| What's Been Happening?
Willie Batson - President, Family Builders Ministries
For the past two months I've been on my first ever Sabbatical, an extended period of leave from my customary duties. After many years of giving and doing, I needed time to refresh and refill my soul. You see, I had become driven rather than called in my daily tasks. What did I do on my Sabbatical, you ask? NOTHING! Well, almost nothing. It was impossible to avoid all of my administrative tasks, but I did have help to cover the vast majority of them. (Thank you, Suzan!) So, what did I do, really? I took time to read and meditate on areas of my private world in order to be more effective for Jesus in my outer world. For instance:
- Motivation – What makes me function as I do?
- Time – What am I to do with the amount of limited time I have in this life?
- Intellect – What am I doing with my mind?
- Spirit – What am doing with my relationship with God?
- Rest – How do I find a Sabbath peace in this life?
 I also used the time to visit friends and family. Cindy and I spent a weekend in Walterboro, South Carolina at the church where we started ministry after college. They were celebrating their annual Homecoming Weekend and I was there to speak on Sunday morning. We added a couples date night and a parenting workshop to the weekend schedule. I know it  would be considered "work," but I was energized by renewing our friendships with the wonderful people at Grace Advent Christian Church. What a joy it was to see members of the youth group we led all grown-up with kids and grandchildren of their own. We are grateful to Pastor Wayne & Ruth Lucas for inviting us back. And the homemade lemonade for Homecoming was as good as I remember it.  We also spent time relaxing at our camp at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center. Our family joined us for many of those visits and I found several "hands-on" type projects to occupy my mind. This cottage has been in Cindy's family for at least three generations. A very special event took place on July 16 as we welcomed David William Gilchrist into our family as our third grandchild, our first grandson. He is the second child of our daughter, Cammie, and her  husband, Dave. He was named for each of his grandfathers. How cool is that? We met him about an hour after his birth and spent a few days in Worcester getting to know him and hanging out with our oldest granddaughter. This picture was taken last week as David spent his first week at Alton Bay (a family tradition stemming from Cindy's father's first summer visit 92 years ago). Our grandchildren are such a bright spot in our lives. (I can hear a chorus of "Amens" echoing from many readers.)  Another special time for us was spent in western Massachusetts as Ray & Shirley MacKenzie let us use their guest house for several days. Located on top of a hill among apple trees, it was a perfect retreat for us - no TV, beautiful views of Mt. Tom in the distance, and gorgeous sunsets. We are so grateful for friends who know how to encourage us. I also had the privilege of preaching at their church (First Central Baptist Church) and see God touch hearts and lives with His message of grace. Sprinkled among all of these special times, we have been packing and preparing for a move. Our house is for sale and we have an agreement on a new house in Somersworth, New Hampshire that is contingent on the sale of our house. This is a tough market for selling a house, but we want to be closer to our church and to family in Rochester. We would appreciate your prayers for this need we have. I'm grateful to our Board of Directors who enthusiastically supported my decision to take this extended time to relax and recharge. I'm back in the saddle, refreshed and filled with a renewed sense of God's purpose for our lives and ministry.
 Cindy and Willie are celebrating 38 years of marriage tomorrow, August 19! God has used them to powerfully communicate Godly marriage and family truths to several generations through their pastoral ministries and now through Family Builders Ministries. To celebrate their wedding anniversary, Willie & Cindy are asking you to send a gift to Family Builders Ministries to help them continue building great marriages. Income this year has decreased due to the economy; however, the need for strengthening marriages and families has increased. They want to continue meeting this need.
Please consider sending either $1, $5, $10 or more for each of the 38 years the Batsons have been married. We have a secure online donation page that you can use for debit/credit cards or bank transfers. If you prefer to send your donation through regular mail, please address it to: Family Builders Ministries PO Box 274 Cape Neddick,ME 03902-0274 Thank you, in advance, for your generous gift.
Book Sale! In celebration of Willie & Cindy's 38th wedding anniversary, we are offering "Tools for a Great Marriage" at 38% off the retail price of $14.99. For a limited time (through August 31), you can purchase this acclaimed book for only $9.30 (plus shipping). That's less than we sell it at our conferences! David & Claudia Arp, international authors and marriage educators, say this about Tools for a Great Marriage: "Willie Batson gives you the blueprint for building your marriage on God's principles in a format that is simple, clear, practical, and easy to apply." Check it out now and order at this special anniversary celebration price. As an added benefit, Willie & Cindy will personally sign each book.
A Grandparenting Moment
Mollie spent the night with us and helped load the dishwasher. It's never to early to teach them to help out when they visit.
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|  Renew & Revive Your Marriage We recently received the following note about how one of our resources healed a hurting marriage: My husband and I celebrated two years of marriage this past weekend. The first two years of our marriage were not good. We'd purposed to seek the Lord's direction during a two day get-away. Before departing on July 16th, the Lord blessed me to find your "Blueprint for a Lasting Marriage Bible Study." At the time that I printed it, I was impressed with the brevity of the study, but I had no idea that the Lord would use it so mightily in our marriage. During our two-day marriage get away, we completed one study during each of our two evenings away and one study during the two mornings of our marriage retreat. God is so good!!! Through your study, He met us right where we were in our marriage. Every lesson spoke to the problem areas in our marriage. We not only reviewed what the Bible says about those areas, but completed each study individually and reviewed our answers together. The Lord used your study to strengthen our marriage! So, we are grateful to God and thankful for your ministry. We're committed to doing the project in the back of the study this week (and, Lord willing for the rest of our lives).
Praise God for what happened in the marriage of this couple. This 4-session Bible study can be used for a marriage get-away with just the two of you or you can use in a small group study with other couples. Check out a sample online. The complete study can be downloaded for $2.50 through our secure order system. | |
