Mission Surge

Seven Observations from the National Center for Family Integrated Churches Confrence

2011-11-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

My family was blessed to be invited by Scott Brown, the director of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, to attend their annual mega-conference at Ridgecrest, North Carolina last weekend. The conference this year was entitled, “Gospel Centered Marriages for a Glorious Church.” I have been studying and following this movement of Family Integrated Churches for only a couple of years and see very clearly their arguments for age integrated discipleship, home education, and fathers shepherding their families to Christ. I am so encouraged by the movement that we have invited Voddie Baucham, pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Houston, TX, to Cleary next weekend to challenge our men, as well as men from around the state and area. (By the way men…if you have not registered you still have time. Just click here.)

I am not the pastor of a Family Integrated Church so, while at the conference, I was kind of like an outsider looking in at the product of this model. I made some observations while there that I would love to share with you in this blog. I am going to attempt to be as honest and fair as possible as I relate to you the observations I made Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as we attended this conference with 2200 other people.

Observation 1: I expected to see a bunch of white people and I did. But what I noticed right away was that there were several minority families present. It made my heart beat fast to see African American families, Asian families, and Hispanic families present at the conference. It is exciting to see that this is not a “white’s only” movement and that the movement is picking up speed among minorities.

Observation 2: These people believe Psalm 127. Children are a heritage from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is a reward, not an inconvenience. Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of children! Most families at the conference had more than the traditional 0.8 children per family for sure! But I also noticed that these families were taking James 1:27 seriously. They were taking their responsibility to care for orphans seriously by doing more than just talking about the need. Adopted children were seen frequently around the meeting hall. I saw multiple families that had adopted African American children, Guatemalan children, Ukranian children, and on and on. What a blessing and encouragement to see a group of people who not only talk about life, but invest in lives. The FIC movement is definitely a movement of life!

Observation 3: Beauty! There were young ladies (teenagers) everywhere and what stood out about all of them was a modest beauty that screamed purity. Mandy has said on more than one occasion, “It is not necessary to be homely in order to be holy.” That was proven this past weekend. In my church and in most churches, the teenage girls dress in such a way that screams promiscuity. Yes, they are wearing what is popular and in style, but it is what it is and it screams what it screams. Short shorts, short skirts, strapless, low-cut, halter top in-style clothing seems to scream promiscuity. At the conference, the clothing that was worn by the young ladies clearly framed their faces instead of their figures. The impression conveyed was purity, not promiscuity…beauty, not the cultural beast.

Observation 4: Age segregation. Yes, you heard me right. At an age integrated conference, I saw age segregation. Fathers were often found in a huddle. Mothers were often found in a huddle. Children were often seen rolling down a hill together, and teens were congregating together as well. This is what I saw as different however…the teens who were huddled together were not discussing foolishness…they were fellowshipping. Where most of the teenagers that I am familiar with would have been in a corner text messaging, on Facebook, discussing a boy or girl they were attracted to, or the latest reality TV show, these teens were discussing the Word of God, the messages preached, their families, their pasts, their plans, etc. Yes, there was age segregation, but it was uplifting and encouraging to see that the focus was godly fellowship, not foolishness.

Observation 5: Socialization. So often, one of the criticisms I hear about home education is, “how are your children going to be socialized?” Well, most people who home educate know what that question really means…“how are your children going to be worldy?” After all, if they aren’t in public school and mentored by their peers how are they going to know all the ins and outs of Hollywood, popular music, and reality TV? So, one of the reasons I home educate is to keep my kids from being worldy (socialized). As I looked around this past weekend what I saw was a group of teens that are much more socialized than most “normal ‘socialized’ teens.” They could carry on a conversation without saying “like” like 1000 times like every few minutes. Yes, they could actually carry on adult conversations with adults! One of the most encouraging times was on Saturday. I had a lunch meeting, which left Mandy alone with 2 seven year olds, a three year old, and a seven month old in a stroller to go through the cafeteria line for lunch. It was a challenge for me and her to get the trays filled and to the tables without a disaster. Saturday, she enters the lunch line without me and is wondering what she is going to do, when a 16 or 17 year old girl sees her, comes along side, helps serve the trays and helps take the trays and the kids to the table. She then sits with Mandy, helps her with the children, carries on an adult conversation, and then helps her clean off the table after lunch. I don’t care who you are or where you are, that is not a normal 16 or 17 year old girl. If that is un-socialized, I will take it. While I admit that there are some families in home education who are not socialized (in the real sense of the word), I am pretty confident they would be that way no matter where they were educated and am pretty confident that the reason they homeschool is because their children and families do not know how to relate in a healthy manner to others. That type of family gives all home educators a reputation for being dysfunctional socially. That is just not the case! The families that I observed at the conference, for the most part, did not home educate because their children can’t relate to others, but because they believe it is their responsibility to raise, educate, and disciple the children God has entrusted to them based on Deut 6. These families and their children were not socially dysfunctional. They were very social…just not worldly.

Observation 6: Health. Mandy noticed it first, maybe because we were a bit out of place on this issue...but their were very very few overweight people at the conference. Out of 2200 people only a handful would have been considered obese. Apparently the people that make up this movement are disciplined as individuals...or maybe they just don't eat as much "southern" fried chicken as we do in Mississippi, but an impression was made nonetheless.

Observation 7: The Gospel. While this movement is often accused of idolizing the family, I repeatedly heard over and over: “It is about Christ! It is about the glory of Christ! It is for the glory of God and His Gospel!” These people love their families, protect their families, and disciple their families, but their focus as far as I could tell, is the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom. I heard over and over again about families bringing the lost into their homes, investing in them, and evangelizing them. I heard about a church that has 20 men who regularly go out and preach on the street. These people are evangelistic. As a matter of fact, the reason this group home educates their children is evangelistic. That is right! They have taken note of the fact that we are losing 8 out of 10 of our children who are raised up in evangelical churches. 8 out of every 10 walk away from the church when they graduate high school. Consider that those who home educate in order to disciple their children retain 9 out of 10, according to Voddie Baucham. That is right! 9 out of 10 children who are home educated with a focus on discipleship stay. The reason these families are doing what they are doing is to evangelize and disciple their children. And almost always, when in public, they will be encountered with questions about how their family is so well ordered and their children are so respectful and obedient etc. This opens the door for more evangelism. In fact the theme for next year’s mega-conference is “The Fields are White Unto Harvest.” I plan to go and I don’t think it would be a bad idea for you to check it out as well!

If you want more information on the National Center for Family Integrated Churches you can go to their website at ncfic.org and check it out. While you may not agree with, or see the argument for everything they are doing, I am convinced you, and your family, will be blessed by looking into the website and the resources that are available through this ministry and its affiliates.

Until next time…

Domincan Republic Training Report

2011-10-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

We have returned from the training in the Dominican Republic encouraged and excited about the next trip. We had an average of 35 guys in each training session and they all seemed to be challenged and encouraged. Ken and Andy made it possible for each one to have a DVD copy of each of the training sessions to carry back to their churches and share. Because of their hard work, the training will go on and on. You can go to our Facebook page and check out a few pictures if you would like. Just click here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598

We also spent a couple of hours talking with one of the pastors that we hope to see sent to an unreached and unengaged people group somewhere in the Americas next year. The interview went well and progress is being made. Providence has worked since our last training as well because the man who served as my interpreter was assigned the task of Missions Director for the entire Dominican Baptist Convention. We shared our visions and spoke of how we could work together to send church planters to the east side of the island (where little to no work is being done), a missionary into Haiti, and next year a pair of missionaries to an unreached people group in Latin America. It seems as though things may be lining up to touch the world through Mission Surge and the Dominican Republic. Thank you for being such a vital part!

Here are some things to pray about. First, that those God is calling out of the DR will be clearly identified, qualified, and provided for financially and with prayer support. Second, that the church planters being sent to the east side of the DR will be provided for financially and with prayer support. Third, that the missionary being sent into Haiti will be provided for financially and with prayer support. In other words, for the vision to be accomplished, we are going to need a host of prayer warriors and some faithful financial supporters. Pray for God to accomplish His will in His time. Finally, begin now praying for the third and final part of the pastor/church planter training that will take place in February in the Dominican.

Thank you so much for your prayers and your financial support that has made the past 2 training sessions possible. God has used you to make this training a reality and we believe he is going to use you to carry the Gospel through the DR and to an unreached and unengaged people group somewhere in Central or South America. Thank you for being a part. Please spread the word.

In Christ,

Kevin

October Mission Surge Update

2011-10-04T09:45:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I wanted to remind you and plead with you to be in serious prayer for our upcoming pastor/church planter training in the Dominican Republic October 7-9. We will be leaving Thursday, October 6 and returning Monday night, October 10. Please pray for us as we travel, teach, and return.

We will be training between 40 and 50 men this time. Each session will be videoed and burned to DVDs on the spot. Each pastor/church planter will receive a DVD copy of the entire training to carry back to their churches and cell groups. This will allow the training to take place all over the island! We will train 40-50 men, but by the time all is said and done we will have trained hundreds, if not thousands, of Dominicans all over the island through the wonder of technology! Please pray for this training and for the men who will attend this weekend. We desperately need your prayers. Please pray!

I also want to ask you to pray for God to give two of these pastors/church planters this weekend a strong desire to invest themselves in foreign missions. It is our prayer and goal at Mission Surge, next year God willing, to send two Dominicans to an unreached and unengaged people group somewhere in Latin America. We have two potential candidates identified, and as God leads, we hope to sit down and interview them this time. Please pray that God will move them according to His will and reveal to us whether they are the right men for the job, where they should be sent, and who they should be sent to. We hope to see this dream become a reality sometime next year and we would appreciate you praying with us about it.

Next, I want to ask you to pray again concerning our 501c3/non-profit status. Almost all of the paperwork has been pulled together and signed. We are literally within a week or two of being ready to file. Please pray that everything falls into place and that we are approved quickly so that we can focus on other things!

