Quick Update

         So I realize it has been over a month since I posted anything. I confess I am very good at making myself busy and allowing that busyness to crowd things out of my life. Thats one thing you could be praying for. Apparently that has been the case with my blog. I just have been pushing it further back on my to-do list. Let me give a quick update on my life and God’s workings.

The Student Leader Program that I lead at First Glance is going well. Of course there are plenty of hardships and setbacks, as is often the case in inner city ministry, but in general we are moving in a positive direction. I have started an optional bible study for the students and I usually have at least six of my students come. They are genuinely hungry for truth and come with lots of questions. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to do his work, as it is him who draws the students, not my wisdom. Pray that God continues to draw the students to truth, as I believe the only way we will see real long lasting change in our students lives, is if God causes it to happen, and they surrender their lives to him.

I have definitely seen growth in my older Student Leaders. They are starting to take more ownership of the group as their own. Last week they helped me plan our Student Leader & Student Leader in-training combo meeting. It was their idea to do it and they picked out the topic. It was on being peacemakers, which they got from our bible study (Matt 5:9). It was also very applicable as we recently had some issues involving student leaders in traing and fighting. It is really neat to watch God move in the hearts of some of my young leaders.

We are now in a season of many Christmas Parties at First Glance. The last week and this week have been full of them. It has been a joy getting to know other First Glance leaders, and building relationships with students. It also has been a joy to see God move in this season. We have had so many donations that our entire storage room is filled up! It has also been cool to see a lot of our students asking how they can serve at First Glance.

This Thursday we our having, for the first time ever, a Christmas party for everyone we serve. We are expecting to have around 350 people! We are serving a really  nice meal, having an inflatable ride, line dancing, and everyone is going to get a gift (Which have all been donated!!). We also have all of the people serving at this event, coming as outsiders, meaning not normal First Glance volunteers. This allows us to have all of our normal volunteers, who have already built relationships with the students to sit down and enjoy eating with their students. We are also hoping and praying that as we get more people in our building, more people will be drawn to serve here. Please be in prayer for this event, that it goes well with all the details it takes to pull of, that the students our shown Christ’s love, and that more volunteers would be drawn to serve with us in Kenmore.

Thanks for reading, be blessed this Christmas season, and thank you for your prayers. Look for more frequent updates and thoughts in the future!!!!!!!

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

P.S. I am now about 70% funded monthly and 80% funded towards my overall goal for the 2 years I am committed to serve at First Glance. Thank you for your support and please be continuing to pray that God would provide.

Prayer Causes Things

Prayer causes things to happen!!!! Take a look at this video. Do you really believe that? Have you seen this to be true in your life? As I and people around me have been making prayer a priority in our lives we have seen God continually answer prayers. Let me share a few of those stories with you.

At First Glance we are definitely doing some growing. We are in the process of moving our skate park to a different location to free up room at Rec Nights as well as giving the skate ministry  more room to grow and have a greater impact on the community. This is a fairly expensive project and we were not quite sure where the funds were going to be coming from. This is especially true in light of the fact that First Glance is a little short on funds at the moment. So we added it to the list of things to bring before God, trusting that he would provide. A few weeks ago someone came to drop off furniture and it just so happened to be the day we got the keys to the new building for the skate park. Our director was really excited about it so she decided to show them around and share the vision for the new park. As the guy who dropped off the furniture saw what we wanted to do and what God could do through it, he decided God was calling him to take part. He decided we needed to provide the kids with the best skate park possible, and in order to make that happen he decided to fund the entire project! God definitely answered this prayer in a big time way that only he could have orchestrated.

There are so many stories of answered prayer at First Glance but I want to share one outside of first Glance that truly speaks of the power of Prayer. Some friends of many of ours at First Glance were going to have a baby. However the baby was diagnosed with skeletal dysplasia while in utero. The doctors said that most likely the baby would be born a stillborn. So a community of believers joined around them in prayer throughout their pregnancy. The day she went in to be induced a group of believers stayed in the waiting room and prayed through the day and night. It was such a picture of what the body of Christ is supposed to be like. Early the next morning the baby was born and they were all uplifted in prayer through that night. Baby Eliana was born but she was still not out of the woods. The Doctors were concerned about her lungs, and if she would be able to keep breathing. So people continued to fervently plead with God for her healing. And guess what? God heard and answered!!! Later that day she was given a completely clean bill of health. The doctors said she was perfect. There was no skeletal dysplasia. The doctors had no explanation for it. I love the next part. The parents picked out the name Eliana without knowing what it meant. Eliana is Hebrew for “My God has answered me”.

