APRIL 2015 Letter - LIVING WELL

Thank YOU for YOUR continued support for the Lord’s work through LIVING WELL.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:3-5)

As Christians, we celebrate Easter everyday. We rejoice in the sacrifice Christ made for each of us. The Easter holiday gives you a chance to think more deeply on the meaning of the cross and the resurrection. You can illustrate to those you know what Jesus Christ means to you.

Jesus Christ not only endured the pain of the cross but also the shame of the cross. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

The cross is the remedy for our shame and our guilt. Christ took that punishment and offered us forgiveness, so that we are not punished for our guilt. Christ endured shame and offers us His glory. We do not have to feel ashamed, because of our hope – Christ! The one who believes in Him will never be put to shame. (Romans 9:33) Read more on this topic here.

As you pray for us, we have several areas of ministry running simultaneously right now.

See our enclosed prayer card and pray for us as we minister at:

• Church
• Marriage and Family team in serving the church during the Year of the Family – we are leading the team as we plan and facilitate an emphasis on marriage and parenting throughout our church during 2015.
• Teaching on marriage to four departments in a combined Bible study time.
• LIVING WELL
• Giving guidance to many couples right now, including several premarital couples.
• Ongoing fund-raising and the financial management of donations
• Writing on topics relevant to the needs of our constituents (including all of the electronic communication that goes with writing and fund-raising).
• MISSION ZAMBIA
• Planning/organizing all teaching/activities/materials for Camp Wisdom and construction projects
• Training the team, making all logistics arrangements – 10 others are on the ream with us, five are new.
• Fund-raising – need is $10,000 (we are responsible for raising $16,000)
• WISDOM Community School – we raise 100% of the funds needed to operate the school and develop the campus and staff.
• Marriage ministry – Focus on the Family has asked us for info about training churches and marriage ministry reach in the church (personal stories) to include in an ebook for pastors.
• Family – Donna’s dad and Ed’s mom are both going through a transition time, since they can no longer live alone in their homes.

Thank YOU for caring about us and what God is doing through us.

Our love in Christ,

Donna and Ed Edwards

P.S. Please pray for our team preparations and the $10,000 remaining for Mission Zambia 2015.

The water that I will give him will 

become in him a well of water

springing up to eternal life.

John 4:14b

LIVING WELL is a life source, not a life style.

Letter LIVING WELL

Evangelism.

What do you think of when you read that word? Our church is emphasizing evangelism this year - a worthy emphasis. Easter is approaching, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is on our minds. Why do we evangelize, what does it mean, and how do we go about it?

We evangelize because Jesus told us to (the why). If you have experienced the good news of having your sins forgiven because of Jesus Christ (the what), wouldn't you be excited to share the peace and joy that you have in your life now?

I (Donna) started doing yoga a few months ago, really enjoy it, and know that it has done wonders for my balance and flexibility. I discovered an app that is very good and that I could use at home in the mornings. I tell all my friends about my yoga experience and the difference it has made. Most of us are willing to talk at length about something we love and enjoy. Why wouldn't we talk about Jesus with that same excitement? 

The how of evangelism is a broad topic with lots of different opinions. Our belief is that God uses your passions and every day life encounters for you to share the good news. 

We have found two major ways that God has given us into peoples’ lives and hearts. Because of your support for us, we are able to pursue these passions and callings.

• First - through our marriage and financial counseling and classes. We are humbled that the Lord would use us to share about who He is week after week.
• Second - through the ministry of Wisdom Community School. We learned last year that, even though they sing about Jesus, they really know very little about Him. 

This year, the theme of Camp Wisdom is the person of Jesus Christ. We will teach about Jesus as a Man, God, a Servant, Savior, and our Friend. 

Because of your support for our ministry, we can continue to share the gospel daily in our office. Because of your support, we can take the gospel to the children of Wisdom in a slum in Zambia.

We have our team for Mission Zambia 2014. We have 11 team members from four churches and a wide-range of ages and talents. Those joining us on the team are: Alan and Donna Borkenhagen, Shelby Dunkle, Jacquelyn Edwards, John and Darla Holinsworth, Amanda Hyden, Mary Kay McCormick, and Anita Powers. Please visit our website page for pictures/info on the team.

See more info on our mission needs and details of the mission at this link. We count on your prayers and support to accomplish God’s mission through Living Well.

More exciting news! The concrete foundation for Classroom building #2 is complete! The walls of the building are going up now. We can hardly wait to see the building that the Lord provided through you. Our construction team paint the building on our mission trip. [see picture]

Thank you for your continued support! We could not continue this ministry without you! 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 that the Lord will raise up the $14,000 that we need to finance this mission.

APRIL 2012 Letter - LIVING WELL

Spring has come early to our part of the country! We see tulips and daffodils popping up from the seeming lifeless ground. They remind us that the dead-looking soil holds new, living, beautiful creations. These spring flowers are a powerful picture of the Easter story.

