2015 End of Year Update

Welcoming Paton Fulginiti into the World

On Tuesday, October 27^th at 3:58am, our family welcomed Jacob Paton Fulginiti into the world.  He weighed 7 lbs and 9 oz and was 21 inches long.  We are affectionately going to call him Paton.  

Why call him Paton?  We named our son after the 19th Century, Scottish missionary John G. Paton.  Paton was a man of courage, zeal for the glory of God and he was a man who enjoyed a deep relationship with his family.  We hope that our son would exhibit these same qualities as this great man of God.

We would commend everyone to listen or read the following lecture on John G. Paton's life, family and ministry to get a full appreciate for our son's namesake.  Click here to access it.

Prayer Request:

Our most urgent prayer request is for Amy.  She received an epidural upon arriving at the hospital that never quite worked.  The next day, Amy began to experience sudden pain in her back and neck.  The doctors believe that she is experiencing some negative side effects from the epidural which is causing her spinal fluid to leak.   In addition to her pain, she's had dizziness, nausea, vomiting and overall weakness.  She's on bedrest for the foreseeable future.

In the midst of our family's joy, this is definitely challenging and discouraging for Amy and all of us.  Would you pray for Amy to experience relief and recovery during this time?

**UPDATE**

Thank you for praying!  I wanted to give you a quick update on Amy's wellbeing.  She is still moving slowly, but is progressing.  Her headaches and dizziness have subsided a great deal.  She's able to get up and move around a bit, which is a good sign!  Recovery is still slow, but it's moving in the right direction.   

Paton is doing great.  He had his first doctor's appointment and everything is looking good.  He sleeps and eats well.  

We have been very blessed by your prayers.  Thank you so much!

-Zach, Amy, Zachary, Mae & Paton

Summer 2015 Trials

Post was originally composed on July 15, 2015

Over the past three weeks, God has been stripping away our family's desire for comfort and stability.  Last update, I mentioned some trouble in our home.  Thank you for praying for us.  Here's a little bit of what our family has been through recently:

• Returned from Myrtle Beach to find the A/C in our home was not working properly. 
• To avoid the heat, we decided to stay with my parents for a night and came back to our house to find a a toilet had run all night and leaked all over our downstairs.  Parts of four different rooms were ruined by the water damage.
• It has been three weeks and the drying company still has not completely dried our downstairs.  Blowers and dehumidifiers are still running.
• All of our downstairs hardwoods need to be ripped up because we were unable to match new flooring with that which remained.
• YESTERDAY, the repair crew came by to rip up the tile downstairs to more completely dry the subflooring but instead of ripping up the downstairs, THEY MISTAKENLY RIPPED UP THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM TILE.  We were shocked, stunned and very upset.
• After three weeks, the floors are still not dry, the downstairs hardwoods still need to be ripped up and now the upstairs bathroom tile needs to be removed and replaced.
• It's now been seven weeks since we lat slept in our beds and it looks like it'll be another 2-3 weeks before the damages are repaired

Wow, I'm exhausted and overwhelmed just re-living the last few weeks.  Needless to say, we are tired and discouraged.  We would sincerely ask that you pray for our family in the midst of this season.  Ask God for speedy repairs to our home.  Ask God to give Amy & I patience.  Ask God to minister to our kids while they are required to be flexible.  We've been living with my parents and they are tremendously gracious to host us but are eager to be back home. 

In the midst of all of this, I've been reminded of Philippians 3:21 which tells us that our citizenship is not here on earth but rather in heaven.  Life as a sojourner or a foreigner is not usually easy.  And such is life for the Christian.  Even in these small things, we are reminded of our need for a Savior and long for Him to return soon.

Thank you for partnering with us.  Thank you for interceding on our behalf.

-Zach, Amy, Zachary & Mae

Building Laborers... For the World

Campus Kickoffs!

