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Volume 31: December 2008
Inside This Issue:
Welcome
Who is New Beginnings
What’s New-
December 2008 Feature Article
Monthly Fitness Tips
Team News/Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
What Have you Been Reading?
Book Recommendation
Book Blog
Upcoming Events-
Reminders-Church Link and Newsletter Signup
Word of Encouragement
New Beginnings Scripture for December
Our Mission Statement
Welcome-
Welcome to the New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries family. We consider it a privilege to support your fitness efforts. We welcome your suggestions and ideas, so please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your experience with the monthly newsletter, website, weekly messages or message board more beneficial. We can be contacted at contactus@mynewtemple.org. It is our prayer to bring you words of encouragement and inspiration to motivate you to become fit physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. This is your New Beginning and we want to make it an awesome experience for you. As you begin this new adventure we are praying for you.
Who are we?
New Beginnings is a fitness ministry established in 2003 to offer a holistic approach to fitness that includes mind, body and spirit. A fitness ministry also serves to help people help themselves through physical and spiritual exercise. At New Beginnings we believe good health is a gift from God and can be obtained by following biblical principles as we lead a balanced life physically, mentally, spiritually and relationally.
What’s New?
It is our prayer that each of you had a very blessed Thanksgiving. We pray that you were able to spend it with Family and Friends and to express your gratitude to God for all that He has provided for you even if things are not perfect. Remember that even when things are not exactly the way that we want them to be, we are still blessed. You are blessed if you can hear, see or speak. You are blessed if you can walk or talk. Notice we did not use the word and we said or, meaning we don’t have to have everything. We are blessed if we can do this or that, because there are always others that are worse off than we are. Be thankful for what you do have.
We want to express our heartfelt love and gratitude for each one of you during this holiday season. We thank God for your encouragement, support and patience with us. We thank Him for allowing you to be part of our family.
Love and Blessings to you and yours during this blessed holiday season.
From the New Beginnings Team
Monthly Feature Article-
Connected By Our Love!
By Angela Willingham-on behalf of New Beginnings Holistic Fitness and The Fitness Angel Show
Several years ago as we started to move forward with the New Beginnings Ministry and even The Fitness Angel Show, many issues rose up that impact people, that we felt compelled to address. The issues related to relationships, emotions, spirituality and our physical conditions. How do you deal with these issues with all of our differences?
As we looked at specific issues related to, marital discord, divorce, infidelity, emotional eating, drug addition, cancer, health issues, bad relationships, rejection, suicide, child abuse, adoption, emotional and physical abuse we found they were not related to race, culture, economic or religious background. These issues and so many more are no respecter of where we come from or what we look like. These issues do not care how much money you have or where you live. These issues can and do impact us all.
We determined to move forward in dealing with them by first realizing that none of the issues of life is specific to a culture, economic, racial or religious background. The man or woman at the grocery store that is struggling with the loss of his or her wife due to cancer suffers the same as someone who loved their spouse and lost them and comes from a different racial background. The pain is the same. Issues cross cultural, racial, economic and religious backgrounds, so when we deal with them, we can leave all of those factors out and just deal with the issue. We are united in our suffering if we can look past our differences.
We may deal with our situations differently based on our backgrounds, but we will deal with the same issues. Maybe you would go to your pastor, to the church or go in for counseling while someone from another background was taught not to trust counselors so they try to handle their pain themselves or they try to mask it or medicate it, but we will have to experience it.
These are Kingdom issues and the issue of being separated by our differences has been bothering us for a while. There is no black heaven or white heaven. There is no black or white drug addiction. There is no black, hispanic or white emotional eating problem. There is no black, white or hispanic bad relationship issue and infidelity is not relegated to a race, culture or economic status either, they impact us all. When my sister cries, I cry, because she is hurting and I do not care what color she is, she is hurting. When my brother suffers because his wife divorced him, I do not look at the situation and blame either of them based on who has what, I encourage and attempt to provide support.
It is time to forget about our differences and focus on the things we have in common. It is time to be obedient to love one another. Revelation 2:4, says 4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned (A) the love you had at first.
