Journal

It’s something I think about often these days: the power of presence.

Namely, the Presence of God.

To me, it’s a matter of life and death. I’ve visited the place of a literal inability to continue, but for the powerful and tender, good, holy, faithful, and intimate presence of God. The life He has given me in His lavish generosity, in His creating of life and hope and opportunity, in His zeal to overcome evil with good, in His jealousy to disallow affairs of the heart, in His challenge to invest well… I cannot live this life apart from the knowledge of His Presence.

The greatest news on earth is that Jesus, our very Savior, was named God with us: Immanuel.

So I seek Him, everywhere. (And God help my failing eyes.)

 

 

 

I’m back in the ER just one day a week now. I’ve already had to make one of my least-favorite diagnoses in someone presenting with simple-seeming complaints: a new mass. Some ugly-looking thing where it doesn’t belong, threatening wellness or life, sending vague signals over time, and finally being found out. Twenty years after the last round with cancer was won.

But God is with us. There, in room 19, surrounded by concerned family faces, discussing cancelation of trips for the upcoming tests, processing the blind side of painful & life-altering news once again. He is with us.

Just like He was with us when I found masses in my own mother’s heart and lungs.

Just like He was with us when the social worker told us we may never get to bring our (Ethiopian) children home.

Just like He was with us when we did.

Just like He was with us when we said goodbyes and packed up to move across the ocean.

Just like He was with us when He authored little Anna’s life and brought us back earlier than we’d planned.

Just like He is with us while we wait… for progress, for growth, for strength to keep waiting, for revelation, for courage, for external peace, for the end of some things and the beginning of others. We wait, and He is with us.

And… He Himself is our Peace.

 

 

Come and see the works of God,
Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men…
Who keeps us in life and does not allow our feet to slip.
For You have tried us, O God;
You have refined us as silver is refined…
Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance.
I shall come into Your house with burnt offerings;
I shall pay You my vows…
Come and hear, all who fear God,
And I will tell of what He has done for my soul…
Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His lovingkindness from me.
– Psalm 66

 

 

 

We, as a people and a ministry, are wholly dependent on God. This year we invite you to take just a few minutes to pray for Sports Friends each day for 7 days beginning October 1st. And if you know someone serving with us, then take this opportunity to pray for them, too! Simply sign up below and we’ll send you a short email on each of the 7 days, to help focus your prayers on a different aspect of the Sports Friends ministry each day. Thank you for joining with us in seeking the Lord on behalf of the Sports Friends ministry!

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“there’s a reason that the road is long;
it takes some time to make your courage strong”

– Hard Love, by NeedtoBreathe

A couple of weeks ago our church had its annual day at the local campgrounds, with service in the Lodge followed by an afternoon of fellowship and lots of fun activities. Events like this seem to time-stamp us, don’t they? We can see where we’ve been and what we’ve come to today. It’s been two years since the Fichtingers were able to attend Camp Carson Sunday, and those two years have changed us in measurable ways. Besides the growth of physical ability and independence in our (5 big) children, we loved to see the development of courage and determination in them.

This was particularly evident in the boys, now aged 7, 9, and 9. Two years ago only one even wanted to try the zip line… but changed his mind when we got to the top of the tower and looked out (and down) over the lake. This year all three of them went! Abe & Eli made the first exhilarating ride across and down into the water with Daddy, and we later learned repeated the feat with their sister or friends! Our biggest surprise was learning Samuel (who’s our most risk-averse child) had gone right at the end of the day with one of his buddies. He’d seen his friend in line for the harness and just casually joined him. They walked all the way around the lake together, climbed up those three stories of wooden stairs, got harnessed up and hooked in, and bravely jumped off the platform in full faith and fun!

I asked what the difference was this year (because I don’t think he’d even have imagined doing it a few months ago).

“I became brave,” he said.

His friend had invited him; he said yes.

He’d watched other people go down enough, and now he trusted it.

Watching others encouraged him to join in without any verbal persuasion.

One child right in front of him changed his mind on the platform, but he’d already decided to do it, no matter what.

What a privilege to see this strength and courage in our son!

The Scriptures are given to us, full of the evidence of God’s faithfulness and sufficiency. We have His own direct words to us stating who He is, the stories of what He’s done, the expressions of His strength, love, and nearness to us. That we would see & hear Him, believe  that when He leads us to places high or terrifying, we can jump when He says “I’ve got you.” He’s got us all the way.

Lord, give us the courage to simply believe that You are who You say You are, and You will do what You say You will do.

When Coach Ben attended an early Sports Friend Basic Training in Thailand, he hoped the experience would prepare him to run his own sports ministry model someday. However, the last place Ben probably envisioned himself serving was in the very place his training proved to be most valuable: in prison.

