What Can I Say?!

Pastors and other vocational ministers who speak regularly will appreciate this—

Yesterday I was to speak at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Manchester for my friend Damian Pickett.  However, for two days prior I was unsettled with regard to the actual message that I would bring.  Saturday night, even though I thought I had finalized my talk, I was still editing and re-typing my notes into an iPad.

Sunday morning, as I awakened, I was unsettled still.  The clock was ticking.  I checked out of the hotel, loaded the car, and made my way to the church complex, located a couple of miles away.  I was early, so I walked two blocks and purchased a coffee, trying to get my head around the message that I had prepared for the morning.

Upon returning to the car, I pulled from my computer back a sermon outline that I had not even considered earlier.  Although I heard no audible voice, it was as if God said, “That is what I would like you to say to My people today!”  To argue with God was my first but fleeting thought; however, that would have been futile.  I quickly speed-read the outline, returned my originally prepared notes to the folder and computer bag, wondering at the confusion.

For several days, I had been reading one of the “Be Series” books by Warren Wiersbe, while also spending an inordinate amount of time in 1 Corinthians 13.  Now, moments before greeting individuals and speaking to the congregation, my mind was whirling with thoughts.

Then it happened!  I was introduced.  As I spoke, I struggled, rather than sensing the usual free-flow of thought and continuity.  I finished and prayed and sat down, feeling rather dejected and frustrated with myself.  Then, something else began to happen!

As I listened to congregants over the next 30-45 minutes during a tea reception following the service, I began to understand the significance of the change in message—whether I was comfortable with that change or not.  God knew, far better than I, the status and needs of His people.  The testimonies concerning how God’s Word had met needs amongst His children were incredible and humbling.

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you join me in praying–asking the Lord to always direct our steps as His children, and especially so for those of us in vocational ministry roles?  Oh! how vital it is for anyone who ministers to be sensitive to God’s promptings each moment.

Also, pray for our closing week of youth camp for 2013.  Ministry partners Dan Brown and LIFT Student Ministries are leading the grand finale of camps this year at Cefn Lea Park—and no doubt, another record year!  Cheers!

Dale on Coronado (CA)

CAMPS STILL WORK MIRACLES

I don’t recall my age when I first went to a Christian camp, but I’ll never forget the experiences.  I went with my grandmother  who served as one of the camp cooks for the week, even though I was under the minimum age requirement to officially be a camper.  Two particular events stand out to me about that week.

First, I still had not learned how to swim, but that wasn’t going to keep me out of the pool.  However, because the bottom of the pool was so rough, I wore the skin off the bottom of my feet, especially the toes, until they bled.  After that experience, I learned how to swim! 

Second, I remember pulling a prank on one of the campers by reaching around the shower stall and turning off what I thought was the hot water.  Unfortunately for him, I inadvertently turned off the cold water, scalding the poor lad.  I’m sure that neither of us has forgotten that experience, though I’m sure we both wish it had never happened. 

Youth camps have been a part of my life since that first experience at Camp Placid, located somewhere in northeastern Tennessee, owned by the Church of the Brethren, and still in operation today.  However, my perspective of Christian camps has changed dramatically since the late 1950s. 

As I write this morning, I’m seated in the lounge area of BHX (Birmingham, England) awaiting a flight to Amsterdam, and reflecting on the most recent camp I attended—not as a camper, but as a sponsor and leader.  While there is at least one layer of leaders usually between the campers and me, I never tire of experiencing camps, especially the closing services, such as last Thursday evening. 

My friend Dan Brown and I began partnering almost five years ago here in the UK to impact churches and their young people for Christ.  The first camp—four years ago now—matriculated 54 campers, if memory serves me correctly.  For the last two years, we’ve enrolled about 200 campers, plus leaders.  By the close of LIFT-UK 2011, 54 people (50 teenagers and 4 adults) had determined to make Jesus Christ the focus of their faith, accepting Him as their Savior!

Again, I never grow weary of watching young Christian leaders guiding teenagers, answering their questions, as they navigate them to faith in Christ.  However, there is another dimension of ministry that also captures my heart as I observe—the spiritual growth and maturity of young people who attend camp year after year. 

