I’m not going to pretend that “living a surrendered life” is always easy but I think you would agree it is an adventure!

In 2008 God led me to form an outreach ministry focused on reaching troubled youth. It was the beginning of a brand new ministry adventure and I had plans and ideas about how it might “look” but I promised God I would move forward with a spirit of openness and allow Him to open and close doors as He wished. I would not “hold on too tightly” to anything but would at the same time give Him 100% of my energy and commitment. The result of that decision is the fruit of seeing over 240 teenagers come to Christ in two years. It has been an incredible journey. Even in the midst of incredible results spiritually, we faced a huge challenge of ministry financial support when our largest ministry supporters experienced a financial crisis of their own and had to make a painful decision to stop supporting our ministry as funds became scarce. These are good men and I pray for their recovery in the near future and for God to continue to sustain them along the way and bring back financial success because they have been used greatly to impact ministries and reach others for Christ.

As our family has moved forward and asked God to show us His path, we have been truly amazed to see His hand in our circumstances.

A few months ago I began receiving phone calls from my close friend Dave Sekura about his ministry at Fort Bluff Camp in Dayton, TN. Dave and I have been great friends since college. (We were best men in each other’s weddings so our friendship runs deep). The camp is located in the beautiful hills of Tennessee. Dave has been talking with me for some time about the leadership needs at the camp and the possibility of forming a ministry partnership between Ken Turner Ministries and Fort Bluff Camp. After much prayer and a few trips to Tennessee to meet with the leadership there and discussions with my ministry board, God has made it clear that His path for us is leading our outreach ministry to Tennessee. By the way, our family ministered for a week at the camp in early June and 38 youth received Christ as Savior during the week! Our outreach ministry to troubled youth will duplicate there what has been done in Indianapolis. We will continue ministering to troubled youth in the community of Rhea County, Tennessee including reaching youth in juvenile detention centers and focusing on troubled youth in the surrounding area. I will be joining Dave Sekura in leading the ministry at Fort Bluff Camp while doing outreach ministry in the community as well. It will be a huge expansion of ministry for us. A couple years ago the camp had 10,000 campers so the opportunity to touch 10,000 youth will be great. I will have an office at the camp up on Dayton Mountain and access to great resources through the camp that are not available to me here in Indianapolis.

Our move is coming quickly… the camp wants our family there by August 1. School starts in Rhea County, TN on August 4. So we covet your prayers as we make the transition.

Pray For These Ministry Needs:

• We need to get our home ready for sale: Painting, routine maintenance and sprucing up. (Yes… we could use help if you are handy =)
• We need additional ministry support. We are still raising additional ministry support and will continue to do so until we reach 100% support. There are additional expenses with preparing our home for sale and moving, etc…
• We have other needs to prepare for the move such as vehicle maintenance, etc…
• Pray for all the new relationships we are establishing with the juvenile detention centers, local community leaders, churches and new friends in Tennessee.
• Pray for my wife and children as we make the transition. Everyone is very excited about the move. Jennifer is excited about the family being involved in ministry together at the camp, Jillian will begin her high school senior year at a new school but has made it clear to us she feels this is God’s plan and she’s ready to go, Brett will be entering high school in a new school and is really excited about playing some “Tennessee Football” and wrestling with the “Mountain Boys.” Bethany is entering her junior year of college at UT Chattanooga so she is excited that we will be 45 minutes from her as opposed to the 450 miles that have been between us until now.
• Pray for us as we leave many Indiana friends. We moved to Indiana in 1989 from Nashville, TN. All of our kids were born in Indiana. It will be sad to say goodbye but we know we will stay close to our friends even though many miles will separate us.

Feel free to contact us with questions or if you feel led to partner with us in any of our ministry needs as we move.

To learn more about our new ministry at Fort Bluff Camp and the National Association of Christian Athletes (NACA) visit the website at www.fbc-naca.org

Visit the camp website here: http://www.fbc-naca.org/

Would you consider a $5.00 donation to purchase a Chaplain Bag for one teen? $50 would provide for 10 teens!

Your donation will not only help us reach more youth but will also help us see more “fruit that remains.”

My desire is to bring a message of hope to the hearts and minds of troubled youth who have found themselves at the “bottom” of life’s circumstances. Having spent the past 24 months in weekly Bible studies, counseling with parents and doing one on one mentoring of troubled youth in the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center, I hope to put in writing a message that will help teens understand how their circumstances and choices have led them down a certain path.

But there is hope! A troubled teenager can experience the same opportunity to “bounce back” that God offers to everyone! Whatever the circumstances of life there is a path to victory by taking a close look at where we are, how we got here and formulate a new plan that follows a new path.

Pray for this very important project! I hope to see it completed by the end of the summer 2010.

