Summer 2011 Update

Well, here it is folks…..after 10 years, we finally have a new and freshened up web site thanks to some very patient and creative folks that have been working with us for a few months. We can now start a new season of web service and communication with all of you! Send us your comments and ideas!!!

This has been an eventful year, and one that has so refreshed Kathy and I in understanding just how abundant life is while walking every day resting in the love of God. In March, around the time of our last update, our eldest son Andy was married to his beautiful bride Julie in a gorgeous ceremony here in Hawaii. From there, we left almost immediately on a tour of Europe, Israel and Asia. We are so grateful that we have been able to participate the past few years in blessing the nation of Israel through tours that have covered the nation from top to bottom in worship and praise. While the Mideast continues to be a place of unrest, Israel stands as a testament to the anointing of our Prince of Peace. We’ve been back a second time to Europe and Asia as well as to New Zealand and Australia. We are blessed to see the “School Of Worship” thriving in Europe, and enjoyed investing in a fresh generation of people immersed in the love of God, who are broadcasting it all over the world!

Summer is well under way, and in June of 1976 Kathy and I were singing “……We’ve Only Just Begun” (sung by “The Carpenters” back then). Yep, on June 12th Kathy and I celebrated our 35th Anniversary in the same place in Mexico we honeymooned in 1976. Such fun recalling all of God’s goodness over the years, and such gratefulness for the ways that He has abundantly shown His grace to us and our 4 children. Amazing to think that each of them are now out of the house and on their own life journeys! Kathy and I are grateful beyond words for the goodness and favor of God that rests on each of them (Andy and his wife Julie, Ryan, Garratt and Mikella)!

We are a good way into the process of preparing my latest recording projects. One of these is a Christmas collection (initiated by Tom Brooks) called “My Treasure”. The other is a compilation of songs from the 14 primary recording projects I’ve been part of in my twenty-five years of recording. “Called To Worship” will in essence be a re-release of selected songs to mark and say thanks to God for a life-dream come true. I’m also including a couple of new songs to express a continued commitment to the life verse God gave me many years ago: Pslam 89:1 “I WILL SING OF THE MERCIES OF THE LORD FOREVER! WITH MY MOUTH WILL I MAKE KNOWN THEY FAITHFULNESS TO ALL GENERATIONS”. With the launch of this new web site, these new recording projects will soon be made available for you to pre-order.

We’d love to get your responses to the new site, and hope to try and get a blog happening for that purpsose! Please let us know your thoughts and ideas for ways that we can better serve and encourage you in your worship experience!

We’ve had three months at home, and what a fantastic time of rest and family renewal it’s been. On March 5th, Andy, the oldest of our four kids, and Julie Harmsen will be married in Waimea here in Hawaii. Just three days later, Kathy and I are off to join with worshipers around the globe to bring attention to the awesome goodness of our God!!!

We start in Europe, then off to Israel for another 10 day Holy Land tour with Omega Tours and Travel. From there, it’s on to Asia for worship seminars and concerts in Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. Then off to New York for worship in the Big Apple and Cape Cod, Massachusetts (and this is just the first tour of the year)! As you can see, it will be a very full schedule – we’ll be going around the world and them some, so YEHAWWW, here comes 2011! To stay current with all that Kathy and I are up to, keep checking the “Itinerary Page” on the web site. We are making an attempt to keep this updated with as much information as we have regarding our schedule.

Speaking of such, it’s well overdue, and here it comes: A NEW WEB SITE FOR “HEALING TO THE NATIONS MUSIC”! After 10 years, the site is being completely renovated and our plans are to have it uploaded by March 8th, the day we leave for our first trip around the world in 2011. Let us know if you have any suggestions, as we are in process now, and would love to get some feedback: <bkfitts@bobfitts.com>

Again this year, we will be expanding our efforts with “Alabaster Ministries” so as to increase our regular involvement in assisting orphans and widows. We are targeting several specific projects for Alabaster in 2011, and at some point, we want to have make these trips available for our friends and ministry acquaintances to come along and join in with us. We are planning for projects in Eastern Europe (May), East Africa (August) and South Africa (October), as well as a well project in Nepal. You can donate toward these projects from this website, through paypal.com and reference the email address <info@alabastermin.org>, or by check to our address listed on the “Contact” page.

My office assistant, Luke Clebsch, is a fantastic musician who is working on demos of new songs, and a guy who has helped us get a backlog of invitations and product orders to a place where we are a bit more ahead of the process. It still takes lots of time and effort, but Luke is really blessing Kathy and I with his help and friendship. Thanks much my brother!

Finally, we are closing in on an October 2011 release of a new Christmas CD, along with a “25 years in music ministry” commemorative recording.

Blessings to you! Enjoy this amazing year that God has laid out for you, your families, and ministries! Bask in the amazing goodness that God has prepared for those who love him!