I hope you are challenged as I have been to more fully rely on God as he really is in control, and he does hear us. I can’t tell you why some prayers are not answered as we want, but I do know God is in control, and he works through all things for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). If you want to really see how God can answer prayer, read the biography of George Mueller. It is one of the more challenging books i have read. I also invite you to continue praying for continued support raising for me as I trust God more fully for this. I have faith that God will provide as I need it. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

Jehovah Jireh

We come to better know God through our experiences with him. We are a very experientially based people. Often we won’t believe that something is true until we have proof of it through our own experience. God knows this and all throughout the Bible you see him revealing himself to people through experiences. Then many of the people in the Old Testament would make an alter and name the place by how they came to know God. This past week I have come to a place in my life I will call Jehovah Jireh or “The LORD will provide”.

The past month and a half has been a transitional time in my life. It has definitely been a struggle to adjust from working 24 on 48 off at the fire department to working normal office hours as well as night programming at First Glance. To top that off I am still working one day a week at the fire department, and this month I am taking an open water scuba class through the fire department for the county water rescue team I am on. I have really enjoyed working at the fire department and have struggled with the fact that God has called me to step away from it and take a reduced role as I enter into full time ministry. On my own without God’s leading I probably would not have made that decision. However, i rejoice as James 1:2-4 is played out in my life:

“2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” 

I rejoice as I persevere through office work and planning, things I do not really enjoy and am not incredibly gifted at, knowing that it will cause me to grow. I was however, over the last few weeks feeling very discouraged and down. That is were God showed himself to me as Jehovah Jireh. I have been looking for houses in Kenmore so I can move into the same area as the people I minister to. It has been frustrating as I many opportunities have come about and have fallen through. It seems the harder I tried to find a place the more things would fall through. I finally came to the point where I was ready to give up trying on my own and surrender it to God, trusting he would provide. I needed to be out of my current place by October 1st, and even though I didn’t want to move back in with my parents I decided that if that is where God wanted me , I would go there for the time being, unless he provided another way. I was fully content with whatever happened. It often seems like that that is the very moment God moves, the moment when we completely surrender to him. So here I was, September 27th fully planning moving back in with my parents. I was approached that day at First Glance by one of my coworkers who told me her and her husband had a place on their property that they wanted to rent to me. So that day I went and checked it out and it was perfect. It’s like God knows me or something, and wanted to fill all my desires. I felt deeply loved that he would provide like that.

But God was not done yet. I had already come to know him in a new way and was driven to praise him but he wanted to continue to bless me. I am still in the process of raising support and it is definitely hard to go from having a steady income to looking to God to provide. I am a little over halfway to my goal of raising a monthly support of $1000 a month, which is the about the minimum i need to live off of. In the mean time I am using one-time support gifts to get me through. So this is where I got to see God provide in ways that only he could get the glory through. One of my monthly supporters and their family is helping to plant a new church. While they are in the process of planting this new church, the church is not taking offering to start with. They have graciously decided through God’s leading to give me all of their tithe that would be going toward the church to support me while they are in this period. It is such a huge blessing for me, one that can only cause me to praise God for providing. I have really come to learn that when you step out in faith and take risks to follow God in an area that is beyond yourself, you get to see God provide. I think that is often why we don’t see God move, because we don’t take God sized risks that unless he comes through, we will fail. I am continually being challenged to step out in faith for God in this season of my life, and I challenge you to do the same as well. God knows you and your heart much better then you do, and he is faithful to provide. Take risks where he calls you to and step out in faith to follow him, and you will come to know your father in new ways as well.

Thank you for continuing to support me in prayer and in other ways. I really appreciate your love and anything you have provided for me.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

From a Friends Blog...

