A Change in Direction

As I am sure most of you know, last month I got married. I have also been at First Glance for over a year. I have seen so many great things happen that I can't fit all of them in one post. If you have been following my blog you may have already heard some of what I have done this past year. Let me share a few stories with you.

This summer I took a few of my Student Leaders on a local missions trip in Kenmore called Project Shine. These were students I had been investing in on a regular basis. Throughout the week I had many opportunities to talk with them and build into them. At different times during the week three of my students ended up surrendering their lives to Christ! This was a wonderful week of seeing God at work, and I was so blessed and refreshed by it.

Another amazing thing I got to witness was multiple baptisms. Some involved people from the small church that has started at First Glance called Tattoo Church. It is amazing to get to see God move amongst the people in this community in ways we can not take credit. I also got to see one of my student leaders get baptized and give his testimony a few weeks ago. It was awesome to be able to see him clearly articulate his faith and point to people who are first glance leaders as people who directed him to Christ. What a blessing to be a part of that.

I have also been able to completely revamp the Student Leader Program, participate in Man Up, Co-lead a Rec Night, help lead Open Plate and Tattoo Church, partner with other local churches through prayer and reaching students, and build relationships with people in the community. When Taylor and I consider all we have done and seen in the past year we clearly feel that God has called us to Kenmore for the foreseeable future. That being said, I knew that as we were getting married I would need to make some sort of a change in my life in order to be able to give more time to our marriage. After thinking and praying about it, I felt that I had two options. One, I could continue to work full time at First Glance, and completely leave working at the Fire Dept. After all I originally had planned to quit the Fire Dept. after we were debt free and in position to do so financially. The other option would be to step down from a full time support based position at First Glance, to an extended staff role, still running Student Leaders and being involved in the organization, while going back to working full-time hours at the Fire Department and seeking to become full time at other departments. Both would give me more time for Taylor, but the fire dept. would give me more time for a future family, as well as plenty of time for ministry.

I spent many months praying about it, trying to surrender my own will in the matter and seeking only what God desired for me and my family. This is generally the hardest part but the most important part in making a decision, and once you do this, you are but a little way from knowing God's will (George Muller). Apparently I was not ready to do this, as I have probably been praying about this decision for a good 4-5 months and even more seriously for the past couple months, and I have only finally come to peace with a decision and feel like God has lead me to it. Let me detail a few of the final points in a long process on how God lead me in this direction. The apostle Paul clearly says in 1 Cor 9:14 that as a minister of the Gospel you have a right to earn a living from it. But in fact if we read through the whole of the 9th chapter, we see that Paul doesn't actually use this right and instead earns his living making tents. This is something I have always identified with, and wanted to be more like Paul, and was always challenged with what it could look like to be a missionary in this way. Paul at times was supported by churches, but he never seemed to ask for it or demand it. Towards the end of the process God finally revealed that this was something he had placed on my heart for a long time, but I did not realize that this was the real heart of the issue I was struggling with. I had previously thought that the reason I was having this issue was that I may not have trusted God to provide but as I kept seeking God's will, I realized that I really did trust him to provide. I was willing to work at First Glance full time, raising support for as long as he called me too, and I knew he would provide. However as I considered all these things I realized that although I loved working at First Glance  and I loved working at Camp Carl before that, both times working in full time ministry I was never quite fulfilled by doing it. Something always felt like it was not quite right, that even though serving God was the only thing I could find worth doing on this earth, the only thing that really fulfills my purpose, I didn't ever feel quite complete in making my living from it.

All of this lead me to believe that God was calling me to step out of getting paid to work out First Glance, and go back to working full time hours at the Fire Department, while seeking full time employment at a Fire Dept. , wherever God opens a door. Hopefully some day it will be in the very community I am called to minister in. But only God knows the future and I am slowly learning to feebly grasp his hand, and trust where he is leading just for the moment, instead of always trying to demand the map from my all-knowing guide. As I step down, I feel the fire dept. schedule will still allow me time to fulfill the ministry God has called me to at First Glance and in Kenmore, maybe even to a better and more effective way then before since this is where God is leading. It will also give me more freedom to spend time with my beautiful wife, who is also my partner in ministry, and who with these new changes will be taking an increased role in helping lead the Student Leader Program at First Glance. We both believe he has called us to minister full time with our lives, and Kenmore is where he has currently called us, and we want to be faithful to wherever that call is, as well as being faithful to missionally live at both of the places where we earn our incomes.

