Babies, Outreach, Ministry and More!

 ELOISE CAROLINE GURR

We are so excited to announce the birth of our beautiful daughter, Eloise Caroline Gurr! She was born January 18th. We shared in our last update the complete creative miracle the Lord did to bring Eloise into existence, and it is an incredible blessing to get to visually witness our miracle every single day. We are so thankful to the Lord for what He has done for us!

ADOPTION UPDATE

We are continuing to move forward with the adoption and we can’t wait to bring home Eloise’s little brother or sister. We had to slow this process down during the pregnancy and birth, but the adoption process has picked back up and moving forward quickly. We continually covet your prayers and support to help bring our second baby home. We are hoping to bring home our new little one within the next six months. We so clearly heard the Lord speak to us about adopting and we know that He is walking with us every step of the way.

TESTIMONY

We have not traveled much due to Joanna having some complication before and after the birth, but we have had so many wonderful opportunities to serve here in Albany. A few months ago, Jon and his friend Bobby had a man approach them asking for money. They immediately noticed that the man had a very bad limp. It was a true “silver and gold have I none” moment as they offered to pray for his leg. The man responded saying that God would not heal him because of his history. Jon and Bobby talked to Him about the love and forgiveness of God and began to pray for him. To the man’s amazement, the pain in his leg left and he had full mobility! He was overwhelmed with the love of the Father. He then asked for more prayer because he had night terrors every night. They prayed for him, hugged him and went their separate ways. A few days later, Jon saw the man again and he was so excited to share that he had not had one night terror since the night they prayed. We continue to see him and, to this day, his leg is still pain free and he has not had another night terror. 

WELLSPRING

We have been working to lead and serve an amazing group of people at WellSpring! We truly consider all of them family and it is such an honor that they are in our lives. They extended so much grace to us during this season as we were out of pocket quite a bit preparing for our little miracle to be born. God is doing such an incredible work in this amazing community.

JETHRO'S

We have been working with our non-profit, Jethro’s Coffee Company and Community Center. It is amazing to see all that God is doing. We had the opportunity at our city’s Christmas parade to serve coffee, love and prayer to people. Our Community Center hosted its first class. It was a songwriting workshop and it was amazing. We also have a free resume writing course through a partnership with our local Goodwill Career Center and some music events coming up soon! We continue to hear God calling us to sow into our city. We continue to build relationships within our community and gain favor with our city leaders. It is such an honor and privilege to serve the Lord in this way and to extend His kingdom creatively.

UPCOMING MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES

We will be traveling to Texas again in June to minister at the On Earth Music Festival in Music Springs. It is always an incredible time and we are excited to see the miraculous ways God will touch lives. We will be taking a team with us this year, and have the opportunity to minister at some other ministries in Texas while we are there. 

We are excited to share that we are launching a new ministry called HOUSES OF ACTS. Houses of Acts are one-night meetings of worship, prayer and ministry designed to carry revival to homes.The kingdom of God is relational and the body of Christ is designed to be a family. There is something special about the body of Christ meeting and breaking bread in a home (Acts 2:46-47). Our desire is to see people come alive as they encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit and their homes become places of refreshing and revival.

If you are interested in hosting a “Houses of Acts” in your home you can email us at jonandjoannagurr@gmail.com.

PRAYER

We continue to ask for your prayers! Pray for the adoption process as things are moving quickly! Pray for all of the paperwork to go through and all the financial provision needed for the next step of the adoption. Pray for us and Eloise as we prepare to bring home a new little one and please pray for the birth mom and baby. Pray that we all would have peace during this whole process. 

Please pray for guidance as we are being led into more ministry opportunities. It is becoming clear that God is calling us to spend more of our time in ministry. We ask you to pray that the Lord would give us wisdom on how to transition into that.

SUPPPORT

We also ask for your support. We are raising $1,000 to help with our ministry trips that are currently scheduled. We also ask you to prayerfully consider becoming a monthly supporter to our ministry. This would help us better cultivate, grow and steward the ministries we have in Albany, plus release us to expand the reach of theses ministries. We continue to be humbled and in awe of your incredible generosity through the years.

You can donate to our adoption fund by making checks payable to us directly, or you can donate online at paypal.me/babygurr.  

If you would like to donate to our ministry, you can go to iwellspring.org/give and choose “Missions - Jon and Joanna” from the list. 

We are so grateful for your continued prayers, love and support!

