First Resort Update

This Thanksgiving, we at First Resort are thankful for so much!  

• We are thankful that over 1,100 women in an unplanned pregnancy received help and hope in our medical offices this last year.  Ana and Mateo   

• We are thankful that through our supporters, women and men can receive all of our services absolutely free!       

• We are thankful for YOU and all you do to help women and babies facing abortion!

• Most of all, we are thankful for God, who bends low to hear His children and loves each of them more deeply than we can understand.

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
The First Resort Team                            
 

Bay Area Rescue Mission Update:

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From Drug User to Teacher...
God is blessing Bernita!

Friends like you make it possible to change lives like Bernita’s every day. Your secure online donation will help us help even more people in need.

Bernita decided she needed a new direction in her life. “It was like a hole inside of me that needed to be filled,” she says. Early in her life, she had tried to fill the hole with drugs. But when she became pregnant, it was clear that changes needed to be made.

Bernita’s husband kept telling her “everything will be OK.” But then, he would go back to “doing things of the streets,” living a life she didn’t want for herself or their unborn child.

The final straw came when Bernita’s husband abandoned her when their daughter was just five days old.

Because she could not stay with relatives, she and her new baby eventually ended up here at the Rescue Mission. “We had no clothes, no nothing,” Bernita remembers. “But it was the change I had asked God for.” And it was good!

“Since I’ve been here, my whole world has changed.”

                          Valley Bible Church's Israel team...Ready for action
  
              Adriana's (front row left) reflection on this adventure witnessing on the streets of Tel Aviv.

I am so thankul at this amazing experience. It is truly a blessing to be here in Israel evangelising to God's people. Even though the enemy tries to oppose, our God is greater!!  I was out on a sortie handing out tracks, when I came across a group of Jewish men sitting at the beach playing dominoes. I approached them and attempted to hand them a track, when they seen what it was they began to yell at me saying "GO AWAY ''  "SATAN ( in Hebrew) . They refused the  tracks. I began praying within my self asking God to open the hearts of his people. All of a sudden a man stood up calling me towards him. When I walked towards him he reached out for a track, I handed it to him, he looked up raised his hands to praise God , he looked at me again bowed his head to me and says Todah , todah !!! ( Thank you , Thank you ) The other men begin to yell at him and try to retrieve the track from him.  He argues back and stands his ground refusing to let go of his track. He continues to thank me repeatedly. I am really seeing God's light and his love move here in his people. 

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!!!

In Christ

Adriana Ledesma

EXCITING BLOG CONCERNING THIS OUTREACH:   

HTTP://SHALOM2YOU.TYPEPAD.COM/

David Brickner,  Exec. Director
Jews for Jesus

This month our Jews for Jesus missionaries and volunteers are out on the streets of New York, London, Tel Aviv and several other cities throughout Europe proclaiming the gospel and handing out tracts.  David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus shared, "I remember Larry King's challenge to me on his television show, Larry King Live, as to whether I believed God would send people to hell for not believing in Jesus.  I replied that God isn't in the business of sending people to hell.  We are getting         there just fine on our own.  Rather, God is in the business of saving people            
from hell and that is exactly why He sent Jesus the Messiah. The distinction is important.
                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                     David Brickner                  

                Jews for Jesus       Int'l Headquarters         60 Haight St.     San Francisco, CA  94102-5895
                                                                  WEB:   jewsforjesus.org
                          Also working in:  Austrailia,  Brazil,  Canada,  France,  Germany,  Hungary,  Israel,  
                                Russia,  South Africa,  Switzerland,  Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

ACTION ITEM: 

            PRAY... for the teams of witnesses as they go…literally to the highways and byways. 
           To compel people to trust in the Lord.  
           PRAY... especially for David as he gives leadership to the ministry in it’s worldwide outreach.

Manny and Glenda Fernandez
World Link Ministries


 One of the sweet moments of ministry in Cuba is this baptismal service way up in the mountains in Villa Clara, Cuba.  We arrived there on horseback. This is Mission’s material fit for a book.   A very excited new believer and an American pastor who came to the uttermost with us.
 
The biggest evangelistic impact: Cuba!   We’ve had groups from Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma–and we have groups coming from California and Oregon.  I’ve logged 6,300 miles in three weeks; our teams have led 1,500 people to Christ–and we ask people in big crowds to raise their hands if this is the first time they are praying to receive Christ!

