spendyourself.org

I don’t always understand why things happen the way they do and why God has allowed me to go through what I have been through these last 2 months. I might never fully get it this side of eternal glory…  I do want to share with you dear friends some of the things I am starting to understand…

Sometimes God has us on our backs for a reason.  For those of you who haven’t heard,  I was infected with MRSA on my nose at the beginning of August and we have been battling this life threatening and extremely painful infection ever since.  After nearly two months of struggle, 4 emergency room visits, 8 different antibiotics, a PIC line going to my heart, being admitted to the hospital twice and lots of pain it seems that God has seen it fit to bring me through this season of suffering.  My infectious disease doctor believed I needed to have a final surgery to remove a remaining lump in the tissue of my nose. She believed it still had the MRSA infection in it and that the antibiotics didn’t seem to heal it fully.  I waited two weeks and saw an ear nose and throat specialist yesterday and he said the lump was nearly gone and seems to be healing.  He saw no need now to cut it out. I am very thankful that I won’t be getting a Micahel Jackscon nose anytime soon, and despite some slight scarring from the infection, my wife still likes to look at me (or she is just really good at keeping her wedding vows….you know,  the part about in sickness and in health) I am still feeling tired and dealing with some of the side affects of the numerous and intense drugs I was on but I feel good in Spirit and excited about the next steps of this journey.  It has been a hard two months and we have felt many attacks.  I broke up a fight right before I got sick and few days later our Mini-van was vandalized.  All the oil had been purposely drained from it and when we drove it the whole engine seized within a minute and we had to get a new one put in. A nice 3 week long ordeal…  last month my beautiful two year old daughter Trinity did a not-so-cute thing and pulled my laptop off my desk and broke it.  (it still kinda works)  Fortunately for us,  we have insurance all three of these expensive disasters, but the co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance payments have hit us really hard financially.  I don’t write of these hardships to complain but rather to rejoice… Yes, somewhere in the depths of this sinful self-centered soul of mine, God has brought great joy and deeper levels of faith and repentance in my life through this suffering and these experiences…  if you want to keep reading I’ll explain some of things God has been teaching me through this whole thing.  I know once I get going I tend to write a lot so if you don’t want to read some of my journal entries and thoughts that is fine, though I pray that you would and be encouraged and drawn closer to Jesus through what he has taught me.  If you are not so inclined please do skip down to the end and at least read about the ministry and what is happening and how you can pray/help.

A Lamentation of Joy.

The great Scottish Pastor Robert Murray McCheyne of the 1800s spent a chunk of his thriving ministry on his back deathly sick. He ended up going to be with the LORD at age 29.  He writes about how God saw it fit to grow his ministry in Dundee Scotland while he was out of the picture. All he could do was pray and connect with God.   During that time, God grew his ministry more than when he was preaching…  I have felt that way these last two months.  Despite me being out of the picture great things have happened in Newark that I couldn’t even imagine.  The community is changing and the people are growing together in faith. People are stepping up and leading unlike I have ever seen before. It is an awesome thing to witness and I praise God for this.

I have also begun a new season of seeking to be more intimate with the Lord than ever before.  It is interesting how a person can do “church work” and be far from the heart of God.  I see that tendency in myself.  So quickly I focus on the ministry of God instead of just “being” with Him and seeking Him for the sake of seeking Him.  I have to confess, these last few years have been dry ones for my own personal study, prayer life, and personal time with God. I’ll study and pray like my job depended on it, since it does, but just enough so I can do my work and feel successful and appear holy to the people that look up to me. I have taken seminary classes, preached over 100 sermons, led Bible studies and shared the Gospel with my community, yet fallen short in the most important area of deep personal devotion with my God and deep personal prayer for others.  I struggle so much within the business of this ministry to take the time to be with my First Love and really sit at His feet, learn His ways and rejoice in His promises.  I have gotten so self absorbed and focused on “ministry,” so enamored and confident in myself and my ability to minister the Gospel, that I have barely prayed the way I should for my flock.  The last few years, my personal devotions have become a habitual fast food dining experience.  Instead of sitting down daily to the feast that God has laid out before me in His Word, and taking my time to read and meditate on it,  I go through the drive-through and eat while I am on the move…  It may make me feel full and give me some spiritual nutrients to get through the day, but in the end in leaves me spiritually lazy, a bit indigested, and not nearly equipped to handle life in a way that will honor God and bring joy to my neighbor.  It’s kind of like that movie “Super Size me.” The guy making the documentary on fast food eats only McDonald’s for along period of time and nearly dies.  Putting ministry before my own spiritual health has cost me these last few years I am afraid…  I find my heart so quickly getting bitter and judgmental …  I find my joy fluctuating based on circumstance and I tend to overwork in order to compensate.   Instead of slowing down and focusing on what really matters, I tend to speed up and take on more than I can handle to try and justify the way I am feeling and counteract the bitterness of ministry with more activity.

During my leisure time and Sabbath, I have formed very unhealthy habits of going to media and entertainment to find my rest and relaxation instead of Christ…  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think movies or TV are bad (I do enjoy Hulu), but when that is where I find myself naturally going to try and rest, there is a problem.  I really saw this the first week of being sick.  My heart got so bitter and as I lay there in bed away from my ministry (eventually in the hospital), I didn’t even want to read the Word, pray or even talk to people about God.  All I did was watch movies, sleep, and complain.  My heart became so hard and I can’t believe some of the doubts and thoughts that went through my brain.  I wanted to give up, just walk away from everything and not care anymore.

After being admitted  to the hospital and finding out I had a potentially life threatening infection my heart became a little bit stirred.  My grandfather came to visit me and brought with him the grace-filled message of the Gospel that he so consistently bears. He reminded me of the Good News in his tender yet firm way.  He also called my heart to repentance and would not let his grandson make excuses for anything.  How I needed that correction, that realigning of my heart, that complaining, self-absorbed spirit silenced by a grandfather’s tender and firm hand.

As my wife and kids came to see me I couldn’t help but cry.  I looked at my son and realized how badly I wanted him to know Jesus and how badly I wanted to see him grow up.  I realized lots of things. I wanted to be a better father. I had been such a bad example to him.  How often he saw his daddy come home from a hard day of work and crash into the arms of his lap-top, putting on his headphones and shutting himself away from his family.  Instead of seeing a father excited and filled with the Spirit of God, he was witnessing a burnt out pastor addicted to movies. That’s not the dad I want to be… That is not the dad I am going to be by God’s grace.

My body needed this physical sickness to help heal the spiritual disease of my heart, and God knew that.  I didn’t understand why He would shut me down right at the end of such an awesome summer of ministry.  Why would God lay me aside and allow such a random disease to afflict me and stop me in my tracks?…. Doesn’t He need me to save the world?…. or at least Newark?…  Doesn’t He owe me good health and a happy life for all the ways I serve Him day in and day out?…  No…. he doesn’t….   He wants my heart to love Him and know Him.  He doesn’t want my works…. he doesn’t want anything but me…  God wants me completely…. He wants me to be in His presence, to delight in Him above all else; to find eternal joy in Him and the love that He has for me as displayed in Christ’s sacrifice.  He is willing to do anything to bring me to him, even die in my place and take on my eternal infection of sin that would otherwise lead to my eternal death and ruin. The Cross has shown me this love, it has shown US this love. “By His wounds” we are indeed healed.   Yes, He loves me, and he has used MRSA to teach my doubting heart afresh of such love.  I am so excited about this new season and the great feast for my soul I am finding in God’s Word.  In God’s Word I am seeing and tasting that their is indeed a never ending spring of water that quenches my thirst; and I must drink from it daily.  McCheyne’s life spoke to me again as He write this in His journal:

“Somewhat overcome,. Let me see. There is a creeping defect here.  Humble purpose like reading of the WORD omitted. What plant can be unwatered and not wither.”

So true… How can I go so long without allowing the roots of my heart  to drink in the Water of the Word.  No wonder the weeds of this present world get in and begin to choke out my joy?  How can I have joy in the promises of God if I forget them so quickly? I am so naturally prone to not immerse myself in the ever powerful Word of God.  His Word alone has the power to trigger the hopeless  sinner’s  memory to authentically “forget not all His benefits,” to rejoice in the “mercies that are new every morning,” and that in view of such mercy to truly become a “living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God.” It is so easy for me to watch a two hour movie and entertain myself with such stories, yet so hard for me to meditate on the story of redemption for half that time and find my life satisfied there alone.

