Special Friends,
A few weeks ago now, Hailey and Patrick asked Jesus into their hearts in my office! They are four and six years old. I was five when I received the Savior's gift of salvation and believed He died on the cross for my sins. He was crucified on our behalf, but He rose again. Thanks so much for a great plan, God (John 3:16)! It was fun to be a part of this with these two and their mamma. Their Bibles are getting their names engraved on them, and two of the last 15 books we have, of the first printing of our discipleship manual, "Imagine", are in their hands. We received $200.00 for the reprint and need $450.00 more to make the order. We wrote the book in three months, back over Thanksgiving in 2010, to give away around here to help with discipleship and give to those that come to Christ in our sphere of influence. The miracle is that I would say about half of them are distributed to special martial arts friends around the world, as we were invited to do more martial arts world travel in the last two years than we have done our whole life :))). We also just gave the last couple of Bibles away and need to order more of those. Fruit is happening and if you want to be a part of the continuation of that fruit, let Molly or myself know. One thing is sure... the pure, unadulterated Gospel is going forth from here. Thanks dear God!
I am so sorry we overloaded your house on Outreach Sunday last weekend, Kristi. We have so many awesome friends from other churches that want to hang and what a great way to do it with a little worship, tag prayer and your "personal testimony". A great testament of what God is doing in your life and how He is doing miracles through you, ma'am, in spite of frustrating circumstances that sometimes bog us all down. Such is life and we all shall endure. What a true blessing He is.
For all those that are in discipleship and going through our book "Imagine" with us, several of you have given your testimony now. One thing I have noticed as we use Outreach Sunday to give and grow our testimonies, is that we are all getting hung up on the first outline (page 38). It is necessary to fill in the "Clarifier Questions" outline on that page, but then it is just as important to read and study page 39 the 'Plan of Salvation' verses as well. Then the testimony outline is on page 40, and that puts it all together. That is what we need to finish things with. I will go through that, the closing statement and some final thoughts I have about it all, next Meat Sunday.
Supplemental reading in our book about this topic of "Personal Testimony Preparation", can be found in Chapter 41, "What is Wrong with Me", pages 120 and following, Chapter 42, "Beer for Bibles", page 123, and Chapter 43, "Tucker Move", pages 124 and following.
Some of the Bible verses Kristi is memorizing are listed on page 39. And here are those not listed that some of you asked we post: Galatians 5:22-34; Matthew 7:7-8; Proverbs 24:12; Philippians 4:4; Exodus 14:13-14; Proverbs 16:3. Thanks again Kristi.
We will get through the rest of chapter 11, "Personal Testimony Preparation". The rest is up to each individual to tailor his own and speak as the Holy Spirit leads. It's just good to sit down and write and study verses for our hip pocket so that on a moment's notice we can "take the initiative to share Christ (verbally), in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results up to God"! Thanks "Student Venture" for that pithy summation from 25 years ago working with Bob Maddox, John Rickenbacher etc. :)))
After competing in tournaments in Michigan and Washington, and officially visiting a world tourney here in Portland just to see old friends, we collected some gold, silver, and bronze, for Grace, Zach, and 18 others from the School of Respect... about 40 medals in all to date, since July. My proudest moments in competition this year were when grandmasters, masters, referees and other competitors approached me, impressed with the demeanor and attitude and example of discipline and respect they observed in our School of Respect students.
We just love the private school where we instruct 40+ Little Tigers to 8th grade students amidst teachers, parents, aftercare and administrators. We love them all and see them twice a week.
Our homeschool class is about 13 or 14 students and some of the parents take family class... love them all. We tag pray, memorize scripture and sing a praise song or two. Then its a little tae-cardio to Christian music and tkd/hapki... woo hooo! Then we have the melting pot of students at our regular dojang with our Black Belt Program, Competition Training (Elite Team, Gold Medal Team, Ministry Team, Demonstration Team), approaching 80+, I believe. I am regional representative for the International Hapkido Federation now, so spreading knowledge about that. We are training for state level stuff and abroad, fundraisers and planning meetings with grandmasters and the like. I love working with masters and grandmasters that know and embrace that we are pastors, called to the ministry... period.