For example—three year ago at another camp, conducted at Cloverly Hall, I stepped up as a substitute leader for a small group one more during “God and I Time.”  A young lad name Callum was eager to accept Christ as Savior and I had the privilege to navigating him in the process.  To say the least, this lad was a handful, mischievous, and constantly in trouble.  Although I wasn’t certain that he was serious about his commitment at the time, it has been a joy to watch him over the last three years as he has grown in his faith.

One of the highlights of last week was to hear him say as we embraced that he would never forget the day at Cloverly Hall when he accepted Christ as Savior.  Amongst all his mischievousness, I can’t help be see a bit of myself, in that first year of camp at Camp Placid, pulling my pranks, and think to myself—if God can turn around a life like mine and use me for His purposes, the same God is probably doing something similar in the lives of campers still today!

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you take a moment to ask God to seal in the hearts of the 54 young people who accepted Christ last week the decision they made, preserve them for Himself, and grow them for His glory? 

Let the miracles continue, especially amongst young people! 

Cheers! 

Another Great Opportunity!

In the midst of global Christian history, some of the richest comes to us from Europe, and especially England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Like any fire, the fuel must be continually kept on the fire for it to maintain its light and warmth.  At times, what was once a great lighthouse to the world, the light from the British Isles has grown dim, but there has always been a faithful remnant, so that the light has never gone out.

From John Knox in the 1600s, to the Wesley’s of the 1700s, and great voices of each century since, the light has shone brightly.  And I’m of the mind that God is not finished with His wondrous works to the children of men amongst these British Isles today.

Somehow, I believe that He can raise up yet another prayer warrior like George Mueller, godly mother like Susannah Wesley, or prince of preachers like Spurgeon—and that it could just happen at any time.  It is with this hope in mind that I anticipate the closing camp of the 2011 camping season in Great Britain! 

LIFT-UK 2011 begins Monday, 08 August, where I have the privilege to address the leadership team just before registration opens at Cefn Lea Park, Newtown, Wales.  All week long, I will walk and work amongst the campers, praying by name for each one who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to accept Him as Savior this week.  I will also pray that those who know Him already will consider presenting themselves, individually, as living sacrifices for His service.

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you join me in these prayers?  Since the “fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,” we can expect God to answer and do great works in human hearts and lives of young people as a result of serious prayer. 

However, those are not my only requests.  Please pray, too, that God would do an eternal work in the lives of the American young people who are partnering with us through LIFT Student Ministries.  Over the last 40+ years of ministry, I’ve witnessed more than 65 young people make that life-long decision for vocational ministry service as a result of their short-term mission involvement.  My petition is that God would do it again through this group of dedicated young workers.

Well, the all-too-familiar intercom voice is calling me to my plane.  Cheers!

AMERICAN TROOPS & WASHINGTON

Five years ago today, my oldest son USMC Captain Justin D Peterson, deployed to Iraq, where six months later he was killed while returning from a mission.  This time of year will always be special in my mind, and I traditionally use “milestone moments” for introspection.  Justin’s deployment with a small border transition team is one of those times, in part because it is surrounded with other important family events.

 For example, Justin’s only daughter, Caitlin, was born on 6 April 2006, only hours before his deployment, which had already been pushed back allowing him to be present for her birth.  How could I ever forget that day, since Justin and Patty had been gracious enough to let me stay with them in the birthing suite at Huron Valley Hospital until I had to race to catch my flight to Great Britain?  Forty minutes after saying goodbye to Justin, who had left Patty long enough to walk my wife Debbie and me to the car, he called to say, “Well, Dad, Caitlin’s here!”

Patty and Caitlin Peterson

However, today as I reflect, I am not only recalling tender moments like the one that I have just described, but also realizing the quagmire in which America has sunk, especially relative to those brave men and women in uniform who hazard their lives to keep us safe, and to the families whose fathers or mothers make additional sacrifices in our stead.

