Last Call...

The gym that I go to is open 24/7. They provide a pass key for access by its members at any hour of the day. Because of the schedule that I often keep, many times it is 12:00 Midnight (or later) before I can actually just get away to go run and lift weights. I like it because I am typically the only one there and I have the place all to myself (and Jesus!)

The other night as I was leaving, I heard someone yell, "Hey! Is that Pastor Troy?" I looked out into the darkened parking lot and saw a young man, "Nick" jumping up and down excitedly. HE and his friends gather regularly at the adjacent coffee shop to hold Bible study, pray and encourage one another.

They immediately started asking how things were going out in the streets of the city. I began to share testimonies as to how many were giving their lives to Christ in the French Quarter and on Bourbon Street and that we were seeing such a hunger and openness for Jesus from those their age (Twenty-somethings).

I told them of our upcoming Mardi Gras Outreach (February 24-28) and told them that we needed "laborers for the harvest." Well, they all committed to being a part of this year's RAVEN team. Being college students, none could easily afford the registration fee for the week of outreach so...I offered to cover the cost of each one that wanted to come ($165 each- which covers lodging, all meals, Raven gear, and tracts).

These young men are on FIRE and anxious to "get out there" and shake it up for the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that this will literally bea life changing event for them as it was for me when I first participated in a Mardi Gras Outreach event in 1996. We will have "seasoned vets" teaching and imparting during our chapel times before we hit the streets each day and these guys are in for a time that will prove to be like attending an Evangelism 101 course!

THEN I got a call earlier today from a young man in Denver, Colorado who works as a missionary with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). He was here with a team last October and we took their group out to the Quarter to witness.

A friend of his had told him that he was coming for the outreach and he expressed that he would also like to attend...but being that he too was a missionary, he also did not have the finances available to come (except for getting a plane ticket). So, I told hime to come on and we'd believe that God would provide the needed funds for him as well!

This is the last call! The last call for you to get involved and (1) come be a part of the year's most intense and exciting opportunity to change the lives of many thousands of people for eternity (2) invest financially into helping sponsor one of those willing (but not financially able) to hit the mission fields of America at such a strategic hour in time.

We have already been able to gather support for (8) and have another 10-12 who we are desiring to get involved and needing help financially. Thanks so much for Brother Abel, a missionary himself in Italy, who sent $200 to help and Bob a contractor from BAton Rouge who sent $165 to sponsor a missionary for the outreach, and Brother Don, a local evangelist, who dropped off a check for $1000 to help sponsor soul-winners as well.

Melanie and I felt led to provide the money for a team from Texas to come (5) that also needed to rent a car because they had no reliable transportation to make the 16 hour drive. Any and all assistance will go far in "putting feet to the street" during Mardi Gras 2006---THIS is where we make our stand! Can you help too?

YOU CAN HELP by going to our website www.BigGrace.com and then clicking on the "Make A Donation" button and following the simple instructions. While you are there check out the NEW VIDEO called "Send Me", that we just uploaded to the web page as well!

A Good Sign That Things Are Looking Up In New Orleans: A large contingency of local pastors gathered at the city offices to "repent" for how they have dealt with the Katrina situation and how they have not been faithful themselves in regards to reaching and helping the city! Praise God---I was thrilled at seeing these come together and take the response-ability for the lost of this city!

PLEASE PRAY FOR ME as I will be out of town this weekend doing ministry. I will be flying into South Bend, Indiana in the morning. I will be holding a RAVEN Meeting tomorrow night in Elkhart, Indiana with Bro Terry & Eileen Shuff (Raven Midwest). They are bringing in a team of (24) from the area for the Mardi Gras Outreach. They and assistant RMW directors, Steve & Jodi Ignowski, are doing a tremendous work up north in Chicago and in the jails and dentention centers!

Then Sunday morning I will be preaching at Voice Ministries with Pastor Bob Deering. They also have a 24/7 prayer center and will be our prayer support for the outreach. Sunday afternoon, Bro Terry and I will be attending a pastor's meeting in South Bend and sharing with them the ministry of Raven in New Orleans and across the nation. Sunday evening we will be at Word of Truth Church with Pastor Mike Kelly. This is where our awesome friends Lance & Leigh Prathaftakis attend church and oversee the youth ministry. (They are also coming to the Mardi Gras Outreach and bringing a team from there).

Blessings!

