European Missions Conference – Post Trip Update

Thank you all for your prayers for us while we were in Poland earlier this month. Just wanted to post a short note to let all of our prayer and support partners know how God worked through our ministry on this trip.

For the first two days (Wednesday and Thursday), Mary and I facilitated a seminar on the topic of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a simple topic to learn and has a huge impact on individuals who give up unforgiveness to Jesus. Since the seminar, attendees have already shared how they have used the tools in their own ministries at least a half-dozen times. We taught a couple of 1½-hour seminars on how the brain works and how to process emotions in healthy ways. Both seminars were well-attended. We introduced a lot of concepts which were new paradigms to the attendees and received very positive feedback from those who joined us during these sessions.

In addition, Mary and I met with several individuals and even a small group, giving training and helping some work through personal issues. God used these times to minister to these men and women.

On the whole, the week was wonderful. We came back jet lagged, exhausted, and both with colds. But it was wonderful to spend time with the International Messengers family. This week was also a clear validation for us that we are still doing ministry that is within God’s will and plan. We did see God’s hand at work throughout this week. About a half-dozen missionaries have asked us for additional training in counseling tools which we will be providing in the next 12 months.

We also wanted to let you know how God answered your prayers. God protected our kids while we were gone. Thank you for praying for them. My (Mike’s) trigeminal neuralgia did bother me during the trip, but I am thankful it did not keep me from teaching or from any of our responsibilities. Teaching with Jennifer Nagy was a great experience. She is a gifted woman and leader, and her wisdom and input really made the seminars a much richer experience for those in attendance.

Prayer Requests:

• During the course of the week, we spoke with the President of International Messengers (Darwin Anderson) and the Director of Middle Eastern Ministries (Ben Oehler). We have been invited to travel to Beirut this fall to conduct training with some Christian Arabs, including some who live in the war-torn country of Syria. Please pray with us that God will give us clear direction in this matter.
• Please pray with us as we begin to plan for this summer Family English Camp in Poland. We are excited that the entire Equip2Counsel team will be traveling together: Doreen, Mary, and Mike!

We cannot thank you enough for continuing to join the Equip2Counsel ministry in prayer and financial support. God is the one who guides us, sustains us, and uses our ministry to bring fruit. We are convinced that any fruit that we see is a result of God answering prayers.

Mike and Mary

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European Missions Conference

This next Monday, April 2, Mary and I will be traveling to Poland to attend the International Messengers European Missions Conference. This is an annual conference for IM (International Messengers) missionaries, providing fellowship, Biblical teaching, and staff care for the men, women, and families serving God overseas. It is such a treasured time for the missionaries. This year about 250+ are expected to attend.

Mary and I will not only be attending the conference, but also have several responsibilities hosting some elective classes and seminars for conference attendees. On Thursday and Friday we will be facilitating a two-day course about forgiveness. This course discusses Biblical forgiveness in depth, and give the attendees a way how to practice forgiveness. This is a powerful tool not only for those who attend, but also is designed to be shared with those the missionaries minister to.

We will also be co-teaching / facilitating two 1-hour seminars during the conference. These seminars are designed to help believers understand how our brains process information and how we can be in control of our thoughts and emotions.

We are grateful to be co-teaching with Jennifer Nagy.  Jennifer is an IM missionary working on-staff at an international church in Warsaw. She is an extremely gifted counselor who has been trained in the Equip2Counsel tools and using these for several years. It is exciting to see these tools being used by someone we have trained, and to work with her passing these tools on to another group of ministers.

Thank you for praying for us, our ministry, and all who are at the conference. Mary and I will have an extremely packed weekend. Here is an overview of our schedule:

Monday (April 2): Flying out from MSP airport.
Tuesday: Arriving in Krakow, Poland. We will spend a night in Krakow which will give us an opportunity to rest and begin to adjust to the time zone changes.
Wednesday: Driving to conference. Begin teaching two-day class on forgiveness.
Thursday: Day 2 of two-day class on forgiveness.
Friday: Full conference officially begins. We will be teaching a 1-hour seminar on taking thoughts captive. We will also likely meet with individuals throughout the day.
Saturday: Fellowship and meeting with individuals throughout the day.
Sunday: Last day of conference. Teaching a 1-hour seminar about being in charge of our emotions.
Monday: Drive back to Krakow, then fly home.

Here are a few additional prayer requests:

• Pray for safety for our kids at home who will not be traveling with us.
• Ask God to make us effective teachers, bringing freedom to our students and tools which can be used by the missionaries in their own ministry.
• We will be teaching new material with Jennifer this week. Pray that God will bring synergy to our teaching and we will be an effective team.