We have to love God and love each other, not because of what we look like, but because of who we are, God’s children. As a ministry that is our approach. It is about the people, it is about the kingdom. When you hurt we don’t care what you look like, we only care that you hurt and want to know what we can do to help you get better and walk in the purpose God has for you. For us it is about the kingdom not our differences. It is our prayer that you will adopt and attitude that connects and unites us by our love and stops dividing us by our differences.
Love and Blessings to you from New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc. www.mynewtemple.org and The Fitness Angel Show www.myfitnessangel.com
Monthly Fitness Tips-
Weight Loss Tip # 30
Don’t Skip Meals
We think we are going to drop pounds fast by skipping a meal, but that just leaves us hungrier when the next opportunity to eat comes along. Your body then goes into starvation mode, thinking it’s in the middle of a famine and orders you to eat the very next thing you see and much more of it.
Even if you are not doing this intentionally to try to lose weight, skipping meals is not good for you. The end result could be your eating more the next time you eat.
Check out the New Beginnings Message Board for more tips that will benefit you under the Physical Fitness Category. www.mynewtemple.org. If you would like to add your own tips and suggestions please feel free to do so. If you have forgotten your password submit a request to have it sent to you or reset through the message board sign in screen.
As always we encourage you to see a physician before beginning any exercise program. Take the first step by getting up and doing something to take care of your most valuable resource, Your Health.
New Beginnings Team News-
 A renewed collaboration between The Fitness Angel and New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc. You will be hearing more and seeing more of The Fitness Angel on the New Beginnings site. For those who found his insight on previous audio recordings insightful, and the discussion of the different points of view challenging, watch for more to come. If you have never heard one of the podcast go to the podcast link and check them out. Remember we want to challenge each of us to rethink what we think.
Don’t forget to check out The Fitness Angel www.myfitnessangel.com. If you have not been checking it out The Fitness Angel is creating a new weekly encouragement video just for members of the fitness community. You have to be a registered member to see his video, so if you went to the site and didn’t register you are missing some of the perks. He has been encouraging us using the book God Is In The Small Stuff, by Bruce and Stan. This is an excellent book and we encourage you to read it if you haven’t.
You can create your own personal free account and sign up for the bi-monthly newsletter. Remember the newsletter is only a help to you if you open it so we encourage you to open it and read the articles that are included. If you have a spam filter on your e-mail account your copy of the newsletter may have been blocked. Check your spam folder and then set up the Get Fit Newsletter in your mailbox so you can receive it bi-monthly uninterrupted. With this being the month of December it is a perfect time to refer a friend to the bi-monthly newsletter and give them a free gift. Remember it is free, so don’t keep it to yourself.
Watch for upcoming video interviews conducted by The Fitness Angel and Angela from the New Beginnings Team. If you have ever heard the two of them together they are both characters and while the information is enlightening it is also humorous and will get you thinking. We will keep you posted on their upcoming spots. He is looking forward to your participation so come join in the fun. www.myfitnessangel.com.
 Angela’s Weight Loss Watch- We are continuing the collaboration between New Beginnings and The Fitness Angel on Angela's Weight Loss Watch. We have gotten off to a slow start but we have the commitment we were expecting from The Fitness Angel. He has even committed to participate in the blog and to give more detail on the weekly encouragement videos. He will be working with Angela on some one on one stuff, but he will also be directing her to use some of the videos that are already on The Fitness Angel Site. That will allow you to join along because there is not a lot of one on one interaction, they will be videoing their sessions as well. For the week of December 1, Angela will be using the chest and tricep videos The Fitness Angel did with Amy. Watch the blog for more details and interaction between she and The Fitness Angel on the workouts and his instructions.
Remember you can join Angela in this endeavor by going to The Fitness Angel site www.myfitnessangel.com and completing your profile. She would love to see your pictures so feel free to upload them to the site and e-mail her to let her know how you are doing if you choose not to put everything on the site. If you have any problems updating your information please contact her and let her know, because we want to make sure this works for everyone. Her e-mail address is angela@mynewtemple.org. She will be blogging on both sites, but you can see her complete blog on the New Beginnings site www.mynewtemple.org.
The message from Angela and The Fitness Angel-
“Let’s get ready for a healthier 2009!”