Pastor Troy D. Bohn

Raven Ministries

P.O. Box 113196

Metairie, LA 70011

(504)304-6535 office

The Narrow Way Word

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"Wristwatch" Evangelism

No, I am not talking about evangelism where you keep looking down at your watch wondering if its time to go home yet! What I am taking about is a scenario that I experienced that a friend recently reminded me of that I think will help you in your soul winning.

Exodus 4:1-21 gives the account of when God called Moses to be the one who would deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian captivity. When God told Moses his assignment, Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied."

Moses had already offered a ton of excuses to God as to why he shouldn't (or couldn't) be the right person for the job: "I can't talk the way that I should." "They won't believe me." (The excuses really haven't changed too much in the past several thousand years.)

Then God asked him, "What is that in your hand?" To which Moses responded, "A staff." It was just God saying to him, "I will take whatever is readily available and use it to accomplish my will." What is it that "is in your hand" for God to use to reach those in the bondage of sin?

I believe that the Holy Spirit is telling us in this late hour, "Don't be concerned about the substance of what you have to offer the world by way of deliverance from their bondages; but rather entrust your lives in what I have to offer as the Deliverer!"

Wristwatch Evangelism:

While my daughter, Kayla, and I were in New York City doing street evangelism last year, I bought a knock-off wristwatch from a vendor in Times Square because I had forgotten mine at home in New Orleans.

The vendor had replicas of such famous names as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Girard-Perregaux, Cartier and others. While they may have born the name and the style of these costly time pieces, at $10.00 each, they fit more comfortably into my limited budget than a multi-thousand dollar gold and platinum wristwatch.

I picked out a pretty classy looking watch that seemed to be keeping the appropriate time and wore it for the remainder of our trip (and it never turned my wrist green either). Upon arriving back in the City, I continue to sport my new watch whenever I left the house.

About a month after we returned home from NYC, our friends Pastor Sam & Lucy Croghan and their two kids (Joshuah, and Megahan) from Pennsylvania, came for a visit and to help out on some outreach. One night as we fed and ministered to the homeless in Jackson Square, I invited Pastor Sam to accompany me down to Bourbon Street to see what was going on.

As we walked up Saint Peter St. towards Bourbon, I noticed a man standing at the window of a fine jewelry store on the corner of Royal St. He was looking into the wire-covered glass at all things, a display of wristwatches.

Passing behind him I said, "You see anything in there that you like?" Half startled he nervously answered, "Yeah, those are nice" and quickly began to walk away from the window and toward Bourbon Street himself.

I filed in next to him and immediately held up my wrist to reveal my shiny reproduction watch and asked, "What do you think of this one?" He stopped so that he could get a closer look in the dim lighting and said, "Man, that is a nice watch!"

Without really even thinking about it, I quickly released the clasp and removed it from my wrist and said, "Here, its yours. Put it on." Sheepishly taking it from my outstretched hand he asked in disbelief, "Are you serious?"

I said, "I am completely serious. Its yours." Thinking that it was some kind of Police sting operation he scanned the area with his eyes and said, "No way, I can't take this from you."

That is when I knew why I had really bought that watch in NYC and why I would quickly remove it and offer it to this man on the street.

I said to him, "You don't want to take it because you think that it is too valuable and that you don't deserve it, right?"

"Yeah, no one ever does anything like that for me!" he responded.

"You can't believe that someone would just walk up to you, a total stranger to you, and offer you free of charge something that you perceive as more valuable than anything that you personally own." I said to this man.

"No, those things just don't happen to me," he emphatically answered.

"This is just a watch. Its a piece of jewelery. It has a value that someone placed upon it. It can be replaced. But, someone else, who you do not know, has offered you something that you do not deserve and that you could not have expected--that is priceless."

"You may not have known it, but God found all of us walking down a lonely street and offered us the gift of His very only Son, Jesus."

"He is not a cheap replica. He can never be replaced. But, He has offered Him to you free of charge."

As I continued to share with him the Good News of salvation, he just looked down at the wristwatch now adorning his arm. You could see that it was registering with him. He got it. He understood what it was that God had done in sending Jesus to die upon the cross for our redemption---and all that it cost me was a $10.00 wristwatch (and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit of grace).

Pastor Sam and I prayed for the man and he went his way that night, but I know that ever time that he looks down at that shiny time piece he'll remember the ultimate free gift of Jesus.

The New RAVEN Bus!