I also want to make you aware of a couple of opportunities that are coming up. As you know, Mission Surge’s mission is to impact individuals, families, churches, and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. An opportunity for your church to be encouraged and impacted will be taking place October 28-30 at Audubon Drive Bible Church in Laurel, MS. You can find out more by following this link: http://audubonchurch.org/

An opportunity for your family to be challenged and impacted will be taking place November 11-12 at Cleary Baptist Church in Florence, MS. You can find out more by following this link: http://clearybaptist.org/Voddie_Baucham_Man_Up

Finally, if you have not liked Mission Surge on Facebook or if you are not following us on Twitter, please follow the following links and do so today!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/missionsurge

Thank you so much for your prayers! Please pray for us as we come to mind and please, spread the word to those who will pray and to those who may be interested in the opportunities mentioned above.

Thanks again for your faithful prayers.

In Christ,

Kevin

September Update

2011-09-15T12:28:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I wanted to ask you guys to be in prayer for me concerning 4 things.

1. Please pray for me as I will be preaching at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Quitman, MS this Sunday, September 18 through Wednesday September 21. Please, as I come to mind, pray for me that I would preach with grace and power, with anointing and compassion, and with unction and love. Pray that the people of Pleasant Hill will have ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to understand, and wills to respond to what they hear. Pray for an awakening and for revival. Please pray!

2. Please pray for our upcoming training in the Dominican Republic October 7-9. We will be training approximately 40 church planters and pastors in the Dominican, videoing the sessions, burning them onto DVD’s and challenging the pastors to take the training back to their communities, cities, and churches. The topic of this training is prayer. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for this. Gene Pickern, Ken Holm, Andy Dusenberry, and myself will serve as the team.

3. Please pray that the mounds of paperwork to obtain approval as a non-profit organization will be complete soon. A CPA in our church (Renee Holm) has graciously agreed to help me wade through it all and the end is finally in sight! Pray that we will get it complete and get it approved as soon as possible.

4. Please pray for our men’s conference November 11 and 12! Part of Mission Surge’s mission is to impact families with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The catalyst to impacting the family is the father. Dr. Voddie Baucham is coming to challenge men to be the Christians, husbands, fathers, and church members that they should be. If you have ever heard Dr. Baucham, you know that this is going to be one challenging and valuable weekend. The conference is going to be held at Cleary Baptist Church. Please pray that there will be a large number of men register and that God would work in their lives in a mighty way through Dr. Baucham’s teaching. Please spread the word to all of the men you know! You can learn more and register at http://clearybaptist.org/Vodde_Baucham_Man_Up

Thank you so much for your prayers. It is my hope that as you receive these updates that you do pray for us. Without God hearing and answering prayer, we are hopeless and hopeless. He is our source. He is our strength. He is our hope and help. Please pray! And please pass this update along to those that you know who may pray for our work!

In Christ,

Kevin

August 17, 2011 Evening

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August 14, 2011 Morning

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July 3, 2011 Morning

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August 10, 2011 Evening

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July 31, 2011 Morning

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July 31, 2011 Morning

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August Mission Surge Update

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

It has been some time since I have updated you, and today I wanted to share with you some upcoming opportunities for you to pray with me about. There are 6 issues to discuss so I will try to be as brief as possible.

First, I will be traveling to Atmore, AL Saturday to lead a Mission Surge Conference at Unity Baptist Church there. Sunday morning I will be defining the Gospel. Sunday evening I will be sharing how the Gospel impacts individuals. Monday night, we will be discussing how the Gospel impacts families. Tuesday night we will discuss the church and Wednesday night we will conclude with a look at how the Gospel impacts the world. Please pray for me and Unity Baptist Church now, leading up to Sunday, and as often as we are brought to mind through Wednesday.

Second, pray for me as I travel to my hometown of Quitman, MS September 18-21 to preach at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. This will be primarily an evangelistic series, unless God redirects, and I plead with you to pray for God to open eyes, open ears, and awaken hearts September 18-21!

Third, October 7-9 will be our second Mission Surge Training in the Dominican Republic. I will be teaching on the necessity of prayer for individuals, the family, the church, and the world. Ken Holm and Andy Dusenberry will be traveling with me in order to video and duplicate the DVD's of the conference for those in attendance so that they can in turn carry the teaching back into their churches and communities all over the Dominican. Give thanks to God that two recent and generous donations have virtually covered the entire costs of this training! Pray that God will provide the funds Ken, Andy, and I need to travel to and from the DR as he always does.

Fourth, I want to direct you to a new teaching on the Mission Surge Website. A few months ago, I led a 3 week study on Philip Lancaster’s book, Family Man, Family Leader. That teaching was recorded here. You can also download the study guides and handouts at http://missionsurge.com/654636.ihtml.

Fifth, you do not want to miss the “Man Up Conference” being held at Cleary Baptist Church November 11-12! If you are not a “man” then you do not want those men in your life to miss it. Dr. Voddie Baucham, author of Family Driven Faith, will be coming to challenge men to be the men God has called and commanded them to be. He will be traveling from Houston Texas to Florence, MS to issue this challenge and YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT! There is limited space available so go to http://clearybaptist.org/Vodde_Baucham_Man_Up for more information and to register.

Finally, there are a couple of pastors in the Dominican Republic who are facing serious trials at this time. One in particular has twin daughters who both have just recently suffered with high fevers, his wife just recently suffered from kidney stones, he has been unemployed for some time and has barely been able to put food on the table for his family. These faithful pastors could use monthly support from the body of Christ to help them provide food for their families and money for travel as they invest themselves in the work of the Gospel. If you are moved to support one of these pastors monthly, or if you would like to give to further the work of Mission Surge, you can click here to give securely.

Most importantly, we need your prayers. Please, please pray for the work of Mission Surge as we seek to see individuals, families, churches, and the world impacted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and for your support. Please forward this information to everyone that you will. Spread the word!

In Christ,

Kevin

July 17, 2011 Morning

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July 10, 2011 Morning

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June 26, 2011 Morning

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June 19, 2011 Morning

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June 5, 2011 Morning

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May 29, 2011 Morning

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May Mission Surge Update

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

We are so grateful for all of your prayers and for your financial support for our Dominican Pastor Training last weekend! We had between 20 and 30 pastors for every session as we taught them the Core Components of the Gospel and how that biblical Gospel should impact their lives, their families, their church, and the world. The men were really challenged. We are so grateful to God for Ken Holm and Drew Dusenberry for sacrificing their time and their finances to travel with me to the Dominican Republic in order to video each session and produce DVD’s of each session for every pastor present at the training. That means that these men will take what they learned back to their churches and Bible studies and re-produce the training there over and over again. The training will continue to spread and go on and on in the Dominican and I am so grateful for your prayers and support. I hope to have some pictures up on the website in the next month or so.

I would ask that you begin now praying for our next training in the DR October 7-9, 2011. In this training we will discuss Gospel driven prayer as individual pastors/leaders, families, churches, and for the world. Please be in prayer for this training and for the needed funds to sponsor these men and enable them to return. It is also my prayer that we will be able to provide each of these 30 or so pastors with a copy of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology in Spanish when we return in October or at the last training in February. Please pray with us about this.

Finally, please please be in prayer for our upcoming pastor training in Kenya and Uganda. God has been faithful to provide financially for this training and we are believing that he will put it on your hearts to pray fervently for this training.

Please be in prayer for Dr. Paul Young as he goes to teach. Below is a note from him. Please read it and pass it along to everyone that you will…

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to take the time to update everyone on the upcoming trip to train pastors in Kenya and Uganda. The trip is now less than 2 weeks away. We have been in regular contact with Pastor Jacob Lusweti in Eldoret, Kenya. We are expecting about 500 pastors to attend the conference we will be having there. They will be from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. After that 5 day conference we will be going into Uganda to do a 2 day conference for the pastors there. We will also be preaching in various churches. Our primary focus will be to teach pastors to prepare biblically solid sermons. Most of these pastors and church leaders have no formal training and no Bible study resources (commentaries, Bible dictionaries, etc.). I have developed a system to teach them to study and prepare sermons that are biblically accurate using only a Bible. The majority of our time will be spent teachig them this method and practicing it with them so that they will be equipped to preach to their churches. We will also be speaking to them about the core convictions and commitments that a pastor must have. Also, we will instruct them on the core components of the gospel. We will be very busy and we ask that you pray for strength for us, as the conference is scheduled to begin less than an hour after our plane lands in Eldoret. Also, pray for God to bless our travel and give us grace with customs officials in each country.

Please pray for myself, Rev. James Washington, Curtis Broadwater, and Patrick Goode as we undertake this exciting work for the kingdom of our great God and Savior.

Dr. Paul Young

Again, thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Please continue to spread the Word about Mission Surge and the work of Mission Surge. Check out the calendar on our website for specific dates so that you can lift up the different events on our schedule specifically.

In Christ,

Dr. A. Kevin Ivy

May 15, 2011 Morning

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May 1, 2011 Morning

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Mission Surge Update

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

As the date for our Dominican Departure draws nearer, I wanted to share with you a story from one of our key church planters in the Dominican Republic named Miguel and encourage you again to pray for the upcoming Mission Surge training May 6-8.

Miguel received a laptop computer this past December from Mission Surge. With this computer, he has been required to meet periodically (through Skype) with Pastor Gene Pickern (our point man for our DR work). The purpose of these meetings is to keep Gene updated on what Miguel is doing and how things are moving forward with his ministry and work. Not too long ago Miguel told Gene, “Do not call me on Wednesday morning. Leave me alone.” Gene asked him why he should leave him alone on Wednesday mornings. Miguel told him, “I have a Bible study that I am leading with this computer you guys gave me.” What type of Bible study?

