God ALWAYS Works in Ways Far Beyond our Expectations and Understanding!
As long as I live, I’ll never cease to be in total awe of the wondrous and miraculous ways I’ve been blessed to witness the hand of God moving in the lives and marriages of FAM members and their families. Even with that being said, everything we’ve witnessed over the past six weeks or so just defies comprehension and description! In the past five weeks alone, FAM members have been blessed to read the Restored Marriage Testimonies of six of our family members, and they were all what we call “SUDDENLIES!” And in addition to the restoration testimonies posted on the private website, I received email messages and/or phone calls from at least four more members with news of their restored marriages, which were also all SUDDENLIES! And I have no doubt that based on the awesome praises of several other members, we will see even more Restored Marriages by the end of the month! Since it’s always especially exciting when we see the hand of God moving in the lives and restoration of marriages of FAM members who have been standing for many years and who previously had little or no contact with their spouses, we’ve been particularly blessed to witness that in the past six weeks as well! So it’s just amazing to see how quickly God works when we learn to DO things HIS way and to truly TRUST AND OBEY what His Word teaches; because there’s only one outcome when we do and that’s the full manifestation of His Word in our lives and marriages for the glory of Jesus Christ!
In addition to being blessed by the awesome work of restoration we’ve recently witnessed, FAM members were also blessed to participate in our first real “FAMM get together” earlier this month when I went to Ohio for a week long stay as a guest in the home of a FAM member (Karla) with a restored marriage. But the “open house” we had originally planned for the Saturday afternoon before Labor Day, ended up being a “sleep over” with nine FAM members actually staying under the same roof that night! In addition to that, Karla and I were blessed to meet and have lunch with another member with a restored marriage earlier in the week who couldn’t attend over the weekend, along with her twin daughters. And then two of our members who attended, visited another member with a restored marriage on their way home Sunday because she had emailed that morning that she was having a difficult time in her marriage again.
Needless to say, we were all blessed beyond measure to share such wonderful fellowship, and FAMM Board members got to meet each other for the first time because five of our six Directors and Officers were in attendance. And with the exception of meeting Dan earlier in the year (when he and two of the other guys came to visit and we went out for lunch together), our Board members had previously “met” only via conference calls! And we were all particularly blessed that our very gracious and generous host was so willing to share his experience and the “Prodigal Perspective” with all of us as we gathered around his kitchen table both Saturday and Sunday. However, one thing I was not prepared for was the overwhelming emotion that often came over me throughout the weekend. I have stated before that I don’t allow myself to dwell too much on what I see the Lord doing through FAMM because it can be so emotionally overwhelming at times. But that’s just not possible to avoid when it’s so evident, which it definitely was while actually staying in the home of a restored family with three young children and hearing the praises and testimonies of men and women whose lives have been so radically changed by the power and grace of our Lord during one of the most difficult times in their lives. And there’s no doubt that our “family reunion” (as it’s now being called) has created a totally new dimension in the ministry; because there’s just a difference somehow. Perhaps it’s seeing the pictures of our family reunion posted on the private site and finally being able to put faces with the names of people we’ve all come to love; or maybe it’s just the difference caused by the bond made when sharing such sweet fellowship with each other as we were blessed to do. In any case, it’s very exciting to see how the Lord is working in our midst in such great and mighty ways and I just can’t wait to see what He will do next, because I know it will be far beyond our wildest expectations and understanding and that we will all continue to be blessed and encouraged beyond belief just as we have been over the past weeks! So we give ALL praise, honor and glory to Jesus Christ for all He has already done in our midst and for all of the great and mighty things we know He will do in the days, weeks, months and even years to come as we stand in faith and obedience on the power and promise of His Word for the restoration of our marriages and families! GOD IS MOVING, SO BE BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED…AND GET READY!!!