Jesus Christ died and was buried. Out of that physical death came a new life, a resurrected life. Because of His death and resurrection, we have hope for our own death and new life. We do not have to wait until we die physically to experience the new life. As we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we die to our sin and gain a new spiritual life while still on earth. 

After His resurrection, He ascended into heaven. However, He didn’t leave us on our own. He left us with a promise. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18) His Spirit came to indwell us. His Presence lives within us.

What is like to be an orphan?

An orphan is someone who has lost one or more parents. We both had two wonderful parents, who loved us and gave us direction as we grew up. Now, we have each lost one of our parents. We no longer call them up or spend time with them or ask them for guidance. We miss their presence in our lives.

Jesus was saying in John 14:18 that when He left earth He would send someone to be with us, someone to talk with us, someone to give us guidance, someone to express the love of the Father to us. We don’t have to wander around, feeling alone or lost. We don’t have to rely on our own resources to make it through life. When He comes to live in us, we become a child of God. Each of us is truly an orphan in this life until God becomes Our Father.

As we prepare for our next mission trip to Zambia, this concept becomes especially meaningful. Part of our mission is to minister to 160 orphan children at Wisdom Community School. Our theme for the week is God as Our Father. We will focus on different attributes of God each day - loving, forgiving, kind, compassionate, and merciful.

Because a person forms his view of God from the characteristics of his earthly father, someone who doesn’t have a father may see God as distant or uninvolved or even unloving. When the father is present in African households, he is often emotionally and physically harsh to his children. He is not involved in their lives and doesn’t express love and kindness to them. We want these children to know God as He truly is - as a perfect Father who loves His children.

We are excited to have on our Zambia 2012 team: (l-r, bottom to top) Karen Russell, Lois Jeffries, Norma McKinney, Donna Edwards, Mary Kay McCormick, Darla Holinsworth, Kathy Jackson, Ed Edwards, John Holinsworth, and Ron Jackson. Part of the team will do physical work (painting, etc.) on the school and the others will be ministering to the children with Bible activities, music, crafts, reading, and games. [read more about the mission]

By faith we have already shipped 160 Children’s Bibles and 50 Study Bibles (for our pastors conference). We have already sent funds to have cement plaster put on the outside of the school, so it will be ready for paint when we arrive. We are shipping crafts, children’s books, and musical instruments this week.

We are responsible to raise the funds for the school project, for both the physical work and for the Bibles and other materials, as well as funds for the pastors conference, and our own transportation, lodging, food, etc. We have already purchased our plane tickets!

Please pray with us for this mission - for the planning, preparation, people, and for the funding. We still have about $14,000 to raise before we leave.

Our love in Christ,
Donna and Ed Edwards

April 2011 LIVING WELL Letter

And I will make you my promised bride forever. I will be good and fair; I will show you my love and mercy. (Hosea 2:19).

The Bible has a simple story. God made man. Man rejected God. God won’t give up until He wins him back. God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; He’ll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, He will take all but one. But He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours. Please understand. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you His. His goal is not to get you what you want; it is to get you what you need. (emphasis mine, excerpt from A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado)

The walk down the aisle of a wedding—the father brings the bride to the bridegroom. He is anxiously waiting for her. The groom sought her out, courted her, and proposed. The bride made the choice to receive his love and to receive him. We see the picture as we attend weddings. The picture isn’t just one of a wedding here, but of the ultimate wedding, when we receive Christ as our bridegroom. He promises to be there forever, make us His, dwell among us, and provide what we need.

Americans celebrate Easter this month as a national holiday. But as Christians, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ everyday. As we celebrate His Resurrection, we look forward to our own. We look forward to the wedding feast with our bridegroom.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” …. “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. (Revelation 21:2-4,9b-10)

As you think about your own wedding or of the weddings that you have seen, remember the wedding that awaits us when the Bridegroom call us to Him. He promises that we will be His people, He will live among us, and all pain will be gone. Weddings on earth and in heaven are no small matter to God.

On our mission trip to Zambia, we will convey this sacred view of marriage to the pastors there. Most of them have never heard this kind of teaching and have never considered the weight of the picture in marriage of Christ and the Church.

We have already printed the notebooks and shipped them to Zambia. Our thanks to Walter Mullican and Portland Avenue Baptist Church for providing the binders, printing the material, and putting together the notebooks. We have also shipped the study Bibles. Please pray for their safe arrival there!

As we write this letter, we have received 53% of the funds for our mission trip and have 50 days left! We praise God for what we have received. Please pray with us for the remaining amount ($10,500). And please continue to pray for the preparations in Zambia, that God will bring men and women committed to strengthen marriages according to God’s Word. We know that He wants to do a great work to change the hearts and minds of the people in Ndola, Zambia.

We love and appreciate you and your support of the work God is doing through Living Well!

May the Lord bless you in your relationship to Him.

Our love in Christ,
Donna and Ed Edwards

The water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. John 4:14b