Why is it so hard to sit and be still before the Lord and allow his Word to speak to me?  I think the enemy of our souls would seek to truly undo me by cutting off my letters from home…  he will do anything he can to keep my heart from longing for home and the love found in the arms of the Father.  The best way he can do that is by keeping me out of the Word.  If he can get me to skim my bible like I did my college textbooks, just to get enough info to pass the next test, then he has succeed in keeping my heart from hearing from the Father…  The humble purpose like reading of the WORD is indeed our lifeline…  I am committing afresh to drink from such a fountain and I encourage all who are reading and have a walk with God to do the same.  Dr. Tim Keller encouraged me to stop reading God’s Word as an instruction manual that tells me what to do and how to live, but rather read it as a love story that points me to Jesus, the one who really lived and in whom all things have their being.  The more I fall in love with God’s story of redemption and the hero of the story, the more my heart will be inclined to join my Maker in becoming a part of this redemption story as it unfolds through time.

Not being in the Word makes me forget the story and paves a highway for selfish sin to travel quickly to my heart.  A heart overgrown and flourishing with the WORD of God leaves no path for sin to travel to the inner man and corrupt him.

In terms of prayer, God has used me more on my back in bed than on the field.  What great times of prayer he has given me these last few weeks. Prayer with my wife, and deep personal prayer times I have rarely known.  I felt his presence and enjoyed crying out to Him for my community and our world.  I want to see the discipline of prayer for others increase in my life.  God has used this sickness to help me learn to take my eyes off myself and focus on Him and the needs of others…

I know this has been long and probably repetitive, but this is where my heart is and what God has used this sickness to accomplish. I praise Him for this and hope that my struggle would encourage you to “Seek First the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

What’s next?

Sabbatical…..  yes this is true.  Our board and various other leaders in my life have decided to send us on a 6 week sabbatical to write, rest, reconnect as a family and seek fresh vision and direction from the LORD.  We will be in Virginia for two weeks with Kimberly’s father and then go up to Cape Cod Massachusetts for the remaining month.  Kimberly’s extended family lives there and has been gracious to let us stay in one of their cottages on the beach during this off season when people don’t usually rent.  I will be focusing a lot on reading, study,  and writing a book about incarnational ministry that I have been working on here and there but have not had a chance to focus on and finish.  I also brought my musical gear and will have time to write and record some songs, another thing that really helps me connect to my Creator.  My phone will be off till November 14th, but I will be checking email, and facebook every few days or so.  I will not answer ministry related stuff unless it is urgent.  Please direct any ministry related things to Pastor Walter Howard.  His cell is 973-932-7098  and his email is poppahoward@gmail.com.  It is hard for me to leave at this time, but after 6 years of ministry and a tired out spirit that has dealt with this sickness, I am accepting this assignment with joy and looking forward to what God will harvest from our lives through this.

The Report

God has raised up my staff and people from the community to lead the charge in reaching our community for His glory.  Things have grown and as we enter into the Fall we are looking at some amazing things happening.

Here is our Main Fall program and details of what it is all about.  I also attached a sheet that details all of Trinity/Safe Haven’s ministries and volunteer opportunities.  If you are in the area and want to be a part of that, please do contact the appropriate person and come and serve.

S.H.A.C. (Safe Haven After Class) - Our afterschool program for K-5th graders.  60 kids come together each day from 3:00-6:00 for a healthy snack, tutoring, homework help, spiritual instruction/development, social development, music, art, computer and dance lessons.  The program also employs 15  teens from the community to work with the kids as junior counselors.  This is a job development program changing kids lives.  Teens that otherwise might be hustling drugs and running the streets now become positive forces in society who are learning how to work and are also developing a relationship with God.  We are very excited about what God is doing. Asa Jackson is our new program director and is doing an awesome job leading this program. This is unlike anything else we have seen in Newark.  We have partnered with Against All Odds Foundation to provide excellent tutoring with qualified teachers who work with kids on a 1 on 5 ratio to help them catch up in reading and math.  AAO is hiring as well and if you have a college degree and want to tutor at-risk kids they will train you and pay $50/hour to tutor kids from our community.  Pretty sweet deal.

Here is a list of our Safe Haven staff team. Please pray for them as they reach our community. Please pray for lots of protection while I am gone and can’t lead things.  It is hard to leave but I am confident this is what God wants at this time of my life and I am also confident in my team and what God is doing in them and through them.

Asa Jackson – Program Director of Safe Haven After Class (S.H.A.C)/Guy’s bible study leader.

Josh Halinen – Program Coordinator of Safe Haven After Class (S.H.A.C)

Kortlyn Shoemaker – Art director and teen girl’s Bible study leader and Sunday School teacher

Jonathan Rudd – Youth Center Director and Studio Engineer, Bible study leader, Music ministry

Jamie Waters – Intern and Group Leader for Safe Haven After Class (S.H.A.C). He will also be working on our website and sponsorship pages.

Nelda Cerynik – Executive administrative assistant

Kathy Pedro – S.H.A.C administrator

Please also pray for the 15 youth staff working for us this year.  Our website should have profiles of them up soon.

Here is Our Trinity Staff Team (Paid and Volunteer). Please pray for them as well.

Pastor Walter Howard – Senior Pastor, Adult Ministry.

Keisha Williams – Secretary

Michael  Mitchel – Custodian

Adam Culp – Worship leader

Jerry and Valerie DeVos – Men and Women Ministries

Suzanne Lyon – Prayer Ministry

Willie Cheatham – Feeding ministry

Niki Hernez and Lilly Brown – Food Pantry

Needs

As you can imagine and as always we have huge needs.  God seems to keep providing and I praise God for all of the supporters (you) that he has raised up to pray and give toward the redemption of Newark.  Thank you so much for all you have done to support us thus far.   To our monthly supporters who have stayed with us during this hard financial season, thank you for your faithful giving.  Those that had to leave our support team, we understand and thank you for everything you have given into this ministry. We know you all are praying and we see the fruit of your support in everything that is happening.  May God continue to bless you greatly as you bless the poor here in Newark.

Our biggest need right now is funding for our after school program.

It costs close to $7,000 a month to operate SHAC and it has been really hard to raise funds these days. God is growing our ministry and outreach. We are reaching more kids and people than ever before but are also facing some big struggles.   Here is an easy way people can help.

$1 a day.  I am praying for God to raise up 100 people from this email to sacrifice a coke or a candy bar or any junk food and give a buck to help our kids and teens have a healthy snack each day and 2 healthy dinners each week.  Most of our kids eat junk all day and besides what they get at school don’t receive healthy balanced meals.  We are trying to change that.  Kids with healthy diets focus better, miss less days of school and will live longer to serve God and their community.

Please pray about going to our website and setting up a monthly recurring donation of $30/month. You will help make Newark kids healthier and you might get healthier too.  When you crave that junk food, think and pray for our kids here in Newark…  I am doing this myself and it has been hard detoxing myself from all the junk food I am used to eating, but has been so good for my soul and body.  I don’t know why I have paid people for so long to make things that are so unhealthy for all of us and why I have not worked on this more in my own life.  Sacrificing in my junk food budget not only has helped me become healthier and strengthened my immune system, it has also freed up money to give to help others.  If you don’t feel called to serve Safe Haven in this way with the money you save on junk food, please consider sponsoring a child through World Vision or Compassion International.  Our Safe Haven kids do this as well and sponsor a kid in Togo Africa and numerous orphans in Haiti.  It is so cool to see them learn to sacrifice for the sake of others.

As always,  it does my heart well to write to you.  I hope this email encourages you to live radically for the God who loves you radically.  I am encouraged and strengthened by your prayers and look forward to hearing from you (after sabbatical).  May God bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you and give you His peace.