So what does this mean for you, the people who have faithfully supported me through prayer and monetarily as I seek to follow God boldly where he leads. Well, first I would still love your support through prayer. As I continue in the ministry God has called me to in Kenmore, I will still have many of the same responsibilities, especially with the Student leader Program. Pray for wisdom for Taylor and I as we seek to raise up leaders in the community, and more importantly to point them to Christ. Pray for endurance and strength for us, as inner city work is far from easy, and often with very little encouragements. Also pray that we would love each other as Christ loved the church and that through this, people would be drawn to his love. Another thing I would love is for you to join with me if you are local. First Glance can always use more volunteers, wherever you are passionate and gifted, and I would love to help you get connected in a place where God's love is so desperately needed.

While I still need this support from you even at the same level or more than before, I will not be taking your gift of monetary support anymore. Effective Nov 1st, anything that you donate to me will be given to First Glance's general operating funds. This means you can do one of two thing before then. You can decide to stop giving entirely. This means that you need to cancel your automatic payments, or just stop sending your monthly check. Make sure you do this before November 1st if you want to do this. If you take this option I also want you to know that if you feel you want any of your money back that I have already received, if you feel that I have not fulfilled my role in ministry by stepping down early, I will humbly give money back to you. I apologize if any of you feel this way. Your other option is to continue giving to First Glance. I will still be very much a part of the organization, and any money you give will help support the mission of First Glance. Just continue your giving as you normally would, and your money will automatically be switched from my name to First Glance. We could definitely use your continued support as giving has significantly dropped since last year. Thank you in advance for those of you who continue to bless me and the ministry I have been called to in this way.

I would love to meet with any of you or talk with you on the phone, explaining more of how I know this is what God has called me to and how I have seen him work over the past year. Also I want to remind you again to continue to follow my blog at www.mypartintheepic.blogspot.com. I will be updating it ith prayer requests, stories, and how God is molding and teaching me.


Love as a fellow laborer in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe




Leading a student leader meeting!

BAPTISM!

     This past weekend we had a very exciting event happen at First Glance! One of our students, specifically one of the Students in my student leader program got baptized! This is usually one of our favorite events as a staff at First Glance. It is so cool to see God working in students lives through us.

      One of the coolest things was the amount of support that showed up to watch him get baptized. Many staff members from First Glance, as well as volunteers who were involved in the students life were there to support him. He also boldly gave his testimony in front of the congregation at Goss Memorial. It was so cool to see him able to clearly articulate his faith, and point to many people in the room as people who helped him in his walk.

Join me in praising God for what he is doing in the Kenmore Community!

God is Faithful

Phil 1:6

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Hey everyone,

I have finally decided to join the technology revolution, and start doing some video blogging. While I will still be doing some writing, I think at times, this way you will be better able to see my heart. Please pardon the three hundred times I say umm, I am learning and will work on it more for the next time :-)

Here is a short summary that I wrote for our prayer update this month as well:

This past week was very exciting for the Student leader program at First Glance. I took two of my Student Leaders to Project Shine. For those of you who don't know what Project Shine is, it is basically a local service based missions trip in the Kenmore area, that also includes great times of teaching and worship. During the week, both of the students I took on the trip, who I have been praying for, and really investing in for the last year, made decisions to surrender their lives to Christ. God still had more in store though. Near the end of the trip we had a community outreach night, and one of my other student leaders came to it. She also decided to stay for our  worship time afterwards. We have previously prayed for her in one of the prayer updates. This student has been searching for quite a while and that night decided that she to wanted to surrender her life to Christ. It was such a huge blessing to get to see God move in the hearts of students I have been investing in, and in ways that bring Him alone glory.

