New Year Update! 2014

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

2014 has started with a bang!  God has already honored so many prayers and efforts just in this first week of the New Year.  He has given much vision and put many possibilities before us.  If the rest of the year continues to be as rapid and rewarding as the first week, I am convinced that God is going to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine. 

As 2014 begins, I wanted to update you on what is happening…as briefly as I can.  These issues are so important to me I will be posting them in various forms in various ways so please don’t grow weary if you see them more than once. 

1.  Please pray for me as I travel to the Dominican Republic February 24 through March 6.  I will be training church planters and pastors in Santo Domingo on February 25-26.  On Thursday the 27^th I will be speaking at an all- day prayer and fasting event in Santo Domingo.  Then I will be traveling to Sabana Perdida on February 28 and March 1 to train pastors and church planters.  I will speak in one of the churches on Sunday March 2 and then travel to Santiago in order to train another group of church planters and pastors on March 3-4.  On March the 5^th we will meet with some of our key pastors that we support.  It will be a busy time!  Please pray for me, the pastors and church planters, and Mandy as she manages the 5 children and home in my absence.

If God spurs your interest in this work, and would lead you to give to help cover the costs of this training, the projected budget for the entire work is $2500.  We estimate training 100+ pastors and church planters!  That means that we are feeding and training each pastor for roughly $25 each.  If you are moved to help this project, just mail your tax deductible gift to our NEW ADDRESS

Mission Surge

c/o Kevin Ivy

1126 Tanyard Road

Crystal Springs, MS 39059

2.  Please pray for us as we continue to gather footage for the DVD tract I shared with you about in the last update.  We are in the process of videoing the documentary, the gospel tract is written and waiting to be published, the study book is in process, and the sermon is already recorded.  We hope to be able to release this entire outreach project in April!  Please pray for this endeavor.  It will cost between 2500 and 3000 dollars to complete.  We want to make this product available free of charge (as we do everything at Mission Surge).  If you feel led to help make that possible by giving financially to help cover this project we would greatly appreciate it.   We believe this product is going to be extremely helpful in attempting to communicate and spread the gospel here in the buckle of the Bible belt and beyond.

3.  I am excited to announce our first ever Men’s Conference to be held on Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 in the Jackson, MS area.  We want to invite and encourage all men and their sons 12 and older to attend this event.  This is going to be an in your face look at the church in North Korea followed by an in the mirror look at ourselves!  We are going to have with us Tim Dillmuth from Seoul USA http://www.seoulusa.org/ as one of our speakers, some powerful videos, break-out sessions, and vendors.  More details such as exact location, cost, etc., will be coming soon. We are going to make it as low-cost and accommodating as possible.  For now, just know that it will be a weekend you will not want to miss!  Please go ahead and pencil it in on your calendar and plan to attend:  April 11-12, 2014...and spread the word to the men in your churches!

4.  Mission Surge Website:  Our goal is to have the website www.missionsurge.com rebuilt this year to be more up-to-date and easily accessible...and finally get that "Pay Pal button several of you have asked about working."  In the next few weeks you should be able to listen to new sermons every week on the Mission Surge website and at kevinivy.com.  Please check it out.

Finally, if you have not signed up to follow the Mission Surge blog, like us on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter, please do so right now!  You can do so here:

Follow the Blog:  http://kevinivy.com/

Like us on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598?ref=hl

Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/missionsurge

And then please please please PRAY and SHARE!  We need your help to get the Word out!

In Christ,

Kevin

November Newsletter

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I know it has been some time since I have written and for that I apologize.  As you most likely know we finally found a home, by God’s grace, in the summer and I have been working, between preaching engagements, on getting the house ready and moved into.  It is so much more than we thought God would provide us.  He has proven good once again, though He tarries often.  We are finally settled in for the most part.  There are still several projects that need to be completed, but they can be done in time.  I appreciate your prayers for us during this transition and covet your continued prayer support.

I write today for a few reasons.  First,  I ask that you please pray for me this weekend as I travel to Birmingham to preach at The Master’s Plan for Fatherhood conference there.  I will be speaking on Malachi 4 and I need prayer!  I would also love for you to come be a part.  There is still time to register.  If you are able to break free Friday and Saturday I would love to see you there.  You can register here:  https://ncfic.org/events/view/birmingham-masters-plan

I also would like to ask you to pray for me as I begin making plans for 2014.  We are planning a 12 day pastor/church planter training tour of the entire island in February.  Please pray for this effort.  Also pray that God would open doors for me to preach harvest days, family discipleship conferences, church revivals, and mission conferences.  Also pray that pastors would be willing to open their pulpit to me on a Sunday night or Wednesday evening service to share about the work and vision of Mission Surge.  Pray that 2014 will be a fruitful year.

Finally, I am writing to inform you of a new project we are beginning work on now.  We are beginning the process of putting together a high quality DVD tract.  Let me explain.  It is my belief that the vast majority of people, here in the buckle of the Bible belt, are confused about the Gospel.  They have a misunderstanding of who God is, who they are, who Christ really is, and how to respond to Him as their only Savior and Almighty Lord.  This has been a burden on my heart for some time.  The problem is most people will not take the time to listen to a full explanation of the Gospel, and sadly, very few if any will take the time and thought necessary to read a full explanation.  It is because of these realities that we have felt compelled to put together a brief (35 to 50 minutes), high quality, video explanation of the biblical gospel.  We intend to produce this DVD tract and make it available for mass distribution in multiple ways (DVD, I tunes, Youtube, etc.)  This project is going to cost us roughly $2500-3000 dollars for video, post production, and manufacturing.   It will be complete by May 1.  I would like to ask you to pray for this project.  Pray for funds to be raised to cover this project.  And if God moves you to give in order to help make it a reality, we would greatly appreciate it.  Just contact me and let me know (kevin@missionsurge.com).  As an incentive, anyone who would donate any amount to this project will receive a free copy of the DVD tract.  It is my hope that God would use this effort to open many eyes to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Please pray!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.  Please lift me up this weekend and come join me in Birmingham!  Please pray for many opportunities to open up in 2014!  And please pray for the  DVD-gospel tract project.  And spread the Word!  Thank you again and again for your faithfulness to hold the ropes for this ministry as we keep developing and growing and seeking God’s will for this work.

In  Christ,

Kevin

Others May, You Cannot

OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their

plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you

sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow

you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you

despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having

luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better

than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to

produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will

make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or

for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous

love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the

Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.  By G.D. Watson (1845-1924)