Easter is coming soon, and I’d like to share a special project you can be a part of if you feel led to do so.
We are calling our Easter outreach project “Rise Up, for Youth.” We will be delivering an Easter gift bag to youth in juvenile centers in Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Each bag will contain a Bible, a book called The Case For Easter, a book called The Case For Christ, and some Easter candy. These books are by former “atheist turned Christian” and former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel. Both books make a powerful case for the evidence of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I know you will agree that we are in a culture war, a war between good and evil, for the heart, mind, and soul of today’s youth. And the frontline of the battle is in the heart of our fatherless youth. Every $10 given will provide a “Rise Up For Youth” gift bag with these powerful gospel tools. Our goal is a minimum of 300 youth, and if possible, we could impact 1000 youth this Easter. 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.”
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.
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.
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.
Yesterday, I was with a group of six high school boys in one of our outreach programs in a juvenile facility. Two of the six boys made this statement, “I’ve been on my own since I was twelve.”
They went on to explain they weren’t homeless since age twelve but they were “on their own” in the sense that their parents had essentially “checked out” on them by the time they were twelve. In some cases, fathers leave and never return and moms fall into crime or are battling addictions at such a deep level they can’t function well enough to be a parent.
There are no easy answers, but I’d like to hear from others who have overcome difficult circumstances like this. What advice would you give a teenager who said, “I’ve been taking care of myself since age twelve.”
My friendship with Ken started over 20 years ago, during our days in college. Ken has always been an encouragement to me in my involvement in ministry to others. He motivates me to continue reaching others with the messages of God’s love and amazing grace.
When God provides more than we need in our lives financially, I feel it is so that we in turn can help others. I have ministered with Ken in detention centers and youth meetings, I and have seen first hand his love for young people and for those who are less fortunate than others. I believe 100% in what he is doing and consider it an honor to be able to support him financially and prayerfully in what God has called him to do. I’d like to invite you to join us and support this great ministry.
After twenty-one years in church youth ministry I established an outreach ministry in 2008 with a key focus on reaching troubled youth in the community of Indianapolis, Indiana. Our ministry moved to Tennessee in July 2010 and I continue to minister to high-risk and fatherless youth.