3rd December 2008

 

 

 

 

At this Christmas time, as we celebrate God’s great love for the whole world in sending us His only Son, as a vulnerable baby, we are also mindful that Jesus’ destiny led Him to the cross. It also led to His glorious resurrection and through these awesome truths our eternal destiny has been wonderfully redeemed….

 Children of the Cross

God is raising up an army, made of those who are still young.

God is lifting up their voices, through the weak He’ll shame the strong.

It’s been prophesied they will prophesy, God’s salvation they will show;

For the promise is to the children, to our daughters, to our sons.

Children of the cross – a shining example,

Children of the cross – are singing His praise.

Children of the cross – are silencing the enemy,

Children of the cross – are saying the Lord saves.

 © 1997 Kingsway’s Thankyou Music – Words & music by Jim Bailey

 We have been singing this prophetic song with children for the last ten years or so; Beccy uses it regularly in Aldrington Primary School for example. More and more it seems to us that it is speaking about these vital days. We are witnessing and experiencing how God is doing just what it says.

Praise Him and read on!

 November – a month of three WONDERFUL encouragements

We have seen great answers to prayer in the last month and we have wonderfully exciting news to share in the local context, nationally and also internationally!

Locally

Jon and Beccy have been invited to partner more closely with a local Church minister and his wife, Jerome and Machelle Joseph, in a very exciting project. Jerome and Machelle have become dear friends and mentors to us and we are all very excited because we believe that the Lord has led us to this.

The work is planned to focus on young people in Brighton and Hove, to incorporate children in prayer amongst the unchurched and also to centre on a needy local primary school where Jerome and Machelle have connections. We envisage this becoming a focus for us week by week and Beccy extending her work (with the worship assemblies and the lunchtime club in Aldrington) to this new school.

Nationally

After over two years of vision forming and working towards it, two weeks ago there were some major breakthroughs towards establishing the new prayer movement we have been praying for, which would become a ‘Children’s Prayer Network’ for the UK Jon is working with John O’Brien (Sheffield) and Chrissie Wilkinson (Oxford) and together they are launching;

“The Roar”, UK Prayer Movement

We are now working on our first ‘gathering’ of “The Roar”; it’s planned for Friday 6th to Sunday, 8th March 2009. We have booked the prayer centre at Ashburnham and in faith we are planning for fifty folk to join us (youth, families and like-minded people).

More information and publicity to follow!

Internationally

Jon and Beccy have been invited to lead a ‘Youth Prayer Retreat’ in Ohio, USA next April, through a contact Jon has made through the Children in Prayer consultations.

Here are some more details:

Dates:              April 3 – 5, 2009

Location:        Beulah Beach Retreat Center, Vermillion, Ohio 

“This will be our 5th year for the retreat.  The past two years we have been running around 210 – 240 youth (6th – 12th grade, 12 -18 years old).  God has been meeting us in awesome ways each year.  Two years ago Atnne Peik from South Africa was with us.  He gave the youth a big picture of what God is doing through the prayers of youth.  They left with the excitement that they were not in this alone.  Last year Brad Jursak from Fresh Wind Ministry in Canada led the youth in knowing that they can hear God’s voice.  They left with such a joy knowing that God will answer them when the call.  They were also reassured of His great love for them.

“This year (2009) I have been sensing that the Lord has been speaking the word repentance to me.  I believe this next gathering the Lord wants to lead the youth into genuine repentance for themselves and for their generation etc.  When we were together in India I felt confident that the Lord was directing me your way.  I have continued to pray and still sense strongly to ask if you are available.

“‘Turning the Tide’ is exactly what we are ready for!”

 Our other news

Carl

We are still in touch with Carl and he sends his greetings as well as good reports: he and his family are all well, he is enjoying his new job and they all love their new, larger flat. Thank you for all your prayers, many of which have been answered!

Mel

Mel continues to be a great asset to Jon in the office. She too is thankful for the provision of their flat, which also came through prayer and is bigger and better than where they were living before.

Mel’s main prayer need now is that they are currently looking at schools for Curtis who is nearly four. Please pray for the Lord’s guidance for them in this. Thank you!

Jon and Beccy

We are enjoying the beginning of this new phase for us and we have just returned from an absolutely wonderful week away celebrating our silver wedding anniversary.

This, together with some IT problems at the office, is the reason for the slight delay in sending out this month’s update!

 Finance

We continue to be moved and encouraged by the kindness and generosity of our supporters – thank you! As the ministry grows, our financial need also increases and at the moment finance for our work is sourced from donations only. Would you prayerfully consider donating a small amount to our ministry each month or make a one off donation?  Cheques should be made payable to ‘Turning the Tide’ and remember, if you are a taxpayer then we are able to claim the tax element under the ‘Gift Aid Scheme’.

And last but not least…

Please remember our next TTT Prayer Morning; it’s planned for next Wednesday, (10th December), 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 and may we take this opportunity to wish you and a very Happy Christmas and a richly Blessed New Year.

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’.