 
The picture (right), is one of hundreds of baptisms we have had in the many contexts around the world. It is a grand celebration to see believers take this step of obedience as they join church communities and MULTIPLY!   Praise the Lord and THANK YOU WHO Are part and parcel of making this possible!! God is in it!!!

          The Fry's
          ...Our missionaries to Mexico.

• church planting
• evangelism
• strengthening believers  

Greetings to our friends at Valley Bible,
Kicking off a busy Summer Schedule
We would appreciate your prayers today as we kick off a 6-week summer internship program, an internship that we've coordinated since 2002.  Six people arrive today, ( more soon) and we'll be picking them up at the airport and bus terminal, then spending two nights at a downtown hotel, giving cultural orientation and showing them significant cultural and religious sites.
Prayer alert:  Pray for scores of contacts that will be made in multiple ministry opportunities and for many to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Ministry team need prayer
Also...please continue to pray for Miguel and Tania.  Tania continues to look for a suitable health care option.  Although they have socialized medicine, the hospital has been unwilling to operate for the last two years.  The system, frankly, is pretty pathetic.  They are also seeking private health care options, but these options are expensive, approximately $3400 for a hysterectomy.  Pray that they would receive a positive answer from the hospital that has been attending Tania soon.  Miguel is a deacon in the Santa Bárbara church.
Prayer need:  Your prayers will be effective. "The fervent prayers of a righteous man (woman) avail much." 

Check out our blog,     www.ixtapalucafryed.blogspot.com. 

American Missionaries…a 200 year tradition

6 years ago our Pastor Phil and Caroline, and Malcolm and Jo Lee visited Plymouth,MA. We were able to see where the Adoniram and Ann Judson were laid to rest at a cemetery overlooking the Atlantic and the famous Plymouth Rock.

It was 200 years ago in 1812 that 5 young men were ordained to go to India and Burma as missionaries. Among them were Adoniram Judson who served primarily in Burma.

He served there for decades and translated the Bible into the local language.

These five are credited as the first Americans to leave for a foreign land and with laying the foundation for America missions.

The value of Missions

Today there are many Christians in Burma , now called Myanmar, including 1.5 million Baptists. This gives a sense of the importance of that first endeavor and of a continuing Mission presence. Today about two-thirds of the world’s Christians come from countries where western missionaries worked a century or more earlier.

In the year 2010 more than 127,000 missionaries were sent from America, the most missionaries of any country. The second largest number were sent from Brazil with 34,000. The was a total of 400,000 missionaries sent in 2010.

There is now an explosion of interest in mission work in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Orphanage in India

Dr John Sircar shares exciting news of a meeting with Muslim leaders.

The picture below is of a banquet where we hosted Muslim officials during the Christmas season. Two senators, the mayor and 250 Muslims came to our place. We prepared biriany (rice with goat meat) and chicken for them. Our boys sung Christmas songs and I preached to them about the meaning of Christmas. We gave them a Christian calendar with Bible verses, literature and Bibles.
The best part was several TV stations broadcast part of my preaching. Local and country wide papers printed photos (below). The government even provided 21 armed security guards for us.
Please pray that the gospel will change their hearts. Continue to pray for this work. Your prayers are making a genuine difference.

MISSIONARY OF THE MONTH
Shari Plunkett

First Resort

…Helping women avoid terminating unwanted pregnancies.

Who: A California non-profit corporation

Were: San Francisco, Oakland, and Redwood City, CA

Why:

¨ Huge need… 40,000 Bay Area abortions annually

¨ In 1984 at the beginnings of First Resort more Alameda County women had abortions than live births.

¨ By the age of 45 one in three women in the US will have an abortion.

¨ Richmond is a hot-spot for abortions in the US.

¨ All hospitals do abortions, including Kaiser.

First Alert Services:

¨ Counseling is relational, medical, and spiritual.

¨ Women are both local and international.

¨ Many are in college and/or victims of domestic violence.

¨ The #1 problem: no health insurance and economic distress.

¨ First Resort counseling is deep not broad.

About services: First Resort’s services are free, including early pre-natal care, which is part of our standard of care for those without medical insurance. Referrals come from local hospitals, doctors, health and abortion clinics, and social service agencies.

Reason for optimism:

¨ 8 abortion clinics have closed in the Bay Area.

¨ There is now a vacuum for abortion services in Oakland.

¨ There is a national trend to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

Action Item: Pray for them. They are facing a new law in San Francisco that would hinder their ability to deliver services.