February has come and gone, and we are richer for it. The month held its challenges and joys, and we are grateful for the days full of life that make up the months and years. We all know life isn’t easy, but when we walk in the grace God gives us, it is so beautiful.

The month began filled with pain for me (Mary). It was a severe joint pain, swelling, and stiffness that affected all of my joints except my back and hips. The rapid onset suggested a viral source, but the distribution was so unusual for a typical viral arthritis (and I had no other symptoms). It certainly could have been a spiritual attack as well. Either way, I spent a full week relatively debilitated. It was difficult to walk, at times I couldn’t hold my baby, and I struggled to even type or brush my teeth. Many of you prayed for my recovery, and God quickly answered with total resolution of symptoms.

It was a painful week, but instructional. God had been guiding me in gentleness and quietness, and nothing can quiet me down quite like prescribed dependency. By grace I was quick to trust Him and seek wisdom for the situation. My inabilities were dramatically highlighted, and that strips away the greatest hindrance to God’s work: independence. So He covered me with grace as I gained a new understanding and compassion for what people with chronic inflammatory joint disease face on a long-term scale. Because I didn’t know if this would be acute or chronic, I had to consider potential shifts in how I did daily life with work and children. I remembered the graces of not only a provided meal, helpful medications, and understanding colleagues, but also the graces of acceptance, creativity, adaptation, endurance, and reliance on others. Productivity, efficiency, and service are gifts God gives and applies to the needs of others around us. But they are so deceptive in declaring themselves an end or accomplishment. The Lord wants our walk. Our ways. Our hearts, our trust, our “yes”. Not our things or our productions or our reputations. He’s the one who speaks things into existence, parts waters, and moves mountains to bring about His purposes. I pray we all increasingly embrace our smallness and ineptitude in order to see Him as GOD.

Bob has enjoyed teaching in children’s church the last couple of months. He has the 1st-3rd grade class, and they have been studying Old Testament characters like Gideon, Sampson, David, and Solomon. In a culture where church is so easy-access and children are often poorly valued or directed, we thank God for safe places for our children to gather without fear to learn who He is. We’re so thankful that God has given His stories and instruction to children, so that they can walk in His ways from early in life. The kids in these classes are incredible, and we love getting to watch them grow in many ways.

We have also had opportunity recently to share at Somerville Community Church and Northside Baptist Church. The connections that God has given us in these churches are such gifts! The first is pastored by a young man Mary had in children’s church 16 years ago, when we studied God’s work in the world through missions. His lovely wife has been shadowing me in the ER also, and was just accepted into PA school in the same city where her husband is in seminary. They deeply love the Lord, and the story God is writing in this young couple’s lives is such a joy to observe and encourage! The second church has been home to some of our dearest family. What a joy to meet more of this particular body of believers, share our story and hearts with them, and receive their welcome and encouragement! God leads and shapes His Church through so many avenues, and we are ever amazed as we continue to encounter His unique yet unchanging presence in His people in every corner of the world. We are also shown yet again how constantly He is at work all around us, as we move right by, through our everyday lives. May our eyes be open today to His Spirit’s move, and our faith be strengthened to know He is working even as we are unaware.

The girls playing with nieces and nephews at a birthday party.

The boys put on a magic show for Superbowl Halftime!

Anna enjoying her favorite book.

 

The first week of the year, Bob asked the Lord for a word. Asked for instruction, for discernment, anticipation of what God was saying and intending to do in this immediate season.

The Holy Spirit directed him to Psalm 20:5, a blessing prayer and celebration of the victory of God. He was so encouraged, as we remain in the high-pressure place of need for multiple types of victories, accomplishments only God can give. For all earthly purposes, there are some major challenges we still must overcome in preparation for our launch with SIM and Sports Friends. We feel ready to get started in this particular service, but there is an un-readiness God is yet addressing through this process of defined preparation. An un-readiness measurable in our outstanding requirements, an un-readiness as He continues specific works in our hearts, and an un-readiness of His to reveal the fullness of His plan prematurely.