This is the new "Raven" bus that will be on its way next Thursday from Wichita, Kansas! Praise the Lord for faithful friends and partners in the ministry that were such a blessing in giving to help us obtain this new bus (its not exactly new, but it is new to us!) PTL

My oldest brother, Ray, will be flying to Kansas next Thursday morning to drive the bus the 900(+) miles to New Orleans just in time for us to use it to transport our urban-missions teams into the French Quarter during the Mardi Gras Outreach February 24-28th.

God is so good! This past year, Raven was able to sow two busses and a 15 passenger van into other ministries that had a pressing need. He (Jesus) once again demonstrated His faithfulness to "supply all of our needs" through Christ Jesus.

We're expecting this new "Hallelujah-Hoopdie" to carry soul winners and new believers all across the Gulf South! Thank you all again for your love for Jesus and your support for the work of the ministry.

Blessings,

Pastor T

Will Revival Come to America?

I was driving down a street late one night when I spotted the above marquee in front of a local church. "The Revival has been cancelled" was the message being brightly illuminated along this busy roadway.

"Did that say what I thought it said?" I quickly asked Melanie as I hit the breaks to turn around for a closer look. "Cancelled!" "Amazing!" I said aloud as I told Melanie that this was so typical of the church of today. No expectancy. No urgency. No tenacity. No revival.

As ridiculous as this looked to me, how do you think that it was perceived by the "lost people" who would see this sign announcing the spiritual condition of the "church at large" that had long forgotten the heart and passion of revival long before this announcement of the obvious?

Has the "revival" been cancelled? I am not talking about one that is predicated upon schedules, guest speakers, and special musical talents--no, those are just cheap, man-made imitation of something that demands much more sacrifice and promises much more than three days of record crowds, love offerings, and false conversions.

The "revival" that I speak of is the one that is nearly impossible to describe with our modern ecclesiastical venacular and one that certainly operates outside of the confining limitations of mainstream Pseudo-Christianity. This "revival" is one that more closely resembles Peter and the the 120 Holy Spirit empowered saints of God spilling out into the streets of Jerusalem and preaching an open-air message that rattled the establishment and saw 3,000 come to salvation that same day!

It is like Paul on Marrs Hill or even Phillip going one-on-one with the Ethiopian eunuch. It is where power, passion, purpose, and purity converge to do the un-doable, think the un-thinkable and experience things that others merely talk and write about in a strictly historical (and now "forward-looking" prophetic) context.

The "revival" that I believe in is a "now" revival! It is about people who see a NOW need that demands a NOW word for a NOW world! It will involve people who don't have to play hide-and-seek for weeks on end to get a "word from God" on whether or not He would have them witness to the lost, go to the broken and dying, feed the hungry, cast the devil out of the bound or oppressed or to lay hands on the sick.

It is those who have feasted daily upon the living bread of life and are an "instant in and out of season" breed of believers who know God and who endeavor to make Him known in both word and in demonstration of the Holy Spirit!

This revival wil never take place in the comfy-confines of a modern "worship" facility. This revival will not be the result of a big-name evangelist renting a football stadium or coliseum and inviting Christian pop-artists and entertainers in order to gather the church crowd to a feel-good fellowship that serves only to suffice the religious quota in an otherwise self-absorbed community.

Genuine revival will take place right underneath the noses of much of the established church and will go unnoticed by the "Christian" media and operate under the faulty spiritual radar of our so-called religious leaders of today.

Why? Because they will not be able to take credit for it and in many cases it will confound them because it will be so beyond what they have been able to believe and it will involved the uneducated, the unlovely, those without the pedigree of their denominational colleges and seminaries and those lacking the "etiquette" and "charisma" that has long been the bench mark of organized "revival."

This new-breed of revival and revivalist will talk different, look different, act different and will not apologize for it! They will fear no one but God and desire nothing but to do His will in seeing a lost and dying world changed and transformed by the message of the Cross in the most desperate of places and to the most forgotten of people.

"The Revival Has Been Cancelled" is not just a sign posted on front of a local church building. It is what was spoken of in the Word of God two thousand years ago:

II the 2:33 says, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition"

This falling away or apostacia (Greek) is not what most people think. It is merely defined as a "defection" or "deviation" from the truth. This is that "day" in which the falling away is preceding the revelation of the son of perdition (the anti-Christ). Is it not crystal clear?

Or consider:

2 Tim 4:2-52 "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Its time to simply "preach the Word", not when we feel "led" or "peace about it", but EVEN when we feel out of season!

