WE ARE FINALLY MOVED IN

We finally emptied our storage units yesterday. We have officially moved all of our stuff to our new house. Our garage is full of stuff we are going to first sell, then just get rid of. Our goal is to have both cars in the garage by first frost. We are still unpacking, hopefully, most of that can be done today. Chris is getting ready for Choir School and Andrew will be starting band camp on Monday. He said yesterday he was anxious for school to start. He said he wanted to learn :) that is first. Please pray for Jonathan. He is trying to start school at IU Kokomo, although Olivet says he owes more money evidently one of his grants did not go through after all, for us it is impossible to pay it now, and until it is paid they won't release his transcripts so he can go to school this fall. He has state grants(not loans) for good student etc., but at this point it doesn't look like it is going to happen. We are trusting God for a miracle for him. Jeff

Bad weather

Just went through a tornado warning. Sirens went off and those living right across the street from us, became very nervous, there was full blown panic. There are no basements in the Apartment complex. We opened the church basement up and it quickly filled with people. Young mothers, young fathers, and many small children. Our boys did a great job in gathering children around them with coloring pages, drinks etc. some of the mothers were weeping causing the children to become upset. We were able to calm everyone down and things got better as time went on. At one point the church lights dimmed but did not go out, however, all the power around the church went down. We had a great time getting to know our neighbors and actually ministering to them. We are keeping the simplied ministry before us: Make friends, throw parties, tell stories, and give gifts. It feels like we accomplished a great deal of that tonight. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Jeff

What a "singe"

Tonight was a great night. We had a cookout in our yard. Two friends came over with homemade peanut butter cookies in hand and stuff to put on hotdogs. A nearby church gave us some cans of pop and another church gave us some buns. We purchased fifty hotdogs and some chips. To make a long story short we gave out 58 hot dogs (someone we offered hotdogs to brought eight over to share). We met many, people, parents, small children, teens and young s. We have our piano in our garage for now(waiting for help to carry it in the house), little kids played the piano, older kids played with hula hoops ,and teens played with the dog. We spoke to several single mothers, who are just barely getting by. It is near the end of the month and food stamps are gone and food is scarce. We heard a lot of stories, made some friends, threw a party, gave some gifts, and told our stories to some. It was an incredible night and we are looking forward to doing it again. If you are wondering about the "singe" in the title. I had to start a new batch of charcoal as the first batch died down. I did something very foolish I put a ton of lighter fluid on the charcoal and bent over to light it. It blew up in my face, I singed my eyebrows, mustache and hair, how embarrassing. Thanks for the prayers. Jeff

First Kids Club

Last night was the first kids club at the apartments next door. It went well with about 15 kids attending. Half were from the same family, they were cousins. Their ages were 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 I think they all live in a three bedroom apartment together. Tonight we are having a spontaneous cookout, we are cooking out and inviting whoever we see, it is a way to make friends. Please keep us in your prayers for today. Jeff

what's new?

Just a bit of an update. Jonathan is home from his mission trip to Thailand, he had a great time. Yesterday we all spent the morning(Chris, myself, Jonathan and Andrew) in a meeting with other local churches to talk about networking it was a great meeting, time well spent. Andrew is now on the board of directors of a outreach missional post, called, "Tha, Roots". Tha Roots is a place for teens that is ran by teens with mentors. Tha Roots is open Friday nights and features pool tables, ping pong tables, all sorts of games etc and features a band each week. The bands are not necessarily Christian but the lyrics have to be clean. They attract garage bands that want to play in front of audience and those that want to hear them. It brings a great number of unchurched teens to a place where they encounter Christian teens. Not long ago a Goth band performed and nearly 80 goth clad teens came to hear their favorite local band. They said it was awesome. Andrew went to his first meeting last night and will be going this Friday as a worker.
Jonathan is probablly going to go to IU Kokomo this next year. He is so open to do whatever God leads him to do. Chris will be going to Choir school in two weeks and when she returns will be looking for a job and I am going to apply to be a subsitute teacher and am looking for some very part time jobs to supplement our income.
On Wednesday a group that I am working with will be beginning a Kids club in the apartment complex across from our house. Our family will be going over to help with that. It will be meeting every other Wednesday. On Thursday this week, our family and a couple of friends will be having a cookout in our backyard, hoping to attract some neighbors. We are not doing any publicity etc., we are just throwing out the line and seeing what happens. When I told those that we met with yesterday our plans for Thursday, one church donated 200 cans of pop(not expecting that many people, but who knows) and another church is donating buns, wow!! God is so good to us. Please pray for the needs of our family, mostly, part time jobs and for those that are begining to get on board with us. After all the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out reapers so the harvest doesn't rot in the fields. Matthew 9:34 tjnv(The Jeff Newton Version). Jeff