As I write today, the “highest leaders” in our land are embroiled in a budgetary stalemate inside the Beltway, and in what has become their standard modus operandi, they play their political games on the backs of and at the expense of the very people they are charged constitutionally with leading. 

Not only does the “establishment” (which includes both Democrats and Republicans) continually operate in such a manner that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be laden with an unsustainable debt, they also are quite cautious to take steps to protect their own interests, salaries, and eternal benefits!  It’s time that every elected official at every level of government, especially Washington, D.C., throws himself or herself into a new caution—a caution to truly protect the populous whom they are to represent—even if it means throwing themselves on their own swords, as it were.

The latest political ploy—a government shutdown—appears to have little meaning to Washington.  Oh, I know—they trot themselves in front of cameras at every opportunity and talk—spewing a rhetoric that has worn terribly thin with the grassroots who pay not only their absorbent salary and benefit packages while they (in particular the Obama administration) are now threatening the meager paychecks of our troops and their families. 

Let me be clear—this gets personal, especially when I watch my five-year-old granddaughter blowing out her birthday candles, and I fight back the tears, realizing that this little girl will never know her daddy, other than the pictures and stories that others tell her.  Her mother and brothers are now being threatened with a cash flow shutdown by the very president that swore to uphold the constitution with a genuine concern for the people of this nation—including little girls whose daddies go off to fight for freedom!  

Maybe it would be a great idea for America to stop paying the people that we have elected to represent us in the House, Senate, and the White House until they establish a sustainable budget for each fiscal year.  And when they vote on bills for which they do not appropriate adequate funds, reduce their take-home pay by that same amount—in other words; let the fiscal irresponsibility be borne by the fiscally irresponsible people who fail at doing their jobs. 

Oh, and while we’re at it, why not scrap the special health care and retirement programs they all enjoy at this time and run them through the VA hospitals and Social Security?

Yes, as I reflect today, I’m very proud of my son Justin and his contribution to America.  However, I am ashamed of those men and women in Washington who, under a guise of caring about this great nation, are continually making choices and casting votes that are undermining this country and violating the very principles that lead to God’s blessings and the prosperity of our nation. 

And, just in case I have been too vague, that means that I am ashamed of much of what Barack Hussein Obama has done and is doing as my president.  The same is true for my Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. 

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you join me in praying that somehow, by His miraculous working, God would so speak to the hearts and minds of those we have elected, that once again common sense, honesty, and truth would begin to prevail inside the Beltway, in state capitols, and in local municipalities? 

(Ezekiel 22:30 KJV) And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. 

How desperately we should pray that, as God continually looks for such men and women today, He will find such a person—in Washington, in Michigan, and in my house!

Semper fi, troops!

FRUIT

FRUIT

Three years ago, my friend Dan Brown (LIFT Student Ministries) and I partnered to bring LIFT to Great Britain, calling it simply LIFT-UK.  It was a tough, but rewarding start.  I’ve forgotten the statistics, but the number of campers matriculated was less than we had planned, but we were committed to seeing God do something—and that He did!

Fast forward to 23 March 2011, when I spoke to a youth group in Hednesford, comprised almost completely of young people who had attended one or more LIFT-UK camps and who had been saved during their first or second year of camp.  Seeing their enthusiasm, new levels of discipline, and attentiveness was an indescribable reward by itself.

However, there were two other rewards during our brief evening together.

First, was the conversation with a young woman who, as a teen in 2008, had placed her faith in Jesus Christ as Savior during camp.  She reminded me that she would never forget that day when, with guidance from yours truly, she had made that eternal decision.  She has not only followed through with attendance at and discipleship through Hope Baptist Church, but is taking her Christian experience to another level this summer.  She has made application to and plans to work in the US on the LIFT staff.

That kind of fruit is rewarding.

Second, my heart was stirred once again by the burden and vision for young people that my British friend Marie Hutchings exhibits tirelessly.  Marie’s husband Ian, “Hutch,” is the founding pastor of the very young Hope Baptist Church in the Cannock area.  Marie could be a stand-up comic anywhere, and I love her sense of humor … but most of all I appreciate her love for God and for young people!  This kind of fruit is rewarding!

