MARCH 2013 Letter - LIVING WELL

Michael O'Brien, Donna, Ed Edwards
Together Forever 2013

We had a great weekend hosting Michael O'Brien for our Together Forever event, Sunday morning worship service, and a time of sharing in our Bible study class. He has an incredible voice, a wonderful sense of humor, a devotion to his wife and his Lord, and a refreshing transparency. He encouraged our group of young married couples but also challenged them.  

Michael not only entertained us but he inspired us as he sang and shared. He was very open about the struggles that he has experienced in his own marriage, but he also shared with humility how Christ has changed him and saved his marriage. We are thankful that he has allowed the Lord to work in him but also that he is willing to share his struggles with others.

Our Mission Zambia 2013 team is almost finalized! We believe that we will have 18 people on the team. As Ed outlined in last month’s letter, we will only be working at Wisdom Community School on our mission trip this summer. We will focus on improving the physical facility and on doing a Bible Camp for the children. 

Part of the Bible Camp is to provide lunch for the children every day. We are going to have half the children attend camp in the morning and half will attend in the afternoon. We will feed one group before they leave and one group as they arrive. 

At the end of our week of Bible Camp, we will have a time with the parents/guardians of all the children to share what the kids did during the week. Later that evening, we will also show the Jesus film outside for the community. In a community where it gets dark at 6:30 pm and without electricity, a movie showing on the side of a building will draw lots of people! The movie will give us an opportunity to share the gospel with the whole community. 

We are responsible for raising the funds necessary to finance all of the construction projects, cost of the Bible Camp, and our own trip costs - a total of $18,000. [for more details about the mission]

We will announce the names of all of our team members very soon! We do know that 9 out of 10 of last years team are returning this year. Obviously, their hearts were deeply touched by the Lord for the children of Wisdom Community School. 

We read the book Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas several years ago. We consider it to be one of the best books on marriage. 

As we lead the Sacred Marriage class at our church, we are reminded of the great truths that Gary Thomas shares in the book. He poses the question, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”

 Frances de Sales, a great Christian writer from the 17th century, wrote that marriage might be the toughest ministry a person could undertake. What if each of us saw marriage as a ministry to our spouse? Pray with us that the 15 couples in class will see marriage from a new perspective. 

We thank you for your many prayers and support! You are a valuable part of our ministry! We love and appreciate you and your support of what God is doing! 

Our love in Christ,

Donna and Ed Edwards
P.S. Please pray with us about our mission to Zambia and the $18,000 to finance the project.