Love,

Life Update

We are excited to share with you the latest updates on what we are doing. We have had adoption on our hearts since we were first married. We always knew that one day we would be adopting a child, but knew we just needed to wait for the Lord’s timing. For a good portion of our marriage, we weren’t even sure we wanted to have biological children, and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago we began to have a desire for a biological child. Again, the timing was all in the Lord’s hands. We knew in 2019 the Lord said it was time to pursue adoption. As you know, that process has been slow due to Joanna being so sick last year. We began moving forward with adoption this year and then SURPRISE! We found out shortly after our last update that Joanna was pregnant!!! After one of the hardest years of our lives, we received an incredible blessing! One of the verses that helped carry us through last year was Romans 8:18 AMP “For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!” 

At our first doctors visit, the doctor was not very hopeful after the ultrasound. When he met with us he told us that he was 99% positive Joanna was going to miscarry the baby. They could not find a heartbeat. We told the doctor that we were going to believe for a miracle. Amazingly, the doctor asked if he could pray for us right then and there. So with our doctor, we prayed for a miracle. We were scheduled to leave the next day for Texas for a ministry opportunity. After praying, we felt like we were supposed to go to Texas and anticipate a miracle. During that week, we both started having dreams that we could hear our baby’s heartbeat. We sensed that God wanted to do something extraordinary. We prayed all the way to Texas, and we received amazing ministry from our friends Bobby and Hannah Morrison while we were with them in Texas. We prayed all the way back to Georgia believing that a miracle was going to happen. The day after we returned, we had a follow up appointment. When they started the ultrasound the nurse yelled and said, “Oh my gosh, there is a baby with a heartbeat!!!” We started crying and when we met with our doctor, he teared up and said he had just witnessed God do a miracle!! So, now we have not just one baby on the way, but two! Our little girl will be arriving after the first of the year, and hopefully our adopted baby will not be far behind! We are finishing up the home study and will be ready to be matched with a mom!

As mentioned above, we took a team in June to minister with us at an event in Texas. It was an incredible time. It was an all day outdoor worship event called On Earth. Joanna led worship, Jon spoke and our team did an amazing job of praying and ministering to people. People were healed and set free! One man had his elbow healed after years of pain when he received prayer from our team. So many were deeply touched by the Holy Spirit, set free from bondage and filled with joy. We never stop being in awe of the love of God, and how He will always meet people right where they are. 

We have continued to lead our church and the renovation of our coffee shop. It has been an honor and privilege to serve the Lord in this season. We are very close to expanding our coffee shop hours throughout the week! The Lord has been so faithful leading us on this journey! We continue to meet people in the community through serving coffee and the doors the Lord has opened have been amazing! We continue to have opportunities to minister to those who are coming for a cup of coffee, but leave being filled with so much more as the Lord touches their lives! We recently had a man come up to us on a Free Coffee Friday and he didn’t even ask for a drink! He just asked that we would pray for him. We were able to minister to him. A few days later on Sunday, we had a church picnic in the park near our building. The same man we ministered to came, and we were able to give him food, spend time with him, and love on him. He left saying that he did not have a lot of friends, but that he felt like he had just made a bunch of friends in one day! It is in those moments we remember “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). Just stopping for one and showing them the love of Jesus carries such extreme power. It is the key to even the hardest heart. 

We continue to ask for your prayers! Pray for us as we are expecting two littles ones! Please pray for Joanna and the baby for a continued healthy pregnancy and continue to pray for our adoption process and the birth mom and baby.

We also ask for your support. We continue to be humbled and in awe of your incredible generosity. We are so grateful! We are raising $1500 to help us prepare for the arrival of our little ones. You can donate online at paypal.me/babygurr.  You can also shop our baby registry at babylist.com/babygurr. If you would like to donate to our ministry, you can go to iwellspring.org/give and choose “Missions - Jon and Joanna” from the list. 

If you are interested in having us come and minister at your church or ministry in 2022, please email us at jonandjoannagurr@gmail.com.

For the most current updates, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram or here on our blog.

Again, thank you for your continued prayers, love and support!

Love,

Adoption Update

Hi everyone! It has been a while since we have given an update on our lives, but we wanted to share the latest news! Last year we shared how the Lord called us to adopt. Because of your generosity, we were able to raise the money needed for phase one of the adoption! Last March, just before we submitted our paperwork, we went on a ministry trip to New Orleans. Joanna was invited to be a part of a worship tent at a music festival.

Unfortunately, we both contracted Covid-19 in New Orleans. Jon recovered after a few days, but Joanna became very sick. Joanna’s symptoms continued to persist, and we ended up going to the Mayo Clinic to meet with specialists to help in her recovery. It has been a long year of being in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals, but we are amazed and in awe of His constant faithfulness. There is so much the Lord did for us during this season, and we plan to be writing more of this story later. 

