April 2009

With Jon and Beccy travelling to Ohio on the 31^st March, we have brought the publication of our April E-prayer forward.

Youth Prayer Retreat in the USA

Beulah Beach Retreat Center, Vermillion, Ohio, Friday 3^rd – Sunday 5^th April 2009

With this event fast approaching Jon and Beccy are making their final preparations for the trip. Please find their prayer requests below:

Specific Prayer Points

† For relationships to be built quickly between us and both the young people and the other leaders;

† For God’s anointing on the whole event and specifically on Jon and Beccy as they minister;

† For some of the young people to participate in leading the event in its various aspects;

† For God’s presence to be evident, especially in the meetings;

† For young people to be touched by God and challenged by Him;

† For safety in all the travelling, for good health and high energy levels!

Jon and Beccy’s Itinerary for the trip is available on the TTT website.

If you would like to find out more about the event, trying searching on the internet under ‘Youth Prayer Retreat’.

‘The Roar’ Weekend at Ashburnham

The Roar

UK Prayer

Movement

www.the-roar.org

Thank you so much for all your prayer for our weekend at Ashburnham and for agreeing to stand with us. We had such a wonderful time and our God was awesome throughout. His presence was tangibly felt during ALL of the sessions; all of the young people present were touched and in many, many cases visibly affected. Most made contributions either from the front or during ministry times and it was such a blessing to see our prayers answered in so many ways.

It has taken us this long for it all to truly sink in, that something was birthed in the Nation at the Ashburnham weekend at THE ROAR. Words don’t really do it because everyone who was there has a story! What follows is but a fraction of what Father, Son and Holy Spirit did together amongst us all.

We saw many answers to prayer including one little one committing her life to Jesus on the first evening, her sister asking to be baptised in the Holy Spirit in the middle of the night (and her first experience of speaking in tongues actually waking up her mother!) and at least one healing (of an adult who’d had no relief from a bad back for over two years). We were also able to pray many times in the Prayer Centre at Ashburnham and to pray with some of their staff. These were such powerful times, truly awesome to witness and be a part of.

Very significantly some of the young people started to pick up the mantel which is to lead this movement!

Godfrey and Gill Birtill were such a blessing as worship leaders as they obeyed the Holy Spirit and helped with the birthing. On the Sunday morning Godfrey challenged the youth, especially the songwriters amongst them. “We’ve got enough ‘nice’ songwriters in the nation,” he declared, “but what we need is a few more NASTY ones!” Its time! TO RISE UP!

What an amazing time. We are SO THANKFUL to God and give HIM all the glory. We want to give the first fruits of praise to Father God and we are gathering feedback to learn the ongoing stories of how the children are hearing God and walking with Him, as well as what He showed them over the weekend.

We are also starting to work out the next steps for THE ROAR.

With heartfelt thanks once again and with excitement in our hearts, with our love and prayers for each one of you.

Chrissie, John and Jon.

And last but not least…

Thank you so much for your support; we are more aware than ever how important prayer is. Without prayer, we could do nothing!

We are very grateful for all who pray for us regularly and who share our vision for the rising generation. May many, many of them find their purpose and destiny in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel and we all pray for you.

Jon and the rest of the TTT team

For those of you who use Facebook, TTT has a Facebook group; just search Groups for ‘Turning the Tide’.

 3rd March 2009

Mothering Sunday 22^nd March 2009

With Mothers Day fast approaching, Mothers brace yourself for your home- made Mothers Day cards made with such love and care, the egg shells in your breakfast and the messy kitchen YOU have to put straight when you get up! But hopefully not for having to give an explanation to your neighbour why they have flowers missing from their garden.

They say a Mother’s work is never done and many of us throughout our lives encounter a Mother’s love – It may not be a birth Mother but a special lady who has been there for you at the right moment at the right time, a lady who has stood in the gap on your behalf and has religiously prayed for a breakthrough in your life.

So today we would like to honour these women our Mothers, Grandmothers and Sisters: Happy Mothers Day…………………….

My Miracle Mother by Joanna Fuchs

Mum, I look at you
and see a walking miracle.
Your unfailing love without limit,
your ability to soothe my every hurt,
the way you are on duty, unselfishly,
every hour, every day,
makes me so grateful
that I am yours, and you are mine.
With open arms and open heart,
with enduring patience and inner strength,
you gave so much for me,
sometimes at your expense.
You are my teacher,
my comforter, my encourager,
appreciating all, forgiving all.
Sometimes I took you for granted, Mum,
but I don’t now, and I never will again.
I know that everything I am today
relates to you and your loving care.
I gaze in wonder
as I watch you being you—
my miracle, my Mother.

