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’.