Ministry Site.  www.newarksafehaven.com

Family Website.  fromscarlet.com

As I walked around the table talking to kids during summer camp I was amazed at the feeling of family I felt. There was so much joy in the room, such unity and order.  Our kids are changing for the better.  I am witnessing the amazing fruit of the Gospel seeds that have been planted in their hearts. What a joy, what a privilege to be a part of redeeming a city by reaching this next generation.    I asked Zakaylah how camp was going and she told me how much she loved it and then said something that both breaks my heart and also reaffirms this ministry. She said, “I love Asa (our assistant camp director) he’s my dad.”  She didn’t say, “he is like my dad”, or “he reminds me of my dad”, she said: “He is my dad.”  About 5 other kids piped in at this point and agreed that Asa, who is only 22 by the way, was their dad as well.  I had to chuckle remembering all the times I heard that too and what a great feeling it is to be so dear to a kid’s heart; but my chuckling quickly turned to weeping as I thought about the tragedy of this.  Of the 60 kids or so enrolled in our summer camp we would be lucky if 10 of them could say they had their real dad involved in their lives.  Only 4 that I know of have a dad that is really being a dad, and working hard to support his family, love his wife and lead his kids to Christ.

I am overwhelmed by the cry of their hearts for their father and how unanswered that cry is.  Two 14 year old girls Kimberly has been ministering to just had babies… Why?…  what would compel them at such a young age to give themselves away to the countless young men (also fatherless) seeking to “be a man” and find love and pleasure?  The cry for the father resounds through the hearts of each of the kids, teenagers, and adults we work with, a cry that is louder than any other cry and is the root of so much of the disfunction, chaos and bad choices that these kids make.  Why do these young men run so quickly to gangs, desiring to affirm their manhood through violence, crime, pimping off girls, stomping on the weak and destroying community?  Why do the girls fall into prostitution so easily, so mindlessly, as if it were normal, and the only way life could work?…  I heard of one girl under the age of 15 getting pimped out to over 10 guys a night… why?… doesn’t that make you want to weep?… my heart is breaking…. I think of my daughters… I look at them as they sleep in my arms, praying for them, praying for God to protect them, to be their everything, to satisfy their deepest longings. I pray I will be the father I need to be…. the father that points them with my love to the LOVE of THE FATHER.

A Pastor’s Ponderings- An Addict’s Agony

My heart breaks all the more for this community that God has placed us in. This morning I feel renewed in mission, ready to answer this call that my selfish heart  so quickly desires to abandon.  I have to confess I had a hard week. My heart was full of bitterness. A homeless man I have been helping for the last 6 years called me every day, nearly every hour, cursing me to a pulp, leaving the most ruthless messages imaginable, cutting my heart with his words and threats.  I couldn’t understand why he would do that. I thought we were friends, I thought he was thankful…. But in his moments of backsliding he lashed out for someone to blame, he lashed out at his father who abandoned him.  His words were a cry for the Father, a bitter outpouring of emotions that daddy was never there to comfort, a behavior that daddy was never there to discipline, a brokenness that daddy was never their to mend. His words weren’t really toward me. I just happen to be the closest person in his life and one of the only people that wanted to help him.  In my heart I know this now, but last week I wanted to leave this place.

Last week my heart got bitter, resentful, self absorbed, and complacent.  I did not love this man as I should. Instead of loving him and pointing him towards Christ, I condemned him in my heart and wrote him off as a casualty of the war and a worthless investment of my time, talents and treasures.  In my arrogance I justified myself all week, with revenge in my heart and slander on my tongue toward him.  I boasted to others of all the ways in the past he had hurt me though I had helped him.  I tried my best to make myself out to be the trodden down hero who did as much as he could and deserves to retire and lick his wounds…  I continued to ignore him all week, never called him back, pretended like he didn’t exist and that it wasn’t my problem anymore to try and help him.  After all, I had already done so much for him and he is the one that dropped the ball and couldn’t control his temper and got kicked out of the place he was staying. It was his own fault he was homeless…  there was nothing more I could do and I didn’t want to be bothered with him anymore. I had ministry to do and a church to grow and funds to raise, and sermons to prepare and a few of my favorite TV shows to catch up on.

Saturday night I checked my voicemail and their were 5 messages from him.  I knew they were probably all the same, him complaining about being homeless again and asking me to help him, on his terms, to have a place to stay…(He refuses to go to any of the homeless shelters in our network.) “He needs tough love” I said self-righteously to myself as  I heartlessly erased all the messages without listening to them, not wanting to be told how bad I am at being a Christian and loving my neighbor.  I felt so tired of being cursed out after trying so hard for so long to love him and be patient with him and truly be his friend….  Something in the back of my mind told me to listen to the last message, and so I did.  I expected to hear screaming and cursing as usual, but instead I heard a calm voice.  He said “I have been thinking a lot about everything and I know you are right about a lot of things in terms of my failures. But the way you treated me this week just proved that you are no different than anyone else. You just care about your #$%^&*!@ self and no one else.  I never want to speak to you again.”   He wasn’t in worship this sunday. He hasn’t called me since.

I have some repenting to do to my brother. I don’t need to repent for not catering to his desires and enabling him to continue in the lifestyle he has chosen that is destroying him. No I do not need to repent for that.  That is the right approach when seeking to bring people out of their addictions, immaturity, and lack of responsibility.  I need to repent for not being a friend, for not loving him the way I would want to be loved if I was in his situation, had been through the things he had been through and was left on the street by everyone around me.  I have repenting to do for my self-absorption, my obsession with ministry success and the way his failures and backsliding has tainted that image I hope in far too much.  I have repenting to do for my laziness, and the way I justify it with all the “good things” I do.  I have to most of all repent for my unbelief in the Gospel and its power to change the most wretched of hearts, not meaning his, but my own.

My heart is crying out for THE FATHER too, just in different ways than my brother on the street.  I am seeing that I  need the same amount of love to the same extent as my addicted, uneducated, handicap friend on the street.  My heart is crying out just as much for THE FATHER.   I go to so many things other than him to justify my existence and so quickly  fall in love with things my Father gives me instead of HIM. So much of my religious behavior and moral integrity isn’t because I love Him so much more than others do, but because I want him to bless me.  Somehow in my twisted mind I think that the better I obey, the better it will be for me, and the more God will owe me blessing, success, my agendas, and my personal happiness in life. So I obey for me instead of for Him and because of Him.  What I think is obedience becomes my most selfish sin.  I am not obeying out of love for My Father and in response to what He has done for me in Christ, but rather, I obey out  of my own self-absorption covered in the shining shell of religion.  When I obey in this way my heart can not have compassion on those like my homeless friend who haven’t undergone the moral conditioning that I have been privileged to be raised in.  Instead I think myself better and more elite and worthy of the Kingdom of God and its benefits.  I can easily look down my nose at him and not give him the time of day.  I even can convince others that it is ok to treat people like dogs and promote elitism and even racism.  I have set a horrible example as a leader in this and I want to do better…

The Call

So why am I sharing this with you? Well, their are two reasons.

First, I pray that this will move your heart to cry out all the more to THE FATHER and hear his voice and respond to His love in your life through repentance and faith.  Secondly, I pray that this will move you out of yourself and more into a life that exists for others.  I just preached a sermon entitled “Spend Yourself” at a partnering church here in Newark that is seeking to reach its community.  I feel like such a hypocrite, for I am so far from what I preach, but that doesn’t make it any less true.  It is in spending ourselves that we announce to this world the Love of the Father for broken people and the sweet redemption that is found in Christ who “Spent Himself” on us.   As the Church steps up and becomes the Church through selflessly and radically serving the world we get to actualize the Gospel all the more.  My brother on the street preached to me all week. How? He was showing me my attitude toward God.  He was teaching my heart things I wouldn’t have ever known if I didn’t know him.  I am hoping to repent to my brother as soon as I see him, and ask his forgiveness for my pathetic friendship and for viewing him and using him as an object of ministry instead of a person, crying out for friendship.  I am looking forward to praying with him and seeking to guide him toward Jesus from a heart of humble love and concern instead of duty and self promotion.

I am also inviting you to join us in this mission of taking this city for the Glory of God and announcing the love of the Father to the countless orphans longing to meet Him.  There is much to be done, yet it doesn’t depend on us doing it, but rather on us being it.  I invite you to “be it” with our team here in newark through prayer and support, and maybe even coming here. We have short term mission trips, internships, and I welcome anyone who wants to move here and work and just live out their faith by being a neighbor.