It kind of made me wonder if Michael has people in his life who really care for him, who pray for him and are willing to take his name to the throne of God.

When the Bible study ended the guys started applauding, thanking me and asking me to come back as soon as possible to share more. The applause was started by the guy who was so angry when I walked in to the room.

Oh, and the guy that was angry when we started… he’s a brother in Christ now too!

Special workshops were held addressing topics such as:

How To Really Love Your Teen

Keeping Your Teens Cybersafe

Embracing The Wisdom Of Your Parents

The Presence of the Holy Spirit In Our Home and Family

Communication, Dating, Preparing Our Teens to Live Out Their Faith In The World

We began our usual Bible study and Darrel sat way over to the left of everyone else and was pretty disconnected from the group. I didn’t know him. Darrel had been admitted to the detention center and assigned to my unit just days before. I knew this about him though… he looked mad, uninterested, hardened and a little intimidating. A few minutes in to our study I looked at Darrel and told him to slide over closer to the group and be a little more engaged with us. He did what I said but he wasn’t a very “happy camper” if you know what I mean.

During the study I asked a question that I wanted everyone to answer. Darrel’s turn to answer was just what I expected. He was continually staring at the floor and looked up and said, “I don’t have an answer.” I said, “It’s no problem… keep thinking about it and I’ll let you answer later.” Obviously, this young man was carrying some heavy burdens. I’m for these guys… not against them. God has the power to change, convert and transform them. I closed in prayer and offered an invitation for any of the guys to accept Christ as their personal Savior. Four guys prayed to receive Christ. At the end of our Bible study Darrel and I had not connected in any way. At least that’s what I thought. I was about to find out how unbelievably wrong I was in thinking this way.

After our closing prayer I thanked the guys for their attention and closed my Bible. Darrel looked up at me from across the room and said, “Are you leaving right away?” I said I would hang around a few minutes if anyone wanted to talk.” Darrel grabbed his chair and darted over to me and pulled up under a table. I sat down and just looked at him. He leaned forward and looked straight into my eyes and said, “I need to be saved. Can you please tell me how to be saved? Can you show me from the Bible how a person gets saved?” I said, “You know… I think I have a minute or two!” As I began to read the passages of scripture he put his finger on the pages of my Bible and touched each word as I read it. I offered to pray with him and he prayed and asked Jesus Christ to save him from all of his sin and he became a child of God. But there is more.

On my way out of the detention center I ran into one of the directors of the center and told this story to her. She was amazed to hear of Darrel’s decision to accept Christ. It was somewhat of a miracle to hear that he had made the decision to come to God. Out of approximately 100 young men in the detention center, God had touched this young man’s heart and the change in his spirit was noticeable right away.

I truly hope this story excites you and motivates you in your own relationship with God. He can reach the hardest one of a hundred men. When I saw Darrel the other day, he was smiling and vibrant. He told me he is reading the Bible and praying every day. Thank you for your prayers and financial support of this vital ministry to troubled youth!

_______________________________________________________________________

UPDATE ON THIS STORY – March 22, 2009

15 Year Old Dies In Indianapolis
By Ken Turner

On Saturday, March 21 I learned of the tragic death of this young man. When I write to you about the youth I minister to, I use an alternate name to protect their privacy.

The “Darrel” I mentioned last week was released from the juvenile detention center on Monday, March 16 and was killed on Friday, March 20. Please pray for his family as I meet with them today to tell them of his recent decision for Christ and seek to help.

He is the Daniel mentioned in this news story…

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?s=10042731

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/crime/Police_investigating_citys_latest_homicide_20090320

__________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE ON THIS STORY – March 23, 2009

Pray for the Daniel Ferguson Family
By Ken Turner

I met Daniel Ferguson within the past two weeks through my ministry to youth in the inner city of Indianapolis. Daniel was tragically killed on Friday, March 20, 2009.

Thank you to all who have offered prayer and support to the family at this time. If you would like to offer support to the family please feel free to contact me.

WTHR News Story

WISH TV News Story

Funeral arrangements are with:

Lavenia, Smith & Summers Home for Funerals
5811 East 38th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46218
(317) 547-5814
www.laveniasmithsummers.com

The day and time of services are as follows…

Daniel T. Ferguson
(April 17, 1993 – March 20, 2009)

I was privileged to be a part of this youth event as a keynote speaker along with Randy Tanis as the other keynote speaker. Randy is a great friend a youth ministry veteran of over 20 years who now serves as director of Camp Chetek in Chetek, WI.

Dwayne Morris is the youth pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, serving with Senior Pastor Bob Loggans.

Over 400 attended the conference including about 100 youth leaders.