• I have trigeminal neuralgia, which can cause excruciating pain when I speak. Please pray that God takes this away and/or give me grace to communicate effectively.

Thanks so much for continuing to join the Equip2Counsel ministry in prayer and financial support. We are so grateful to have a prayer team partnering with us as we take these trips.

God’s Heart for the Middle East

Back from a wonderful trip to Lebanon, and wanted to share with you some of the outcomes. Jennifer Nagy and I spent 5 days training 8 young men and women about the power of Forgiveness and the dangers of a shame-based culture. These believers were so open to hearing these ideas and putting them into practice. It was so encouraging to make this investment and then watch as God worked in the hearts and minds of these students.

I use the word “students” only to describe the roles of these believers in this school. Among them were pastors and music ministers and missionaries to the Arab world. These young men and women are fearless in their ministry and stand ready to serve God regardless of the cost. One young man said to me, “We have seen so much blood shed in this country for all the wrong reasons. We are ready to shed our blood for Jesus if this is what God asks us to do.” It is so humbling to be among such followers of Jesus and learn with them.

Thank you for your prayers.  God answered in the following ways:

• The Arabic language was not a major barrier. It was beautiful to see not only understanding, but how God changed hearts as the Spirit healed some really horrendous experiences requiring forgiveness. The students stand ready to use these forgiveness tools as they minister in their own communities.
• God did use us to minister into the lives and hurts of several of the students. They were so open to our help, and we saw some miraculous healing in the hearts and minds of several students. Jennifer and I even had opportunities to counsel some in the local church communities of these students.
• God blessed Jennifer and I as we worked together as teachers. The students thought we had been working together for years and couldn’t even tell which of us was “in charge.” Praise God!
• My trigeminal neuralgia declined slightly and hardly interfered with the teaching.
• God protected me in my travels, though I have never traveled to a country where I felt more safe walking the streets. Perhaps the biggest danger I faced was walking roads with Lebanese drivers and limited sidewalk space.

These men and women are leaders in a struggling little church community, but have a vision to reach Arabs in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. One of the pastors in this group recently traveled to war-torn Syria, visiting Muslims house to house and praying with each family. He told me that right now in Syria there is an unprecedented openness to hear about Jesus’ love.

It is hard for me to describe the joy Jesus gave me serving these people. I am glad to be back home with my family, but I feel like I have left part of my heart in this country. As God puts it on your heart, please be in prayer that God will raise up workers to bring the Gospel to the vast number of lost in the Middle Eastern countries.

Thanks so much for continuing to join the Equip2Counsel ministry in prayer and financial support.

Middle Eastern Training Facility

It has been a crazy and difficult year, starting with Mark’s cancer and his passing in March. Mark was such a dear friend and a true brother. My kids called him “second dad,” and we all still miss him dearly. Our Equip2Counsel family are all still coming to grips with what life and ministry looks like without Mark. But it certainly was Mark’s desire that this ministry continue after he went home to be with Jesus.

Early this summer, we as a team (Doreen, Mike, and Mary) were invited to Beirut, Lebanon, to do some training. After much prayer, we agreed that Mike should take this trip, and God was calling Mary and Doreen to stay home and support in other ways.

It is exciting and intimidating to be sharing some tools with Christian Arab men and women. These believers are active in ministry in countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. They are always under threat. Some have faced severe persecution. It is both humbling and a great honor to be sharing my life with them for a week. I will be meeting up with Jennifer Nagy, who ministers in an international church in Warsaw, Poland. Jennifer has been trained in Equip2Counsel tools, and is extremely gifted. She also has experience ministering in Arab countries and is able to provide direction for our team. The training focus for the week will primarily be two subjects: (1) Shame and (2) Forgiveness. I will be leaving this Thursday, Nov 2 and returning the following Saturday, Nov 11.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and for standing with us financially through these turbulent times. We are so thankful for the prayer as life continues to take a lot of unexpected turns, uncertainties, and setbacks. But God is good continues to be faithful, answering prayers in unexpected ways. And the financial support makes it possible to continue to take these trips and impact the kingdom around the world. It our desire at Equip2Counsel to go where God is leading and do the work he sets before us. We expect nothing less than the impossible as we lean on Him for miracles that heal and change lives.

Please pray specifically for this trip:

• All teaching will be in Arabic through a translator. Please pray that two-way communication will be clear in spite of this obstacle.
• We do not know what needs these students have, but please pray that we will effectively minister to each of them, as God leads.
• Jennifer is a gifted minister and good friend. I look forward to teaching with her for the first time. Please pray that we will have grace and patience with one another as we learn to work together.
• I have trigeminal neuralgia, which can cause excruciating pain when I speak. Please pray that God takes this away and/or give me grace to communicate effectively.
• Please pray for safety as I am traveling to an area that many would consider more dangerous.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and financial support!

