RENEWAL NEWSLETTER - Summer 2004

Greetings, Dear Ones in Jesus Christ,

We apologize for being so long overdue in getting this update posted for our ministry partners. Your prayers and participation are so vital to what the Lord has us doing. We draw great strength from the reality that you are standing with us.

The Family

This continues to be the “season of the family” in our lives. We have spent many hours ministering to our family in recent weeks. Since our last communiqué with you we have visited the families of Holly in Bruswick, Georgia, Amy in the Atlanta area and Melody in Houston. Our plans are to return to Montana for a visit with Robyn and the Balcoms before the year’s end. We are thoroughly enjoying this more flexible season in our lives and more time with our children, nineteen “children” (daughters, sons-in-love and grandchildren).

A Changing Season

Speaking of seasons, the Lord showed us in a rather extraordinary way that the “season of drawing us aside” is over. Recently, we were sharing with a friend the unique place in which God has had us for the past three years. As we shared, the Lord made a strong impression in my spirit that “you are speaking of this season as if it were the present season and you should be speaking of it as a season that has now passed.” Although the new season has not completely unfolded, we are trusting Him that new things are in the making.

One of the most significant developments in this “past” season has been the 40 day fast that Anne and I observed at the beginning of the year. It was one of the greatest experiences of our Christian life. We felt renewed, revitalized and re-fired. The Lord dealt with many things in our lives including but limited to food. We received new direction regarding a new Ministry of Encouragement as a part of CSR. We now plan to do a 40 day fast each year. We will notify you of our next one. Maybe some of you would want to join us.

A Special Commemorative Newsletter – A CSR Banquet

If the Lord wills, we will do a very special commemorative Newsletter in the Fall of this year with any stories, pictures, etc. etc. In addition CSR Ministries will have its first CSR Banquet, Monday evening, November 1st at the Florence-Lauderdale Coliseum. All of you are invited to join us. At this stellar event, we will present several “Spirit of the Shoals” awards and share ministry highlights from our 44 years together. You will receive a personal invitation but even now mark November 1st on your calendar.

A Few of the Things God Has Done

Because of the Newspaper Edition coming out in the Fall, we will only touch on some of the things God has been doing in and through us since we last communicated with you.

Jim and Anne participated in the Charismatic Leader’s Fellowship in Jacksonville, Florida. While in Jacksonville, we had the privilege of visiting with our friends the Martins, the Cases, and the McGeehee family that have meant so much in our lives over the past thirty years.

We have participated in conferences in Columbus, MS, Experiencing the Father’s Embrace and the Marketplace event led by Ed Silvoso in Murphesboro, TN.

We continue to have the “Gatherings at the Bevis’s” on a bi-monthly basis in our home. Thus far Glenda Gleaves Sutton, Carmen Falconi, Joni Ames and Joe Brock have been our teachers. John Buhler, one of our CSR Board members will teach in August.

Jim continues to meet with Christian leaders on a city/area, regional, state-wide and national level. He is a members of several “round tables” including “Churches for a Better Alabama.”

Jim taught for a week in a Spiritual Warfare School at YWAM in Las Vegas. We both returned to LV several weeks later to minister at Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church.

We have ministered recently at Faith Mission Outreach in Russellville, AL and Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Leighton, AL. Anne ministered in the Faith Tabernacle Women’s Conference and to a women’s group at First Methodist in Tuscumbia, AL.

Anne and her good friend, Charlotte Matthews, recently participated in a tow-week, intensive spiritual warfare SWAT training school in Oklahoma led by Native Americans, Dr. Niegel Bigpond and Dr. Jay Swallow. She will be telling you more about this in the Fall publication.

The two-year, Tennessee River Prayer Initiative has been completed with a week-lonhg prayer mission to eight strategic prayer sites in the Shoals. Jim and Anne were on the Leadership team for the Native American Prayer Summit and the Celebration of Protocol event in the Shoals.

Jim continues to disciple five, young “history-makers,” He continues his weekly radio interview program, “What On Earth Is God Doing.” And he leads the Servant Leadership Team. We continue to lead our Thursday Night house group.

Jim has been asked to serve on an accountability board for Leif Hetlund and Global Missions Awareness, a world-wide missions endeavor now based in the Shoals.

We have visited personally with over fifty pastors and churches in the new, “Ministry of Encouragement.” God has led us into some powerful experiences. We will share more later.

Looking Ahead

In addition to visiting with our family over the holidays, we continue to be available for any assignment from God, anytime and anywhere. We are working on:

The CSR Banquet and Board Meeting, October 29-November 1

The Experiencing the Father’s Embrace Conference with Jack Frost, in the Shoals, February 17-20, 2005 Please carefully consider attending this event.

The Word, Spirit and Power Conference in Huntsville in 2005

Jim and Anne will lead a Sunrise Communion Service at the 200th Anniversary Service at Cane Ridge in Kentucky, June 25-27. This is the 200th Anniversary of the “Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery” an important document in the history of the Campbell-Stone Restoration Movement.

In addition, Jim and Anne will be participating in the David Wilkerson conference in Birmingham in August. Richard Simmons, one of Jim’s “disciples” from Ghana will be visiting us in Alabama in August. Anne and sister Becky will be singing at their high school reunion. Jim and Anne will be leading a retreat at the Doublehead Resort in October PLUS whatever else God has in mind.

Pray For Us

Please continue to stand with us with your support and prayers. Our support picture continues to decline. We believe this is due to the economic upturn in the nation and the apathy that prevails over much of the church. The enemy continues to strongly resist the divine assignment God has given us to help in the maturing of the saints and the renewal of the WHOLE church. We need for all of you who are supporting us to continue to do so. We need for those of you who have stopped supporting us to “return to the table.” We need for the Lord to raise up some new supporters who will join in Christ’s mission of renewal.

Continue to pray for our health. Anne struggles with her legs, feet and knees.

Pray that our minds will remain sharp and we will hear even the slightest promptings of the Lord.

Pray for our children, grandchildren, and sons-in-love. They often experience the attacks that come against us.

Pray that God’s direction for our future will be clear an that we will obey all things.

Pray that the Lord will provide us with the RV/Motor home we will need to expand the Ministry of Encouragement.

Thanks to those who have sent us your prayer requests. Continue to send them. We take each request seriously.

We love you and thank God for you.

Prayerfully and Expectantly,

Jim and Anne Bevis