Last Friday, I (Maddi) had a really great afternoon sharing the Gospel on campus with fellow staff women and some students involved in our ministry. I am thankful for the opportunity in itself because it meant that Josh was happy to stay home with his baby girl. They had a fun afternoon together and even went grocery shopping for me!!! I am spoiled rotten I tell you.

Anyways, more about campus…I was actually really nervous. I haven’t been sharing at KU yet and so often I hear about wild KU students with their hippie post-modern views : ) Praise God, He showered me with a wonderful afternoon getting to talk to people about Jesus. I talked with a few different people but one story really stands out to me.

After some time praying the Lord would guide us to seeking students, I took a student and friend named Heather and we headed off, hoping to be able to talk to some Asian students. We only saw 1 table in the union occupied by a young man and young woman. They looked deep in conversation so we avoided interrupting. After avoiding them for a few minutes though, Heather shared that the Lord was really prompting her to go up to them. Hesitantly and actually expecting rejection, we approached them and asked if they would be willing to take a spiritual interest survey. We call this a ‘spiritual ice breaker’. They agreed. Hmmm we started to think God really had a conversation planned for the four of us.

Soon after starting our survey, we found out they were a married couple from Saudi Arabia. They were also Muslims and so very sweet to us. We got to ask them many questions about their faith and background. They shared how lonely their time in America has been. It was so sweet because I got to share with them that Josh and I have been lonely in Lawrence at times but our joy comes from Jesus. They were hesitant but started warming up to us. After a while, we asked if they knew much about Christianity. They said, “No we don’t know anything about Christianity.”

Praise God – He lead us right to this couple who knew nothing about Jesus. Some students on campus have probably been exposed to the Gospel 100’s of times. God still has great plans for them. However, Friday his plan was for the first seeds to be planted in these student’s life. We got to share the Gospel with them. We told them about Easter and how death couldn’t keep Christ in its grip. We shared with them about Grace, God’s undeserved gift to us of Salvation through his only Son. We shared with them that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

We asked if they were interested in talking more about Jesus sometime. The young man said, “We are fine. But thank you for talking with us about this.” Yep, our conversation was just a seed. We know though, that God has big plans for them. I invited them over for dinner, hoping this would help them feel less lonely.

Would you pray they would email me and come eat with Josh and I sometime soon?

We kinda celebrated Mother’s Day a little early this year. I was so excited to plant some flowers for my first official Mother’s Day. Next weekend we are going to spend the ‘official’ holiday in Belton with Josh’s family so we took today to celebrate here.

SO FUN that my Dad came in town for the weekend at the last minute to spend time with us. Sad though because he had to leave my step-mom sick at home. We miss you Brenda and your green thumb!

So of course, Dad and Josh did all the hard work today : ) We planted a few flowers out front of our condo and then the majority in planters out back.

Me and my sweet pea. 

So recently we found a pair of baby sunglasses my cousin Lara passed down to us. Ruth thinks she is super fly just chillin with her Grandpa Scott.

Yea! My finished plants! I am so so so excited to water them and take care of them! I want to be a gardener, I really do. Here is the only problem I foresee, I am so so scared of bees. So Josh promised a follow up gift  of a big can of wasp spray to sit outside with me at all times. 

Josh’s favorite part about the weekend: My dad….’s bike. He has been finding reasons to ride it all day. So fun for him though, and nice of Dad to let him ride it. Dad and I have been doing a lot of praying while he is out riding. 

My last words for Josh before he took off, ” Remember, my baby needs a Daddy.”

If you asked Josh his favorite mission trip that Campus Crusade sends students on every year, he would without a doubt say BIG BREAK. It is our version of a wild college Spring Break Trip. The wild part being the insane amount of students that come to know the Lord over the week through the Holy Spirit using the efforts of the college students we send to do evangelism on the beach in Panama City. (worst run on sentence of all time)

Here are the numbers from this years 4 weeks of Spring Break trips. Take a moment or 30 to praise the Lord!!!

At Big Break this year, 2,985 attendees engaged in 12,862 spiritual conversations. Wow! Over 5,000 students heard the Gospel and nearly 1,000 learned about the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit. And, God prepared the hearts of 486 people who made a decision to put their faith in Christ!
Big Break changes the lives of so many, including those who participate in the conference. Here’s a glimpse of what some of our students experienced last month:
“God opened an opportunity for me to share the Gospel with my best friend from high school (I haven’t seen or talked to him in 3 years, but he happened to be in PCB at the same time as me).”
“At Big Break I had the chance to pray out loud in a group setting in a way that I was always scared to do before.”
“I got to pray for a guy who was using alcohol to deal with his family problems.”