Spiritual Fitness-
 The New Beginnings Ministry would like to take the opportunity to introduce Minister Michelle Brown. Over the next few months she will present a series of articles dealing with studying the Word of God. It is our hope and prayer as a ministry that they will be both a help and a blessing to you as you work to grow a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
How to Approach God’s Word……
Colossians 3: 23(NIV) “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,”
By Minister Michelle Brown
First things, first, take the time to seek God. What does that mean to seek Him? Well, King David searched for God in his life, his leadership, and the songs he wrote, in Psalm 63, “ Oh God, you are my God earnestly, I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
We must be committed to studying the word of God. We need to approach God’s word with intensity and passion in our hearts, mind and soul. We need to approach the word of God with the attitude of desire to know everything we can about the living word of God through the scriptures.
Now, find a quiet place where you can concentrate and stop thinking about, “What you have to do and haven’t done,” what others have said in the past and the future. Yes, this may be a challenge but, Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God,” it takes practice.
In the beginning, you may find yourself distracted by all the “to do’s" flooding your mind. That’s alright; keep a pen and paper with you to write those things down as they come into your mind. Then quickly, return to the peace and quiet moment with God.
It is important to remember, to stop and spend time in scripture, the Bible is God’s living water and never-ending, for us. Why? Because, Hebrews 4:12-13, describes the Word of God as “living” and “active.” We need to thirst for this “living water” and hear the voice of God in every aspect of our lives. Why? Because when we spend time in the word, the scripture will provide balance, confirmation and direction.
Meditate on this-Matthew28:6-7(He keeps his Promises) because His followers forgot His resurrection promise, they were sorrowing instead of rejoicing. The Lord always keeps His promises, no matter how dark the day may be.
(Please submit any questions on the message board under the Spiritual Fitness topic.)
What Have You Been Reading?
Many of you have read some awesome books that have really ministered to you, spiritually, emotionally, relationally or physically. Let us know what you have been reading by writing to us on the message board. Your recommendations might help someone else. Please let us know if you have read some good Christian fiction as well. Many of those books have awesome messages contained within them and we want to encourage people to grow spiritually any way they can.
The Ministries’ Monthly Book Recommendation-From The New Beginnings Team
This month we want to encourage you to begin preparing for your devotional time (quiet time) next year. During your quiet time it often helps to have devotional books that you use to keep you on track. Some bibles actually provide you with read through the bible in a year plans. Those are good and will help you to keep your bible reading on track. In addition we want to share a couple of devotionals that we used this year just to give you some to choose from.
Discovering God’s Daily Agenda by Henry and Richard Blackaby. If you are familiar with the Blackabys you know that they do everything well and this devotional is no exception. It was a blessing. It contains 365 daily readings with scripture. It challenges you to live for God on a daily basis and to check your attitudes and your actions. It was a wonderful devotional.
A Woman of Faith. This devotional is obviously designed for women and it is full of promises, prayers and praise for a woman of faith. As women go through all of the things they go through faith is needed more than ever before and this devotional is excellent in helping you to start or end your day in a faith walk, learning to lean and depend on God even more.
The Daily Bread from Radio Bible Class is also an excellent tool in helping you to develop your quiet time and can be received via mail or viewed on-line daily.
Whichever source you choose to help you grow in your daily walk with the Lord we want to encourage you to do something. Going to church is not enough. You must take responsibility for growing your relationship with the Lord, it is not about religion, it is about relationship.
Let us know if there is a devotional that has been a blessing to you, it might help someone else. We would love to hear from you. What have you been reading? Let us know by writing to us on the message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html or sending us a message at contactus@mynewtemple.org.
Monthly Book/Bible Study Blog
The book blog is on hold for this month while we focus on making changes that will make it easier to post. Feel free to write about books you have read or to comment on the ones the New Beginnings Team suggests by going to our message board.
Upcoming Events-
Watch for-
Watch for an interview with a Breast Cancer Survivor-We are looking forward to doing a joint interview with a Breast Cancer Survivor, who survived a double masectomy. How did she handle it, how did it affect her mentally, how did it affect her family? If you have questions write to us at contactus@mynewtemple.org so we can get ready to ask your questions as well as our own.