I hear people say all the time, "I just haven't felt led to go do this or that" or "I just can't seem to get any peace about witnessing in that environment." While that sounds so "spiritual" and "nobel" is certainly flies in the face of New Testament Christianity!

Jesus said, "Don't think that the reason I came was to bring peace (or some restful tranquility), no way, I came to send a sword!" or how Luke 12:51 puts is, "Don't think that they reason that I came was to create an atmosphere of peaceful tranquilly, no way, I came to bring division (or disunion)."

This disunion is when everything within us desires to do the exact opposite of that the Word of God instructs--but we do NOT what we think or feel--but simply OBEY and DO what He has instructed us to do without fear, doubt or hesitation.

We are not looking for CONFORMATION. We are looking for OPPORTUNITY! The conformation came when they found the tomb empty! The conformation came when He sat down at the right hand of the Father! The conformation came when He said, "GO." He needs NOTHING to verify His word! He needs nothing to confirm His commission. He spoke and said, "Let there be light--and there was light!"

Where chaos and lack of order were common place (no peace) He spoke and there WAS!! He needed no validation--He said...It happend! We need to return to hearing and obeying the Word of the Living God!

Maybe this is why the "church house" will never be the destination for today's revival; because it is too "sterile" for the creative power of TRUE REVIVAL. Revival is often unpredictable. Revival is often messy and sometime inexplicable. It can't be shoe horned into most "order of services." The Holy Spirit is the ONE who sets the agenda when it is Him who is moving.

The sad commentary is that His agenda is often more suited for the streets than it is for the "building" that bears His name!

I love what Chad Taylor wrote:

Revival forces the issue of commitment. It deals with heart of the Church and measures the level of compassion. Its the measuring stick of passion. Go to a city's street and you'll find the pulse of the city's church. See the intensity of the light and witness of Christ in the marketplace and you'll determine the intensity of devotion and obedience in the church place. If you find the church on the streets Monday through Saturday. Then you'll surely find Christ in their midst on Sunday! You can't have one without the other: Street and Revival are inseparable!

Revival is waiting for us on the streets. It is hiding from us in the nursing homes and prisons. It is calling to us from foreign fields and obscure places. It is crying, yearning for even one person who will rise from the confines of normality and pursue it!...Revival is a fire, and souls are its kindling.

The REVIVAL has not been CANCELLED--it has just been moved to a more suitable location.

Blessings,

Pastor Troy

February Newsletter

Raven Outreach Ministries
P.O. Box 113196
Metairie, LA 70011
(504) 304-6535 office
(504) 202-0939 cellular
http://www.biggrace.com/



February 2006 Newsletter: These are awesome times to be serving Jesus!


Dear Friends, Family, Brothers & Sisters in Christ---


It is just not fare! How is it that things could be this way. Surely not everyone's situation is like mine, so how is it that I am the one finding himself in these circumstances?

Before you get excited--this is not a BAD THING! :) I am EXCITED at the opportunities that the Lord Jesus has provided for us in the past five months to share His glorious Gospel with so many lost and hurting people! Tragedy? Try triumph! In the midst of the MADNESS there is a MESSAGE! The message is that Jesus is alive and He sits on a throne in GLORY and He's not about to scoot over for anything...or anyone!

Someone asked me recently, "So, how are things really going in New Orleans?" (I guess half way expecting me to offer up some sob story about how difficult our plight has been.) Instead I offered them the words of Jesus in His message to John the Baptists disciples:

"Tell (them) the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Gospel is being preached to the poor!"

We are seeing the Lord Jesus do AMAZING things in this hour. In case you haven't heard, these are the last days! These are the times of the harvest! THIS is the hour in which the DESTINY that God has set before us will be made manifest!
Romans 13:11-12 "And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

So many PUT OFF doing the will of God, when it is time to instead PUT OFF the deeds of darkness! (Col 3:9)
Col 4:4-5 "Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Use wisdom in the way your deal with those outside of the faith. Redeem the time and make the most out of every opportunity given to you!"
Eph 5:14-17 "Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (His will is that NONE should perish but that all might have eternal life!)

WE MUST GET AN URGENCY ABOUT REACHING THE LOST FOR HIS KINGDOM. WE DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT TO DO IT>

TESTIMONIES OF GOD POWER, GRACE, AND MERCY:

One of our Raven Evangelists here in New Orleans, Thomas Derrick, had to make an emergency trip to Oklahoma City last week. His father, Charles Derrick, had been take to the hospital unconscious. The preliminary reports were very grave. When he arrived there he found out more details as to what had transpired.

