Arizona Mission Outpost

As 2010 begins it is clear to me that the Father is already planning some major things in AZ. I have been praying for two months about the work in AZ and where the Lord is going to take us this next year. As I begin to see the year unfolding in our plans I thought of the need to communicate to all of you who are reading our blog about some needs we have for you to get involved.

Often times we plan trips during various times of the year and then try to fill them even with a small group to fulfill the trip. This year we have planned fewer trips to AZ with the thought of focusing our attention on larger trips have a bigger impact on the rez. If you have been before you know how much ground there is to cover and the time involved in getting around to every village. if you have not been, imagine with us connecting to 15 communities in an area of 3 million acres. We need teams to go into the villages.

This year we need our trips to be full of teams ready to go and invest in the villages and communities that hold the hope of the future for the TO Nation. The future is in the lives of those who will follow after the heart of God and spread the Good News of Jesus to every corner of the reservation.

March 13-20 is the first trip of the 2010 year to Sells, AZ. This is the first opportunity to go to the nations and share the story of freedom and hope with a people who are in need of workers in the field. First Papago Church is situated and ready to serve the TO Nation by leading the people into the faith journey. They need help in the field of the harvest! God is moving through the small band of Christ-followers there in Sells and stirring across the reservation. The hearts of many people are being touched by this small congregation who takes seriously their role and responsibility to reach their nation.

I need you to help! The March trip is anchored by an outreach event called Rez 2 Rez. this is an event for youth outreach as the church hosts a 3-on-3 basketball tournament for the young people. The desire is to gather as many young people to the church and play basketball with an intentional focus on sharing the Gospel and loving on young people in the name of Jesus.

Will you consider getting involved in this event in some way? We need teams to go and help be coaches for the teams, serve food to the community that gathers, share with those whom the Lord brings and support the church as they reach out to their nation. The following week we have the opportunity to follow up on decisions and continue to reach into communities across the reservation. Will you consider joining the team?

We have three weeks of ministry planned for May and June. These trips are full of ministry to the individual communities spread across the reservation through VBS, crusade and evangelism. Please check out the dates and seek His face for where the Lord would have you invest your life in AZ!

This year our hope is to see house churches begin to meet across the rez as the church grows through discipleship and evangelism. Will you get involved and GO with us? The more teams we can spread across the rez the more communities we can impact and the more of the harvest field we can cover. I am asking the Lord of the harvest to send workers...will you ask the Lord of the harvest if you are one of those He is sending!

In His Grip,

JT

Happy New Year!

Dearest friends....As we reflect back on 2009, we are reminded of many wonderful memories. God has been ever present in and around us and we praise Him for that. God has used many of you to impact the kingdom this year and we know He will continue to do the same in 2010.

His word never fails or never grows old. His word is refreshing....
powerful....filled with hope! He can shine through the darkest situations that so many are facing right now. He transforms lives every day!

God provides people to go tell this Good News, and for that we are ever thankful. We carry His word to the desperate, impoverished people groups of our world and tell of the life-changing news of Jesus Christ. We must join together, follow His lead and carry out His mission. We must continue...we must not slow down...we must not stop. There are people who are waiting on us! Life is too short, we can not tarry when He tells us to GO. I ask you today to pray about where He is leading you this year. Get quiet and allow Him to speak to you. Ask Him to help you step out of your comfort zone, whether it be pride, fear, finances, self-confidence, etc. Ask Him to help you think of others first and be obedient to His calling.

We are praying that all trips this year will be full, that we can glorify God to our fullest potential. Every trip we offer is an opportunity from God to join Him in His plan. Will you accept the opportunity that has been placed before you?

I ask you now to pray about your plan and ask God where He wants you to go.
Let's make 2010 a year to remember!

God Bless each one of you....

Karen

We are happy to announce an upcoming event, Global Link, that will be held at The Church at Brookhills in Birmingham, Alabama.

One Way Ministries will host a booth at this event and we invite you to come visit us. There will be people there to help answer questions you may have about a trip, tell you about the trips available and help you find a trip best suited for you.


Global Link
The Brook Hills Short-Term Trips will be posted soon, and the Global Disciple-Making Team wanted to create an opportunity for Brook Hills members to:

- Meet the Team Leaders who are leading the trips
- Learn about trips Brook Hills Member Organizations are conducting, and
- Learn about the short-term trips on the Brook Hills calendar for 2010

Global Link will be in the main worship room in the Student Building Sunday, December 6 from 5pm until 7pm. Everyone is welcome to come and go as they please.

We hope this time will be helpful to learn how to be involved in taking the gospel to the nations.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Do You Want Your Life To Count?

The Little Man

A couple weeks back I snapped this picture of a 6 year old boy in the city dump of Guatemala City. This little man listened for several home visits to the team as they shared the Gospel and provided a bag of food to families. He then proceeded to urge with great passion our team to follow him to his house, "quickly." He shared he had to go "to work" soon as the trucks were coming out of the dump with metal and he had to be there to get what he could to carry. He led us to a small structure and introduced our team to his family. As the team began to minister, he cared for the open fire in the corner of the doorway and then quickly vanished into the street to meet the trucks.

Since this meeting I have been struggling to grasp the whole picture of this one little man's life. Today, it rang clear and all the blurriness is gone. This monring my dear friend Peter Sozi from Uganda shared with our students at church. His message was an amazing passionate plea to make your life count! Pray and seek God's face and turn from your wicked ways and God will respond. It all came clear...The Father's desire is to use one life to radically challenge and transform another.