‘The Roar’ Weekend at Ashburnham

The Roar

UK Prayer

Movement

www.the-roar.org

Making space for children to pray and engage with God

This is now just round the corner and we are full to capacity save for 1 or 2 spaces.  We are so excited that we will be gathering at Ashburnham to adventure together with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We have sent out some brief prayer notes to a few folk who have offered to pray for the event; please contact us if you would like us to send these to you. However our main request is that you simply stand with us in prayer especially over the weekend.

The families of some of the children who are coming have not been able to afford the full cost and so we are anticipating making a small deficit on this event. Please do let us know if you would like to help us to cover this loss.

Youth Prayer Retreat in the USA

Beulah Beach Retreat Center, Vermillion, Ohio, Friday 3^rd – Sunday 5^th April 2009

As you may remember the end of this month sees Jon and Beccy off to America to take part in the Youth Prayer Retreat where they have been invited to be Leaders. The final programme is yet to be confirmed but the theme for the retreat is ‘repentance’.   Flights (for which the cost is going to be reimbursed) have been paid for and they leave on Tuesday, 31st March and fly back on Tuesday, 7^th April.

Specific Prayer Points

       For a mighty revival and a turning of the tide amongst young people!

       For “The Roar” and the event taking place at Ashburnham next weekend – for the final preparations, for the finances and for the right children to come;

       For the safe travel of all the participants;

       For the presence of the Lord throughout the whole weekend;

       For Jon and Beccy’s trip to the USA in April, that God will prepare us in every way and give us His message for the Youth Prayer Retreat;

       For the Lord’s confirmation and provision for Jon’s possible trip to Thailand and Cambodia in August. He is keen to go, if possible with a small group of young people but as the trip is self-funded, finance would be an issue for us;

       Jon has been invited to return to New York in September for the second international prayer initiative at the headquarters of the United Nations, if possible with a few young people. He is currently praying about this opportunity;

       For the global ‘Children in Prayer’ movement as a whole and for its funding (as mentioned previously). This is such a key prayer weapon for worldwide revival!

And last but not least…

Thank you so much for your support; we are more aware than ever how important prayer is. Without prayer, we could do nothing!

We are very grateful for all who pray for us regularly and who share our vision for the rising generation. May many, many of them find their purpose and destiny in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel and we all pray for you.

Jon and the rest of the TTT team

A fuller, illustrated version of this prayer letter is available on our website – www.turning-the-tide.com. Please do check it for latest news and resources.

For those of you who use Facebook, TTT has a Facebook group; just search Groups for ‘Turning the Tide’.

                                                                                                

‘What Goes Around Comes Around’

One day a little girl was sitting, watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair in contrast to her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, ‘Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?’

Her mother replied, ‘Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.’

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, ‘Mummy, how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?’

A summary of the last month

It’s been a really good month, with answered prayer and progress in lots of areas. Notably Beccy has joined the team part-time in the office; as a result the office has had a timely and very noticeable facelift! Why not call on us sometime and take a look?! You’d always be most welcome; just check one of us is in first!

Feedback from our supporters

We value the comments and suggestions from our readers and the following section has come about due to a suggestion from one of our supporters.  She explained that she would find it helpful if we included a list of prayer points in our updates. So …

Specific Prayer Points

• Praise God for all the progress and encouragements over the last month;
• For creativity and anointing for the two assemblies Beccy and Jon will be taking in our  newschool, Fairlight Primary (Wednesday, 11^th February, 12.55 and 2.05);
• For Beccy’s regular work in Aldrington Primary – especially leading ‘Singing Club’ every Monday lunchtime;
• For “The Roar” and the event taking place at Ashburnham next month – for all the planning and preparation, for the finances and for the right children to come;
• For Jon and Beccy’s trip to the USA in April, that God will prepare us in every way and give us His message for the Youth Prayer Retreat;
• For confirmation and provision for Jon’s possible trip to Thailand in August;
• For the global ‘Children in Prayer’ movement as a whole and for its funding (as mentioned in our last bulletin).

Feedback from Supporters

Continuing on the feedback theme, we would welcome your comments specifically on:

• The future of our monthly prayer meetings – we remain absolutely committed to prayer but if we met at a different time, for example in an evening, would you be able to come?
• These E-prayer bulletins – is there anything you feel we can do to improve them and make them more useful / readable? All comments will be welcomed.

 And finally… some updates:

Assemblies at our new school – Fairlight Primary!

Since our last E-prayer a very successful meeting has taken place with the headteacher and our first two assemblies in that school are booked for next week!