The first six weeks of school are some of the busiest weeks on campus.  Our staff teams and student leaders at Wingate and UNC Charlotte have spent hours upong hours of meeting students all over campus meeting students, building relationships and having SALT talks.  We would love your prayers for us during this intensive season of ministry.  Pray that the gospel would go forth and the Lord would be preparing "diving appointments" for our staff and students.

Primetime

Wingate University: This week marked the first evangelistic meeting at Wingate this year.  There were 130 students who came to hear the message of the gospel, to meet new people and have fun!  In the coming weeks, investigative Bible Studies will be starting all over campus.  Pray for the seeds of the gospel to fall on good soil at Wingate University!

The U

UNC Charlotte:  There have been two weekly evangelistic meeting on campus so far.  These meetings are called: "The U".  The U is a place for student leaders to bring their friends to hear the gospel message.  This past week, 140 students came to hear about the reality of sin in the world and the consequences of sin in their lives.  Pray for next week as we share the Good News of the gospel at The U!

Amy & I are deeply thankful for your partnerhsip in the gospel.  Your prayers and support are invaluable to our ministry.  If there is anyway in which we can pray for you, please contact us!  Thank you again and God Bless!

For the World,
Zach & Amy

Look who...

...is going to be a BIG BROTHER!

 

Yes that's right, we are expecting to have another baby! Our due date is in March and Amy is about eight weeks along.  You can join us in prayer for this baby and for Amy.  Amy has been fairly sick during these first few weeks and running low on energy chasing after Zachary.  

Thank you so much for your prayers, we cherish them!

Love,

Zach, Amy, Zachary & Baby Fulginiti #2

Summer Beach Project Update!

Summer Beach Project Update!

We have been here over three weeks now and this coming Sunday our staff leave and turn the project over to student-run leadership.  Click here: http://summerbeachproject2012.wordpress.com/ to see an update from the SBP.  Five students on our project have made professions of faith and over 15 more people have professed faith in Christ as we share the gospel with the community of Myrtle Beach.  Thank you for your prayers for us and the 170 students here to know Christ and make Him known!

Zachary has been having a great time here in Myrtle Beach, but is a bit timid around the ocean!

Zachary's first time at the beach this summer!

Here is a picture from a recent UNC Charlotte campus time with many of the students who are participating on the Summer Beach Project.  Thank you for your prayers for them!

UNC Charlotte students at the SBP!

Summer Beach Project 2012

Packing Up: In just a few days, we will be packing up our stuff and moving down to Myrtle Beach, SC for the first four weeks of our ministry's Summer Beach Project. The SBP is an eight week project designed to train students in evangelism, prayer, Bible study and more!  Together, Amy & I have spent parts of 17 summers at this project.  This year, we've been asked to direct the project and we are excited to get to invest in 200 staff and students.  We leave this coming Saturday, May 19th.

UNC Charlotte: Many of you know that several years ago, the ministry at UNCC was "relaunched".  There was a season in which there were no UNCC student who participated in a summer project with Campus Outreach.  Since that time, because of the faithfulness of our staff, the emergence of our student leaders and the favor of God, we have seen over 30 student come to faith in Jesus Christ in the last 18 months!  It is exciting to be a witness to God moving in powerful ways in the lives of college students!  There will be over 50 students attending a summer project with Campus Outreach this year from UNC Charlotte.  Thank you for your prayers for these students and our ministry!

 

 

 

Prayer Requests:

The student pictured to the right are all students who are a direct answer to your prayers!  They are students we have been ministering to in Fraternities and Sororities at UNC Charlotte! 

 

1.  Pray for our family as we move into a hotel room for a month.  Pray that Zachary would adjust well and enjoy living amongst 200 people!  We leave May 19th and will stay until June 17th.
2. Pray for final preparations for the SBP and for safe travel for the staff and students.
3. Pray for the 50+ students from UNC Charlotte to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of the glory of God at the SBP!