And the whole family shares this determination and joy to impact youth for Christ!  Daughter Kerry has been an awesome support in logistics again and again, as have sons Kevin and Richard.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to make contact and develop friendships with the family from my earliest days in the UK.  This kind of fruit is rewarding!

 And yet, as I type these words, my mind races back over the last several hectic days to both British and American partners in ministry.  The hours that my friend Leonard James, pastor of the Woodhill Church in Colwyn Bay, and I spent together—dreaming, planning, and daring to believe that God is about to break out all over the UK—were priceless!  This kind of fruit is rewarding!

Listening to the renewed strategy for the Baptist Bible College of Great Britain as Gail and Tom Gritts and I met over lunch causes me to take renewed hope that we are on the leading edge of what could be another great revival in these parts of the world … and the pieces are coming together as we work and await a great movement from God once again!  This kind of fruit is rewarding!

 BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you pray to that end—that once again, in these last days, that God would pour out His Spirit on a land that once lit the world with the Gospel light?  I’ve had the notion in my head and burning in my heart for four years now that these things could happen.  We’re seeing the beginning of it, too!  This kind of fruit is rewarding!

 Several months ago a dear pastor friend in Michigan introduced me to his congregation.  During the introduction, he made a statement to this effect: “The seeds that Dale is sowing in Great Britain, he may never live to see the full fruit.”  Pastor Greg Burdine may be correct in his assessment.  However, I am already seeing some of the fruit, but cannot take credit.  It’s a team effort on the part of many—including you, if you will pray!  Yep, and this kind of fruit will be rewarding!

Okay—another airline flight beckons and I must go!  Cheers!

Dale

Big Prayers Needed

It seems as if we just celebrated the arrival of the New Year, but January 2011 has blown by at such blazing speed that I missed it.  Let’s hope the next eleven months slow down a bit.  Well, okay—since time marches on, please pray that I can speed up, then!

 Here’s a brief update to bring you up to speed (pun intended) on what’s happening with our ministry:

•  Last year closed with a time to relax and enjoy family and friends in Michigan over the holidays.
• The year 2010 also closed with our finances in the black—kinda—if we don’t count having to finance a replacement vehicle on the US side of ministry!
• January and February’s schedules were revised in order to help my dear friend Dan Cavin in Williamston (MI) for five weeks as he recovers from hip replacement surgery.
• The plan to produce a DVD series “Turning Your Tragedies into Triumphs,” along with a study guide and leader’s manual, was finalized.

BTW, do you pray?  Here are a few urgent prayer requests—and I can’t over-state the urgency concerning each of these bulleted items, and the requisite funding of each: 

• Pray for the production schedule and all related events that must come together whenever I can be in Michigan—to get the video recording done with a live small group in Commerce Township, editing, writing, etc.
• Pray as I help our ministry partners in the UK with scheduling and finalizing plans for school assemblies in late March 2011, as well as for American sponsors to underwrite these ministry events.  The assemblies impact new teenagers for youth camps and local church partners.
• Pray for the Summer 2011 camps, especially LIFT-UK 2011, which camp is especially evangelistic in its primary focus.  This year our goal is to help underwrite 300 young people who are non-believers. 
• Pray for our regular monthly personal support.  This has never exceeded 50% of what is actually needed, in part because I focus more on securing the funds necessary to impact young people than on my own support.  However, this has “caught up with me” when I had to finance a ministry vehicle.

 The spring and summer ministry events are already racing toward me at lightning speed!   Please prayerfully consider sponsoring a school assembly ($1500) in England or Wales.  If you’d rather underwrite something more personal, perhaps you or your church could underwrite ten campers ($3000), or five unsaved campers ($1500), or at least one or two at $300. 

 While the emotional tug at the heart-strings just isn’t “there” with an appeal for your help to pray and to underwrite school events and campers like it would be following some natural disaster or severe famine, the urgency to reach the youth of Europe is nonetheless real.  Thank you for partnering with us! 

 Cheers!