“The Roar”, new UK Prayer Movement – Event at Ashburnham, 6th to 8^th March

We are getting really excited about “The Roar”, especially as this event draws nearer. A good number of children and young people have signed up already or have expressed interest and we are aware we may fill the 50 spaces booked.

We are also aware of some individuals we think would benefit from this weekend that may not be able to afford it.  The prices have been set at £120 per adult and £60 for a child, which after the cost of Ashburnham is barely going to cover expenses.

Do you think you can help by sponsoring a place at the event, or by giving a gift towards our expenses? If so please let us know.

And last but not least…

Thank you so much for your support; we are more aware than ever how important our prayer partners and supporters are. We are very grateful for all who pray for us regularly and who share our vision for the rising generation.

May many, many of them find their purpose and destiny in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel.

Jon and the rest of the TTT team

A fuller, illustrated version of this prayer letter is available on our website – www.turning-the-tide.com. Please do check it for latest news and resources.

Also we are gradually getting into the habit of posting ‘Blogs’ on the website. So, check these out!

For those of you who use Facebook, TTT has a Facebook group; just search Groups for ‘Turning the Tide’.

New Years Resolutions……………

• I will give up chocolates totally. 100%. Completely. Honestly….
• I resolve to work with neglected children — my own.
• I will spend less than one hour a day on the Internet. This, of course, will be hard to estimate since I’m not a clock watcher.
• I will think of a password other than “password.”

A New Year’s DAY prayer for one and all……………

Dear Lord

So far this year I have done well,

I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that.

But in a few minutes, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on I’m probably going to need a lot more help. Amen

Hi Everyone!

We pray New Year blessings on you and all our supporters. Thank you for continuing to stand with us for a turning of the tide!

2008 ended well for us, with the Lord speaking as ever tenderly but also powerfully into our lives and ministry. He is our all and increasingly our highest priority is to hear His still, small voice and to obey it. That sounds so simple, doesn’t it?!

Following on from our last E-prayer bulletin, we continue to push forward on all the three contexts we explained – locally, nationally and internationally.

Locally we have been in prayer with our ministry partners, Jerome and Machelle, and the plan is to contact the school early in this term, hopefully this week. We would like to visit the headteacher to introduce ourselves and to offer our services.

Regarding the new national prayer network, Jon has another meeting of ‘The Roar’ planning group next week. In the meantime he is prayerfully inviting young people and others to come to the event in March.

Internationally Beccy and Jon are looking forward to the USA trip in April and we have a further specific prayer request:

Specific Prayer Request

Through the global Children in Prayer Task Force, Jon has been invited to work with the ‘Frontiers Mission’ organisation at their conference in Thailand in August 2009.

He has been asked to go possibly with a small team of young intercessors, to form part of an international team praying and ministering in that country. There may also be an option to visit Cambodia immediately afterwards with a similar mission.

Please join with us in prayer as we seek to discern if indeed this is the will of God for Jon and others, and as we ask for providence in terms of finance.

Additionally

Please would you also pray for the global ‘Children in Prayer movement’ as a whole who need a HUGE financial breakthrough worldwide? Obviously travel costs are an issue, with teams travelling internationally, often to or from third world countries. But what the Lord orders He pays for and much work is going into raising the necessary funds for this strategically vital ministry. So let’s join together in prayer with these people from across the nations.

Beccy

Please would you pray especially for Beccy at the start of another term in Aldrington Primary School, leading ‘Singing Club’ and worship assemblies. Also as she takes on new work in the second school (God-willing) and in the TTT office.

This week she has been suffering from a bug but we are hoping and believing that she is nearly better now.

Prophetic words

Over the last few days and of course at the start of another New Year, Jon has been reading some prophecies for 2009 passed to us by friends. By and large these have also been encouraging:

“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins.  If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17)

3^rd November 2008

Turning the Tide – The Vision

Many of you will have received a lengthy letter from us last month, as well as some other literature, setting out the renewed Vision of TTT as well as some changes within the ministry. For the benefit of those who did not and to emphasise the more important bits of the literature we sent, this month we thought it would be helpful to publish an excerpt of that publication that explains the TTT vision.

God wants us / me to be available to Him. He wants relationship, He wants first place in my life and He also wants to be allowed to be God! “His ways are not our ways” He says. And, I have learnt, I am called to be a pioneer!

In the current season this seems to necessitate not taking on regular commitments. By being freer I am available and I am being used by the Lord. This is (regrettably) quite alien to me but hugely liberating and enjoyable!

