The following article is from ARC member, Stephanie Midthun. Stephanie is a gifted worship leader and the wife of ARC Pastor Joel Midthun in Elk Grove, CA.

I went to Kenya for the first time in 2003 to work with street children. I knew God would change me, but I had no idea what to expect. My prayer was: “God break, my heart for the things that break Your heart.” I experienced heartbreak and hope daily as I met hundreds of boys living on the streets of Kenya;most are running from abuse and poverty or they are orphaned. At one point I cried out to God, “Do something, God!” and His reply to me was, ‘ I want you to do something…be My hands and feet and the voice for the children.’ I have been a worship leader and songwriter for many years and the Lord started calling me to write songs for them and head up benefit CD’s and concerts to help rescue more children.

When I returned from Kenya, I was reading an article and this quote from Sean Groves leapt off of the page. If we lift our hands in praise and worship, but with those same hands don’t extend them to the poor, the needy the hungry, then we have worshipped a singer, a song or a service. Worshipping God makes a difference in the lives of others (2003 article in Worship Leader magazine; Worship and Missions). God has since given me a passion for justice and worship. Amos 5:21-24 and Isaiah 1:15-17… stop doing wrong, learn to do what is right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow. God is displeased with worship that doesn’t include the ministry of justice. God was appalled that His church wasn’t showing up to stop the injustices….this is the only time the word “appalled” is used in the Bible. (Just Courage, by Gary Haugen, IJM)

After focusing a number of years on the children in Africa, God spoke to me that there is also something HERE for me to do. I read an article in our newspaper and I was shocked to read about the sex trafficking of children in our OWN community and that a woman named Jenny Williamson had a dream to build a home for these children in Sacramento called a Courage House. I called Jenny and we met for coffee and found that we had an equal passion for Africa. Part of her ministry is in Tanzania and she planned to build a Courage House there too. Jenny told me how God broke her heart for these children around the world, but the when she started doing research, she found out that we have a massive problem of children who are being sold or trafficked for sex right here in the U.S. There are an estimated 500,000-800,000 in the United States and Sacramento, where we live, is one of the top 15 cities! The average age of these children is 12 and 13 yrs old, some as young as 10. There are only 3 small homes in all of the U.S. and none of them are Christian. There are very few resources for these children to address their specific needs and the trauma they have endured. Eighty-five% have been abused in their homes and they run from home or their parents are in jail. Many are in the foster care system too. The combination of all these factors makes them vulnerable to the pimps. The kids end up in Juvenile Hall as a temporary solution to protect them, but the cycle repeats when they get out. The FBI, the police task force, the judges, Juvenile Hall and foster care do not have the answers . The church can take the lead in building these homes to provide healing and hope in Christ and the world is looking to us for answers.

When I met Jenny, she told me she needed a song to tell the story of these girls. She had no idea I was a song writer and a worship leader. I knew right then it was where God was calling me. Jenny told me that when our newspaper wrote a story on her vision for the Courage House, she got 3 calls from 3 different prostitutes and they each said the same thing…”These girls need this home so they don’t turn out like me. They just need someone to believe in them.” The 14 year old being prostituted called her and said the same thing…’I just need someone to believe in me,’ please build this home. Within a couple of days I wrote the song, Believe in Me and since then it has snowballed into an entire CD benefit project that includes ten different Christian recording artists from Nashville to Sacramento. The Lord brought us an African Christian rapper who co-wrote several songs with me and who represents the global part of the ministry. An LA based film producer produced a powerful, haunting video to go with the Believe in Me song and it tells the story of a girl caught in sex trafficking. The songs on the CD minister hope, healing, courage and inspiration to be a world changer. We also have the FBI share some statistics at the concerts as well as a mom who tells the heart wrenching personal story of the trauma her daughter went through when she was trafficked for sex. The response to the CD and the concerts has been amazing. Since last October, we have been doing benefit concerts for the Courage House and the Lord has moved so quickly, that now a 50 acre horse property has been purchased to be the first U.S. Courage House. There is much work to be done, but by March 1, 2010, the dream of the first Courage House will now be a reality!

