All is well in Cozumel!!

We are praising God this morning in Cozumel! As you know we had Dolly coming right at us with sustained winds of 50mph and gusts up to 80 mph. We are in sound concrete homes but the biggest problem would have been flooding and loss of power. I must say that in this heat and humidity, the air conditioning we have in the evenings is very refreshing and the streets just don't drain here. So...we prayed a lot yesterday as a group and praised God in worship last night for about 2 hours before we separated for the night. When we came back to the guys place one of the Dad's pulled up the radar to see what the storm was doing...we just laughed as the animation radar showed it had suddenly changed course and was going to miss us to the north. We are just getting some rain and had no winds at all! God is so good.

I just wanted to praise God this morning as I know all of you were covering us in prayer. We start our construction and V.B.S. this morning and have been able to spend some time already with the ninos and ninas...they are soooo cute! Marcie and I are really enjoying our time together as these teens love to praise God and are much more unselfish than I was at their age. We love you all and Mom and Dad...tell Easton, Isaac, Andrew, and Owen that we love them and their prayers are being answered every day as we are getting to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these little orphans. Thank you for watching our little angels at home. Blessings to you all...1 John 4:4, Ephesians 3:20-21!

Todd

Silver Dollar City

We had a great day at Steal Your Dollar City with Mom and Dad, Lee and Becky, and Nick's family. The weather was beautiful and even though it cost quite a bit for the day, it was well worth it. When you consider the money we saved in food for the 5 days we were there, it all balances out doesn't it? The boys had a great time and we were all impressed that Nana rode all the roller coasters and the huge Barn Swing!

We are leaving very early Saturday morning for Mexico and I'm so excited Marcie gets to go with me this time. Our parents are tag-teaming for the week with our boys as we get to minister to an orphanage in Cozumel, Mexico. The boys are excited to be with their "city" grandparents and "country" grandparents...as Easton calls them.

We are also very excited to let you all know Easton and Isaac will be getting baptized on July 31rst at "Grandparents Camp" in Arkansas. Their cousin Luke has also decided to give his life to Christ so looks like camp is going to be a little revival in the pond...come on in boys, the water's fine!! God is good as we have discussed this over the last year and they decided they are ready to be on God's team. Thank you for your prayers for our boys as God is moving in those little hearts! Enjoy the photos of S.D.C.

Missouri Trip II

Dad and I tried to play golf through some storms on Saturday morning as we literally had to dodge lightning and downpours throughout the 8 holes we played. We finally had enough and called it a day. The best part of that morning was breakfast at Cracker Barrell...I love being able to share what God's doing in our lives with you Dad and you not think we're crazy!!

Later that day we had the Brown's over and it dried out enough for the kids to play in the backyard and do a slip and slide in Mom and Dad's backyard...yes, Dad was o.k. with us ruining a patch of his beautiful lawn so the kids could have a muddy good time. Tibby showed off her muddy backside as she had fun with the boys. Mom and Dad put on a great "spread" of food for everyone that night. As you see below, the boys had to have a bath after running about 40 windsprints down the slip and slide. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us hang with Cary and Tracy after the boys went down for the night!

Missouri Trip I

We had a great trip to see Mom and Dad, Grandma Stracke, the Fouts family, and some of our friends like Cary and Tracy Brown. We fit a lot in in the 4 to 5 days we were in Springfield and really enjoyed our time with family and friends. As usual, Mom and Dad were great hosts as we ate well and enjoyed a trip to see the show "Noah" in Branson. (Thanks for watching Owen Mom so we could more fully enjoy Noah!) We also made a trip to Steal Your Dollar City...but I'll do photos for that later on.

We're going to do a couple of entries of our trip to Missouri to cover our activities while we were there. We spent the first night at Nick and Renee's home as it's still hard to believe they ended up at East Sunshine! When we left their home the next morning, we unloaded our bags and took off to Branson with Papaw and were very impressed with the show.

Thanks again Mom and Dad for being the unselfish team for our family as the boys love going to see their "city" grandparents. Dad, it was special to do the Lord's Supper with you. Enjoy the pictures...

Welcome Eden Beth Fager to this world

On June 2nd, while I was at Nashville Work Camp, Marcie made the brave venture with the boys to Monroe, LA for the arrival of little Eden. Mom and baby are doing fine and the boys enjoyed holding their newest cousin. That makes 19 grandchildren (10 boys and 9 girls) with #20 coming in December (Hannah's). I know you guys think we rock your world when our four boys come to Nashville...you don't even know!! Here she is and our Missouri trip is coming soon....

New Creation

Last week concluded one of the most amazing weeks I have ever had in youth ministry...praise God! At Junior Impact, no other way to explain it, we had an outpouring of the Spirit that I had never experienced in ministry before. God touched and spoke through many young teenagers that night and His presence was so evident that the teens couldn't stop praising Him! I still get chills and smile thinking about it as there is much more to describe what happened in room 153 of Ezell at Lipscomb, but I'll let your imagination run with it. The teens described it as somewhat a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel described in Acts 2. Call me sometime and I'll share the testimony of God's power with you as many baptisms followed.

The picture above is two guys from Senior impact that gave their life fully to Christ. In all, 17 teens gave their life to Christ as a result of God moving and convicting hearts last week at Junior and Senior Impact. I am so thankful I get to be along for the ride as I truly enjoyed passing on the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism and asking Hannah (our female youth minister) to baptize most of the girls.

You should have seen the freedom of worship that was displayed by these teens all week and the transparency and ministering to each other that flowed all week...many adults could have become the pupils to those they had been teaching. I know I was completely humbled by the way our teens loved and ministered to each other and recognized the presence of the Spirit moving so freely through them.

I want to end by saying...my wife is amazing. Marcie came with the boys and we roomed together through Junior Impact and then she took the kids to see cousins and friends the next two nights. The way she does these things so unselfishly for our boys is amazing and she does it without thinking of her own needs a lot of the time. It's not being "military", it's being Jesus to our boys in ways they don't even realize. I couldn't do ministry right now if I wasn't married to Marcie and the power of God moving at Impact may not have happened for those teens at Impact. I have been praying for an outpouring for some time. Thank you Marcie for letting me minister!! I love you God and I love you my precious family.

See you in Springfield Mom and Dad!!

Humbly,
Todd

Time in a Bottle

We are starting to realize that certain displays of fun and creativity around the house...won't last forever. We are assured by parents of teens that with certain challenges of every age, come new and exciting opportunities as well. Yet, there is a part of you when reflective that wants to mourn certain "stages" kids can grow out of. Something I wish that our kids wouldn't grow out of is when they put on their super-hero costumes and literally become who they are dressed up to be in a creative and imaginary world that I would love to be a part of.

With Batman, Robin, and Superman we had another superhero come into the midst who wanted to be in the pictures...pajama boy. Looks like a 1920's swimmer but he realized the moment at hand as our boys were posing for pictures several months ago that they wanted to be put on the blog. I love the innocence and imagination of children...Easton even displayed that through expressive dancing behind me as I led singing at V.B.S. this week. All my boys came up behind me last night to dance to the songs and Isaac led a prayer on stage last night in front of everyone with his older brother following it up with another (they call it prayer warrior time at the end of every night at VBS). I Love the willingness and being uninhibited...why do we tend to lose that as we get older and more "refined"!

Will be at Impact from the 13th - 21rst and will have Cole and Chase come through my class on Isaiah! Can you believe that? Love you guys and pray for us as summers are great for ministry, yet challenging on the family.