It seems that Miguel somehow found some Dominicans all the way across the ocean in Spain. He struck up a conversation with them through Skype and began teaching them the Bible on Wednesday mornings. Through this Bible study one of the Dominicans in Spain came to Christ and just recently flew back to the Dominican to visit family. While there, she located Miguel and he was able to baptize her before she returned to Spain!

This is just one story of how God is working through resources supplied by Mission Surge and through the men that Mission Surge is connected with. Miguel will be attending our training in May and will be brining several of his key leaders with him in order to better equip them to lead Bible studies and potential churches in the near future. Please keep Miguel and the men listed below in your prayers. Pray for us (Gene, Ken, Drew, and myself) as we leave for the DR Thursday morning that God will protect us, keep us healthy, strong, energized, and that we will be Spirit filled. Pray that He will use us to encourage these Dominicans as they continue to reach individuals, their families, their churches and communities, their country, their island, and the ends of the earth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Please keep these guys on your prayer list. Maybe you would be willing to adopt 3 or 4 to continually pray for from now on. Please ask your praying friends to adopt 3 or 4 others and so on. The more people we have fervently praying for these guys, the better. The battle is fought on our knees!

1. Wilfrido Brunache      2. Peggy Joseph

3. Piterson Caryl            4. Marcelina Mañón

5. Danny Ureña             6. Piterson Leger

7. Yvení Leger              8. Roberson Dorival

9. Evens Clermon        10. Sosio Berroa

11. Wilkin                   12. Ibelise

13. Miguel Martich      14. Pastor Ramon Sosa

15. Junior                    16. Yojalver

17. Robert                  18. Hector

19. Robert Ciprian      20. Salvador

21. Jose Ramirez        22. Juan

23. Melvin                  24. Melvin Viernes

25. Narciso                26. Hector

27. Daniel                  28. Joshi

29. Alejandro             30. Daniel

31. Franklin                32. Antonio

I will likely be in touch one more time before we leave the country and hopefully will be able to update you during the training (depending upon time and internet availability). If nothing else, be on the lookout for some pictures and testimonies when we return! Forward this information and spread the word. If you have not checked out the Mission Surge Website please do so. Also, if you are not following us on twitter, click here and sign up to follow us now.  Thanks!

In Christ,

Kevin

April 10, 2011 Evening

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April 24, 2011 Morning

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Mission Surge Update April 2011

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

Please be in prayer for Mission Surge, May 6-8. Our point man to the DR, Gene Pickern, two computer and media savvy laymen, along with myself will travel to the DR to train 30-40 indigenous pastors, church planters, and potential missionaries. We will teach them the biblical gospel, how that gospel must impact their lives, their families, their churches, and their mission field. They will be given assignments to carry out in order to apply what they have learned and they will be held accountable by us over the next several months. Those that are faithful will be brought back for the second and third training sessions (October 2011 and February 2012).

Our goals in this training are several.
1. To ensure that each church planter thoroughly understands the Gospel (Rom 1:16).
2. To ensure that each church planter has been transformed by the Gospel (2 Cor 5:17).
3. To ensure that each church planter is leading his family (1 Tim 3:4-5).
4. To ensure that each church planter is planting a healthy, biblical church.
5. To ensure that each church planter understands and embraces God’s vision of reaching the lost in their
    communities and to the very ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

I want to ask you to please pray for those of us going on this journey that God would keep us safe, healthy, energized, and spiritually strong!
1. Gene Pickern, pastor of Unity Baptist Church in Atmore, AL and our point man for the Dominican. His
    travel dates are May 2-16.
2. Myself, as I train Friday through Sunday. My travel dates are May 5-9.
3. Ken Holm and Drew Dusenberry as they video and produce DVD’s. Their work will enable those in
    attendance to take the DVD’s of the training home so that they can in turn train others in their churches
    and community. Their travel dates are May 5-9.
4. Please also be in prayer for a team from Cleary who will be coming to the DR on May 9 to work with 2
    of the pastors we train and who will be returning home on May 16.

Finally, pray for the names of the men that we have invited.
1. Wilfrido Brunache
2. Peggy Joseph
3. Piterson Caryl
4. Marcelina Mañón
5. Danny Ureña
6. Piterson Leger
7. Yvení Leger
8. Roberson Dorival
9. Evens Clermon
10. Sosio Berroa
11. Wilkin
12. Ibelise
13. Miguel Martich
14. Pastor Ramon Sosa
15. Junior
16. Yojalver
17. Robert
18. Hector
19. Robert Ciprian
20. Salvador
21. Jose Ramirez
22. Juan
23. Melvin
24. Melvin Viernes
25. Narciso
26. Hector
27. Daniel
28. Joshi
29. Alejandro
30. Daniel
31. Franklin
32. Antonio

All of these men have been invited and sponsored financially by Mission Surge to attend this training because they have shown personal integrity and promise as, either current church leaders, or potential church leaders, planters, and/or missionaries. Please, please pray that these guys will be encouraged, challenged, and revived through this weekend of training!

Thank you so much to those of you who have given to Mission Surge over these past few months! Your gifts have made it possible for men, like those above, to receive training and encouragement that would be impossible normally. It is our prayer that God would bless you for your faithful giving and praying for this ministry. I will be sending out many pictures after we return on May 9, so be on the lookout! Again thank you for your faithful support.

In Christ,

Kevin

April 2, 2011 Evening

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April 4, 2011 Evening

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April 3, 2011 Morning

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April 17, 2011 Morning

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April 3, 2011 Evening

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This Weekend at Cleary

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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

2011-03-10T15:38:00.000-06:00

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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Mission Surge Update Feb 2011

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Thank you so much for lifting our recent meeting concerning ongoing work in the Dominican Republic through Mission Surge. I want to give you the latest news.

First, in case you haven’t noticed Mission Surge has shifted its focus to the Dominican Republic. Of course we are still working in Southeast Asia, Kenya, and other areas as God opens doors but the focus of our finances and energy is in the DR. Here is why...

1. In the DR we have a number of church planters and pastors that are needy and un-trained who are already doing a good job planting churches all throughout the DR and into Haiti. These pastors could be more effective if they had proper training and adequate resources to minister with. The signs of a church planting movement can be seen in the DR and we cannot miss the opportunity to help ensure that the churches planted are biblical, healthy, and strong.

2. We also have a number of Dominican young men who feel called to foreign missions. These young men simply need training and support to go. They can go to virtually any unreached and unengaged people group in Latin America for a fraction of the cost of an American missionary. Furthermore they already know the language and often are familiar with the culture.

3. The Mission Surge board has decided that we should focus our efforts in one area until we get the work established and rolling. While our focus is shifting primarily to the Dominican, we are not excluding the other areas of the world.

God has opened a wide door in the DR. We are trying to take one step at a time as He leads. Our next step in the Dominican will take place May 6-8. Missionary Gene Pickern, myself, and two laymen will travel to the DR to train 30-40 indigenous pastors, church planters, and potential missionaries. We will teach them the biblical gospel, how that gospel must impacts their lives, their families, their churches, and their mission field. They will be given assignments to carry out to apply what they have learned and will be held accountable. Those that are faithful will be brought back for the second and third training sessions this year. The cost to carry out this training will be approximately $1500-$2000. We are praying that God would provide the needed funds to conduct this work effectively.

Update from Ramon Sosa February 24, 2011

Mission Surge will be in the Dominican Republic May 6-9 for the purpose of training Dominican church planters and potential missionaries. Ramon will be leading one of the Bible studies at this training. Ramon also reported that he has two members of the church who have the vision to start new works that he will be inviting to the May training.

Ramon and his church have begun preparing the way for a new Bible Study in Farolloness. Faralloness is a community between Los Frailes and Brisas del Este. It is a very poor neighborhood. Ramon’s church is also working in another area called Los Frailes 3.

Though Ramon is a faithful pastor, he is without a permanent job and his church cannot support him or his family financially. He is looking hard, but employment is very difficult to come by in the DR at this time. He is using his personal car as a taxi just to keep his rent paid and to put food on the table. He says he knows this will not provide for his family on a permanent basis and he is struggling financially. Please pray that God will provide a job for him, and in the mean time, pray that God will provide food for him, his wife, and his six year old twin daughters.

Mission Surge is praying about helping support Ramon financially so that he can focus his energy on the mission rather than surviving. We are praying for the monthly funds ($500 a month) to do this. Please pray with us about this need.

Update from Wilfrido Brunache

Another faithful pastor who is also struggling financially is Wilfrido. You have heard from him over the past few months through our updates, but the power has been down. We do know that he is struggling to put food on his table as well. Mission Surge is praying about helping support Wilfrido financially as well so that he can focus his energy on the mission rather than on simply surviving. He also will be key to our training in May. We are praying for the monthly funds ($300 a month) to do this. Please pray with us about this need.

Update from Miguel Martich February 24, 2011

This is the first report you have received from Miguel. Miguel is working with 5 new groups in San Cristobal. One meets on Sunday. Another meets on Thursdays. And he has 3 groups meeting on Saturday—one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night. He baptized two new believers last week, and will baptize Wilkin tomorrow morning (Fri. Feb. 25, 2011). Miguel is excited about Jesus and faithful in the work. One of these works (in Esmeralda) is already functioning as a church, and members of this work have been instrumental in starting the other four in the communities where they live or where they have friends or family. The four new groups are in various stages of development.

Miguel has committed to meet through skype with our Gene Pickern, our point man for the DR on Tuesday nights. These younger church planters are not concerned about buying land and building buildings. They are concerned with reaching the lost and it is the hope and prayer of Mission Surge that they will be the source of a future harvest in the DR, future churches in the DR, and possible Dominican missionaries to other countries.

Please Pray

Please pray for our training in May and that God will move His people to provide financially for this training. Please pray as well as the financial needs of Ramon and Wilfrido to be met by monthly supporters very soon. Also keep Dr. Paul Young in your prayers as he continues to prepare and plan for the pastor training in Kenya to take place in June. Pray that God will raise up support through Mission Surge so that we will be able to fully fund this event. Continue to pray for our non-profit status to be approved very soon. Thank you for your prayers.

