We just returned from Nogales, Mexico. We went down as a family along with several young adults on an exploration mission trip. Some of you may remember that I was down in Nogales a few times last spring working with a friend of mine, Brian Donahue.
Last month I went down to Tucson to connect with Brian, and he invited my family to explore a deeper partnership with him and his family in Nogales. After this weekend we sensed from God that this work would be a great context for us as we spend this next year inviting others into a lifestyle of discipleship and training for missions that is called “Apprenticeship to Jesus” (read attached file).
We see the work in Nogales as one unique expression for this emerging community of disciples to be practitioners; where they can practice the inward disciplines of solitude, prayer, and silence as well as the outward disciplines of service and sacrifice as we serve the poor and needy. http://cuirimhouse.blogspot.com/
Our family is also praying about a downtown center; a base for “Apprenticeship to Jesus” for those seeking to live out Christ’s call to come away to be with him (intimacy) and also his call to lay down your life for others (service).
We are looking forward to catching up with each of you soon. We are hoping to invite you all to our house (as soon as we get in) to celebrate God’s provision and share more vision for our ministry in this upcoming year!
As we prepare to move into our house we are aware of the fact that our monthly support of $1200 will not be sufficient. Please contact me if you would be interested in joining our monthly support team. Thank You!
Ryan, Noleen, Ethan, and Keilah
Part B
Apprenticeship to Jesus:
Shipwrecked lives are almost as common among “Christians” as among non-Christians. All across the board in church today we find a yearning for greater reality. What is at the heart of this cry, “there must be something more to my Christian experience”? Many find a crippling contradiction between what they intuitively know Jesus offers them and their actual day by day experience of Him. Dallas Willard calls this the Great Disparity:
“There is an obvious Great Disparity between, on the one hand, the hope for life expressed in Jesus—found real in the Bible and in many shining examples from among his followers and, on the other hand, the actual day-to-day behavior, inner life, and social presence of most of those who profess adherence to him.”
Arriving on the human scene, Jesus spoke words of life. No one else in all history has ever spoken with His depth of insight and understanding. What He teaches us is how to live life in the Kingdom of God – life at its fullest – now! We cannot learn this from anyone else, and the context for learning it is apprenticeship (discipleship) to Him. We are with Him, to learn from Him, and how to be like Him. Thus He commissioned us to be and make apprentices to Him among all nations.
In this past year with Antioch Network we have had the rich experience of working with Christians from all around the world and from different Christian traditions. God has gently but persistently been opening my eyes to realize that I have much to learn about living as an ‘apprentice’ to Jesus.
I have begun to ask the question, do we have as our ultimate goal to be followers of Christ, learning to obey everything He commanded, if not, why not? If it is, what are we doing daily for this purpose to be attained?
‘Apprenticeship to Jesus’ is being birthed out of a desire to follow the call of our Lord “to leave all and come follow me” and from conviction that without intimacy with God that transforms our character, our actions will often be misguided and lack the power of God that can bring about the genuine transformation of individuals, cultures, and nations.
If you would like to learn more about how we are exploring a lifestyle of ‘Apprenticeship to Jesus’, I would love to talk with you more about it.
Meet the Thurmans
September 26, 2006
September 13, 2006
Thurman Update #24 (written Sept12th 06)
It has been over a year since we began our journey towards finding a home for our family; it has paralleled our ministry exploration. We believe our home is to be a strategic beachhead for a ministry expression in downtown Phoenix—focused on developing and shepherding a community of ‘apprentices’ to Jesus that will serve the Church, transform the community and bless the nations. This vision will allow us to build upon the International work in Cyprus, Germany, Bosnia, Senegal, and Mexico, as we train others in missions and invite them into the work.
Since this house downtown would be such vital part to the ministry, we now better understand the spiritual opposition we have encountered over the past few months. Things hit a head 3 weeks ago, when those we were working with abruptly turned on us and basically said they were going to take the house away. Here is one short example that illustrates the battle for the house:
“God, what shall we do? They are trying to take the house away!”
“Ask me to bless those who are treating you unjustly?”
“But God….okay but I need you to work this mercy and love in me, because I am full of anger and frustration. Lord I do ask that you would touch their hearts, that they might know your love and peace, and bless this project regardless of whether we get the house... Now what Lord?”