    I am thanking God so much for all he has done in these students lives. Would you join me in thanking God for what he has done and continues to do at First Glance? Please pray that he would grow these students in their faith and bring other believers around them to disciple them. Pray also that they would be protected from attacks of the devil as he is definitely not happy they made a commitment to follow Christ. Pray that they would continue in their faith and grow to love Christ more every day as we entrust them to him through our prayers.

P.S.I will be posting more thoughts soon about my experience with Project Shine and the Body of Christ working together. Please stay tuned :-)

Financial Update

      Hey everyone! I wanted to let you in on the exciting news I just recently found out. I am now fully supported for the amount I set out to raise at First Glance!!! It has been a long process, but one that I continually got to see God working through. Thank you, my supporters in prayer and financially for helping to make this happen.

      When I set out on this journey of stepping into the unknown, I tried to be as faithful as possible with how I raised and spent my money. I did not feel comfortable with using the money I was raising to pay of my school loan, so I decided I would stay at the fire department on a limited part-time basis, and use the money I made there to pay off my loans. I have since paid off all of my loans using only money from the fire department. I was able to do this because I was living as frugally as possible, and not planning ahead drastically towards the future and setting large sums of money asideas savings, but trusting that God would provide for me.

      I budgeted out all of my other expenses and figured out that I really only needed a little under $1000 to live on per month. Over these last nine months I have definitely had to dig into my emergency fund, but God has been faithful, and I have never had to go without anything I need. I definitely also solidified the difference between things I want and things I need. I tried to ask as little as I could of people, and instead bring my needs to God, and he always provided, despite my lack of faith sometimes. I know I need to trust him way more with my finances, and realize that it all comes from him, and it is just on loan to me.

      As I move forward in life with a little more money at my disposal in the future, I am praying about how God would best have me use the money he has gifted me with. I am asking, “what is the best way God wants us to manage money?”, and “what exactly does Jesus say about how to use it?”, and “does what the majority of churches in the U.S. teach actually line up with what is in the Bible?” These are tough questions that I am mulling over, and I would encourage you to open up your finances to what God wants to do with them as well. It is just another area of our lives that God wants us to FULLY surrender to him and trust him with. 

DO WE REALLY BELIEVE HE IS WORTHY TO BE TRUSTED IN ALL AREAS OF OUR LIVES OR DO WE JUST LIKE SAYING IT WITHOUT BACKING IT UP WITH ACTION?

      Another praise in the financial area is that my fiancé got a job! We are so grateful that God provided us with a job for her, and not only that, but one where she gets to use her Spanish skills. We really would like to pay of her college debt as quick as possible, because the more I look at the Bible the more I see that it speaks against having debt. So Lord willing, we will be able to live off my combined salery, and use hers as much as possible to pay of debt.

So thats it for this update.

Thanks for your love and support, and I would love to hear your thoughts on how God would have us manage money.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin

Student Leader Retreat

   This past weekend I took my student leaders out to Camp Carl for a retreat. I had nine of my students go so it was a fairly small retreat, but it was a great time. The rain stopped just in time, my wonderful sister, and beautiful fiance came along to help lead, and Camp Carl proved to be just as beautiful and mystical as usual. All in all it was a great weekend and a time to have spiritual conversations, and grow as leaders.

     We left Friday night and drove through the rain to Camp Carl. The whole time I kept praying that it would stop raining, because many of the activities I had planned were outdoors. Sometimes God answers even the smallest of prayers that you wouldn't think he cares about. As we pulled into camp, the rain stopped. We were able to do all of our team building exercises outside. We were able to get through quite a few teambuilding activities in the camps challenge course, with only minimal disagreements. All in all, I have seen them work better together before, but they did a great job listening to each others suggestions, and taking leadership during the activities, both things we have been working on. They definitely have shown great improvement since he first time we did a teambuilding game nine months ago. They were not even able to finish one activity in an hour, and were fighting, and making fun of each other the whole time. It is definitely encouraging to see.

