|
I am resisting the temptation to recap the momentous events of 2005 in this space; there is too much requiring your prayers and participation as we enter 2006. (Besides, you just received our annual update and appeal for support – please respond soon if you haven’t already.) We celebrate the fifth anniversary of PrayNorthstate on February 1 and take that opportunity to launch the Phase II of the Paah-ho-ammi project.
Phase I occurred during the last one hundred days of 2004. Launching from Simpson University, we deployed about one hundred and thirty members of many congregations to pray daily regarding crime, unemployment, traffic fatalities, and cancer admissions to the hospital. Prayer warriors joined one of three teams and prayed for the focus assigned to their team, and all prayed for a reduction in violent death in young people. The results were remarkable. Crime in the county areas patrolled by the sheriff went down by more than twenty per cent. Traffic fatalities and cancer admits were reduced by approximately the same percentage; although young people were dying at an average rate of two per month, there was only one youth death during the period. Unemployment went down by a small amount – but this was during a period when it spiked across the nation. There were residual effects. Building trades and tourism are breaking records in Redding and we believe your continuing prayer is a factor.
We have not yet compiled baseline stats for this year, but it looks like Redding is slowly becoming the City of Abundant Springs that was prophesied as her new identity in 2001. More importantly, a number of churches that showed little interest corporately in the project are ready to participate to a much greater degree in Phase II. We will again open the project with a worship service at Simpson on Wednesday, February 1, at 7:00 PM in Modular Classroom 82. Signs will be posted on campus for directions and we will close out the project with another service at Simpson on the evening of National Day of Prayer – Thursday, May 4. Watch this newsletter for updates, but mark your calendar now.
February 1 is the eve of the traditional Feast of the Presentation of Baby Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple. What better way to celebrate His presence in the Temple of our hearts than by presenting ourselves to Him in focused and continuing prayer on that day? Please plan to come out that night – or call or e-mail us that you stand with us in this.
CURRENTPrayNorthstateEVENTS
We plan no intercessors’ summits or conference events in December – there are so many places and people to bless that we find the Christmas month a good time to just practice what we preach. (God promises in Joshua 1:3-5 that wherever our feet fall in His Name we will possess that land in His Name.) We will be doing a special series of prayer walks and leading a night of worship for a mountain community.
We will bless the Shasta County Jail on Wednesday, December 7, at 3:00. This is a very special opportunity – and every time we offer to pray for an inmate we are received with joy. We will also be blessing the Where Eagles Soar Recovery Home at 10:00 AM on Saturday, December 10, and the Good News Rescue Mission on Saturday, December 17, at 9:30. We bless two school sites – Anderson Horizon Charter School on December 7, and Shasta Secondary Home School on December 10.
On Friday, December 9, we gather in Manton for an evening of praise and worship with community leaders. Tom and Cindy Lau of Dove Acres will host this evening – as well as a couples retreat January 13 and 14 titled Building A House of Prayer: Some AssemblyRequired. Call 530-474-5191 to attend either or both. Everyone is welcome.
PRAYNORTHSTATE RADIO and TV FOR DECEMBER
PrayNorthstate Radio begins the Advent season with Robert Scott and Michelle Dugar of FaithWORKS Coalition on December 3. They will discuss the transitional housing project called St. Francis Court – due to open in February. On December 10Bruce Logan and Dan Eckley will introduce a new leadership course – Perspectives on the World Christian Movement – that is as comprehensive as it is diversified. The December 17 broadcast will feature David and Sabrina Charlson unveiling a different type of leadership course – one dealing with financial independence in Gospel terms. Regent Broadcasting will pre-empt their Saturday programming for Christmas carols on the 24 th – and we have no problem with that – but we’ll be back on December 31 – Diana and Jim – to talk about the launch of Paah-ho-ammi Prayer Phase II.
PrayNorthstate TV begins the season of preparing for the return of Messiah in Glory with two Oroville pastors – Adrian Hills and Michael Tomlinson – who minister the Gospel in Northstate penitentiaries. They guest on December 5. On December 12 we will talk with Jack Lauritzen and Nick Capps of Teen Challenge – a recovery ministry with an 80% plus success rate! Drake Travis and his son, Michael, are missionaries to Vietnam and the former Soviet Union– and our guests on December 19. We will wrap up the month – and the year – with Kevin and Kristin MacDougald on December26. They will showcase a ministry that raises up young leaders through worship.
PrayNorthstate Radio is heard every Saturday Morning at 8:00 on AM 1400 KQMS. Jim is also a periodic contributor to KVIP’s Saturday Magazine, heard at 1:00 PM on FM 98.1 and AM 540 KVIP. PrayNorthstate TV can be seen each Monday Morning at 6:30 AM on Fox Channel 30/Cable 2.