We have 40 kids in summer camp still needing sponsors, a staff team committed to reaching this community in need of monthly supporters, and new needs of the poor are coming up every day.   Through our website and thanks to the many people God has brought us to help us use technology for Kingdom advances, no matter where you are you can connect and really become a part of this Kingdom Work.   One of my friends from Japan just sponsored a kid and can read her blog and keep up with her life all summer. He can know how to pray for her and watch videos of her rejoicing in the Love of The Father as she grows closer to Him and hears His assuring voice. It is amazing how connected we can be to those in need, not just in our community but around the world.  Our summer camp is raising money for an orphanage in Haiti that we are going to build as soon as God provides the funds.  Broken but redeemed people from Newark are going to fly to Haiti and build and orphanage that will house 50 street girls.  Who would have thought that 6 years ago. Our summer camp kids just reached $220 that they have raised our of their own pockets for the girls in Haiti.  They all just wrote letters to the orphans and are praying for them every day. I am so excited about what is happening, this is what we were made for: God’s glory and the joy of others.

My heart is indeed broken for the lack of earthly fathers, and the fathers like me that continue to fail, but my heart rejoices in the ministry of reconciliation- that we, as the family of God, can announce THE FATHER’S love to all and experience it all the more ourselves in the process…

Thank you for your prayers and support.

For the King and the Kingdom,

Danny Iverson

fromscarlet.com

Praises

-by the end of summer camp all 60 of our campers (grades K-5) will have memorized: ~all 66 books of the Bible, ~ the Lord’s Prayer, ~Pledge to the Bible, ~Over 30 Bible Verses, ~ All 10 Commandments, ~ the first 40 questions of the Westminster Catechism for Children, and ~countless Bible stories

-by the end of the summer, 15 teen/young adult staff from the community will have learned how to keep a job, act professionally and will have had the chance to learn about God’s love.

-Several teens (coming from more stable families) have come forth to VOLUNTEER to help.  They are hearing the Gospel preached every weekday of their summer, and are having a great time with the kids.

-10 Adults from our community have been provided with jobs through summer camp and other summer ministries of Safe Haven.  These jobs are essential to their livelihood and providing for their families.

-Teen counselors have sought guidance and prayer for their futures as a result of the studying of God’s commandments and wisdom from the Proverbs (taught on Wacky Wisdom Wednesdays).  They are taking to heart what the kids are learning.

-An outside volunteer has started a new believer’s Bible Study for five weeks out of the summer. Teens who never get out of Newark will be driven to the suburbs, welcomed into a Christian family’s home, and taught the basics of our faith.  I would love to see more of this happening.

-TWO Satellite Safe Havens have started up this summer. We are doing a VBS at the church we are partnering with. They had over 100 kids show up.  It is off the hook.

- We just launched spendyourself.org.  Its a social networking like site for urban ministries to connect  each other and others seeking to invest in redeeming the city…

-We also began a new ministry this summer called “The Nehemiah Project.”  It is basically a non-profit construction company seeking to employ and mentor young men while rebuilding community assets.  It also handles all the work projects teams do while here.  Pretty exciting.

Needs

Please pray for us, we are growing like crazy and God is doing awesome things but we have some huge needs right now we trusting God to meet.

-Summer camp Sponsors. We offer a highly reduced in priced summer camp to the kids of the community. All summer long, 6 hours a day 5 days a week.  We can do this only through scholarships through people who sponsor a kid.  It costs $250 to fully sponsor a kid for the summer.  We still have 36 kids in need of sponsors so to say the least we are hurting in paying our bills and our summer staff.  Please pray about sponsoring one of these precious children. We would hate to have to close the camp down early, these kids need this. You can watch a video about each of them and get to them through their blog they are doing during camp.  Click here to get started.

-Iverson monthly support –  Our support account has taken some hits and we are in need as a family for more monthly supporters to help us meet our family needs and allow Danny to continue to pour all his time into this ministry. If you would like to join team Iverson you can do so quite easily through our new website.  Just put “Iverson Support” in the notes or memo section for online donations and checks. Checks can be made payable to Safe Haven and mailed to 483 Ferry st.

-Nehemiah Project - Our summer missions program was expecting 145 people to come here for the summer to do outreach and work projects in various churches and around the community.  We had numerous teams cancel and many teams had youth drop out last minute. When all is said and done it looks like we are only going to have 75 or so here.  Attacks for sure from the enemy.  Not only did many of the community rebuilding projects planned for the summer suffer, but so much of our summer budget relies on what these teams raise. Our budget is basically 50% behind…  Fun stuff right.  Great chances to trust God for His provision.  I know we are in  hard times and I am not surprised this is happening…  but I also know that God is sovereign and we have made it through hard times before and the ministry moves forward.  If God is putting it in your heart to help meet this shortfall please act soon so we can make it through this summer.   Every little bit added together brings us through.  We have never had any big donors and grants and almost our entire operating budget is raised through individuals and churches giving what they can.  It somehow always adds up.  For those of you that have already stepped up to this challenge I thank you form the bottom of my heart for your sacrificial giving.  We are about halfway through the summer and have not had to lay anyone off.  Praise the LORD.

Dear Family and friends,

I write you once again with deep passion in my heart, praising God for you and the wonderful blessing you have been to us. God is doing a mighty work and we could not be here and be a part of it without your prayer and support. What a joy to serve a God who loves the poor and the broken, for that is what we are without Christ, and seeing ourselves as poor and broken is what allows us to accept a Kingdom such as the one that Jesus Christ preached and made visible to us. Last week I had the joy preaching in a suburban church that is one of our key partners here. I spoke on “The Vain Things that Charm Us.”  An exert from that sermon is attached so feel free to listen to it or go to our website and hear the whole thing. I am constantly being convicted in my own life as I look at the many vain, pointless, non-eternal things I go to to try and find my significance and justify my existence. I am really seeing that anything that effects my joy that isn’t God is an idol, a vain charmer that really doesn’t bring the eternal joy my heart of hearts desires. How quickly even this ministry can become such an idol, or my family, or my music.  How quickly my heart goes to things other than God to find its joy. i see in our culture how much materialistic things have become charmers that we run to. So much of our joy is wrapped up in how much stuff we have or can get.  In working with the poor my heart has been forced into a radical re-evaluation of even my family’s spending habits and how truly selfish they really are. I look at the early church and see why the gospel was so attractive, why it had so much power to change lives: it was radical and selfless. The people who claimed to follow Christ didn’t live in the same luxury as their peers.  Those who had means and a way of making money chose to live a simple life; they chose to reach out to the margins and didn’t view their wealth as a blessing from God for them but rather as a chance God was giving them to bless others and meet others needs to the same extent they were seeking to meet their own.  Their joy wasn’t in the material, no, their treasure was wrapped up in the promises of God made real through Christ.  They wanted to follow Christ into mission and wanted to live their lives truly for God’s glory and for others, and therefore they viewed any wealth not as an opportunity to accumulate more stuff, but as an opportunity to serve the poor and broken and reflect the true Good News that Jesus taught. It wasn’t a religion that they brought to their respective cultures but a radical faith in action that left everyone around them bewildered and stunned by their selfless love for even their enemies. The real selfless love of Christ being mirrored in their love for the poor is what showed people the real Jesus. It challenges me, and it needs to challenge the true church, those who claim to follow to Christ, to stop hoping and finding joy in the fake comfort and safety we think this decaying world can offer us, but rather to hope in the “new every morning” mercies, grace and love of our eternal Father in heaven who has brought us and bought us at a price and called us His own. May His invisible Kingdom of justice and mercy be made visible in real time through our lives as we desire to know Jesus more and respond to the message of hope held out in the Gospel. This good news for self-seeking, vain, materialistic, money hoarding, glory-hungry, drug addicted, prostituting, pharisitical, judging people like us is indeed amazing. The more amazing and valued this Good News is in our lives the less value the vain treasures of this world will be to us and the less we will be in bondage to them.  May this amazing grace be a sweet sweet sound to our ears and may our lives spring forth accordingly into action that bears that same Good News to our broken world.