C2BU (Jenny Williamson’s non-profit organization) has a God sized vision to build a Courage House in every city in the U.S. and the world where there is no home for these kids. We see that God is raising up an army to do this! Since January 250 people are going through a CASA/Chaplaincy training here in SAC (through C2BU) to be able to mentor and help the girls. We have seen the churches coming together to host these concerts and help get the Courage House off the ground. In Elk Grove, where we live, 15 churches came together to host a large concert and raised over $120,000 for the Courage House- all this in a recession in CA! Next week we are going to the Bay Area where 15 churches are also coming together to host another massive concert. The Lord is raising up the church for ‘such a time as this.’

If you are interested in the Believe in Me CD and video or would like to book a concert or event please go to www.c2bu.org for more information. We are going on tour March 20-28, 2010 in Southern California and will be doing multiple concerts at many ARC churches there. Join us if you can! The concerts are listed on the website under the events section.

Believe in Me Stephanie Midthun

She is lost and alone- waiting to be found
And find a place she can call her home
Her innocence was stolen, her shattered heart is broken
Quietly suffering she cries…Believe in me, believe in me I’m
Longing for my captive heart… to be free

Daughter you are not alone-He died so you can live
He gives a place - you can call your home
The years the enemy stole, He’ll restore and make you whole
He’ll heal your pain and whisper to your soul…

Believe in Me, Believe in Me
I’ll help you see what you cannot see
Believe in Me… I have come to set your captive heart ….. free

Deliver her from darkness… rescue and redeem Give courage and purpose, to live for you our King
Break the chains that bind her, let her spirit sing… You are free you are redeemed, Daughter of the King

Believe in me, Believe in me. Help me see what I cannot see believe in me.
I’m longing, for my captive heart to be free. Believe in Me, Believe in Me

I had the privilege recently of being asked by Pastor Graeme Sellers to preach at Wonderful Mercy Church (an ARC church) in Gilbert, AZ. In praying and preparing for the sermon, I believe the Lord impressed upon me to call all ARC leaders and member churches to a commitment to live out relationships at the highest level. Therefore, as the Director for the ARC, I am calling all ARC churches and leaders to a commitment to live out our relationships with one another at the highest level through the empowering and transforming presence of the Holy Spirit (see 2 Cor 3:18). I am calling us to this commitment because as followers of Jesus Christ, godly relationships are not optional; they are a non-negotiable.

We do not have permission from Scripture to rationalize this away by saying that we are focused on doing God’s work, focused on the mission task He’s given us, even as we may be leaving a trail of damaged relationships in our wake. For you see, Beloved, for followers of Jesus: RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE TASK. Jesus Himself tells us this in John 13:34-35:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples (Jn 13:34-35).

How we live out our commitment to relationship with one another will say important things to others about who God is and about what He can or cannot do in our lives. If we cannot learn to live in right relationship with one another, we do not have much of anything important to say to a culture that is relationally broken, cynical and distrustful.

How we live out our commitment to relationship with one another can give others hope that through God’s grace and power there can be a different way, a better way to live; a way that is marked by unconditional love, grace, forgiveness, and trust, rather that unforgiveness, distrust, shame, and pain.

How we live out our commitment to relationship with one another can give others hope that God does intervene in the affairs of human beings and that He does have the desire and power to change us. The way we live out our relationships with one another can show people that God is able to set us free from old habits, unhelpful ways of thinking, and hurtful ways of responding and relating to one another. How we live out our commitment to relationships with one another speaks to the world around us. What is our commitment saying?

Beloved, moving forward together in a commitment to nurture and maintain relationships at the highest level is something that our enemy fears because he knows, that alone we may be gifted, but together we are a force to be reckoned with.

