As we enter into this season of Advent here are a few resources that will be helpful as we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ child.

Podcast:

A fantastic podcast to utilize during the season is Pray-As-You-Go, which can be found by searching in the iTunes search bar. PAYG is produced in England and offers an eight to ten minute meditative reflection each day of the year. It’s especially poignant and helpful during Advent.

Wikipedia:

To learn about the history and traditions of the season as well as provide links to other useful information regarding Advent, head to the Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent

Other voices:

Scot McKnight offers a great explanation of Advent at http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/11/advent.html

Christine Sine offers helpful resources including:

-daily Advent readings: http://godspace.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/daily-bible-readings-for-advent/

-celebrating Advent with kids: http://godspace.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/celebrating-advent-with-kids/

Jason Coker shares some insightful thoughts about Progressive Advent as well as elements of a missional economy that are fitting for Christmas: www.jasoncoker.net

Also check out his organization www.twoshirts.org

The Advent Conspiracy: Renew is joining hundreds of churches around the country in the Advent Conspiracy. Learn more about it at www.adventconspiracy.org

-Also check out www.rethinkingchristmas.com for creative gift giving ideas.

-If you haven’t already, listen to the teaching of the Renew gathering mp3 called: “Advent Conspiracy I: Trading Consumption for Compassion” by clicking http://renewcommunity.org/advent-conspiracy-part-i-trading-consumption-for-compassion/11/or returning to the home page.

Click play to hear the teaching from Sunday, November 22, 2009 by J.R. Briggs

The global partnership team met for the first time on June 26, 2009 and has met 6 times to date.  We have entered times of prayer and vision casting regarding where Renew could partner with God to reach the world for Christ.  Early on, we felt God directing us to the region of Southeast Asia.  Southeast Asia is within the 10/40 window, which is the address on the globe that the majority of unreached people live (95% of the world’s unreached people live here).  Unreached peoples are those who have not heard the name of Jesus.  Within this window, lives 80% of the world’s poorest people.  Currently, only 10% of missionaries focus on this region of the world.  This region is not only where we feel called to, but it is a place that we can be effective, directing God’s money and our prayers to those who need it most.   These are the ministries we have chosen to partner with:

1.  Daughters

We learned about Daughters through Jolleen Nase.  Jolleen is a part of the Renew Community and on the global team.  She served at Daughters over the last year with YWAM.

Daughters is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  It’s a Christian organization that rescues girls out of human trafficking in Cambodia.   Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation.

Current statistics on human trafficking:

• There are over 27 million slaves in the world TODAY
• Human trafficking is currently the fastest growing criminal industry in the world (approx 32 billion a year)
• 80% of the victims are women, and 50% are children
• There are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across international borders annually.

Through the staff and resources of the Daughters’ Day Centre, victims of trafficking are supported in their efforts to leave the sex industry. Daughters‘ aim is to restore dignity and self-worth, and to help girls find viable alternatives for their lives.

Daughters offers:

•       Fair Trade business schemes providing salaried jobs

•       Medical clinic

•       Therapeutic and counseling services

•       A range of creative classes to build self-esteem and provide a creative and expressive outlet. These include hip-hop dance, photography classes, art & design classes, Khmer dance, music classes, jewelry making, and others.

•       Weekly educational workshops on important life skills topics, including domestic violence prevention, relationship/conflict resolution, drug addiction education, parenting skills, budgeting, team-building skills, self-esteem, and many more.

As of September 2009, Daughters reports that in the last 12 months, 100 girls have joined Daughters and they have seen:

100% of girls stop selling their bodies after joining Daughters

Alcohol consumption ceases by average of 87%

75% reduction in experiencing domestic violence

75% improvement in dysfunctional domestic relationships

65% improvement in health and physical well-being

87% reduction in risk taking behaviors

50% improvement in spending habits/money management

50% reduction in anxiety symptoms

70% reduction in depression symptoms

70% increase in self-esteem and self-worth

91% reduction in suicidal thoughts

Renew has partnered with Daughters by committing to supporting 6 girls for the next two years and rescue them out sex trafficking.  This is a beautiful way that Renew can live out its name by renewing the lives of these young women.

Ways you can be involved:

1. Please join with us in praying for these women that their hearts and lives will be healed by the love of Christ.

2.  Get the word out about trafficking.

3. Learn more about Daughters at www.daughterscambodia.org

4. Consider being a part of the short term trip being planned for 2010.

2.  Independent Church of India

Independent Church of India is located in Tamil Nadu, India.  Pastor Britto, who is the founder of Independent Church of India, along with Lowell and Kathy Smith (who run the US side of the ministry) came to visit with us in August 2009.