WHAT’S UP IN THE NORTHSTATE
Reconciliation of all kinds – facilitating it and celebrating it – is one of the anchor points of the PrayNorthstate ministry. We plan a very special month in March on PrayNorthstate Radio. We are seeking people in our network who have experienced significant reconciliation with a parent or a child. We are led to devote the Saturday Mornings of the month to sharing their stories on the air. If you have experienced such a reconciliation please contact us by e-mail – praynorthstate@charter.net – or call us at 530-941-3470 if you would be willing to guest on the radio program.
PrayNorthstate is issuing yet another call for region spanning prayer. Despite the storms we are receiving as we go to press, Northern California is experiencing drought conditions. We ask all who are reading this page to pray each day that the Lord our God would blanket the Northstate with rain and snow – enough and more than enough to meet our needs for snowpack and watershed. It doesn’t matter how long you pray each day – God will determine that – but it is crucial that prayer be daily.
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement is an interdenominational leadership- for-world-evangelism course of study that will be offered in three regional churches of differing denominational backgrounds beginning in January 2006. Hosting churches and start dates include Neighborhood Church of Chico ( Butte County) on January 8, Anderson-Cottonwood Neighborhood Church ( Shasta County) on January 9, and Yuba City GladTidings Church ( Yuba County) on January 10. The course will feature teachers from all over the region and state, and will cover topics such as God is a Missionary God;Unleashing the Gospel; and The Task Remaining. Contact Bruce Logan at 707-255-5250 for information on fees and registration. The course will award three university level credits to those completing it for credit.
In the state capitol the Sacramento International House of Prayer (SIHOP) is one of the ministries that regularly prays for the state and ministers to whoever they meet on the capitol grounds. They report that during their October outreach they fed more than one hundred people and a number made commitments to the Lord Jesus on the capitol mall. They plan a Christmas party – next to the state’s Christmas tree – on the mall during the afternoon and evening of December 10. Hungry people will be fed and praise and worship lifted to the King of all Creation. Call 916-364-0168 for information.
The California Family Council is an associate ministry group with Focus on the Family. They gather – and all Christians are welcome – on the first Saturday of each month to pray for those holding governmental authority in California. They are also seeking to establish prayer-net and community associate groups in every California city for the same purpose. The first meeting was held on December 3 at 7:00 AM and meetings last one hour. This ministry is also gathering petition signatures for one of two competing propositions to protect marriage between a man and a woman in California. PrayNorthstate supports the concept, but our coverage should not be construed as anendorsement of one proposition over the other. Contact Mark Matta at 916-853-9777 for information about the prayer groups.
In Shasta County – The Stirring is an interdenominational worship service for youth that meets at Risen King Community Church – on Twin View Boulevard in Redding– on Sunday Evenings at 6:00 PM. Under the leadership of Pastor Nate Edwardson, the service seeks to lead young people into worship in cultural terms with which they are already familiar while offering a strong gospel message and opportunities for discipleship and ministry. The ministry was launched in 2002. Call 530-244-2300 for information.
Simpson University – a four year liberal arts institution of higher education in the evangelical Christian tradition is holding their annual Genesis Weekend on March 10-12 at the university on Shasta View Drive in Redding. (Yes, we’re giving a lot of lead time – you have to plan for this!) The weekend is designed for youth groups to bring their high school juniors and seniors preview the university as a possible undergraduate home. The event begins on Friday Evening and goes through Sunday. There is no charge. Call 530-224-5600 or go online at www.simpsonuniversity.edu to inquire or reserve space for your youth group.
In Siskiyou County– Dunsmuir is often thought of as the poor relation of Mt. Shasta and Yreka. However, the gathered churches of Dunsmuir have a lively fellowship when they meet for prayer and good food on the last Wednesday of each month. They plan a community Christmas program called Who Is This Jesus: From Cradle to Cross and Beyond. Christian Life Center of Dunsmuir is hosting. The program is planned for Sunday, December 4, at 6:00 PM. Call 530-235-0139 for information.
Also in Siskiyou County – the gathered churches of Yreka will distribute Christmas boxes on December 15 at 3:00 in the social hall of the Yreka United Methodist Church. Then they serve Christmas dinner on Christmas Day from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. Call 530-842-4291 (Methodist Church) or 530-842-1158 ( Baptist Church) to help.
Still in Siskiyou County – a new interdenominational ministry called In-Christ Victory Outreach is forming. The vision is to bring Christ and accountability into the lives of penal system inmates and ex-offenders. (This outreach is not to be confused with Victory Outreach, a Bay area and Southern California ministry which specializes in substance abuse rehabilitation.) The vision includes transitional housing for men and women (in separate facilities), as well as facilities for youth, job finding assistance, training in various trades, and a Saturday morning worshipping congregation for people uncomfortable with traditional congregations. The ministry was introduced to the ministerial meeting on December 1 and the pastors are enthusiastically seeking to help. Connections are already being made to successful similar outreaches in the region and prayer is asked. Those who might mentor or simply seek more information can contact the ministry at inchristvictory@yahoo.com or call 530-842-4231. Editorially speaking – one of the key components of community transformation is the display of the enthusiasm for ministry that I saw on December 1.