 Dale

 P.S.      As always, please keep in mind that all project funds are administered through Gospel Alive, Inc., P. O. Box 630, Clarkston, MI  48347.  All personal support is handled by Central Missionary Clearinghouse, P. O. Box 219228, Houston, TX  77218-9228. 

 

Misconceptions

Strange, isn’t it—how we can so easily develop misconceptions about almost anything, especially people, and especially in the ministerial world?

 For years I’ve heard how “impossible” (or at least very difficult) it is to reach the young people of Great Britain or Europe with the Gospel.  However, as I sit here in my usual “office” at Frankie and Benny’s at the Birmingham (England) airport, awaiting a flight to France, and reflecting on last week’s youth camp at Cefn Lea Park in Newtown, Powys (Wales), I’m not sure that I how accurate the assessment of others has been. 

Let me explain. 

Four years ago roughly, Dan Brown of LIFT Student Ministries, along with one of his board members Ben Robinson, accompanied me on a whirlwind exploratory excursion to Great Britain.  Dan has operated a growing number of “LIFT Camps” in the eastern half of American for several years—and quite successfully.  In fact, if memory serves me correctly, I spoke for one of Dan’s camps, even before he called them “LIFT!” in Monticello, Kentucky.  (How could I ever forget that camp, because they had more frogs hopping around the property than were in the plagues of Egypt!  Of maybe it’s my guilt for encouraging several of the campers to collect dozens of frogs and put them in his father Harold’s room that I remember.)

 Somehow, I felt that if I could get Dan here to see what I was seeing in the potential of reaching young people for Christ—and it worked!  Few men (or women) that I know share the level of burden or passion for young people that my friend Dan Brown has.  I see it and sense it increasingly.

Our first year camp was actually quite small—but the results of young people coming to faith in Christ as their Savior were quite large!  I also remember thinking that it was the toughest youth camp that I’d ever been involved with, simply because of the behavior of my of the young people who attended.  Several of them came to us from social services, and were known to be “problem teenagers.”  But we loved them, and I think they sensed that, and responded accordingly.

The second year of LIFT-UK the numbers climbed in every way.  An impact for Christ was growing—and the impact was affecting young people from not only Europe, but also on the American college-aged staff of LIFT … and on me!  Many of the first-year campers returned and the spiritual growth in them was self-evident.  Once again by week’s end, many campers had made significant commitments to God for salvation, holy living, and Christian service.

This year the groundswell continued with even greater evidence.  First, we jointly operated LIFT-UK 2010 with the BBF-GB youth camp, a collection of ministry partner churches scattered around Great Britain, but representative campers also came from other European countries.  In the analysis of the executive director of Cefn Lea Park, this was the largest gathering of a group of Christian teenagers in the history of the conference centre!

At times the crowd noise was almost deafening, especially when you have nearly 300 campers and staff all assembled in the dining room, everyone talking, laughing, dishes clattering, etc.!  And to listen and watch this crowd in action during the praise and worship time was almost beyond description—especially if one is expecting the misconception to be the reality!

And the behavioral difference over a three year period is also notable.  While are a couple of layers of workers between me and the campers these days, I do believe that this was the most well-behaved crowd to-date.  The difference that Christ makes in the spiritual lives is readily seen from one year to the next.  The pastors and other Christian workers were all abuzz with excitement with the spiritual advancements!

While I can’t say that the volume of decisions made by young people coming to faith in Christ, surprised me, I must admit that it just doesn’t fit the misconception.  What did arrest my attention was that on opening night, rather than somewhat typically closing night, most of the young people who accepted Christ as their personal Savior during did so that first night!  By the closing assembly on Friday morning, 42 teenagers had come to faith!

But that isn’t all—great as that is!

At the conclusion of his Thursday evening message, my friend Ed Trinkle, speaker for the week who did a masterful job of connecting with the audience, plainly asked all from the audience who were ready to say to God, “I’ve been allowing you to speak to my heart and I’m now ready to ‘lay it all down’ and serve you full time for the rest of my life,” to stand to their feet, then come and gather in front of the stage for special instructions, prayer, and then counsel.