Pastor Britto was born in India.  Lowell and Kathy Smith were contacted by Pastor Britto through their website after God gave Pastor Britto the name he should search for.  We were in awe of their connectedness to the Holy Spirit and their incredible level of service and passion for the unreached.  Independent church of India’s goal is to train up and support native missionaries and pastors in the remote villages to preach the Gospel, to do children’s ministry, have Bible studies, pray for the sick and needy, and to reach out to the poorest of the poor.  The Lord is transforming many souls though this life-changing Word and thousands are accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  They are able to entirely support a pastor for $90 per month.

Independent Church of India has also started a leper community.  Many in India are stricken with leprosy and they are looked at as the untouchables of society.

Renew has partnered with Independent Church of India by providing the full support of 3 pastors for the next two years.

Ways you can be involved:

1. Please pray for the safety of pastors we are supporting.  This area is very hostile towards Christians.  Please pray that Jesus would be known in Tamil Nadu.

2. Get the word out and consider personally supporting a pastor, or leper, or providing blankets and Bibles.  There are many ways we can be a blessing.

3. Learn more at www.indchurch.org

3.  Missionary family in Indonesia.  Due to the safety of this missionary, we cannot share their names online.  Talk more to Jess and Rod to hear about their ministry.

In conclusion, we are so excited to be reaching Muslims in the largest Muslim country in the world, Hindus in the largest Hindu nation in the world, and that we can help fight the horror of human trafficking at its source, all while remaining focused on one region of the world.  Our prayer is that by blessing these three ministries, Renew would grow in love for the whole earth and grow in concern for the spread of the gospel everywhere.

If you would like to get more involved, would like to come to our next meeting, or are interested in short-term trip opportunities, please contact Jessica Rodrigues at jrodriguesrd@gmail.com

America spends $460 billion every year on Christmas.

The amount of money we spend on Christmas in America each year is 45 times the amount of money it would take to supply the entire world with clean water.

The American Consumer Credit Council reports that the average American spends $935 on Christmas each year and carries an average credit card debt of $8562.

Do you remember what you gave to others last Christmas?

Do you remember what you got for Christmas last year?  Is it still around?

If you are an American – with shoes on your feet, who bathe in clean water regularly, who will eat at least two meals today, who will know where you will lay your head tonight and who have clean underwear – you are in top 2% of the world’s richest people.

Half of the entire population of the world lives on less than $2 a day

80% of the world lives with sub-standard housing.

We’re asking a lot of questions together:

What are we to do with such blessing and privilege?

What if there was a better, more hope-filled, purposeful, meaningful way we could approach Christmas?

What if some of that money we spent at Christmastime was used for something more meaningful?

What if we spent less, in order to give more so we could worship fully and love all by how we used our money and what we did with our stuff this Christmas?

Imagine what that could be if that were redirected away from consuming more stuff and toward meeting tangible needs of the poor and the oppressed?

This isn’t about anger, guilt, disgust, manipulation.

It’s just the opposite: its about hope, of joining with the God of the Universe to meet the needs of people.

Ultimately we’re asking the question during this season of Advent: what if we exchanged consumption for compassion?

What if all of us within Renew conspired together to live out the subversive kingdom values in the midst of our culture that worships Empire values in order for us to worship more fully this Christmas? What if practically we spent less money – and instead made gifts and gave each other the gift of presence? And what if our families, our co-workers, our neighbors and our friends got involved, too?

As we spend less in order to give more, we’ll be saving money together and then giving it in a special offering in our gatherings in January.

And none of the Advent Conspiracy money will go to support Renew.

We are giving it all away to two different organizations.

1. Daughters (www.daughterscambodia.org) is an organization in Phnom Pen, Cambodia that seeks to show compassion by taking young girls out of the prevalent human trafficking industry and training them with life and job skills. We’re partnering with Daughters to help bring girls out of the sex/human trafficking

2. The Independent Church of India (www.indchurch.org) is a ministry run by Pastor Britto in Southern India who has served among the poor in leper colonies, among those in extreme poverty and has helped to birth several churches.

Which means for us during this Advent Conspiracy:

For every $840 we collect we can rescue a girl out of sex trafficking.

For every $1080 we can pay for a pastor’s education at bible college and seminary in India for a year.

The gospel has endless implications for right now – its quite thrilling when you see what God wants to do right now.

And that is the good news.

Come and join the conspiracy.