UPCOMINGPraynorthstateEVENTS
On top of the January Building a House of Prayer retreat for couples in Manton we plan an intercessors’ summit at a TBA Redding location for January 27-28 with Businesstry Concepts sponsoring the event. In February two summits are planned with one held in Red Bluff at the Salvation Army facility on the 17 th and 18th – Carenet Pregnancy Care of Tri Counties will sponsor – and another in Scotts Valley on the 24 th and 25 th – Etna Berean Church will sponsor. Watch the January newsletter for contact phone numbers for registration or information on all of these events.
All intercessors’ summits are held on Friday from 7:00 to 9:30 and Saturday from 8:30to 5:00. All feature both training and practice in what we call prophetic acts with impact, with special emphasis on the ministries of Prayer Vanguard and Lighthouses ofPrayer. Vanguard is a corporate ministry of blessing specific sites including churches, schools and businesses. Lighthouses is a more individualistic ministry of blessing for your own neighborhood. We cannot provide childcare for these events and we do ask a $20.00 donationper person from those who attend. Breakfast and lunch are provided on the Saturday of these events. Participants are fully trained and commissioned to take their place in any of the PrayNorthstate ministries. Joshua 1:3-5, 2 Chronicles 7:14, and Luke 10:1-9 are the scriptural templates for our summits.
Building a House of Prayer is a retreat suitable for men, women, or couples. It seeks to build a culture of prayer as an ongoing and life shaping process. Teaching sessions include focus on prayer as the singular ongoing act of the apostles, prayer as the practice of corporate/desperate/evangelistic people – the kind of people God wants to produce, healingand other pragmatic prayers, worship as warfare, and prophetic intercession. Mark 11:17 is the scriptural template for this retreat.
WHAT THE COORDINATORS ARE UP TO
Jim will address the Dunsmuir Ministerial Association at Noon on Wednesday, November 30. He leads another prayer visit to the state capitol on Thursday, December 8, and Jim and Diana will lead an evening of worship and prayer in Manton on Friday, December 9. Jim preaches at Copco Community Church in Montague at 10:30 on Sunday, December 11. Jim and Diana will then continue on to Oregon for an end-of-year retreat. Returning from Oregon, Jim will preach and participate in the Inmate Christmas Party at the Shasta County Jail on Thursday, December 15. He heads for Grass Valley to preach at the Sierra Vista Covenant Church – 10:00 AM – on Sunday, December 18.
The big news comes later in the month. On December 20th Jim and Diana celebrate thirty years of marriage and on December 21 Jim celebrates twenty years as a priest of the Living God. Please re-double your prayer and blessings – with thanksgiving – as these watershed times are joyfully before us with the added promise that the best – for Jim and Diana and for the Northstate – are yet to come.
PrayNorthstate PRAYER LIST
Please pray for the Board of PrayNorthstate: Jim and Diana Wilson, Dr. Andre VanMol, Supervisor Mollie Wilson, Charles Davidson, Charlie Harper, and Frank DiSalvo. Please pray for PrayNorthstate and for the radio and TV sponsors: Taylor Motors, Hue and Cry Security, Dr. Andre Van Mol, B& T Satellite, New Song Music, Nicolette Glass, Carl Van Dyke Allstate Insurance, FIT Therapy Center, Crown Motors, Dove Acres, Dave Charlsonand Summit Funding, Children First Foster Family Agency, Dr. Todd Royce and Nor-Cal LeavittInsurance. Pray for Imago Dei Ministries, Pray Californiaand the Pray Cal Listening Team.
Pray for Emmaus Way Ministries of Tel Aviv, Israel, and for Israel, for missionaries Bill and Lori Gardner (Kenya), Colleen Schafer (Mexico), John and Jana Knoch (Fiji),Eljon andJennifer Ago (Albania), Bob Newell and Jeff and Julie Watson (Philippines), Erin and WendyO’Neil (Northern Ireland), and Tugsuu and Gantuul (Mongolia and China). Pray for the KingdomInstitute School of Business, the Hignell Group, Anne Kalvestrand and Carenet and LifeLight Pregnancy Centers.
HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT
Correspondence – and donations – may be addressed to PrayNorthstate, P. O. Box 493743, Redding, CA 96049-3743. Call us at 530-941-3470. Our web site is www.praynorthstate.org; our e-mail is praynorthstate@charter.net.
| 