I was in tears as I stood at the top level of the auditorium and counted 76 teenagers standing in front of that stage in response to Ed’s clear instructions!  When it was all sorted, and the individual counseling was concluded, 40 young people had truly committed themselves to ministry and service for Christ!

That kind of scene, with that kind of result, just doesn’t fit the misconception that so many in kingdom work have.  Each of us who have been a part of this new phenomenon believes that we are on the leading edge of a new wave of the working of God amongst the young people and churches of Great Britain!  And we’re witnessing it firsthand!

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you join several of us praying for the 42 teenagers who are new believers as they return to their homes and friends?  We understand the spiritual battle that will surely take place in their hearts and minds.  Several of them will certainly struggle in the months to come as they decide daily whether to follow the old life or the new.

Would you also pray for the 40 young people who committed their lives to service for the King of Kings?  They too will be waging war to live out that which they committed on that closing night of LIFT-UK 2010.

Finally, would you pray that the Lord would continue to use me in leaving a lasting impact on an entire movement of God to reach young people in Europe?  There aren’t a lot of 60-year-olds who still pursue a vision aggressively in youth ministry—but I’m asking that you pray for one—me!

And to those individuals, pastors, and churches who invested financially and prayerfully through our ministry, you can know that your investment has yielded history-making and eternal results!  Thank you!

Cheers!

When A Plan Comes Together

Almost four years ago I ran into a long time friend, Dr. Leland Kennedy, at a national conference in Detroit.  Leland gave me a big bear hug and said, “It’s so good to see you, Dale!  We were just talking about you two days ago over in Ireland.”  That conversation was the beginning of a fresh focus on ministry for me, as it turns out! 

Fast forward to 9 August 2010.  I have no clue where Leland Kennedy is this morning, but I’m sitting in my room near Cefn Lea Park, a camping/conference centre just south of Newtown, Wales.  Last night we opened what is our largest youth camp to-date with nearly 400 total in attendance.  My dear friend Dan Brown and his staff from LIFT Student Ministries is running the show, and another good friend, Ed Trinkle, is our main speaker.  The energy in the auditorium on opening night was “a mile high,” and in a culture where so many say “It can’t be done” we’re seeing it happen, right before our eyes.  At least 25 young people came to faith in Christ in the very first service!

As the adage from the old television show “The A-Team” goes, I love it when a plan comes together!

This journey into the UK actually began in the winter of 1978-79, when I brought a team of singers from Liberty University to England and Scotland.  One of the young men on the team, Dale Brown, is now the pastor of West Shore Baptist Church in Llandudno, Wales.  Reacquainting ourselves over the past weekend was such a delight for me as I witnessed that God has done something special through Dale Brown … and to think that maybe–just maybe–God used me in some small way in his life 30 years ago!  And to see Dale Brown in action with his congregation last Sunday caused me to say to myself, I love it when a plan comes together!

Dale Brown and Dale Peterson 2010

As I stood with the hundreds of young people and youth leaders in the opening service of LIFT-UK 2010 last night, listened to the singing and observed the response of the audience, I said to myself once again, I love it when a plan comes together!

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you pray that miraculous events will take place this week in this camp.  Somehow, I just believe that since God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, if we ask Him, He would draw dozens and dozens of young people to His salvation before we close camp Friday.  Then as ministry partners, we could all say that we love it when a plan comes together!

One closing thought–what part will you play today in God’s plan today?  Will it be a role that through the years you, too, can see that in the little acorns of service you plant for Him today, you will one day see mighty oaks, and say to yourself, I love it when a plan comes together?

Cheers!

More for the Kingdom

Once again, I sit in an airport – Amsterdam’s Schiphol, hurriedly typing a note to update ministry friends and partners on what is happening recently.  Hurry as I might, I know this will not get out to until I am in Amsterdam, or even back in Detroit, but I wanted to share the latest news with you.

Two weeks ago, in our BBF-GB camp in Cefn Lea Park (Wales), with approximately 144 campers total, we were privileged to see 15-17 campers come to place their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.  Due to other responsibilities, I was not at the camp for the closing ceremonies on Friday morning, and I have been given two different numbers.  However, on their own testimonies, at least 15 young people came to faith in Christ.

