THE STORY OF FJ MINISTRIES

FJ Ministries is the vision God laid on our hearts. Our mission of F.A.I.T.H. is "Families reaching families as Avenues to the nations, Igniting passion for God and compassion for people, Teaching and training with Hearts and hands revealed." Colossians 2:6. We pray tha tGod will enable us to reach families and facilitate their particpation in the Great Commission. May our heart's passion be for God and for serving others and, in so doing, encourage others to the same passion.

FJ were the two letters God gave us individually on July 26, 2006, in Kona, Hawaii, as we prayed over what our ministry should be. Tara and I prayed together more in the last couple of months than we have in our twelve year marriage.

For Tara, FJ was "for Jim." Jim was a friend of Tara's during her teenage years who had a heart for God and missions. He had gone to Haiti as a young teenager and wanted to see God's ministry furthered. Unfortunately, for reasons only God truly knows, Jim decided to end his life. In the wake of the grief over that loss, Tara told God that she wanted to do whatever it was God had planned for Jim to do. It was not until the night we were praying together some twenty years later that God reminded her of that promise to Him.

For Bryan, FJ was "finding Jubilee." Jubilee was our first "child." We were both in school, without any income, but we saved to buy a poodle. We named her Jubilee and we paid $400 for her. Ten days after we received her, she died in a terrible accident. It happened the same day our niece, Corissa Calico, was born and as I rushed to the hospital to see Corissa's birth. I was carrying Jubilee outside our apartment to let her "use the lawn," when something startled her and she jumped. As I tried to catch her she was flipped head down and fell onto a concrete sidewalk, suffering a fatal head injury at the tender age of 9 weeks.

Jubilee also, of course, is the year God told the Israelites to rest for a second sabbath year, letting the land lay fallow, the slave be set free, and all debts be forgiven. It was to occur every 50th year (following the 49th, or 7th of 7 Sabbath years). Leviticus 25. Unfortunately, the Israelites never had the faith to obey God in this precious gift of grace and failed to follow His command regarding entering His rest during the Year of Jubilee.

We hope that through FJ Ministries we can teach others about entering God's rest and Jubilee--that God would increase all of our faith and bring us to unity and to the fullness of our gifts so tha the world may know that Jesus is their salvation. Romans 12, John 17. Jesus taught that "unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, myservant will also be. My Father honors the one who serves me." John 12:24-26. We now know that the deaths that God reminded us of as we prayed, and our own willingness to give up our own lives, will produce many seeds in the lives of innumerable people, thus bringing God glory and showing that Jesus is the reason for our hope to all the world.

What was really fun was then decompressing after our time of prayer and realizing that God's gift of FJ to us also stood for such things as Families for Jesus, Forgiveness in Jesus, Faith in Jesus, Faith and Joy, Following Jesus, Finding Jesus, Finding Joy, Fellowship in Jesus, Friendship in Jesus, Friend of Jesus, Faithfulness and Joy, and so on and so on. And, in that we rejoiced as God was already beginning to multiply His work in our hearts.