As we closed last semester and asked each other some questions, Josh and I (and our intern, Katie) closed with this question, “What do we want God to do next semester at KU.” We had many ideas and prayers to answer the question with. As I continued praying through that over the next few days, God gave me one clear thing to pray for our students and it was, “Lord, Give them Action”.

They have faith, they know Truth, they love God and they love people. Now please Lord, give them actions to show these things to be real in their lives. Their hearts have changed, give them action. I knew it would be the Lord who did that so I just prayed.

Fast forward to February and we are in the swing of things. As the semester has gotten underway, I have been amazed at how God has answered prayer. The students are amazing me as they serve in new ways. They are planning outreaches, inviting friends to Cru and Bible Studies, planning prayer groups, hosting events all with one mind and purpose – that people would see Jesus in them and want more.

I love our students with all of my heart and then some. Here are some pictures from events lately

Josh reading a Bible Story to start off a Servant Team meeting

Bowling together to kick off Servant Team for the Semester

My view from sitting in the back of a weekly meeting (Worship together and a Message)

Super Bowl Party!

And now here are some updates with family pictures : )

Lydia is getting to be such a big girl and says lots of words

Josh and I sneak off on date nights occasionally thanks to generous friends and babies that go to bed at 6:30 or 7

My best friend in the whole world, Stephanie, was in town for a few days this week and Ruth loved on her baby Boy in the oven, Beckett.

My favorite new picture in all the world. This is my life and I love it!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

What a busy month! We are just getting our January newsletters out in the mail over the next few days and wanted to put a whole photo album in each envelope! Since that wouldn’t work out so well, I thought I would add some stories and pictures to our blog : )

The end of December was so fun! We had party after party to wrap up the semester with students! We had a girls Headband and Hot Chocolate party and a big fun Jingle Bell Jam where we all got to dance the night away! It felt like we got to celebrate all month and it was so fun – we were constantly celebrating that Jesus left being King of Heaven and came as a baby so we could all experience life at its fullest in Him!

Christmas was wonderful. Ruth had so much fun celebrating Jesus and she helped all of our hearts to celebrate with a childlike excitement! She said, “WOW, Jesus gets lots of birthday parties!”

The picture below was our family on Christmas morning!

Lydia Joy is almost 8 months old! She is so precious!

Now Josh is off with the computer for a week of Summer Project Training! We have our official placement for a mission trip we will help lead this summer. I will tell you all about it later this month : )

I will close with a picture from some of our group at DCC. It was a great week (minus our whole family getting sick) and our students had such special time with the Lord. They all had a TON of fun too!

I (Maddi) started a Advent devotional today and I just love it.

Here is the link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/good-news-of-great-joy-free-advent-ebook

The part from today that struck me the most was this,”Build God-centered anticipation and expectancy and excitement into your home—especially for the children. If you are excited about Christ, they will be too. If you can only make Christmas exciting with material things, how will the children get a thirst for God? Bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of the King’s arrival visible for the children.”

I have been noticing lately how busy I get and how I tune out my sweet two year old saying, “Mama, play with me!!” So Jesus gave me a sweet reminder. And boy did we play. We got out little baby Jesus (2 inches tall from our nativity set) and put Him in our manger (2 foot wide wagon) and Ruth pretended she was Mary. We all gave our treasures to sweet Baby Jesus. She gave Him a candy cane, Mama gave Him her Bible, and Daddy gave Him his wallet. Ruth was telling Baby Jesus about each treasure and said, “Baby, this Bible is all about you!” It was so worth it to bend the efforts of my imagination and celebrate little Baby King Jesus this morning. 

It reminds me of a conversation I had on campus with a student recently. She was from Portugal and so sweet. When we approached her and asked if we could talk about spiritual things, she said, “I am not really a spiritual person, but sure.” It turns out she was more spiritual than most people I meet. She grew up Catholic and felt scared to ever ask anyone about her doubts and questions. This has led her to doubt that there is a God at all. She was a delight to talk to. She even said, “Thank you for talking with me about this – I enjoy getting to hear your point of view and still feel like you respect where I am coming from.”