His dad had lapsed into a coma and test revealed he had a cancerous spot on his lung and his brain had swelled as the result of spinal menengitis. They were giving him only an 8% chance of survival--and even then, they said that at best he would remain in a persistant vegetative state. But God....

As we all began to pray with Thomas and his family, Thomas called me and said, "My dad is not going to die until he gets saved!" He and his brother, Pastor Leonard Derrick (who served with me in Texas for seven years), began to go to their father's bedside and lay hands upon him and pray.

Well, I am here to report to you that Charles Derrick was sent home from the hospital today! Not as a vegetable--but as a tesitmony that the dead are raised and the sick are healed through the power of the Blood of Jesus!

ALSO, my nephew, Brandon Romero of Albuquerque, NM, called me the other day following a ministry trip in Colorado. He is the treasurer for a Motorcycle Ministry in his area. As they were there at an event, as woman came up on her "Hog" and was looking to park it where they had set up their ministry site. As they were getting her bike situated she began to talk about how bad that shee was having it when he interjected that all she needed was JESUS. She was suffering from all sorts of maladies including Parkinson's Disease. She allowed him to witness and pray for her---then told him that she was the wife of the president of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Gang! PRAISE JESUS!

Last Week I was advised that a young man that came to Jesus while we were in Northern California last month had been attacked and stabbed seven times by three gang members. The young man, Sergio, had prayed to recieve Jesus as Lord during an outreach conducted with Rudy Gonzales and Pastor Russ Clifford. They take a team out each week and distribute goceries and have "street church" in a high crime area in their city.

Well---God is good! Sergio came out of the attack alive! He was at the outreach the following Thursday and told them that he was still going to serve God no matter what! THEN this week Sergio was the interpreter as they gave instructions to the group of spanish speaking people who came for ministry! "Though he slay me; yet will I trust in Him."

This is such a TREMENDOUS testimony of the transforming power of the CROSS! I know people who have "been in church" for 20 years that end up cursing at God and leaving the faith because "silly" things happened to them--this 17 year old said, "I don't care if they KILL me. I am going to stay with Jesus!"

LOCAL MINISTRY HAPPENINGS:

We continue to "hit the streets" of the French Quarter (Bourbon St) and are seeing the most amazing things happen! It is such a time of harvest and anointing for reaching the lost with a living Word! We'll be back out tonight if you are in the area and would like to join us--call me 504-202-0939 to get involved.

ALSO--- we are now holding services at the "Church on the Streets" every Sunday Morning at 10:30 AM. The location is under the tent at 2001 Airline here in New Orleans. We are seeing so many people that are just hungy----not for mere food---but for the WORD OF TRUTH. We would love to have you come out and join us each week as well.

Todd Bohn, another of our local Raven Evangelist, is conducting discipleship with several guys who are desiring to learn more about the Word and build upon their relationship with Jesus as well.

THIS IS WHERE WE MAKE OUR STAND:

February 24-28 is our annual Mardi Gras Outreach here in New Orleans and we desperately need your help. All indications are that this will be one of the BIGGEST gatherings in many years as people flock back to the city for this wicked annual event that attracts people from all over the world.

The SAD NEWS is that the "Body of Christ" is oblivious to this. I hear so many on the local level talk about restoration and relief, yet turn a blinded eye to the debauchery that occurs night after night in our city. Where is the church? They have become experts at handing out water and cleaning up debris---but few have lifted a finger to grap the proverbial, "Jugular Vein" of the enemy (Bourbon Street & the French Quarter).

If we want to see New Orleans changed---once and for all---we will have to stand firm in the darkest area of this city at the DARKEST TIME (Mardi Gras). We NEED YOUR HELP.

1) Make the necessary sacrifice to join our team Feb 24-28, 2006 for the Raven Outreach during Mardi Gras. You can get details from our website http://www.biggrace.com/ or just call me up on my cell phone 504-202-0939.

2) Help me bring someone else to help. I have a couple of dozen people who would do anything to be here but are facing financial hurdles to get here. Maybe you could help me to help them. Each one can be sponsored for $165. This will cover their place to stay, food, gear, etc while here for the (5) days of ministry. Maybe you could invest $100, $500 or $1000 to help bring in some laborers at this critical time.

God is doing some wondrous things here and across this nation in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ. Let's "redeem the time" and take advantage of the opportunities to bring people into His Kingdom!

We love and appreciate you!

Blessings,

Pastor Troy D. Bohn