     Our topic for the retreat was servent leadership. It was a great way to bring more spirituality into the lessons as Jesus is the prime example of what a servent leader looked like. There were a couple kids on the retreat who going into the retreat seemed very closed off in my previous experiences in talking about my faith with them. During the retreat I was talking with one of the girls (who claims she is Wiccan)and she said even though she doesn't have the same beliefs I do, she respects what I have to say. I continue to keep praying for her, and many of the other kids who are without God's truth in their lives. I know that ultimately nothing I say will change their hearts, only God can, so I will faithfully continue to bring them before his throne in prayer. We have seen him answer time and time again at First Glance, and I know he will again.

     Another cool thing on this retreat was getting to see students outside of their normal environment, facing their fears. It was cool to see the students faces light up when they got to ride the horses for the first time. Many of them were at least a little afraid, but they faced their fears, which is an incredible thing for many of them. It was also many of their favorite activity! Another thing we did was paintball. While some were definitely afraid they again conquered their fears and did it anyway. Many of them enjoyed that as well. There were the occasional temper flare ups, but overall it was good experience.

     The retreat as a whole was a success. We were able to have some great lessons about being servent leaders, and able to bring the gospel into how Jesus was the ultimate servent leader. We were also able to have intentional conversations and build better relationships with many of the students. I am excited to see where God continues to direct this program! Please continue to be in prayer for me as these next two weeks, I will really be putting together the foundation of the student leader program for the next year. I definitely need prayer for wisdom and discipline, so I can get a lot of the planning done for next year, so I have more flexibility to spend time hanging out with students, and really "doing life" with them over the summer.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

Update on Student Leaders from the First Glance Newsletter

      As most of you know First Glance has a Student Leader Program for students who are interested in becoming leaders. One of the hopes with this program is that one day, we will have students that take over our jobs and run First Glance. A believer who has grown up in this culture will be able to reach students much better then we ever could. They will also have much better insights into the community and what its needs really are. We are really excited about some things going on with the student leader program. 

      A few weeks ago First Glance hosted a dance for student because Kenmore High School cancelled their formal. I have been trying to give Student Leaders a chance for more ownership over things at First Glance, and this was the perfect opportunity. We gave the students a budget, and let them determine the theme for the dance. It was really cool to see many of them make it their own, and really invest a significant amount of their time in it. Since it was Spring Break they spent quite a few days making and putting up decorations at First Glance. They even made a pizza and shared it with the staff! They also volunteered to help us with a few other projects we were working on. It was a great week of ministry with my students.

      Another way they have been taking ownership is helping to develop a culture of pride in First Glance. They all stood up on stage as a group on a Thursday Night Rec Night and talked about this being “their” place so lets respect it and pick up after ourselves. Many students seemed to identify with them and respected what they said. They also designed their own signs to hang up around First Glance as a reminder.

      In order to keep fulfilling our vision for the student leader program we will be revamping and rethinking how we do things in the next few months. Please be praying for wisdom for us as we do this. I also urge that you would pray for God to raise up leaders from amongst our students, especially amongst the young men as we are lacking in young men who want to be leaders. Thank you for your continued support.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Benjamin Rahe

What We Need

 As I was laying in bed at the fire department about a week ago I prayed before I went to sleep asking God to be with me tonight. I often pray this as I may wake up in the middle of the night, having to rush into a dangerous situation and risk my life, or I may have to think quickly in a stressful situation to save someone else's life. This realization makes me have to rely on God because I realize that I can not do it on my own.

As I was laying there I realized I always need to have this same attitude. We all need to have this attitude because it is true. Every moment of every day is a moment that could be your last, or a moment that could throw you into extreme danger where you will have to rely on God and not yourself. The events of this week have further illustrated that point to me. First there was the bombing at the Boston Marathon. The spectators and runners in the race had no idea what would great them at the finish line. It was just a normal day at the races, for many of the runners, one of the more meaningful moments of their lives. Many of the spectators were there to support a runner or just enjoy the day at a prestigious sporting event.

The second is the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas. How could the workers at the plant have known what would happen. I am willing to bet most of them did not consider their job that dangerous. The explosion took out the surrounding neighborhoods, who were no doubt unsuspecting that anything like this could ever happen. I am guessing some of them didn’t even know they lived near a plant that produced anything that could be this dangerous. Please keep them in your prayers, as the search for  survivors is still ongoing, which is made all the harder by the fact that some of the people killed in the explosion were firefighters. ( Little side note here, but we could all spend so much more time in prayer with all that needs prayed for in our world.)

