From Preteens to World Changers

We want to highlight one church that has taken ministry with children and students to a whole new level. Mike Lehew, Lead Missionary with Church Inside Out and former Family Pastor at Foundation Church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, is one person who has done this. Their model of ministry is based on the idea that all believers (including children) have a calling to make disciples. L.I.T. has been an intricate part of pointing preteens and students in the right direction. Mike has had more than 75 students in his ministry who have been on international mission trips to South America and Africa. These trips last between two weeks and 35 days. They have led thousands of people to Christ on these trips. Mike’s passion is to mobilize the Church Inside Out to take the Gospel into the local community, and the children and students are a significant part of it. Mike shares, “L.I.T. has defined our discipleship for our kids and our parents. Parents don’t know it, but they are being discipled as they disciple their kids. It also helps them see the bigger picture that these kids are the church now.” (The picture was taken during the 2012 mission trip to Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The majority of these students are still involved in ministry).

Online Training Has Been a Great Experience and Has Opened New Doors

There has been one advantage to the new normal for now—it is giving a lot of ministers time to train. We cannot meet together physically, but we can meet online. As of January 2020, we have trained more than 120 leaders through our Empowering Kids Leadership Training events. On May 21, we hosted our first one-day Empowering The Next Generation Training Conference. We had 22 people from multiple states and internationally attend online during this training. It has been a pure joy casting a fresh vision for children’s ministry to these leaders. A special thanks to Jamie Brown, Charlie Morgan, Blake Hayworth, Richard Cervantes, Micah Galey, and others who helped make the training a success.

We have several upcoming training events, and our first in-person training will be in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on June 23.

For more information, click here Empowering Kids Leadership Training (one hour) or Empowering The Next Generation Leadership Training (full day). 

The Current Racial Tensions: Our Stance

In light of the challenges we are facing today with regards to social unrest and racial injustice, I want to share our perspective as a ministry. In Revelation, John saw a vision of future events in Heaven where every tribe, nation, and tongue would stand before the Lamb in worship. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God” (Revelation 7:9-10).

In God’s eyes, all people groups are equally important to Him and should be treated with love and respect. The mandate in the Great Commission is to go into all nations with the message of hope (Matthew 28:19-20). Romans 10:12-13 says, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” As a ministry, we take to heart what the Word of God says, that all men are created equal in the eyes of God.

We are for all people because Christ died for all humanity, not just a few. Our goal in ministry is to reach all people with the Gospel and to disciple all believers to become disciple-makers. We also understand that one day Heaven will be the perfect place where all believing people groups will be united in the presence of God as one.

Thank You!

We are forever grateful for your financial support and prayers. Your partnership with L.I.T. has been incredible as we continue to stand amazed at what the Lord does in and through L.I.T. We stand with you as co-ministers in Christ. New doors are opening weekly. We have just completed the translation of our leadership training handbook into Portuguese and Korean. We are so looking forward to what the Lord does through these resources. Although our original summer mission trip had to be canceled due to COVID 19, we are now looking at a new possible date of August 1-8 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Please keep us in your prayers as we move to finalize and confirm this trip.

As always, we are so thankful for each of you and your investment in L.I.T. Ministries.

Prayer

Praises

• For God’s amazing provision
• For our ministry partners who help sustain the ministry

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the Lord to bless our upcoming training events. Pray that church leaders would catch a fresh vision to empower children for ministry and missions.
• Pray for God’s grace and wisdom for L.I.T. Ministries. We are asking the Lord to show us His plan for the ministry.
• Pray for God’s will for the mission trip this summer.