A few days later, the Lord started speaking to me out of Psalm 20:1-3, His promise for help, sustenance, and remembrance of our offerings. I was encouraged, and it wasn’t lost on me that the immediately following verses were what He’d just given Bob.

The boys and I have been reading I Dared to Call Him Father, the testimony of a woman whom Jesus met with in her dreams. The boys began reading their Bibles more independently and asking God to speak to them more. The Sunday morning after our local snowstorm, one of the boys came to my prayer corner and asked by reference if I knew what a certain Bible verse said. Curiosity piqued, I gave him a Bible to look it up and asked him why that particular segment. “I had a dream last night that I was reading it. I couldn’t see the words, just which verses it was.” The reference? Psalm 20:1-5.

Now, Bob had shared his verse with me the day he got it. Otherwise, Psalm 20 had just been personal gifts to him and me. Clearly God intended to say something to and over our whole family with this (so clearly it became the Scripture for home-church that morning, in our snowbound community).

We’d like to share this amazing gift of His Word with you. First, I pray that it strengthens and encourages you, and leads you to celebrate the mighty presence and goodness of GOD. I invite you to begin praying this blessing over your own family/life/service as you seek the Lord with all your heart, delight yourself in Him, and make His praise glorious. (Jer 29:13, Ps 37:4-5, Ps 66:2). And finally, I ask you to join us in praying it boldly over our family, according to God’s call and purposes. Believe Him with us, and we will with you, that He will fulfill His purposes for us all.

 

Psalm 20

May Yahweh answer you in a day of trouble;
may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.

May He send you help from the sanctuary
and sustain you from Zion.

May He remember all your offerings
and accept your burnt offering.

Selah

May He give you what your heart desires
and fulfill your whole purpose.

Let us shout for joy at your victory
and lift the banner in the name of our God.
May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.

Now I know that the Lord gives victory to His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven,
with mighty victories from His right hand.

Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses,
but we take pride in the name of Yahweh our God.

They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand firm.

Lord, give victory to the king!
May He answer us on the day that we call.

Welcome to the team! God has been writing the type of story only He can come up with, and we are honored to share the journey with you.

For those of you who are new to our list or who have missed a beat or two (so easy to do in this fast-paced and information-overloaded world), here’s the quick recap:

Relocation: to greater Charlotte, NC, area to serve at SIM International Office

Assignment: Bob: full-time media/communications for International Support Services for phenomenal outreach Sports Friends, even now continuing expansion into new nations as the support team grows. Mary: support of medical workers overseas long-term, then healthcare education trips  & disaster response team (not before Anna is weaned). Kids: pursuit of God’s vision for them and development of their gifts, including participation in sport or medical trips over time!

Timeframe: begin remote work as soon as support level is sufficient, physical move to Charlotte as soon as family needs permit.

Vision:  To meet critical needs for youth mentorship, family preservation, and life-saving access to healthcare in Jesus’ Name. To encourage and equip believers worldwide to effectively reach their own communities and gospel-resistant areas through sport programs and medical services, that many will experience the presence and love of God.

Outstanding Requirements:

Completion of online training through Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

50 more people committed to praying for our newsletter requests

30% remaining in monthly financial commitments

0% remaining in one-time financial needs

 

Please PRAY with us through the fulfillment of all these things in the next few months. We love to celebrate with you as we see God provide in many ways. He is so creative and diverse in His provisions, and cannot fail!

PRAISE GOD with us for:

• His strength to be faithful.
• His joy in mobilizing many to what matters most: extending His Kingdom to people.
• His perfect kindness in giving us not just the material things we need, but the character and faith He wants us to walk in.
• Physical health thus far.

PRAY with us for:

• Growth in the fear of the Lord, that our family would honor God in all we do.
• Speech “as if speaking the very words of God” (1 Peter 4:11) in all our appointments and speaking engagements.
• Eagerness of the Church to sacrificially serve, and reach out to the world.
• Faithfulness in the large and the small.

