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

New Year and Lessons from Life

A new year.... new thoughts ..... new life.

As I pass from a very difficult year, I am praying for new ways to share my thoughts and the new life Christ has given me.

Since my mother passed away recently, I thought about calling my new series "lessons learned from my mother." However, I realized that many of my lessons on life were not learned from my mother, I learned them the hard way. I thought about calling it "letters to my children," but my children have heard enough from me to last a lifetime. So, I will call them Lessons from Life.

While teaching our Bible study class yesterday, we talked about the different ways people learn - by reading, by observing, by failure, by pain, by mentoring or being mentored. I have been fortunate enough to learn all of those ways.

The pivotal concept is LEARNING. To learn I have to be teachable. Am I teachable? Sometimes more than others. I tend to be a bulldog when I set my teeth into finding a solution to a problem. I don't give up. To the distress of my family members, I often want them to learn the same lessons with me .... whether they want to or not.

To be teachable, I have to admit I am wrong or that I have made a mistake or that I don't know something.

Have you ever seen someone that thinks that they know something about everything? Or someone that will never admit that they are wrong? Or someone who won't take responsibility for their mistakes? I have been all of those people at some time.

As soon as the first sin happened in the garden an unhealthy pattern of living began. In Genesis 3:11-12, we see God inquiring about what was going on, much as a parent would to their children.

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Adam started the blame game. He blamed Eve and he blamed God for giving Eve to him. We all play that game at times. But when I blame others for what happened, I am not admitting that I did anything wrong. If I am blaming others, how teachable am I? None, not at all, nil. Not a healthy way to live, you won't win friends or influence people with that attitude.

My first Lesson from Life - admit when I am wrong or don't know or have messed up. Take responsibility. All humans make mistakes. No human knows everything. I am part of the human race and will act like other human beings often.

Unlike the human part of me, I have a supernatural part which can transcend these mistakes and be renewed and restored. I can learn and grow in my faith and in my practice.

Bottom line - it's okay to make mistakes. Now learn and grow.