Easter Project: Rise Up For Youth

Easter Project: Rise Up For Youth

by | High Impact Stories, Ministry Update, Outreach

Easter is coming soon, and I’d like to share a special project you can participate in!

On Easter weekend, 2025, we have a special youth outreach project called “Rise Up for Youth.” We will deliver an Easter gift bag to youth in juvenile centers in Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois. Each bag will contain a Bible, a book called The Case For Easter, a NEW edition of the High Impact Teen Spiritual journal, and some Easter candy. The book, The Case for Easter, is written by former “atheist turned Christian” and former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel. The book makes a powerful case for the evidence of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The High Impact Teen Spiritual Journal is a teen devotional journal I developed with daily Bible reading schedules, a prayer journal, and scripture memory. This revised version of the HIT Journal is specifically for high-risk and fatherless youth with special sections on “How To Have a Personal Relationship With God,” “How To Pray,” and “7 Habits To Help You Grow Spiritually.” Over 30,000 teens have used the HIT Journal since it was first published, and statistically, teens that use the journal average having personal devotions 4 days out of 7 each week or more.

I know you will agree that we are in a culture war between good and evil for today’s youth’s hearts, minds, and souls. And the frontline of the battle is in the heart of our fatherless youth.

You Can Help In Two Ways

  1. Every $27 donated will provide a “Rise Up For Youth” gift bag with these powerful gospel tools. Our goal is to impact at least 300 youth this Easter, and if possible, we could impact 1000 youth through the rest of 2025. We can do more as God provides through His people. To give to this project, go to https://kenturnerministries.org/give/ and select High Impact Ministries and the subfund “Rise Up For Youth.”
  2. Write a letter to a high-risk and fatherless teen in juvenile detention. I am collecting letters to teens in juvenile centers this Easter, and I could use your help! See these instructions and consider writing a letter to a high-risk, fatherless teen. I have an online form so you can write and submit it to me online, and I’ll print it and include it in our special Easter Gift bags we are distributing. Here is the link to write and submit your letter. https://getformly.app/RfbLGx
    If you would prefer to email a message, feel free to type an email and use the subject line “My Letter To Fatherless Youth” and send it to me at kenturner@highimpactteens.org

Your gift at this time will also provide funds to continue sharing the life-changing message of the gospel with fatherless youth throughout the rest of this year!

God bless you as you prayerfully consider partnering to spread the gospel to fatherless youth.

In Christ,

Ken Turner

Christmas Project: Good News for Youth

Christmas Project: Good News for Youth

by | High Impact Stories, Ministry Update, Outreach

Christmas is coming soon, and I’d like to share a special project you can participate in!

We are calling our Christmas Project “Good News for Youth.” We will deliver a Christmas gift bag to youth in Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana juvenile centers. Each bag will contain a Bible, Christmas gift devotional books such as God’s Blessing of Christmas, A Love Worth Giving To You At Christmas, The Four Emotions of Christmas, and Christmas gospel tracts. We will also include knit hats, gloves and some Christmas candy. Imagine spending the Christmas season away from family as a teenager and having little to no contact with loved ones. At times like this God often moves in special ways to speak the message of His love into hearts and minds. We want youth to know there is “Good News.” Christ was born in order that they might receive the greatest gift of all… God’s gift of salvation. What a great gift to recieve this Christmas!

You Can Help In Two Ways

  1. Every $25 donated will provide a “Good News For Youth” gift bag with these powerful gospel tools. Our goal is to impact at least 300 youth this Christmas, and if possible, we could impact 1000 youth. We can do more as God provides through His people. To give to this project, go to https://kenturnerministries.org/give/ and select High Impact Ministries and the subfund “High Impact Needs – Special Projects.”
  2. Write a letter to a high-risk and fatherless teen in juvenile detention. We are collecting letters to teens in juvenile centers this Christmas and could use your help! See these instructions and consider writing a letter to a high-risk, fatherless teen. We have an online form so you can write and submit it online, and we will print it and include it in the special Christmas Gift bags we are distributing. Here is the link to write and submit your letter. https://forms.gle/9YEfHxfcDsVeL3u38

Your gift at this time will also provide funds to continue sharing the life-changing message of the gospel with fatherless youth throughout the rest of this year and next year!