“On the third night of the conference, I actually gave my life to Christ, and right away I could see a difference. It was so much easier for me to share my faith with people on the beach the next few days and I could already see my relationships with the people I was with getting stronger. It was an amazing week.”

“I came back to school on Saturday and by Monday I already had two deep conversations about religion and Christ with some fraternity brothers who I wanted to reach out to. God prepared them for the conversations and everything just flowed. The training I had from Big Break helped SO much and the KGP and Perspective cards were a must.”

“[Two freshman] girls told me that before this trip they had never really shared their faith, but that through BB the Lord was really burdening their hearts for the lost and opening their eyes to ways they could be witnesses for Him. This is why I am involved in this movement!!”

And last of all, certainly least of all, take a moment to pray that Josh can lead students from KU on this trip next year.  His life would be complete : )

Hello my name is Ruth. I hate taking naps in my crib SO much. So my desperate Mama who is trying her darndest to meal plan for the week makes me a palette on the floor so she can get something done without me screaming for an hour.

From Maddi – probably not my shining moment but I do what works and it is weirdly freeing to put it out there for all to see! In the meantime I am working so hard to make my Mondays successful grocery days. couponmom.com has officially changed my life : )

Alright, I hope everyone who reads this feels just a little bit less guilty about those moments that you buckle under pressure because I sure did it today!

I can’t believe that I have been so bad about putting pictures and stories up on the blog the past few weeks. We have been busy for sure. The Lord has gifted us with new support and encouraging appointments with partners. We are at 89% of our final goal! YEA! In the meantime, we have kept busy! I thought I would put up a few fun pictures and fill you all in on some fun times..

I got to spend an AMAZING few days with my bestie Stephanie and throw her a super fun (well in my opinion it was) wedding shower! I love Steph and I am so excited for her to be married to DJ – her SUPER WONDERFUL FIANCE.

I made her play a silly shower game. I think she had 9 grapes in her mouth when I snapped this shot. Sorry Ste, you made the blog : ) While she was in town, Josh let us have slumber parties in bed and he took the couch – because he is wonderful. Anyways, we just had a sweet sweet moment one night when we caught a glimpse of the Lord’s faithfulness and steadfast love for us. We met in college when Steph wasn’t even a Christian and I was a new baby believer. Now, we look at our lives and the Lord’s good gifts to us and we are amazed at the One who could love us more than anything and do more than we could ask or imagine. Yep, we cried for a bit and fell asleep praising Jesus.

New news – Ruth walks. Everywhere. She loves to explore. My favorite is when she holds my hand and we walk into a building together or down the aisles at the store. PRECIOUS. The next few pictures are from Josh’s Dad’s surprise birthday party in Raymore last weekend. Curt turned 60 so all four of his sons came into town to take him to the Royals game.

We had a blast last weekend with family and of course it was so fun celebrating with Curt. Ruth also LOVED playing with her cousin Adelyn. They took a bath together and dried off with their adorable new towels that their Aunt Maureen made for them. These girls are loved like WHOA.

Probably my favorite moment of the weekend was Ruth and Adelyn playing in Sophie Dog’s cage. They were entertained for such a long time. Notice that Adelyn took her pants off because Ruth had hers off. They played so well together. I think they will be besties one day! Sweet Adelyn loved baby Ruth!

And we are caught up. This picture is from yesterdays walk at Clinton Lake here in Lawrence. Ruth was so happy to be outside. My legs are still sore from jogging part of the trail. The best part was that my mom was here to enjoy it with us. We had such a great weekend together. I will post some pics later this week of Ru in the dress Mom helped me sew for her. Where are pictures of Ruth and Grandma? I love my momma too much to post pictures of her makeup free in her sweats – in fact, the only picture I have of her in this natural state, I had to sneak : ) You are beautiful Momma and you don’t even need the makeup!

Hope you all are having a good month! Are you loving the warm weather?

Could I love the staff ladies I work with more?!? I don’t think so. Its just not possible. They are great. On top of being great, fun, SAFE, kind, funny ladies – they are FANTASTIC MAMAS!

We took the babies and Aaron to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in downtown Lawrence a few weeks ago and had so much fun. 