Please forward this as you feel led and if you are not on our email list and you want to be, shoot me an email at kevin@missionsurge.com and I will add you!

In Christ,

Kevin

February 27, 2011 Morning

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February 20, 2011 Evening

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February 20, 2011 Morning

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February 6, 2011 Morning

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February 13, 2011 Evening

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February 13, 2011 Morning

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Feb 2011 Mission Surge Update

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I would ask you to please be in prayer about the following things.

I. The Dominican Republic

Please be in prayer for Ministerio Visión Emmanuel, a ministry that is led by one of our Dominican church planters and pastors. This year this ministry will be focusing on 4 rural areas of Santo Domingo and Haiti.

1. La Cuba

We have already started two bible studies in La Cuba. Last week we had a great opportunity to share the Gospel with a local witchcraft-man. This man allowed us to visit his Church of Satan and Wilfrido had the opportunity to share his personal testimony with him. The witchcraft-man knows that he is under Satan's chains and he reconized that only Jesus can set him free. Pray for the Lord to give us His power while we are testifying His Word and greatness. Please pray that the Lord would break the evil that reigns in La Cuba.

2. Invivienda

We have a new church plant in the DR that is slowly growing. Please pray for the members to grow deep in their faith and that many in this neighborhood would come to know Jesus as their Savior.

3. Santa Rosa

Please pray for this poor neighborhood. Pray that God would raise up workers to work in this neighborhood, planting the seeds of the gospel. Pray that many would respond to the truth and that a new church plant would spring up in this neighborhood this year.

4. Jamiaca

Pray for Jamiaca, another poor neighborhood in Santo Domingo. Please pray that the Lord would call out "people of peace" in the neighborhood that will open their homes to begin weekly Bible studies. Pray that many would come to know Jesus as their Savior this year in Jamiaca.

5. Pray for our church planter/missionary training coming up in May (tentatively) and a mission trip that is
scheduled for May 9-16 to help advance the work of Ramon Sosa and Wilfrido (two of our key church
planters).

II. Kenya

Airline tickets have already been purchased for the four men who will be going to Kenya, May 30-June 10. Dr. Paul Young who is the chairman of our board of directors will be teaching approximately 400 pastors in Kenya how to properly read, interpret, and teach the Scriptures. Please be in prayer for this trip.

1. Pray for funds ( a minimum of $1500) to help feed and house the Kenyan pastors who are traveling to the conference.

2. Pray for Bibles. There will be about 120 pastors from Uganda who do not have Bibles. Mission Surge plans to purchase these pastors Swahili Bibles in Kenya. They are approximately $9 each. For 120 we will need approximately $1080.

3. Pray for the four men who are going. Mission Surge would love to be able to help these men with the cost of their trip, especially Dr. Young. Pray for God to raise up help for them from their personal friends and through Mission Surge.

III. Southeast Asia

Please continue to pray for our Vietnamese church planters who are being trained in Southeast Asia. Also, be in prayer for our missionary on the ground there, who will be coming in August to personally share about the work with the Vietnamese.

IV. India

Please pray for a pastor connection we have in India. He desperately needs to raise $20,000 to provide the land for his orphanage or the government will shut him down and the boys he houses will be sent to Muslim orphanages that are approved by the Muslim government there. If his orphanage does not comply with the land and space requirements, it will be closed. We are praying that, if it is God’s will for him to relocate, the money will be raised. Pray with us about this.

V. Opportunities

Finally, please pray for opportunities to share about and raise awareness of Mission Surge. We will be at Audobon Drive Bible Church in Laurel, MS March 4-6, Union Baptist Church in Brookhaven March 26-30, and Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Quitman, MS September 18-21. If you know of a church that would allow us to come and share about the work of Mission Surge, or who would be interested in hosting a conference on the Gospel, the Family, the Church, or the Mission please let us know ASAP.

I know this is a lengthy email, but we desperately need your prayers. Please, please take time to forward this update to everyone that you possibly can. Spread the word. If you have received this as a forward and you would like to be added to the contact list, just email me kevin@missionsurge.com your name and address and I will add you to the list.

Thanks for praying for us.

January 30, 2011 Evening

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January 23, 2011 Morning

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January 16, 2011 Morning

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January 16, 2011 Evening

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Exciting Update from Mission Surge

2011-01-10T10:17:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I wanted to give you an update on some of the things happening with Mission Surge.

One of our key leaders in the Dominican Republic is a Hattian Pastor name Wilfrido. You can see his picture by clicking here: Wilfrido

Our Dominican leader here in the states, missionary Gene Pickern communicated with him last week and passed along this report.

Wilfrido updated me on outreach efforts in the following places: Las Ochocientas, La Cuba, Invivienda/Mendosa, Jamaica, and Santa Rosa. Adan and Jenny have accepted responsibility for the work in La Cuba. Peterson and Ivene are leading the group in Invivienda. Wilfrido is working with Junior and Vanessa to revive a work in Jamaica. And Danni and Arelis are working with another couple to lead the work in Santa Rosa. Wilfrido told me that he envisions his role to be training and supporting these leaders to help them go forward with the ministry. He also told me that he plans to visit their Bible study meetings regularly to see for himself how things are going.

Wilfrido also told me last week that there is a group of young men he is working with in Las Ochocientas to have a greater impact in that community. He said these young men are being trained and they are going into the community in the evening to pray with people, share their testimonies, etc. He hopes these young men will eventually start some new Bible studies in the homes of the people to expand the ministry of the church in that community.

Wilfrido also told me that he made some good contacts during his recent trip to Haiti to check on his family, and that some of them are open to receive training for planting churches in Haiti. He wants to go there a couple of times a year to train the people there.

I am encouraged that Adan and Jenny will be leading the work in La Cuba. The Haitians who live there seemed the most open and Adan is ready to take this step of faith. I will be asking Wilfrido to have Adan come to his house soon and talk with us by skype about the work there. I am also encouraged that Wilfrido is taking the role of trainer/equipper with the leaders of the other 3 works.

Next week I have asked him to be ready to talk with me about Acts 1:8 about defining his Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth. Then I will start talking with him about his vision to reach each of those places/peoples and formulating a step by step plan.

Bro. Gene also spoke with another key leader in the Dominican last week: Ramon Sosa. Here is his report from their conversation.

Ramon talked with me about plans in Los Farayones, a poor barrio in between Los Frailes 2 and Brisas del Este. The population there is about the same as Los Frailes 3. That means a bunch of people live there. There are 2 families connected with the church that live there. They are preparing and praying to begin new Bible study groups in this community soon. Pastor Ramon indicated that this would be a good place for a volunteer group to work soon.

The church is also praying about relocating to La Calle Duarte, a main street in the middle of the community that runs the full length from Los Frailes 1 through Los Frailes 2 and Los Frailes 3. This will give the church greater visibility, and a larger building would provide the opportunity for holistic ministries to bless the community such as una guardería infantil (a day care for children while their single mothers work), etc..

Also, Ramon asked me for some ideas for materials that his people could use to share the gospel person to person with their families, friends, neighbors, etc. He wants to train as many as possible to present the gospel one on one with the people in the community. He realizes that he needs as many workers as possible in the field to bring in the harvest and wants to give his people the training. I will be making some suggestions for him concerning this.

Conclusion: I think we should pray about sending a group to work in Los Farayones soon. I certainly want to pray about giving Ramon all the encouragement and support possible to help the church enlarge its vision and reach more people.

More exciting news!

Finally, on December 29th a team from Cleary Baptist Church traveled for the 3rd time to an unreached and unengaged Muslim people group in South Asia. The thing that was different about this trip is that they took a Dominican pastor with them! Yojalver, a pastor from the Dominican Republic, who has been sensing a call to missions, traveled with our team to South Asia on December 29th and returned January 7th. He really connected with the Muslim men there and was able to share the gospel with many. God is even possibly opening a door for Yojalver to return to India in the future. One of the Muslim men was realtor who had agreed to, not only find a place for Yojalver to live, but also to help him get settled, and begin a locksmith business in South Asia (which he currently has in the DR). Yojalver has agreed to go through the training that we will be providing in the Dominican over the next year in order to help prepare him to go to the mission field full time. We are praying about Mission Surge financially providing for Yojalver and other Dominican missionaries to go to the ends of the earth.

In other words Mission Surge has the opportunity, not only to train and resource pastors in the Dominican to plant churches in the Dominican, but also to train and resource potential missionaries to plant churches in Haiti, South Asia, and all throughout Latin America. Please, please be in fervent prayer with us that God’s will be done. Also please forward this email to anyone and everyone who you feel may be interested in the work of Mission Surge. You can learn more at http://www.missionsurge.com/

Be on the lookout for more updates as we are beginning to make plans for 2011 training in the DR. I will update you soon.

In Christ,

Kevin Ivy
Pastor, Cleary Baptist Church http://www.clearybaptist.org/
Director, Mission Surge http://www.missionsurge.com/
Email: kevin@missionsurge.com
Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/missionsurge

Phone: 769-218-8458

January 9, 2011 Morning

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January 2, 2011 Evening

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January 2, 2011 Morning

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New Years Resolutions

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Jonathan Edwards was a pastor who lived in the 1700's from Northampton, MA. He was one of the key leaders in America's first great awakening. He was famous for his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." He has written many works and inspired multitudes. Encyclopedia Brittanica calls him the greatest mind that America has ever produced. He is one of my heroes in the faith and has inspired much of my theology.

Here are 11 resolutions I adapted from Jonathan Edwards’ 70 resolutions. He wrote many of these in his early 20’s and I have read them off and on for the past 5 to 10 years. This year, I have taken some of my favorites, tweaked them a bit and listed them for you here. I hope you enjoy.

1. Resolved, never to do anything in soul or body, but what brings glory to God.

2. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it as much as I possibly can; to live with all my might, while I live.