The best part of our conversation is when she allowed me to share the Gospel with her. As I shared with her Christ’s words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”, I asked what her response was to this. She said,”It really bothers me. I will have to give it more thought. You see, when I was Catholic, I didn’t love much about it but I really loved Jesus.”

I am loving Jesus today too. How can I not celebrate that He left being King in Heaven and came as a helpless baby to save this mess of a Mama from her frantic life. In Him, I have rest, and peace, and all the treasure I need.

I hate trying to come up with titles for each post but I suppose this is just what it says – a family update. Of course we are busy working with students – loving them and helping them love Jesus. We also spend lots of time as a family and with dear friends. We have taken a few trips home to Springfield lately and Josh spent a week apart from the girls so he could go to a Cru Directors meeting in Colorado. Maddi got to help throw two baby showers and catch up with friends and family. All the while, our girls are growing and changing so quickly! 

Here is our family trip to the pumpkin patch with some great friends!

Lydia loved all the fall colors

 

 

 Ruth loved on our friend Clay and the big huge pumpkins! Huge is one of her favorite new words

Lydia eats food now but she still isn’t sure if she likes it.

 

 

 

Maddi’s Pappaw and Grandma came to meet their newest little great granddaughter. 

 Ruth clearly just enjoys herself almost all the time and loves time with her JuJu and Papa!  

 

 Spending time with Grandparents and Great Grandparents is so special! 

 Maddi and some Fieleke women threw a shower for their cousin Kim and her ‘little sprout’

 

 

  Lydia and her Great Grandma spent some time bonding at the shower! 

  

We had a Fieleke Fall Festival and the girls got to dress up! 

 

 Maddi got to reunite with college roommates to throw a baby shower for the newest little one on his way – Canyon Ebert! 

We hope you are also getting to enjoy family and friends this fall! And as always we hope you too are experiencing the love of Jesus everyday! 

 

What a weekend! It feels like Sunday night as I sit here but I know its not because Josh is at Bible Study in the dorms and Parenthood comes on in an hour – I love Tuesdays! 

Thanks for your prayers for our Fall Getaway! It was a sweet weekend. Josh and I have so many memories at Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp – haha yes that is really the name of the place. Its like they just couldn’t decide on one name and said lets go with all of them! 

Anyways, we along with our co-worker Katie got to spend the weekend with 250 students (40 of them from KU) learning about Jesus and having tons of fun. Here are some pictures from the weekend – 

It was just a ton of fun! Picture worshipping with hundreds of excited college students and learning lots and lots about Jesus…and throw in some silly videos and emcees too 🙂

Ruth was little miss helper this weekend. Here she is above helping check in the KU girls when they arrived. She is fearless! 

My Dad and Step Mom planned on helping us with the girls this weekend but sadly she got sick. Dad still got to come and help out a ton! I was so thankful to get to go hang out with the girls lots and get to know them better. They may think I am a little nutty though because Lydia and my nursing cover came with me all over that place. ha! I answered lots of nursing questions : ) Glad the girls still like me!

Lots of time in God’s Word this weekend. Insert cheesy posed picture….WAIT it wasn’t posed! Josh just has quick camera skills and catches the good shots 🙂

I am so bummed because we didn’t all make it in the group shot! But here are some of the awesome KU students hanging out before the bonfire one night. 

Lydia is into everything! Luckily we had lots of eyes to watch her this weekend. If something is close to her, she wants to pick it up and put it in her mouth!And my sweet sleepy girl! She spent lots of time in my arms this weekend and I loved it! While Ru was off fishing with Dad and Grandpa, Lydia and I got in lots and lots of cuddles. 

It was a sweet weekend and we are having fun over the next few weeks following up with students – helping them process what they learned there and what God has for them to keep learning! 