Happy New Year!

It’s 2018. For us, this year will mark: 18 years of discipleship. 12 years of marriage. 10 years of parenthood (age range spanning 7 months – 17 years!). 6 years of family-via-adoption. 2 years full-time mission work (including training/prep as well as outreaches).

It will mark our launch into a new position in ministry and geographical location. New home, new church, new schools, new colleagues, new friends. Please pray for our family now, regarding these transitions!

 

Have you ever felt like an old-timer, dried up by life’s incessant demands, being asked to do something new? Like an “old wineskin” when Jesus is pouring in “new wine”, and you just might burst? (Mark 2:22) Thought you had your shape, and were able to contain and maintain what you needed to, only to have the shape of everything change, with a requirement of increased capacity? Yes?

My soul is refreshed and my hope rises in the twilight: I am making all things new. That means you, too.

He happily does away with the “old wineskin” bits of me, in order to bring in something new, with a capacity He designs and prescribes.

I have anticipation, that still, things that are utterly beyond us, He will do. Because He is inherently unhindered by the things He spoke into being, He loves to be known for who He is, and He is in passionate pursuit of His children. Myself included. Yourself included. Every broken one of us included. We are a mess, and He is glorious, and He calls us, further up, further in.

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18). So long as our faces are set on Him, we’re being made more like Him. It’s cause-and-effect. May He have our eyes, our hearts. I pray that for you as I pray it for me this year:

Fix your eyes on JESUS, the Author and Finisher of your faith. (Heb 12:2)

Let your eyes look directly ahead; let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. (Proverbs 4:25)

Seek the LORD and His strength. Seek His face continually. (Psalm 105:4)

One thing I ask of the LORD, and this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Maybe you get a “word” for the year, a focus or expectation for what God wants to do in your life. Such an exciting thing, to have Him speaking into our lives and cultivating anticipation. Teaching us, shepherding us, loving us in such unique ways. Thank You, Father!

But our first word, our first pursuit, our one thing even after all other expectations fade: let it be Jesus Himself. He is guaranteed: Seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

So this year, whether you’re joy-ing, celebrate-ing, pause-ing, adventure-ing, purify-ing, love-ing, trust-ing, rest–ing, learn-ing, discipline–ing, or whatever other amazing growth and gift you’re receiving, let it come through the perfectly designing hands of Jesus, with the reward of knowing Him better, and how lavishly He loves you.

What is He speaking to you this New Year? What’s your word?

Another calendar year is ending. How can we thank God enough for…

Jan/Feb– Australia chapter nears an end. Fetya experiences Summer of Service with other teens. Bob and Habiba stay in Perth for DTS, while Mary & kids say goodbye to people and a place we love, then return to the U.S. to stay with Mary’s parents. A sweet time of reunion, transitioning again, and being re-defined to an unexpected phase of life.

Mar/Apr – We move back into our Ft. Branch home, a gracious gift. Habiba’s off to her outreach in Nepal & Philippines; Bob comes home. We love serving again at Bethel. Homeschool teaches us all humility, perseverance. God confirms our next step into long-term work with SIM. We visit Charlotte to explore housing and potential ER jobs. God says Wait. I will provide.

May – Eli is baptized; eleven hours later, Anna is born. Life, twice over, is profound. Our God is mighty. Our family lives afresh deep in the wonder of birth, bonding, love… and there we grieve afresh the fallenness of death, loss, sin. We are scarred by the second, but utterly defined by the first. By the first Family, perfectly faithful, that breathed us into being, has walked with us every single step, makes all things new. We are defined by Father, who reconciles us to Himself through a cross, and supersedes every separation even suggested. Praise His Name.