The third case hits home a little more. A Kent high school student died at an AAU basketball practice this week. He was a young healthy man who played on the football team as well. The cause of death has not been released yet. Please be praying for his family and friends, including kids from Riverwood who know him. Now I don’t write all these things to make you scared, but it is a reality how fragile life is, and how we are really safe nowhere, no matter how hard we try to be. I don’t think fear is a good reaction to have especially since the Bible says:Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell -Matt 10:28. Instead we should more fully lean on God, because we can only get through these things with his strength. 

Taking this even further we are living in a world at war. This is perhaps even more important to realize then the dangers of the physical world. Every day we are in a dangerous situation because satan is currently ruling this world. If only we were more aware of the spiritual battles around us. We need to lean on God more every day because we really actually need him. I pray that I continue to realize this and do this every moment of every day.

Until next time,

Ben

Imitate Christ?

Sometimes I feel i don’t really know what it looks like, or what it means to follow Jesus. Sure, I know how to say and do the right things to make it look like I have it together, like I really am willing to surrender everything to Christ and fully trust him. Like I lean on him for guidance all throughout the day. But here is the truth. I rely on myself much more then I do on HIM most of the time. That is why I don’t really know what it means to follow him. I have been following and idea of him that I came up with. But what does it look like to really follow after him? First we have to really know what Jesus would have done before we follow. I find I am often thinking to myself what Jesus would have done in a certain situation I am in. Unfortunately this usually takes place after I am out of the situation, thinking of what I could have done better. What if I was asking that to myself in the middle of the situation, while praying and trusting the spirit to guide me? What if I had an intimate knowledge of the Gospels, so I could draw from the situations I saw Jesus in, and act how he did and love as he did. 

So I have been studying the gospels, by myself and with others, not really seeking to break them apart and deeply dig into the meaning of scripture, but to find out what Jesus did, thought, and said, so I can put those into practice in my own life. Some of what we see about Jesus can be shocking. He was very controversial, and often called religious leaders out, many times in very harsh ways. He hung out with people no one else wanted to hang out with, and touched people with diseases that would make him unclean. He did many things that I am sure were not comfortable for him (after all, he is the ruler of the universe), and I am sure made those around him uncomfortable. He was also very humble not seeking any gain for himself at any time. Of course he performed miracles and the like, and did a lot of public speaking. So what are we called to imitate exactly? What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them. Feel free to respond here, or on facebook. 

I deeply desire to live a life rooted in Christ, but I have found that it is very hard to follow after him in this age, as I am sure it has been equally hard in previous ones. I struggle every day to surrender my will to him, because I want to have control over my life. I don’t want to follow him everywhere because that often means going into hard and messy places. First Glance is just one of the places I have seen this play out. However, if I really believe what is in the Bible then I have no choice but to follow after Jesus. I must trust that ALL of his promises are true. I must truly believe in everything in the Bible, and not just believe as an idea but as an action.

To really follow Christ I must genuinely love him. If I don’t love him and trust him then I will never be able to follow him to the places he will ask me to go. So I have been asking that I may love him more in my prayers. I desperately need him, and I realize it more and more each day. I hope you realize this as well

As you are reading this blog I don’t want you, my supporters to just be getting updated on the things I am doing, or the things God is doing. While that is great and a needed part of this blog, I also want to share how God is working on my heart and the things I am wrestling through. I also would like this to be a place where we challenge and encourage one another. So I want to encourage you to participate if you are reading this. With todays technology, even if you can’t physically be here to come participate in my mission, you can still be more involved in it then was previously possible. So please, join me as we spur one another on in faith.