Coach Ben was running a thriving youth soccer academy when some past ‘disagreements’ with the police disrupted his life. One morning, drugs were planted in Ben’s vegetables before he went to market to sell them. The police were tipped off, and, to the devastation of his family and community, the local coach was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Stuck in a dilapidated cell alongside 200 other inmates, Ben could think of nothing to do but pray. After some time, the coach had an idea. Ben approached the prison management about starting up a soccer team for the inmates.

Discovering he was a qualified coach, they agreed, and 10 people signed up during the first week. The players were drawn to Ben’s style of discipline combined with humility and a genuine care for their lives. More and more inmates decided to join the group.

Eventually Coach Ben took his team to play in a prison league, where they became national champions. Following this he was appointed head coach of the prison’s sports club and was upgraded to a “VIP” cell of just 20 people. In three months he read the whole Bible from cover to cover so that he could share the Gospel with his team.

One of Ben’s team members wanted to see if the God whom Coach Ben talked about was real, so the man prayed that, if God existed, He would deliver him a Bible into the prison. The next morning, some missionaries arrived to ask if anybody needed a Bible. He raised his hand, and believed.

Another man had given up hope because his wife had not been to visit him for two months. Coach Ben offered to pray with him, and the next day his wife showed up. She had been in the hospital for two months, unable to get a message out to her husband. He, too, believed.

Inmate after inmate began to accept Jesus Christ, people with devastating pasts and criminal records. More than 50 prisoners have come to faith because of Coach Ben’s ministry. One new believer wrote to him, “You have given me hope -I thought that the purpose of my life was just to wake up, eat, sleep, and die. But you have given me hope in Jesus Christ, and now I know why I was born.”

Another prisoner gave Ben a child-like drawing. It shows Ben pulling a line of struggling men up a rugged mountain towards a cross labeled ‘Jesus Christ.’ A speech bubble from his mouth says, “fight, fight!” Underneath, it simply says this:

May you be our coach forever!”

Coach Ben is still in prison. But, when he does get released, he has promised to go back regularly and coach his new sports ministry model. Pray for his release. But more than that, pray that the name of our almighty God, whose plans are so much greater than man’s, would be glorified and amplified through Coach Ben’s extraordinary life and ministry. 

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

by Cat Edwards

 

There are so many surprises in the way life unfolds, the way God walks us down paths we didn’t anticipate. We are convinced enough of the Word of God, and have enough evidence in living it out to hold to the truth in Ephesians 3:20, that He is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask for or think. And He does. To Him be the glory forever! It is a really exciting time, then, when the time of waiting and anticipation becomes a bit more of revelation! We have definition of our next steps as a family, and are so thankful for the doors God is opening up and inviting us through.

Bob is joining the International Support Services staff with a ministry through SIM called Sports Friends. He will be doing media and communications to help support and further grow this global outreach that is reaching over 200,000 young people in 14 different nations with the love and hope of Jesus. The more we have learned about this ministry (how it began in Ethiopia during our daughters’ early childhoods, how it is bringing purpose and hope to the lives of young people ravaged by the brokenness of this world, and how with a ball it walks the gospel into the most unreached areas and right onto the field that calls thousands of youth to come join in), the more we love the prospect of working with them. You can learn all about Sports Friends here, and catch some videos of how this growing vision is impacting so many lives and communities. Bob will serve from the home base of their office at SIM International, in Ft. Mill, SC (right outside of Charlotte). He (and the kids, at various/appropriate times) will go on short trips to the field, to encourage and assist the national staff (which make up 86% of Sports Friends full-time ministers), to collect media and communicate stories, or to help staff some of the bigger events that happen throughout the year.

It is so exciting, not only to be a part of this highly strategic and effective ministry, but to see how God is placing our family in a role that is so fitting and inviting to all of our kids as they continue to grow and discover what He’s doing worldwide.  What’s better than meeting and joining the global church, bringing hope and vision to  hurting kids, on their own turf, through the avenue of a soccer or volleyball match? Well, being personally invited by Jesus to go there with Him.

 

Mary’s role is yet to be defined. In the immediate future, she is dedicated to caring for a newborn, moving a few states away, and settling a long-transitioning family into a new city before new time commitments are made. SIM does a lot of medical work, though. She anticipates serving the medical missionaries from a supportive angle, and taking shorter trips to the field over time as well. An exciting prospect would be to get involved in educational trips, training nationals in basic healthcare, midwifery, etc.

Our route forward is full of opportunity for our God of the impossible. Currently, we are training for long-term service with SIM by doing several online courses and required reading for team-building, family-sustaining in missions, Bible/theology, history of missions, etc. This will keep us pretty busy over the coming weeks to months. (Besides things like finishing the homeschool year, preparing to sell our home and move to Charlotte, having a baby, etc.)