3. Resolved, never to do anything, which I would be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life or if the last trump were about to blow; to live as I will wish I had done when I come to die.

4. Resolved, if I take delight in anything as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.

5. Resolved, never to speak evil of or dishonor anyone for any reason except for some real good.

6. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

7. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, that I may, without question, grow in the knowledge of the Word.

8. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, where I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and how I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year; to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, how I could possibly have done better.

9. Resolved, never from this day forward to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God's

10. Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

11. Resolved, after trials and afflictions, to ask, if I am better off from them, what good I have got by them, and what I could have got by them that I didn’t. If you want to read them all you can go to my blog at kevinivy.com where they are posted.

You can find all 70 of Edwards’ resolutions at the following link. I would highly recommend you read them today! http://www.apuritansmind.com/christianwalk/ResolutionsOfJonathanEdwards.htm

Have a happy and holy 2011!

December 26, 2010 Morning

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December 19, 2010 Morning

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Dominican Republic Update

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Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

The trip to the Dominican Republic last week was extremely productive. We hand delivered the three laptops provided through your generous gifts to Mission Surge. These computers will allow three indigenous pastors to communicate with our Dominican leader here in the United States in order to receive weekly training, direction, and encouragement. They will also allow our Dominican leader in the states to receive reports from our indigenous workers. It is such a blessing to be able to remain in constant face to face contact with our point men in the DR without the $700 plane ticket!

We were also able to meet with the Executive Director of the Dominican Baptist Convention and hear his vision for the Dominican. This allowed us, at Mission Surge, to begin formulating a plan to further Manolo’s vision for his people. God is already working in mighty ways in the DR and Mission Surge has an opportunity to be involved in what He is doing. Here is a summary of the possibilities in the DR.

First, we hope to provide training to those men who are already actively planting churches and cell groups in the DR and some of their key leaders. Three trainings will take place over the course of a year with assignments that must be completed between training sessions. Through the training these men receive we hope to, not only speed up the number of churches being planted, but also strengthen the individual pastor’s spiritual life, family life, and church.

Second, we hope to provide funds to help these faithful men overcome financial barriers in their own lives, ministries, churches, and missions. There are times when these men hit road blocks that they cannot financially overcome. These road blocks slow down their ministries and productivity. We hope to be able to help them get to the next step in their vision and work.

Finally, we hope to financially send and support Dominican missionaries to other Latin American countries. There are several benefits to using Dominican missionaries rather than American missionaries. One, they already know Spanish. Two, they already know the Latin American culture. Finally, they have already proven that they can plant cell groups and churches in a Latin American context. If God allows us to fulfill this part of the vision, then we can begin to link up American mission teams with Mission Surge missionaries all over Latin America. It is exciting to think about.

Of course these are all just initial impressions and ideas. A meeting will take place between Gene Pickern (the Dominican leader here in the U.S.) and myself in a few weeks to map out the vision and plan for the DR. I will update you on that later.

Mission Surge is now tweeting! For those of you who are interested, you can sign up to follow me here: http://twitter.com/#search?q=Missionsurge Spread the word if you don’t mind!

Let me leave you with a few prayer requests.

1. Pray for our board meeting Wednesday night. It is going to be a very long and complex meeting as we elect officials, wade through 501(c)3 paperwork, and debrief concerning our DR trip and upcoming opportunities.

2. Pray for Gene and I as we sort through the possibilities and make plans concerning our DR work.

3. Continue to pray for people to commit to make monthly donations to Mission Surge so that we can prepare a more accurate budget and projection of future ministry. Pray that God will continue to raise up people to support this work in the midst of these hard economic times.

4. Pray for open doors to share about Mission Surge in local churches. If your pastor, or a pastor you know, may be interested in allowing one of us to come share about Mission Surge or preach a revival, evangelistic crusade, or conference, please direct him to www.missionsurge.com and have him contact us ASAP. This year is filling up fast! Also, If your church has an upcoming missions conference or event that we could set a table up at, please let us know.

Thank you for your prayers and support. God is working and we are honored to be a part of what He is doing to reach the world. We are grateful that you have partnered with us in this task. Please share this report with anyone and everyone that may be interested in the work of Mission Surge where we are seeking to impact individuals, families, churches, and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

December 12, 2010 Morning

2010-12-12T20:43:00.001-06:00

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Santo Domingo Update

2010-12-07T18:13:00.000-06:00

We arrived in the Dominican Republic safely and spent Monday afternoon with the head missionary in Santo Domingo. Tuesday morning we drove to the Dominican Baptist Convention Office and met with the outgoing president of the Dominican Baptist Convention and the incoming president to discuss Mission Surge’s role in the DR. In this meeting we heard Manolo’s (outgoing president) vision over the past 5 years for the convention. According to his timeline, Dominican churches are supposed to just be beginning to plant churches. However, God has moved far ahead of his vision. The convention has gone from thirty something churches to more than 200 churches over the past 5 years. They have increased from thirty something pastors to more than 100. Total membership in the Dominican Baptist Convention has increased from 1700 to more than 5000 and they are baptizing hundreds of new believers every year. God is working in the DR and Mission Surge has many opportunities to be involved and help speed the work along. I look forward, upon my return to being able to share more about the possibilities.

Tuesday afternoon we met with a young pastor who has just recently planted a church in an unreached area of the city. Tomorrow morning we will be meeting again with Manolo and another pastor named Yojalaver. Yojalaver is going to be traveling to India with a team from Cleary later this month as the Dominican’s first overseas volunteer missionary. The prayer is that this trip will birth an international missions movement among the believers in the DR.

We will leave this meeting and go scout out a camp and conference center where we plan to offer training next year (2011) to Dominican pastors and church planters. Then we will travel to meet a pastor out in the mountains named Socio. The word on the street is he is preparing us a home cooked meal of Bachalau…a salt cured fish. According to the missionary, he was sick for 3 days after eating this meal. PRAY FOR US!!!! Then, we will meet with a Haitian church and pastor that we are working with and eat with them for supper before heading back to the apartment.

Thursday morning we will meet with 2 other pastors that we are praying about partnering with and supporting through Mission Surge before heading home. Please keep us in your prayers as we are going to be making some crucial decisions about our work in the DR in the coming weeks. Pray that God will open doors and raise up the financial support, resources, and manpower to do great things in His Name, for His glory, in the DR. Thank you for your continued prayer support.

I will update you more after we return and settle down at home.

In Christ,

Kevin

December 5, 2010 Morning

2010-12-05T22:27:00.001-06:00

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Update

2010-12-01T15:01:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends,

I wanted to give a brief report on what is going on with Mission Surge at this time. First, we are grateful to our God for the launch of our website: www.missionsurge.com We are also grateful for God placing it on someone’s heart to provide the funds to purchase 3 laptop computers for our Dominican pastors in Santo Domingo. We will be leaving Monday morning at 6 a.m. to deliver them and conduct some important business that pertains to the future work of Mission Surge in the DR and the world. We are also overwhelmed with gratitude for a recent, unexpected donation of $1000 to Mission Surge. God continues to open doors for us to work and he raises up the help we need just in time. We give him thanks.

I want to ask you to pray about the following things.

1. Pray that God’s will be accomplished next week as we go to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The agenda for this trip is fourfold. First, we are delivering the 3 laptops that your gifts have helped make possible. These laptops will be given to three key pastors who are working hard to plant churches in Santo Domingo among Dominicans and Haitians. These computers will help them as they labor, but most importantly it will allow for frequent, live meetings through Skype with our Dominican leader here in the U.S. This is going to be a great blessing and opportunity for teaching, guidance, and accountability without the $700 plane ticket! Second, we will be meeting with and encouraging local pastors in their work. Third, we will be sitting down with the outgoing president of the Dominican Baptist Convention as well as the incoming president to discuss future strategy in the Dominican. We will discuss the role Mission Surge can take in training pastors as well as the possibility of Mission Surge funding the paperwork, travel, and initial costs of sending Dominican Missionaries to other Latin American countries and even as far away as South Asia. Finally, we will be meeting with a Dominican pastor who will be coming to the U.S. in December in order to meet up with a team from our church who is traveling to South Asia to a Muslim people group. He is going along with our team in order to help discern if God may be calling him to serve as a full time missionary to this area of the world. There are a lot of exciting possibilities in the DR and this trip Dec 6-9 will help solidify some of those possibilities. Please pray for us as we travel, meet, and plan!

I hope to post updates on my blog kevinivy.com daily next week as long as we have internet. If you have not signed up to follow it, please do so or check kevinivy.com regularly. You can also access the blog at www.missionsurge.com and click the link at the bottom that reads Mission Surge Blog. Please keep up with us so you can pray for us as we work. Pictures will be coming soon to the Mission Surge webpage and Facebook page of the trip so be on the lookout.

2. Continue praying for the open door we have in Kenya. God has provided a teacher to travel to Kenya in April. In order to house, feed, and transport 400-500 Kenyan pastors, we will need $4000-$5000 dollars. Pray that if God wants this training to occur, that He will raise up the financial support needed to make it happen.

3. Please continue praying for our work with the Vietnamese in Southeast Asia.

4. Please pray also, that God would begin opening doors for us to preach, teach, and share about Mission Surge in local churches. This will increase awareness and allow opportunities for us to share things that we cannot post online. If you know of a church, conference, or pastor that may be interested in our ministry of evangelism, the family, the church, or our mission to the world, please connect them to us. We are praying for open doors.

5. Finally, join me in praying for God to raise up monthly supporters for our work. We are so grateful to God for the way he raises up large donors at just the right times in our ministry. That may be the way God wants to work in this ministry. If so, that is fine. However, it would allow us greater freedom to pledge our monthly support to pastors and missionaries if we had those who would commit to give monthly. You can give online by going here http://missionsurge.com/financial/give-online.html and clicking on any of the give buttons if you feel led.

Thanks so much for your support of this ministry. Please keep us in your prayers and be on the lookout for updates on our DR trip next week.

