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the LORD said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.” (Joshua 4:1–3 ESV)

February Newsletter - 2015

Hello there, 

Thank you for reading our devotional and being a part of Refreshing Hope Ministries. This is our monthly update on what has been happening here.

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan river, the priests stepped into the water and the moment they did, the river backed up miles away allowing them to cross on dry ground. Nothing happened until they actually stepped into the water. They could have waited on the bank of the river all day, but the water would not have parted.

Recently we were praying about whether to move forward on a step of our online church project because we really did not have the money to do it yet. We sat down and worked out that it was going to cost us about $2500. We felt that we should so we went ahead and started to work on it that day, hoping for the best. While I was working the first morning, someone donated $2500. They didn’t even know that we needed it. Nothing happened until I started to do what He had already told me. There was no provision until there was action.

Then the Lord told Joshua to take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan river and build a memorial with them so that everyone would remember what the Lord had done for them. They were to tell their children that the Lord had dried up the Jordan river for them, they were witnesses of His power and saw it happen.

I feel the Lord saying “Remember what I have done for you.” It is a big thing to God that we do not forget what He has already done for us. When times get rough, remember these things. He has taken care of you in the past. He will take care of you now. A big mistake people in the Bible made was to forget what the Lord had done for them (Judges 3:7) and begin to live like everyone else of the day. Remember what the Lord has done for you.

Here is what has been happening at Refreshing Hope Ministries:

- We have been busy with the online church project that is coming. The server is now in place and the new social network website is nearing completion. For the technical among us: It is a used server that we bought off of eBay that was fresh off lease from Bank of America, very strong and very fast. It has 4 x Quad Core Xeons, 64 Gb of RAM, and 8 x 10k SAS drives in a RAID 10 array.

-An Android and an Apple app is being developed for the new site. It will be able to give you notifications when the Daily Word has arrived, and replies to prayer requests. The app will be fully integrated with the prayer network and allow prayer partners to answer requests from a phone or tablet.

- We have completed integrating the site with Facebook and Twitter. You will be able to login using your Facebook or Twitter account and share posts, pictures, videos and more back to Facebook or Twitter from the church site.

- We are currently working on integrating the prayer network into the new site and the app as well. It is requiring a complete overhaul but the new system should be much better when we launch it.

- We hope to launch the online church site on Valentine’s day, at least that is our goal.

- We have had 387 prayer requests over the last thirty days and 1508 prayer replies. Great job prayer partners!

I want to thank you for your prayers and support during this time, we could not do it without you. So far, each time there has been a new expense the Lord has taken care of it, even though there have been many. We look forward to being a part of an online community where we can connect with each other daily and share our lives with you in a deeper way.

I pray that the Lord richly blesses you and that you are covered with His presence as you read this, in the name of Jesus.

Pastor Dion