Here are some reports of what the Good News is doing here in Newark . If you want to hear some thoughts and personal testimony and stories about the things God is teaching us through this whole adventure, please do read everything. I promise it is worth your time and it means a lot to me to know that the sufferings and hardships we face day in and day out are being used to strengthen the church not just in Newark but around the world.  So I pray that everything written in this email will flow steady straight to your heart and awaken in each of us a deeper passion to live selfless lives for the Glory of God and the joy and flourishing of the human race, that all nations may encounter the risen Christ in us as we reflect His selfless love poured out so freely to us on the cross.

The Report (I know it is long, but God is doing so much. Praise God for His work!)

New Staff – Safe Haven is happy to report that we have been led to hire a program director. Erik Midboe, a 23 year old all star who has been volunteering with us for the last year has felt led to join our team in a permanent way. He has really stepped up to the plate and is doing an awesome job loving kids while developing and growing our programs.

Youth trips – In January the high school Crossover (our teen program) went to Lake Champion (an awesome young life camp about 2 hours away)for the weekend. we took 25 of us total and it was an amazing time of growth, new commitments to Christ and super fun. It costs $100 per person and nearly every kid signed up that they needed a scholarship and by God’s grace and wonderful generosity from some of you, each kid was able to go. In March we took 35 middle school students and leaders. God provided in amazing ways for them to go as well.  (See below) Trips like these away from Newark are where most of our kids really meet the Lord for the first time and God seems to use these trips to set them on a new course. I can not tell you how crucial it is to get as many kids as possible on these trip.  Please pray about giving toward this cause. We are growing so fast and we need to start raising funds for summer camps for our kids here. God uses these trips to completely change these kids directions in life. He has already with so many!!!!  You can give at this link online or send checks made payable to Safe Haven to 483 Ferry street, Newark Jj 07105. Put Youth Trips in the memo.

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser- We had our first community based fundraiser to send our middle school students on their Lake Champion retreat.  Each kid who needed a scholarship had to sell tickets to the spaghetti dinner in an attempt to raise the needed money.  As the kids participated in this they learned honesty, initiative taking, organization, and service and ultimately trusting God to provide the needed money.  We were very impressed at their ability to sell tickets to their neighbors, friends, and family and then being faithful to turn in the money and return unsold tickets.  Then each child was a “server” for each of the tables for this reasonably priced, but candlelit dinner.  They were selfless and focused in the roles we gave them.  One youth kept telling me “Thank you so much for letting me be a server, I’ve never done something like this”  (this was after he asked me about 40 times what questions he was suppose to ask his table -meat sauce?plain sauce? do you need more drink?)  We had 100 kids and adults attend the dinner (90 % from our immediate neighborhood), and had raffles for certain items.  Many people gave more than they could afford towards these kids.  We were able to raise almost $900 through this strictly community run event.  This is the kind of progress we want to see.  Our neighborhood committing to our kids, and seeking a different future for them, not just always relying on an outside source to give free handouts.

The Youth center is in full swing. Since opening the youth center last november, we have tripled the number of kids and teens coming to see what is happening at Safe Haven. Our base just got a whole lot bigger. I get to meet a new kid every day it seems. Pretty amazing but that also means we are way understaffed to meet the need.  we could easily hire two more full time staff and have plenty for them to do. (once God provides the funds we need)  Praise God we have some great volunteers really stepping up (we need more though) We are beginning some very specific programs that you can pray for. A weekly dance class,  drum class, guitar class, and video editing class.  All Lord willing will be taught by our very own teenagers under the supervision of myself and other volunteers. We are also starting a solid homework help program using our teens as the aids to teach the younger kids. This will provide jobs for the teens and help for the kids. We still ned to raise funds for this so pray for that.  Read more below about the S.H.A.C. Program.

Spring break trips – We had over 60 high school and college students visit for their spring break, 4 different groups came through for the month of March. Teams from Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, and here in New Jersey. What an amazing time it was. God really used them to impact the community in a powerful way. Whole housing projects got cleaned, the schools got tutors for the week to help with reading, nursing homes had volunteers, repair work was done in the school across the street and in the community, over a hundred kids and teens got to hear the gospel and form relationships with these students. It was awesome. Please pray as we continue to develop this program.

Futureman – We have just started a program called “Futureman” for mentoring young men. It is going extremely well and growing each week. Most of these young men have no father figure in their lives. Our goal is to see the good news break that generational curse and give them hope of becoming a different type of man then their dads and the men they see around them. We are praying that this group will draw more and more of these young men away from the gangs and into the Kingdom.

We have Vans – two vans have been donated. those of you that donated toward our fun, your gifts were used to fix up and insure the vans properly. We still need to raise a few thousand more to insure for this whole year. what a blessing!  We asked for a van and got two. One 14 passenger and one 8 passenger.

More Plans……

The SHAC Program Safe Haven After Class – This program begins in two weeks. We are hand picking 20 kids (2nd-5th grade)  out of our pool of over 100 and inviting them into an intense develop program every day of the week after school (3:00-6:00 pm)  This is a pilot program that we are doing for 10 weeks until school gets out. If it succeeds like we think it will we will grow it more in the fall and begin plans for opening another one in another community here in in Newark. This Program will utilize our computer lab, recording studio, music rooms and develop our kids on each of our four levels-creative, mental, social, and spiritual. We are doing  fundraising campaign specifically for this program as listed below.

Bidder Sweets Fundraiser - Silent Auction and Dessert… Saturday, May 3rd, 7:30 PM. PLEAE GO TO THIS WEBSITE AND HELP US!  We need to raise $15,000 to make the SHAC program a reality and this is the fundraiser we are doing.  Anything you can donate that is worth auctioning off (Tickets, time share, gift cards etc….) or any funds. Most of you on this list can’t physically be there so buying tickets wouldn’t help but any other way would be much appreciated. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SITE WE MADE FOR THIS EVENT.

Summer Internships within the next week I hope to have the full details of this opportunity. The basic breakdown – we need 2 -3 more college students to commit to interning here over the summer. Dates are flexible but we want you here for at least the 6 weeks of our summer day camp (June 30-August 8th)  Each Intern needs to raise 250 for each week they are here. (at least $1500) This covers living expenses, and a weekly stipend. This is a missionary position in every sense of the word. there will be an intense reading list, discipleship, and outreach to our broken community. It will be a stretching and sanctifying experience but will be life changing.  Only the adventurous should apply… those who have been here during the summer know what I am talking about.

Safe Haven Summer Camp – June 30th-August 8th (9-3pm Monday-Friday) We have hired a Camp Director for the Summer named Donna Mateyka who will be leading a 6 week long program for 50 kids from the community. Our goal is for our kids to have a safe summer where they can grow in all of our four levels, creative, mental, social and spiritual. This camp will not only reach our children but also employ teenagers from the community, empower volunteers from the community, and also provide a structured environment for the youth group teams coming this summer to engage in outreach and community development (If you want to bring a college or high school group here on a mission trip we still have room for more teams.)

Ok, That was a long report. makes me tired just writing it… But isn’t God faithful. We love seeing what He is doing and being a part of it and we love that so many of you on this list are sharing in the joy of reaching and restoring this community.  We hope this encourages each of you and draws you closer to Jesus.

Below are some family pictures, the recent sermon I mentioned earlier and links to our web stuff. Check out the cool video a college student named Kaitlyn made of her spring break trip here.  we love you all and hope to hear from you.

Dear Family and friends,

My heart is heavy right now as I write this. Its 3:19 am and I can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about the 100 plus young men 2 blocks away gathered for the Crips (Main Gang in our area) initiation. Last night a highschool junior who lives in those projects and has come into the family of Jesus here at Safe Haven came to my door begging to spend the night.  “At least two people are going to be getting killed tonight” he said, “and I don’t want to be one of them.”  He is one of the few young men from those projects (Dubbed Cript head quarters here in Newark) who has not fallen into the gang and has no desire to be.  Below on this email you can read more stories about our encounters with gangs here and the war we are waging to get these kids before the gangs get them. You will also be able to understand the title of this email…. Doesn’t that just entice you to read on and find out…. I am so tricky…

For now here is a Bullet point version of praises and some pressing needs our ministry is facing. Please take the time to read and pray for us and do what you feel led to do.

