"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."  -  Hebrews 12:1

Several years ago we spent an evening with a well-known speaker who gives away 90% of his income and lives on the remaining 10%. From the first few moments we spent with him it became evident that a good deal of his success came from the focus he consistently maintained regarding his goals and purposes.
His advice was to determine your life goal and then only do things that contribute to accomplishing that goal. At the time that seemed to us to be a rather narrow way of living, yet in the years that have followed we have discovered how very true his words were.

In the much more recent past we met Larry and Judi Keefauver. Through the years we have grown to know and love them. Several years ago they determined to live their lives on purpose, focused on the assignment God has given them. When faced with any new activity or opportunity, they always ask, “Is this on purpose?”

Listening to them brought back memories of that earlier evening when another successful person asked the same question. It made us begin to take stock of our lives and how we invest our time and energy. It also made us extremely aware of how easy it is to get side-tracked from the original goal.
No doubt we have all heard the phrase, “Good is the enemy of best.” When we settle for good, we miss the blessing of best. We are all surrounded with an abundance of good. There is no end to the number of good things we can enjoy or can accomplish. Within our churches, our communities, and our jobs-just about anywhere in our lives there are opportunities to do good things. The key is to know which ones are on purpose for us.
 

"We can make great sacrifices in our lives, serve long hours, labor without pay, give up sleep, seek ways to reach people, and do all sorts of things because in ministry the list can be endless. Caught up in all this sacrifice, we could easily imagine ourselves and our efforts as pleasing to God. However, in all this activity our core motive could still be deceptively fueled by self-will."               John Bevere

Discovering Purpose

The first step is to discover what our purpose is. Without that knowledge it is impossible to determine if we are on purpose or not. Do you know that God created you for a purpose? That is the first step. Until you are sure of that, you will wander through life doing one good thing after another without ever realizing your purpose.

There is a very popular book by Rick Warren called The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? If you have not read it and are wonder ing about your purpose, it may be a real help. Week 14 of Married for Life is geared to helping couples find their purpose. There are many tools that can assist you in discovering why God created you, but the first step is you must take advantage of them and determine your purpose.
Once you have determined God’s purpose for your life, the next step is to live it.

1 John 3:8 says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus did many things while on this earth and they were all on purpose. He knew His assignment and He kept His eyes on His Father and only did what He saw Him do. He was led of the Spirit in all things and He accomplished His mission.

That is the way we also are to live our lives. Jesus lives within us and we also can be focused on our purpose and accomplish our mission on this earth. It must be done on purpose, though. We cannot just drift through life and hope it will happen. We cannot be distracted by every good work that comes along. We cannot hope to please every person that asks us and still stay focused.

God may have us do many things during our lifetime, but they will all be on purpose for what He has assigned us to do. Life should not be one long series of dabbling in things. It should instead be a consistent flow of activities that accomplish our purpose on this earth.
 

Living On Purpose

Through the years we have seen two things happen consistently. First of all, the enemy tries to keep people from discovering their purpose. He works to convince people that everyone else has a call, an assignment, a real purpose on this earth except them. He uses their background, their failures, and many other convincing arguments to assure them that they are not called.

When people finally break through that barrier and do discover their purpose, he then begins a new attack. Make them so busy and so distracted that they won’t ever accomplish it. Bring so many “good” things their way that they’ll never reach “best.” Sadly, we have seen as many succumb to this second tactic as we have seen fall for the first one.

The second verse of Hebrews 12 says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Many times people are doing good things for Jesus but are not looking unto Him. In other words, they are not seeking His face regarding their purpose. They feel that any good work done in His name is a good thing.
That is very much like a parent telling a child to mow the lawn. The child goes to the garage to get the lawn mower and sees that the trash needs to be emptied. After taking care of that, the child notices that some things have been left on the garage floor that should be on shelves. After putting those things away, the child decides the garage floor really needs a good cleaning. That job takes all afternoon and darkness falls before the child ever gets the lawn mowed.

By now most parents are asking, “Where is this child?” Try to stay with the analogy here. The goal of the parent was to get the lawn mowed. That was the assignment the child was given. Although many wonderful things were accomplished in the garage, the true assignment was never completed. 

Perhaps the parent had determined that another child in the family was to take care of the chores in the garage because that child needed practice in organizing and neatness. The parent had purpose in the assignments, but the child missed the parent’s purpose by determining his own.