Have you always wanted to go to Israel? Join Bob and Kathy March 19-30, 2011

OK, so you’re asking, why the cheesy ancient photo headlining the update?!!! Well, it’s been 25 years ago this year that I released my first recording “Take My Healing To The Nations”!! Thought it would be appropriate to mark this with a little sort of “memorial”. That sounds really bad. Maybe better said, we want to recall all the remarkable things that God has done these past 25 years, and say thank you Jesus for your amazing grace on our lives! In fact, the song “Take My Healing” has been the underlying theme of the ministry in worship we are privileged to do, literally all over the world. So blessed to observe that ”As we worship in Your presence, there is healing.” Simply yet profoundly, the love that God pours out on His people in worship becomes a healing balm. Thank you Jesus! We look forward to many more years of taking your healing to the nations!

Wow, the past 6 months have been some of the busiest, yet some of the most productive times of our lives. We have already traveled to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Pacific and joined with thousands of people lauding the love and works of Jesus. We have heard so many stories of God’s healing, His restoration and goodness, that we find it hard sometimes to know just how to communicate. Having said that, let me give you some highlights:

1. After our March tour in Israel, and a bit of rest in Kona, we traveled to West Virginia to lead worship at the request of a friend of ours who has a heart of worship, and desire to bring restoration to the people of God through Jesus-centered counseling. He is a one of the most tender men of God I know, and longs to share the healing love of Jesus through worship and personal guidance. Here is an account he shared with Kathy and I the week after our ministry that just had us both laughing and rejoicing!!: “One of my great pleasures this week has been to pull up beside a beaten down truck at a  stop next to a red neck tobacco slobbering cowboy and hear Bob Fitts music cranked up full blast on his CD. Your gift of CDs has been such a blessing as we hand to clients who need your hug with the full knowledge that it is the hand of Bob and Kathy handing it to them and with the knowledge that it is God’s hand reaching through your hearts to touch the world!”

1. June is always special for Kathy and I as we celebrate our anniversary, and this year, I surprised Kathy with a trip to Maui to remind ourselves of how wonderful it is to be married to “the one”!!! How great to reminisce through 34 years of marriage and to look forward with anticipation to the many more years ahead.

1. The summers are almost always full of worship events. Here are highlights of Summer 2010:

1. 1. Houston: worship conference, a first for us in this city.
   2. Nigeria: the city of Uyo, 6000 radical worshiping Nigerians
      

1. 1. Family reunion in Arizona
   2. Singapore and Malaysia: we can never get too much time in Asia! We have now made official our home church at New Creation Church in Singapore, so we get there as much as possible. We had powerful times of worship in Malaysia with 1500 to 2000 passionate Malaysians loving Jesus.
      

1. 1. Philippines: We went to five islands, including Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines, where our tour organizer told us, “even Filipino businessmen don’t come here!!!” A Christian College, committed to raise up a generation of worshipers sponsored the concert with a standing room only crowd lifting up the name of Jesus. In Davao, we shared at a worship seminar of about 500 men and women, and had a packed worship concert the next night:

      We closed out our time in the Philippines in Manila with a worship concert of radical Charismatic Catholics, singing, dancing and loving Jesus with all their hearts.

1. October: almost caught up here…….a fantastic month of ministry, very fresh in the memory! Oops, almost forgot: in the middle of all this touring, our good friend Tom Brooks contacted me and said, “What you think about doing a new Christmas CD?” Sounds fantastic, but how to fit it in. So in between Philippines in September, and U.K., Nigeria in October, I headed off to California to record a music compilation celebrating the birth of the King of kings (possibly to be released in the next month…..let’s see) After that, off to Europe, where we toured the middle section of the U.K. doing worship concerts in Manchester, Liverpool, Hull and Coventry. The highlight was leading worship in an African Church in Hull, dancing and celebrating the love of God, after having visited the home (now a museum) of 19th century believer William Wiberforce, who was the lead voice in bringing an end to the slave trade in the U.K.

   That night while worshiping with these awesome African brothers and sisters, I was struck that in fact a worshiper, the writer of “Amazing Grace” was an influence on Wilberforce to bring healing to his land, and eventually to influence the whole world. Kathy and I are trusting that this same healing power is pouring over every nation we visit, as we honor the healer of our souls.

1. November: We’re back in Nigeria now for a week of worship conferences and concerts, then off to Brazil for two weeks, to celebrate God’s goodness with our Brasilero brothers and sisters. After our time in Brazil, it’s home for another time of worship………THANKSGIVING!!! (and maybe one more recording, but we’ll let you know about that later!!)

Thank you Jesus for 25 years of your overwhelming kindness! We honor you! Thanks friends for being our prayer support, and encouragement. Look forward to worshiping with you somewhere around the world!