Life-Changing Challenges in Less than 10 Minutes

A Week of 1st's!

Last week was very exciting for the Fewins's kiddos! (ok...2 weeks ago now,...so I'm a little behind, but atleast I am posting!) It was a week filled with 1st's.:

First swim of the season!

First Day at the Sprinkler Park!

Luke's 1st Haircut (just above his ears...momma couldn't stand to cut all those cute curls!):

Luke's first time really crawling. (He had the army crawl down, but is now moving on all fours!):

Luke's First Steps (ok so the ones pictured below aren't actually the very first ones...but pretty close!) Actually, the haircut, crawling and walking all happened in the same day! :

First Time to Have a Pet. Meet "Elliot", the fish.:

First Time to Have a Pet Die. So Long "Elliot", the fish.:

Ahhh...the sweet days of summer. They are flying by so fast! Trying to cherish all the "firsts" and some "lasts" before Faith starts Kindergarten and Joel starts preschool in the Fall.

The Cross Still Stands....

I'm sure you have seen the news about Joplin, where an EF5 tornado recently went through the middle of the city leaving in its path widespread destruction.

For the past five years (until we moved to Pittsburg a couple months ago), the Joplin area has been our home. We have lived, laughed and loved there. We have worked, shopped, worshiped and grown our family there. Faith's first home was there, Joel joined our family there, and Luke was born there. Some of our dearest memories and closest friends are from the Joplin area. So needless to say, when we heard the news of the devastation, we were overwhelmed.

The night the tornado hit, I was able to go to Joplin immediately and help in a sort of triage center that had been set up in a school. The following days I made a number of trips to Joplin to help with relief efforts which included praying with and providing some counseling services to the survivors. I'm not sure that I have words to describe the horror and sadness of what I heard and saw that week and what continues to loom in my mind. Perhaps, more than ever before I am extremely aware of the temporal nature of the comforts of this life and the frailty of human life itself.

As I prayed for wisdom in how to provide comfort and counsel to the hurting people who had lost so much, I feel that God revealed a bit of Himself to my heart. He showed me that the sorrow I was feeling over the devastation and the loss of life, was only the slightest reflection of His grief. Not only His grief as a father for His children in Joplin who are hurting, but also His grief over the devastation in the hearts of mankind when they refuse to seek Him, to follow Him and accept His love and forgiveness.

For the past week I have not been able to get this realization out of my mind. One thing has been clear in the aftermath of this crisis...the only thing that we can be sure of in this life is the certainty of future eternal life when we have put our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

I had been muling over the thoughts that God had laid on my heart and preparing to write this email, when I opened a newsletter from a sister in Christ serving in Venezuela. I read with my mouth hanging wide open in amazement as her words spoke better than I ever could the exact thoughts I was hoping to share with you. So, seeing I'm sure she wouldn't mind...I have copied the article below:

"I found out about the May 22 tornado shortly after it happened. Through various Facebook posts and news releases I got the message that it was a horrible, horrible disaster. After checking to see if all of my loved ones were safe, I began to scour the internet and watch the news for every report I could find. The day after was much of the same; I was in disbelief over what I was seeing and couldn’t comprehend all that was happening. Then Tuesday came...

As the shock of the tornado wore off, I found myself trying to cope with a deep sadness that consumed my every thought. I moved through the day in slow motion, wishing that I could be in Joplin to comfort my family and friends through the horror that they were living. Throughout the week I continued to watch the news, call my sister, and pray like crazy for everyone involved. I am not usually a weepy person over natural disasters. I suppose it has something to do with the nearness of them. One has never hit so close to home. And so I found myself crying often. Crying because of the suffering taking place. Crying for the grieving. Crying for those who felt hopeless. Crying over the survivors’ stories. Crying in thankfulness that I wasn’t on a plane headed to a loved one’s funeral. Crying as I read about the hundreds of people who rushed to Joplin’s aid in its time of need. Crying as I read that the destruction was breathtaking but so was the help of so many. Crying as I witness the Church BEING the Church. The crisis in Joplin is palpable, horrible, overwhelming, life-altering, devastating, hopeful, restorative, unifying, sobering, humbling....