Unfortunately, that is how many Christians live. The Father has sent them out into the world with an assignment, but they become distracted by all the other things that need to be done. Living on purpose means saying “no” as well as saying “yes.”  It means determining our goal, our finish line, and focusing on it. 

Paul encouraged us to run with endurance. That means consistency and steadfastness. Life is not a sprint-it’s a marathon. We can’t give it all we have for a little while and then wander around until we decide to run again.

Nor can we get involved with the spectators who are watching the race. They will always be filled with advice and criticism. Those who are not running always know the very best way to do things. The ones we want to hear from are those who have run with endurance for many years in their own lives. They have valuable experience from which we can draw and their advice is priceless. 
 

Make It Plain

How can we be sure we are living on purpose? First of all, determine your purpose. What is God’s assignment for you? Ask Him. And know that His answer will not be vague or impossible. It will be specific and do-able.

Then write it down. “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2). You are the one who is going to run, so make sure it is clear and plainly understood. Read it often. Refer to it when you are making a decision about a “good” thing. Is it part of your assignment? Read it during the challenging times. Remind yourself of what God said. Be encouragedin your assignment. Know that God believes in you and desires to see you succeed.

Set goals that will help you accomplish your assignment. Make them do-able and measurable. Set time frames in which you will examine your goals and see how you are doing. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Each time you teach lesson 13, you should be checking your goals. Are you on track? Are you on purpose?

Create steps that will help you accomplish your goals. If you believe God is calling you to the mission field, what are you doing today to prepare? Are their people in your community from the country you want to reach? Get to know them. Learn their language. Get involved in their lives and learn about their culture. Don’t just sit back waiting for a miraculous move of God to take you to that country. Start today to accomplish goals that will help you fulfill your purpose.

If you are reading this newsletter there is a good chance that God has called you to work with marriages and families. What has He asked you to do? Have you written it down? What are your goals? What have you determined to do this year? What steps do you have planned that will help you accomplish those goals? 

Each time you are faced with a decision during this year, ask yourself, “Is this on purpose?” Does it line up with God’s assignment? Will it help me accomplish what God has asked me to do? If yes, run with it. If no, lay it aside. If you stay on purpose this whole year, at this time next year there will be marriages and families transformed because of your faithfulness. And the ripples will continue out into the lives of others as well.

Just before Jesus died He said to His Father, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” May each of us be able to say that also when our days on this earth come to an end.

Welcome, John Davison!

Anyone on the receiving end of finances from the Home Office will be delighted to know we now have a full-time CFO! John Davison arrived from Oregon and is getting settled in. He and his wife Lynn have been UofF leaders for many years.

Our thanks go out to Mike Phillipps, Jr. who has been filling in until God brought John. He has been working two jobs for some time now and is also delighted that his replacement has arrived.

If you need to contact John or just want to welcome him, he can be reached at john@marriage.org

UofF Leaders Are Now Teaching In: 

Albania, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, St Kitts, St Lucia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe
 

Countries in bold are waiting for partners. 
For more information about partnering contact mmi@marriage.org

Latin American Convention

Hundreds of couples will be pouring into Guatemala City in March for the University of the Family Latin American convention. It sounds like it will be quite a festive time! 

The last we heard there is going to be marimba and mariachi music along with a mixture of presentations from all across Central and South America. It’s not too late to get a plane ticket! This is one convention you may not want to miss! 

Lenard Funck Goes Home

Lenard Funck, husband of Dorie, went home to be with the Lord on January 25th. Lenard and Dorie were the very first LIT’s in the ministry when they worked with Mike and Marilyn Phillipps in the first group in 1983. They served faithfully in this ministry for many years and then began Hope of Glory Church that has now grown into a home church network.

Lenard and Dorie had been married almost 49 years and have three children and five grandchildren. Everyone who knew Lenard remembers the twinkle that never left his eyes. He was truly filled with the joy of the Lord and will be missed by many!
 

If you would like to send a note to Dorie, she can be reached at:
Dorie Funck
8167 S Summit Dr
Morrison, CO 80465-2452

International prayer and fast day is the second Tuesday of every month

Prayer:
 

New Sweatshirts

Look on our website www.marriage.org to see the new UofF sweatshirts. Really nice!
 

