MAY 2014 Letter LIVING WELL

It’s easy to be talk about the work we do in Africa. But it’s much harder to share about the work we do 90% of our time - bringing healing to marriages.

We can all get excited about bringing an education to orphans in a slum in Africa. It’s more painful to hear about hurt and destruction happening between couples in marriages.

Our hearts are tugged by the sight of children with no shoes, tattered clothes, and dirty faces. It’s often distressing to think about the agony of conflict - mainly because we have experienced the agony. We don’t want to feel that again, even if it’s empathizing with another.

YOUR continued support of LIVING WELL means that we can continue to see couples and guide them in strengthening their marriages. YOUR prayers fill our hearts and our spirits, as we rely on God’s wisdom for the right words and direction for each couple.

The most common obstacle families face is not being able to communication in a healthy way, which leaves a lot of unresolved conflicts. We believe that the heart is the root issue, but many times, people need skills on how to speak/listen and what to do when they are overwhelmed with emotion.

Because of YOUR support, we are able study and learn new ways to teach/train couples and are also able to meet with people who are in financial distress and cannot contribute to the cost of their sessions. We could not continue to do what we do without YOU!

As a way of thanking you for your support, we are giving you a link to a page that summarizes important ideas about communication. We all struggle with communicating effectively with those that we love the most. Regardless of how articulate we are in the business world or with friends, those skills are often left outside the doors of our homes.

We are in the last month of preparations for Mission Zambia 2014 and we are excited about what God is doing at Wisdom Community School! Since our last letter, developments are:

• Two new team members - our pastor, Bill Hulse, and his daughter, Hannah
• Classroom Building #2 progress - walls are up, roof is going on
• Local authorities require us to build more toilets for the students, new latrine building is in progress (cost of $2500 was not part of original project, we are building by faith)
• Electricity is now available in the area - we are having lines run to the school
• Planning and preparations for Camp Wisdom is near completion
• Funding is about 57% complete - $6000 still needed

We are running to keep pace with the success that God has given us at Wisdom Community School. The school is growing rapidly and opportunities for growth and development abound.

Your prayers for our final preparations and funding are greatly needed and appreciated!

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 remaining $6,000 to finance this mission.

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DECEMBER 2012 Letter - LIVING WELL

Most of us approach Christmas with the strange paradox of excitement and dread, of joy and anxiety. We love the season - the good cheer, the time with family, the music, the celebrations. We dread the shopping, the attempt to keep the reason for the season, the family tensions, the crowds, the money we spend on gifts, deciding what to buy…..

How did we ever get caught up in the frenzy of buying gifts and spending so much money?

Most people believe that the idea of buying gifts may have started in reference to the gifts the Magi brought to the baby Jesus as recorded in Matthew 2:11, ... they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Accounts of St. Nicolas giving money to the poor in the 4th century shaped the beginnings of the Santa Claus tradition.

The examples of giving were 1)as worship and 2)to the those in need.

What would happen if we used those examples as our criteria for giving?

Would our children suffer? Would our dads still have enough ties?

Perhaps this season we might re-evaluate how we spend our time and money to celebrate Christmas. We could look at the messages that we convey about what we value.

When thinking of the investment of prayers and donations of many during the past year, you can rejoice and praise the Lord with us in remembering how they have touched many lives. 

Some of these people include:

• 160 poor, young children in Zambia who can continue to attend school.
• A young boy named Albert who was overjoyed at hearing about Jesus and John who prayed with him in that Zambian slum.
• The marriage of a young couple was restored after almost losing it because of pornography addiction.
• A couple now has sound finances and a marriage that is stronger than ever after being overwhelmed with debt which caused intense marital strife.
• A young girl was able to unload her burden of despair from losing her parents and being mistreated by her caretakers, after hearing Karen share her own story of hardship.
• A couple can now communicate and resolve conflict for the first time after years of hurt feelings and pain in their marriage.
• A woman carrying the burden of years of abuse and pain who can now be a healthy, Christian wife and mother.

