February 2011 Living Well Letter

 “I have loved you with an everlasting love” Jeremiah 31:3

And what are you planning for the one you love?

If you are married, consider giving your marriage a gift of love. We encourage all married couples to do something to maintain and strengthen their marriage at least once a year. What have you done for your marriage this year?

February is the busiest month of the year for marriage educators and advocates. We have many events coming up. Please pray for us as we seek to speak into the lives of many couples. Events:

• Jan 28-29, Friday night/Saturday “Energize” retreat, Caddo Baptist Assoc.
• Feb 4-5, Fri night/Sat “Marriage Tune-up” retreat, 1st Baptist Church, McAlester, at Falls Creek
• Feb 7, 7-8:30pm, Mondays, “Preparing for Marriage” class, our office
• Feb 8, 7-8:30pm Tuesdays, “Living Well in Marriage” class, our office
• Feb 11-12, Fri nigh/Sat morning, “Dream Marriage” live simulcast by Jimmy Evans, regional event, sponsored by Marriage Network OK at Putnam City Bapt (we coordinate and host this event)
• Feb 24, Thursday, 10-3, “Building a Comprehensive Marriage Ministry” workshop, Southwood Baptist Church, Tulsa (regional training for church leaders)
• Feb 27, Sundays, 5-6:30, “Managing Money” class, Putnam City Baptist Church

Wow! The list even scares us! How do we do it? Because the Spirit of God compels us. He has given us a passion and equips and enables us to do it! We value your prayers and support.

Our schedule reflects the different avenues of ministry, which we believe are essential, to reach different couples. We do individual/couple guidance every week. We teach small groups such as the one which starts February 8th at our office. We teach church groups, such as the retreats. We sponsor regional events (Dream Marriage simulcast). We train leaders who can go back to their churches and teach or lead marriage ministries.

Families today are under more stress than ever before. According to an American Psychological Association study, in 2007, stress impacts lives in a dramatic way:

• About 1/2 say that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives.
• About 1/3 of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities.
• Over 1/3 cite jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a source of stress.
• Stress causes more than half of Americans (54%) to fight with people close to them.

To overcome these stresses, couple must take an intentional approach to strengthening their marriages and their families. They will not be able to hold their families together without a plan!

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 and in your marriage.

Our love in Christ,
Donna and Ed Edwards
P.S. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom and rest.

LIVING WELL Monthly Letter, February 2010

"The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife." (Will Durant)

This quotation caught our attention, perhaps because we are both having one of those milestone birthdays this year that make us think about getting/being old. We look out at the fresh, young faces in our Preparing for Marriage class and try to convey to them that, if they stick with it, marriage can be a place for a deep love beyond anything they have yet experienced. Valentine’s Day approaches - a great time to express your appreciation for the love that endures in your marriage.

Last November, a group of prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders and scholars released the Manhattan Declaration, (www.manhattandeclaration.org) which addresses the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty.  The 4,700-word declaration issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not—under any circumstance—abandon their Christian consciences. An excerpt “We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths.  We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.”

Why is a declaration, such as this one, important or even necessary? Speaking only to the issue of marriage, we are moving into a new phase of assault by the culture on our values. Proposition 8 in California, which affirmed marriage between one man and one woman, is under attack. We have no doubt that it will be challenged in court and appealed, regardless of which way the decision goes. Most signs point to the issue going to the Supreme Court level. We believe that the Supreme Court will follow the same course that it took in the sanctity of life case. Human life was devalued at that time.

We believe marriage will be further devalued. When/If that ruling occurs, The Church will have to make a clear stand and decision on how it will handle this re-definition of the basic family structure. The Church must aggressively strengthen marriage against the assault and also bringing honor to marriage between one woman and one man for life. A ministry focused on biblical marriage is more important than ever - one of the reasons we are in the battle. We will share more on this topic next month.

Many thanks to all who prayed for us in January, a busy month for us this year. Donna is still working on her stamina after recovering from her surgery, but she is able to work a full week now, even with extra teaching. We have a good group in our Preparing for Marriage class, very diverse make-up. Our marriage retreat in Chickasha went well. We were very impressed with the diligence of the Caddo Baptist Assoc, to consistently provide a marriage enrichment retreat to the people in their churches.

Next month contains even more speaking and teaching events. Ed is speaking to a men’s group at Emmaus Baptist Church, Saturday, February 13. We are starting a marriage enrichment class, Sunday evenings, 6-7:30, beginning February 14, at Putnam City Baptist Church. This class last eight weeks and is open to the public, not just church members. We are teaching another weekend marriage conference in Ponca City, February 20-21 (this conference was re-scheduled from November).

With the Marriage Network Oklahoma team, we are actively sponsoring and promoting Marriage Week, February 7-14; the theme is Together Forever. Churches and organizations have an opportunity to be a Marriage Forever church (no cost) and be a part of this great movement to honor and celebrate marriages. More details are available on the website, www.marriagenetworkok.net.

