Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I know that it has been some time since you have heard from me.  Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year time has just slipped right on by.  Here we are in 2012 and I have a rather lengthy series of prayer requests and information.

Let me begin by reminding you that the vision of Mission Surge is to impact individuals, families, churches, and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Most of what you hear about is our work in the world.  I want to begin this newsletter with a prayer request and announcement about our hope of impacting the family with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

I just hung up the phone after talking with my friend, Scott Brown, who is the head of the NCFIC (The National Center for Family Integrated Churches).   This organization has a wealth of information for fathers and families that I would heartily recommend to you.  You can check it out at ncfic.org.  They are in the process of translating much of their material, including the NCFIC website, into Spanish.  This will prove to be a costly endeavor.  The entire project will total almost $30,000.  

Part of the project includes translating select audio messages from past NCFIC conferences.  This part of the project will include sermons on the sufficiency of Scripture, a love for the church, family reformation, child training, fatherhood, etc.  I am convinced that this will be a worthy endeavor and will benefit us greatly as we seek to encourage our Dominican brothers to lead their families well.  The cost for this portion of the project is $3125 and Mission Surge wants to help!  I encourage you to pray that we are able to raise this money before next Friday, February 17.   I will update you on the progress.  If you would like to make a donation to help make this project a reality you can click here http://missionsurge.com/631556.ihtml do so.  Any help would be greatly appreciated by Mission Surge and NCFIC.

Secondly, I want to update you on our Dominican Republic work.  Bro. Gene Pickern, the former missionary to the DR who organizes and arranges our training sessions and trips will be going to the DR in February with his wife Julie.  Many of you know they had to prematurely return home from the mission field in July of 2010 due to Julie being diagnosed with Muscular Sclerosis.   Julie has been praying and hoping for an opportunity to return to Santo Domingo.  Though it seemed impossible, her prayers have been answered.  I will let her tell you in her own words.  

The IMB and my doctors have given me permission to go back to the DR  for a visit! Bless the Lord, O my Soul! It is something that I never thought would happen. Then again, I never thought at one point I would be living or walking. God can do anything.  Now I'm going back to the DR! We want to ask you to pray very specifically about some things.

PRAY FOR:

1) SAFETY TRAVELING- in the airport as well as plane and DR. Ask the Lord to help us make our connecting flights with His peace & me not falling down! Also the traffic itself in the DR can be hairy, not to mention how hazardous walking can be, at least for me. 

2) OUR HEALTH - while still in the states and in the DR. Pray blood clots do no set in on the plane rides, and that I don't have any MS episodes. Also please pray that Gene's heart remains strong & healthy - no episodes with him either!

3) THE CHURCHES - will be gathering together their Bible Study groups to hear my testimony. Pray God will cause people, lost and saved, to come. Pray HE will prepare their heart to hear. Ask the Lord to me give me HIS words, wisdom, and heart. Please pray for the interpreter (Wilfrido). Pray believers will be encouraged and lost people will be saved. But most of all, pray GOD receives the glory.

In Christ,

Gene and Julie

We praise God for Julie being able to return to the DR and for Gene being able to return with her and minister.  He will be contacting many of our church planters and pastors while there to receive an update on their work.

Next, continue to pray that we are approved at as a 501(c)(3) organization.  All the paperwork has been turned in.  We have answered several questions and sent in more info as it has been requested.  The application is still pending, but we are getting closer!  Please pray that we get approved soon!

Next, I still have several open dates this year to travel and speak.  I would love the opportunity to come share with your church.  We can encourage your church with an evangelistic event, a family conference, a church revival, or a missions conference.  We can even come and share our "Mission Surge" conference where we define the Gospel and then share how the Gospel impacts individuals, families, churches, and the world for the glory of God.  We would love an opportunity to invest in your church family.  If we can serve you, please do not hesitate to call!

Finally, take time to check out our website if you have not done so recently.  There are some new pictures, new documents, and even some new sermons that have been uploaded.  We hope to continue to add more resources to the site in the coming weeks.

So….pray for the translation of the NCFIC resources into Spanish and give to make it reality if you feel so led.  Pray for the Pickern's as they travel to the DR this month.  Pray for our 501(c)(3) status to be approved soon.  Check out and share the website with someone today.  And finally, pass this info along to everyone that you can!

P.S. If you have not signed up to follow my blog or to follow me on twitter, please do so today at kevinivy.com and http://twitter.com/missionsurge

In Christ,

Kevin

Just a Little News

Well…

It has been a good long while since I have posted anything in writing on my blog, so I decided that today I would do so. My mind is running ninety miles an hour down a curvy road with plenty of obstacles in the right lane. I don’t have time to go into detail about all of that , but I will give you a little head’s up about what is “tentatively” coming in the next few weeks.

We will be finishing up our 3 part series on “Dealing with Sin in the Body” this Sunday, December 6. If you are signed up to receive my blog or if you are signed up on i-tunes you should get it Sunday evening or Monday sometime. Sunday night, we will be having Sunday school parties. Wednesday night we will be finishing up our 12 week study on revival. Then we will all get in the Christmas spirit, if we are not already.

On December 20, Kevin Wade will be preaching during the morning service as Mandy and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It has been a good 10 years. God has blessed us with 3 fine boys and hopefully more in the future.

This is Luke on the left. He doesn't believe in taking "normal pictures" so here he is making an ugly face.

Levi is on the right, caught of guard obviously, because he doesn't usually look so calm.
And then there is Jude. He is Mr. Handful at 19 months. Here, you can see him in a video throwning a ball at 11 p.m. last night. He get's in a serious stance...check it out.

We have grown tremendously in our walk with God especially these last 2 years. God has revealed so much about the world, the church, and the family to us that we are overwhelmed.

One of the things that I want to get her for our anniversary (and don’t groan…she wants it) is a renovated master bathroom. Our house was a foreclosed home and was not kept in the best condition...actually it was not kept at all. We had to tear out almost everything and start over. The only thing we have not touched is the master bathroom and it needs some serious TLC. If you run across a tub, double vanity, tile for the shower, or flooring that is an extremely, EXTREMELY good price, please let me know. The budget for this renovation is going to be very lean. In fact, our budget is so lean that it may be our 11th anniversary before it is complete. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you run across any good deals.

Back to December… On December 27, I will preach that morning on the importance of prayer as we look to 2010. That night, Paul Young, pastor of Cato Baptist in Mendenhall will be sharing with us. The men who attended the Underground Men’s Conference will know Paul and they can back me up on the fact that you do not want to miss December 27!

Then it is happy new year Sunday on January 3rd as we are all challenged to go deeper with Christ in 2010. That night we will introduce our new Transforming classes (and there are going to be some good ones). Then, if the Lord allows, we will begin a new series entitled Dysfunction Junction, which is a series on the state of the “Christian family” today. It would take someone blind, deaf, and dumb not to realize that there is some serious dysfunction in families, even (especially) among professing believers. We will address questions such as: What is the role of a wife and mother? What is the role of a husband and father? What are the responsibilities of the parents to the children? And how does this all tie into the church and the kingdom? You may be surprised. You will probably be agitated. My prayer is that we are challenged and changed.

I hope you will begin praying for and looking forward to, what is coming. Until next time...