Earthquake/Tsunami Prayers & Relief......

Wish you knew how best to help regarding this week's earthquake & tsunami survivors? So would a lot of Christians here locally. One email received from the disaster area reminded Christians that secular donations often get channeled through governmental distribution in the affected areas.... and in this case are largely controlled via Muslim or Hindu led governments -- thus often fail to reach Christian minorities in those countries. So how do we ensure best use of our funds?


Christian Emergency Network (CEN) was established after September 11, 2001, by several Mission America Coalition partners (a coalition of 500 leaders and 80+ denominations) to respond effectively in a national crisis, giving the hope of Jesus Christ. CEN now has over 1,000 ministry and media partners.

Salvation Army is a significant partner with C.E.N., and is actively involved in emergency relief. See Salvation Army Online for up-to-date news & relief efforts & donation link re the current disaster.

Also see WorldRelief.org -- another 'statement-of-faith', evangelical organization who works with indigenous partners across the world to best distribute relief resources.

[Future reference: Visit http://whenyouneedsomeone.com/wyns2.htm .]

Sacramento Pastors Start Blog...

This note from our good friend in Sacramento, Joe Walsh (editor, Current Christian News):
"That time is precious! The Sacramento Pastors Roundtable (Blog) was created for that reason. It's a place to meet online, to leave your comments, prayer requests, etc., day or night. At your leisure."

"City Impact"...

"City Impact"... (IMHO) Perfect gift to your city for Christmas!

I just finished reading it -- couldn't put it down. By the time I was done, I became convinced that God's hand is at work using this book to wake some of us up to what the Bible has said all along about what the Church of Jesus Christ should look like.... community by community.

Personally, I believe that pastors/leaders who already have a passion to reach the lost and serve the least... will read this book and will immediately go into motion, finding others in their city to connect with in some very practical ways to reach their cities.

It will accelerate the city-reaching movement everywhere.

Maybe buy one for your favorite pastor in your favorite city.

Global Day of Prayer USA

Hey guys!

Lets get focused on prayer GLOBALLY. In case you didn’t know I am on the GDOP-USA Team. I am mostly building the US website right now. No super graphics here but great practical content on the nuts and bolt on how you, your church or region can be involved in what will be the largest global prayer season ever. Period!

With the National Day of Prayer taking place here in the US May 5th and followed by 10 day build up to Pentecost Sunday on the 15, coincidentally being the Global Day of Prayer!

There is all sorts of information to down load on the how to’s of big or small participation such as


Phase 1 (6 - 15 May 2005)
•
The Global Day of Prayer will be preceded by ten days of prayer following the example set by the first followers who "joined together constantly" in prayer (Acts 1:14).

During these ten days (between the ascension of Jesus and the descent of His Holy Spirit on Pentecost) believers will be organizing ways to pray together night and day beginning Friday 6 May through to the end of Pentecost Sunday, 15 May 2005.

Phase 2 (15 May 2005)
•
It is time now for God's people to gather again in persistent, united prayer. What better way to unite in prayer than to consecrate ourselves to see God for ten days, as Jesus' first followers did, culminating on the day of Pentecost?

Phase 3 (16 May 2005 - 30 September 2005)
• Following the Global Day of Prayer will be 90 days of community transformations and a compassionate Plan of Action.

That’s all for now except to give you the address for the website www.gdop-us.com. You can see it in a few days but I can give you a peek at http://www.americasprayerteam.com/GDOP-USA/Home.htm .

Bless you all,

Tom Walker
State Coordinator
Indiana National Day of prayer

Today's Mission America City-Reaching Call...

Just got off the national teleconference call originating in Minneapolis, by Mission America's City-Reaching team. [If you'd ever like to listen-in on that call, visit CityReaching.com and let them know. It's outstanding, each month with a different guest presenter on the call.]

This month's presenter(s) were Bob Bakke & Daniel Henderson... on the topic(s) of Global Day of Prayer.... and related... How mega-pastors can get involved and the difference they can make in a city-reaching movement of God.

It's exciting to hear of the global movement, especially this prayer movement originating from Africa. We're talking STADIUMS full of prayer. And not just a few -- but 2,000 venues involving 23,000,000 people.... and followed by "90 days of blessing" on those cities. That is, active outworkings of prayer, being salt & light in their communities in an obvious way concentrated into the following 90 days.

But where's the U.S.A. "Church"?

Dallas may hold the answer... and provide a model. It's exciting to hear some diverse mega-pastors names being mentioned who are apparently actively moving on this concept. Stay tuned.

Visit the Global Day of Prayer website for further information. And mark out May 15 (Pentecost Sunday). And stay tuned.

[Also stay tuned here for a link to CityReaching.com's audio-file of today's call, when available.]

Letter To My Friends ...com

Great story lead at OhioChristian.com -- a Cincinnati youth sent a letter to his 2,000 classmates about Jesus Christ....oh, and got suspended for it. He says, "It was worth it."

Mayor Peterson Says It's Time To Act...

Time to act on crime, he says (according to this Indianapolis Star article). Apparently the presiding Superior Court judge says it could cost up to $200 million dollars.

Cost of prayer? Priceless. (according to this "City Impact" book).

Rhonda Hughey... Dec.14th...

Rhonda Hughey, author, director... is the special guest speaker at the next Transform Indiana luncheon meeting... Dec.14th. This month it rotates to the International House of Prayer (IHOP). See important details online at the TI site.

Internet Evangelism Day... April 24, 2005...

Churches and Christians throughout the world will have the opportunity to celebrate the great opportunities the Internet offers for evangelism during the first-ever Internet Evangelism Day, to be held April 24, 2005... [click to continue]

Act now... Get it on your church's calendar... InternetEvangelismDay.org.

Notes from Transformation Gathering...

Hat-tip to Steve Freeman for compiling these great notes (& chart) from the Transformation Gathering when George Otis and Rhonda Hughey were here in Indiana.

New Capability for 'Blue Heelers'...

Thanks to the latest acceleration of internet communication -- the BLOG -- our Transform Indiana 'blue heelers' team is now able to all participate online together as a team, without special software... and (almost) without training. Thanks Lord!

So come back often, we'll hope to be collaboratively generating fresh content all the time, as the TI movement grows throughout the state. And of course, we're generating an RSS feed (aggregate THIS!), to facilitate syndication of transformational news coming out of Indiana... so our good friend, Rev. Phil Miglioratti will be able to keep up with it all, as he aggregates 'city reaching' reports from around the country for the National Pastors Prayer Network... and Mission America Coalition.

May God work extraordinarily among our cities as a result.

[Stay tuned to see who all will be the first among many here, to post Transformation updates. If you're interested in joining the Blue Heeler Blog-team... LOL... email me. Oh, and mark your calendar to be at the special Innovation Forum in Indianapolis on Monday, January 17th, for a blog luncheon training session. $25 goes to a great cause... accelerating the gospel in Indy.]

See you all on Dec.14th for the next TI luncheon... this time at the International House of Prayer, where our special guest speaker will be Rhonda Hughey. Important details at... you guessed it... TransformIndiana.com .