God is Moving in K-Town

God is moving in the hearts of people in Kenmore and we can not take credit for it. There was recently a stop the violence rally in Kenmore. I will explain a little about it, but because I was not there, I would recommend reading this blog post from a pastor First Glance partners with in Kenmore. He also posts a link to video from a local news station who covered it. Please stop and read and watch this before continuing with my blog so you can really see what took place.

http://gosschurch.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/my-reflections-kenmore-community-stop-the-violence-event/

The blog and post pretty much sums up how God is moving amidst the community, and it is so cool to see how he is moving in peoples hearts who are not inside the church. Many people who spoke at the rally mentioned First Glance in a very positive light, so our director, who was at the really felt she needed to go up and say something to represent us. When she said she was from First Glance there was a huge ovation. It is really good to see that we are appreciated in the community. At the same time we want to press on with Christ as our focus, so people won’t give credit to First Glance, but only to God.

I have also been noticing even more spiritual interest from students lately. Every Sunday night we have a program called Open Plate. Anyone in the community can come and we provide them with a free dinner. Afterwards people have the opportunity to stay and go to Tattoo Church, or the teens can go with a First Glance staff member over to a local church we partner with for youth group. This past Sunday I was the staff member hosting Open Plate and taking the kids who wanted to go over to the youth group. Usually just a few kids go over and I feel like I have to convince them they should go. This Sunday I had 15 kids who wanted to go, without having to try to convince them! 

Later on at youth group there is a time where we split off into small groups for discussion. Usually I just take the kids from first Glance, but this time we had so many I couldn’t even take all of them. A few of the kids I had could sometimes be trouble-makers so I wasn’t expecting to much out of the conversation. However, as I started to lead the discussion, all of the kids were engaged and seriously thinking about the questions! The also had many good questions of their own for me. I can only attribute their interest in spiritual things to God working on their hearts in response to our prayers. This makes me so grateful, and makes me want to continue lifting up this community in prayer. Will you continue to join me?


I ALSO HAVE ANOTHER AMAZING OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO COME CHECK OUT MY MINISTRY!

First Glance is hosting an Open House on March 17th at 12:00. There will be free lunch provided and a presentation at 12:45. Come bring the whole family after church and check out what God is doing at First Glance and in the Kenmore community!!! Below is a link to the Facebook description of the event. Please join if you would like to come! I would love to see you all there.

Some of God's Story

Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to share but don’t really know how to share it, or may be just don’t want to spend time processing out how to write it. However, I will do my best to spend time doing that, so you can see the pen strokes God is using as he write my part in his epic. Better yet as he works in me in his epic!

As you know two weeks ago was our prayer week at First Glance. I wholeheartedly believe in this, and have really been trying to make prayer more of a focus in my personal life. There were two things god really laid on my heart to be praying about during prayer week. One was unity among the different believers in Kenmore. In Romans 12:5 it says, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We are all part of the same body, so even bigger then Kenmore, i prayed for unity in the Body of Christ, that we would not compete with one another, but instead be the Church to one another as Christ intended. Another huge thing God laid on my heart to pray for revolves around Eph. 3: 20-21.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. I really just felt the need to pray that we would let God work through us, and he would do immeasurably more then all we ask or imagine, doing things that only he could do and get the glory for. I am tired of doing little things that I can get credit for, I want to do impossible things that only God can accomplish, and people will see them and give glory to God.

As I was going through prayer week it was actually a pretty difficult week. I was having a lot of problems with some of the students, and was just feeling very discouraged. My week could be summed up in this little story. As I was driving to the closing prayer service, and was almost to First Glance, something hit my car. As I looked to the right I saw a few kids running behind a building. After i parked my car and checked to see if there was any damage, I walked back to the area to see if i could talk with them about it. Unfortunately I actually knew one of the students who was with the group, but they were to far away at that time to ask them why they did it. Anyway this brief story sums up how my week went.

There were many positives from our week of prayer as well. Some students actually came to our opening prayer meeting, and we had plenty of prayer requests from our students as well. It is cool to actually specifically pray for students in their brokenness and needs. I will share one awesome story about how God has already responded to our prayers. We have a bible study that started last year among some of our teen and young moms. This actually started last year after our prayer week. They had recently decided to move their bible study to a Saturday. One of the moms who didn’t want to come to the bible study, showed up to babysit, but no one showed up for the bible study. The girl who showed up to babysit was pretty upsett, that people wouldn’t at least give advance notice that they wouldn’t be coming. One of our volunteers who leads the study was a little bothered the girls didn’t show up as well. However as she talked to the girl who was supposed to babysit to calm her down, doors began to open. She ended up sharing the gospel with her, and the girl ended up making Christ the Lord of her life!!! We are already seeing God move after listening to our prayers.