Building our long-term team of committed prayer and financial supporters is a critical part of our move forward. There is no possible way to do what we’ve done or continue to walk this particular road of obedience on our own. We have been supported in a sustaining way by so many people, both through our adoption and its necessary challenges & transitions, and through this past year of following Jesus into the crazy goodness of moving a big family that needs big grace into a position of full-time service, ready to give all our time and resources to God’s Kingdom.

THANK YOU for being part of us, for laboring with us, praying & fighting for us, encouraging & loving us. You have seen and invested in God’s work in and through our family. It is a remarkable and humbling thing.  We so clearly recognize how we are just one small part of this team of disciples given to seeing Jesus’ truth, salvation, justice, hope, and redemption brought on earth. All of this work of His becomes work of ours-together with each variation of our “yes” to His call in it.

SIM’s motto is “By Prayer”, because that’s how everything happens. We need at least 400 partners committed to praying for our family, encouraging us and holding us accountable. They have no delusions that a missionary family can make it on their own, either!

SIM as an agency also accepts as necessary the value of their missionary families being fully supported and free of financial burden. We will not be able to start fully serving with Sports Friends until we have enough consistent financial partners to meet a baseline budget developed for a family of our size, in this country.

You are the ones already so faithfully engaged in this journey and work. We so desire to have you as part of our long-term team, and to continue walking this road together! There is such value in knowing we are not alone: that the people of God and people who love us “have our backs”. We are so small, but God is SO BIG, and one way He demonstrates that is through you all standing up around us to defend and sustain. What joy there is in knowing that as we are all faithful together, we all will see the rewards of faithfulness together. Our God is generous and fills our lives with such abundance!

We ask you to pray: to ask God what He is specifically inviting you to in the context of this story and this ministry. He is changing a multitude of lives through the outreaches of Sports Friends and SIM’s medical work. Within our own home, He is having us strategically disciple six young people from two different nations in preparation to reach the world in unique ways He’s prepared for them. Ask Him why you are connected to this work, and how He wants to share it with you. Ask Him what sacrifices He wants you to make, knowing that the return is far greater than the investment. Saying “yes” to Him is worth it. He is worthy.

If you’re not already on our newsletter list (we have quite a few of you following primarily through Facebook), please click right here, or on the “Newsletter” button at the top, and do let us know if you’ll be one of our prayer partners. We want to have good contact information, and to be faithful to you. We want to stay connected and accessible, and to pray for you in what you need as well.

If God is inviting you to invest your dollars to this corner of His Kingdom (where your treasure is, there your heart will be), please use this  Support button to give Him your “yes” with us! You can also just click the button the top of the page. We truly believe that every bit of everything we give to Him will not be wasted but blessed, and we believe that for you, too. He is worthy of our extravagance; He alone has given us all we have.

We are blessed by you, and would love to hear how God is blessing you in return! Let us know what He’s doing in your lives, how He’s providing, what challenges you’re walking through with Him. We’re all in this together, and He is with us. And stay tuned for more information on Sports Friends, our move, and more opportunities for you to get involved (soccer/Bible camp in Ethiopia, anyone?)! Adventure always awaits!

He is worthy.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

Seeking first the Kingdom of God can take such different form than we anticipated. It calls us to an exclusivity of commitment (appropriately so, if we we really know Him to be GOD). I’m referring to plans, to expectations, even in the “obvious” and “expectable”. Are we committed to following through our initial understanding of the instructions God gave, or are we committed to the sometimes-shocking “follow Me” that Jesus actually invited us to? Are we committed to following HIM?

 

 

We expected to spend a full year with YWAM Perth. Expected to travel not just to India, but to the outback, to Zambia, to Malawi. Expected to “do” so much “more”, to serve so many “more”, to see and experience the fullness of it. This was what God said to do, so here we followed. (But as many of you well know, there is much “more” done in the unseen than in the seen.)

Faithful to His call on our whole family into missions, and beyond the clarity of Mary’s role in Birth Attendant School, He has defined His intentions more specifically to us. We are coming home “early”. Mary is wrapping up BAS this week with report-back to end the first portion of the school, and is stepping out as they proceed into the second phase, including African outreach. It is bittersweet to be with classmates, freshly back from the Kimberley, and process, discuss, remember our last six months of study, practice, travel, and experience… and to know that next week they will move into preparation for Zambia and Malawi. We will purchase tickets back to the States. Thankful is the main word I have for the gift of BAS. For all the challenges it entailed, the gift of being a part of this team of godly midwives standing strong for life in the face of death has been a tremendous privilege. The staff and students are incredible women who bear the grace and strength of Jesus in some of the darkest trenches on earth. It has been a gift.

Mary and the kids will come back to Indiana around the first of February. We will re-enter, rest, recover from a long season of travel and transition, and prepare for the what-next. (Of course, that includes our preparing for a new baby in June!) We do so look forward to seeing you, whom we love, sooner than we expected. We look forward to nestling into a quiet place and processing, and letting God solidify many of the things He has taught us over this time.