“Go talk to the director in person.”
“But Lord she has not been working with me at all!”
“Go and I will go before you.”
When I first showed up I was treated very rudely by the director and she said she would not talk with me and even walked away as I was talking to her. But with courage from the Lord, I followed her into her office and sat down and told her I wasn’t leaving until she spoke with me. An hour later, after explanations and apologies on both sides, I left knowing that there were still three large hurdles that had to be overcome in order to get the house, but I was aware that God had worked in her heart and she was once again for us! A week later, all three hurdles, including a need for $10,000 in additional grant money, were all overcome. One more of many miracles in this whole process! Praise the Lord!!!
We have started the closing process on the house and hopefully by end of the month we will have a home for our family and will be freed up to focus on the ministry God is calling us to! Thank you for your prayer and support!
We are grateful,
The Thurman Family—Ryan, Noleen, Ethan, & Keilah
Since this house downtown would be such vital part to the ministry, we now better understand the spiritual opposition we have encountered over the past few months. Things hit a head 3 weeks ago, when those we were working with abruptly turned on us and basically said they were going to take the house away. Here is one short example that illustrates the battle for the house:
“God, what shall we do? They are trying to take the house away!”
“Ask me to bless those who are treating you unjustly?”
“But God….okay but I need you to work this mercy and love in me, because I am full of anger and frustration. Lord I do ask that you would touch their hearts, that they might know your love and peace, and bless this project regardless of whether we get the house... Now what Lord?”
“Go talk to the director in person.”
“But Lord she has not been working with me at all!”
“Go and I will go before you.”
When I first showed up I was treated very rudely by the director and she said she would not talk with me and even walked away as I was talking to her. But with courage from the Lord, I followed her into her office and sat down and told her I wasn’t leaving until she spoke with me. An hour later, after explanations and apologies on both sides, I left knowing that there were still three large hurdles that had to be overcome in order to get the house, but I was aware that God had worked in her heart and she was once again for us! A week later, all three hurdles, including a need for $10,000 in additional grant money, were all overcome. One more of many miracles in this whole process! Praise the Lord!!!
We have started the closing process on the house and hopefully by end of the month we will have a home for our family and will be freed up to focus on the ministry God is calling us to! Thank you for your prayer and support!
We are grateful,
The Thurman Family—Ryan, Noleen, Ethan, & Keilah
Thurman Update #23 (written Aug 7th, 06)
I hope this email finds you thankful for another day to walk this journey of faith. Praying with those who have traveled this road before us; give us today what we need so that we can reveal your Goodness to the world through your working in us!
We wanted to give you the latest information on the house. The great news is that we have received approval for the loan, and we received a move in date of September 18. But we still need a lot of prayer! I received a phone call from the city saying that there are still problems with us having enough income for the grant program. We are hoping to straighten this issue out this week.
Secondly, we wanted to share with you that God has been so good to us this summer. Even though it did not work out to be overseas this summer we have found joy in supporting the work in Cyprus and Germany through prayer. I shared with you last year how I made a great friendship with a young man, Mehmet, from Cyprus . At the end of the trip he stated that He believed in Jesus and wanted to learn to follow Him. Well a huge answer to prayer is that Mehmet (picture attached), through trials and challenges is still following Christ and participated in the work in Cyprus this year!
With Love and Thankful hearts,
The Thurman Family
We wanted to give you the latest information on the house. The great news is that we have received approval for the loan, and we received a move in date of September 18. But we still need a lot of prayer! I received a phone call from the city saying that there are still problems with us having enough income for the grant program. We are hoping to straighten this issue out this week.
Secondly, we wanted to share with you that God has been so good to us this summer. Even though it did not work out to be overseas this summer we have found joy in supporting the work in Cyprus and Germany through prayer. I shared with you last year how I made a great friendship with a young man, Mehmet, from Cyprus . At the end of the trip he stated that He believed in Jesus and wanted to learn to follow Him. Well a huge answer to prayer is that Mehmet (picture attached), through trials and challenges is still following Christ and participated in the work in Cyprus this year!
With Love and Thankful hearts,
The Thurman Family
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