Important

I heard from a dear brother named Tim Shontere tonight who is back for a few months while his wife has their third child. He is in his late 20s and at 19 he decided that, though he did not feel a "call," that the Lord had already called everyone to go. He stopped pursuing the many dreams he could have pursued as a skilled young man and took his wife to the YembiYembi tribe in Papua New Guinea where he has been for the last 9 years. He has let the harsh conditions take 15 to 20 years off his life expectancy and probably his childrens' too. He said that when he returned to the States he was handed 17 letters from other tribes in New Guinea with their own languages that no one speaks. They are begging for someone to come to them. Tim said he's heartbroken because he responds to them that there is no one to send. He said their reply was, "Then this message must not be as important as you say it is."

Is my car, house, job, and family my end? Or, are they a means to an end: the Gospel. Does the place I live... the car I drive... the dreams I chase... Do they make the Gospel look important?

Getting My Feet Wet

So it’s the end of my third week at First Glance. For those of you who don’t know what First Glance is or how I got here read my previous posts below. Just a quick update financially. I am about half way funded for the next two years. It has been an amazing experience as I have watched your support and love pour in. I can’t describe to you the feeling you get when you feel completely blessed by God as new support comes in. It is an amazing feeling to step out in faith then see God provide. It is such a faith building experience. I continue to pray that more support would come in so I can continue my ministry. I know that God will provide.

I have another circumstance which I am praying for and I ask you to pray with me. The house I and my roommates currently rent is getting foreclosed on. This means I am going to have to move very soon. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is not ideal because this means I have to move very quickly. However, this is God providing in a way because I desire to move into Kenmore amongst the people I am ministering to. We could not have gotten out of our lease this quickly and I did not want to leave my roommates in the “lurch”. It is definitely an answer to prayer for me. However it is causing me to really have to trust God more because I don’t know my living situation after October 1st. Would you join me in praying that God’s will would be done whatever the situation, but also pray that God would provide affordable housing in the area I am ministering. Pray that I would be ale to discern God’s leading.

One area I have been struggling with as I start out on this new adventure is discerning God’s voice among all the others. I feel like the more I seek him the more I seem to have to struggle to find him. I believe part of this is due to the fact that Satan does not like how I am following after God and he is throwing a lot at me to try to confuse me. I believe also at time God allows us difficulty in seeking him to grow our faith. I have taken comfort and hope in Psalms 42

1 

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

3 

My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

4 

These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

5 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

6 

My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 

Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

8 

By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

9 

I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”

10 

My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

I hope this encourages you to seek God during your “dark’ times when God does not seem to be near.

The first three weeks have been a learning process as I learn about First Glance and how it operates. I have also enjoyed learning about new students I meet and learning about the culture of Kenmore and the inner city. I have been blessed to meet with numerous experienced leaders from various ministries in Akron and have been trying to soak up their advice and input. It has been very valuable as I seek to follow Jesus and get to dialogue with people who are further ahead in the journey then I am. I pray that God gives me the grace to be humble and realize I will make mistakes, and I can’t do this on my own. It has been exciting to see how First Glance is entering into a season of harvest and I am blessed to be a part of it. I hope you can be blessed in sharing with us in it as well. If you ever want to physically come and be a part of First Glance our doors are always open for more Christlike volunteers. Contact me if you want more information.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

It's About Time

So it’s about time I update my blog. I have been away for quite a while and way to much has happened in my life since then. Instead I am going to share a letter I recently wrote detailing some of what God is doing in my life. After that I will be posting to my blog much more regularly. I am excited to continue to share how God is writing the story of my life. Here is the letter:

Dearest friends and family,

I hope this letter finds you all well and being blessed in abundance through seeking after our Lord. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). I pray that as you seek to know and love him more you will get to see his intricate workings in your lives and more intimately come to know him.

As I have been seeking God more in my life and learning more of his character and his ways, I feel called to greater action in serving for his kingdom. As many of you already know I have a heart for missions and feel that one day I will be called to the foreign missions field. However, I have felt that until I learn to really live out my
faith, or be “on mission” in my own country, among my own people; what right do I have to go elsewhere and be a missionary? For the last two or three years I have been really trying to live out what I see laid out in the Bible. It has definitely been a struggle and a learning and growing process. As I study the Bible for myself I can come to no other conclusion but that Christ wants all of me, fully surrendered, to be used for his work. In Matt 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” I have been trying to really live this out, not living for the temporary pleasures in this world that we so often seek for in our American culture, and instead seeking only to live for things in the life to come. In Matt 6:19-21 Jesus tells us not to store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. There is obviously a great cost in this, but if we say we believe what the Bible says, then the promises laid out in it are much greater than the temporal pleasures in this world. If we really believe everything in the Bible as truth like we claim, the question then really becomes are we willing to do what it commands, even when those commands often sound extreme.

