by Ken Turner | Ministry Update
Each month, I enjoy sharing stories of how God is at work in the hearts and lives of the high-risk and fatherless youth we are reaching. In our Bible study in the juvenile center this past week, one of the high school guys wanted to share how God has been transforming his heart. Here is his story.
“I’ve spent much of my life angry at my parents. I’ve felt they gave up on me and didn’t provide for me all the things I needed to make it in life. Eventually, the conflicts and struggles in our home led to my parents making the decision to place me in foster care. I felt abandoned. My anger grew worse after being in and out of a few foster homes and now in juvenile detention. But as we’ve studied the Bible together each week, God has been transforming my heart. I now realize that not all of the issues in my life were because others may have failed me. Much of my struggles come from my own heart. As I’ve given my life to Christ and been growing in Him, I realize I have so much more to be thankful for than I ever realized. So, I have chosen to forgive any hurts of the past, and I’ve been writing letters to my parents and each of my foster families that have invested in me. I’ve taken time to thank each of them and also to apologize for my actions and attitudes when they were trying to help me.”
There’s change, and there’s transformation. This story is a story of transformation. When our heart changes and our thinking changes, we know that God is really at work and He is transforming us into the person He has purposed us to be.
Please keep these youth in your prayers! God is doing great things.
Over the next few months, we have some special ministry projects and will definitely need the support of our ministry friends. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will provide hundreds of Bibles, devotional books, spiritual resources, and gift bags to teens in IL, IN, and TN juvenile centers. I’ll get more details to you soon, but please pray for these important outreach projects. I can’t imagine anything more important than planting the seed of the gospel in the hearts of 500-1000 youth over the next few months.
God is doing great work in the hearts of fatherless and high-risk youth weekly, and the prayers and support we receive make it all possible!
Thank you for all your prayers and support! It’s because of you and your partnership and the faithfulness of God we can reach fatherless youth.
In Christ,
Ken Turner
PS. If you haven’t made a recent gift to help bring the hope of the gospel to fatherless youth, please consider donating today. Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/
*The names mentioned are not their real names to protect the privacy of these minor youth. Please keep in your prayers the outreach ministry in Normal, IL; Peoria, IL; Galesburg, IL, led by Rob Skow; the outreach in York, PA, led by Tom Vietti; the outreach ministry of Joshua Goodling in Knoxville, TN, and the outreaches that continue to flourish in Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, Dandridge, TN and Indianapolis, IN.
Our mailing address is:
Ken and Jennifer Turner
High Impact Ministries
PO Box 375
Benson, IL 61516
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by Ken Turner | Ministry Update, Outreach
I meet new teenagers regularly in my weekly High Impact Teen Bible study in the juvenile center in Normal, IL. There are a few guys I’ve been seeing for months, and the spiritual growth I see in them is encouraging! A couple of weeks ago, I met two new guys, and they were very engaged in the scripture we were studying together. As we came to the end of the study, I mentioned the subject of the gospel… and what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I asked if they had ever been told how to know Jesus as their Savior personally. These “new guys” said, “No, I’ve never heard this before.” I proceeded to share the gospel message, and it is such an honor to be in a front-line ministry where I have the opportunity to be the first person ever to share the gospel with someone. I was on vacation last week on a trip to Florida, but I will see these guys again tomorrow at our next Bible study. Pray for them as they have been “pondering” the meaning of accepting Christ.
Please keep in your prayers the outreach ministry in Normal, IL; Peoria, IL (where I recently completed a three-month study on fatherhood); the outreach in Galesburg, IL, led by Rob Skow, the outreach in York, PA, led by Tom Vietti, the outreach ministry of Joshua Goodling in Knoxville, TN, and the outreaches that continue to flourish in Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, and Indianapolis, IN.
Thank you for all your prayers and support! It’s because of you and your partnership and the faithfulness of God we can reach fatherless youth.
