Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – Friendship: A Threefold Cord Is Hard To Break

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – Friendship: A Threefold Cord Is Hard To Break

by | High Impact Living

Friendship

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Eccesiastes 4:9-12

Thought For Today

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon continues his life-changing message, living for this world leaves us empty. He nails it down by revealing two life choices that lead to very different results.

The selfish life is a wasted life. The person who lives for himself and chooses work, success, and riches over relationships leads to emptiness.

Eccl. 4:8, There is one alone, without companion: He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, Nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, “For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?” A vain life and a grave misfortune.

The sociable life is a cure for emptiness. Choosing friendship, and investing in relationships bring many advantages. Strength, companionship, and resilience come to those who choose relationships as a priority. A threefold cord is hard to break.​

Ken Turner

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Helping Youth In Juvenile Detention

Helping Youth In Juvenile Detention

by | High Impact Stories

A Message from Ken Turner, Founder of High Impact Teens
 
I lead a youth outreach ministry to high-risk and fatherless youth and much of our work is done in juvenile detention centers. Our outreach is called High Impact Teens and we are in juvenile centers here in Tennessee as well as Indianapolis, IN, and York, PA.
 
I’ve worked closely with Misty Neeley, the State Executive Director of the Office of Juvenile Justice Tennessee to keep our network of ministry partners informed of the needs of our youth across the state. We are currently working with volunteers at Mountain View YDC in Dandridge, Stones River Academy in Nashville, and Wilder YDC in Memphis.
 

Our ministry was founded in Indianapolis. I served as a full-time youth pastor in Indiana for approximately 20 years and in a “chance conversation” one day I was told about a small group of teen boys in “Unit F” in the Marion County Juvenile Center in Indianapolis who were pleading with staff to find a man who would be willing to come to have a Bible study with them and answer the question, “What is God’s plan for us as young men. Because we do not have fathers, we don’t know how to walk like a man, talk like a man, how to treat a woman, and we know God has plans for us… but what are those plans?” I volunteered to start that Bible study in 2008 and the great was history, as the saying goes. My life was changed forever by the powerful impact these young men had on me and the impact God and His word had on them.

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We have a few ways we are regularly helping youth in our juvenile facilities.

1. We have Bibles and devotional books available for teens who would like to have them. Some of our devotional materials are written by teens who were in detention and found ways to put into words powerful messages to youth who are struggling today.

2. We provide thousands of cards with envelopes to youth who are detained and would like to send a card to a loved one at Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Father’s day. We also offer support to parents who are looking for help to become better equipped to meet the needs of their struggling teenagers.

3. We are building a network of churches and ministries to help recruit more volunteers to serve in our juvenile centers and donate to specific needs that arise throughout the year. Our National outreach initiative is called Every Youth Every Facility.

If you are a staff member in a juvenile facility and any of these things could be helpful to you or a facility you are associated with, please feel free to email me and I’ll be glad to help by sending these materials or collaborating with you to get more volunteer support.

Ken Turner

*Learn more about how to impact high-risk and fatherless youth at www.kenturnerministries.org

423-381-0018 phone
423-402-8995 fax
kenturner@highimpactteens.org
_____________________
Office Address: Ken Turner Ministries: High Impact Teens, 289 Main Street, Dayton, TN 37321
Mailing address: Ken Turner Ministries, PO Box 1325, Dayton, TN 37321

CHURCH MEMBERS, VOLUNTEERS, THOSE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF YOUTH

Our goal is to touch the lives of 1,000’s of youth each year by providing for high-risk and fatherless youth in juvenile detention. Through our outreach ministry to youth in juvenile centers across Tennessee, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, we are giving them the hope of the gospel. Because of your prayers and gifts, we can reach into these places where 85-90% of youth are fatherless.Churches and individuals have joined together as a team of donors and prayer partners… Join us and give a gift today to provide hope to high-risk and fatherless youth.

A Window Into Juvenile Detention Ministry

A Window Into Juvenile Detention Ministry

by | Ministry Update

Here’s a post I wrote a few years ago giving a snapshot into the real world of ministry to youth in juvenile detention. The three of us had arrived early and went through the usual process of emptying our pockets and remembering to lock everything in our vehicles except our photo identification and our Bibles. Alex is a lawyer and Ben is a retired juvenile court judge and the three of us look forward to these times when we get to spend an evening with a room full of teenage boys who are incarcerated in the Mountain View Juvenile Development Center just outside Knoxville, TN. The guards are always friendly as they go through the process of checking us through security. We sign in, leave car keys at the desk along with our identification and clip a visitor tag onto our shirt. They escort us through a few steel doors and each one locks behind us. We get to the room where we will hold our regular youth Bible study. We set up the room by placing the plastic chairs in the shape of a large oval. It seems like there is so much to catch up on while we are waiting for the youth to arrive escorted by guards. We use these few minutes to talk about our families, our church, work, books we are reading, and anything else on our minds. All the while we catch ourselves looking toward the window as we see teens entering the hallway. Are there just a few coming tonight? Are there a lot of them? Are there any new faces and are our regulars all coming? The guard sticks his key in and opens the door. Yes, we’ve been locked in here for several minutes waiting on them. Teenage boys rush into the room. Most of them have huge smiles on their faces. Rarely do any of them go straight to a chair. That’s just not how it goes. They rush up to Alex and Ben and to me and grab our hands offering a firm handshake. “Hey, it’s great to see you! How have you been? Thanks for coming tonight!” The room is energized! Everyone grabs a Bible (Alex always brings extras) or they have their own. The room is full! We sit down and everyone shares their name and a prayer request and then we pray. We dive right into a vibrant Bible study and I usually lead while Alex and Ben chime in with a quick testimony or an insight into the topic. It might surprise you to know, there are no discipline problems. It’s not a struggle to get anyone’s attention. It is a lively atmosphere and guys can’t wait to ask questions or share a thought. And there are these “God moments” that occur. Moments where it feels like He just pulled up a chair and sat in our circle and spoke right into the ear of someone. This happens a lot and it’s what keeps me so excited about this ministry. One of those moments happened recently while we were studying Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. A persecutor of Christians became a proclaimer of the gospel, basically overnight. One of the guys started to squirm and you could see that the wheels were turning in his mind. His hand shot into the air and he said, “Ken, are you telling me that God can change someone that much and He can do it that fast?” I said, “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” He said, “That’s amazing. Because, Ken, I’m just going to be straight up with you. I’ve probably been arrested a hundred times and every time I get out I decided I’m going to do better but I always fail. I had no idea God could change someone like that and do it so quickly.” Then, guys all over the room began to speak to him and share quick testimonies of a specific way God had transformed their lives from the inside out. It was powerful. We had a powerful and meaningful moment of prayer as our time quickly ran out. It was obvious the Spirit of the Lord was moving. We gave the gospel and this young man didn’t accept Christ in the Bible study but he took a Bible and the plan of salvation printed in the back to his room. Pray for him to trust Christ.

