May 1, 2006Dear Friends, Family & Co-Laborers with Christ,
Many of you have stood with Melanie and I in the ministry for many years. Some of you have known us since we were just wide-eyed teenagers just getting married and just stepping out into the ministry nearly twenty years ago. We have looked to you for encouragement, counsel, prayer and support for the ministry for many years. You have truly been friends in the truest sense of the word.
Some of you have only gotten to know us in recent years. We may have met at a church service that we were at or crossed paths “out in the streets” or we may have even been introduced via the internet in many cases. God has utilized many means to network us and Raven Ministries to some of the most awesome, Jesus-loving people that one could ever meet. I tell people all them time, “God has given me some of the very best friends a person could ever desire.”
The last several years have been nothing short of an absolute whirlwind! Being sent out from the “cozy confines” of a church and people that we served and loved; experiencing physical attacks and seeing God’s manifest miracles; being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d in our faith and in our commitment and expectancy in Christ and in seeing His faithfulness through it all has simply made us more dependant upon Him and more thankful for the many people who have interceded for our family and ministry as we continue to just be available anytime the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts.
In the past couple of years, Raven Ministries has grown in its scope and reach beyond my wildest dreams. Just a couple of weeks ago, our “teams” were simultaneously ministering and winning people to Jesus in: Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Michigan and California. As I spoke to some of the leaders that day by telephone, I was amazed at how God had brought people together from across this nation whose only desire was to share His Gospel with the unsaved. I was immediately reminded of a word the Lord had spoken to me repeatedly throughout the years, “It’s bigger than you think.”
Because it is “Bigger than I think” and certainly bigger than what I could ever personally accomplish in my own strength or ability, God has always sent His people at key times to “stand in the gap” and be the network that causes us to “let down our nets and launch into the deep” of His will.
In a month from now we are going to be s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out once again! About six months ago the Lord began to put Daytona Beach, Florida upon my heart for ministry. I knew that the city was a hotbed of activity: Bike Week (where a couple of hundred thousand bikers converge), Spring Break (two months of non-stop young people pouring into the city), NASCAR (about a half million visitors each year), Biketober Fest (another huge international motorcycle rally), and the regular flow of tourist into this city just 40 miles north of Orlando.
At the time we were still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation upon New Orleans and the Gulf South and had no idea that we might actually be called to move to Daytona ourselves. We thought that maybe we would just try to start an outreach there once or twice a year; then the Lord made it quite clear to both Melanie and I that this was just another step in the things that He had called us to.
We feel that this is a door He is opening to expand Raven internationally and take His Gospel beyond the borders of this nation and into places that have long been deprived of the soul-saving message of the Cross of Calvary. We learned long ago that “our lives are His” and “when He says to GO, we just GO.”
This is obviously a BIG STEP and will challenge us in our faith once again. Just the logistics of relocating a ministry to another state and the financial challenge are in themselves enormous. We’re confident though, that God has not “given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind” and has encircled us with friends that will continue to stand with us in prayer and support for all that we have been called to do for His kingdom!
We love and appreciate you all so much and look forward to sharing with you the many testimonies that are coming!
Blessings,
Pastor Troy D. Bohn
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