How does this happen? How does a 27-year-old healthy athlete just die overnight? Tyler Skaggs, starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Texas yesterday morning. Nothing but questions remain. The police say no foul play or suicide is suspected. It’s a shocker.
On this week of national holidays — Canada: today; U.S.: Thursday; Hong Kong: today, not so happy (see below) — it’s important to refocus our direction and calling. Sometimes we forget how significant this message of Grace Turned Outward really is right now. You need to grasp how important you are because of this message of Grace. One of our volunteers has captured this significance in a stirring prophetic message I pass on to you today. This is one for the refrigerator door.
One of the things we have learned through this campaign is who some of our influencers are here at the Catch. Peter Herschend saw a community; Marti built it; Shar’i filled a need within it with tangible acts of love; Herb Hellums made a place to belong; Neil McCauley, Bob Jennings and Noel Stookey opened it up to the marketplace; Dave Kelley, Mike High, Pat Klever and Mike Boland are making a way to advance the ministry by expanding the ministry; and Terri Main is taking that plan to millions through social media.
As we pointed out in a recent Catch, our cornerstone philanthropic investor, Peter Herschend, envisioned a community cyber church and in 2012 went to work making that vision real. Between then and now, the Lord has brought many leaders to the ministry who connected with Peter’s vision and vowed to cause the ministry to become vital and its community to grow. Among those pioneers we would like to recognize the following:
Marti and I have shared a story since we first met. It’s a little drama we play out. One of us asks the other, “How much do you love me?” And the other holds out a hand showing a little teeny gap between thumb and first finger, “This much…” When the questioner feigns disappointment, the other finishes the remark — “This much (and drawing a line out from the thumb) … around the whole world!”
by Marti Fischer
Along with her husband, JJ, we continue to grieve over the loss of The Catch Ministry’s Elder and Prayer Warrior, Shar’i.
The Catch Ministry would not exist without the power of prayer. And I am not sure why I am existing without the power of Shar’i. That was just the kind of woman she was. No one could walk away from being with her without being significantly changed and challenged. Shar’i was fearless in her faith and always a vibrant, action-oriented believer in the power of prayer.
You are an influencer if:
you want to make a difference in somebody’s life;
you have a gift and you want to use it;
you want to be found doing the will of God when the Lord comes back;
you want to make right what’s gone wrong;
you want people to feel like they’ve been with the Lord when they’ve been with you;
you want everyone to know that the grace that has been bestowed upon you is available to them, too;
and, finally, you are an influencer if you are reading this right now!
Most of us have been downtown, pulled into a parking place, ready to fish out a coin for the meter, only to find there’s still time on it. It kind of feels good. A little guilty pleasure. We’re getting something for nothing.
Nearly all of us will go through things in our lives that have the potential of destroying us but they don’t. We survive, we move on, we grow stronger. What’s more those intense times help create a quality of endurance in us that can help with the everyday stresses of life.
God doesn’t need your money. Neither do we.
It’s simple. This Ministry is going to continue with or without you. In fact, it could go on without us. Why? The message of Grace Turned Outward is bigger than any one of us. It’s a God Message and God will be the one to carry it out.
John Fischer The Catch 