The end of the year is often a time when people consider their giving to the Lord in a special way. We are very thankful for the people who support this ministry. These end-of-the-year donations are a vital part of our budget. Please pray for God to supply our needs at this time of the year. [to donate]

You are a valuable part of our ministry! We love and appreciate you and your support of what God is doing at Living Well!

Donna and Ed Edwards
P.S. Please pray for the Lord to provide the remaining $8700 for our mission to Zambia in January.

Energize Your Marriage - Conference

At our retreat with some great folks from southwest OK, we talked about what drains your marriage of energy.

They came up with several ideas which we had them write on big sticky notes and post on a boad. Common themes were:

• Children
• Work
• Money
• Time
• Housework
• Busy life

Then the more personal ones emerged: arguing - trust, self-centeredness, lack of sleep, laziness, TV, and pain.

We also had time at the end to share some commitments they made to ENERGIZE their marriages.

The ENERGIZE commitments included:

• Time alone together
• Praying for each other
• Making marriage a priority
• Date nights
• Better communication, listening
• Not blaming
• God first

Applause for these couples committed to strengthening their marriages! Some are pictured here:

We commend Caddo Baptist Association for their ongoing commitment to strengthen marriages in their area with yearly marriage retreats!

  



LIVING WELL Monthly Letter, March, 2010

February was a whirlwind. Thank you for your prayers for us. Our marriage conference in Ponca City went well. The people there were very attentive and appreciative of the material that we presented. We have a good class of young married couples taking our marriage class on Sunday nights. Ed’s talk on “guarding your heart” went well with the men’s group. We have battled the weather with our Monday night “Preparing for Marriage” class and are having to double up to catch up on it. We were encouraged with numerous marriage events across our state this month. A video simulcast from Focus on the Family is still coming up on the last weekend of February.

As we teach and speak on marriage, the topic of communication comes up over and over. Communication is a common catch-all for what goes wrong in a marriage. Interestingly enough, when we meet with couples preparing for marriage, we have never heard one of them say “We just can’t communicate.” In fact, quite the opposite is true. They most often say “We can talk about anything.... When we have a problem, we talk it out.” What happens between those courting days and the days that follow a wedding?

In today’s world, communication takes place in a myriad of avenues. When we were kids, we could talk to someone in person, write them a letter, or call them on the telephone. Now, we have the ubiquitous cell phones with text messages ... or we can email or instant message or chat online. According to statistics from a year ago, Americans send 2.5 billion text messages/day. Many people are having personal conversations electronically; some are with a person they have never seen face-to-face.

Oh, but text messages are so 2008; it’s 2010! A new avenue is permeating all sectors of our culture - social networking. Facebook has 400 million active users who post 60 million status updates each day. New numbers released by Nielsen recently confirm: Facebook is the web’s number-one time sink. More interesting, though, is how much more time is spent on the world’s largest social network today than six months ago. Back in June 2009, Nielsen estimated that the average U.S. user spent four hours and 39 minutes on Facebook per month. In January 2010, though, the amount of time the average person spent on Facebook jumped to more than seven hours per month or 14 minutes per day.

We are now facing all kinds of new marriage and communication challenges as the text-message generation gets married and older adults populate facebook. ( a new book has just come out, Facebook and Your Marriage, which deals with this topic) We see dating couples breaking up by text message. People are having affairs with a “virtual person” in an online game - a person they have never seen in the flesh. High school chums,10-20 years later, re-connect on facebook. Our social networks are expanding but our personal social interactions are becoming more difficult.

On the internet, you can search the word “communication” and get 306,000,000 results in .45 seconds. Sound overwhelming? We have put down a few main ideas to give you some insights on communication.(at this link) We hope to give you some encouragement in connecting with others; we all seem to struggle to communicate effectively, especially with our spouse.

We hope to have an announcement soon on our next trip to east Africa. Stay posted!

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.

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

P.S. If you are your church are interested in having us speak or teach in your church, please let us know. We would love to talk with you about it.

Electric Communication

"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true." Charles Dickens

"Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Corinthians 13:11(NLT)

"So encourage each other and build each other up." 1 Thessalonians 5:11a (NLT)