June/July – Habiba braves crossing the Pacific alone and is home, changed again by the One who loves her perfectly. That this would ever be our story. The Fichtingers arrive in Charlotte, NC, to train with SIM for work with Sports Friends. We’re called to this. To be the weak-made-strong in Jesus. He authors this story. We ever believe Him to BE the One to make all this dust into gold.

Aug/Sept –  Shakamak Bible Camp for the big kids: Samuel’s first year.  We enroll in southern IN schools. Mary works one day a week in ER. The kids are so happy for cross country and soccer season! Bob & Mary persevere in full-time team building. Habiba is hired at a local restaurant and Fetya referees soccer, blessed with good early work experience.

Oct/Nov – Bob visits Sports Friends in Thailand to meet the Int’l Communications Team, serve at a soccer camp, further prepare. We cast vision in Bible studies, AWANA, FCA. That the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers. Our support team grows. We’re so thankful for the Body of Christ, and for lessons in patience, trust, uncomfortable obedience. God cannot fail.

December – Up goes the Christmas tree, and our eyes toward the Advent of Messiah. He has come, He is coming. Glory to God in the highest!! We miss last year’s little paper tree, but are so happy for a Christmas in our Southern Indiana home. These gifts of times & places make us rich.

The psalmist said, “You are good, and what You do is good” (Ps 119:68). YES! In our sin He is patient; in our repentance, He delivers and redeems. In our weakness He sustains and moves powerfully. In our obedience He brings wisdom, grace, supply. No good thing does He withhold from them that walk uprightly (Ps 84:11). Thank you for pursuing the Living God with us. For upholding, defending, and joining us through your prayer. For your friendship and encouragement to us and our children. For sharing material provisions as we serve fully in a field not materially reimbursed. We are truly members of one another (Rom 12:5), and we pray you are also honored and led to worship our magnificent Father in all we offer to Him together.

Until He returns,
the Fichtingers

End of year giving.

This is a 360 Degree Video – feel free to take a look around to see Thailand to the fullest.

A couple of weeks ago I got the privilege of visiting my first Sports Friends Camp. I traveled to Thailand: the opposite side of the world, where elephants roam free and soccer is the favorite past time. We were located four hours southwest of Bangkok, near the boarder of Myanmar (Burma). I arrived with few expectations and was very curious to see how this camp ministry functions in the daily setting.

On Tuesday, before the kids and coaches rolled in, the staff and volunteers practiced the upcoming week’s activities and participated in a friendly game of soccer. These guys can play! Thailand is blessed to have so many talented coaches and staff, both in soccer and the truth of God’s word.

On Wednesday the kids arrived with their coaches. We had opening ceremonies with singing and silliness. We quickly divided them up into teams and started the ice breaker games. These games helped unite the teams and taught them about working together and championing one another. After lunch we traveled to the soccer field. They had warm-ups and practice, then competed in that day’s tournament. I’m amazed at how talented the kids are compared to the kids here in the states. It was good to see how the coaches interacted with their athletes and how supportive the staff and volunteers where to the coaches. We closed the night with awards for the day and more laughter. The coaches and their athletes went to their cabins and had family time where they were encouraged to discuss the days events and lessons. We stayed back and prayed for them.

On Thursday the day started early with a morning run and exercise. The kids went back to the soccer field and I stayed behind to meet up with some of the ISS Team (International Support Services… a.k.a. the Communications Team). I’m amazed at the talent God’s assembled for this ministry. We discussed the next year’s projects and got to know each other better. I cannot wait to join these creative, energetic, talented God-trusting coworkers!

Each night ended in a staff skit where we acted out Biblical stories with lots of props and lots of laughter. The kids were enthralled and very receptive to learning about God’s word. Again, at the end of the night the coaches had “Family Time” where they asked the athletes about the lessons and skit they had encountered that day. We prayed for their interactions.