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too! 

 

 

 

Ruth spent lots and lots of time on the potty today! Praise God! We have been hoping she would want to use the potty one day soon and she just woke up this morning and something clicked. My mom was even here to witness her first time voluntarily sitting down to go pee pee. Oh the things I would have never known would be so exciting before I had kiddos : ) She even told her Daddy tonight when he was putting her down for bed, “I need to go potty one more time.” He said ok thinking she was just stalling and turns out she just knew what she needed to do. Yea!!!

I guess all this change today is making me feel very sentimental so I thought I would put a few pictures up of our sweet girls. God is so good to us.

 

 

 

Ruth loves to pray for anything and anyone. Sometimes it is her curtains or fingers but other times she prays for Josh, Lydia and I. She is learning to ask ‘why’ all the time but we make her obey us before she gets to ask why. So a frequent sentence we hear is, “Ok Mom and Dad…..now I ask why???” Oh goodness, she is so sweet. And Lydia Joy is just that – a JOY! She is learning to take naps on her own and give her Mom’s arms a break. She rolls over all the time and I think she would love it if she could eat real food all the time. She grabs at our plates and cups all through our meals!

Thanks for the ‘oohhhs and awwwwss’ We are thankful for you. Ok ok I can’t help it…one more. Sweet Lydia can’t keep her tongue in her mouth – its just too big!!

 

Sweet friends and family have been asking a lot these last few weeks how Josh and I are doing with all the activities going on with school starting. I think I half expected to say,”HELP US we are living in chaos!” Oh but the Lord has better for us. In His kindness, he has given us lots of energy and helped us to enjoy the high pace of life on campus the first few weeks!

Outreach has been so fun. And just when it gets a little draining going to door after door in the dorm rooms, the Lord has given each of us a conversation where He was honored and glorified and refreshed our weary souls. Talking about the Gospel to someone who is thirsty for it is one of the most life giving things EVER!

Our most recent newsletter was so fun to write. We are celebrating all that the Lord has done in one short month of school! He is drawing people to Himself in really awesome ways. We often feel like we are just watching Him do all the REAL work and letting us have fun throwing parties for students!

I wanted to share some pictures of life here on campus and of course, my precious daughters : )

Top left: we had a private party at Orange Leaf after our first Cru Meeting! All the students had fun reconnecting and meeting the newcomers. Top right: Maddi’s great-grandma Sally went home to Jesus in August. We went to Springfield to be with family and celebrate her life-long legacy of loving Jesus and us so very well! Bottom: Josh speaking at our third weekly meeting about the Gospel! We have been having fun going over the basics about Jesus’ wild love for us and sharing with about 60-65 students each week!

Thanks for your prayers and financial partnerships. It is the beginning of the school year that it strikes us the most that we couldn’t be sharing with students everyday if the Lord hadn’t brought YOU into our lives to partner with us! Our biggest prayer right now is that the Lord would bring 40 or even 50 students to our fall getaway in two weeks! It is a time of diving DEEP into their relationships with God!! Would you please lift that up to the Lord with us? He is ABLE!

Love, The Fieleke’s

PS. Best quote since school has started is during announcements at CRU. The announcements often include the time and place of events – for example – pancake tailgate Sat morning at the Fieleke’s. A freshman group was overheard saying, “WHATS A FIELEKE???“

I have laundry piled around my house and a DIRTY kitchen but my mind is full so I thought I would process and type. I journal often for the girls about how good Jesus is to us and how He loves us. But this time, I thought I would put it on my blog. No offense, not really for anyone to read and respond to, just for me to have and share.

Girls, 

This world is broken. People are broken. One of the results is that hurt people, hurt people. People argue and disagree. It has always happened and it always will. But you will go through life confused as Christians if you don’t understand one really important thing. You were created for ETERNITY. It is written in our hearts. Jesus didn’t just make you to live life on this earth. Yes, it is part of it, but not the whole story. Just a chapter. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom”. 

