Life Transition Ministry Prayer/Support Groups LivingRoom Bible Institute SonLight Club - Amish Voice Donation Center - Audio & tract Church Presentations and Workshops

P.O. Box 128     Savannah, Ohio 44874    (419) 962-1515     WWW.MapMinistry.org     JKeim@MapMinistry.org

If you remember, we had ended our September newsletter with an invitation for you to join us in crying out to God to send an awakening to the ones whom He has called us to minister to. If you are one whom God has burdened and you have been praying, than I would like to say "thank you" and "please don't give up". Sometimes I feel as if I can almost reach out and touch the coming awakening. A friend of mine gave me the book by Andrew Murray called Humility and in that book he reminds us that real humility before God brings revival. Real humility and revival from heaven comes when man comes to the place where he can say with Paul in I Cor 4:4, "For I know nothing by myself". Our groups continue to meet on a weekly basis, praying for God to move the mountains in this generation.

Is God Shaking the Foundation of the Amish Culture?

A father has been calling from another state, telling us how his family has been excommunicated from the Amish church because they were standing up for biblical truth. One day he called and was crying. He said, Joe I don't know what to do, but it is clear that we have to leave the Amish church altogether. He went on to say, my 18 yr old son also got saved and has plans to leave with us, but right now he is so down and depressed about it that he is not able to eat or get out of bed.

In another case, a pastor and myself visited a local family who is also being threatened by the church that if they don't stop going against the ordinances of the church, they too will be excommunicated - the 50 yr old father stood there with tears running down his face. He said, all I want is to humble myself under the authority of God and know that I am saved. One day I asked the mother, do you remember reading what Paul said to the Philippian jailer when he asked "what must I do to be saved". She immediately answered "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" and than she added, "and...the Bible never says that a man's hair has to be cut a certain way in order to complete salvation, does it".

In September, I was invited by our missionary, Andy Geesey to come to Pennsylvania to- (^#1) participate in his ordination to the ministry and- (^#2) share at the home where they are having weekly Prayer/Bible study meetings in Lancaster (left photo). While we were at the Bible study on Saturday night, Andy received a call saying that some Amish men had gathered to pray in one of the barns right there in the Lancaster area. When we arrived at the prayer meeting, we found a group of people (right photo) who had secretly come together at a barn, to pray that God would intervene during the church service on the following day. You see, the church was going to excommunicate yet another family for attending Bible studies. The prayer meeting was very moving and powerful-for two hours straight, men confessed their sins, read the scriptures, and cried out to God. It was real, from the heart and so passionate!

A 23 yr old single man in one of our neighboring communities had some questions as to why the ministers were not preaching the whole truth in Colossians chapter 2. After praying about it, he approached his Bishop and asked him straight out. To make a long story short, the ministers excommunicated Andy from the church and when this happened his parents had to shun him or also get in trouble with the church. Soon after we received the first call, we went out to meet Andy where he had been sleeping in a barn (pictured) that was located 3 fields deep, away from the road. I have personally spent many hours with Andy, going over God's plan of salvation to make sure he fully understood. He has also been attending one of our prayer meetings and going to a church in his area. Later this week, he and I will be traveling to NY together where we will participate in sending a former Amish man off to Brazil, for full time missionary work.

Harley's Hog Roast

The Sky is the Limit-Hog roast!	Dr Schramm & Harley	Ruth

People who came from the Amish culture had little need for education past the 8th grade but in this English culture, it's a different story-without a better education, people have a hard time getting ahead. And for that very reason, Harley who has already received his GED, realtors license, and is attending the Ashland University, decided to put on an event called "The Sky is the Limit".

We got a committee together to come along side Harley and when the big day came, Harley roasted a hog and we served lots of side dishes for approximately 75 attendees. Harley had invited Dr. Schramm from the Ashland University to come by and give a motivational speech on how to make it in a culture that you weren't born into. Dr. Schramm shared how he and his family had come over from Hungary when he was just a boy. And with a little bit of money and a whole lot of determination he went to school, learned the English language, and eventually received his doctorate degree. Ruth (far right) is the GED teacher here in Ashland and has helped quite a few of the young folks get their GED's. She does an awesome job!

A SonLight Club Update

In Sept, the Rauch family from Illinois took a week off and came to Ohio to help out with the MAP Ministry-and my, what a wonderful blessing they were to all of us! We all had so much fun together. We appreciate all that they have done and are doing to reach out to the Amish community in their home area.		We have met very few of our 11,000 SonLight Club students but every once in awhile God blesses us by letting us run into some. In the past month, we met some in MO, three boys in OH (top) and two girls in PA (bottom). These meetings are always so moving to them and us. 15 yr old Emanuel (top photo) snuck to a phone and called me yesterday. He said, "Joe, can you bring me an English Bible, because I don't have one?"
The special children in this photo are raising money for the SonLight Club and have been doing so for weeks. I was so blessed when they invited me to come and join/meet them for a Wed night class, several weeks ago-their goal is to reach the $500 mark. We are humbled!
It all started when some of us became burdened and started praying that God would bring back the students who had dropped off and also increase our database with new students. We offered a prize to any student who would mail us new names of their friends who were not yet involved in the SonLight Club. The results-thousands of new names, which also meant thousands of prizes (2 photos on left). We were un-prepared for the extra expenses that this answer to prayer would bring and ran out of funds, overnight. And so at this time we are asking our MAP family to consider joining us (board, staff, and volunteers) in giving a special gift toward this need. If your answer is "no, we are not able to", please don't feel bad or left out, just pray that God would bring it to pass through others.    1.    Since 2000, MAP has enrolled more than 11,000 Amish students in one or more of the 28 courses    2.    Every year we receive hundreds of salvation testimonies (oldest one was 80 years old)    3.    Our staff, volunteers, and students are a very close knit family: Thousands of personal notes and letters are passed back and forth between the pages of these Bible lessons. We have dealt with the alcoholism, anger, depression, sexual & physical abuse, selfishness, death, and yes, even murder.

Celebration 2007

Tina, Amber and myself saved up money since January and in October we threw a time of celebration for our board and volunteers. We provided them with all the ribs they could eat, along with all the fixn's. After a time of testimony and appreciation, the Lyon's family got up and blessed us with some of the very finest Southern Gospel music. In our next update, we will tell you about two young people who gave their hearts to Jesus, after God's people prayed for many months. Until than, have a great Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!