Praise – God is doing a mighty work! more kids than ever are showing up to church.  We had over 60 kids and youth come to worship sunday. In the past it has been hard to get consistent sunday worship attendance. Things are changing and these last few months have been consistently growing. Some of their parents are coming too. 3 parents gave/recommitted their lives to Christ this past sunday.  God is good. Also, more and more teens showing for youth group on Friday.  Every Friday we have a ministry for teens called “Cross Over – Reverse the Curse.”  The First Friday of the month we have a huge outreach (Bands, rappers, games, and food) and then each other Friday of the month we go on trips to other youth groups in the area. We have 4 college age/ young adult volunteer leaders who show up each week with me to help drive kids and hang with them. It has been awesome to see God work.

Need - WE NEED A VAN. it is time for a van.  Lord help us get a van… 15 passengers are Illegal in Nj for transporting kids. We need a 12 passenger van ASAP.  If God opens up any door for you to help with this please do help us.  Donate online or mail, just designate it “Van fund.”  We are praying to be able to get a van by next month… Join us in this campaign by praying and giving as you can.

Praise – Our Ministry received 3 years worth of 1-6 grade sunday school material donated from Great Commission Publications. (www.gcp.org) Curriculum is expensive and we didn’t know how we were going to afford it for all the kids.  God knew. He provided and we are blown away. It is great stuff too. I encourage each person reading this to send an email to

dan.boulton@gcp.org and thank them for blessing this ministry.

Need – As we start Sunday school up we need prayer. It is going to explode this year, I feel it.  So many kids. Pray for more volunteers. As more and more kids come we are going to need more adult volunteers to teach them God’s word. Pray for willing hearts to love and serve these kids and “jump them into the Kingdom gang.”

Praise - As many of you know we have been raising support for the last year.  We haven’t been able to receive any financial compensation from Safe Haven till this past august when our approved a stipend of half of what my salary will be as soon as we raise it.  It is a blessing to have some consistent income and we praise God for all of you who have given of your resources to empower us to lead this battle here. We have health insurance, a roof over our heads and a car and so much more. The Lord has truly blessed us with lots of little girl clothes for Trinity, they are cute and she is cute in them.  Thank you for your support.

BIG NEED – we are only at 75% of what we need to meet ends meet, especially since our family is growing. We need consistent monthly supporters… Health insurance is the big killer here… so expensive. Now I see why almost everyone in our community is on medicaid… WOULD YOU PLEASE PRAY ABOUT BECOMING A MONTHLY CONTRIBUTOR TOWARD OUR SUPPORT ACCOUNT. $100, $50, $25, $10… a month…. whatever you are led to give.  it all adds up. It is really easy to do too. Go to

our online donation page and sign up securely for monthly automatic recurring donations. Put Iverson in the memo box.  Please pray about that. Every little bit counts.  God continues to provide for our needs but the less time we spend raising support for our family needs the more time we are able to spend meeting the many needs of the community.  If you want to send support by mail, our address is below. Make checks payable to Safe Haven and indicate that you want to be a monthly supporter.

Praise - 20 computers donated for computer lab! Yes God is amazing. we got 20 used Dells (Only 3 years old) donated from Delbarton School here in NJ. Our computer lab is more than supplied for. On top of that we have had 3 churches donate money for 3 brand new Macs for all the music recording, video editing and design stuff we are teaching.  Pretty amazing. I’ll send pictures next time.

Praise – Guitar center is giving us all our musical needs at cost. That rocks!

Praise - We just started a gospel choir for 5th grade though adults.… I have ben praying for 3 years for this. God brought us a choir director and at our first practice 2 weeks ago we had over 30 show up. This past week we had 45! I am so excited about singing in it and seeing the way it will reach this community.

Praise – God brought us food. Our food pantry ministry to the poor has been running dry due to extreme increased need. It seems that through the wonderful efforts of the mayor to crack down on violence and the drug trade in Newark, many families that relied on the dealings of their now incarcerated head of households are short financial resources and in need of food.  Suburban Churches from our denomintion and others have stepped up and in less than 5 days our shelves are now overflowing.  It is going fast but coming in just as fast.  God is good.

Need – There are so many needs in the inner cities of our country, yet there are so few churches being planted there and so few people who want to live there and/or attend church there.  From the inside perspective I want to encourage you to get involved in an inner city/mercy ministry driven church near you.  Even if you just drive in and attend they will be encouraged and you will be too. If you tithe, tithe to them. A few people with good jobs who tithe make a huge difference.  Our monthly tithes don’t even pay our utilities…. . This last weeks tithes were only $138, but nearly everyone gave….Even the kids… And God multiplies. Empowering city center ministries has a huge Kingdom affect and helps us get out of our comfort zones.

Praise – Cool article about Safe Haven

Click here

Ok here are some more thoughts on the gang stuff going on and what we are doing to reach them.  I encourage you to take the time to read this as it will really broaden the perspective of inner city life and what these kids go through.

The Crips are the main gang in this area responsible for the killings, drug distribution and every other crime you can imagine. They begin recruiting young boys as young as the age of 10 now and the way you become a member is by getting “jumped in.” (Usually when you are a teen) Your gang banging buddies basically beat you to a bloody pulp and then you are in. After that comes initiation which is one of the ceremonies going on tonight.  new members are given a final test to show their loyalty to their gang family…. They need to spill blood. Usually this right of passage involves some random person or enemy of the gang getting shot, stabbed or seriously injured.  Sometimes they are told they must kill x amount of people before moving up in the ranks… It is crazy.  One of the things that is so interesting is that so many teens who are crips that I have become really good friends with (I ball with them frequently) don’t even want to be in the gang but are terrified to get out. Last Fall we had a key player coming to a our young Men’s Bible study. He came to Christ and started to experience the conviction and see the light and He wanted out. He knew that it might cost him his life. Exiting Gangs is harder then getting in.  He has managed to get out and thanks to God’s grace and some good connections he is playing football for a college in upstate NY now.  I am really so proud of the many young men in our ministry who are taking a stand and not following the road so many of their peers and childhood buddies have followed.  Girls aren’t exempt. They have their little gangs too and are nearly as violent as the guys. Their gangs are focused a lot on sex and manipulation… so many of them enter into some form of prostitution before they are 15… Sad but true.

I find it also interesting that there must be blood to enter into the gang covenant relationship and the similarity there is to our covenant with God.  In order for us to be apart of the Kingdom gang, blood had to be spilled for us to enter.  But oh how different it is in the sense that the gang leader himself was the one who shed His own blood to make it possible for us to be a part of the greatest gang in history. An eternal gang that has a specific purpose to be used by God to heal the world instead of destroying it and spreading the disease of sin.  It makes my heart ache for these young guys who are so desperately trying to justify their existence, trying so deserately to satisfy that deep heart need for acceptance into some kind of  family… a deep need for some kind of affirmation and love.  One huge player on the scene here, we’ll call him “K” has such a desire to get out. I met him last year at the high school alternative program and he showed me a recent bullet hole through his leg.  We have had times where we have talked and as I looked this tough no joke gangster in the eyes he looked like he was about to cry. Sometimes I don’t know what to say and so just say “lets pray” and put my hand on his shoulder. Amazing, he always embraces it and even though he is too tough to say thank you, I know it means the world to him. Our conversations usually end with me saying “you can get out” and Him saying.” I can’t….”  he has told me he wants to, he just feels so trapped.

So what do we do…. Lock them all up….? Force them to all be together in one location where all their enemies are forced to be as well. Jail is the worst thing for these young men.  They need father figures, they need love.  I can’t think of one out of the 40 plus young men in our ministry who have their actual birth father in their lives. not one…. how sad is that.  Who are the men who are teaching this next generation how to be men? 50 cent, Soljur boy, other rappers, older gang members…. They are doing a great job showing them what it means to be a man (according to their standard.)  How is the Church in the U.S. doing? We are failing. I think we have forgotten what our gang leader did to save us, and instead of being willing to do the same to help bring others to the Father, we relax in the comfort of our religion.  If a Crip member had the complacency of most Christians, they would probably get “taken out.”  Being in a gang means action, you don’t sit still.  God has really been showing me that, especially in my prayer life.  Last week He really brought me to conviction about how little I pray specifically for these 100 plus kids and teens that he has brought into our ministry here, I am seeing that the way I “jump them in” is by praying.  I am asking you to do the same. Please pray for each precious soul that God allows us to encounter and share His amazing love with. There is so much to tell and I already have written far more then intended… If you want to read more about what is happening you can go to our

website.