It is very tempting to make your whole life revolve around this world and it’s realities. Lots of Christians do. And for sure, people who don’t know Jesus do it too. But God has great plans for you little ones. Jesus told His followers,

 “If the world hates you, remember it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of this world. I chose you to come out of this world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you – A slave is not greater than the master – Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the One who sent me.” (John 15:18-21)

You could spend all of your life complaining in person, on Facebook, on blogs : ) about the things you deserve, your rights, how its just not fair. But if anyone understands it is Jesus, and He never complained that it wasn’t fair. Talk to Him about it, ask Him for a new heart. Remember, all of our rights were nailed to the cross with Him and now we live for His glory!

In this life, please don’t waste time fighting for the world’s approval. Jesus promised it isn’t coming. Instead, love everyone. Judge no one. Tell anyone who will listen about how great Jesus is and how much He loves them. If they listen, praise God. If they don’t, that is ok too. We aren’t their judge, He is. And even when it seems like the whole world is against Him, remember the Gospel and praise Him for the end of the story – A new world where Jesus is King and sorrows are gone. He will rule in righteousness and we will be His heirs! People will totally laugh at this hope we have. Thats ok – don’t laugh back. Just pray for them. 

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”(Colossians 3:1-4)

Your Dad and I love you girls and we are proud of you, even though you are just babies. I will pray that these truths penetrate your hearts! Jesus has big plans for you little ones. 

Love, Momma

 

Well, I (Josh) thought it may be about time to write a “guest” entry into our website! As the beginning of another school year is quickly coming, I’ve been thinking back to an article out of a student paper here at KU. It’s called the “Jayplay.” If you couldn’t tell by the title, it can have some pretty interesting articles in this paper.

I wanted to write about this all year because I read the article at the beginning of last school year. It was in the first few weeks of school and I opened up the paper to read an article called, “Kansas in Heat – How to Have a 1-Night Stand.” It included bullet-points such as: Have foreplay with the lights on, be prepared for bad sex, and Don’t exchange information – don’t promise to call.

I imagine you are as shocked as I was right now. Not many things that happen on college campuses surprise me anymore, but I was deeply saddened as I read this article. I was thinking about all of the new freshman coming to KU and reading this article in their first few weeks at school. There is so much pressure on them socially already and this paper did nothing to help them. Students are constantly pulled in so many directions – so many forces are fighting for their attention and actions.

Would you please pray with us for the students at KU, especially the incoming freshman? They are not coming into an environment that points them to Jesus. Please pray that Jesus would grab their hearts and they could get plugged into communities like Cru that would encourage them to live their lives for God instead of for themselves and instant gratification.

We can’t believe our BIG GIRL Ruth turned two today! Yesterday we threw her a Minnie Mouse party and our sweet family and friends came to celebrate with her! It was so special! We wanted to share some pictures from the party so here they are:

Our Happy Family of Four! Lydia slept through the whole party – what a stinker : )

I made Mickey and Minnie headbands for people out of foam but poor Josh’s didn’t hold up so well. 

Pluto came by our house and buried lots of little toys in a sandbox! So the kiddos had fun digging up the toys to take home. Some of them liked the sand better so they bagged that up and took it home instead!

I made the big girl a Minnie birthday cake and she had SO much fun blowing out the candles. 

Sissy Love : ) Ruth just loves Lydia so much and we can’t get enough of them cuddling! So sweet! 

Well, that is our weekend! We had so much fun with family and now we are looking forward to our weeks. I am learning to ‘do two’ babes at home when Josh takes off to work during the days. Thankfully the nights aren’t too sleepless and we are both still functioning! Praise God for a sleeping baby! 

I had lots of thoughts to write about Ruth and the last two years God has given us with her but Lydi is crying on my lap and doesn’t like the keyboard much  : ) So I’m out for now! 

Good Night!