We ask you to join us in a concerted, sincere prayer to our Father to provide for our budget, so that we may meet all of our financial obligations. Donna’s expenses for surgery have started rolling in and the amounts are daunting, even with insurance. We ask you to pray that our donations will be sufficient to pay our salary amounts, so that we can meet our medical bill obligations.

Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. Our love in Christ,
Ed and Donna Edwards

LIVING WELL Monthly Letter, January 2010

Where were you in the Christmas Eve blizzard of 2009?

Everyone has a story to tell; we have one too. Our daughter had to work until 3:00 in the far north part of Edmond (a 45 minute drive home to Bethany on a good day). After making it a fraction of the way home, she got stuck in a line of traffic and could not move. She was a long way from home and we do not have a 4-wheel drive. Fortunately, a close friend of ours lives a couple of miles from where she was stuck and does have a 4-wheel drive. After they were able to get their vehicle out, they came and rescued her and left her car. She spent the night on Christmas Eve at their house; they dug her car out of the snow the next morning and brought her and her car home. She ended up being stuck in her car for 3 ½ hours, some of it after dark. We are so thankful for good friends who came to her rescue.

This year was a very different holiday season for us. Because of Donna’s recent surgery, we stayed home for Thanksgiving and Donna’s sister brought us a Thanksgiving meal. And we chose not to get out our usual Christmas decorations, tree ornaments, etc. We were not able to get out for any of the usual pre-Christmas festivities. Christmas day celebrations were delayed a couple of days. Our hot water heater went out on New Year’s morning, limiting our enjoyment of our alma mater’s bowl game. But the Lord was faithful to show us that all of the usual happenings are traditions we have created, none of which preclude us from being thankful for His work and provision in our lives or from celebrating His incarnation. What really matters in our relationship to Him cannot be taken away.

We pray that each of us and all of those who read this letter will commit to do something to develop a more intimate walk with our Lord during 2010 and to strengthen their marriages (for those who are married). Ed is reading through the Bible chronologically and highlighting God’s words and actions. Along with reading through the Bible, Donna is studying a devotional written by Martin Luther.

We are back to work and Donna is almost back to normal. The healing from her surgery has taken longer than we had expected. We were unable to see any appointments during December but are now resuming a normal schedule. We have a full schedule for January and February.

Our Preparing for Marriage class begins Monday, January 18 from 7:00-8:30. This class is for any couple who is seriously dating, engaged, or in their first year of marriage. The class will meet in the charming, Old Paseo Chapel (in the Paseo district of Oklahoma City). The details and sign-up are on the home page of our website, www.livingwellokc.org. Couples spend a lot of time and money on the wedding, what is their investment in preparing for the marriage? If you know anyone who is at that stage of life, pass on the information about our class or contact us and we will get the info to them.

We are doing a marriage retreat in Chickasha January 22-23. Ed is speaking to a men’s group at Emmaus Baptist Church, Saturday, February 13. We are starting a marriage enrichment class, Sunday evenings, 6-7:30, beginning February 14, at Putnam City Baptist Church. And we are doing a weekend conference in Ponca City near the end of February.

With the Marriage Network Oklahoma team, we are actively sponsoring and promoting Marriage Week, February 7-14; the theme is Forever Together. Churches and organizations have an opportunity to be a Marriage Forever church (no cost) and be a part of this great movement to honor and celebrate marriages. More details are available on the highlighted link.

We are thankful for the end of year donations we received. We are still very far behind in our budget. Our salaries are determined by our board of directors; we have a maximum salary that we can draw monthly but there is no minimum. We do not draw a full salary if the donations do not meet the budget.

We ask you to join us in a concerted, sincere prayer to our Father to provide for our budget, so that we may meet all of our financial obligations.

Donna and Ed Edwards

P.S. You may donate to LIVING WELL online or by mailing a check to PO Box 720828, Oklahoma City, OK 73172. All donations are tax-deductible.

LIVING WELL 2009

The last day of the year is a good time to look at some highlights of what God has done in and through the ministry of LIVING WELL:

• Ed Edwards came to work full time at LIVING WELL, leaving his longtime position on church staff.
• Several classes taught for churches.
• Many marriages healed.
• Several premarital couples prepared for a lifetime together.
• Several families saw a new way to deal with finances.
• Teaching small group Bible study to young couples.
• More churches trained through the coalition of Marriage Network Oklahoma, led by Donna Edwards.
• Process for Building Comprehensive Marriage Ministries presented at national conference.
• Mission trip to Tanzania to teach and train pastors/spouses/church leaders on marriage & family; teach VBS to over 100 children; meetings in individual churches to train teams.

We are looking forward to what God has for 2010!! We value your prayers!