Mission Surge Dominican Republic Update

Hello from the Dominican Republic,

I arrived here Monday night at 11:45 p.m. and was up and running with our first session of pastor/church planter training Tuesday morning.  We met in Cuatro de Agosto at a local church in order to teach a group of Haitian pastors and potential church planters from the area. Here is a pic of some of these young men and a few of their wives who were in attendance.  Pray for them!

Here is a picture of the church's pastor and his wife!  From his humble congregation he has raised up four leaders who have planted 4 churches, some of which are stronger and larger than his own!  He ended Tuesday's time together asking who was going to be the next one to leave and go begin a new work.

We finished up this afternoon and will speak at a prayer and fasting service tomorrow before repeating the training in Sabana Perdida on Friday and Saturday.  We are defining the biblical gospel and teaching them how to call for a biblical response to the gospel.  We are also teaching them how the gospel should impact the lives of individuals, families, churches, and communities as they live in obedience to God's Word.  Inter-twined in this teaching we are doing a brief exposition and overview of Titus.  The pastors and church planters seemed to benefit from the time together and I appreciate your prayers and gifts that have made this effort possible.  I hope to continue periodically updating as I am able.  Please continue to pray.  God is working in the lives of the Haitians here in the Dominican Republic.  Every training session we do will be for Haitian pastors and church planters!  They are working hard and have planted over 100 Haitian churches in the DR since the earthquake!!

I want to conclude this post by giving you a taste of the worship of this small group of Haitians we have had the privilege of working with over these last 2 days.  Pray for them, share this update, and enjoy.

February News

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I have several things for you to pray for if you don’t mind.

 The Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic training is rapidly approaching and I covet your prayers.  I also want to ask you to pray for pastor Gene Pickern today as he and 9 others from Alabama make their way down to the Dominican in order to pray, preach, and share the gospel door to door.  If you would be willing to pray for them throughout their journey here is the schedule:

 Sunday they will be in San Cristobal praying, sharing the gospel, and engaging in an open air evangelistic service in the streets.

2.  Monday they will be in Los Frailes doing the same.

3.  Tues through Thursday they will be in Palmarejo praying, sharing the gospel, and engaging in an open air evangelistic service in the streets on Thursay night.

4.  Friday they will be traveling to an undisclosed area where we have never worked before doing the same thing:  praying, sharing, and preaching.

5.  Saturday the 9 team members will be returning home and Gene will be resting up for me to arrive late Monday night. We will hit the ground running Tuesday until the next Thursday working with pastors and leaders.  Please pray for all of these efforts!

II.  The Gospel Documentary Project (Oblivious)

Please pray for our work on the Oblivious documentary.  The tracts are ordered.  We plan to go Monday to share the gospel and get more interviews.  The work book is in process.  Please pray for us that we can get it all done by April God willing!

III. The Underground Men’s Conference

Please pray for and plan to attend the Underground Men’s Conference April 11-12.  Registration is $50 for adult men and $25 for sons 12 and up.  We will be meeting at Faithview Baptist Church just outside of Clinton, MS (we will be posting directions and registration instructions on the website soon).  We are trying to negotiate discounted rates for lodging in Clinton for those of you who need lodging. It is also possible that some of our church members would be willing to open their homes to guests if that would be better for some of you.  Please pray for this and put it on your calendar.  It is going to be a great and challenging time.

IV.  New Website and developments

Please pray for the work on the new website to continue smoothly and quickly.  We are re-working the entire website in order to accommodate regular sermons from me as well as some brand new ministry partnerships that will be announced next March.  God is doing some big things in and through Mission Surge and it is hard to keep up with Him!  Pray that He would continue to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine!

V. Finally, I am composing a number of quotes and notes from missionary John G. Paton's autobiography that are absolutely convicting, challenging, and amazing!  They will be going out on my blog regularly after I return from the DR.  If you want to keep up with these quotes and notes please go follow my blog if you don't already do so at 

http://kevinivy.blogspot.com

You can also follow us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598

Or on twitter:

https://twitter.com/missionsurge

If want to be removed from this newsletter, please respond.  I will understand!

We covet your prayers.  We appreciate your prayers.  We appreciate your sacrificial gifts and offerings that help us accomplish all that God is leading us to do.  You are a vital part of this effort and we pray that God would bless you all abundantly.  

In Christ,

John G. Paton Quotes and Notes

I have read stories about John G. Paton, but I am embarrassed to say that I have never read his own story about himself.  After all, it is 500+ pages in length...a bit intimidating to say the least.  For Christmas, I got a copy of his autobiography and have just begun to work my way through its pages.  What I am finding is absolutely spell-binding.  In his writing you can sense the power of God in the man.  You can sense a working of God's Spirit in his life and in his writing long after he has been dead and buried.  I am sad that in all my years of growing up in church I never heard his name, much less his story.  I would guess that you probably have never heard of him either.  I would also guess that you are probably not planning to dive into a 500+ page autobiography about him...or are you on amazon.com right now looking for a copy?

Just in case you aren't pulling out your credit card to purchase your own copy...and just in case you ARE pulling out your credit card, but will never actually crack the cover on the book once you receive it 2 days later due to that amazon prime thing you signed up for because you wanted to read more books this year...sorry for the rabbit trail.  My A D D kicked in...anyway...just in case you aren't going to read his book, I am compiling a list of quotes and notes from my personal reading for you!  His story is unbelievable.

It is a life-altering story of a man who gave his entire life to the evangelization of his own people in Scotland and the cannibals of the south sea (40+ years among the cannibals).  I will begin posting "quotes and notes" from this 500+ page work in the near future here on my blog.  I just want you to be aware and be on the lookout.  If you haven't followed me on twitter or Facebook please do so just to ensure you don't miss any breaking news.  You can do so here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598

https://twitter.com/missionsurge

In closing, let me encourage you to be on the lookout for lots of new news in March.  God has been good to us at Mission Surge already in 2014 and there is much to unveil...in God's time.  Until then, keep your eyes open and remember, I leave for the Dominican on Feb 24 and need your prayers.  Please spread the Word.

February News

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

I ask you to please remember to pray for me as I travel to the Dominican Republic February 24 through March 6 in oder to train church planters and pastors.  I will be in Santo Domingo on February 25-26 training.  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 before returning home on the 6th.  Please keep me in your prayers on these days. 

Our projected budget for this work is $2500, which will enable us to train more than 100 men.  We have received just over 50% of that amount at this time.  Thank you so much to those of you who have given.  Thank you for praying and for sharing the need with other prayer warriors!  Please continue to pray that God would meet the need for this effort.

I want to ask you to please continue praying for the documentary, gospel tract, and outreach materials we are working on.  The documentary and entire project will be released in April.  Tracts will be available by the end of the month for those of you who might like to utilize them in your own personal evangelism efforts.  

I also want to remind you about the upcoming 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.  Registration is $50 for men and $25 for sons.  We are going to have with us Tim Dillmuth from Seoul USA http://www.seoulusa.org/ as well as Dr. Elias Medeiros from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson.  There will also be some powerful videos, break-out sessions led by pastors from MS, AL, and FL, and some great materials available. 

Be on the lookout for a brand new website and some major news in March God willing.  He has already done exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ever ask or imagine in 2014! 

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 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,