Mike Furlonger – Working-out with Mike
I am so excited to introduce you all to a wonderful man of God, Michael Furlonger. His life story and testimony I know will inspire you! He has many projects and ministries that he is working on. Not only is he an author, he helps other Christian writers in their endeavors. His goal is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in very unique ways! I was able to ask him some questions about his work and what the Lord is doing in his life
Lisa Jarvis: Please give us a brief introduction.
Michael Furlonger: My name is Michael W. Furlonger. I live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. I am a writer and website designer. I am married to a lovely woman of God named Jennifer. We have been married for nearly 2 years. She is one of the greatest blessings to my life.
LJ: Tell us about yourself and a little background on your life.
MF: I suppose the biggest event in my life was a car accident which caused brain damage when I was 6 years old. I was standing on the side of a country road outside of my house when it happened. This event left an impact on me and my entire family as I wasn’t supposed to survive the impact. To the glory of God, I did survive. When I survived the first night in the hospital, the doctors concluded that I wouldn’t be able to walk or talk ever again. As you can tell, I do talk (a lot) and I do walk, albeit with a limp quite often. I also had eye surgery in months to follow. Growing up with a brain injury, a limp and a bad (lazy) eye, life was difficult. I would be made fun of, removed from class, not allowed to play sports, it was just awkward and, honestly, embarrassing. Although the hardship would lead my family and I to the Lord over the years, it also led me down a spiral of depression and anxiety. Like Job in the Bible, I often cursed the day of my birth. Looking back, I am grateful. I now see the world with a different lens and I wish more people could. I still find myself feeling alone with my thoughts because of how I see things, but, I believe, it will help others in a similar state of depression and isolation.
LJ: Can you share your testimony as a believer with us?
MF: I define being a believer and being a born-again Christian as two different things. I became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ when I was 5 years old. My babysitter went to the towns Baptist church and invited my brother, sister and I to the weekly kids’ program, AWANA, on Wednesday nights. This helped to shape the hope throughout my life and my family through all of the ups and downs of the accident. With growing up, I sought comfort in TV, food, the internet, but rarely God. It wasn’t until I was 27 that I would pray on my knees for the saving grace of Jesus Christ: I was writing a Christian book and reading the book of Exodus and, in 22:16, God says that if a man sleeps with a virgin, he must pay the bridal price. I still don’t know what that price is, but I prayed earnestly for Christ to settle my debts. The words from the Sermon on the Mount came to mind, “If a man looks at a woman with lust, he has committed adultery with her in his heart,” and I realized that I would never be able to pay the price. I saw how holy God is and how much he demands of his people, Christians. I prayed for months and the burden began to lift.
LJ:Tell us about your ministry/business.
MF: I am part of several Christian writer groups on social media and I wanted to create a website to advertise their writing. I found that there are a lot of Christians out there that have a story and a testimony, so I expanded the website from simply book advertisement, to blogging as well. And this allows for me and others to share other passions and desires, such as working out or music. It has proven a great outreach as people come to the website to read blogs not strictly relating to God.
Another feature that I’ve added is custom merchandise. I found a website that will print your name, pictures, and logos on shirts and varying mugs and cups. This allows for authors, or any website visitor, to make custom products. I encourage authors to talk to me about them making products that can be sold on the website as further advancement of their books or brand. I also encourage each author to have a book trailer made. I offer this service for free, but charge if they ask for a link to their website. While the ‘ministry’ is to advance the Word of God, I have to be mindful that it does cost money to maintain the website. Ask my wife, charging doesn’t come easy to me.
LJ: Does your faith impact your fitness goals and strategies? If so, how?
MF: After the car accident, many basic tasks became nearly impossible. Working out became dangerous, in a sense. I often modify my workout so as not to damage my body. I find myself going to a physiotherapist every couple of years as my hips get worse with the simple task of walking. I try to be cautious about both upper body and lower body workouts. My faith sustains me. As much as I want to give up, sit on the couch and eat nachos, I’m reminded that God gave me a body with strength and a mission to advance the gospel, so I need to be careful on everything I do. I’m not a huge body builder like my brother, Farr, or any other number of the people at the gym, but I’m working on me, not them.