Family Life

Our family dynamic is ever changing with a 15 month old!  Zachary is walking all over the house, exploring and learning new things.  It is a lot of fun, but also very tiresome.  He loves to play with his baseball and bat and will walk around with them for hours on end.  He will also spend countless hours reading books and looking at pictures.  He is a joy to be around!  Amy & I recently had the chance to take a weekend getaway to Boston, MA!  We ate good food, toured the city and saw two Red Sox games.  it was a great time of refreshment just the two of us to get away before the Summer Beach Project.  We were very thankful for this opportunity.

Spring 2012 Update

See the link below to view our latest newsletter!

Following the Fulginitis: March 2012 Newsletter

This week, Zach will be in Myrtle Beach on a setup trip for the 2012 Summer Beach Project. Pray for favor with prospective employers, churches and facilities! Thank you for your prayers, partnership and gifts to our ministry with Campus Outreach at UNC Charlotte.

Winterblast!

This past weekend, we had the privilege of leading a retreat called "Winter Blast" with 282 students from UNC Charlotte, UNCG, Wingate, Davidson and App State to Asheville, NC. It was a great weekend in which we explored gospel 1) identity, 2) community and 3) mission. In total almost a dozen students professed faith in Christ for the first time! Upon returning from the retreat, one of the girls who professed faith during the weekend, called one our student leaders and asked for help to break free from an addiction to marijuana. The student leader had become a Christian at last year's Winter blast and is now helping her fellow sorority sisters experience the freedom that comes with faith in Christ! Ministry at UNC Charlotte is going incredibly! Our staff members, Kristin Niland and Andrew Hathaway, are doing an amazing job and God had been opening door after door in the Greek system. Over half of the fraternities and sororities now have Bible studies being conducted on weekly basis. At the retreat, two Lambda Chi brothers came and they got ROCKED! Both of them are confessing believers who have struggled to break free from sin patterns. This retreat really set them on fire for Christ! After the retreat on Sunday night, Jay, one of the two brothers, stood up before his whole fraternity (60+ brothers) and told them he would no longer "drink and smoke marijuana with them" and he asked them "to respect his decisions for Christ, and not to ridicule him." Needless to say, this sent some shockwaves amongst the brothers. This is partially why there were 13 brothers at the bible study this past Monday night. These brothers want to know what happened in Jay's life and why all of a sudden he wants to stop partying with them. They want to know where his newfound joy comes from. Pray for Jay, the other members of Lambda Chi and the entire Greek system at UNC Charlotte! There has regularly been about 125-150 students attending our weekly event ("The U"). Starting next week, we will be starting a teaching series on the Attributes of God. Over a dozen of out student leaders are leading their own Bible studies, helping new believers be established in the basics of the Christian faith. It is exciting to see multiplication happening on campus!

Z Turns One! We can't believe that Zachary is about to turn one year old! His first birthday is February 22. Today, we are taking him to his first baseball game at UNC Charlotte! We will get to watch some of the players that we have been ministering to. Thank you for your prayer for our family!

Prayer Requests Planning for the Summer Beach Project is already underway! This year, we have the opportunity of directing the entire project! New Believers- pray that they would be established in their faith. Greek Connect- we are holding an event for Greeks on Feb 22. We are expecting over 100 students to attend. Pray that the Spirit of God would move mightily at this event!

CONATCON Recap

Above is a picture of many of the UNCC students who attended!

CO National Conference Recap

Thank you for those of you who prayed for this conference and tuned it. I believe that so much happens at these conferences because there are so many joining in through prayer. God answered your prayers this past week. At UNCC, we had nine students make professions of faith for the first time or rededicate their lives to Christ. It may very well be that all nine became Christians this week! Praise God!! To get a glimpse of what went on, check out the recap video below. It's only two minutes but gives you a great picture at what went on in Chattanooga, TN this week!

CONATCON Recap Video!

The rallies and seminars will soon be posted to the website, so be sure to check some of them out! Thank you again for your partnership. It's amazing to see all that God has done and humbling to think about all that He has in store!