The next week, the staff at First Glance do what we call flex week. It is a week where we are free to go outside of our normal routines, and jut be open to do whatever God leads us to do. We do this after prayer week so we can act on the things God has revealed to us. This week ended up being really refreshing to me, and reminded me of why I do ministry, and how to best do it. I was really reminded that ministry is always about loving and caring for people, ahead of your own needs many times, in the context of relationships. I always need to put my students first, even if that means not getting all of my “tasks” accomplished in the office. I ended up having a lot of really good conversations with students during the week. I even got to walk one student through the Gospel message, from creation, to the new heaven and earth. I am excited to see how God works as I make it a priority to seek his spirit and listen throughout the day, then act on where, or what he leads me to do or go. I am sure this means I will be taken way out of my comfort zones, and I will fail if God is not in it. Isn’t this what we should really desire though, and is that not a greater adventure then taking on tasks that we plan out and can manage on our own? I was also encouraged this week that many people were praying for unity amongst believers because God had laid it on their hearts as well! 

I continue to pray that we would see God move in ways that we would never have thought, in ways that only can bring him glory. Would you pray that with me, for First Glance, for Kenmore, Akron, and in your own lives and communities? It’s time we give up our small dreams, and let God work through us for his purposes.

Eph 3: 14-21

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Prayer Week!!!

Hey blog family,

I wanted to let you know about a significant way you could her involved in helping me out short term in my ministry. Last year God laid it on our hearts to pray for the community of Kenmore for a week straight... and so we did. Since then we have had teens and young adults ask us to start bible studies, the local youth pastor ran out of bibles from giving them away, and as a whole we saw more spiritual interest and growth than ever before at First Glance. John Piper says, "Prayers cause things to happen, that wouldn't happen if we didn't pray". I wholeheartedly believe this!!! So, we are again hosting a week long prayer event; fasting and praying that this community would come to Christ.
I wanted to let you know that you are invited and encouraged to attend and partner with us to pray for a week straight 24 hours around the clock at First Glance. We are hosting our prayer event Saturday, January 12th through Saturday, January 19th.

If you or people in your small group would like to be a part of our prayer week, here are ways you can participate:

-Saturday, January 12th at 7:00 worship & prayer service at First Glance.
-Sign up to pray for an hour, AT FIRST GLANCE, for any of the time slots opened during that week. We are actually hosting TWO rooms due to the demand from last year, so make sure to sign up for either room. Click on the link to sign up to pray at First Glance 943 Kenmore Blvd. Akron, OH 44314https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnvVDzPEvaB_dGI0aHAzZmxvaFdaVjF1d2JVMnJTNkE#gid=1
-Saturday, January 19th, come eat with us at 6:00 and/or join us for a closing worship and prayer service here at First Glance. 

-Be praying for us this week wherever you are. there is no need to sign up for this but if you live in the area it would be great to actually come join us!!!

We are really excited about this, please consider joining us in praying for this community! To check out more about our ministry visit firstglance.org. If you would like more information about this event or want to come in for a tour call me at 330-319-4519. I would love to show you the ministry you help to support.

Love as a brother in Christ,

Ben Rahe

:(

So The day before I head back to work at First Glance I receive an email telling me there has been a shooting in a neighborhood close to Kenmore. A lot of our students at First Glance have been affected by this. Many students know the victims of this crime and are grieving. The person that did the shooting was also related to a lot of people in Kenmore and they have been taking a lot of verbal abuse because of it. All in all it is a very messy situation.

Please be praying for the families and friends of the victims that they would have people in there lives to show them the love of God and that he would comfort them. Please pray also for the family of the shooter, that they would also be comforted and that things would not escalate to further violence. Pray that they would be loved and reach out to the victims families with God's love as well. Pray for us at First Glance for wisdom, as we dearly need it in this rough time.

There are so many things to be praying for for this community and its brokenness. Thanks for praying


-Ben