa. I suppose this is where the fissures of my faith started to show a bit more. Although during those few days again God filled me with a further peace and showed me that no matter where we went he would use us to accomplish His will.
On a short walk in the hills around the city of Bath we ended up at a place called the Millennium Seat. This overlooks a large part of the countryside and sitting there one feels much like Frodo in the seeing seat of Amon Hen. I can always think clearly when I am up high. Talking to God again he spoke to me two words “Shabbat Shalom”. Honestly I could not even think of what it meant, even though I had heard it many times before. Looking it up I read that It means to have peace on the Sabbath or to have peaceful rest. This in its self gave me peace because I tend to want to be doing something all the time. I can feel very guilty if I am not working because I am concerned about being a good steward of the time that God has given me and the finances that he has provided us with. Feeling a bit less worried about exactly where we were going to end up, we looked into serving in Israel. Israel did not pan out as we only had 2 days to decide sadly. We also looked back at a few others but those did not work out either so we decided to visit my brother in Canada. He and his family are involved with many different ministries there and there would be many opportunities for us to serve and rest while we waited for the visa. This was especially exciting because I still have not met my youngest nephew who is over a year old now. We packed our snow boots, long sleeves and big puffy jackets because they live on the east coast of Canada. I made sure the way we were going to go to Canada was ok with the boarder force and they confirmed that it would be fine for us to fly that route. This is where it gets a bit weirder - because they had denied us entry, they had to send us back to Geneva, Switzerland where we were visiting before. However the only flight that we could get into Canada required us to have a connection in London. A bit awkward right, going back to the country that just kicked you out. This is why I checked with the boarder force/immigration in Bristol to make sure that this was ok and they confirmed that it was. We got on our flight back to Geneva, escorted by boarder guards the whole way feeling a bit like Vips because we got whisked through security but more like criminals because they would not give us back our passports and guarded us till we actually boarded the plane. We did not get our passports back until we landed in Geneva and were again escorted off the plane by Swiss boarder police. Ignoring the enclosed walkway which you would normally walk through to enter the airport, leaving the plane we immediately turned a sharp right through a door down stairs and into the police car. Thankfully, after waiting a whole five minutes in their office, the Swiss guards gave us back our passports and said there’s no problem. We got a room to stay the night and woke up the next day to catch a flight back to London and then onto Halifax, Canada. Our flight connection was a bit tight but I figured if we missed the first, there was another one about an hour after that. Little did I know that London was going to be literally covered in very low lying fog. The plane is now filled up in Geneva, the pilot comes on over the intercom - turns out because of the fog, there will be a two hour delay - so there we were, sitting on the tarmac with a fully loaded plane; it’s a good thing we had a charged iPad with downloaded Netflix. Finally after two and half hours, we are airborne. This delay is exactly what I was praying against and is what threw a wrench into everything. Just as I was saying earlier you can have knowledge that London has fog but until you really experience the consequences of it, its just knowledge. Because we were delayed nearly three hours, we missed our connecting flight and any possibility of connecting to the next flight that day. Landing in Gatwick, London I called our airline and begged them to put us on the next flight, they kindly did, so we would fly out the next day. This was great - we figured all we had to do was find a place to stay the night and get on the flight the next morning. We however had no idea that the British immigration was going to be so hospitable and had a detention room waiting for us. Because we had been denied entry the week before when immigration looked through our passports, they saw this and instead of believing that we were flying out the next day they decided to detain us for twenty-two hours in a holding room that was next to a part of the airport under construction, meaning that from the hours of midnight to 5am jackhammers were constantly working. It was an exact carbon copy of what went on in Bristol but four times as long. They questioned us, searched us, took away our phones, and all belongings. They didn't even allow us to take painkillers that were in our own bags - their advice to us was “try drinking some water” (jack hammers and constant bright lights do wonders for headaches). All this to say I have never felt more powerless in my life, we were forced to buy new tickets flying us back to the US because they didn’t want us to fly to Canada; in their mind, there was a possibility that Canada would refuse us as well. They basically didn't want to take any risk whatsoever that we might be sent back to them and “be their problem again”. I then had to give the guard money to buy me a phone card. I needed to contact my brother in Canada so he could find a ticket for us.
These are the points that I felt dead inside I was praying, but felt nothing. I mostly was just trying to hold my wits together. I felt like waves upon waves were crashing down and I could not catch my breath. I was praying that I could still be a good witness to the others in the cell with us. The most that I could muster up was civil conversation. Remember we had already been forced to leave Ireland and then England. We had our whole lives in our friends attics we had no home period. We were forced to become strangers in a strange land. To say the least we were exhausted but we serve a tireless God and He was working on us. At one point a man who was seeking asylum, was put in with us, he was from Pakistan, I wish I could remember his name because he was a huge encouragement to me. Apparently someone was seeking to take his life and that is why he was moving to the UK. He humbled me the most as I started to see the broken and shattered bits of my faith laying on the ground, He was such an encouragement even though his life was probably much harder than my own. I don't know if he was a christian or not but I believe he must have had the holy sprit in him because his genuine concern for us in our situation. He helped me get through the night and kept me from trying to bust my way out of our plexiglass prison. Its hard to keep a witness together when you are sleep deprived and have not seen daylight in 20 hours, but God kept reminding me that I was representing him and I had to keep things mostly civil. This was even more of a concern because they knew the reason that we were originally in the U.K. was to be christian missionaries. Thankfully, though I was dying inside God kept me strong and I was able to get through it. Finally at around 3:30 AM my brother sends me the confirmation that we have tickets back to Oakland, California. These were the cheapest tickets only $400 each one way considering they were bought the day of we could not complain too much.
At this point I was so broken I had no energy left, no strength I just wanted to be out of that holding cell. After being detained from two in the afternoon till ten in the morning the next day, we were escorted in a windowless van (without handles on the inside, again feeling like ciminals) to another holding cell across the airport. One thing that made this one better was that it had shower facilities. Felt good to be clean. Two hours later, we were again escorted to our gate and onto the plane (again, in the fast track lines through security and first ones on the plane). Once finally back on US soil, we were given our passports back and had no problems - Praise God.
When I started writing this I was reminded of a song I used to sing as a kid. “I know dark clouds will gather 'round me I know my way is hard and steep, but beauteous fields arise before me where God's redeemed, their vigils keep”.  Being rejected from two of the countries that I tried to go to over the past few months has really opened up more the picture that this world is not our home. Just as we were rejected in the UK and in Ireland - even from going to Canada. This world rejects us, our life here is just a brief stint in a holding cell, a brief suffering before we can go back to our homeland. Even though the US is not heaven by any means, getting out of that airport and back on US soil really showed me the difference between this worldly home we have and the heavenly one that Christ has made for us. Here we have endless trials, tears, hunger, pain and death, and thankfully once in a while a nice Pakistani man encourages us. This however cannot compare to a home that accepts us as Gods children. We have hope when we go to be with Jesus forever, when we go to a place that really accepts us, a place that knows us as its own, a place where we are citizens where we have rights and are loved endlessly.  Yes this world will destroy us; we will die, we will suffer, every one on earth suffers no matter how rich or poor you are. Buddhist or Atheist we all die, we all cry, but as Jesus says "Take Heart"
John 16:33
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I hope that no matter what you are going through right now you will know that God sees and even though it's horrible in this moment it will pass. So take heart nothing that we hold on to in this earth can compare to the glory that he has prepared for us.

