Category Archives: prayer request
Please Pray for us to endure through Hurricane Dorian TODAY
Hi Friends,
Just a quick prayer request for all of our praying friends and family out there:
As you may have heard, Hurricane Dorian is a big one and is close to us. Many models are now saying it will brush up against the east coast like Matthew did in 2016. We would love a simple repeat of that!! But things can change easily and quickly last minute like Hurricane Charlie in 2004. We did board up pretty well last time we faced a hurricane (Irma, 2017). This brought some extra trips to the store. Same thing this time. But we are opting to stay rather than evacuate like last time.
So we still are not out of the woods. And neither are many of us who live here on the lower east coast. We are only 45 minute drive from Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, but far enough inland in Orlando that we usually don’t get hit as hard as the beach towns.
Please pray for:
- Safety for us and our family and neighbors.
- Great opportunities to be Jesus to our neighbors and help as we are able in this situation.
- Endurance when we have small kids and may lose power for Air Conditioning and therefore have extra heat to deal with (it hits 85 – 90F most days, plus humidity).
- For emotional and physical strength when it’s hot and we are tired and a little (sometimes a lot!) stressed… to trust in Jesus and love one another well!
- The people of the Bahamas who have been devastated by the effects of the Hurricane. We met some Bahamians here and there in the spring and they are beautiful people, loved by God. So we have often been thinking of them in the aftermath of Dorian.
Thank you for your support and prayers as we provide safe spaces where men struggling with compulsive porn use and other addictions can experience hope, healing, and move towards thriving in who they really are in Christ!
GIVE A SPECIAL GIFT TO HELP WITH HURRICANE COSTS
What have John and Ellen been up to lately?
Dear Friends!
I sent out a brief message about the epic Conquer Leadership Conference I attended, but forgot to share it here! We’ll be sending out a post conference update soon!!! But for now, Click below for details of my post on 7/19:
CLICK IMAGE ABOVE for John’s update just before the Conference.
A Letter from our Mission’s Director about our new Mission 📝📬
Dear Friends,
We hope you had an amazing Easter, celebrating the new life we have because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! It was the first time I can remember being home with a sick family on Easter Sunday! It was a sad day to miss out on celebrating and worshiping with friends at church but our Easter Sunday was also new and refreshing in its own way. Like so many things in life, there were mixed emotions. We know the way the Lord has for us to walk in this life is fraught with difficulties but along the way there is Joy to be found with Christ and his Body as we walk together.
coaching hours to apply for certification. Once this training is completed, she will be better equipped to help people thrive in Christ in our ministry.
Please pray:
- for John as he “digests” the training from Pure Desire Ministries he attended last weekend in the Washington DC area. (This training conference focuses on equipping leaders to bring hope and healing to men, women, and their families in the areas of compulsive porn use and other related addictions)
- for our family to thrive in this very full season of life transitions and change
- for Ellen as she begins her transition as a coach serving missionaries at Cru Headquarters on her new team, while still attending classes
- for financial (and logisitical) provision for these trainings
- for health for our family, we have noticed that sicknesses tend to come at not-so-ideal times! 😦
Partners in His Harvest,
“…Last night I prayed for a sign… that I’m still meant to live, and that God still cares for me… “
You may recall every spring Cru does a conference called Big Break in Panama City, Florida. It’s Cru’s alternative Spring break, where students from all over the US traveled to Panama City Beach for a week of growing in their relationship with God and learning to share their faith. They spent time engaging with people on the beach, and also by using social media to send the Falling Plates video to friends and family and listening to their experiences of Jesus so far in their lives.
One Student named Allison* shared about her experience below:
“My best friend from home came from a christian family so I thought, I don’t know if I need to text her or not and so I texted her the link to the [Falling Plates evangelistic] video. She texted me back and said I literally just cried. I’ve been feeling really hopeless and horrible lately. And last night I prayed for a sign that I’m still worth it, that I’m still meant to live, and that God still cares for me and today you sent that to me. This is insane. I’m literally in tears.”
Students and staff initiated 11,170 spiritual conversations digitally. 3,024 of them turned into gospel conversations, with 104 deciding to follow Christ, plus 601 future appointments were set up with friends and family! On the beach, 3,338 conversations were initiated and 1,470 heard the gospel, with 222 deciding to follow Christ!
These stories and results are super encouraging to us and we hope to you too! Jesus is moving and sometimes not in the ways we expect! When we hear stories of students listening to and responding to Jesus, it’s why we do what we do!
Until Every Student has Heard,
PS Here is a downloadable version of our newsletter with far fewer images. 🙂 Just one page this time. 
Please Pray:
- THANKS to so many of you who prayed for John’s recent surgery last month. He is healing up well.
- that we would be able to quickly grow a larger team of people to join our ministry in prayer and financial support so we can return to our office to accelerate the gospel through the operations of Cru. Pray for us traveling for this reason this summer. We have about $1900/month left to finish growing our team.
- That we would not let the distractions around us take us away from the Good Work the Lord has for us. (Nehemiah 6:3)
- That we would look for opportunities to be Jesus’ hands and feet to those around us in our kids’ social lives this summer.
- For the millions of teenagers and college students transitioning out of school into summer… for the Church to carry this gospel to them.
- For God’s provision of a newer family vehicle through a Cru family who sold us theirs.
- For our home appliances to stop breaking, lol! 🙂 (we had a fridge fan go bad, a pump motor, and our washer too! we have replaced each one but this comes at a cost and is very distracting 😦 )
Enjoy a few of our latest pics:
Our little guy is turning 1 this week!
Our girls were in a theater day camp for a week and made new friends while singing their favorite songs!
Free donut day at Krispy Kreme! (Noah had more fun than he looks) 🙂
Evie has a favorite treat! (same as Daddy’s)
Aunt Mary came to visit!
Evie drew a special drawing for our vets
Last month we dedicated our Noah to the Lord in front of our Church, shown above with one of our leaders
Please pray for John’s Surgery Tomorrow 5/18
Please pray for John’s Surgery Tomorrow 5/18
Please pray for John’s shoulder surgery tomorrow to repair a torn rotator cuff. It’s been a long time coming for this surgery but it is good to have it done now, before it gets any worse. Surgery starts at 1pm tomorrow. There will be a month in a sling and a couple more months of physical therapy. But John has been through it before 6 years ago when the other shoulder had the same surgery when living up in Albany. So he’s a little bit of a veteran. 🙂 But thank you for your prayers! And now for a picture of our Noah who is almost 11 months!!
John and Ellen Fleming's Ministry Webpage 