View More: http://johnandlindsey.pass.us/commercialBeing with these guys and sharing God’s truth with them causes me to understand why James 1:27 is so powerful. Authentic faith looks like this… visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep unspotted from the world. 85-90% of these youth are fatherless. They need and they really want the hope and love that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.Want to learn more about getting involved? Contact us.

High Impact Teens and the Ghana Project for Young Pastors

High Impact Teens and the Ghana Project for Young Pastors

by | High Impact Stories, Ministry Update

In 2009 things were a little tough in the world of ministry, to put it mildly. We were one year into the founding of our outreach ministry and you probably remember, the economy was not good! I was working in my office in the basement of our home in Indianapolis on what was a very discouraging day. The phone rang and that changed. It was a missionary calling from Ghana, West Africa.

I answered the phone and it was Fred Kearney. We had never met. But here is what he said. “I walked into my office today here in Ghana, and a book was on my desk. It was a High Impact Teen one-year spiritual journal. I couldn’t believe it because I’ve been looking for something like this for the teens we are reaching in Africa. The youth don’t have anything like this over here. So I called the phone number on the back cover of this book to see if there is any way we can get these for our youth?”

No one knows how my High Impact Teen journal ended up in Africa, on the desk of a missionary.

We worked together and were able to ship about 100 HIT Journals to the youth.

Here is a picture of some of the youth smiling with excitement with their NEW HIT Journals a few years ago!

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A few years later, Fred Kearney called again. They were hosting a youth conference for several hundred teens from cities and villages all over. We reached out to our supporters and were able to help by providing a few hundred HIT Journals.

So, now here we are with a new UPDATE TO THE STORY.

Two of the teen guys who used the HIT Journals (or as Fred Kearney says… they devoured everything in these journals) are now grown. Both of them are 25 years old and God has called them to be pastors. Both of them are planting new churches in Ghana. Fred Kearney’s parent church, Lighthouse Baptist, will now have three other churches to bring a total of four vibrant churches reaching the lost of Africa. The two newest church plants are being pastored by these two young men.

Because the High Impact Teen Journal has been such a vital part of their spiritual development as teens, they want all the youth in their churches to use it as well in order to become grounded in the Word. They are requesting 100 HIT Journals for each of the two churches, or 200 HIT Journals. 

For a gift of $15, you can sponsor a teen in Ghana to be discipled by one of these young pastors with the High Impact Teen journal. Can you help sponsor one or more and invest in these youth who are hungry for the Word of God?

Let’s join hands and help Fred and Antoinette Kearney and invest in these two young pastors, Samuel and Prosper!

Check out their photos and a video below of these young pastors!

In Christ,
Ken Turner
Click the DONATE button to give online.
Select High Impact Ministries, and Ghana West Africa – HIT Journal Project.
Or you can mail a gift to High Impact Teens, PO Box 1325, Dayton, TN 37321.
Prefer to give via PayPal? Click here for our PayPal link
https://youtu.be/6M6eAfnOCr8 [fusion_youtube id=”https://youtu.be/6M6eAfnOCr8″ alignment=”” width=”” height=”” autoplay=”false” api_params=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” css_id=””][/fusion_youtube]
Rise Up! Easter Outreach 2019

Rise Up! Easter Outreach 2019

by | Outreach

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Rise Up! Easter Outreach 2019

Sponsor a teen this Easter and provide a gift bag including a message of the gospel,
an explanation of the real meaning of Easter, a Bible, a spiritual journal and a small gift.

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Why Give?

This Easter Sunday, High Impact Teens will be delivering gift bags to juvenile centers in order to lift up struggling youth. The concept is simple; teens will receive a gift bag with a paperback Bible, a small “Rise Up Spiritual Journal” we’ve created, and some Easter candy. The Rise Up Journal will include the message of the gospel and the real meaning of Easter with an ongoing Bible reading plan and journal pages.

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Make a Difference

Sponsor a teen and help them “Rise Up” and become a NEW person this Easter.

$10.00 sponsors one teen!

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Make A Difference, Give Today

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