We love you all and praise the living God that has blessed us with so many friends and such a wonderful supportive family. We couldn’t be doing what we are doing without you, God is using you to build His Kingdom here in Newark through us and we pray that you feel as blessed as we are to participate in showing the amazing healing grace of our Savior to this broken world.

For the King and the Kingdom,

The Newark Iverson Clan

483 Ferry street

Newark, NJ 07105

Danny’s Cell: 862-215-2940

Kimberly’ cell: 862-452-8688

Daniel Josiah’s Cell: 1-800-terrible-twos

Trinity’s cell: 1-800-change-my-diaper

Family Website:

www.fromscarlet.com

First we want to say thank you for the wonderful support and prayer during the hard summer of war for the Kingdom!  God is so faithful and never leaves His children alone and powerless. We feel so encouraged by all the prayer support, financial support and the many who have come stood beside us and helped us fight the battle we have been called too. By God’s grace we have seen a summer of extreme victory that makes the war wounds well worth it. God worked great things in us and through us this summer and we just want to share with you the awesome things God did so that you can praise Him for His faithfulness and know how He has answered prayers.

1. We have seen his promises from His word come alive in a powerful way. Many people sent us passages and prayers to encourage us. One of the women on our board sent us Isaiah 41 to encourage us and it came at the right time, right when we felt that we couldn’t go on. The whole chapter is so powerful, read it if you get the chance. Here are a few of the verses that stood out and spoke to us. 10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. 13 For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God.And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you. 17 “When the poor and needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them.”        God didn’t abandon us, and through the struggles He poured out His grace in amazing ways in our lives and into this community.

2. Summer Program: God really came through. Even though we were short workers our volunteers stepped up and made it happen. we had over 20 volunteers from our community and the suburbs help out with the programs. What a relief to see God bring in reinforcements. The mission teams that came for the rest of the summer picked up the pace as well and finished strong. Our youth group volunteers led the whole mission trip and Kimberly and I had a week to rest and get better and really just focus on the Lord and our family and pray for the ministry. God moved in a mighty way. Two teens from Newark, Vernard and Anthony were baptized on the trip and 2 more made solid professions of faith. They came back alive and eager to share the gospel in this community and be agents of change for Newark.

3.Over 100 kids from the community were impacted for life through Safe Haven’s VBS Program “Tommy’s Time Machine”. It was so amazing to see the gospel seeds planted in their hearts. What a joy! I wouldn’t trade that for the whole world. There really is no greater privilege than to be used for God’s Kingdom! His power is shown in our weakness and in the midst of the struggle He did more than we ever could have done on our own strength. What an awesome and faithful God we serve.

4. Over 130 teens came from across America this summer to impact Newark and Newark ended up impacting them far deeper.  We saw such amazing growth in the teens that came who did such an awesome job serving this community through physical labour and the various outreaches and summer programs. One teen, Stephen, from Indiana actually came back for another week on his own to serve in any way He could. God really used Him and did some neat stuff in his life in the process. The Holy Spirit really planted in each person a deeper desire for serving the poor selflessly from the heart in the way that Jesus served us.

5. Safe Haven youth center is done, computer lab funds almost raised! Our youth center looks great. I ‘ll send pictures in our next email. God has done miracles in bringing this to completion. Also it looks like we will be able to start operating the computer lab this fall. 3 churches that came here on mission trips have already agreed to each raise funds for one of the eight computers. Another church from nearby who supports Safe Haven, had their VBS Program raise the funds for a fourth, so we are half way there. Praise God! (Side note- If anyone wants to make a special gift to help us complete this computer lab you can do it online by clicking here, or send check to Safe Haven @ 483 ferry street, newark nj 07105.make sure to write computer lab in the memo)

6. Kimberly and new baby are doing great. As I write this she is 2 centimeters dilated and having minor contractions. Any day now a new Iverson will enter the world. We are so excited to meet this new gift to our family and can’t wait to see if it is a boy or girl. We love the surprise. My mother is coming from Japan next tuesday to help in any way for ten days, that will wonderful. Kimberly is so full of joy and ready for round two!!!!!

7. Daniel Josiah’s Chest X-rays came back negative for the TB Infection. That means he was only exposed which is common and now he is on meds for 9 months and then there should be no problems. Praise God and thank you all for the prayers. He is as healthy and as active as ever and never ceases to bring great to joy to us and everyone in this community. Everyone loves him and he seems to have a gift for breaking down the hardest walls and making the meanest gangster smile. We love Him so much.

8. God has really raised up support for Tasha Dent, the mother of 5 who was in great need.  When I sent out an email a few months agao asking everyone I knew to help I had no idea how amazing the response would be.  All her material needs have been met each week by God’s grace through the church of Jesus Christ across this country. Her husband Jamar, Lord willing, will be released in two weeks and we still have enough support that has been given to help them get back on their feet while He looks for work.  He really met Jesus  in a real way while in jail and is excited about coming back and supporting His family and seeking the Lord. Attached below is a thank you letter from Tasha to all who helped her pull through. The family of God is amazing. God really multiplied each dollar given and supplied all their needs. Their family never went hungry and they are all caught up on their rent.  Praise Him for that. Continue to pray for God to provide for them on their road to recovery.

9. My beautiful bride and I got to take a 24 hour get away. A family from a supporting church let us use their camper and they watched Daniel Josiah for us so we could have a retreat before this baby comes. What a blessing to get out into God’s Beautiful creation and reflect on his mercy and faithfulness. We got to read, go on hikes, cook out on the fire, talk, pray, sing, cuddle and just be together. It was very much needed and refreshed our spirits and bodies. We are so thankful for all the many supporters who have been so faithful in showing us the love of God. We love you all and praise God for you each day.  We couldn’t have made it through this summer without you!

May Jesus our Savior continue to make His rich mercy abundantly clear to you as you seek the face of God each day. Remember, our responsibility is availability to Jesus Christ. To be who we are in terms of who He is, 24 hours a day, one day at a time.

Forget not the promises of serving the living God. My each of us take up our crosses all the more each day and joyfully serve our Lord  who was willing to give Himself to redeem us.

In moments when your life comes really close to ending God seems to pull things afresh into perspective and gives you a deeper sense of His glory and purpose for your life. Last week there was a shooting in the nearby projects and a bullet missed my head by 2 feet.  It was a close one and Kimberly and I are praising God that our kids still have a father. Here’s the whole story. Last week I was going into the nearby projects to pray with  someone from our church and I was standing in front of our van when a fight broke out about thirty feet away on the corner.  All of the sudden I looked up and one of the guys had pulled out a handgun and began shooting.  His target was running right towards me and bullets were flying.  Fortunately (Not for my van) the gangster firing missed his target and my head. I took a nice pic of the bullet hole, kind of a reminder of God’s faithfulness. Man, it is good to be alive. Man, we need God’s grace in this place. Stuff like this happens all the time in our community and it has to stop.  The anger, violence, and disregard for human life is crazy and reveals how much our fallen world need a Savior. Since the accident many supporters of our ministry have been asking if we are going to leave… We have asked that questions to ourselves and God seems to be giving us a definite answer. How could we? There is already so little light in this dark corner of our country, and there is already so few who are here fighting this war for the hearts, souls, and minds of these inner city kids who grow up seeing this evil first hand. How can we leave?  When we came here and felt the call we knew it would be hard and we had to be willing to give our lives in every sense of the word so that the hearts of these people may be changed by God’s grace. That calling has been confirmed all the more through this adventure and Kimberly and I see that God has His hand even in this and we feel more protected than ever since we are  in the center of His will.  We also feel that the enemy of our souls really does not want us here and is doing everything He can to try and discourage us.  God has been using Safe Haven in mighty ways to bring kids and teens to Himself and there is definitely a war going on.  I feel we are right on the edge of a huge break through and that this ministry has all the potential to explode and be used by God to redirect the course of hundreds, thousands, of urban kid’s lives.  This email isn’t just a praise report, but a call to each of you to join with us in this battle by praying for us.  Oh, how we need your prayers.  The war rages all around us and we need strength. We are reminded that the Lord is a Shield about us and our Glory, the Lifter of our head. He is sovereign and in control and it is such a joy for us to participate in this part of building His Kingdom.

