Dear New Day Family,

I have wanted to write you all for awhile now, and with the anniversary of our move coming up, I thought now might be a good time. First, let me tell you that we miss you all terribly and I love seeing and hearing about all God is doing at our home church. New Day will always be a home to us, and by the end of this letter, I think you will understand why.

This year has been wonderful, crazy and all things in between. What has happened in our lives here is a direct result of the impact of our time at New Day. Matt and I were privileged to be in the very first New Day School of the Heart and the first School of Life in the Word. We had no idea what we were getting into, and honestly, I had no intention of going to the School of the Heart beyond the first six weeks, but once we started to encounter the living God in a way we never had before, we were hooked. The teachings of these schools and the experiences we had with God and with our church family have changed the course of our lives. We tend to use that phrase, life-changing, a lot, but in this case, it is absolutely true. I have to encourage all of you who are at New Day to please go to these schools. Matt and I had no clue what to expect or how to even be more intimate with God, but He is so faithful to draw near to those who seek Him and we are now living new depths of relationship with our Father God that we never even thought possible. Please do not let this opportunity pass you by. I had all the excuses in the book. I was pregnant through BOTH schools and had a military husband, and, and, and…but God made a way and even with Matt doing a six month deployment through the School of the Word, he finished school by becoming New Day’s first international student. He watched the videos every week, did his reading and was Arden’s favorite student! New Day is a safe place to be equipped for life and ministry, so take advantage and see where God leads you. I promise it will be an adventure!

Ok, enough shameless plugs for school! Let me share what has happened since then. We got here on the second day of February, 2014, and that began the loneliest month of my life. I missed my friends and family and Matt was getting inprocessed and so I was alone a lot with three jet-lagged small people. Not fun. But quickly I met a small group of women at a Bible study called Protestant Women of the Chapel and they adopted me. We moved into our house, met our wonderful German neighbors and started looking for a new church. The ladies who I had met invited me to theirs and so we went, we saw, we did not love. It was big, it was Baptist and it just felt not-quite-home. Besides, Matt was convinced that we needed to go to a German church despite the small obstacle of not speaking German. We prayed though and soon discovered that even though we were not sold on the idea, this was the church God was calling us to. So we became members of Frontline Community Church, we got plugged into a life group and we just dove in. Matt put in the membership paperwork that he would be interested in beginning a prophetic ministry to which I asked him if he was trying to get us kicked out, but we decided to be bold! He also wrote that we would be interested in helping to start a prayer team, which the church did not have. We came to Frontline at a time when they were transitioning from the founding pastor to a new one and the new guy is an all-hands-on-deck leader, so, to make a long story shorter, we found ourselves on his radar.

During a conversation with him, I asked him if he had ever heard of inner healing, and he said yes, and put me in touch with a woman named Kris Nuss. Kris has two daughters who just graduated from a school of the supernatural at Grace Center in Nashville. Their teachers at Grace Center are AJ and Alyn Jones. AJ Jones’ spiritual parents are John and Carol Arnott. Anyone recognize those names? Also, it turns out that they know our very own Scott and Stephanie Jones. I have only met John Arnott one time, but the family that has been birthed from Toronto is pretty extensive. I love how God puts just the right people in just the right places at just the right time. Kris had just been to a Father Heart encounter weekend and was passionate, much like Matt and I, to see this message spread.

Fast forward to today. Matt and I were asked to build an inner healing ministry from the ground up. We held our first four-session teaching on the basics of inner healing back in November and had a great response. I currently meet with four women to walk them through individual sessions and Matt is doing the same with the guys. We are also helping to head up other areas of the prayer team. I have been given the opportunity to speak to women’s ministries on several occasions and have taken these chances to speak on the Father’s heart for us. We taught our life group over the summer from Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice and are now seeing our friends learn how to pray for others and journal for themselves in direct communication with God. Also, we just finished a life group study called Finding Father, all about the Father’s heart. One day while driving home from church, Matt told me that the Lord had downloaded a vision of what he wanted the men’s ministry to look like at Frontline, so Matt went to the leader, shared this with him and is now on the ministry team and they are about to start the new year with new vision and focus on God’s heart for our men. Also, this spring we are welcoming a team from Grace Center who are coming to do a Father Heart encounter weekend at Frontline! We are so excited and would love to see a New Day team come sometime too (hint, hint)!

We are seeing the fruit of our time at New Day. Matt and I are the most regular people out there and I am constantly amazed at how God can use people like us to advance the Kingdom, but He is doing it. And all of you are part of that. What is happening in Knightsville is having impact all over the world. Just look at Mike and Lucy Nunn and at what God is doing here and there is the proof. I want to thank you all for loving us and for sending us out with prophetic words of encouragement and with a mission. Our goals now are to see that we steward what God has given us in a way that touches lives, and if we can do it, anyone can. Thank you, New Day family, for sowing into us, for being a safe family where we could learn and make mistakes and for praying for us along the way. We are excited to see what else God has in store here in Germany; it is certainly an exciting time to be here. We believe that God is speaking revival over this country, not just for the native Germans, but for the thousands of American military and expats and all other people who live here. This country is beautiful in a way that will take your breath away, but spiritually, it feels a bit sleepy. I know God is waking Deutschland up and we just want to be whatever part of that we can be!

I hope to see all of you soon. The kids and I are coming back to the states at the end of next month, so now that you know what is going on with us, I can come and hear about all of you! I wanted to send a recent picture of us. I sent one that is pretty and posed and looks like the Hallmark Card, but those of you who know us best know that we just like to keep it real. So I sent my favorite one as well. This is our family just being us! I cannot wait to see all of your beautiful faces and until then keep being amazing!!

Love,

Courtney Oliver