January 2010

Greetings and Happy New Year! "Search me, O God.  Renew in me a right spirit."  Another way to look at this prayer is, My "within" (heart) has been formed by my experiences and choices.  I am now at its mercy, Only God can save me.  Jesus saves us by restoring our heart to God and dwelling there with His Father through the Holy Spirit.  The heart thus renovated and inhabited is humanity's only real hope.  By becoming Jesus's apprentices (disciples) we are learning this gentle rhythm of restoration.  It has been one our greatest joys to see the transformation in Christlikeness in the young people we are working with and watching them began to express their leadership and influence in this community and the ministries they are leading!  Two personal highlight for me lately was the birth of my daughter Elyana.  Another is a study I am doing with George Mily on notes he has taken through His numerous readings of Dallas Willard's,Renovation of the Heart

Ministry of  Hospitality  welcoming others as we would welcome Jesus As we have been learning to live this out we have seen the lost find faith and those weak in faith be strengthened as they experience Christ in us. In the past year and a half we have had guests from different states and from around the world come spend time with us in our community.  Our latest guest is Kelvin Davis.  A follower of Jesus here serving and working with local churches.  He needed a place to stay and has been with us for the past month and will be with us until at least the end of this month.  He is a blessing to us.  His genuine faith and sincerity and servants heart is an example to all of us.  "'Incarnation' in following the example of Jesus as given to us in John 1 and Php 2, is the act of proactively entering the world of others.  We do this in an attempt to relate to them, understand them, be a friend to them and witness to them.  Hospitality is the flip side of incarnation.  Hospitality is the act of inviting other people into our world, to accomplish the same things.  We invite them to see Christianity in action in our homes and lives, warts and all." Refugee Ministry A refugee is someone who flees their own land to a place of shelter and safety because of persecution and threat to life.  God's people have known them as the strangers and aliens among you.  God made it clear from the beginning that those who know and walk with Him would recognize the special place refugees have in His heart.  "God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien aka refugee, giving him food and clothing.  -Deuteronomy 10:17 Ahmed Ibrahim a 26 year old Iraqi refugee moved into the Refugee property today.  He like the Dawood family is Mulsim.  He is studying English at Phoenix college. Pray that He would encounter the living Christ in us and come to saving faith There is also an Afghanistan family that is in need of a place and we have been asked by the Catholic Charities to help them.  Pray that God would give wisdom on what are involvement should be?  We are also still praying for sponsorships for each of the 4 units to adopt the family/individual(s) in prayer and to help finacially in this crucial adjustment period.  If you interested please contact me Antioch Network Annual International Gathering in Antioch, Turkey Jan 5th-16th  Eight of us from the Apprenticeship to Jesus community will be leaving in a few days for Antioch (modern Antakya), Turkey , near the Syrian border, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians.  January 9-14, 2010.  As we gather, we will represent a past history of wounds and division: Jews, Arabs, Germans, Turks, Armenians, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestants.  This will be an important time for the whole of Antioch Network and we also sense that God will give specific direction and impartation to the Apprenticeship to Jesus community and ministry. please pray for God's protection in travel for each participant, for preservation of the unity among us, and for discernment of His direction step by step.  Please also pray for Noleen and the kids as I will be away for 11 days.  Please also pray for complete healing of a wound on my hand before I am to leave on Tuesday The Antioch Network team continues to grow, both in numbers and in the impact God is graciously allowing us to have in places like Senegal, Turkey, N. Cyprus, India, China, Germany, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Eastern Europe, The UK, France and across the USA. God is continuing to deepen our understanding of his call on Antioch Network: a commitment to evangelizing the unreached in the world; the championing and facilitation of the role of the local church in reaching the lost; and, pursuit of intimacy with Jesus. With great gratitude Ryan, Noleen Ethan, Keilah, Micah, and Elyana Thurman