International Conventions

Latin America

Guatemala City, Guatemala 
March 11-15
Contact: Gustavo and Roos’Mary Barrios   unifamilia@itelgua.com

London, England 
October 29-31 
Contact: Roy and Elaine Hitchman 
 uk.office@mmi-europe.or

Leadership Training

Germany

 12-Feb-04 Urbach
 27-Feb-04 Leipzig

Puerto Rico

 6-Feb-04 San Juan

USA

Regional Conferences scheduled

Excitement is building as planning gets underway for regional conferences across the country. 
The conferences are open to any couple, whether they have attended a group or not. Leaders, both past and present, will be receiving brochures by mail. All others will be notified through the LEGACY magazine.

We are anticipating larger turnouts since folks don’t have to travel so far to attend. If you can’t get to the conference scheduled in your region or if another one is closer to where you live, plan on attending one from another region. This will be a wonderful opportunity to renew old friendships and make new ones.
If you haven’t received your brochure yet and can’t wait to register, the contact information is listed to the right. The same information is available online. 

Make plans now to attend one of these dynamic conferences this year!

Region 1

 Portland, OR
 May 21-23
 Contact: Jim and Kathy Speer
 206 542-3669 or jks4ever1@yahoo.com

Region 2

 St Paul, MN
 Apr 30- May 2
 Contact: Brent and Pam Greenlee
 651 699-2342 or pgreenlee@prodigy.net

Region 3

 Dallas, TX
 Jun 11-13
 Contact: Ron and Sherry Torbert
 281 444-4272 or SETorbert@aol.com

Region 5

 Atlanta, GA
 Mar 25-27
 Contact: Jack and Pam McLaughlin
 407 344-2450 or webejam@earthlink.net

Group Orders 

Book orders for new groups picked up greatly in January. Hopefully the variety of conference dates will give leaders greater flexibility in scheduling groups. 

Parents for Life is taking off quickly. The testimonies from couples in the course just keep coming in! There is so much trans-generational healing occurring! As couples open their hearts to the Lord for their own children, God is healing the hearts of the parents in relationship to their own parents.

Remember, we need 3 week’s notice for group orders. That gives us plenty of time to trace down paperwork and get the books mailed. Our goal is for your group to start right on schedule but we cannot mail books at the last minute and guarantee you will get them in time for your group. We appreciate your cooperation!

Also, some confusion resulted from last month’s notice about book ordering. If you are a group leader, order your books just as you always have from the couple that is your oversight. They will deal with the order from that point on. You don’t need to be concerned about who gets the order into the home office. They’ll take care of that.

End of Year Receipts

Last week the giving receipts were mailed for tax purposes. You should receive yours soon. If couples in your group are asking, this should help you give some answers. We are so grateful for the prayer and financial support you give to the ministry. There is no way we could do it without that support.

Setting Goals

Don’t forget to set your goals for yourself, your marriage, your family, and your ministry for this year. If you need some help, go over the Life Application for week 13. 

Someone once said, “If you aim for nothing, you will probably hit it.” By setting goals and determining the steps you are going to take to achieve those goals, you can set yourself on a course for success this year.

Leadership “Family” Tree

We are currently developing a leadership family tree that will be given to each couple as they either complete FLT training or when they become an LIT. 

It is similar to a family tree but instead of entering family generations, the couple will enter the generations of leadership that emanate from the couples they disciple.

They are also available for current leaders. Many of you have several generations of leaders to record. We will be mailing them with group certificates as soon as they are ready.
 
 

"One person can have a profound effect on another. And two people...well, two people can work miracles. They can change a whole town. They can change the world. "

   - Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

Promotions Across the U.S.A.

Florida
Héctor and María Lavalle are the new Greater Miami Area Hispanic Directors.

Georgia
Clarence and Harriet Toatley  have been appointed South Atlanta City Directors.

Pennsylvania
Gabriel and Jhoanna Garcia are now the Pennsylvania State Hispanic Directors.

North and South Carolina
Craig and Christine Turner have been appointed North and South Carolina State Directors.
 

Training Opportunities

Married for Life Training

19-Feb-04 Deltona  FL
05-Mar-04 Greenlawn CA

U of F Combined Training

27-Feb-04 Riverside CA
05-Mar-04 Wilmington NC
12-Mar-04 Highlands Ranch CO 

Training is scheduled often so check the Leadership/Training information page of the website for up-to-date information.     www.marriage.org