Our church philosophy and program continues to settle, as discipleship and family focus perpetuates the need to bring families together in the light... and I mean TOGETHER, not apart like the age-segregated churches of today. Jesus said, "suffer the little children to come to me". One thing that I am seeing in working with homschoolers that go to some of these churches, is that there is a great like-mindedness that we all have about these issues that are tearing the family apart. I hate it that there has to be a "Focus on the Family" organization because the church in general, is not doing the job of family development. Eliminate family segregation from the church and Christianity will change as we know it! Thus, outreach will follow, and society will reform. God do your work. I know its a soapbox I'm on, but the watered-down versions of bringing Mom, Dad and the children together in the churches today, are not radical enough and too slow. I am dealing with the dysfunction of it every day here as martial arts masters/pastors. Pastors: make some radical changes and stop doing what's popular and numbers-focused, and start doing what is family-focused and right! My motto is "True and effective ministry is small ministry"! It keeps me from chasing after "big". Christ says "be faithful with the little". That is why, when I get to a specific number in our church (Family Growth Fellowship), duplication with well-trained leadership will occur! It's not popular, but it's Biblical. Bigger is not better! So, those of you who "get it", and are doing it as well, please pray with us ... thanks :))).
There is no college that could give us the experience our lives are allowing us to live right now. We have found that if you just get out and prayerfully "do it as a family!" God and life are the ultimate educators. What an amazing thing to live and know, with your family.
I am fifty. :))) For those of you that are on Facebook, you have all seen the party day and free Vegas trip we got to take (for Molly and my birthdays). We also had hunting season success! Our lives are full and we love it! As a family, we continue to work with Breeze (Gracie's horse), practice mechanics, go four-wheelin', camping, work on the yard and the pond, do repairs, experience miracles of all sorts (my bad knees, accident ailments, tonsils, the normal stuff) practice martial arts, pursue ministry, and write blogs, books and music CDs. Our lives continue to pass, illustrations of God's activity continue to reveal themselves. As we continue to commit to His activity not ours, we are so grateful for each of you that have your part. You all know who you are and we hug you every time we see you. And while some are on our daily prayer list, others the weekly and still some monthly, if we say we are praying for you, that is one thing you can count on... "We are, in fact, praying for you!" :)))
Things to pray for are:
1. Family Growth Fellowship
2. Marriage and Family Growth and Mentoring Retreats
3. Discipleship relationships now, and the waiting list of those who we will have to disciple at a later date because our one-on-one discipleship schedule is full for now... in His time (we disciple using the "Imagine" manual as our guide)
4. $450.00 for another printing and updated edition of "Imagine", $500.00 for more Bibles
5. Activaton of the studio (Frazier family and Grace, Zach, CDs, and Christian music in general).
6. Grow IHF/WTF and FDC Ministries' World Outreach
7. Church leadership, martial arts Christian leadership, FDC Ministries leadership
8. Continue to work on the ground floor, everyday activities, with the 150+ families that we are in contact with weekly, in one way or another, the 20+ churches we are in touch with through these families, and the hundreds of official leaders, grandmasters, masters, pastors, youth pastors, schools, principles, teachers, school board directors, and the list goes on from several different countries and continents. We love all these people, many of them are you, and all of you are truly our special friends.
9. For a financially strong institution of the martial arts we need about 175 students. Right now we're in the 140s. Please pray for continued growth as we continue to take in more students.
10. If you wish to support this ministry in one way or another... stop! pray about it and then let us know what it is you would like to do, because our Awesome God has prompted you to do it. We are on the precipice... duplication is coming ... enough said. If you have not prayed about it, please do not support us! Only Holy Spirit, nothing else... He will speak to those of you that pray and know what we are talking about. :)))) Thanks to those He has already spoken too! You are so important to us as a family in God's work. You know who you are! We love you... BIG HUGS!!
Serving Him so we can know Him better! (Isaiah 43:10) "It's our privilege!" :))) triple chin grin
Pastor Ron
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