Kramertribe January 2009 update

In this month's edition of kramertribe you will read about the following:

Ocala Homeless Youth trip
24/7 Prayer

and maybe a few other exciting things. Thanks for staying tuned, here's the latest!

Ocala
January 2-12 we made a trip with Source to Florida. The purpose of the trip was to reach out to some folks who live in the Ocala National Forest for a Rainbow Gathering. Rainbow gatherings started in the 70s in the high of the 'hippie' movement. These gatherings consisted of anywhere from 100 to 20,000 people living in the woods, sharing free food, playing music, doing drugs, etc. There greeting to each person who comes is 'Welcome home.'

Every year in the Ocala National Forest several thousand homeless youth, travelers and old hippies gather together. Source has gone to this gathering twice previously-once in 2005 and again in 2007. This year we had a team of 12 who set up a kitchen, cooked and served three meals a day as well as maintaining a 24/7 prayer tent in the woods. We also kept a journal while we were in the woods. You can read about it on Source's website. The link is: http://sourcemn.org/OUTREACH/florida/florida09jrnl.htm.

God really blessed us on the trip, even before we got into the woods. A vineyard church hosted us before and after the gathering. A couple, Tom and Anita (pictured above), that have been involved with Christian community for years hosted us at their home. We were encouraged by their hospitality and felt like family instantly! Once we got into the woods God really gave us grace and favor. We met a lot of people, prayed with a lot of them, cooked and served some great food and saw God move in great ways. Many of the people have been hurt by the church and are turned off by Christians.

By the end of our week in the woods our new friends, who knew we were Christians and had been around while we prayed or even prayed with us, did not want us to leave. We had become family in just a few days. One of the young men even decided to come back with us to Minneapolis! The last day we were in Florida we went to the beach. It was a cold rainy day. Tom, our host, told the young man, 'if you are ready to follow Jesus i'll baptize you today in the ocean.' He thought about it for a while and decided he wanted to do that. We gathered around him, prayed for him and then Peter and Tom baptized him in the ocean. Please pray for this young man as he is trying to follow God and looking for a job. His name is Jacob. He is the shirtless one in the picture. Our friend has posted a lot of pictures on his facebook. If you have facebook Go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015051&id=1126284533#/album.php?aid=2015051&id=1126284533.

24/7 Prayer
January 24-31 we hosted another week of prayer at the Fallout. We value these weeks of prayer because we see them as a time to refocus on what really matters. And what really matters? Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Loving our neighbor as ourself. The week went really well and as usual God surprised us. The last night of the week of prayer was our community night. We had around 60 people, a great time of worship, a great time of sharing about the week and also had an opportunity to share about our trip to Ocala.
God brought new friends to the Fallout to pray with us, he brought some people in crisis through our doors and overall was very present. The result of the week of prayer for many of us is a renewed hunger to prayer and to study the Word of God. We continue to maintain rhythms of prayer and are encouraging people to use the prayer room more often! Prayer really is the foundation of everything that God does.

Source
2009 is going to be a very good and crucial year for Source. As a non-profit things are challenging but we are trusting God in all things. Peter and Jessica, the directors of Source, are having their 4th child in March. As a result they are going to be stepping back from a lot of their responsibilities. This is good but it also challenging as they are used to being deeply involved with every aspect of Source. So, this month, February, is going to be very important. We need your prayers as all of us on staff try to step up, understand our roles and hear God. We are excited for Peter and Jessica as God has been speaking to them for years about this. We are also anxious as it means even more responsibilities for everyone on staff. Needless to say, things are exciting here! Thanks for your prayers and your support!

Tim and Dana Kramer