-Zach & Amy

Watch & Pray

Pray: with us for the conference at www.signupgenius.com/go/100hours!

Watch: the conference here: www.conationalconference.com/live!

The conference starts tomorrow at 8pm as JD Greear will deliver the first message. On Dec 31st, John Piper will speak at 8:30pm. The entire conference schedule is on the website. Thank you for joining with us in laboring at this conference. We are thrilled for the 100+ people coming from UNCC to receive such rich teaching and fellowship!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Here's a picture of Zachary opening some of the presents:

100 Hours of Prayer

As many of you may know, Campus Outreach is holding a 100 Hours of Prayer event over the National Conference in Chattanooga, TN. Our hope is that friends and supporters of our ministry would join us in prayer for this conference. This year, there will be 4500 staff & students coming to the conference. We will be blessed at UNC Charlotte this year to see 109 people join us. Many of the students that will be joining us will be young in their faith and many more will not be Christians at all. These students are in need of our prayers!

We would like to ask you to give 30 minutes of your time (or more if you wish) between the hours of 5 AM and 12 AM during the week of Dec 28 - Jan 1 going before the Lord in prayer for this event. As we approach this conference we are mindful of the strategic importance of prayer as the foundation of our ministry efforts. We are in need of your prayers! If you would like to participate, please visit this website: http://signupgenius.com/go/100hours where you will find a link to a simple form in which you can select one or more 30 minute blocks of time to commit to praying for the ministry of Campus Outreach. Thank you for your friendship and partnership in the Gospel!

CO National Conference!

Each year, Campus Outreach brings in the new year with a bang! The past several years, we have partnered with CO Greenville, Lynchburg and DC to hold a conference for students exploring Christianity and looking to deepen their walks with God, in our nation's capitol. This year, we will be in Chattanooga, TN with every other Campus Outreach region in the country! We are expecting anywhere from 4000 to 5000 students. Our speakers this year include: John Piper, Matt Chandler, Harry Reeder and JD Greear. This is the first conference in ten years that Campus Outreach has held that will be a national conference! Check out the conference website: www.conationalconference.com to watch some of the video promos!

Here's the best news... YOU ARE INVITED! Whether, you are a friend, supporter or alumni of Campus Outreach, you are invited! Amy & I would love to have you join us to see first hand the ministry that you are supporting and praying for. I think of the first four verses in the book of First John, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete." I'm always struck by how imminently present the life and ministry of Jesus was to John. We would love for you to hear, see, look upon, and touch one of the most significant events that we hold and for our ministry. Would you consider joining us?

If you are interested in joining us and you are a supporter or friend of our ministry, send me an email for more information (zfulginiti@campusoutreach.org). If you are an alumni of Campus Outreach, check out this website: www.conationalconference.com/alumni. We have an entire conference track just for you! Obviously, many of you will not be able to join us due to prior family and holiday obligations... but we wanted you to at least know what you are welcomed to join us and we would love for you to be there!

Greek Ministry:
I wanted to pass along a report from our campus director at UNCC, Andrew Hathaway. Andrew recently saw a freshman fraternity member of Lambda Chi meet Jesus for the first time. Last week he was given 25 minutes to speak to an entire pledge class in one frat and then he met an officer from Lambda Chi who invited him to come and speak this Sunday to some guys at his house. When Andrew got there he found out the officer had set up for him to speak for an hour to all the freshman in the fraternity. Andrew got to share his testimony and a full explanation of the gospel. During one of the bible studies with these frat guys, one of the guys just opened a bible and started reading in Genesis 1. He had never opened a bible before. The guy looked up from his reading and said to Andrew and the other guys who were waiting for things to start and said, "Did you guys know that it talks about how God created the world in here?!" Coming into this year, we had no significant contacts with any fraternity members and were praying for God to open doors. Thus far, Andrew has made significant contacts in three different fraternities and has been holding Bible Studies with members of each. Praise God!