November 28, 2010 Morning

2010-11-28T20:34:00.001-06:00

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Mission Surge Update

2010-11-19T10:45:00.000-06:00

Dear Mission Surge Friends,

I wanted to give you an update of what has been going on with Mission Surge over the past few weeks and an idea of what the future holds so that you can join us in prayer.

First, we are grateful for how God has worked. A team of 4 men just returned from Southeast Asia and training Vietnamese pastors and lay leaders related to Operation Backdoor. Mission Surge was prepared to spend $600 for this training. However, just before we left for SE Asia, the number of pastors and lay-leaders increased so that we had to pay $1100 to cover the expenses (travel, food, etc). This took $500 out of our fund that we had planned to use to purchase laptops for our contacts in the Dominican Republic. We chose to follow God’s guidance step by step and trust Him for the funds for the laptops if He wanted us to have them. So, we spent the $1100 in SE Asia.

I returned from SE Asia and discovered that our DR trip (to deliver the laptops I could not afford) had to be postponed. In the meantime, God placed on someone’s heart the burden to purchase the remainder of the laptops. Through that time, the trip was rescheduled for a couple of weeks later. The trip was postponed in the Providence of God. God impressed someone to meet the need. The laptops have been purchased, and will be delivered Dec 6 to the DR God willing. God is Sovereign and He is our provider and we give Him thanks. When we learn to wait upon Him, He will accomplish what He wants done.

Last weekend we held our first ever Mission Surge Conference. We had many great men of God come and share with us over the weekend. Everyone was encouraged and challenged. Video and audio of the conference will be available in the near future.

I also want to inform you guys that the Mission Surge website is live. Please take time to go check it out. Over time we will be adding video of the sermons preached at the Mission Surge conference last weekend. We will also make available different Bible studies, resources, and helps to encourage you as individuals, families, churches, and in our mission to reach the world. Most of these resources will be downloadable and therefore free! The website is http://www.missionsurge.com/ Please go check it out and share the link with your friends, post it on Facebook, forward it through email, and help us get the word out.

Next week we hope to apply with the Federal government for 501(c)3 status. We have been approved by the state and given a state tax ID number, but we have not filed federally yet. That process is supposed to begin this coming week. Crossing this bridge will allow people to receive tax credit for their gifts to Mission Surge. Pray that it goes smoothly and that the funds necessary are made available.

Pray that God’s will be done concerning the timing of our upcoming DR trip Dec 6. Many important things are going to take place on this brief trip that will lay the groundwork for the future. The DR is our most stable work and we need this trip to solidify some things. You can learn more about our work there at: Reaching Santo Domingo

Lift up those pastors and lay-leaders trained through operation backdoor. Continue to pray for God to raise up individuals to support the financial needs in that ministry. You can see these needs at: Operation Backdoor

Finally, please be in prayer about a possible open door in Kenya. Mission Surge has the opportunity to be involved in the training of 400-500 Kenyan pastors in April of 2011. We have been quietly praying that if this is God’s doing He will call out the right pastor to go. One of our board members has indicated that he is feeling led to take on this training opportunity in Kenya. Now, we are waiting on God to prepare the funds to host the conference (transport, feed, and house these Kenyan pastors who do not have the funds to attend otherwise). The cost is estimated at $5000. I know that is a big chunk, but when you think about it, we can train 500 pastors in Kenya for a week for $10 apiece. Not too bad? Please pray that God will raise up 10 people to give $100 a month for November, December, January, February, and March. That will provide the needed funds to do the work. Pray that God would put it on someone’s heart to contribute the total amount, or on 5 people’s hearts to give $1000 each. If He wants this to happen in Kenya, He will raise up the needed support. Please pray that He would do His will in the matter soon so that we can begin making preparations on this end to go.

Finally, forward this around to your praying friends. If you are reading this on the Mission Surge blog, through Facebook, or if a friend has forwarded it to you and you would like to receive email updates directly from Mission Surge, please email kevin@missionsurge.com and put UPDATES in the subject line and you will be added to our email list.

Thanks for praying for us.

In Christ,

Kevin
kevin@missionsurge.com
http://www.missionsurge.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Florence-MS/Mission-Surge/145423062144598?ref=ts
kevinivy.com

August 15, 2010 Evening

2010-11-18T17:06:00.001-06:00

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November 7, 2010 Morning

2010-11-18T14:22:00.001-06:00

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November 7, 2010 Evening

2010-11-18T14:16:00.001-06:00

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Mission Surge Conference

2010-11-09T14:59:00.000-06:00

The Mission Surge Conference is rapidly approaching. I hope that you are looking forward to it, planning to attend, and inviting others to come with you.

We will be spending the entire weekend discussing the power of the Gospel and how the Gospel impacts individuals, families, churches, and the world. Romans 1:16 really sums up the theme of the whole conference: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ESV

This is what missions is all about: the Gospel. The Gospel is not a power, but THE power of God for salvation. The Gospel makes an impact and an impact makes waves, it sends ripples, it surges outward. This is where the name Mission Surge came from. The Gospel surges outward through individuals, families, churches, and to the very ends of the earth. And when the Gospel works in this way, it has maximum impact; maximum power.

This weekend you will hear messages that exalt Christ and the true Gospel. You will hear messages that reveal how the Gospel applies to the individual, the family, the church, the community, and the world. You will hear from area pastors like Dr. Greg Belser, Dr. Justin McClendon, Dr. Paul Young, Pastor Buddy Sheriff, and myself. You will hear from pastors who are planting churches as far away as Nevada like Neal Creecy. You will hear from pastors written popular books on leading families and making disciples of our children like Jerry Marcellino. You will hear from missionaries who have invested their lives in places like the Dominican Republic like Gene Pickern and during the breaks you will get to browse tables that display prayer needs and ministry opportunities from the U.S. to the ends of the earth. It is going to be a big weekend at Cleary and I hope you are looking forward to it!

You will also have an opportunity to learn about a brand new ministry that is seeking to impact individuals, families, churches, and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will learn what this ministry is seeking to do and how you can be personally involved. You will be the FIRST to be given a brand new website address so that you can research, pray for, and get involved in this new ministry that has the potential to make a difference in lives for God’s glory.

The conference is free. You do not have to register to attend. We simply ask that you give a love gift to help show the men who are preaching your appreciation. You will have an opportunity to give through an offering on Friday night and Saturday night during the services. If you cannot make those 2 services, a box will be available for you to place your offerings in. A nursery will be available for children 0 to 3 years old Friday night and Saturday. Sunday morning, we will have nursery and children’s church for those up to 5 years. A lunch will be provided on Saturday for those in attendance, but supper will be on your own....and it is all free of charge.

You can learn more about the speakers and the conference schedule at the following link.

http://clearybaptist.org/Outreach_Mission_Surge

Please spread the word on your Facebook page, through your email contacts, and by word of mouth. You can also continue the promotion by commenting on this blog and on the Mission Surge Conference Facebook page by clicking here http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=140588559312506 and by commenting on other peoples FB pages who have posted info about this conference. In other words, keep the conversation going! Forward it to everyone in your email contacts list and share with brothers and sisters from other churches that this conference is not just for Cleary folks but is for everyone who loves the Gospel and wants to change the world!

We would really love to have a good crowd attend the first annual Mission Surge Conference at Cleary. We know that you will be challenged and encouraged by what you hear.

Help us spread the Word!!

October 31, 2010 Morning

2010-10-31T16:52:00.001-05:00

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Final Leg

2010-10-26T16:01:00.002-05:00

We are finally back in the U.S. As I type this blog, it is around 1 p.m. here in San Francisco as we wait to board our flight to Dallas and then to Jackson.

I want to share just a bit of what happened Sunday in Southeast Asia and wrap up the trip. We got up early Sunday morning and went to share with the English speaking church (made up of Indian and Chinese believers). Then, we ate lunch with them aftewards (some type of shrimp porridge). I have gotten wise! It has taken me all week, but I finally learned. I ate very, very, very slowly and left an unoffensive amount in the bottom of the bowl because I just knew the Vietnamese were cooking for us upstairs.

Sure enough, before we finished the porridge, a Vietnamese lady came down and beckoned us upstairs for lunch AGAIN. We all sat cross-legged style in a circle on the floor. Many varieties of food were in the center of us. Once again, I have learned! I sat far away from the ladies because they see you getting low and start throwing stuff on your plate with their chop sticks. I guess they think because we are all fat Americans, that we never get full... well, I can tell you one thing for certain. Vietnamese people eat twice as much as any American I know. They are literally bottomless pits. Anyway, I sat far away from all the ladies, planned to eat very slow (which chop sticks aid when I use them) and be okay. I turned to put some cabbage and "something" in my bowl, sat back upright and there to my right was a Vietnamese girl. She had decided, I guess, that I might need some meal assistance after all. I ate slow, and when I got a little low, she would throw something in my bowl, but eating slowly helped. At least she didn't throw the chicken head in my bowl... that might have caused a problem.

Anyway, they were extremely gracious to us and more than hospitable. After a brief rest, busses,taxis, and vans began pulling up. The busses held a limit of 44 people, but there were as many as 58 on some of them, traveling up to 2 hours sitting in the floor. Around 200 Vietnamese packed the English speaking church. After about 2 hours of singing and sharing, I preached on the cost of following Christ (which is very real for them). There were a few dozen recommit themselves fully to following Christ in spite of the cost and 3 professed to come to Christ.

Then there was about an hour and a half of picture taking and good-byes before we left to eat (yes EAT AGAIN) and return to the room. We got in bed again around midnight, woke up at 4:00 a.m. and headed to the airport. We have crossed time zones and been in the air for so long we don't know which way is up. We have operated on less sleep than I though possible and have stayed extremely busy. No time was wasted and the time that was invested has the potential to reach into the remotest areas of South, Central, and North Vietnam.

