Greetings from the Mission Field 3-24-2013

From the Filed
I thank God for all He is doing with FCFInternational. What a blessing to be working alongside some good firefighters from around the nation. Keith Helms and Wayne Detzler have been working on developing a discipleship ministry. We have been praying diligently about this ministry and how God will use it in the fire service. Our desire is to have a ministry where first responders will disciple other first responders who will in turn disciple more first responders. By God's grace we will be faithful to being obedient to Matthew 28 and God will change the hearts and minds of first responders. We want to reproduce our faith in other firefighters and start a revival in the fire service. Pray with us as we seek to glorify God with this ministry.

I am pleased with the progress of the online Bible studies. God is using these Bible studies to help firefighters have a deeper understanding of Him and His Word. The mission of FCFInternational is to encourage one another to share the vision with the fire service community through Witnessing, Praying, Teaching the Word, and Walking worthy. My prayer is the online Bible studies will help first responders to walk worthy and that eventually I can find other members who will be able to teach these classes and fulfill the teaching the Word part of the mission statement. We have a lot of members that are sound with their knowledge of doctrine. There are others who still are on milk and need to be encouraged to grow in their faith. My prayer is that FCFInternational will be known for how much our members love to study and memorize God's Word. Pray with us as we work toward that goal.

The other day I put a map of the United States on my desk top. Every time I work on my computer I pray for another State. I pray that God would open doors in fire stations for us to minister to first responders and that local chapters would be started. There are 1.4 million firefighters and I pray that God would reach everyone with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a privilege for our members to be able to share in that vision.

Family
The family is doing well. I think Holly is getting a little nervous because I keep talking about moving. One of my dreams is to have an International Headquarters that is on a good piece of land. I look forward to the day when FCFInternational will have a retreat center that first responders can go to in order to get closer to God. Please join me in prayer as I am confident God can give us the perfect piece of property. Pray for Holly and the boys to also catch the vision.

Prayer Requests

• A facility for an International Office
• A local chapter in every state
• Local chapters in other countries
• Discipleship Ministry to begin
• The annual encouragement and awards banquet

Greetings from the Mission Field 3-10-2013

From the Field
God has been working on my life. I am so thankful to Him to be able to serve first responders throughout the world. The more I pour myself into the ministry the more God pours Himself into my life. Recently I have been going through our Command Staff program. The program is designed to encourage members to read their Bible everyday, pray for an hour a day, memorize Bible verses once a week, share their faith once a month, and disciple one person in a year. What a blessing to go through this program, I am learning so much about God as if it were the first time I read. Please pray for me as I attempt to lead the ministry through example. Currently I am trying to memorize the entire book of Philippians. The pace is slow but the benefits are eternal. I am learning so much about Paul's leadership style and how he imitated Christ's leadership style. Please also pray that I would have boldness when it comes to sharing my faith and what God has done in my life. Pray also that FCFInternational would have 25 members who are serious about a commitment like this. I am confident that God would be glorified if we do.

Recently, I have been able to talk with members in our ministry. What a blessing to have so many members who are willing to serve God and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Keith and Wayne are working diligently on a discipleship ministry. They are coming along with developing material for first responders. First responders love to look at fire pictures and have fire stories that they can relate to. Once the discipleship ministry is developed we fully intend to begin to imlament it. The goal is that we would be able to multiply ourselves by sharing Christ and discipling those who are saved. The more members we can have that will commit to being serious about discipling, the more that God can glorify His name. My prayer is that our ministry would be a II Timothy 2:2 ministry. As you recall II Timothy 2:2 states; "and the things you have heard from me amoung many witnesses comit to faithful men who able to teach others also." I hope that was correct as I wrote it from memory. I am trying to encourage others to memorize God's Word. For some of us it has been awhile since we committed to that. Pray that first responders in our ministry would be serious about that.

Holly and I recently returned from San Diego where we were representing FCFInternational at the Firehouse World expo. As we filled out the forms that help us keep track of our expenses we realized that San Diego is expensive for our ministry. Please pray with us as Holly and I seek God's wisdom on whether to continue ministering at this show. We were able to hand out over a case of New Testaments and talk with a lot of first responders. We just need to see if the expense justifies the trip. Our prayer is that we would be able to hand out many Bibles and that we would spend God's money wisely.

Currently Holly and I are working on straightening out the problem with the IRS. This has been an ongoing problem and Lord willing we will be able to put it to rest once and for all. Almost all of our chapters have been kicked out of the system because they have not filled out their 991N or post card. The law changed in 2007 and our chapters didn't understand what they needed to do. Please pray that God would intervene because the IRS wants us to pay $400.00 per chapter to reinstate them. God is able to answer our prayers so please join with us. The blessing in this whole process is being able to identify our local chapters and to talk to each one of them.

Family
Seth is doing well, although he has not been able to find a ministry that will hire him. Most churches want married couples to work with their youth and that limits him greatly as he is not married. I am thankful to God that he has found a ministry to help out with close to our house. What a blessing to see him being used by God with those young people. Andrew is working nights, which he would rather not. Pray that God would be able switch him back to days. Christopher and Justin still have part time jobs and I am praying that they would begin to seek full time employment. Like you, I am praying that God would use these men in a mighty way as they serve Him.

Prayer Requsts

• Pray for our members to be serious about serving God. I pray that all of our members would regularly study their Bibles and pray for wisdom.
• Pray that God would supply 25 members for the Command Staff Ministry.
• That the IRS would reinstate our local chapters without any cost to us.
• That God would provide the necessary funds to be able to minister to first responders.
• God would be glorified in the fire service.