The majority of Thais are Folk Buddhist, and Christians come in at a just 0.7% of it’s population. I can’t help but be optimistic for Thailand’s future. I think of the early Church starting from the eleven disciples, and how God selects people for His purposes. I look at the people ministering here to the youth and see their passion, love, and devotion to God for the sake of their own people’s salvation. I look at how Sports Friends functions as a ministry and can’t help but believe the church in Thailand will explode in the next decade. What a blessing to play a part of the body of Christ in the beautiful location of Thailand!

It’s a different season of life for me, for us. I’ve lived seasons here. Lived seasons there. Lived seasons here with the heart to be there…

Don’t we do that? So easily, whether loudly or in our secret depths, wish and dream of something else? Sweating out summer months, aching for the cool and harvest and beauty of autumn. Begging for the warmth and resurrection of spring when we’re locked up in the throes of icy winter.

Not all of you live in four-seasons areas, and only know of them. I’m so thankful to have grown up in routine awareness of multiple seasons, and how they shift and morph. I do know some people who love those extreme seasons: the scorching heat of summer and the fresh stillness of cold winter. But I don’t know anyone without shelter that prefers them. Left exposed to them, the extremes are deadly.

Don’t we know it in so many ways? And when we live in the extremes of soul, of spirit, of body, we cry out to God for relief. Respite. Rest.

God is our refuge and strength, abundantly available for help in trouble. (Ps 46:1)

For your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)

There are times I wish for the understanding that farmers have in much more fullness. The Kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows -how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

These seasons keep changing, layered upon layer in various contexts of life: mine, my marriage’s, my children’s, my extra-family assignments. I’m planting, waiting, watching. Pulling a lot of weeds. Digging up rubbish and chasing out pests. My own little garden is very consuming, and I say in an acutely aware dependency, I’ve learned  it is enough. What God gives is always enough. (2 Samuel 12:8b) Enough to be content with, to be grateful for, to be overwhelmed by, to be sustained in.

He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom He loves. (Ps 47:4)

To grow in. To discover in. To be shaped or pruned or straight cut-down in. To bear fruit in the midst of.

It’s been a season of suspension… a waiting, nurturing, hidden-ness in a sense. There is much to come, and I sense a growing anticipation of further development and change for this season, the longer I press in here. What exactly tomorrow will look like for me, I don’t know yet. But can I say how thankful I am for all the seasons, past and to come?

In just eighteen years trying to learn what it is to walk with Jesus I’ve seen days of passionate field-planning, vision-catching, risk-taking, heart-rending. Planted, cultivated, fertilized. Waited. Waited. Waited. Seen famine and seen flood. Seen harvests more bountiful than I could hold. Rested in fields of green with soft rain and blinding-beautiful foliage, and danced in the celebration of abundance. Grown faint in the fiery deserts that spanned impossible and impassable miles. Laid down and died in a dozen new ways, in the death-cold dark silence of winter. Been struck by hurricanes, and seen cleansing winds blow away debris too big for me to conceive. Made space for new life, and buried earthly life’s remains. Held such things in my hand, too sacred for me to have imagined, and given my heart to One too holy and good for my greatest hopes to fathom.

Can I say I am grateful? To You, Holy One of Israel. To the Living God. The One named Faithful and True. The God with us. The only wise God, our Savior. My Rock, my Hiding Place, my Wisdom, my Love, my Life. My lips will glorify You as long as I live. Apart from You I have no good thing. Who am I that You are mindful of me? Yet You’ve hidden me within Your very Self, named me with Your Name, and written my days. You see my smallness and assign my significance, and You alone are wise and good. All You do is right and true, and Your ways are too great for me to comprehend. Thank You, thank You. 

And let me be found before Him in every season. Receiving the goodness of it, sowing seed that I-know-not-how-it-grows. Steadfast celebrating the nearness of my God, and waiting on Him for the growth and the harvest. I am at rest.

 

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;

the Lord hears when I call to Him.

Be agitated and do not sin;

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be silent.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, 

and trust in the Lord…

You have put gladness in my heart, 

more than when their grain and new wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep,

for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:3-5,7-8)