As this is our first webpage for the ministry and for all of you, we wanted to give you a little update on how the ministry is doing. Thanks to all of your support we have already been able to donate above our average to both Refuge Radio and Refuge Missions.

Read on to hear what the Johnston’s in Northern Ireland will be using their added income for:

The Johnstons are excited to be using their added income to serve at CreationFest “We have the perfect use for this extra income….CreationFest 2010, a free music festival. This is being held in Cornwall, England. Rick and I will be serving in some capacity (not known at this time), in what ever way is needed. We are going to drive from here (Northern Ireland), take a ferry to Liverpool, and drive through England, then camp out at CreationFest. Please pray for dry weather!
Following the seven day event, we will be driving back through Swansea to see Payton, Andrea and—of course—little Liberty Grace. We will spend a day with them, then catch a ferry from Wales to Dublin and drive back home.
We are so excited and thankful to have this extra income, as it will help us with the costs of the ferry trips, lodging on the way there, and of course with the camping and food costs….the Lord is so good. We had thought about serving at CreationFest last year, just after we arrived, but it was too soon and we needed to get settled here in Northern Ireland first. To learn more about CreationFest visit www.creationfest.org.uk

Once again, let us say thank you for your commitment to this ministry, without your support, the furtherance of these ministries would not be possible. To learn more about any of the ministries at Refuge please visit Refugefamily.com

Sheri Snyder, Para-Chaplain
Pacific Youth Correctional Ministries
331 The City Drive South
Orange, CA 92868
714-935-6365
isaiah5812@sbcglobal.net
www.sheri.pycm.org

Financial Support:
Pacific Youth Correctional Ministries (Acct 028)
P.O. Box 8333
San Bernardino, CA 92412

Seed Planter:

July 2011

Bible Study Changes
Monday – Girls Unit Q closed in March. The girls were moved to Unit O where I first
ministered to them back in 1999. In Unit O we had to conduct Bible study in the
hallway with rooms on each side which was interesting. We had several girls listen
to the study from inside their rooms and request we slide the study handouts under
their doors afterward☺. In June, the girls were moved again to re-opened Unit R.
Adjoining Unit S was also re-opened and currently has boys or girls depending on
the population. This now means on a week-by-week basis that Greg and I must be
ready to combine or split the study based on what is going on in the units and how
many youth have signed up. I thank the Lord for a flexible partner☺.

Tuesday – Patti moved to Tuesday nights allowing us to have a team assigned to
each unit. Rob and I are in Unit Y, and Gerry and Patti in Unit Z. Rob has a tremendous
heart for the youth, also serving with Lives Worth Saving gang intervention.

Wednesday – After 12 years of being on our own, Chaplain Rick and I were joined
by new team member Gina in June. Gina is a gifted Bible study teacher having ministered
for 8 years to the women at the Musick jail facility. We have an ongoing need for
Bible study leaders, disciplers, and mentors. Please help spread the word and refer those
who are interested to my website. Our final orientation for 2011 will be on Monday
evening, October 17th.

High School Graduation
Throughout the year, the probation facilities host graduation ceremonies for
students completing requirements for their high school diploma. The recent May
19th graduation at Juvenile Hall was particularly special as Paula received her
diploma. Paula first trusted in Christ at Juvenile Hall and has been a faith-filled
attendee at Bible studies and church services, encouraging others to attend with
her. Paula was radiant! She gave an amazing graduation speech thanking her teachers,
probation staff, ministry staff and volunteers, and others. She encouraged her fellow
graduates in regard to their accomplishments and future goals. She was most definitely
valedictorian of her class☺. At the end of the ceremony, the students give a bouquet
of flowers to the person who has most impacted them. Paula bestowed her gift on
volunteer Kitt who discipled Paula and remains steadfast alongside her. The Lord
definitely showered His love and grace on our dear one.Paula has been at Juvenile
Hall for a long time awaiting resolution to her case. For many youth, this would
have meant outbursts of anger, mental breakdowns, etc. While there have been
times of testing and anxiety, Paula has maintained an overall positive attitude,
maturing as a young woman, and growing spiritually as a daughter of the King.
Please pray as Paula will go to court again this month. Pray for God’s peace and
Paula to know and trust the outcome is in God’s hands.