In Christ,
Ken Turner
PS. If you haven’t made a recent gift to help bring the hope of the gospel to fatherless youth, please consider donating today. Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/
Our new mailing address is:
Ken and Jennifer Turner
High Impact Ministries
PO Box 375
Benson, IL 61516
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by Ken Turner | High Impact Living, Ministry Update
We moved to Central IL, in October, and Jennifer and I probably underestimated how much work it takes to move 600 miles north! A close friend called to “check on me” after we were here a couple of months. I was telling him how I felt “very out of sync” with everything. He said, “A good friend told me once that it takes about four months to feel settled after a big life transition.” I was trying to connect with area juvenile centers to see what kind of ministry needs and opportunities were there. Jennifer and I were trying to formulate a plan to remodel an older home we bought a few blocks from her parents. We were trying to find a church home that felt right for us. We were trying to figure out where to put our stuff that fit into the house we sold in Tennessee but didn’t exactly fit in the house in Illinois. We were dealing with missing our kids, who are now in other states, and even though we are close to Jennifer’s family, we were wrestling with the idea that we don’t have any other close friends here. But a lot has come together in four months.
We had many ministry supporters step up with donations in December, and we were able to provide Christmas gifts, Bibles, and spiritual growth resources to fatherless teens in the juvenile centers in Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, Indianapolis, IN, Peoria, IL, Normal, IL, and Rockford, IL. Over 300 teens received the gospel message, and I pray God will use the seeds sown to bring many of them to Christ.
I have now met with the program director of the juvenile center in Normal, IL, and am starting a weekly Bible study with the youth there. I also met with the program director at the Peoria, IL, juvenile center, along with a few other friends I’ve been collaborating with in Peoria. I start our new ministry outreach in Peoria today. I’ll be teaching a group of teenage guys, most of them are fatherless, about God as a Father and about how to be a real dad in the future. I created a nine-week study a few years ago based on God’s role as a father in our life and His plan for us to embrace God as a father and prepare to follow His model as a Godly father to our own kids someday. This really is the path to reshaping the family tree and creating a spiritual generational shift. This Friday, I’ll be in the juvenile center in Galesburg, IL, and will be starting a regular Bible study there along with a friend of mine, Rob Skow.
While in the Peoria Juvenile Center last week, meeting with and getting to know some of the youth, a teenage boy spoke up and took his hand, and began patting himself on the chest as he repeated, “I need this, I need this… we all need this. I’m all in.” The program director at the Normal, IL juvenile center said, “It’s been such a struggle to get people here “post-Covid” to meet the spiritual needs of our youth… I’m glad you are here.” Another ministry leader in Peoria recently said, “I believe God brought you and Jennifer here at this specific time to meet some very specific needs of our youth.”
Thank you so much to all our prayer partners and ministry supporters. Please continue to pray for us as we are in the “start-up phase” in three juvenile centers at the same time. Moving and setting up a new office and outreach also brings a lot of expense. It’s much more expensive than we even realized. Your support and extra gifts are greatly appreciated as we try to navigate through this part of the process.
If you haven’t made a recent gift to help bring the hope of the gospel to fatherless youth, please consider a donation today.
Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/
In Christ,
Ken Turner
Our new mailing address is:
Ken and Jennifer Turner
High Impact Ministries
PO Box 375
Benson, IL 61516
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by Ken Turner | High Impact Living, Ministry Update
Happy New Year to you and your family!
There’s never been a more urgent time to reach a generation of youth than now. God has given us a fruitful year of ministry in 2021, and we are excited to see the miraculous, life-changing impact of the gospel in the lives of high-risk and fatherless youth in 2022.
We are entering our 35th year of full-time youth ministry. I thank God for His blessings and His faithfulness.
We are so thankful for your friendship, prayer support, and financial partnership.
Year-end gifts made by midnight tonight will help us take the gospel message to fatherless youth in 2022! Just a few more donations will help us reach our goal for 2021. We are within $10,000 of our goal for the year.
In Christ,
Ken Turner
*Give at https://kenturnerministries.org/give/
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by Ken Turner | 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.
Being 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.
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by Ken Turner | 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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