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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29:11–12 NIV)

June Newsletter - 2015

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. 

The month of May was very busy for us. As you know, we were reaching the end of the line with our data center equipment and it was becoming frustrating. We had hard drives fail, battery backups die, A/Cs that were struggling, and servers that needed to be replaced. After asking everyone for prayer last month, I am happy to say that God answered some of them. Shortly after our last newsletter, someone contacted me about dismantling a web hosting business near by and offered to give me half of the equipment if I helped them with it. God has plans and He provided once again for us to continue. 

I prayed about it and got nothing negative, so we agreed and helped them wipe the hard drives and dismantle all of the equipment and prepped it for sale. In return, we got the ministry some much needed parts including two new air conditioners, and over the month with a lot of hard work, completely rebuilt our data center. It is now in much better shape and will allow us to do much more. 

Sometimes the Lord amazes me. We were looking for Him to provide the money to buy some equipment with, and instead He just provided the equipment directly. His ways are truly above our ways. I wrote a blog post with pictures about the upgrades and what was involved if you wish to see it.

Bible Translation Change: We are in the seventh week of our online Bible study and in Luke chapter 8. I have been recording the Bible to audio in ESV for those that have trouble reading the Bible, or are visually impaired, or so that you can listen to it while on the go. For the last three months, I have been trying to get permission to use a Bible translation for this project and it has become a lot of legalistic drama. I am sad to say that men have taken the word of God and are now selling the rights to even quote it. 

To sum it up, we cannot legally use the ESV, NIV, AMP, NKJV or any modern English translation without paying lots of money. From what I can gather, the NKJV (Zondervan) wants $10,000 up front and $10 per copy distributed. The ESV and others will not respond to our permission requests, though it is required. That is a time bomb of us waiting on them. We have contacted them twice over the last three months and gotten no response. I do not want to use Old English text to try and reach today’s youth, so we need a translation that is modern English, but free to use as we need. After prayer, I came across a project that was created just because of this copyright problem.

The World English Bible (WEB) http://ebible.org/web/webfaq.htm. The World English Bible translation is based on the ASV (1901) and was created because there are no modern English Bible translations that you can freely use without copyright entanglement. The WEB was created copyright free and is in the public domain from the start. You can use it all that you want, include the entire Bible on your website, record it to audio and use it for derivative works with absolutely no restrictions, and you do not have to get permission from anyone to do so.

We want to freely share the word of God around the world and we need to use a Bible translation that allows us to do that. This is so much more what Jesus envisioned when He told us to spread the Gospel, freely you have received, freely give. In my studies and personal reading each morning, I still use the ESV, AMP, NKJV, and NIV along with a Strong’s concordance and Tyndale’s commentary because I can use that at home personally, and legally. I just cannot share it on the web, but we are an online ministry and that creates a problem. So for my audio recording and probably for much of my devotional and teachings, I will be using the WEB translation. Please note that you can and should, read your own Bible and do what it says to do, so this does not change your translation. So far in my reading, I have found the ESV and the WEB very similar in translation but free from the legal issues. 

JIOS Radio (Jesus is our Savior): In December 2014 the Lord told us to start an online church at www.refreshinghope.org where we could connect God’s people to each other. During the same month, the Lord spoke to a friend of ours (Dennis Hubbell) to start a Christian radio station. We had lunch after the first of the year without knowing about each other’s projects and when we shared our projects with each other, we just found it amazing that the Lord had spoken to us both at the same time, and now here we were both launching something new online. JIOS radio plays upbeat Christian music 24/7 around the world over the Internet and you can listen on our site or at www.jiosradio.org. When time permits, we plan to do some audio broadcasts and maybe the daily word over the radio as well. 

Online Church News:  We now have 1,572 members at refreshinghope.org and have had visitors from 135 countries and 241,000 visits this month. The prayer network has prayed for 134 prayer requests and given 742 replies to them. Our weekly Bible study is now in its seventh week as we progress through the book of Luke together. Refreshing Hope has some members that are isolated, blind, some are deaf, and some are disabled, some are in the military, there are people from all walks of life in nations around the world participating, making friends and learning about Jesus. It is a good work for the latter days. People are online and we are providing a place of hope for them to come. 

Thank you so much for sticking with us. We are learning as we go and mistakes happen. When we fall, we just try and get back up and do it better next time. 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. May the Lord lead us all into everything that He has for us as we follow Him one step at a time. 

Pastor Dion