Because of all this, we had to put the adoption on hold. We have been learning A LOT about trusting God and His timing! We are happy to report that we are moving ahead with the adoption! Even though Joanna is still dealing with some effects of the virus, she is feeling well enough for us to continue forward. We are currently working on completing our home study and getting information needed for our agency to match us with a birth mom.  We are also beginning to raise money for the next phase of the adoption.

We have been working this year with our church and non-profit coffee shop. Leading a church in this season has not been without its challenges, but again, the faithfulness of the Lord has left us in awe of Him. 

Last year, due to restrictions, we began having church in our parking lot. The Lord began to speak to us from Matthew 9:36-38, “When he saw the vast crowds of people, Jesus’ heart was deeply moved with compassion, because they seemed weary and helpless, like wandering sheep without a shepherd. He turned to his disciples and said, ‘The harvest is huge and ripe! But there are not enough harvesters to bring it all in.  As you go, plead with the Owner of the Harvest to thrust out many more reapers to harvest his grain!’” 

The harvest was ripe outside the walls of the church! People began to come to our parking lot to receive ministry. People came to be healed and some came saying they just needed a hug. We have seen countless people healed and set free this year! Our church is located across the street from our government buildings. We have been praying, praising and declaring the name of Jesus over our city as the sound of our praises echoes on the buildings!

We are excited to be doing ministry trips again! We are going to Texas soon to minister at a worship event and are planning some other ministry trips later this year! 

First, we are asking you to pray. Pray that the Lord will guide us through the adoption process. Pray also for baby Gurr and his/her birth mom that the peace of the Lord would be over her during this time. 

Secondly, we are asking for your support. We are incredibly grateful for your generosity. It is truly humbling and we can not thank you enough.  We are raising $15,000 for our next phase of the adoption. You can donate at paypal.me/babygurr.  We are raising $5,000 for upcoming ministry trips. If you would like to donate to our ministry, you can go to iwellspring.org/give and choose “Missions - Jon and Joanna” from the list. 

Now that we are moving forward with our adoption journey we will be updating a lot more. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Again, thank you for your continued prayer, love and support!

Love, 

A road trip to the beach after being quarantined for 7 weeks

Parking lot ministry

Quarantined & New Orleans Recap

We are home for the next 14 days. We were both feeling a little under the weather this week and because of our trip to New Orleans, the doctor has quarantined us. We are doing everything we can not to go stir crazy in our house and it's only day 2! Please send us any suggestions of things we can do while stuck in our home for the next 2 weeks!

Here is a video of our New Orleans trip made by our awesome friends from Boha Tribe. Enjoy!

New Orleans

This past weekend we had the amazing opportunity to minister in New Orleans with our friends Bobby and Hannah who have a ministry called Boha Tribe (check them out here).  Joanna played keyboard and sang with them at Ahava music festival in downtown New Orleans and also at a church just outside of New Orleans.  We had so much fun just getting to love on the people around us. It was awesome to see people at the festival stop and listen to music about the outrageous love of Jesus. One man said that as he listened to the music, the emotional pain in his heart started melting away. God is moving in New Orleans and it was such an honor to partner with what He is doing there.

ADOPTION UPDATE:
We are almost to our first goal of raising the $10,000 needed to hire the agency and pay for the home study! We only need about $2,500 more to begin the process! Jon had a job change in the middle of this process which has caused a little bit of delay. One of the hardest things to do sometimes in our walk with the Lord is to trust His timing. He has the perfect timing for this adoption process and we get the opportunity to partner with Him and trust Him through it. We know that He is working all of it for good!

We have felt so incredibly grateful to everyone who has given. It is not something we take lightly, and we are truly humbled by the outrageous generosity of our friends and family! Thank you!!!

We continue to pray for "baby Gurr" and his/her birth mom, and of course ask you all to continue to pray with us!

If you would like to donate to our adoption fund you can donate here.

Thank you again for all the love, prayers and support!

Worship at AHAVA Festival!

We had so much fun being a part of worship at The Hub Northshore!

And of course we couldn't leave New Orleans without eating some good food! We had beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde, muffulettas from Central Grocery and Jon tried crawfish for the first time!

Exciting News

Hi everyone,

We hope all of you are doing well and are having a great new year. We are wanting to share with you some very exciting news. In February of last year, we went to an event called The Send. During the day, they prayed for people who felt called to different ministries. We stood up for two things that day. The first was for people who felt called to missions. Last year, we had the opportunity to go on many different ministry trips and minister to so many people! We were able to minister in Europe, Texas and at a youth retreat in north Georgia. Many of you helped support us during those trips and we are so grateful to you for all the love, prayers and donations.