Lives Worth Saving Statistician
For the past 18 months, I’ve been the conduit for contact information from the
teams working gang intervention on the streets of Santa Ana. I take the detailed
data and summarize it in such a way that we can see overall impact and look for
trends. In June, I began doing this same thing for the new effort to address sex
trafficking of minors in Orange County. Pray for the teams who continue to work
on the streets with at-risk and gang-involved youth. And for the new teams who
are investigating possible incidents of minor sex trafficking. For more information,
check out www.sidebysidechurch.com.

Anaheim Harvest Crusade
Friday evening, August 12th, I will attend the Harvest Crusade with a van load
of youth from YGC. Pray for our time together, and for Chaplain Rick who coordinates
this field trip along with several more from the other facilities.

YGC Summer Girls Event
On August 20th, we will host our 10th annual event. This year’s theme is God
Made You Special based on Psalm 139. We will once again have the girls transform
plain composition notebooks into beautiful journals using scrapbooking materials.
Pray for my awesome team of ladies. I am so blessed that the Lord surrounds me
with sisters in Christ who are gifted in the many areas I am not. Pray the Lord
will prepare the hearts of our girls to receive all of the Love and Hope that He
has for them. At our Spring event, we had one girl Angel walk out… the battle
was on! Angel attended church the next morning and shortly thereafter prayed
to receive Christ. She continued to attend church and Bible study, and received
intense discipleship from the leaders of our mentoring program Jan and Marilyn.
Angel was recently transferred to LA county for placement. Please pray God will
continue to surround her with Christians. I know the enemy is at work because
as I searched the internet for clipart for the event, my computer was infected
with a nasty virus that “hid” my entire C-drive, gave me bogus hard drive failure
error messages, and corrupted the pathways to my programs. Thankfully, I had
backed up my files that morning, and the Lord provided an awesome computer-tech
guy Rob who rebuilt my operating system. If you ever need computer repair or
maintenance, Rob’s your guy☺. Let me know and I’ll put you in contact. As I
drove over to Rob’s to drop off the computer, I was amazed and oh so grateful the
Lord had given me His supernatural peace about the whole thing.

YGC Girl’s Movie Nights
Magdalena – May 5th – The unit coordinator set up the movie using the projector
and a big screen consisting of white sheets hanging on one of the walls. Worked
great! We started with 14 girls but soon the remaining 6 arrived. They were in a
program but said they finished as fast as possible so as not to miss the movie☺.
The girls enjoyed seeing how Jesus interacted with the women of his time and
how they responded. They were really impacted by his arrest, beating, and
crucifixion because they were able to see the contrast of how Jesus treated
others vs. how he was treated. It reminded me of the saying, “One picture is
worth a 1000 words.” For our youth to read the words of the Bible is one thing,
but to see the words of the Bible is an entirely different matter. After the movie,
we had a discussion time. Sara said she thought they all could relate to Mary
Magdalene because although not demon-possessed they have all experienced
the possession of drug addiction and other sinful behaviors. Angel shared how
Jesus has impacted her life. She was learning to find comfort and truth in His
Word. And she looked up 1 Corinthians 13 to understand what true love is. God
is at work… thank you for praying! Our next movie, The Last Sin Eater will be
shown on July 28th. The movie is based on the novel written by Francine Rivers,
and brings to light issues of loss, grief, and forgiveness. Please ask the Lord to
prepare the hearts of the girls to receive healing and forgiveness. Many have been
through so much. They’ve sinned and been sinned against, and find it difficult to
forgive and be forgiven. Praising God for YGC staff who are wonderfully supportive
of this new activity.

