This Weekend at Cleary

Dear Friends,


I wanted to let you all know about an exciting weekend that has been planned at Cleary Baptist Church in Florence, MS. We are excited that, after more than a year of praying and planning and communicating back and forth, Kempton Turner from Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN will be coming to Cleary in order to open the Word of God in hope of experiencing a meausure of revival/renewal.

Kempton Turner is a man who has been captivated by the power, truth, grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ! He serves as Pastor for Sr. High Discipleship at Bethlehem Baptist Church, with Senior Pastor, John Piper. Kempton is going to challenge us this weekend (Saturday April 2 through Monday April 4) to "See the King" from Isaiah 6. It is guaranteed to be an awesome weekend. Coming with Kempton is Ryan Thom, also from Bethlehem Baptist. Ryan, accompanied by some of our membership, will be leading us in worship. He is excited and convinced that God is going to do a dynamic work as well.

To put it simply, we are extremely excited about what God has been orchestrating over the last 1-2 years in preparation for this weekend. I am sending you this email in order to ask you, if you are a prayer warrior, to please pray with us that God would do a great work in us and through us this weekend that would resonate throughout our lives, families, church, and community to the ends of the earth for the fame of His great Name! Please pray with us for this weekend's events!

If you are close enough to attend, we would love to have you come seek the face of the King with us. We expect to encounter Him before the weekend is over. We would love to have you come be with us. We will have an hour of prayer before each service starts. The schedule is listed below:

Saturday, April 2
     6 p.m. Prayer for Revival/Renewal
     7 p.m. Saturday night worship

Sunday, April 3
     9:15 a.m. Prayer for Revival/Renewal
     10:30 a.m. Morning Worship
     6 p.m. Prayer for Revival/Renewal
     7 p.m. Sunday night worship

Monday, April 4
     6 p.m. Prayer for Revival/Renewal
     7 p.m. Monday night worship.

If you cannot attend, please lift up in prayer, Cleary Baptist Church, the Florence, MS area, Kempton Turner, and Ryan Thom. Pray that God would show Himself strong and do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine. And if you don't mind, please forward this on to all those in your contact list in order to coninue spreading the Word and building prayer support. Isn't it awesome that people will be praying for this weekend from Minneapolis to Mississippi and around the world. May God hear and do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine this weekend.

March 20, 2011 Evening

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March 20, 2011 Morning

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March 13, 2011 Evening

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March 13, 2011 Morning

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Mission Surge Update

Here is the latest update on the work of Mission Surge.  Please be in prayer for the following.

Report from Wilfrido


Here is a report from one of our key church-planters in the Dominican Republic.

Las Ochocientas: Wilfrido is working with several groups in other places, especially training the leaders. I asked him what was being done to win the community around the church. A group of young men led by Daniel, Wilfrido’s brother, is doing house meetings with Dominicans on Monday nights. And a group of Haitian young men do house meetings with Haitians on Tuesday nights. They go to a home, invite the people around the area to the house, provide something to eat, visit, sing and have a Bible study. Wilfrido says the focus is on touching the lost and the church is growing through these efforts.

La Cuba: Vitalina and others from Las Ochocientas are leading 2 groups in La Cuba. Wilfrido visits the groups every other Friday night. He is looking for leaders from the community whom he can begin to train. Some of the people from La Cuba are also participating in the church services at Emmanuel in Las Ochocientas.

Santa Rosa: This group has 7 believers and others who are not yet believers. Danny and Arelis, a young couple, are being trained as leaders. Wilfrido shared a great testimony about this couple. Arelis could not have children, and the doctors told her she needed an operation to give her an opportunity to have children. They saved up some money for the surgery, but then Danny was convicted that they should give the money to the church. He asked Arelis if she trusted God. She said yes. He told her they should give the money for the surgery to the church and trust God to give them a child In His time. After prayer they were both in agreement. They did it. And today they have a child. Amazing testimony! Wilfrido is doing a study with this couple called “Quien es Jesus?” (Who is Jesus?) After this they will be studying the book of Acts preparing to organize the group into a church.