We had a front row seat to watch the semi interesting parade (Aaron called it the “festival”). The really fun part though was visiting and laughing together. We laughed while Rebecca (on the left) went into full force Parade Mom Mode helping Aaron get every piece of candy possible. And we laughed while Paige and Ruth watched the parade with weaning interest.

Praise God for these ladies. They are so faithful to work hard with college students and then they are great wives and mothers in the meantime! LOVE THEM!

For a fun update, we are now at 86% of our support goal. When we get to 100, we get to finally work full time with students and tell them all about the God who loves them!

I had a hard start to my week though. Lots of anxiety and some impatience about our support. The Lord in His faithfulness was so tender with me though. I spent a half day with Him on Monday while Josh was on Daddy duty (love that man!). On the way to the coffee shop to spend some time with God, I heard a song with the lyric, “The One who holds the world is holding my heart” I just had a moment with God and he reminded me how BIG He is but how much He cares about the little details of my silly life. Its not always silly, but sometimes it is.

Since then I have been reading John 10.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

I am just so thankful to be one of His sheep. Josh is too. We are so aware this week that He is indeed our Good Shepherd. He knows us and we know Him.

This picture really doesn’t show anything except Ruth’s new love for throwing fits and her super cute new hair bow I made.

Let me start by saying I LOVE being a Fieleke!!! I am in the greatest family with amazing in-laws. This weekend, though, I took a walk down Fick lane. My Dad and stepmom Brenda came in town along with my brother Brock and his fiance/ my future sister in law, Jessica. THEN, my Uncle Gary and cousin Morgan just happened to drive through Lawrence tonight so they stopped for dinner. SO FUN. So this post will be my ode to Ficks.

Sunday morning breakfast with the men in the kitchen….

Ruth was loving on her Uncle. And apparently it made Brock go cross-eyed.

What is this you ask…the basket of all of my coffee mugs that was sitting high on the counter way beyond Ruth’s reach. She reached them anyways and pulled them off the counter. I am now drinking my coffee out of the same mug each morning. Josh is ok though because his Nebraska mug was safe in the cupboard. Lucky.

I am sad Brenda didn’t make it into this picture. SORRY! Right before we took this, I told Jess to look like she was having a ton of fun. Ruth must not have heard me….

Morgan, Ruth, and I. Aren’t you feeling the Fick love???

Uncle Gary and Ruth. We had suck a fun evening with them!

In conclusion, the Ficks are just great.

We went to Springfield this last weekend for a wedding. My friend Heather got married to a great guy named Stephen. We have been family friends since I was born so it was really neat to be at her wedding. We got to spend great time with my Mom and Stepdad and Josh and I even got to sneak out on a date after Ruth went to bed Saturday night.

I thought I would share some pictures from the weekend. 

Ruth is learning how to eat with her spoon. Lets just put it this way…I am doing a lot of laundry these days.

I promise her Papa and Juju don’t bore her. It was just a funny shot!

We are pretty darn happy.

Mom’s girl.

She has learned to hold her phone up to her ear and say “ehhhoooo”. She also does this with her pacifier, remote, and anything else she happens to have in her hand.

Wasn’t Heather a BEAUTIFUL bride?!?!!? It was such a pretty wedding. I love love : )

We have officially recovered from a brutal cold that knocked us all down for a few days last week. The upside of this was spending a few days with Ruth at the house. It was fun to watch her play when she was feeling up to it. She is just sooo busy. I love it. I love watching her explore her way through life.

She just discovered her bookshelf in her bedroom. If only she would sit and read the books. Not for now. Instead, she takes them off of the shelves everyday. Before

and after.

On a fun ministry update, I got to have the college girls over Tuesday night for a Bible Study that our other staff ladies Emily and Katie lead. They do a great job. We are spending the semester doing what we call ‘Soul to Soul’. Each week one girl shares her whole story. We are talking 45 minutes of sharing hurts, joys, family life, boyfriends, and their own story of how Jesus saved their life. It is such a beautiful time each week. This last week a student named Katie shared. It was really neat to hear her story. I could tell that Jesus is doing so much in her life right now.

Josh and I have just been praising God this week for his power in our life and for calling us into our role in His Great Story. It is really fun to know that our sole job in life is to tell people about how much Jesus loves them and how Great He is. I get to share my story with the girls at Bible Study in a few weeks. I am really excited to share with them.

Here is a picture of some of the girls last Tuesday.