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Bible Fact: Peter and Andrew were brothers. James and John were brothers. They were all fishing partners. (Luke 5:10)

May Newsletter - 2015 

Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’S offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart (Exodus 35:20–22 NKJV)

Hi 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 during the last month and I hope that you will take the time to read it.

Sylvia and I spent the month of April fasting and praying. We did a “Daniel fast” this time that allowed us to eat vegetables, fruits and nuts. It is always good to be open to change and sometimes we need to step back and look at the big picture. Discipline is good and a reboot of our lives is sometimes needed to prune away things that may be hindering us. We try and do this twice a year and it always has great results, both physically and spiritually. I feel that exciting things are coming to Refreshing Hope.

When the Israelites left Egypt, God provided for their every need. Manna rained from heaven, water appeared from rocks, and their clothes did not wear out. But when the Lord asked Moses to build the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and all of the furnishings, God asked the people to supply the materials for His house out of what He had already given them. He could have supplied the gold Himself, but He asked His people to instead. Before Elijah provided for the widow and her son during the three-year famine, he first asked her for something (1 Kings 17:13). After Jesus blessed the disciples with an abundance of fish, He told them to “bring some of the fish that you caught” (John 21:10). It always involves us working hand-in-hand with God, because He will not do it all.

First, I want to thank every one of you that have supported us in this ministry. We would not be here without you. But strangely enough, since we launched our online church at www.refreshinghope.org, donations have dropped by 50%, and our workload has increased by about 70%. That is not a trend that we can continue. I do not want to be like Martha making sandwiches that no one ordered. We want to put our time and talents where they matter the most so I began praying about this. I understand that seasons change and no matter how much we love something, we cannot let it become an immutable monument. Before we do anything, I just wanted to let you know, that we need prayer.

We are only able to continue in ministry because of your continued monthly support. Sylvia and I do not take a salary from the ministry but continue to work on computers and build websites for people in order to pay our own bills. That is fine, Paul was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). But we cannot afford to keep the ministry going ourselves and the workload of full-time ministry and earning a living compete. Large ministry equipment needs do not fit in our tiny household budget any longer because most of our life is spent in the ministry. The ministry is running mostly on things that we gave it and at this point, we have done about all that we are able to.

It is time for us to all come together in prayer.  We need to pray for God’s will for this ministry and we sincerely thank you for those prayers.  It is time for us to do like Moses and look to God’s people. If you value this ministry and wish for it to continue, please become a regular monthly supporter. Consider tithing to Refreshing Hope Ministries. If you do not, then the problem will soon go away. You can make recurring donations on our website. If our readers gave each month, it would be life changing for the ministry as well as a blessing for you. We simply cannot do this without support from our readers.

I pray that the Lord richly blesses you and that you are covered with His presence as you read these words, in the name of Jesus. May He guide your every step and fan the flames within you.

Online Church News: Our weekly Bible study is now in its third week as we progress through the book of Luke together. We are recording the Bible in audio and making it freely available to the world to listen to. We are writing a devotional that goes out 7 days a week. We are spreading the good news of Jesus around the world and connecting Christians to each other using the power of the Internet. We now have 1,411 members at www.refreshinghope.org and have had visitors from 123 countries and 281,000 views this month. The prayer network has prayed for 217 prayer requests and given 1,356 replies to them. Refreshing Hope has some members that are blind, some are deaf, and some are disabled, from nations around the world participating, making friends and learning about Jesus. It is a good work for the latter days.

Equipment: We run our own small data-center because we send about 3,000,000 emails a month and host our own high traffic website. We are running on equipment that averages 7 to 8 years old and some of it is beginning to fail. Last week we had a UPS fail that powered the router and switches, so the network went down until I could replace it with another 8-year-old one left over from our computer business. Summertime is coming and we will soon need to purchase a new A/C unit for cooling.

Site changes: We have made changes to the way that ads work on our site. People that have contributed to the ministry in some way will not see third party ads. This includes those that have donated, those that are prayer partners, or group leaders. If you have supported this ministry, but still see ads then please let us know so we can add you to the supporters group.

Free Christian Books: http://freechristianbooks.refreshinghope.org We have had people that wanted to buy our books but could not afford them or were in nations where they could not get them, so we have created a website where you can read them online for free. It is ad-supported, but people can read the books for free and we get a small amount from the ads that are displayed. This will allow those that cannot afford to buy a book to read them and will help us cover the cost of creating more of them. You can still buy the books in a paperback or kindle if you choose to. Right now it is books that we have written, but in time we may add to this list. 

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Please leave it in the comments below.

Yours in Christ,
Dion Todd - Pastor/Servant