Mendoza: Wilfrido is training two young men who are brothers as leaders of this group. He tries to get to Invivienda weekly, but sometimes cannot for lack of resources for transportation. He always goes on the fourth Sunday of the month to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the group and to train Peterson and his brother. They are also studying “Quien es Jesus?” and will be doing the book of Acts afterward. Wilfrido feels that this group is also almost ready to organize as a functioning church. The two brother’s sister is a widow with an 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter. They are struggling financially and have little to eat. The church in Las Ochocientas and the group in Mendoza are collecting money and food to minister to this widow and her children. There is also a widow in a similar situation in Santa Rosa they are helping. I am glad to hear that these groups are accepting personal responsibility to minister to those in need in their midst.

Jamaica: Wifrido is trying to meet with Junior and his wife for the same studies mentioned above once a week, but sometimes because of lack of resources for transportation and Junior’s work schedule the meeting doesn’t happen. However, Junior was on vacation last week and Wilfrido spent an entire afternoon with them. He says this work needs more time before organizing it as a church.

Rincon: Socio, the pastor in Rincon, has 8 children. According to Wilfrido, he has “given” four of his daughters to live with other families because he cannot take care of them. Wilfrido has one of them living with him. We really need to pray for Socio and Celeste. Socio works hard every day, but he does not make much money. Thankfully they grow a lot of their food in the country, but there is just not enough money for other costs such as school uniforms, etc. One reason he sent his daughters to live with others is so that they can attend school.

Transportation: I asked Wilfrido to send me a summary of his transportation costs to visit leaders in Santa Rosa, Mendoza, Jamaica, etc. once a week. I should get that soon. He continues to talk about a car, saying he would like to check on Socio in Rincon regularly (which would require a car), but I still think we should pray hard and long before doing anything like that. I prefer to wait and see what his weekly costs would be and go from there.

Summary: I am encouraged by this talk with Wilfrido. He mentioned a couple of times things, Kevin Ivy, Kevin Wade and I had discussed with him in December. He seems to have taken those things to heart and is following through. He still needs a regular income for his family, and a job for him or that his church will step up to care for the pastor is my constant prayer.

Please be in prayer for Wilfrido’s financial situation and the needs of his family in the midst of a very difficult financial situation in the DR. Pray that God would raise up financial support through Mission Surge to help minister to Wilfrido and his family’s material needs.

Report from Miguel


His Plans for this week: Tomorrow Miguel will leave early in the morning to walk to another barrio in San Crostobal called Maria Vieja to start a new group that he has been cultivating for some time. He will also work with a new group on Friday and his 3 groups on Saturday. I told him I want to spend a day with him in May to see where these works are located and to meet some of the members. He told me I need to get ready to do a lot of walking.

Plans for May training: Miguel wants to invite the two leaders he is already training and at least two other potential leaders. He remembered from our conversation last week that we will be focusing on the Gospel. He is very excited about it.

Please pray every day for the leaders in the Dominican and their places of ministry. If we can find 10 or 12 young leaders like Miguel seems to be we can raise up an army of young church planters in Santo Domingo to the glory of God. Please pray for God to continue to reveal these men to us and pray that, through our training in May, many of them will be better equipped to minister the Gospel in their families, churches, and communities of the glory of God. Also, please pray for the financial needs of our training in May to be met.

Report from Kenya

Our pastor training in Kenya will take place in June. Below is the latest report from pastor Jacob Lusweti, who is serving as our contact there.

Dear pastor Kevin,

I just wanted to let you know that we had a powerful Sunday service with two people giving their lives to Jesus. We have been praying and fasting for the coming conference with a team of pastors. We had a gathering in my church today of pastors and lay leaders who met for discussion concerning the coming conference. We had more than 100 pastors and Church leaders gathering in my church. They were very much excited to hear from the servant of God pastor Paul. Pastor paul sent us some commentary books. We agreed with our pastors and church leaders today that we are going to put those commentary books in our library so that anybody who is interested can go there and read so it will be a blessing to many pastors and church Leaders.

Blessings

Pastor.Jacob

Please be in prayer for this training of 400-500 pastors and lay-leaders from Kenya and Uganda in June of 2011. Pray that God would provide the resources necessary to fund this training and the purchase of the Swahili Bibles that are needed. Pray for Dr. Paul Young as he goes to teach that God would protect, energize, and empower him with a very busy schedule there. We are looking forward to being able to report to you what God is doing in Kenya.

As these trainings draw nearer, you will continue to receive updates and reports. Please keep these men and these events in your prayers. We are in desperate need of the persistent and fervent prayers of God’s people!


In Christ


Kevin

March 6, 2011 Morning

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