So why am I sharing all of this with you? As I meditate on these truths, coupled with experience in the short term mission’s field and in ministry that I volunteer with her at home, God has revealed to me that I need to take a step of faith out into full time ministry. Out of circumstances that only God could orchestrate I have been offered, and decided to take a position with a ministry in the Kenmore neighborhood of Akron, Ohio called First Glance. First Glance’s Mission is to connect students and their communities to Christ and the Church through real, loving and non-threatening avenues. We work to meet the needs of the community by sharing the love and hope of Christ with the local teens. Over 3,000 individual students have come through our doors in the past three years. Over 100 people continually volunteer with us. 

At First Glance I will be running their student leader program. This program gives students who are serious about being leaders, or taking the next step in their faith the chance to really excel at doing so. I will be getting to personally disciple some of the inner city students, as well as disciple the volunteer leaders that God brings to help run this program. I will also be running a recreational night which is an opportunity for students to come to a safe place and hang out. It is here that we as adult leaders have the opportunity to intentionally build relationships, mentor, and disciple students.
First Glance is such a light in these kids’ lives as most of them have no church experience, and this is our chance to show them Christ’s love. First glance also offers many other programs to meet the needs of the community, and most importantly to share the gospel.

The reason why this is such a big step of faith for me to take is this; I will be going part time at the fire department at which I am working now. I will be working minimal hours, just enough to cover my school loans. I will be a missionary intern for the next two years, meaning I have to raise all of my support to cover the cost of living. I have faith that because God is calling me to follow him in this endeavor, he will provide the means. One verse that has been challenging to me in this area is Proverbs 30:7-9. “Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” This is such a challenging and un-American prayer to pray. Lord, let me live day to day so I can fully depend on you. Don’t we want to be comfortable and in control though? I know the Lord will provide for my needs (Matt 6:25-34) but I believe it will be a daily dependence on him.

As part of the same body in Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) I know we all have different gifts to help in ministry. I would like to humbly ask you to use your gifts and partner with me as I seek to follow after Christ in this new adventure. You can help share in this in several ways. First and foremost I would ask for your partnership in prayer. Without prayer there is no power in ministry as we just try to do things on our own. I have attached a prayer card with requests that you could put up on your refrigerator to remind you to pray for me. I will also be regularly posting on
my blog http://mypartintheepic.blogspot.com/. I hope this can be an encouragement for you as you see God working, and see him shaping and molding my heart. Another way I would humbly ask you to partner with me is through action. As I stated before I will need to raise my own support. Would you please prayerfully consider supporting
me with a one-time, monthly, or annual donation? I estimate that I need somewhere around $1000 a month for the next two years to support myself off of. I do not feel right about using your support to pay of school loans, so as I said before I will use money from the fire department for that. As I am accountable to you, my supporters in my ministry I would like to be transparent in how I utilize the money I spend and will attempt to keep you updated. Again, First Glance is a nonprofit organization and all your donations are tax deductible.I have included a page that explains the process for giving. Your support will help to provide opportunities for Christ to work through me in reaching a hurting community. 

Thank you all so much for your love and encouragement over the years.

Love as a brother in Christ, 

Benjamin Rahe

So there you have a brief update. I would love to meet and talk with any one of you individually. If you would like to do this either contact me via my phone or email me at ben@firstglance.org. I also would ask that you would partner with me. I can use all the prayer I can get so I am going to add the prayer requests that I sent out with my support letter to the bottom of this post. I also still have a long way to go until I am fully supported, so if you still want to support me and you haven’t gotten a support letter, email me and I will send one to you. If you are unable to support me monetarily, anything is helpful and accepted (ie... a hot meal, meeting for prayer, extra toilet paper). Thank you all for the support I have received so far. It has been an incredible blessing.

Love you all,

Ben