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’.

3^rd February 2009                                                                                                

‘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’.

The Roar

UK Prayer

Movement

www.the-roar.org

 It’s true, when Father God wanted a job doing, he’d often choose a child.

Moses. Samuel. David. Esther. Josiah. Mary.

These are the obvious ones.

What about the not so famous?

There’s that girl who allowed herself to be sacrificed. Judges 11.

The young spy who saved Christianity. Acts 23.

We are not even told their names.

A handful of us are sensing it’s time to call together praying children (whose names ARE known by their Father) to kick start a new prayer movement in the UK.

‘The Roar’ is going to be heard on the 6th-8th of March ’09, at the Prayer Centre in the Ashburnham conference centre in East Sussex,

from supper on Friday evening to afternoon tea on Sunday.

We won’t be booking any fancy names.

No children’s entertainers.

There won’t be a game console insight.

Of course King Jesus will be with us.

It will be an adventure.

So, if you are a young person, or have a heart of a child, and you believe prayer can change the bad to good, then this weekend could be for you, or for children you know.

Please e-mail back to receive more info. and to be added to our mailing list.

Yours, The Roar team.

Chrissie Wilkinson                John O’Brien                     Jon Bebb

 CWilkinson@viva.org           obriens@talktalk.net        jon@turning-the-tide.com

In recent years, in different areas, Beccy and I have experienced a lot of our ministry being stripped away from us – ouch! But in recent weeks we have been receiving encouragements from some of our ‘lost’ work.

On Christmas Day our adopted Chris came to our house with a Christmas card containing a lovely message – just the words we would have liked him to write! Then this month two young people that we have ministered to in the past have been in touch via Facebook.

One of these is a lad we knew many years ago and who Beccy ‘bumped into’ in the park several years ago. The other day, on Facebook, he shared some of his experiences with our Chris and these include both jail and the army where he served in Iraq.

Reading his messages has simply blown both Beccy and me away. Not just that he remembers us and speaks so positively about us. But that he represents the generation we are seeking to reach. His words contain both pain and hope….

In October I wrote to all our supporters and many friends, stating that I wanted to make myself more available to the Lord and that I believe He wants us to work with young people outside of the church walls. Now Beccy has joined Turning the Tide and together we want to be used by God to bring some of these precious young souls into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Thank you Lord for bringing Matt across our path. Lord, we place him back into Your hands but at the same time ask that You will use us to reach many like him, for your glory….

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)