God has gathered together people from all over Vietnam (a seriously restricted nation) and as we learned on this trip, God has also brought the Nepalise fromthe country of Nepal as well. He has brought them to a place in East Asia that is also restricted, but apathetic about them as transmigrant workers. This has opened the door for us to openly share and train them and then send them back to their homeland to impact their world. The investments in this work seem to promise fruitful returns in the Kingdom. Now, we must let the fog clear, seek God in prayer, and determine what type of role he wants us to play in the long term efforts of this work.

Until next time...

Days Three & Four

2010-10-23T13:18:00.000-05:00

In this blog, I am covering the work of Friday and Saturday. There has literally been no time to write. And when I do find time to write, there is not time to find and connect to internet and post. Also it is a challenge to determine if the blog posts because the country has blocked access to my blog due to its content.

We got up again Friday at 7:00 a.m., ate breakfast, and headed out one more time to the Chinese church to teach the third session of 2 Peter and Church planting training to the Vietnamese workers.

Afterward we went to a ladies apartment to share with a group that meets in her home. We climbed about four flights of stairs and entered a room about 10 X 15 feet. Approximately 30 people gathered, sat Indian style on the floor and listened to me share for about an hour and a half or two hours. Question and answers followed until midnight. One young lady shared her testimony of how the demons that possessed her great grandfather (the shaman in Vietnam) tormented her family for years. She met Christ here in Souteast Asia, shared with her father back in Vietnam and the whole family came to Christ.

The demons stopped harassing them and they are currently hoping to plant a church as soon as possible in their home.

We got back to the room around midnight and got to bed around 1:00 a.m.

Saturday, October 23

It is now Saturday. We actually got to sleep past 7:00 a.m.! We left the hotel at 11:00 a.m., went to eat and shared about the possibility of future work. Then we traveled about an hour where I preached to an English Speaking Church called the Lighthouse. There were approximately 60 Chinese and Indian believers gathered there.

After a short break the Vietnamese began filtering in. There were probably around 100 who filtered in from as far away as the Thailand border. The leaders had them stand up to show which areas of Vietnam were represented. The South, Central, and Northern parts of Vietnam were all represented. Several different remote Ethnic groups were also there.

The realization came to me that in this one service tonight, all of the nation of Vietnam was potentially being impacted. These people will return home to unreached, unengaged peoples and many will begin house groups in their communities. Several shared that they have already led their parents, grandparents, and siblings to Christ by phone from here in Southeast Asia. This work has great potential.

Pray that the leaders continue to grow in the Word and right methods of witnessing and evangelizing.

We preached, sung, heard testimony, and prayed until 11:30 p.m. There were 9 or 10 who professed to follow Christ from the meeting. After some pictures with those professing faith, we are now on our way back to the hotel and should get there around 12:30 a.m. We will hopefully be in bed by 1:00 and will have to rise around 5:30 or 6:00 in order to leave the hotel at 7:00 and get to our next stop on the tour.

I will preach at 9:00 a.m. to another English speaking Chinese congregation and then that evening to more Vietnamese. These services will be taking place around 8:00 p.m. CST Saturday evening and 3:00 a.m. CST Sunday morning.

Pray that God will have His way. It is going to be a short night and a long day tomorrow, then we will have to leave the hotel at 5:30 a.m. Monday morning to get to the airport and head home. We will likely need 48 hours of unbroken sleep when we finally stop.

Pray that we will stay alert and focused and rested for the work. Hopefully I can update the blog one more time before we head for the airport Monday morning to catch our plane at 7:00 a.m. (6 p.m Sunday night CST).

Pray for us.

Busy Training Day

2010-10-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

This morning (Thursday) we rose early and traveled into a neighboring village to teach more from 2 Peter, church planting, and PC training. Several of the young men and women who gathered here this morning between 10 and 5 had worked all night long. They are hungry to learn. The questions flow after each session and it is a joy to answer them. It is so evident that regardless of whether we are in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, or North America, the Word of God has all the answers and the answers are the same regardless of culture or language. The Bible is a multi-cultural book and Christianity is a multi-cultural faith. If fits no matter where you are. The problem arises when we tailor a Christianity to fit our culture, as we have done for the most part in America.

We ate some home cooked Vietamese food for lunch. It was definitely an experience. I prayed during the blessing that God would give me the ability to eat the food and to give me a stomach of iron. It was noodles, some very strange looking mushroom slices, bamboo shoots, and duck meat. It was surprisingly good. For desert we had bong bongs... not spelled correctly. Bong bong means fruit and whatever we ate was a fruit with no name, so they call it bong bong. I have never seen it before and they were very unique, but pretty tasty.

After we left the first training session, we went to eat some local and authentic Chinese. It was definitely NOT American Chinese. Some of it was a little tough to swallow "literally." They brought out some type of pork that I have never seen before. It looked like a spleen, but we discovered it was the meat from underneath the pigs belly wrapped in a spinach leaf and cooked. It didn't make it around the table and to our plates and I don't think I heard anyone complain.

After we ate, we traveled to Bill's for the last time and sat Indian style in his floor for about an hour and a half straight talking about the Gospel and answering questions. We left Bill's at 11:30, got back to the room a little after midnight and hit the sack at about 1:00. All is well. The work here with the Vietamese seems to be a good work and worthy of investing in. The people are converted, discipled, and trained here and then sent back to Vietnam to plant churches. God is working in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese and it is our hope and prayer that this week of training and encouraging will move the work along even further. Off to bed...

East Asia - Day Two

2010-10-21T02:11:00.000-05:00

Well the first full day in East Asia has come to an end and it has been a busy one. We got in bed late last night, jet lagged, at 1 a.m., got up at 7 and hit the road at 9. We have been wide open ever since.

We have learned first hand in a fresh way that persecution is real. It is not easy to be a believer here, but there is joy and a hunger for God.

We have met some interesting young men and women from Vietnam who are hungry to learn more of the word and hungry to learn more about planting churches both here and in Vietnam. One young man, who I will call Bill came to Christ, returned to Vietnam and began evangelizing the lost in his community. In a short time the communist government caught on to his work, began harrassing him and his family and eventually drove him out of the country. He is currently here separated from his family,planting churches, and discipling young men and women.

We led church planting training, shared testimonies, and computer training from 10:30 until 4:30 for him and some of his colleagues today. Then tonight after traveling to Bill's and spending time with him and his fellow workers this evening, I taught in Bill's home to a packed room full of his disciples from about 9:15 until 10:30. In reality, he should be teaching me.

I feel like a guy who just went to Wal Mart, bought a hammer and a Do it Yourself magazine trying to teach a bunch of contractors and construction workers how to build a house. I am insufficient for this task.

It is almost 11 as I am typing this, in the van, on the way home from Bill's. It is clear that there will be very little rest or down time on this trip. By the time we get back to the hotel, call home, and get cleaned up it will be 1 a.m before bed again. We need your prayers that we will be energized and rested for the week. We need the Holy Spirit to equip us for this task.

More tomorrow...

first full day's report

2010-10-21T01:05:00.002-05:00

We are Here

2010-10-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

We finally arrived at our destination in East Asia a few hours ago. It is now 12:40 a.m. and we are going to get rolling in the morning at around 7 so we need to hit the sack. Hopefully we will have time to report more tomorrow. Until then, remember us in your prayers. Pray for our health and our energy level as we have a very busy schedule and are operating on little sleep. Pray for the pastors we will be training and the unbelievers we will encounter. Keep up here, at kevinivy.com, for more updates (hopefully in the next 24 hours).

October 17, 2010 Evening

2010-10-17T23:11:00.001-05:00

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October 17, 2010 Morning

2010-10-17T22:52:00.001-05:00

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Mission Surge Report

2010-10-12T09:05:00.000-05:00

Dear Mission Surge Friends,

There are several exciting things that are beginning to fall into place with Mission Surge and several extremely urgent matters of prayer that I want to share with you today in this email. Please read this and forward it to everyone and anyone that you believe will pray!

First, we are literally a few weeks away from having our brand new website up and running in the public domain. The web address will be www.missionsurge.com We already have a Facebook page, but the official website will make the ministry much more public and functional. Please pray that we get this thing finished up and launched very soon.

Second, we have been approved by the state as a non-profit organization and have been given our tax ID number. In November, we should have our Federal non-profit status completed and officially be a 501(c)3 ministry. We are looking forward to this as it will allow people to begin giving regularly and directly to Mission Surge without having to go through Cleary Baptist Church.

Third, this Sunday afternoon I, and 3 other companions, will be leaving for Malaysia until Monday, October 25. Malaysia is a restricted Islamic nation. I will be preaching and teaching for 40-50 hours while there and we need your prayers. I will be speaking in several worship services and evangelistic services in Malaysia. During the nights I will be meeting with a group of migrant workers from North Vietnam to teach them how to plant churches and teach the Word of God. They will go back to North Vietnam and plant churches with the information they gain from this trip. Please, please be in prayer for me as I try to prepare in the midst of 100 other things calling for my attention and as we travel to, in, and from Malaysia and pray all next week for the work there. Also, please pray for these 3 other guys who will be helping me teach and train and encourage the believers there. If you want updates on what is going on in Malaysia you can go to kevinivy.com each day beginning Monday as I will be updating you through that blog. (Just as a side note, Mission Surge is NOT financially supporting me or any of the men going to Malaysia next week. The funds of Mission Surge are only being used to support the pastors who we are working with and training IN Malaysia).

In relation to Malaysia, Mission Surge is providing transportation for the Vietnamese to and from the training. In the beginning these costs were estimated at $600. I just found out that the cost have now jumped to $1100. This has caught me off guard. It has not caught God off guard however. We have committed to transport these men to this training and we are convinced that God will provide the needed $500 to do so. Please, please pray that God would move the right person or people to meet this need in His time. We trust Him.