CA UPDATE

    So life has changed so much over the past month so we are changing our blog location for this new season of our lives. Please bookmark it so you can stay updated. As most of you know if you watched our last update we are in California - its a long story of how we got back here so I have posted devotional recollection of what we went through, for your own perusals.
    What we wanted to make clear now is that we are still planning on heading back to the U.K.. We are currently waiting for my Swiss Citizenship to be finalized (should be done late as March.) We need this because the U.K. has treaties with Switzerland, which would allow us to live there without any other visas. Please pray that this is finalized sooner then later. This is obviously all in the Lords hands and all we want is to be used by Him where ever he wants us to be. Right now that is in California for the next 2 months. So I will be working with my dad doing construction and Chelsea will be looking for whatever odd jobs come about. We still believe even though we could not get into the UK initially that we are supposed to be there to come alongside the ministry that is happening there. Obviously this could change, Gods plans are not always our plans, but we hope with all our hearts that we are seeking Him and listening to His calling.
     As far as finances go, we know things have been all over the place with us over the last couple months. We really want to make it clear that during the next two months we should have enough money with work to be fine. That being said, again please do not feel obligated to give to us during this time as we know it is an interim period between ministries.
    So to sum things up we will be around the Frazier Park area and the Orange County area for as long as this process will take. We will be working while we figured out how to best go about moving back to the U.K..  Please pray that God would continue to be clear in His calling for us, and that we would continue to listen for His direction. We love you all so much and are so grateful for all the prayers and support that you have blessed us with over the past few years.

Much love Sebastian and Chelsea.