And I couldn’t help but ponder something else.

When was the last time I that wept over the spiritual crisis at hand? The fact that there are over 6,500 unreached people groups still out there -- that 2,790,649,000 people don’t even know Jesus’ name. Millions of people are dying every year without finding hope in Christ. These individuals live in spiritual rubble and stumble around in spiritual darkness. When I see the hurting folks in Joplin being comforted by Christ-bearers, it fans into flame the fire in me to go all-out and be the hope of glory for those who are lost and without a home.

Suffering is great...but Hope is greater.

Praise be to the God of all comfort and hope!

The Year In Review...plus six months!

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Hello Family and Friends!

After a rather long hiatus...almost 18 months, I thought it might be appropriate to briefly bring you all up to speed on the Every Day Matters that have been our life for the past year and half.

So to avoid my downfall of what can sometimes be labeled "rambling", I am going to try to create a Top Ten (or so) List and add some photos.

Starting with events following my last post in Jan 2010:

1. March 14th, 2010 - We celebrated Joel's 3rd birthday (his first with us)!
2. May 2010- Jessie resigned from her position as Counselor at North Middle School and Faith and Joel completed their first year of pre-school!
3. July 9th, 2010 -Celebrated Faith's 4th birthday.
4. July 13th, 2010 - Arrival of Luke Isaiah Fewins. He is an incredible joy to our lives. He is the best baby and Faith and Joel are the best big sister and big brother!
5. October - November 2010 - In accordance with our now long-time desire to be involved in Missions and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we attended a two-week missionary candidate course in Littleton Colorado with Overseas Missions Fellowship. We were appointed to serve as full-time missionaries to Taiwan!
6. November -December 2010 - God was working BIG TIME in our hearts. After following what we believed to be the direction of the Holy Spirit and getting our "official" approval (as mentioned in #5)...God made it clear that He was indeed leading us this direction, just "not yet". In other words, our plans to move ahead with partnership development are now on hold for a time. We are still "future-planning" in this direction and Lord-willing will begin Jan of 2012.
7. CHRISTMAS 2010! ---I started to type "not earth-shattering news" - but isn't it? The meaning that is, perhaps not the celebration. Nonetheless, the celebration seemed to merit mentioning with three little ones in the house, it was quite a memory!
8. Dec 23, 2010 - Phil and Jessie celebrated 10 yrs of marriage!
9. Jan 2011 - Thought we would spend the beginning of 2011 raising support and preparing to leave for Taiwan,...And following intense prayer and seeking the Lord's will, we did put our house up for sale (only not for the plan we thought). It sold to the first person that looked at it --even in this market. Thank you God, for reassuring us this was the right step!
10. Last week of Feb. 2011 - We Moved to Pittsburg, Ks.! Quite different from Taiwan, yet clearly where God would have us at this time.
11. March 2011 - Celebrated Joel's 4th bday.
12. March -Present -- Spending our time with and opening our hearts and home to the MANY international students on the campus of Pittsburg State University. We have met lots of international students, started Mandarin tutoring (thanks to a special student who offered us some help), and had many opportunities to share Jesus with the Chinese and Taiwanese students right here in Pittsburg, Ks!

So for the time being, God has not given us the green light to go to Taiwan; but rather He has brought us to the nations right here @ PSU! We are so blessed by God's love for us and that He cares about the Every Day Matters of our lives!

Friends, as I type this post, I am reminded that we are never happier or more full of joy than when we are fulfilling God's purposes.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. - John Piper

So Enjoy Him!

For His Glory,

Jessie

P.S. Enjoy the pics. I apologize they are in quite a random order as I could not figure out how to move them or label them. And I guess, I might have went a little over the top...but how's a mom to choose with 3 such cute kids and 18 months of pics?!? :-)