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Newsletter
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Priority1 Ministries
Reaching the World for Jesus Christ is Priority 1 | |
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Dear Friends,
Followers of Christ are called to walk by faith, not by sight. Scripture defines faith as the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). Why did first-century Christians continue their allegiance to Christ when swift and fierce persecution, including unspeakable tortures or even death, were almost inevitable? How could they stare in the face of such fierce difficulties with such a godly stature? What was their secret? FAITH. We don't face death or torture in the US yet, but we still live and walk by faith. Faith keeps us looking forward.
Blessings,
Steve Westberry
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| International Outreach |
| Summer Youth teams
by Bethany Glidden |
A dedicated, enthusiastic Alberta team!
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This year's theme was flexibility! We lost a team leader, a couple speakers, and yet God provided others to take their places. A first for this year, we held training camp in the Bronx and had a great time. We loved the availability of children in the Bronx, and we loved the cross cultural atmosphere of city life. We learned that in the future, if we hold training camp there again (which we'd like to do), we'll have to plan our time a little differently to accommodate going back and forth between living spaces and Fellowship Chapel, the local Brethren In Christ church, where most of the training took place.
The Alberta Team 2010 was made up of 4 people, one of whom was Holly Mayfield, a team leader from last year's team. She stayed in Alberta to continue serving. This very versatile team conducted 2 five-day Bible Clubs among the Cree Indian children. The first week, they did a Bible Club on the Sunchild Reserve (home of the missionaries). The team was excited to have 50 children attend and were praising the Lord when 7 children accepted Christ. They also had 4 sleepovers with the children during the Bible Club week. During the second week, the team was joined by a Korean-Canadian YWAM team and together they held a Bible Club with the children on the Big Horn reserve, about an hour and a half away. There were 15 children who attended and 4 accepted Christ. The team was really impressed by the interest in the gospel shown by the First Nation children and by the follow up questions they would ask after each lesson. Each team member expressed that they were deeply touched as they built relationships with the First Nation Children and experienced first hand the many challenges the missionaries (Roger and Karen Rinker of Arctic Outreach) face as they work with this people group. On the other hand, they all cited lack of sleep being the hardest part of the trip. They all were pretty healthy (a few colds) and a major answer to prayer: nobody caught headlice!
Up next: we are beginning to make contact with missionaries for next summer in hopes of getting trip destinations confirmed by September or October. Greg will be setting up a booth at Uprise Fest and, with the assistance of one of the Alberta team who joined Priority 1 from the Fest last year, will be looking to recruit for next summer. |
| Urban Outreach |
| NYC Outreach
by Erin Wolf |
2010 Summer Urban Leadership Team
 | This summer we were blessed, again, with two excellent interns: Daniel Kim from Vancouver, BC, and Michelle Shenk from Chambersburg BIC. The two of them were great to work with and it was amazing to watch God work in and through them. Daniel is a gifted Korean-Canadian young man who led us in worship each week for group devotions and assisted the church groups with Bible club songs. Michelle was a great help with making sure teams are prepared and ready for each day. Both interns are deeply committed to the Lord, were great Bible story teachers (for clubs), and worked well with the youth groups, exhibiting godly leadership.
Urban Outreach teams came from Antrim BIC; Community of Faith BIC in Roanoke, VA; Fairview Ave. BIC; Henderson Community Church of Henderson, NC; Silverdale BIC; St. Paul's United Methodist; and Westside Christian Community, a BIC church in Ohio. All these teams were a tremendous blessing both to us and to the people of NYC. And they all expressed how their own hearts were deeply touched by all the areas of ministry in which they served, but especially as they worked and built relationships with the children of NYC! Team members shared how they were surprised to realize how many of these children had no knowledge of Who Jesus is and how quickly these children responded when they were told about Christ's love for them expressed through His sacrifice on the Cross!
During these summer weeks the Urban Teams were busy doing children's Bible clubs throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. One of the clubs we did in the Bronx was at the playground across the street from our apartment building. The people in our building and neighborhood were thrilled that we were doing a Bible club for their children. The youth leader of the team holding that Bible club said that everyday it seemed like when the invitation was given everybody stood up to go with a team member for counseling. That week 14 children came to know the Lord and 4 were counseled for assurance of their salvation! We saw God do amazing things this summer in all of the Bible clubs. We praise the Lord that more than 220 children attended the Bible clubs! Some might feel discouraged because that number is down slightly from last year (about 250), but of those 220 children there were 63 children who made first-time decisions to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior! Another 13 were counseled for assurance of their salvation! We know there has been rejoicing in heaven throughout this summer as these young ones have overwhelmingly responded to the gospel message!
Other types of responses varied but all were extremely positive! One little boy who had already accepted Christ approached a team member during the counseling time because he wanted to learn how to pray. Another week during a Bible club at a playground in Queens three Muslim children attended one of the days and stayed for the whole club. This was unusual because when the parents of Muslim children find out what we are doing they make their children leave. These children not only stayed the whole time, but their parents were watching them the whole time. One of the girls who is from a Muslim home accepted Christ, which is amazing, but she now needs all of us to pray that she will continue to grow in her walk with Jesus and that through her testimony and example her parents will also come to know the Truth about Jesus Christ and accept His gift of salvation!
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| STEP Training |
| BIC STEP team |
STEP Team Debrief in NYC
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In May the 2009/2010 STEP team returned to NYC for a time of Debrief. It was exciting to hear all the Lord had done in and through them as they served in Honduras. Team members shared how the Lord had grown and challenged them over the past 5-1/2 months and how He gave them a greater vision of His future plans for them. We are now preparing for the 2010/2011 STEP team training. This year's team consists of 5 young adults, 4 female and 1 male. Pray for us as we schedule mentors and ministry sites. Pray, too, that the Lord will prepare the hearts of this new team to be open for all the Lord has planned that will challenge and stretch them in the months ahead.
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| Support-raising |
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Serving (Volleyball) for Missions
 | Priority 1 is hosting the second Volleyball Tournament of 2010 on Friday (evening) and Saturday, October 22-23. This is a fund-raising event which will benefit every area of Priority 1 Urban and International outreaches.
The first Volleyball Tournament in April involved only teams from the "B" and "BB" divisions (1 "A" team played with the BB teams) because we discovered, too late, that there was a big tournament for "A" teams being held the same weekend. In spite of this conflict in schedule Priority 1 "netted" approximately $1,100! We haven't heard about any other tournaments that will conflict so we anticipate a much greater turnout. Teams from the first tournament expressed a desire to participate in any other tournaments sponsored by Priority 1 because they said that they appreciated the way we ran our tournament and asked to be kept on our mailing list.
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| Prayer Requests |
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Prayer is the work!
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- Pray the Lord will bring more youth and adults to get involved with international mission outreaches.
- Pray that as a staff we will all be able to raise the support we still need.
- Pray for the financial needs of the ministry (we just heard we will not be receiving the matching funds from the "walk-a-thon" we were planning for, the backers withdrew their support , not a big enough advertisement for them). Pray the Lord will bring in funds to cover the deficit created by this loss of funding.
- Pray that the Lord will provide a larger space for urban ministry in NYC.
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Priority 1 Ministries Staff: Steve & BonnieWestberry
Greg & Bethany Glidden
Erin Wolf Priority1 Ministries
717-264-7767 |
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