2011?!?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's going to be 2011 in three days!
I hope your holiday celebrations were as fun as mine! I was truly blessed and had a great time here in Poznań with the Mitts and Haenze families. Now I'm looking forward to ringing in the new year in Germany! With one of my FAVORITE people from home!! I'm so excited! 
One thing I said when I arrived in Poland was that I thought this year was as much about what I had to learn as it would be about serving or helping other people. And, certainly, I've found that I have a LOT to learn! One of the things God is teaching me about is the value and discipline of prayer, and of fasting.
I have a request for you to consider. GEM missionaries and partners set aside the first Monday of each month to pray and fast.  My team and I agreed at our last meeting that we would love to involve our prayer supporters. Would you consider helping me kick off my day of prayer and fasting by praying with me on Sunday, January 2nd, 2011? (2011... weird!)
You can expect a 15-30 minute block of time, and expect that we spend it mostly in praying rather than, say, catching up. :) If you are free sometime between 1pm-4pm Central time on Sunday, January 2nd, and if you're interested in a prayer-call, please let me know.
Email me at shhtef@gmail.com and tell me...

1. which part of that window (1pm-4pm central, January 2nd) are you available?
   
2. should I call? What number? Or should I skype? What's your skype name?
   
3. what are your personal prayer requests? (Like I said, I plan to keep our catching up/prayer requesting to a minimum, so communicating about it before will be nice! Make the email as long as you want!)

In the future, this will hopefully fall on a more convenient weekend, and I can email you back a for-sure time. Since I’ll be out of town, you probably won’t hear back until I call you on Sunday!
Whether or not you can pray with me via technology this Sunday, please keep our GEM-Poland team in your prayers. Here are our most recent requests:
GEM-Poland (my team): We as the GEM-Poland team are all praying for a movement of the Spirit. Pray with us that we find people of peace in whom God has already been working, and for leadership in the Polish churches to fall in love with Jesus.
Haenze family -  Pray for restored health! Paul still has internal injuries because of falling on icy stairs and Karen is still fatigued from fighting pneumonia.
Mitts family - 
*       That we would walk in step with the Spirit.  We desire to join God where He is already working in seeking those that are lost and are ready to hear the Gospel. *       That we would continue to be faithful in discipling disciple makers. *       That God's Spirit would pour out on Poland and Europe and that we would see signs of a church planting movement in the near future.
Theresa - Pray for a special friend to become a Christian.
Stephanie - Pray for the hearts of friends to be open to hearing the gospel and obeying God's word. And continue to pray for my brother Chris, sister-in-law Lucy, and nephew, Joshua, who is in the womb, (and kicking a lot his mom says!) but has severe abnormalities and is not expected to survive.