Mike

Accustomed to Surprise: English Camp

Another fantastic trip.

We are so thankful for your prayers as we arrive back here in Minnesota and continue to assess what God has accomplished. This year there were many first-time campers. Most of these campers would not consider themselves to be believers or followers of Jesus. We were so thankful for the opportunity to pour our time and God’s love into these lives for a week. God worked in so many ways. As leaders, Mary and I observe how God is working through so many different activities, relationships, and through the biblical teaching.

Every camp is different, and every camp is the same. We have become accustomed to God working in surprising ways. When we arrive, we don’t know who God is going to bring, or how they are going to be touched. We just dig in and get to work, expecting God to do miracles.

I think this is how we develop our faith. We listen to the Holy Spirit and then choose to take the risk God asks us to, trusting that God is going to do something amazing. One of the passages the campers studied was Acts 3:1-13. It is about Peter and John healing the lame man outside the temple gate. I suspect that the Holy Spirit prompted Peter to say, “Get up and walk.” Can you imagine how scary it must have been for Peter to say these words to a lame man? I am sure it was intense, but Peter had spent enough time with Jesus to expect something amazing. He expected this lame man to get up and walk.

I think these are the same faith muscles we all develop during each camp. When we go, we have come to expect God to do the surprising. I suspect many of our partners reading this—when you give financially and pray with us—are also expecting God to do some amazing stuff. Together as a huge team, we all do our part by faith, and expect God to do the surprising at these camps.

I wish I could tell detailed stories about how God works through our counseling ministry at the camps. In addition to teaching and leading the team, Mary and I individually met 13 times with campers. God worked in these meetings through forgiveness, breaking down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:5), and even freeing one from an addiction. It was so fulfilling to be a part of this ministry as God set some men, women, and teens free this week through our counseling ministry.

Thanks again for standing with us through prayer and your financial support!

Follow-up/answers to prayer requests:

• Team unity was amazing. Team members from 4 countries, at least 10 cities, and more than 12 churches. Many met for the first time at camp. God is good: We saw our team practicing the many biblical “love one another” principles.
• God protected our family (Katherine, Zachary, Adrian), allowing us to focus on our work in Poland.
• God moved in the hearts of campers. Agnostics became seekers. Highly religious began to question the value of their religiosity. Seekers gave their hearts and lives to Jesus and entered his Kingdom. So awesome to be a part of!
• Weather forecast for the camp was rainy all week. Mostly sunny skies and beautiful weather all week. We did have rain, but this interrupted our scheduled activities only twice all week. Thanking God for the great weather!

Please continue to pray with us:

• Still not refunded: Delta’s web-site double-sold us tickets. Delta has been giving us the run-around for 3½ months now, and they still have not refunded the extra tickets. It is an $8,500 bill. Please pray with us that God will work this out and the tickets will be refunded!

Poland English Camp, Part 15

As we finalize our preparations for our upcoming trip this week, we realized that this year marks the Snuffer’s 15^th English Camp in Poland. 15 years ago, who would have thought…

But here we are. And we are thankful for the opportunity to serve again this year. With 3 kids preparing for college this fall, Mike, Mary, and Josiah will be the Snuffer representatives this summer. God has provided us with a US team of 38 from churches across the mid-west. It is a team that includes a healthy mix of both rookies and veterans of the camp. We are excited to have a family of 9 from Tennessee joining us this year. The family has an evangelistic ministry to churches around the world, sharing the gospel with circus-style skills and other unique artistic abilities. We look forward to seeing how God uses this family to connect with Poles and share the gospel.

In the past few years, God has used our counseling gifts to minister to Poles at the camp. In addition to our normal role, Mary and I expect that we will be counseling every day. It is rewarding but exhausting work. Josiah will work both in the children’s ministry and with teenage kids.

For the first time in 15 years, through a set of circumstances that we do not totally understand—we were fully supported without sending any letters this year. Of course, this is in part due to our supporter’s gracious gifts. But Josiah was fully supported this year, and no Equip2Counsel dollars are applied to him. We are so thankful to God for this blessing, but still need your prayer support.

Spiritual warfare has been especially intense in the past month or so. Please pray for God’s protection for our entire family as we travel to Poland. Mary and I were exchanging prayer requests with a team member who said, “The enemy is worried. It must be that we are going to have a great camp this year.”