Other Weight Loss Success Stories-Watch for the upcoming pictures and story from Lindsay, who started her weight loss journey in January of 2008 and by the end of August 2008, she has already lost over 105 lbs. We will hear her story and find out what caused her to do it and what she did. Watch for Burt who lost over 40lbs walking 10000 steps per day. September has been a busy month with trying to get The Fitness Angel site ready to receive your profile information and also trying to get the Weight Loss Watch going smoothly, so we still owe you these success stories. Hang in there with us they are coming I promise. These are real people.
Watch for the Why Do You WorkOut Question to be answered-We were thinking it might be fun to get some snip-its from people in the park or at a gym to find out why they work out. Why do the personal trainers do what they do? What kind of satisfaction does a personal trainer get out of your success?
Watch for Health Tips-As part of our desire to help individuals become holistically fit we are presently working to incorporate health tips into our website. This information will assist by giving individuals basic information on such topics as diabetes and high blood pressure. These segments will be short but informative.
Relational Focus-Watch for upcoming podcasts and articles focused on our relationships, beginning with our relationship with God. If we get our relationship with God right our other relationships will also be better.
Divorce From the Male Perspective-What do you say when you think everything is okay and your wife comes home and asks for a divorce? . What do you do? Normally this is the story we hear from women. We blame it on a man’s midlife crisis. This time we are going to hear it from the side of the man. The series will allow a man to share his feelings and struggles.
If you have suggestions for upcoming articles or New Beginnings content please write to us at contactus@mynewtemple.org.
New Beginnings Reminders-
ChurchLlink-
Is there a church near you that does an outstanding job of promoting spiritual, emotional, relational and physical fitness? If you're looking for a church, check here to see if our members have recommended one near you. If you know of a church that should be on our list, please add it to our list.
If you want to ask for additional information or would like to have some one from our team contact you regarding the churches on our church link contact us at churchlink@mynewtemple.org.
Newsletter Sign Up-
 If you are receiving this message you are currently signed up on our New Beginnings message board. We have set up a new E-mail program for the New Beginnings and Women’s Faith Stories sites, and it will be necessary for each of you to click on this sign up button and complete the informationor go to the website www.mynewtemple.org home page and click on the button at the bottom of the page. This will allow us to keep in contact with you in a more efficient manner.
Currently on Women’s Faith Stories (WFS)-
We are collecting articles about women who have survived cancer. If you have a faith story you would like to share send it to us at contactus@womensfaithstories. Your story might be a blessing and an encouragement for someone else.
We are still collecting pictures and stories for our Women That Have Gone Before Us Quilt. In an effort to honor her grandmother who passed away on January 11, 2008, Angela has decided to create a quilt. If you would like to submit a picture and brief tribute on behalf of a woman that meant something to you and helped you get to where you are today send it to us at contactus@womensfaithstories.com. Include their birth date and date of death. Maybe it was your grandmother, a school teacher or a female family member. It does not matter who she was, we would just like to take this opportunity to honor them. Check out last month’s newsletter for more information.
Contact us if you have a woman’s faith story you would like to share for the Women’s Faith Stories Website www.womensfaithstories.com. Send your comments to us at contactus@womensfaithstories.com.
Word of Encouragement-
John 15:12:
12This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. God has loved us much and He has commanded us to love each other as He loved us, not based on what we look like or what we have but just based on doing what He has done. You are loved unconditionally, so show love to someone else. Love your neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family. Love one another.
New Beginnings Scripture for December 2008
Revelation 2:4:
4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned(A) the love you had at first.
Our Mission Statement
Our Mission is to draw individuals to Jesus Christ through the Ministry of Holistic Fitness and to see the Body of Christ become fit in all areas by providing tools and information to empower you to succeed. New Beginnings is dedicated to helping you gain personal, spiritual, physical, mental and relational fitness by developing the courage and confidence necessary to set and achieve goals based on biblical principles. Most people encounter difficulty reaching goals, sticking with a diet or completing a task by trying to make an outward change without having made any inward spiritual changes. In other words, all improvements in your life begin with a change in your mind and spirit.
New Beginnings Contact Information-
Mailing Address: 5130 W. Baseline #117, PMB# 224, Laveen, AZ 85339
Contact us at contactus@mynewtemple.org or on our message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html.
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