Prayer Requests:

1. For God's glory to be made known on the campus of UNCC
2. For National Conference recruitment. Pray that God would bring many freshmen to raise up a new generation of students who love the Lord!
3. This weekend is our ministry's "Mobilization Retreat". It is an overnight retreat just for seniors, designed to help equip them to successfully transition from the campus to the real world. There are 12 students from UNCC who are attending. Pray that God would give them a heart to be laborers beyond the campus.
4. For our family! Pray that Amy & I would be godly parents and that Zachary would come to know Christ very early!

Family Pictures:

September Update

What's Been Going On?

Investing in Athletes: This year, Amy & I both have a unique opportunity to reach athletes at UNC Charlotte. Amy has been leading a Bible Study of three girls who play on the women's soccer team. These are girls who are Christians but are praying to reach their teammates. See the picture below! I have started a ministry on campus just for varsity student athletes called Athletes Connect. It is a chance for them to come, get to know athletes from other teams and grow spiritually. Our first meeting was last week and we had about 12-15 athletes from 4 different teams. I was able to share with them about building your house on the rock from Matthew 7. It was a great start!



Pig Pickin: The first week on campus, we held a Pig Pickin right on campus in front of two dorms that house over 500 people each! We had members from our church come a cook the 150lb pig for over 14 hours on site, it was awesome! Approximately 400-500 people came, got to eat some amazing food and hear about our ministry. It was a huge success!

Fall Retreats: Every fall, we try to offer an opportunity to grow spiritual for students on campus through our fall retreat. This year we are having two retreats, one for the guys and one for the girls. The men's retreat is entitled: Are You Man Enough? The women's retreat is going to be called: She's Gone Country! These retreats offer our students a chance to bring their friends who are't Christians to a context where they will have a lot of fun and be challenged by the gospel. We are hoping for over 300 students between these two retreats, many of them will not know Christ.

Testimony

Read below a testimony of a student who recently attended "The U':

"what you talked about tonight really got to me .. opened my eyes to alot and i really took it to heart. you were talkin about going out of your comfort zone and when you dont have control you go to things that you know you can control .. i do that alot..honestly i am scared to go out of my comfort zone from fear of disapproval or consequences of doin so .. i seek approval for everything i do . things i wear . things i talk about. etc etc. things i buy. situations i put myself in. when you were talkin about what things you invest your money for entertainment of seeking satisfaction. i turn to drugs. alcohol. acceptance and yeah for alittle while those things keep you satisfied but after a while...it actually will leave you depressed. very unsatisfied. and i want satisfaction...and i want to always have it . my relationship with jesus? i guess you could say . i dont have one...but i want it...i want that satisfaction..."

Family

This week Zachary just turned seven months old! He is growing, getting big and developing quite an appetite. In the last few weeks, he has begun teething and you can see a tooth popping through his gums. Though he's definitely been a little more fussy, he's getting through it with a lot of drooling and wanting to be picked up. We are very blessed by him and we love him so much!

Prayer Requests:

1. Students to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Many evangelistic Bible studies are going to be starting soon!

2. Fall Retreats - that many unbelievers would come and respond in faith in Jesus Christ.

3. Ministry to athletes through Athletes Connect. Pray that God would open doors to teams that we haven't met anyone in yet.

4HG & Start of School

4HG: SBP Wrap-up

Thank you for your prayer for our Summer Beach Project! It was an amazing summer as 150 college students and 25 staff studied the glory of God (4HG: For His Glory). It is remarkable to think about the impact these students could have on their eleven different campuses throughout North Carolina and DC area. These students are not only established in their walks to study the Bible and pray, but also in their ability to share the gospel with their classmates. We pray that our college campuses are getting 150 "laborers" this fall semester!

School Starts Friday!