Bob will stay in Perth until the end of March, completing the lecture phase of a Discipleship Training School. This will give him 12 weeks to really press into deeper relationship with God (8 weeks with essentially no distraction, after we head back to the States), develop further skills, and seek more specific guidance for what’s next. Call it something of a fast from everything-routine, and an exclusive pursuit of what our family needs more than anything: the strength and wisdom of God.

God has invited our family to spend our full time and focus on global outreach; we fully believe His personal and specific invitations are the best way to spend a life. He is revealing the surprising details of what-that-actually-means-for-us in a very step-by-step fashion. Returning to the States doesn’t change our commitment; it redefines the context. We are confident that our family is not to be living in a cross-cultural setting right now, so we expect to stay in the States at least for a time. We are still in conversation with the agency SIM for the longer-term, concerning the skills needed to support their global outreaches from their home base in Charlotte, NC. We are also praying about our responsibility and response to the refugee crisis, and the opportunity right in our U.S. backyard.

Habiba has chosen to stay in Perth for the immediate future as well, and will do the Young People’s Discipleship Training School. Her time will continue through June as she goes on outreach to Manila, Philippines. See her post for her personal update. It is the goodness of God to let us see Him working in the ones we love and invest in the most.

 

 

Please pray for us, friends. There are only a few weeks left here, and a lot to see happen.

PRAISE GOD WITH US FOR
-the privilege of living among a passionate community of His people giving the most energetic years of their lives to knowing God and making Him known.
-the gift of Birth Attendant School for Mary, and all it entailed, as well as the upcoming gifts of time set apart to God for Bob and Habiba.
-safety and health for a crazy family of seven, globe-trotting, eating, and experiencing all sorts of things.
-God’s provision for us, and His faithfulness to meet not only our tangible physical needs, but our deep spiritual, emotional, and relational needs in some really challenging times.
-His Presence behind us and before us; that He is already there, wherever we’re going, and we can trust Him to be the same God we know Him to be… Who He always has been.
-for YOU. There is no way we can walk this road and say “yes” to this call without the faithfulness of Jesus through you, our beloved. Your prayer and encouragement and support and generosity truly make all of this yours, also. We praise God for you, and pray you feel the blessing of obedience just to say “yes” to Him in whatever He offers us each.

PRAY FOR US
-as we prepare to re-enter the States and process our time here.
-as we seek definition of what God has for us to move into and commit our next season to.
-to be faithful to live in light of the things God has taught us, regardless of our context.
-for health in family relationships and to part (for a brief season) in a place of unity of heart and peaceful relationship. For freedom from any anxiety, for protection from the attack of the enemy on our family.
-for good goodbyes to our friends/family here.
-as we trust that all our needs in returning to the States, known and unknown, will be provided.
-for Mary’s health and rest in this pregnancy. It has continued to be quite challenging physically and emotionally (she certainly needs the abundance of grace there is).

Merry Christmas, Beloveds!

We’re celebrating Jesus’ first coming in Aussie style: 100 degree days, afternoons at the beach, sunburns, and sand-snowmen. It’s hard to feel like Christmas with the weather, not to mention missing our home, tree, stockings, family traditions, and American-extravagant festivity surrounding us. Still we know what this time is, and celebrate the coming of Jesus.

There is beauty and abundance in YWAM Perth’s Christmas day. Everyone collected their stockings first thing Christmas morning then spent Christmas morning with their family/house/friends (everyone on base: 600-odd stockings hanging on the balcony railing! Here is a photo from early December, before they were stuffed and gifts piled up underneath them). Huge Christmas lunch began at noon, followed by base-wide white elephant gift exchange and a Christmas movie will play tonight.

 

We received a special box from our Bethel family (and biological family) filled with goodies and kindness. THANK YOU for making our Christmas overflow even across the ocean! The box arrived (with some re-wrapping work done by the Australian post, following a bit of apparent disaster) on Christmas Eve, with everything inside. We had prepared to enjoy exclusively giving this year, and it was a precious lesson for everyone. It made receiving the gifts so much more special, and revealed so well the blessing and abundance it is.

 

 

Here is our home-made Christmas tree (most portable tree in the world, I’d say). Each family member colored a section (or two), and Fetya made our star to top it off. It was so fun to make, and created a special space for presents Christmas morning.

 

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas. We pray the tangible nearness of Immanuel for you each both today and every day. We pray that 2017 is a year full of joy, peace, overcoming, and rest in Jesus. We are gifted beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. I think we have far more than we know. May we each discover more of what God has given us in sending His Son; what it means that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Rom 5.5); what it means “that we might be called sons of God” (1 John 3:1)

God bless you. Thank you so much for loving us and supporting us daily. We love you.