Stay in Touch!
Much more goes on throughout the year that won’t fit into these newsletters.
To stay in touch, please check out my website which I update monthly with my
prayer letter, our in-house youth newsletter, and current ministry happenings.
www.sheri.pycm.org

Serving to fulfill His Great Commission, Sheri

A Lamb that is Worthy

Winter is not the season of lambs being born, but in a field right on the
edge of town is a wee flock that has an autumn-born lamb fattening up on the grass. Those lambs are so cute, you just want to jump out of the car and give it a wee squeeze. You know it wouldn’t hurt a fly. Lambs have to be one of the most gentle and sweet-natured beasts in the animal kingdom. It is in God’s wry sense of irony that the Savior and Lord is pictured as a lamb. When Jesus first comes on the scene, as recorded in the gospel of John, John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ But there was something very special about this particular lamb, because, “John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend
from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”(John 1:29, 32) I have seen rain come down on the sheep around here, and even snow, but never anything remotely close to the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
The true story of Christmas is the amazing grace God showed by the Son leaving the splendor of heaven for abject poverty on earth. It can be summed up by Philippians 2, verse 6 which says, “Though he was in the form of God [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
But Christ, though he died on the cross for our sin, was raised to life three days later then ascended back to heaven. There he now sits at the right hand of God receiving worship as the angels declare, “Worthy is the Lamb!” So as you remember the wee baby in the manger this Christmas, whisper this as a prayer to Him: “Worthy is the Lamb.

Here are some more words for youse:

Buns: Sweet Baked Goods. “My favorite buns are the ones at Cinnabon”
Ornaments: Figurine. “That is a lovely nativity ornament on the mantle”
Baubles: Ornaments, Balls. “I got new baubles for the tree on Black Friday!”
Brick-a-brack: Nic Naks. “We sold some nice brick-a-brack at the car boot sale”
A Kit: A uniform or outfit. “The fire brigade got new kits.”
Engine Driver: Fireman. “The engine driver from the fire brigade spoke at our school”
Autumnal: Fall-like. “Her kit had a real autumnal look to it.”

3rd Annual Hallelujah Party

Wow, our 3rd Hallelujah party! Can’t even believe we’ve been here this long! Once again the children enjoyed great fun, games and lots of
sweets. We had some of the same games, as well as some new ones. Brad & Cheryl Matsunaga had brought Christian craft kits when they
visited us earlier. The kits explain the Gospel through colored beads and a cross. Rick shared the Gospel with the children while they assembled their bead necklaces. We had a great turn out, around 50 people in all.
One of the favorite games of all is the ‘Guess How Many?’
where different sized jars are filled with different kinds of sweets. We always have loads of fun and a great many laughs! We are grateful for the blessing of this building to hold such events in. Jan Knight and
Melissa Conroy were a great help in setting the building up.

Voice of Hope Choir presents “The Gift”

Five members of Harvest, Rick, Jan Knight, Melissa Conroy and Robbie & Sarah Orr were all members of the VOH Choir who performed a three evening presentation of “The Gift”. Being a gospel outreach to the community and a fund raiser for two different Christian charities, the message of Jesus Christ being the ultimate Gift, given by God to us was a wonderful experience. Cindy was able to catch their last performance on the day she returned home from California.
The weekend before The Gift, Rick joined a group of choir members who went door to door to personally hand out invitations to attend the free event to homes in the neighborhood where the event would take place.
It was especially chosen to be in the north end of town, the “Catholic” part of town, and the choir wanted the Lord to move among our neighbors. Please pray with us that fruit will remain.

Praise and Prayer

Praises:
For our son Daniel’s salvation!
· For Cindy’s trip to California in November
· A great turn out and time was had at the Annual Hallelujah Party Outreach
· For Margaret Henry’s recovery from hip replacement surgery
· Voice of Hope gospel outreach was a success and blessing to many
Prayer requests:
For Cindy’s mom, Vernie, as she adjusts to the loss of Fred her husband
· For Dee, Rick’s mom as she adjusts to her new home
· For issues of health for our mothers
· Christmas service – 23rd Dec
· Shepherd’s Heart Care Team members –many are having various struggles
· Financial provision for the cold months

God Bless YOU!
Rick and Cindy Johnston

Hello, Fellow Sojourners,
Yesterday was the re-launch of our training conference for up and coming church planters. The theme of Jump School 1 was “Ready to Jump” and it was an introduction to church planting for those new to the subject or wanting to develop their understanding. Our conferences are broken down into three major themes: Biblical, Missional, and Radical church planting. Once people understand those three principles, they are ready to church plant NEW BREED style.