The challenge of the day was HE NOT ME. Our messages dove tailed together lifting up a key truth for all youth to embrace… “Live your life focused on God, not to seek the approval of others, not for self, but to sincerely pursue a growing relationship with God and His word and through that strength allow God to use you to impact others for eternity.”

I give the people of Calvary Baptist an A+ for their spirit of hospitality, friendliness and obvious desire to see God work in the lives of youth!

I need to ask for some help from my friends. Even though the ministry God has given me here to troubled youth has been extremely fruitful, the battles have been equally extreme. So, I need my friends to pray for us and help if you can.

Our largest source of ministry funding was a group of Christian businessmen and 9 months ago that funding stopped due to the negative impact the economy had on their business. This lost funding represents 85% of our monthly budget. (It’s like taking an 85% pay cut).

So, for the past several months we have been working to obtain more ministry funding to keep moving ahead. It has been literally a “day by day” experience of trusting God for our daily needs.

I have contacted several large private foundations that fund ministries like ours but it will take time to hear back from them regarding funding. While we are waiting for that funding to begin, we need to find ministry friends who could commit to monthly support. If you feel God would want you to partner with us in this way, I am asking for those who can to step in and support this ministry monthly for the next 3 months, 6 months or 12 months… whichever you feel you can do. It may not sound like a lot but what we need are supporters for $12, $24, $48 or $96 per month. It costs $12 per week per teen for our ministry to operate or $48 per month per teen. (There may be some who want to make a one time donation and that would help as well).

Again… it may be that you could become one of our partners in reaching these unreached youth even if it’s only for the first few months of 2010. Visit our website at…
http://kenturnerministries.org/give to give online or you can download the image within this note, print it out and mail in a donation.

I hope you will prayerfully consider the needs of the youth we are reaching. We typically see an average of 3 new teens comes to Christ each week and our new discipleship program will go in to effect this year so we will see even more youth come to full spiritual maturity.

Thank you and God bless.

Ken Turner

Don is a member of our Mentor Outreach Team to troubled youth.

Click here to see a video of his story.

After praying with a few teen guys I asked the youth manager if I could help *Anthony. She said I could have permission to go speak to him in his room. There he sat on his bed with a toilet and sink and small window to see outside. It was just before Christmas and he was crying so hard. It was the kind of cry that made me think, “His muscles are going to be so sore when he wakes up tomorrow.” He was so tense. I put my hand on his shoulder and it was as hard as the steel holding up the bed.

I waited for Anthony to catch enough breath top talk. He began to say in very broken phrases he was so scared because he was all alone. He had no dad and his mom lost custody of him when he was two years old. What can I say to that? I couldn’t think of anything. Nothing was coming to my mind that sounded in the least bit hopeful.

Then it hit me! You need a father. You need to know someone will be there for you. I couldn’t promise to be his father but I could promise to teach him about God as his Heavenly Father. We talked about that for a while. I prayed with him. His hard shoulder became soft and he started breathing without effort. He smiled and said he felt so much better.

That was December 2008 and I have been on a mission this past year. A mission to help give hope and answers to hundreds of fatherless and troubled youth.

I have had a few people ask recently if I could send them a document they could share with others explaining the ministry I have to troubled youth. People who have had a part in this ministry during 2009 are wanting to know what they can do to spread the word.

At the beginning of 2009 I could never have imagined the year God would have given us. It has been pretty incredible seeing over 160 teens come to Christ and watching God open new doors in so many ways.

I thought I would attach this 3 page PDF file for you to save to your computer. Feel free as you are talking to friends or associates to share this ministry with others you feel may be interested in partnering with us.

God bless all those who have faithfully prayed, supported and encouraged our ministry to troubled youth this year!

Sincerely,

Ken Turner

*(For the sake of confidentiality I must use alternate names when sharing about the youth I serve)

My vehicle had a computer that tells you miles per gallon, length of trip and DTE. My gas gauge was pretty low but I thought, “I can beat the system.” I switched the computer to the DTE setting, which of course tells me my Distance to Empty. I watched the numbers as they dropped to 7 miles to empty, 6, 5 and on down to 2 miles to empty as I whipped into the parking lot! Once again… a victory was won! I was at the church on time for the activity and did not have to waste precious time to stop for gas.

I thought later, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if we had a DTE gauge which was installed to monitor our walk with God?” So many times I have found myself running to do the next thing for God that I was convinced I could not take time for God. It would be so foolish to start out a trip to summer camp with all church vehicles on empty because you just don’t have time for a fuel stop!

I am afraid many of us start too many days with God running on empty because we convince ourselves we do not have time to spiritually fuel up. Sound familiar?

What about your devotional life, prayer life, your outside reading or even exercise? Are you taking care of yourself? I have recommitted myself as we enter the New Year to spend more time taking care of the things that produce the energy I need to do the work of God. How about you?

Ken Turner
High Impact Teens