LJ: How has God used your business or your personal fitness habits to help others or to further the Gospel?
MF: While there are plenty of YouTube videos of people sharing their before and after results, I feel like I’m the only one that is focused more on the workout journey. As most people don’t have home gyms, they would need to modify their workout in some respect. Although being on camera isn’t my favourite thing to do, I want to offer encouragement for those who, like me, don’t have that ‘perfect body’.
I encourage the Christian writers, that writing can get lost in the big ocean of Amazon (the website) and we just need to carve out a little pond to reach people. While Christ is the main focus of my website, reaching out through blogs/ videos, I trust, will bring people in.
LJ: Tell us about your friendship with Farr Ramshahoye.
MF: I joined a life group at a church called Overcomers that met on Wednesdays, although I went to a different church on Sundays. Overcomers has three churches in Canada and they held a retreat in Cornwall, Ontario. There was a snow storm that weekend and everyone’s cars were snowed in. Farr came to help me remove the snow and shovel me out. We go to different life groups, his on Fridays and mine on Wednesdays, so we don’t see one another throughout the week. Farr does have a social media group where he shares videos of pastors to watch/ not watch and we’ve disagreed on some of those. But we both have a great desire to advance the true gospel message. He also shares a lot of tips on reading the Word and how to properly share it. Our church can disagree on that a lot, but I truly encourage him in the best way that I can. I enjoy discussing with Farr about exercise, as that is his expertise. I hope to dig further into scripture in the future. At the moment, I’m hoping to discuss with him on the “Daniel Fast” vs true biblical spiritual fasting.
LJ: Tell us about your current projects
MF: My current projects are to advance the writers on the website. I am taking courses online to become a pastor in the hopes that I will get to share the message in my church and others. I have my first ‘certificate’ in the course. I try to do at least one ‘public’ video a week to share on YouTube for everyone to watch and learn about the Gospel. I also do a weekly video chat with the members on my Facebook group to tell them what I’ve been doing with the website and give them an opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas.
LJ: How has the COVID crisis changed your life job/ministry and workout?
MF: As far as work, the COVID-19 has affected me very little as work is done on the computer. Life and workout has changed. My wife and I used to go to the gym 5-6 times a week before, but now we are unable to go. I do workout at home daily using dumbbells and elastic exercise bands. My wife and I go on walks most days to get some cardio.
LJ: What are your plans (personal and professional) for the near future and beyond?
MF: My wife and I are celebrating our 2-year anniversary in July so I am hoping that the isolation will be lifted by then. My last book I was working on was called Lord, Teach Us To Pray, so I will be working on that.
LJ: Give a word of encouragement, favorite scripture or favorite quote.
MF: My best piece of advice for working out is go easy on yourself. Don’t judge yourself by what you see in the magazine. Eat healthy and stay active. Squats, toe raises, even pacing in the bedroom, although small, are still giving the body some basic activity. When I was spending the summer at a motel, I used water bottles as weights for arm curls. Martin Luther King Jr said, “If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
LJ: How can we contact you? Please share links to your business and YouTube channel.
MF: The first Christian book I ever wrote is called ‘God: The Master of Sin and Satan The Beautiful’. It is about the origin of sin (Garden of Eden) and why God is our only saving grace, hence, the Master. I also discuss how and why Satan makes sin so appealing, or beautiful. The book can be found on Amazon, but you can also support me at my website https://christianwritersbookstore.com/michael-furlonger/.
My website https://christianwritersbookstore.com/ also has plenty of other Christian writers and any purchases made on the site also goes to support the website costs. Also, if you are a Christian author or blogger or a Christian with a passion that you would like shared, feel free to let me know.
The YouTube channel can be found by searching ChristianWritersBookstore (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiuJjIj8qzvyhJmFjaXNTzg/). Our YouTube channel has a number of lists advertising for different Christian authors. I encourage people to subscribe, share and follow. You can keep in touch with everything going on at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChristianWritersBookStore/