The second ministry we stood up for was adoption. Before we were even married, we knew at some point we wanted to adopt. We did not have any idea of when that would happen, but we both knew in our hearts that it was something we felt like the Lord wanted us to do. Neither of us knew the other was going to stand up when they called out adoption at The Send, but we both did and through tears the Lord brought back to the surface a deep desire to adopt a child. Since then, we have been praying and seeking the Lord about this.

In November, Joanna said she felt like the Lord said now was the time for us to adopt. As we started praying about it, the Lord said to Jon, "There is a little baby out there that really needs a mommy and daddy, and I am asking you two to be the parents." Needless to say, we were very undone, excited, and scared all at the same time. It feels humbling that the Lord would be trusting us to do this.

We are asking you to fervently pray for us, "Baby Gurr", and his/her birth mom. One thing that gets us very emotional is knowing that there is a mom out there who could be pregnant even now. She could be scared and not knowing what to do, but she is going to make the brave decision to carry her baby and entrust us to be her child's parents. As stated before, it is humbling, exciting and scary all at the same time so we covet your continued prayers.

Secondly, we are asking for your support. Domestic adoptions are very expensive, and we are asking you to partner with us financially to help fund this adoption. The first major expense is $10,000 to hire the adoption consultant and to pay for the required home study. There will be more expenses later, but for now, this is what is needed to begin the process. You can donate online HERE. We will be keeping you up to date through this whole exciting journey right here on the blog.

We love all of you so much and thank you so much for all of your prayer and support.



Love,

Missions Update - Europe 2019

First of all, we want to say "thank you" for all the prayer and support for us while we were in Europe. We had such an incredible time and had so many opportunities for the Lord to use us while we were there.

Our trip did not start off as planned as we were delayed for several hours in Boston due to a mechanical failure, but it was so exciting to see how the Lord orchestrated every detail of our trip, even the delays. We sat next to a girl who was flying for the first time and was nervous because of the mechanical issue. We knew that God had placed us next to her and we were able to encourage her.  Because of the delay, we did not have as much time in London as we were hoping for, but we made the best of it. We used Uber twice to get through London faster and ended meeting two of the most amazing drivers. Both of them were Muslim and we really connected with them and had the opportunity to show them the love of Jesus. We continue to pray for them that Jesus would reveal Himself to them in a powerful way! 

From there, we took and overnight bus to Belgium. We say next to a mom and her son. The son was in ministry school studying to be a pastor and we had the best time with them. At the end of the bus ride, Jon felt like he had a word for the son and was able to share it with him and minister to him. Needless to say, with all of the delays, God was already putting the right people at the right time in our path.

In Belgium, we had many opportunities to minister and encourage people. We prayed for ones that were broken hearted and some who just needed to hear how much God loved them. We also had several opportunities to pray for physical healing. One person in particular was almost totally blind. He could only see the color of the shirt of the man in front of him. We spent some time praying and he began to see not just the color, but the words on the shirt! He started reading and pointing out letters! The Lord started opening his eyes! He got so excited that he started clapping and smiling. By the end, he was even pointing out the small words on the logo of the shirt! It was incredible!!!

On our way to Paris, we had opportunities to minister to two individuals on our bus, and most importantly to demonstrate the outrageous love of Jesus! It was raining when we arrived and one of the ladies didn't have an umbrella. We gave her ours and she was shocked and overwhelmed by that small act of kindness. It was so much fun to bless her and share the love of Jesus with her. We have heard people say that Paris is a dark place spiritually, but we believe Paris is a city that is very much ready for harvest!

Our hearts are so connected with the people we met. We believe God is on the move in Europe and we can't wait to go back and continue what He has started there. We are hoping to return next year. In the meantime, we will be learning more French so we will be able to communicate better!!!

We leave today for our next trip. We are heading to Texas. We will be leading worship and ministering at the On Earth Music Festival. Please pray that everyone who comes will encounter the love of Jesus in a way that would change their lives forever!

Again, we cannot thank you enough for your continued prayer and support. We are in awe and humbled that you would partner with us! If you would like to give to help cover the traveling expenses for all our trips this year, you can go to iwellspring.org/give.

Blessings, 

We did not have much time in London, but we could not have asked for a more beautiful day! (notice the tired looks from not sleeping on the plane the night before 😂😴)

Brugge was absolutely amazing! And more importantly, the chocolate was delicious!!!

We had a very eventful day in Paris with someone trying to climb the Eiffel Tower and protests going on, but none of that took away from the beauty of the city!

We had so much fun time in the Belgian countryside! But more beautiful than the countryside was the wonderful people we met! We can't wait to go back!

To see more pictures from our trip go HERE