Thanks so much for joining us in prayer. The trip dates are Thu, June 29 – Wed, July 12.

Please pray with us for this trip:

• Delta’s web-site double-sold us tickets. Delta has been giving us the run-around for 3 months and has not refunded the extra tickets. It is an $8,500 bill, which is causing us some stress. Please pray that God will work this out before we leave on Thursday and Delta will give the refund.
• Pray for team unity amongst Americans and our Polish partners.  (John 13:35)
• Pray for God’s protection over our family we are leaving here (Katherine, Zachary, Adrian).
• Please pray that God will work in the hearts of campers and bring many to his Kingdom.
• Weather forecast for the camp is rainy. We use indoor and outdoor class spaces. Please pray for dry class and activity times.

Life Changes, Travel Changes

Most of you already know that our ministry partner and dear friend, Mark Henderson, went to be with our Savior this past Wednesday evening. Even as we are mourning the loss, we needed to make some difficult decisions.

The Snuffer family will be staying for Mark’s funeral this Monday. As a result, we have cancelled next week’s trip to Budapest, Hungary.

Mike, Mary, and Adrian will be traveling to Glogow, Poland the following week: April 2-10. This will give us a chance to do some planning for this summer’s English Camp, and we will also have the opportunity to mourn with Mark’s many friends in Poland. It will be an emotional trip, but we are thankful to be able to be with our dear friends in Poland.

We know that you are keeping Doreen, Michael and KD in your prayers. Thank you for praying that God will bring comfort, peace, and his presence to the Hendersons.

Please pray with us for this trip:

• God will work out these late changes in our flights.
• God’s name will be glorified as we remember Mark and his impact on many Polish people.
• Mary and Adrian as they will be representing God by loving the students from the US (Heritage Christian Academy) and Poland (Aslan School).
• Pray that God will give all of us the emotional strength to be others-focused as we are feeling the weight of loss.
• Pray for Josiah, who will be home here in the states. It is difficult to leave him home.

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Mark’s funeral is scheduled for Monday, March 27, 11:00 am at Wayzata Free Church. Visitation will be at the church one hour before the service.

International Messengers Conference. Budapest, Hungary

Once again we have mixed emotions as we plan an Equip2Counsel trip. We feel like we are leaving ministry partners and family members as we head oversees without Doreen and Mark Henderson. God has sustained Mark through some awful, dark days as the Henderson family continues to fight the cancer in Mark’s body. But as a team, all four of us prayerfully decided the ministry must continue to move forward in the face of this opposition. Please continue to keep Mark and Doreen in your prayers. They would love to be traveling and ministering with us! We are hopeful that the four of us will minister together again, and ask you to join us in prayer for God to work and bring about this miracle.

Mary and Mike Snuffer will be traveling to a facility in the small town of Balatonszárszó, Hungary, about 1½ hours southwest of Budapest, Hungary. We will be meeting up with over 200 missionaries from International Messengers for a week-long conference. This weekend is designed to be a time of rest and encouragement for the missionaries who are continually investing their lives into men and women throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa.

It will be the 3^rd time the Equip2Counsel team has attended this annual conference. It is a great opportunity to have an impact on many missionaries. In the past, we have seen God work by providing counseling tools to missionaries for their ministry. It has also given us the opportunity to invest in the lives of couples and individuals, watching God bring healing and much-needed encouragement.

We will all be traveling Mar 26 through Apr 3. Mary and I will be leading a two-day seminar prior to the conference on Wednesday and Thursday (Mar 29-30). This small-group setting gives us an opportunity to go deep with a few missionaries, providing them with some training in counseling tools for their ministry. The rest of the conference is filled with special speakers and activities, but Mary and I will be making ourselves available to meet individually with missionaries or couples. God has already set up a couple of important appointments for us. Please pray that God will use these meetings to bring healing and encouragement—Mary and I know we are incapable without the Holy Spirit showing up and doing the work!

Mary and I are bringing both Adrian and Josiah along with us to minister to the many teens who will be attending the conference with their parents. Please pray for them to make quick connections and have an eternal impact on the kids they build relationships with in this short time.

Mary and Adrian will be continuing on to Poland for 10 days after this trip, but we will send another post next week with information about this trip.

Prayer Requests:

• Please continue to pray for Mark and Doreen as they fight cancer.
• Pray for the two-day conference, that God will raise up a few missionaries with a strong tool-set to bring healing to others.
• Mike has been suffering from pain in his face (trigeminal neuralgia). Please pray that God will control these symptoms during the training sessions.
• Pray that God will arrange meetings with the missionaries who need to talk with us personally.
• Pray that God will use Adrian and Josiah to minister to teens in Hungary.
• Please pray for all of us that God will use this time to build us up!