This new perspective is enabling and encouraging me to be more prayerful, about what I take on but also about how I live each day. I feel closer to Him (generally) and when I do do things, I am more able to do them in His power and strength. Even as I am writing this, I am hearing His voice more clearly.

God has spoken to me a lot about the Church over the last two years or so and the ‘new wine’ that He is pouring out. He has very definitely taken Beccy and me on a journey away from the established Church, at least for the time being. We are now also enjoying this and finding it releasing. We are so thankful to many friends who have been so supportive and understanding in this context. The Lord seems to have put many people strategically in our path!

As God has moved in this aspect of our personal lives, He has also been revealing more of His plans for our ministry and giving us direction.

Jon feels specifically called to Children in Prayer and there are openings in this area both nationally and internationally. The conference he attended in India in July confirmed a lot of the things the Lord seems to have been saying.

So what, or even more importantly who, are we called to?

• Children and teenagers, so precious to the Lord – we always have been and, we sense and hope, always will be called to minister to the youth!
• We are called primarily to the unchurched young generation, i.e. to those children and youth who are not connected to a church. As we know, in the UK these represent the vast majority. The basis of our ministry will be established locally, amongst individuals, groups and families as well as through those projects the Lord leads us to.
• We believe we are to reach out with the Gospel and to start by teaching them about prayer. Not just that but we are to teach them to pray and to worship. We believe that their conversion will come in this way, out of their new and growing relationship with the Lord.
• We believe the Lord will help us to be Church to the young people we reach out to. We will not seek to establish Church fellowships but to facilitate and encourage friendships and relational groupings who will meet, talk, pray, worship and generally ‘do life’ together.
• We have learnt that God is raising up an ‘end-time generation’ and changing the world through the prayers of His young people worldwide, often outside and even in spite of the mainstream Church! We believe He wants us to establish many ‘Houses of Prayer’ here in the UK, outside of the established Church, amongst these young people. He will show us how He wants us to network, both with other ministries (at a peer level) and with other children and youth who pray (sheep level).
• The Lord has given us the Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14 and Matthew 22) as a model of how we are to organise future regional or national children’s prayer events.
• In all of this to be pioneers, carriers of the ‘new wine’.

This is my vision for the ongoing work of Turning the Tide; we believe this is His blueprint for seeing the tide turn, amongst the youth especially and for REVIVAL!!

The Lord will use our gifts, our willingness, our contacts and everything we have (and will offer) to this end. The ‘turning’ will be achieved in His way through relationship with Him and prayer.

‘Jon (and Beccy)’s Journey’

Beccy and I attended what felt like a very significant conference last week, during half-term. It encouraged us in our personal lives as well as in terms of the Vision of TTT which we have shared by letter and above. We have seen some significant things happening this week, with God impacting our lives and our schedules! Yesterday for example, the Lord led Jon to invite a friend to help him with an assembly he had booked and then both of them to go out on the streets to evangelise! They realised that God had been saying the same thing to both of them – “be available to Me!”

In the week before half-term, Beccy and Jon were both involved in the whole school mission at Cardinal Newman Catholic School. They led six workshops, with different age groups, under the title of ‘Diving In’. The young people were affirmed that God loves them and has always loved them, challenged about their relationship with Jesus and encouraged to go deeper with Him. It was a wonderfully encouraging experience for Beccy and Jon, to see many children responding and wanting to go deeper, and some wanting TO DIVE into a deep relationship with God their Father.

The Lord continues to move in us and we believe to lead us to greater things in Him. Jon is now feeling inspired to get going with regular blogs on both the website and the Facebook group, which hopefully will be insightful and inspiring. So watch out for these in the very near future!

Comments and Suggestions

Your feedback is extremely important to us.  If you have a compliment, suggestion or concern about TTT, please let us know; we’d love to hear from you.

And last but not least…

Please don’t forget our next Prayer Morning; it’s planned for next Wednesday, (12^th November), from 10 a.m. until noon. The venue has now been changed to our offices at Room 1a, Enterprise House, 83a Western Road, Hove BN3 1JB. You are most welcome to join us for some or all of this time.

Please would you pray anyway, even if you can’t join us?

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your support; we are more aware than ever how important our prayer partners and supporters are. Without the prayer, we could do nothing!

We are very grateful for all who pray for us regularly and who share our vision for the rising generation. May many, many of them find their purpose and destiny in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel.

Jon and the rest of the TTT team

A fuller, illustrated version of this prayer letter is available on our website – www.turning-the-tide.com. Please do check it for latest news and resources.

For those of you who use Facebook, TTT has a Facebook group; just search Groups for ‘Turning the Tide’.