The Biblical foundation of church planting is probably the most
important aspect. It’s awesome to watch people’s understanding change as they see things jumping off the pages of Acts that they’ve never seen before in regards to church planting. The first session answers the question, “Why does what we’re doing in ministry today look so different from wheat they did in the book of Acts?”. Once that question has been explored, we’ve found people are hungry to learn how to church plant like Paul and the other apostles. One of the best things about the conferences is that we get to pick up church planters along the way who join the network of NEW BREED. We’ve already started forming our first church planting team. It is too early to give the details, but we ask for your prayers.

During the conference Andrea led a workshop titled “Church Planting is for Girls”. We feel that NEW BREED is unique in providing support for both church planter’s wives and other women eager to work with church plants. Andrea took the women through an exploration of their gifts and helped them to strategize how to use them in a church planting context.
She also exhorted them to not settle for anything less than finding their passion and pursuing it for God. Peyton led “Building your Team” and both workshops went so well that we decided to delete one talk from the program so that we could continue our discussion.

On the horizon, we’ve been speaking to some churches in Florida about launching Jump School there in early 2012. As you may know, we’re traveling up to Oregon after the February 5th conference “Taking No Man’s Land” (a.k.a. Jump School 2). Last week we were invited to do a conference in Oregon in July. Peyton has also been invited to take part as the keynote speaker for the mission’s conference for Calvary Chapel West- Grove and a host of other churches in the Orange County area in March Although we’ll be in Oregon then writing the NEW BREED book , they have agreed to fly Peyton down to take part.
We hope to see some of you at these events so we’ll keep you posted about the dates.

On the Wales front, sadly Carol has gone home to be with the Lord. Many of you remember Carol from the early days of Pillar Community Church. She was healed of cancer and turned her life over to Jesus as a result. We will miss her and continue to pray for her family. As we speak, one of our American NEW BREED church planters is on his way from Florida to Wales in order to scout out the land and make plans to return to Wales in Autumn of 2011 and take up church planting there.

Much has happened in the past week, and we’re incredibly blessed to watch God unfolding His plans for our family and the ministry of NEW BREED.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for many opportunities.
• Praise the Lord for a good conference.
Pray
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to call the people He wants to church plant.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would guide all our travels and decisions.

Grace and Peace,
Peyton, Andrea, and Liberty

Refuge CCHB
7800 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA, 92647

Radio Ministry
The radio program, “The Mirror,” is still going strong. Jonathan has
recently taken over as the host of the show, and we have a Kenyan
pastor (as well as the occasional guest) helping to answer questions.
It has been great to be able to answer questions from Kenyans about
the Bible, cults and heresies, and life issues. Our most common questions
are usually about dating,finding purpose, and dreams and visions.

HIV/AIDS
AIDS is a major issue here in Kenya, with the world’s fourth largest
population of people living with HIV/AIDS. In our small church, we
have at least three women who are AIDS widows, women who were
given HIV by their husbands. These women love God, and are some of
the most ardent worshipers. Having HIV/AIDS in Kenya can result in a
difficult life of discrimination, but these women love God and continue
to praise his name above all else. As a church, we will soon be baptizing
one of these ladies, who knows that her time is short, and she wants to
make sure she has fulfilled God’s command in her life. Please continue to
pray for these ladies, as well as others with HIV/AIDS in Kenya.

Prayer Requests
Prayer for our upcoming furlough, Nov 2011-Jan 2012.
Pray for us as we take over the leadership of Living Water
Christian Fellowship. Pray that God would receive all glory and
honor in what we do.
Praise God that “The Mirror” radio show is blessing Kenyans.
Pray for the “AIDS widows” in the church.
Pray for continued financial support.

God has called our family to serve in Nairobi, Kenya alongside a church known as Living Water Christian Fellowship pastored by Robbie Gorden. Jonathan will be assisting at the church and teaching at the Bible College, also headed by Pastor Robbie Gorden. After a three year commitment to the church & Bible College we are praying about planting another church where God leads.

BLOG: fergusonfour.blogspot.com

PRAYER POINTS:

• Willing servants (short or long term)
• Monthly Financial Support

We are looking forward to sharing more about the church and the
direction we are headed in at Living Water Christian Fellowship but
for now, check out some new videos, pictures and a quick update!

BLOG:  fergusonfour.blogspot.com

Bless you guys!
Adrienne for the Ferg4

–
1 Thessalonians 3:12
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and
for everyone else, just as ours does for you.