God bless you as you prayerfully consider partnering to spread the gospel to fatherless youth.

In Christ,

Ken Turner

Donate HIT Journals to Transform Youth in Africa

Donate HIT Journals to Transform Youth in Africa

by | Faith, High Impact Stories, Ministry Update, Outreach

Way back around 2008, I received a call from Missionary Fred Kearney in Ghana, West Africa. We did not know each other, but he explained he recently walked into his office in Ghana, and a book was on his desk. It was my High Impact Teen one-year spiritual journal. To this day, no one knows how it got there. He called the phone number printed on the back of the book, and I answered. He explained that this one-year devotional journal was exactly what he needed to disciple youth and young adults in Africa. We shipped him about 75 HIT Journals, and since then, we have reprinted and shipped HIT Journals that hundreds of youth have used in his ministry from surrounding churches.

He needs 120 more HIT Journals for his “Because of the Hour” youth conference in October. What excites me about this is that I know the youth in Africa value the one-year spiritual journal; they appreciate it so much, and they write on every page. Here in the USA, we have tracked the statistics and teenagers that have used the HIT Journal average spending at least 4 out of 7 days each week in personal devotions. I’m sure in Africa, that statistic is higher.

If you would like to donate to help fund this amazing project, it costs about $12 per journal, and your investment will provide a spiritual impact that will carry on for a full year. After we exceed the needed funds for the youth in Africa, we are printing more HIT Journals for the youth we serve in the juvenile centers in IL, IN, TN, and beyond. 

You can give at www.kenturnerministries.org/give or by mail at our address below.

God bless you!

In Christ,

Ken Turner

High Impact Ministries
PO Box 375
Benson, IL 61516

Here are some ways you can partner with us and impact a fatherless teenager.

1. We send Bibles, devotional books, and spiritual resources to youth in juvenile centers.  Your support each month helps provide these resources for teens. If you’d like to partner with us on this project, you can give online or at the address below. Select the “High Impact Needs” fund on our online giving link to support this project.

2. We are continuing to collect “Letters to Fatherless Youth.” You can write and submit a letter online using the form we provide at this link. It’s quick and easy! https://forms.gle/US37RjyLRoR4REVm6 

500 Teens Wanting and Waiting – Our HIT Philippines Project

500 Teens Wanting and Waiting – Our HIT Philippines Project

by | High Impact Stories

God is moving in some remarkable ways.

Earlier this year, our supporters stepped up. Together, we provided 250 of our High Impact Teen one-year spiritual journals to youth in remote areas of the Philippines in the Tagalog language. My close friend and missionary Dale Barkubein is reaching and discipling pastors and ministry leaders there.

Recently he made a three-hour trip to meet with ministry leaders in the Northern Philippines, and God is powerfully using the HIT Journal to reach and disciple youth. These 14 men in this picture are ministry leaders that minister all over the Northern Philippines, and they are needing 500 more High Impact Teen journals for the youth they are discipling. We need your help. The world may be getting dark, but there are people in places worldwide who long to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and they deeply desire to know Him and His word.

I’ve seen God use this simple HIT Journal in the lives of over 20,000 youth over the years, and the average teen that uses it ends up spending at least four days or more every week in personal devotions and prayer.

Would you like to join me in making an eternal investment in this mission field project? I believe God is doing something extraordinary here.

God bless you, and thank you so much for the prayers and support of all our ministry partners.

For every $10 given, we can provide a one-year spiritual journal for a teenager on the mission field. If giving online, select the “High Impact Needs Fund,” and we will designate your gift to this project.

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.

Donate HIT Journals to Transform Youth in Africa

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.
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