3-2-1-CONTACT

Unbelievable morning!!!!! I made many contacts with neighbors. Here is how it went down. We removed acres of carpet from the parsonage. Carpet was more than 20 years old and was so pet stained the smell was unbelivable. Chris couldn't even stay in the house because of allergies. We put the carpet in the garage praying for a way to get rid of it. We called the city and they called this morning and said they would pick it up this afternoon. So I began to drag out the carpet and suddenly the neighbors appeared asking if they could have it. One guy about 22 said his 2 year old son loved spiderman and he wanted the blue carpet for his bedroom. I explained that it wasn't very clean and he said it was better than what they had. Another young man wanted the biege carpet, a woman took some more. I was able to engage each in conversation and I felt I really contected with the blue carpet guy. I met his son too. The language was rough and I cringed when the mother of the little boy told him to shut his f-ing a-- up, my heart broke. However, these are the folks God is calling me to reach so I will do my best. Jeff

Ministry simplified

If you know me you know I like to keep things simple, as I am a simple kind of guy. I just read of simple ways of doing ministry:
1. giving gifts
2. telling stories
3. throwing parties
4. making friends
For me this is exactly the way I envision Kokomo Urban Outreach to be about, all of the above(not in any particular order) with Christ in the center. Let me know what you think.Is there somethng that is left out? Jeff

Every day a miracle

Went to Bible Study last night, afterwards the treasurer and lay leader approached me and told me that I would not have to pay rent for the parsonage as we thought was going to happen because of the limited church resources. This will save us $5,400.00 per year. God is good!!!!
PS: I think the is a very long run on sentence. I miss those that helped me edit my writing in the past. Jeff

Joining God

Over the past few months while explaining to people what God is calling me to in Kokomo, I often explained that I plan on joining God in what God is already doing in Kokomo. I knew that God was already working and preparing the ground for me to come, but I did not know to what extent. There is a group of people that I have been working with over the past year. All of us worked in the Mobile Home Park in Kokomo when I was a pastor at Hillsdale more than 1o years ago. Presently, they all attend differnt churches. They meet every Sunday Night for fellowship and to prepare for outreach. During the past year they have passed out popcorn at a weekly outside band concert in a local park, they have put on a vacation Bible school in a community center giving each parent a first aid kit for their car, they have been room parents in a improvised school, and they threw an appreciation dinner for the teachers in the school. They have adopted a neighborhood and provided thanksgiving food baskets to every house in the neighborhood, along with making small home repairs, and yard work.
A teenager who was a child at Hillsdale when I was there, had a vision for a youth center. He and a handful of other teens with some adult sponsors got together to pray and plan and the Roots was born. Wish I had more time to tell you about the the miracles that has happened there, when they had a Goth band play and over 100 teens in Goth attire came and experienced Jesus.
There was a woman at Hillsdale that had two small sons and wished there would be something for her children. Together we started a Kids Klub on Wednesday night, that continued for many years. This woman now is attending another church(her pastor was in my young adult Sunday School class at Hillsdale, kind of a squirrelly kid, can't believe he is a pastor)her children have graduated and she has a vision. This woman called me yesterday and said she had been working with theKokomo Housing Authority and after months of negotiating and cutting through the red tape she secured permission to start a kids club in a public housing complex. She wondered if I wanted to join them, after all, the complex is right across the street from my house and church. Of course I said "yes". Not only will be able to run the kids club we have our foot in the door to do many other things. It is great to see how God opens doors and prepares the way.
On a personal note, Chris and Andrew are at church camp this week, Jonathan returns home on Saturday and I have moved into the house that is 85% done. The church has been incredible as we have had first time visitors each week that I have been here. It has been a long time since that happened, running out of bulletins was an exciting day in the church. Presently, my stress level is low, my outlook is positive and I am realizing more and more how good God is . Jeff

Young adults

I have been praying that I would be able to reach some young adults. This past Sunday two first time attenders(young adults) were in church. Why I am not sure. Please pray for them and pray for me and Chris as we are trying to make contact with more young adults. We are looking forward to Jonathan coming home so we can enlist his help. Thanks for the prayers.

PS we are getting closer to moving in the house. Jeff