Equip2Counsel – 2017 Begins

As we start 2017, we have a lot to thank God for and some major prayer requests. Due to Mark’s illness, we were more limited in our ability to take trips, but we continued to support and train missionaries through Skype and other internet-based tools. It is great to be able to use internet technology to continue to minister and equip ministry leaders and missionaries around the world.

We are also thankful 2016 gave us one of the most impactful English Family camps we ever attended. The Holy Spirit showed up in powerful and unpredictable ways. It is not an exaggeration to say that nearly every person who attended the camp was impacted in some way by God. It was a blessing to have a front-row seat and watch God work!

Many of you have been praying for Mark. Thank you for your prayers: These have sustained Mark over the dark and trying road of the past 17+ months. When he received his diagnosis, he was given about 3 months to live. We are so thankful that he has outlived this diagnosis by over a year. He is certainly not out of the woods yet, but God has been faithful for the past year and a half. We are trusting God and continue to pray for complete healing. He was recently approved for a new immunotherapy treatment. We are hopeful that God will use this treatment to heal Mark from the cancer.

As a team, we have decided to attend the International Messengers missions staff conference in Budapest, Hungary. We have been given the opportunity to spend a couple of focused days training missionaries with some counseling tools. We are still working with the mission to determine the content of this training, but are excited that God has given us this opportunity to equip missionaries who are working in the field with some simple yet powerful counseling tools.

Thanks for your ongoing Prayers:

• Praise: We are thanking God for your continued financial support through the uncertainty of Mark’s sickness. These gifts are so important so that the ministry will continue to move forward!
• We are hopeful that God wants Mark to be a part of the trip to Budapest, Hungary this spring. Please pray that Mark will be well and able to minister with the team.
• Mike has contracted a condition named Trigeminal Neuralgia. This causes an extreme amount of pain in his face. Please pray for healing.
• Please pray that God will remove the many obstacles to ministry that continue to pop up.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and financial support!

English Camp – Thanks for your prayers!

This year more than any, we were aware how much we were being sustained through prayer during camp. So we wanted to update you guys right away as we have just returned from our trip a couple of days ago. It was another fantastic camp, and we saw God working in new and powerful ways.

The actual camp ended this past Sunday. We had a wonderful, amazingly fruitful week. At the end of the week, Mary and I were beyond exhausted. In addition to our leadership and teaching responsibilities, Mary and I did about 5+ hours of counseling per day. Nearly every moment of every day was either working or an attempt to get a few hours of sleep. Our day started at about 6am and went to 12:30 or 1am. All of your prayers certainly sustained us when our energy and bandwidth for ministry ran out.

The results of the camp were amazing, though. 21 adults and teens that we know of indicated that they made decisions for Christ. Another 12-15 said they were processing this decision but we’re not ready yet. Mary and I personally saw two individuals commit to following Jesus in the counseling sessions. In a camp with approximately 50-60 teen and adult unbelievers, this is an incredibly high percentage for 7 days of relationship building. There is no explanation accept God’s Spirit showing up and answering your prayers.

Mary worked with the kids each day. The feedback on the kids program was so positive. So many parent were coming up and telling us how much their kids were talking about the activities and even the Bible lessons. Parents were so open to allowing their young children to be taught–not only English–but also the lessons from the scriptures. What a rare opportunity to introduce Jesus to the kids of unbelievers.

Thanks in great part to your prayers, God gave me (Mike) a boldness to preach the gospel directly and plainly this year. We were so busy that many of the teachings were prepared in the minutes before I needed to share them with the entire camp. Our theme was “Lose to Win.” Our message was: following Jesus is a life of blessing achieved by giving up all that we hold dear over to Jesus’ control. Not a very good sales pitch, but apparently God’s Spirit was present. Because many responded to the teachings that were presented throughout the week. Though not all accepted Christ, I am pretty sure God Spirit reached every heart. Some hard, closed hearts left the camp more open to learning more about the gospel. Many closed and open hearts surrendered to follow Jesus. Believers were challenged and chose to surrender more of their lives to Christ. Many American and Polish team members were stretched and experienced how they could be used by God to truly change lives through ministry.

What a blessing to be a part of this camp. Be confident that your prayers were moving God’s Spirit and the hearts of the Poles. You guys who stood with us in prayer have every right to rejoice with us as fellow workers. Though our hearts were extremely heavy not having Mark and Doreen with us, it was really encouraging to have their kids Michael and KD serving with us.

We so appreciate you prayers. Thank you for your faithful support of our ministry.

Mike and Mary