Greetings!
This newsletter is being drafted as the 4/14 Window Global Summit participants worship together with congregants at The Promise Church in Flushing, New York. We will spend the day worshipping our Lord and praying together with our Korean hosts for the children of the world, and for those God has called together to love, serve, and equip children and those who care for them.
As I write this the official Summit has not even begun, but even in pre-meetings I sense a spirit of cooperation and the Spirit of the Lord. We often talk about collaboration between North and South, East and West, but in this group that collaboration is becoming a reality. Leadership in this movement comes from all points on the globe and from every arena of society. Mutual respect is evident. It's a foretaste of heaven. Thanks you to all for your prayers and partnership in this vital work.
Today's newsletter articles come from Cory Raynham, co-facilitator for the Knowledge and Connections task force. Below are a few words from Cory with his thoughts about the Summit. Also special thanks to Teri Benner de Dominguez, co-facilitator for the Seven Spheres Track, for the photos in these special Summit edition newsletters.
Martha Anderson
Transform World newsletter editor
National Director, Centurions Program of Prison Fellowship / BreakPoint
Prayer for the 4/14 Window and the Global Summit
 The Promise Church in Flushing (New York City) is hosting the Transform World 4/14 Window Global Summit. Hundreds of intercessors from this vibrant Korean church have been praying daily. Similarly, faithful Christ-followers intercede worldwide using tools like the "International Prayer Alert," written by John Robb of the International Prayer Council. In his most recent prayer alert, e-mailed on September 5, John Robb quotes a great servant of God, Henri Nouwen. John then speaks directly to his praying audience:
"Prayer is the essence of the spiritual life without which all ministry loses its meaning. It is the fulfillment of the great commandment to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind...To pray is to unite ourselves with Jesus and lift up the whole world through him to God in a cry of forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and mercy....Most of all, prayer is the way to become and remain part of Jesus' mission to draw all people to the intimacy of God's love." -- Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life
This weekend kicks off a week of extremely significant events for Christ's Kingdom. Tomorrow, Sunday, September 6 through the 8th, over 400 from around the world will gather for the international conference on the 4/14 Window, the children and youth between 4 and 14 years old that are the most receptive to the Gospel. There are approximately 1.2 billion of them and 70% live in that swath of nations known as the 10/40 Window where the greatest material poverty and spiritual lostness is -- from Northwest Africa across the Middle East to Central and South Asia.
Please pray with us for the following:
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The Holy Spirit to fill this movement with His Presence and Power.
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The body of Christ worldwide to make children, ages 4 to 14, a top ministry priority.
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Leaders gathering in New York to have God's clear strategy as they plan.
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There to be authentic unity and effective collaboration among leaders.
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Turning the Hearts of Parents to Children and Children to Parents - A Supernatural Work of God
 Jose Gonzalez, co-facilitator for the Seven Spheres Transformation Track presented the following devotional based on Malachi 4:5-6 to facilitators during pre-meetings for the Global Summit.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Malachi 4: 5-6
Before the Lord's coming there is a work that He needs to do; restoring what has been a broken relationship between fathers and children. From Cain and Abel and Adam on - family relationships have been pretty dysfunctional - between siblings, and between parent and child.
What a battle.
Reconciliation that the Lord will accomplish is going to happen. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their fathers. Reconciliation is generational. The elder generation will express love towards the younger - cherishing, nurturing, guiding. And the younger will honor and respect, heed and obey the elder. Both are forms of a love that is being restored.
The Father relationship that Adam and Eve had with God was broken at the Fall, and this ushered in a spirit of orphanhood. The teaching of Jesus about the Father is overwhelming and is a way to re-introduce us to our relationship with our Father, and to serve as healing.
My sense about the matter we have in our hands of turning the hearts of a father's generation towards the children's generation, whether it be in individual families or whole societies, is connected to this end-time work of God that only God can accomplish.
We know that the tracks we have put together and the work we are doing here is a drop in the bucket when we look at 2 billion children. It's a task that only God Himself can encompass and grasp.
Not just parents, but all elders will abandon that selfishness of life and turn to raise up the younger generation.
This is a supernatural work of God - we are tiny flickers that God's Spirit is turning into a flame.
In eight years we will celebrate 500 years of the Reformation. The USA does not probably want reformation: this why the word transformation is more appealing. Latin America is still waiting for reformation that leads to transformation.
Two things happened at the Reformation that we need to heed and obey.
We need to rid ourselves of apostasy, the abandonment of revealed truth substituted by idols or other things. This was the great preoccupation of the Reformers. As I look at the church today I see a great deal of apostasy. We have abandoned vast portions of the Scripture and do not take them seriously. We need to live them and teach them.
The other great concept of the Reformation was heresy. The adding of things to the Scriptures, just like it says at the end of Revelation: Those who add to the Word and take from the Word. There is no way the father and children will turn to one another without a renewed, sanctified, reformed church. The Lord will speak to us about dimensions of apostasy and heresy even through these meetings.
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Kingdom Partnership
. . . and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor . . . .God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. -- 1 Cor. 12:23-25
On Saturday, September 5, track facilitators continued their meetings in preparation for the 4/14 Window Global Summit. One servant leader commented on the dynamic of track facilitators and members meeting each other, spending time together before and during the Global Summit: To paraphrase: "A key aspect of this time together is seeing each other face to face, getting to know each other, building relationship -- it's the basis of what lies ahead."
Commenting on the importance of prayer in forming and maintaining an effective partnership, consultant Bill Sunderland emphasized: "This is all undergirded by prayer."
Another key element in successful partnering is trust. Bill Sunderland declared that "trust is earned. It is built through honesty, integrity, competency, and reliability."
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Developing Consensus
 4/14 Poverty Track facilitator Dino Touthang spoke on "How to Build Consensus around a Strategic Plan." Dino is the chairperson for a network of 400 organizations worldwide that engage in relief and development. The network is called "the Micah Challenge."
In his overview about building 4/14 track consensus, Dino highlighted three "P's."
Purpose -- consensus can only be built around a sense of similar purpose as expressed in a vision or dream statement. In this case, the compelling vision involves treating children not just as recipients of ministry but as agents of transformation.
People -- there's a need for relationship and trust among group members in order to build consensus.
Program (planning) -- planning leads to programs focused on how to achieve the 7-year goals of the 4/14 Window Initiative. Members engage in discussion and help formulate a specific program(s) to accomplish their goals.
As he concluded, Dino expressed that each of the 16 4/14 tracks must be connected with the wider purpose of the 4/14 Window Global Initiative: "To mobilize the body of Christ worldwide to invest in reaching, equipping and empowering the 4/14 generation to maximize their transformational impact while they are young, and mobilize them for continuing impact throughout the rest of their lives."
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Summit Blogs
If you want "real-time" updates from the Summit, visit Phillip Gonzales' Global Summit Blog, or Summit updates that will be posted on The Story of God and Man. See the links to each blog in the "Quick Links" box below.
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Quick Links
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