It is God's plan for your life to count to the one whom He places in your path to touch. The little man in Guatemala was a reminder that the children see it all clearly. It is the simple ways that the Lord desires. No degrees or professional expereince required. Prayer of the one will be powerful and effective.

How about your life? Do you want your life to count today? How about right at this very moment you punch the pause button on everything and seek Him, pray, turn, listen to your name being called by the God of this universe and respond to His call to make a difference!

Remember the story of the boy throwing starfish back into the ocean? Thousands of starfish stranded on the beach in the hot sun losing all life by the moment. As he tosses each one back in the elder walks by and scoffs, "son there is no way you can make a difference in this mass of starfish...why are you trying to save them all...it does not matter." the young boy picks up a starfish and boldly declares to the elder man, "It matters to this one!" As he tosses one at a time each starfish back into the sea, he concludes, it matters every time picks one up. It matters every time you speak the truth. It matters every time you pick one up!

Do you want your life to matter? Lord today may my life be counted as yours and may i be used to impact one. It matters to that one!

In His Grip,

JT

Memories of Guatemala November 2009

After being home for a little less than a week, I can look back at how God was working in and around us during our most recent trip to Guatemala, and truly be inspired and thankful. While we were there He provided for Tabitha house, through sacrificial giving. He provided for us as a family, showing us where and with whom we would live when we arrive, prayerfully in May. He changed hearts and healed the sick and He saved souls, all in our direct line of sight. I am wondering this morning why these things shock or amaze us? He IS the creator, the King of King's, the Lord of Lord's, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the ancient of days, El Shaddai, Almighty God! Do we forget so quickly who He is? And then I realize we are the same as the Israelites being brought out of slavery in Egypt. They saw the Red Sea parted and they crossed on dry land. They were fed by Holy manna from heaven and drank from the rock. They were guided with fire by night and a cloud by daylight. And yet after Moses was on the mount for 40 days they forsook all of that to worship a golden calf. I would say to you that we are just like them.
God is at work all around us. We must ask Him to make us aware of what He is doing so we can be a part of it. When we were at Tabitha house is May, we saw children who were hopeless and unloved and when we returned last week those same children were smiling and playing and they even put on a show for us. God provided a woman, Carol, to go to the dump and love and care for women and children who otherwise would not get that love, or even more, probably not survive. There are women, who just 6 months to a year ago were on drugs, in prostitution and some even thinking about selling their children to get more drugs or just to make money. Now they are working and providing for their children by legitimate jobs and they are working with Carol to care for and feed these impoverished children. These are changes only God can bring about.
They opened up more area in the dump for people and it was said to house 650 families. It was a squatters camp, like a refugee camp. No solid structures. Tarps held up by wooden posts, anything they could find to hold it together. They call this home, some smaller than most of our bathrooms or even a walk-in closet. I am hurting right now thinking about some of the families we met who just need someone to love them and show them the hope found in Jesus Christ. It's the same hope that most of the people we know right here need. The question for all of us is, are we willing to live and love as the Bible instructs us?

Greg Brown

Guatemala

Wow! God is good...no awesome! How many times do we question things in life? I do it quite frequently. While packing for Guatemala I began to question whether we had enough medicine, school supplies, clothes, diapers, etc. When we arrived we took inventory...GUESS WHAT we had so much stuff we didn't know what to do with it all.
This week has been tremendous. I don't even know how to put it into words. The team is made up of the most amazing people. Again God is great! He knows our every need. He knows how many hairs on our head. He knows every child that is staying at Tabitha House and everything they need. He knows every person that lives in and around the Guatemala City Dump and what they need. What we need to understand is that the most important thing they need is JESUS! We have seen people come to Christ. It was not anything thing we said or did while witnessing. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working in the people we witnessed to. God does not need us to save people. Yet He instructs to go and make disciples!

Right now we are looking at a house near the city. We are praying for guidance! This is very exciting and I can't wait to move here. Please pray for us.

In Christ,
Kathy Brown

Have you felt your knees lately?

I recall the words of my brother Claud Crosby speaking to our team in South Africa a few years back. He shared that too many times we work for the Kingdom of God and pray for His blessing on our work. We will see the power of God move when we seek His will and spend the time we should in prayer first. Then the 30 minutes we spend in the field serving Him will accomplish more in the power of God than 3 hours or even 3 days of me working in my own strength!

My question today is have you (and I) felt our knees lately? Have we been on our knees so much seeking the presence and the power of God that the physical impression of His presence is evident in our body? It is very clear and widely accepted that the remedy for revival in our land is prayer and humility before a Holy God. Are we on our knees praying for His power and His Spirit to work in our land?

Daily we see the headlines and the news reports of chaos in our leadership. Random acts of violence are common place in the first five minutes of a news report. Medeocrity and compromise are now the norm for most leaders. Regularly we hear the reoprts of a fallen politician, pastor, or even family member. When will it all be enough to drive us to our knees? How much more do we have to see and hear before we will humble ourselves and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways? How much more?

Right now....yes right at this moment...stop reading...get on your knees and cry out to Him for help. Take a minute out of the crazy business of our self-driven culturally mandated slammed schedule and pause...wait on Him...listen to His voice...He is speaking to us all. Pause and listen to the sound of the throne...Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty...who was and is and is to come!

Let's begin now to change our daily routine and instead of seeking to formulate a list of to dos that will accomplish all that I have to do today...I actually pasue and seek His wisdom and listen to His heart for today. Am I willing to surrender all, all to Jesus I surrender, all to him truely owe, all to His will I will surrender. Today make the change...right now...stop and really listen to Him...He desires to pour into you and to me the full power of the Gospel. He desires to see the person in front of you find grace and mercy just like you did.

In His Grip,
JT