Fargo is on move!!!

Fargo is going great! It is finally warming up! We hit 50 degrees last week, which was a great change from the sub-zero temperatures that welcomed me into the city. Although this means that Fargo is having to deal with flood waters, but we are making it through, and sandbagging has been a great way to reach out to the community and meet new people. However, all the families in the Fargo/Moorhead area could definitely use your prayers.

Since I have been up here God has been doing so much to get us ready for the Fall. Right now we are currently working with 14 local churches, and that number is increasing each week as we meet and new people/churches, and we have been able to engage 6 smaller communities outside of the Fargo/Moorhead area to begin trainings, as well as to schedule more outreaches for our Fall campaign that will take place from September 19th-Oct 9th. God is opening up doors for us every day.

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of seeing 50 high schools kids come out to get trained to start small groups/outreaches in their high school. Then the day after the training a group of kids started a group through Facebook and with in 24 hours they already had 60 members join their group. The fields truly are white for the harvest up here!

In addition, to all of those kids raising up small groups through out the community we have raised up, through a partnership with Children's Evangelism Fellowship, 86 small groups for children. But we still have much more work to go. We are estimating that to properly handle the amount of responses we get during the tour with nurturing follow-up and discipleship we will need around 200 small groups for all ages through out the Fargo-Moorhead area, and the surrounding communities.

In addition, to that God has been so faithful to provide financially for the tour. Of our $350,000 budget that we have the community God has already raised close to $200,000 in pledges. In fact last week we received a check for $10,000 from a local business man, and then this week in a church kick-off we had gentleman pledge $45,000 and he began that pledge with a $25,000 check. God is so faithful to provide for His children!

We have a lot of exciting things coming up in the next month that we would love for you to pray with us on. First, is we are having a series of banquets that will help launch new communities, as well as bring on new churches through out the area. We are having 3 banquets in 3 separate communities April 29th and 30th, as well as May 1st. In addition, to our banquets we are beginning what we call local link trainings, which is where we go into local churches and train the church on personal evangelism and follow-up. So far we already have 3 churches who have booked their trainings, and a few more who are looking for dates. It is so cool to see God rallying His troops behind what He is doing here in Fargo. The final thing that we could use your prayers on is engaging the schools. So far we have 2 high schools committed to allowing us to do evening time events, but we are hoping to have about 6 more, and we need to book assemblies in ALL the schools so that we can invite the kids out to the evening performances where we will preach the Gospel. The assemblies are so key! Please pray for favor and openness as we approach the school to book assemblies for next Fall!

Thank you so much for taking time to read what is going on here in Fargo. I am so excited to be a part of what God is doing here in Fargo, and it is so encouraging to see all the churches rally behind this one call to reach their community. It is a huge blessing!

How Much is Enough – the Joy of Giving

God’s heart is always freedom. It is never slavery, stress, or depression. Sometimes I feel we mistake the burdens of the Lord for yoke’s of slavery. Burdens, while at times may be stressful, will always bring us peace, joy, and closeness with the Father. They will be rooted in love, promise, and hope. When we look at them we will see the Lord through and through, as well as the privilege of serving and caring for that burden. Burdens from God bring life and excitement!

However, yokes are an entirely different beast. You see yokes may feel like burdens from God, but they bring desperation and fear. They make us think, “How am I ever going to do that? There is no way! I am going to be a failure!” Or thought that are on similar lines. They make us question ourselves, and there is no hope in a yoke of slavery. There is no peace. It throws us into desperation, and traps us. These yokes then become full of guilt, shame, and fear, and they ultimately become walls between us and our Father. We begin to look at them, and we see disobedience, and we think we are unworthy to approach. This leads to separation for Dad and ultimately leads to death.

Yokes sometimes are unnecessary things that we put on our plates. However, they can also be godly burdens that we attempt to care for through our own means, instead of walking in the Spirit and provision of the Lord. So, instead of the burdens that God puts on our hearts breading joy, peace, and hope like the Lord intended, and instead of them giving us life like God designed them to they bring us death. Satan deceives us and makes us think they are just something else we have to do, and he makes them yokes. They are another thing on our already booked out to-do list, and we get overwhelmed. And this is because we fail to see that these burdens were designed by God for us to do with Him, and that they were not meant to be another task to busy our day. Or another thing we have to give our money to. Rather God meant for them to be something that we did and financed with and through our Him. They were always to build relationship between Dad and His kids.

The reality is that we are not alone. We are never called to do something by ourselves even if we are the only person around. God is always with us, stirring up His saints and angels along with Himself to come to our aid. His Spirit is always there so that we can walk in Him, and be lifted to heights we never thought possible. If we can remember that God is always there to talk to and provide a way I believe burdens will never become yokes, and we will never take on a yoke that we were not meant to. The reason being is that we will be in constant communication with God, and we will only do what He calls us to, and then He will intervene for whatever we need.

This truth, relationship with God, is where the joy of giving and serving lies. Without this relationship with Dad the question will always be, “How much is enough? How much do I need to give?” There will be this constant yoke of, “Am I giving enough? Am I serving enough?” And it will rob us of the joy God intended.

It is so faithful to know that God is faithful to speak and guide His kids. When we are talking with the Lord, and asking Him, “How much should I give or serve?” God is faithful to speak to us. He tells us exactly where and how much to give and serve, and we see life and blessing come from that obedience. He will even stretch us, and we will give in amounts and serve in ways that we never thought possible. We will begin to look for places to give and serve, because the joy of giving will infiltrate our heats as we see that God is faithful to provide everywhere He calls us to give and go.

Then with our eyes fixed on the Father we will stop asking, “How much is enough?” in fear that we will not be provided for. But in the security of our Fathers arms who is faithful to provide, and with us knowing that we are completely taken care of we will begin to ask, “Dad, can I give to them? Can I serve them? Please make a way. I so desperately want to help them” And the Father will delight to pour blessing into us, because he knows we will fulfill His original plan with Abraham. He will know that through blessing us we will bless the nations!

No, we do not give and serve; so that we can get more. That is not what I am saying. Rather, we give and serve because we know that we are secure in our Father’s arms, and there is no fear of lack. We freely give and serve, because we have been freely given too. We realize that there is life and joy in giving and serving, and so we give and serve because we have hope in something out of this world. Giving and serving were always meant to be rooted in hope and joy, and never in obligation and necessity, which leads to slavery. Rather as freed men and women we give our time, resources, and money to celebrate our freedom in the Lord! Giving is a celebration that is meant to be full of joy.

This is a lesson that the Lord has been teaching me, and it has been slow and hard, but it has been so good! In fact, I feel that I need to apologize and ask for forgiveness from some of you. In some of my letters I have unfairly put a yoke on you to help make a way for me to do what God has called me to. I unintentionally put some of you in slavery thinking if you did not give I would not be taken care of. You are giving because you think you need to in order for me to stay in the field. I want you to know that God is completely faithful to make a way for me, and He will provide. I want to encourage some of you that if you are giving out of necessity please stop giving to me. The only reason I want any of you to give is because you have heard a voice from the Lord saying I want you to invest in Matt and what he is doing. Investing in me should bring you life and joy. You should receive pleasure because you know you are allowing thousands of kids to come to the Lord with every campaign that we do. Giving should cause you to celebrate. It should be something you are doing with Dad!

I pray blessing beyond blessing for everyone who reads this letter. Through you God is going to bless the nations and the ends of the earth. For you are secure in the Father’s arms, and that hope has more power than anything on earth! Praise God ! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Matt