Freshmen move in this coming Friday! The past several weeks our staff team has spent the majority of our time planning for the first six weeks of school! It seems almost surreal to be honest. The start of school always comes so fast. Many of you may remember what you felt on move-in day of your freshman year: anxiousness, excitement, uncertainty, freedom! We hope to serve these students by helping them move into their new homes and begin to build relationships with them. One of the ways we hope to meet students is to have a huge Pig Pickin' right in front of where all the freshmen live, it will be awesome!

**What's Next for the Fulginitis??**

If you didn't receive our letter in the mail, we posted it online here: http://followingthefulginitis.blogspot.com/2011/08/whats-next-for-fulginitis.html. We have undertaken a new role within Campus Outreach Charlotte and are excited to begin! In short, we are beginning to move our of the COC administrative office and into an Area Director role, serving the campus of UNC-Charlotte. We would love for you to take a minute to read this letter to all of our supporters. We are thankful for your financial and prayerful partnership, we could not do it without men and women like yourself. If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email at zfulginiti@campusoutreach.org. Thank you!

Prayer Requests:
1. That we would serve the campus in a way that glorifies God as we help move students in.
2. That we would meet the students that are hungry for spiritual things.
3. That we would have a blast with our Pig Pickin' & meet a ton of people!

Below are some pictures of our family:

What's Next for the Fulginitis?

Glorifying God by Building Laborers on the Campus for the Lost World

Combined, Amy & I have given almost 16 years of our lives to the vision of Campus Outreach as both students & staff. In the past year, we've been faced with the decision of "do we want to give the next five years of our lives to this same vision in this same context?" Is God still calling us to the college campus to fulfill the Great Commission?

I'm sure that when many of you began to support us, you may have thought that you were just trying to help out a young, 22 y/o, recent college graduate who didn't know what they wanted to do, but was passionate about the Lord... we might have thought the same thing about ourselves at the time! Much has changed since the days that Amy was graduating from Wingate and I was graduating from Elon. No longer are we two single, early 20-somethings, fresh out of school; today we are both in our mid-late 20s, married, and have a baby boy! Wouldn’t it make sense to start pursuing a career? What is God calling our family to next? We've been wrestling with those questions ourselves. But time and time again, we still keep coming back to the fact that our passion for the campus still burns. After much prayer and counsel, we want to continue to give our lives away to the campus, to “glorifying God by building laborers for the lost world.” We are willing to take a step of faith and raise our family in this environment for sake of the Great Commission. We are committing to stay with Camus Outreach Charlotte for the next 4-5 years, maybe more... and we are thrilled!

What will we be doing? For the past three years, we have been serving primarily in our financial office, running the administrative aspect of our ministry and partnering on a limited basis with the staff at UNC Charlotte. We will now have the opportunity to serve as an Area Director of UNCC. What this means is that we will be responsible for directing the movement on campus, shepherding the other staff at UNCC and serving on the Executive Leadership team for Campus Outreach Charlotte. We feel humbled by this lofty calling and inadequate for the task at the same time. We truly believe that God is calling us to this role even though it feels so much bigger than we are. We will begin serving in this capacity beginning in August 2011. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the UNCC community, as the campus explodes in growth and looks forward to its new football team coming soon. The need there is great.

What's been true before is even more so now: we need you. We need our support team to rally around us. There are going to be significant challenges to raising a family in this context. Life is just more complicated with a baby (but so much more joyful)! Here are two ways, we would like to ask you to partner with us:

1. Pray! We will need your prayers now more than ever. Pray for us as we transition. Pray for spiritual protection from the forces of darkness. Pray for wisdom and discernment as we lead and direct the staff and students at UNCC.
2. Continue to support us. It is so critical that entering this new phase of life and ministry we have a solid, support team behind us. God has provided richly through you over the past several years and we want you to continue to join us in this mission. Will you, in faith, continue to give not to us, but to the Great Commission being fulfilled at UNCC and ultimately, the world? We hope you will, we need you.

This verse comes to mind when the Lord places you on our hearts, Philippians 1:3-5, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now."

Thank you for joining us in this great mission!

For the World,
Zach and Amy