2-10-2005

Dear Friends,

What a crazy time life sometimes is! Always interesting when you serve God. Never a dull moment *grin*

I have been praying for several weeks about some special tools to work on the foundation of the conference center, and this morning, an old friend called unexpectedly, and THEN I remembered that he used to own a construction business and HAS the tools I have been praying for - and has agreed to let me borrow them! Answer to prayer #1.

Answer #2. Wisdom and direction on working with the youth of Boise County here, since my church has asked me to be their youth pastor (but no youth in the church yet). God has laid several ideas on my heart and I am proceeding with them, checking them out. Pray that God directs my steps. But one of these ideas was to apply for a substitute teacher position in Idaho City. I have sent them my resume and they have expressed interest. Right now, just waiting for the pieces to fall into place as I communicate with the staff there. Pray that God leads.

Answer #3.  Friends and support and encouragement. God has surrounded me with awesome people who have encouraged me, sometimes daily, in my walk with the Lord. It is truly a remarkable and good thing. Several of these friendships are growing quite deep, and they help keep me sane, and accountable for my actions, in this crazy crazy world in which we live.

Answer #4. Closed doors.... You ask how a closed door can be an answer to prayer?  I have been praying for income for a long time now (maybe a job?), just to pay my bills. And literally every job I have applied for, every internet venture that in the past has made money for me, every bid and every contract I have gone after, everything except the occasional computer repair job, has been a closed door. And I do mean everything. I have sent out sooooo many resumes it isn't funny. But the doors have been VERY firmly closed. That tells me God is at work, and that is cause to be encouraged. He apparently has something very specific in mind for me, and I can't wait to see what it is.... :-)

Answer #5.  The main diesel generator that was donated to the ranch so we could have electricity here, has gone down on me several times now. I am learning more about diesel generators than I ever thought I would know.... *chuckle*. I was down for almost a week at one point while I struggled with finding the problem in the generator, rebuilding parts of it, and fixing it. But the answer to prayer is that each time it has belly-upped on me, I prayed and asked God to show me the problems, and was able to fix it. It is running right now to provide power to my computer to write you this email. BIG answer to prayer.....

Answer #6.  Ministry. God has chosen to use me to bring encouragement to and speak words of healing into a number of people's lives recently. It has been satisfying, and something I am very thankful to God for.

Answer #7. There are many other answers to prayer and fingerprints of God apparent to me, and all around me, but this next one is the one I really want to take a moment to spend time on in this newsletter.

I have been praying for months and months now that God open my eyes. I have felt that I was missing something, some piece of the puzzle about this place that should be obvious to me but that I had missed. Some of you have even heard me say this. And the holding pattern that I have been in for the last several months would seem to validate that. That something about the whole dream and vision just wasn't quite what God wanted yet, and He wasn't going to let it proceed until it was right, and He was ready.

So I have been asking God to open my eyes, especially here lately as I fight back the discouragement. And I think maybe He did just that, open my eyes a little bit last week, and that has led to a fundamental shift in my goals and visions for the conference center here. It's a subtle shift, but one that I believe will make all the difference in the world.

So it has been my stated goal all along to get the conference center up and running in order to host and plan retreats and conferences for the youth of the area, post abortive men and women needing healing, pastor retreats, and conferences/retreats/seminars with various other themes and focuses.

But that was causing me frustration, making me divide my time, and leading people to question whether I was being too scattered (and scatter brained), to make ANYTHING happen here.

And it all just kinda hit me last week while I was praying one afternoon. The focuses of the conference center as I envisioned them, while good and noble, were not what God wanted most. There was a better solution, and a better focus.

This ranch needs to be a place of prayer. If I focus on leading conferences and retreats that have a focus of prayer and worship, then I have done what God asks of me. Jesus is the Great Physician. The Great Healer. My job is simply to get people into HIS presence, and then let HIM do the work, do what He is best at, healing people's hearts, minds, bodies, souls, spirits, etc and so forth. I don't necessarily have to plan how to get people healed in whatever way, spiritually, mentally, whatever, I just need to get them into God's presence so that HE can heal them.

And this includes youth, the young, the old, and everything in between. Everyone that I already wanted to see ministered to through this ranch. And then some. And it takes a HUGE load off my own shoulders. It defines my focus in a way that nothing else has done so far. It draws everything together, that in that past has looked scattered, and drawn it all up together into one cohesive whole. And that is exciting! Let me tell you what! *delighted chuckle*

I mean, as the church I have been a part of in Robie Creek has sought God in prayer and worship over the past year, we have seen growth in the hearts of people, growth in the number of attending families, literal physical healings of people on their deathbeds, healed families, and other marks of the presence of God here among us. But the focus has been on HIM, not on the healings, not on the supernatural acts that He has done, not on anything else but on Him. That was my mistake with the ranch focus, focusing on the works of God, rather than on God Himself. Does this make sense?

So I have been revising my paperwork and my plans to reflect this. I want to use this place to bring people into God's presence. Rather than a "youth" conference center, I am changing it's mission to be a "prayer" conference center, which also happens to minister to youth.

There is much peace in this decision, that this is indeed the right way to proceed right now. The youth homes and crisis pregnancy homes will come later, and possibly not even at this location. Right now, the goal is simply to get this conference center operational as a house of prayer. A place where people can meet with God.

Which brings in a host of new options and thoughts concerning staffing, volunteer worship teams from the valley, ways in which to coordinate things and events, and more. It has ironically enough, broadened the vision while also defining it better, and making it easier to focus on. Isn't that amazing? *grin*

Wanna hear something neat?   I shared these new thoughts with a friend of mine, and they simply told me that they had had what they felt had been an almost prophetic dream a year ago, that this ranch would indeed be a place of prayer someday, rather than a place of youth - which I had been previously envisioned. They hadn't shared details of the dream with me at the time, only that they had had a dream, because I apparently wasn't quite ready to hear it yet or something. That they had had this specific dream was neat, but that it took me so long to see the truth for myself is cause for chagrin, and humble repentance, and a earnest plea before God to not let me be quite that dense headed in the future *sad chuckle*....

Other people that I have shared these thoughts with, close friends who have prayed with me for open eyes and understanding regarding this very issue, have also responded with strong encouragement, that this is indeed the right way to proceed. It has all been confirmation to me that I am on the right track again. Then to suddenly see fingerprints of God happening all around me again.... it's just plain cool *grin*.

But I just wanted to share this with everyone, that God is good, and faithful to answer us when we sincerely seek His face. Be encouraged! Greater is He that loves us and has saved us by His name, than he that is in the world.

I am SO glad God is on His throne.... *contented smile*

-Tim

Tim Benedict
Thorn Creek Conference Center

21 Yellowpine Lane
Boise, ID 83716
208-392-6723
tbenedict@bigskytel.net