This past weekend 16 guys, our Urban warrior group (pic Below) went to Battlecry and saw God do some powerful things. On the way home, one of the guys I disciple who has been highly recruited by the gangs said “If I hadn’t met you I would either be dead or in jail. I thank you for that.”  We continued to talk about life, and His faith and the many struggles he faces in trying to live for Christ in the project he lives in.  He opened up, I got to see really deep into his heart and got to see the work the Holy Spirit was doing in Him.  I realized that I would dodge a thousand more bullets in the name of Christ just for that experience. My heart rejoices at the work the Lord is doing and the countless other stories of redemption happening in the midst of this spiritual wasteland that the church as a whole has abandoned.  What a glorious Kingdom we labour for and what a blessing it is to be able to participate in planting Gospel seeds in the hearts of these precious kids.

A Call for help!

One of the girls that Kimberly has invested in is named Kanniyah. She is a precious second grader who is growing so much in her faith and really excelling in school too.  It has been awesome to see her grow and her whole family (minus the dad) join our church this past Easter. They have been coming faithfully for 2 years now and Mrs. Dent has brought all those kids all on her own with only a stroller. This family is experiencing some serious hardships and testing right now and we want to try and help them as much as we can.  There are five kids in the home, 4 of them under the age of 4. (She just had another baby a few months ago)  Her husband got sent to jail last month and she has just been dropped from welfare. They have nothing and no one to turn to besides the body of Christ. As you know, Trinity our church is a mission church and extremely poor. We are doing everything we can to help her but we fall short in meeting many of the financial needs she is facing such as paying her rent.  We want to show her that the body of Christ is there for her and we are asking if you would pray about giving towards our deacon’s fund to help The Dent family during this difficult time.  Please do pray about it. Even if everyone on this email list just gave $20 we would be able to pay her rent for the next two months while we try and find other ways she can generate an income.  I am working on trying to get her a job and she has found someone who will babysit so she can work. It is very tough in this area to find work so please pray for that as well.  If you would like to help please send a check to 483 Ferry Street, Newark NJ 07105 made payable to Trinity Reformed Church (write “The Dent Family” in the memo) If you would like to write a note or a Bible verse to encourage them that would be great as well.  Mrs. Dent is really trusting the Lord and we are amazed at the faith she has even despite her hard circumstances.  She is trying so hard and as our sister we feel strongly that it is the job of the body Christ to help bring her up and meet the many physical needs of her family. It is our job, as the church, even more so than the stupid godless man-made welfare system. We are asking you to rise to this challenge with us and help in any way you can through your prayers and giving.

May God Bless each of you as you seek His face daily,

For the King and the Kingdom

January – March Prayer Letter

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters of Safe Haven,

We thank each of you for your support in the important work that God is doing here in Newark, NJ. Your

prayers, financial gifts, and emotional support are keeping this ministry alive. And ALIVE it is. Much has been

happening as we fight the war for youth’s hearts. Here is an update on what has been happening in the past few

months.

~January- Danny and other youth volunteers took 10 guys to a Young Life retreat.  A powerful time of sharing occurred

in which each of these young teenagers opened up and shared heart wounds they had experienced and ways in which

only Jesus could heal them.  Eight out of the ten guys do not have their father in their life. To have “street guys” open up

in this way shows a powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

~February – “Warriors Retreat”, in which Danny took twenty guys paintballing with a follow-up extensive study on being

a warrior for God, for one’s family, and one’s community. They also did work around the church in order to clean up,

and further the progress on the youth center. As a result of the training, a few of the guys have joined the city’s

Community Council to help be a voice of change for their neighborhood.

~March-We held a break-dance seminar for the local high school’s, Twilight Program, a program in which students who

cannot attend regular school due to behavioral issues go to class in the afternoons.  Danny has been volunteering and

providing counseling for the students once a week for the program and the professional break-dancer has committed to

holding more lessons and seminars for the teens once the youth center is opened.

– “Rock the Church” happened! A large stage, lights, a fog machine, a professional break-dancer and rapper,

and several bands…The Lord mightily blessed it with 150 youth showing up from the community, and surrounding

church youth groups.  The gospel was boldly proclaimed to many who do not know the good news of Jesus Christ, and

the evening closed out with an extended time of worship.

-We had 36 college students from Virginia and Michigan come for their spring break to help with the ministry

here. During the mornings they went into the local elementary and high schools to do a week of “Catch-me-up” tutoring

for youth behind in their reading.  GREAT connections were made, not only with the youth, but with parents, teachers,

and principals. In the afternoons, we ran Kids Club for nearly 30 elementary students. Each day the kids learned stories

about Jesus and we closed the week with a Resurrection Party. Also, at the end of the week we had our first Crossover,

a monthly youth meeting where over 40 neighborhood teenagers come to have fellowship, play games, and do Bible

Study.

Please join us in praising the Lord for:

~The twenty guys that are faithfully showing up for men’s group, church, youth events, and community service events.

Some of them have to catch a bus and come all the way across town, but they are showing up, growing in their walks

with the Lord, developing deep friendships amongst themselves and youth leaders, and are desiring to see change in

their communities and families.

~The many things that have been donated towards the ministry and our family: sound panels for the recording studio

(worth $600), the stage for Rock the Church (worth $450),  groceries to feed the many young men that eat at our home

(worth A LOT),  volunteer labor on the youth center (worth $2,000), a two day getaway to a lake house for a very

exhausted urban missionary family (i.e. us) (worth-priceless)

~Recently, while visiting a church family who has not been able to attend church lately due to a very sick grandmother,

we spotted pictures, signs, and journal entries about the 10 commandments on their walls.  The mother, who Kimberly

has been working with, then told us that every Sunday that they miss Sunday School the kids work on their own “at

home” Sunday school lesson. We praise the Lord that the things these children are learning at church have been

brought into the home and are now being taught in this home.  Two years ago, the mother claimed, she would have not

wanted anything to do with church or God.

~The two young men who are living in our home are showing growth in the Lord that is starting to affect their work ethic,

desire for education, and their relationships with the opposite sex.

Please join us in praying to the Lord for:

~Monthly Support: We are at about 30% of what we need to be able to live here and cover our living expenses and

health insurance.  God keeps on providing on a month to month basis in amazing ways so we are thankful, but we are

hoping and praying for a consistent monthly support team to be raised up so we can focus all our energy on reaching

these kids for Christ. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting us $25, $50, or $100 on a monthly basis. We

are praying to be at 100% in the next few months. Please join us in asking the Lord to meet this need. Automatic

recurring donations can be made on our website: www.newarksafehaven.com. Donations can also be mailed to 483

Ferry Street, Newark NJ 07105. Checks payable to Safe Haven.

~Special Easter festivities to come: Good Friday Jesus Film viewing, Scripture Easter Egg Hunt, Easter Service and

Feast, and a girls club to be held during the kid’s spring break.

~Grant Writing!! There are many tedious processes in grant writing and we need supernatural strength and stamina to

get through them.  Also, we need to find favor in the sight of the foundations giving the grants for we are one of

hundreds applying for them.

~The warrior young men who are growing in the Lord-that God will protect them and lead them in the way of

righteousness.

~Helpers and teachers for the Sunday Kids Club (i.e. Sunday School). Kimberly has been the only elementary Sunday

school teacher all year and needs help and someone to aid in the organization and growth of the ministry.

~The completion of the youth center and the official start of the program we are going to run there.

~Planning for the summer as we host youth teams and interns nearly every week to help run our summer kids program

and community outreach events.

~A continued healthy pregnancy for Kimberly and our little Iverbaby due to be born August 23rd.

Thank you for what you do to make this work possible.  If you have not already committed to praying for and giving

financially to Safe Haven, would you pray about doing so? Please visit our website for updated pictures, news, and how

you can help further the Kingdom of Christ in the lives of these children and youth.  www.newarksafehaven.com

For the King and the Kingdom,

Danny, Kimberly, Daniel Josiah, and Iverbaby Iverson