After a brief visit with my middle son Jordan in Oxford, where he has been working this summer at Oxford University, my journey took me back northward to Huntingdon-Alconberry, where I was privileged to spend time with Carol and Jose Esquibel and the wonderful congregation of their labors.  I truly anticipate future ministry opportunities with this gracious family.  Their immaculate church complex is located across the street from the Alconberry Royal Air Force base, and it was truly a pleasure to interact with both RAF military personal as well as a few American families who serve on the same base, some as DOD contractors.

Following the morning services and a wonderful noon meal in the Esquibel home, I raced back to the White House, where Dan Brown and the LIFT-UK 09 team had already settled in.  After a day of rest for them, we headed northwest to Cloverley Hall Christian Conference Centre and the LIFT-UK 09 camp.  These camps focus primarily on evangelism, and we were not disappointed in the results!  The spirit of God was self-evident in less than 48 hours, and by the closing of the camp Friday morning, 30 young people became Christ followers.  But it didn’t end there!

I just received word a few minutes ago from Dan Brown, who spent the night last night in the Birmingham area near the airport to catch earlier flights, that another young man had accepted Christ as Savior after camp was over, and over the telephone!

Fifteen teenagers one week, and thirty-one young people another – a total of 46 new heavenly-bound people … because you prayed and invested financially.  Somehow, at the end of the day, that all seems to me like a wise investment of our lives and financial resources.  Thanks for being a part of it, even by proxy.

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you now pray for these young believers?  Would you also pray for those pastors and Christian leaders in the area churches who have the awesome privilege of following through with discipleship?  Would you also pray as we endeavor to multiply the number of camps in the next few years?  Imagine the impact for the kingdom!

Got to run catch that flight now!  Cheers!

It’s Been A While

Well, it’s been a while, but here I sit in my “On-Line Cafe office” at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport, waiting on NW 48 to Amsterdam.  It’s been a while (too long) since I traveled this route, via AMS, to Birmingham, England.  Perhaps money and scheduling are common problems for many of us these days.

Tomorrow morning when I land in the West Midlands region of England, I’ll be met by my friend Damian Pickett, who is a wonderful ministry partner, along with his precious wife Ruth Ann.  They exemplify what it means to have the heart of servants.  I always anticipate the time we get to spend together.  Damian is the lead pastor of the Kingsmead Church, whose building was originally built in the 1700s as a preaching station for none other than John Wesley.  I’m always thrilled to speak there (as I will this Sunday), and thrilled to know that three centuries after Wesley preached there, the Gospel is still being heralded from that specific location.  Not all historic church builds have faired as well – some even destroyed or converted in Islamic Training Centers.

Next week is our first week of camp with the Baptist Bible Fellowship Churches of Great Britain – and is always a productive time.  In recent years, this camp has always encouraged my personal prayer life and cultivated my love and passion for young people even further.  Every day, I walk several miles in the Cannock Chase National Forest, praying by name for young people who should place their faith in Christ.  During the evening services, I also pray, and what a joy it is to hear the reports each morning as leaders share who has accepted Christ as Savior the evening prior!  I then draw a line under their names, and then pray with thanksgiving for each of them as I pray through my list each morning on my walks.

BTW, do you pray?  If so, would you pray each morning specifically for the young people who will attend these camps over the next three consecutive weeks?  It may very well be your prayers that God would answer that makes an eternal difference.

The following week, my friend Dan Brown and the LIFT Student Ministries team will return for the second year.  We anticipate going over the 100-mark this year.  Again, please pray that many teenagers will come to place their faith in Jesus Christ.

Finally, please pray for the churches who will follow-up on the new converts in a timely manner.

Well, time to close up “the office” and make that long walk to the gate A56 at McNamara Terminal.  From here, I think it’s a country mile (at least at this time of evening), but the walk will do me well.  I’m sure there will come a time during the 8-hour night flight, sitting in that Airbus A 330 seat, that I’ll wish I was taking a long walk!

Cheers!