Fourth, in November we are hosting, at Cleary Baptist Church a conference called Mission Surge. At this conference, we will have a time where Mission Surge, the ministry, will be introduced and the website announced etc. The dates are November 12-14 (Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning). A great line up of speakers will be present and the vision of Mission Surge will be preached through the weekend: The Gospel impacting individuals, families, churches, communities, and the world. You can check out the information about this conference at www.clearybaptist.org Please plan to attend and invite others to do so as well.

The Monday after the Mission Surge conference, I will be traveling to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with our missionary to meet with the president of the Baptist Convention in the DR. We will be going in order to plan a future strategy for impacting the DR. This is an extremely important meeting and I need you to be in prayer for it. Also, we are supposed to deliver 3 laptop computers to 3 key pastors that we are working with in the DR so that they can meet weekly through Skype with our missionary to the DR who is now living in the states due to medical reasons. We have the money for 2 of these laptops. Please pray that God will raise up someone to purchase the third laptop before November.

As we await the launch of our website, you can find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Florence-MS/Mission-Surge/145423062144598 Please go there and join the page and you will get updates regularly.

Thank you for your prayers for the Malaysia trip, for your prayers in relation to the needed funds, and for your continued prayers for the upcoming conference and DR trip. Please, please forward this email to those in your inbox who will pray! Please check us out on FaceBook! Please keep up with our Malaysia trip next week through www.kevinivy.com and SPREAD THE WORD to as many people as you will!

If you have any questions or any words of encouragement, please leave a comment on our Facebook page.

Thank you.

October 10, 2010 Evening

2010-10-10T22:52:00.001-05:00

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October 10, 2010 Morning

2010-10-10T15:23:00.001-05:00

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October 3, 2010 Evening

2010-10-04T00:12:00.001-05:00

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October 3, 2010 Morning

2010-10-03T18:12:00.001-05:00

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October 3, 2010 Morning

2010-10-03T15:21:00.001-05:00

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September 26, 2010, Morning

2010-09-29T19:53:00.001-05:00

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Anyone want to Volunteer?

2010-09-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

Some of you may be aware, through Facebook, that a brand new ministry called Mission Surge is in its early stages. The goal of Mission Surge is to clarify the biblical gospel to individuals, encourage fathers to serve as the spiritual leaders of their homes, reform churches, impact communities, and carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We have already been privileged to provide 4 families with financial assistance after they were displaced from their homes and village in East Asia. We are also traveling to East Asia next month to teach pastors from a restricted nation the Word and teach them to plant churches in their closed country. We have been blessed with the finances to provide transportation to and from the training as well as resources for training these pastors. In November we will be setting up training and potential support to pastors in Latin America. God continues to open doors at home and abroad.

We are in the process of developing a Mission Surge Website to further explain the mission of Mission Surge and to promote the work of Mission Surge. We need some people to volunteer a couple of hours of their time over the next few days to provide us with some information we need to post on the website to make it more user friendly.

Here is what we need…we need some individuals who would be willing to listen to a few of my old sermons on audio (I know, I know…sorry) and notate every Scripture referenced in the sermon WITH THE TIME that the Scripture is used in the sermon. Then you would email the Scriptures and times used to us so that we can post this info on the Mission Surge website. If you are interested in helping with this project please let me know ASAP and I will give you further detail or put you in contact with the right person. You can email me at kevin@missionsurge.com. Thanks for your willingness to volunteer!

I look forward to hearing from you.

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2010-09-20T19:27:00.001-05:00

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September 19, 2010 Morning

2010-09-20T19:26:00.001-05:00

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September 19, 2010 Evening

2010-09-20T19:15:00.001-05:00

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August 29, 2010 Evening

2010-08-30T03:53:00.001-05:00

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August 29, 2010 Morning

2010-08-30T01:42:00.001-05:00

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Emergency Need!

2010-08-23T14:21:00.000-05:00

HELP!

In East Asia (I cannot share the exact location online), among an unreached people group, four families of national believers were kicked out of their community. They were forced to leave everything behind (home, clothes, furniture, food etc). They have been displaced and they have nothing. Since they are from a devout Muslim community they have no support or assistance. Since they were the entire church in their community, there are no brothers or sisters in Christ to help them where they are. They need our help!

I want to ask you to pray for these believers. They are totally dependent upon God and they are part of the body of Christ. When one part suffers, we should all feel the pain. Please pray that God would be merciful to these believers and provide for their every need. Also pray that God would use, what looks like a trial, and use it for His glory and for the furtherance of His kingdom.

If you would like to financially assist these national believers, Mission Surge has a contact that knows where each family has been displaced to. He can and will personally deliver the gifts that you provide. Every penny you send will go to these national believers that have been displaced.

Unfortunately, we are so new that we have not had sufficient time to get our Mission Surge website and paypal information completed so that you can donate online. For now, we need you to make your check out to Mission Surge with a memo of "National Believers" and mail it as soon as possible to:

Mission Surge
c/o Cleary Baptist Church
1580 Florence Byram Road
Florence, MS 39073

2 Cor 8:3-4: For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints (ESV).

Please spread the word by forwarding, facebooking, and spreading this need by word of mouth. Spread the word and pray for these families! You can also help by clicking here and keep up with what is going on at Mission Surge. Also be on the lookout for missionsurge.com

Thanks

August 22, 2010 Evening

2010-08-23T03:02:00.001-05:00

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August 22, 2010 Morning

2010-08-23T02:04:00.001-05:00

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August 15, 2010 Morning

2010-08-15T19:45:00.001-05:00

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2010-08-13T11:13:00.001-05:00

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August 8, 2010 Morning

2010-08-13T11:04:00.001-05:00

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New Blog Title, New Ministry, and New Opportunities

2010-08-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

My blog, "The Reformed Pastor" has now been renamed, as you can tell. It is now titled Mission Surge. Mission Surge is a brand new ministry that is in the very early stages of development. Mission Surge is seeking to impact individuals, families, churches, communities, and the ends of the earth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We hope to see individuals impacted as they understand the biblical gospel and respond to it on a daily basis. We hope to see families impacted as mothers are challenged to assume their biblical roles, fathers are called upon to assume their biblical roles, and children are taught the Word of God and the ways of God first and foremost in the home. We hope to see churches revived and purified and in turn impacting their communities with the gospel. We hope to see communities impacted by churches taking the initiative to go to the lost and unchurched, and instead of inviting them to "their church", seek to plant a Bible study where they are, in their community, or apartments.

Finally, it is our desire to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. We hope to do that by providing the ministry needs of indigenous pastors. For a few hundred dollars a month we can supply local pastors in the Dominican Republic with transportation, resources, and supplies to disciple their barrios. We will know of needs within the body of Christ in the DR, Africa, India, and in other countries that we will be able to meet. We will be able to provide food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, and the gospel for the unreached for a fraction of what it would cost to send a full time missionary from America. Then we can go link up with our indigenous pastors periodically to encourage them and support them with mission teams from America. The Gospel will literally work through us, as individuals, our families, our churches, into and through our communities, and to the ends of the earth. More information will be coming, hopefully in the near future, at missionsurge.com as we develop and launch our brand new website. I will let you know when it is up and going!

One last mission surge note: November 12 and 13, at Cleary, we will be hosting a Mission Surge conference. Dr. Paul Young (Mount Zion Baptist Church), Dr. Justin McClendon (Briar Hill Baptist Church), Pastor Jerry Marcellino (Audobon Drive Bible Church), Missionary Gene Pickern (International Mission Board), Dr. Greg Belser (Morrison Heights Baptist Church), and myself will all be speaking this weekend on how the gospel impacts individuals, families, churches, communities, and the world. More details about the workings of Mission Surge will be revealed that weekend as well. Mark it on your calendar and begin spreading the word. It will be a weekend you wont want to miss.

Also, if you are not following this blog, please subscribe as a follower above...also you can go to clearybaptist.org and click on the newsletter tab and sign up to have this blog delivered directly to your computer each week. Finally, please spread the word about Mission Surge, the conference, and this blog as you feel led. Until next time...

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2010-08-02T21:33:00.001-05:00

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August 1, 2010 Evening

2010-08-02T00:52:00.001-05:00

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Prayer Request

2010-07-23T17:14:00.000-05:00

I would like to ask all of you that read this to be in very serious prayer for me this week Sunday, July 25 through Friday, July 30. I am supposed to be preaching 7 sermons at Cato Baptist Church just outside of Mendenhall, MS for their annual revival. I know the tendency of each one who opens this blog will be to read it and never pray. I am asking you to pray specifically for these series of meetings today and throughout the coming week.

Cato has no pastor to lead them at this time. The people originally scheduled to come in and lead worship are no longer coming due to financial issues and the church having no pastor (I think), so Cato’s part time worship leader will be leading worship. The person originally scheduled to come and preach was also canceled (for the same reasons I believe), so they are stuck with me. I am physically down (with sinus trouble), emotionally down (with the trials my close friends Gene and Julie Pickern are facing), and in the spiritual dumps (don’t act like you haven’t been in the spiritual dumps before). All in all, it sounds like the stage is set for real revival to take place. At least there would be absolutely no one who could take credit for it other than God.

It is my prayer that in my weakness, He will be made strong. In the midst of everything going against revival, from a human standpoint, it is my prayer that God will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine. It is my hope that each of you will really stop and pray for…

1. The people of Cato to be prepared for what God has in store.
2. The Holy Spirit to anoint me and fill me as I preach.
3. For God to move upon people’s hearts and lives in a very real and dramatic way.
4. For an awakening among those who are lost and in the community surrounding Cato.
5. For true revival among those who are saved.

Please continue to pray for me and Cato Baptist Church throughout this next week. I will try to update during the week as to how things are going. I do indeed covet your prayers.

If you are a part of Cleary, please remember that I will be back for our Sunday evening service this weekend as we continue in our sermon series, Assurance: Making our Calling and Election Sure. I hope to see you there.

In Christ,

Kevin

July 18, 2010 Evening

2010-07-21T23:22:00.001-05:00

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