Because relationships are our task as followers of Jesus Christ, IT IS NOT SURPRISING THAT RELATIONSHIPS WILL BE THE VERY PLACE OUR ENEMY WILL ATTACK. Make no mistake about it, as followers of Jesus Christ you have one who loves you with a love that is unshakable and extravagant – you are the Beloved sons and daughters of God. But just as much as you have One who loves you, you also have one who hates you and schemes to steal from you the destiny God has for you (see John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8; Eph 6:10-12). You and I have an enemy who wants to sow and provoke unforgiveness, bitterness, chaos and division in our relationships, because if he can succeed in this he can succeed in disrupting God’s purposes in and through us to continue the ministry of Jesus in the world today.

If our desire in the Alliance of Renewal Churches is to be an alliance where relationships are a commitment that we desire to live out at the highest level, then we can be certain that those relationships will be a target of the enemy - in our homes, in our churches, and between churches and leaders. One author rightly reminds us:

“The enemy is ever drawing us to find fault with one another. Interestingly, the Greek word for ‘demon’ – means, ‘to disrupt, to rend and tear.’ The enemy attacks our minds and seeks to rend our relationships through faultfinding, often with and by those closest and dearest to us…In all manners of ways, the enemy seeks to estrange us from one another, perpetually attempting to sow discord and division.”

Beloved, let us do everything we can to zealously guard and protect our relationships with one another. Let us be ruthless in guarding against the strategy of the enemy - to deceive us with accusing thoughts of one another in order to lull us into hanging onto unforgiveness toward each other. The Apostle Paul told the followers of Christ in Corinth:

“Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor 2:10-11).”

To hang onto unforgiveness is to make a choice to put ourselves in jail and to turn ourselves over to the torturers as Jesus says in Matthew 18. To hang onto unforgiveness is to surrender our freedom as Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:1 where he exhorts us, “For Freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” To hang onto unforgiveness, Beloved, is to choose to settle for less than all God has for us.

Living with unforgiveness toward one another is never spiritually permitted, though the enemy will attempt to deceive us into believing that it is, even using Scripture taken out of context as a rationale and justification for doing so. Let’s reject that and instead, let us have the courage to own our stuff in a ruptured relationship; let us humble ourselves and be the first one to say, “I was wrong. Please forgive me.” Let’s not settle for less, Beloved. Let’s do spiritual warfare and cut the enemy off at the knees by walking in love, grace and forgiveness toward one another.

If you are a member of the ARC, I am “calling you out,” and calling myself out at the same time. I am calling us out to live out a commitment to relationships at the highest level this year. I am praying that God will grace us with a humility that the world and the devil sees as a weakness, but that God sees as a strength. Let us be amongst the most humble Christian leaders in our cities, our regions, and in our country. Let us be leaders and church members who will dare to take the first step and say to another, “I was wrong, please forgive me.”

If we will do this, we will see ruptured relationships restored, and we will see our witness to a relationally hungry world increase. Living out our relationships at the highest level will make us dangerous for the Kingdom of God and a real threat to the dominion of the enemy.

In God’s Unshakable and Extravagant Love,

Mike

The ARC is happy to announce the addition of Heidi McClure as a member of to our team. Heidi will be serving the part-time position of Administrative Assistant, working with me (Director Mike Bradley) in St. Paul. Denise Siemens, who helped to found the ARC and served faithfully as the Administrative Assistant since its inception, has stepped down to give attention to the growing ministries of Lutheran Renewal. As Director of the ARC, and as a friend, I want to express my heart-felt thanks to all Denise has contributed to the ARC. Please continue to keep she and Lutheran Renewal in prayer for God’s guidance, empowerment and provision.

As you can see from the pictures, Heidi has a heart for adventure and for serving the Lord. She is pictured bungee jumping and on a mission trip to Africa. Heidi also works part-time for The Master’s Institute in the School of Ministry program and in October, married Jude McClure, son of ARC pastor, Kevin McClure.

Following is a welcome letter from Heidi to you as ARC members. If you’d like to welcome Heidi aboard you can contact her at: info@arcusa.org. Welcome, Heidi!