In moments when your life comes really close to ending God seems to pull things afresh into perspective and gives you a deeper sense of His glory and purpose for your life. Last week there was a shooting in the nearby projects and a bullet missed my head by 2 feet.  It was a close one and Kimberly and I are praising God that our kids still have a father. Here’s the whole story. Last week I was going into the nearby projects to pray with  someone from our church and I was standing in front of our van when a fight broke out about thirty feet away on the corner.  All of the sudden I looked up and one of the guys had pulled out a handgun and began shooting.  His target was running right towards me and bullets were flying.  Fortunately (Not for my van) the gangster firing missed his target and my head. I took a nice pic of the bullet hole, kind of a reminder of God’s faithfulness. Man, it is good to be alive. Wow, we need God’s grace in this place. Stuff like this happens all the time in our community and it has to stop.  The anger, violence, and disregard for human life is crazy and reveals how much our fallen world needs a Savior. Since the accident many supporters of our ministry have been asking if we are going to leave… We have asked that questions to ourselves and God seems to be giving us a definite answer. How could we? There is already so little light in this dark corner of our country, and there is already so few who are here fighting this war for the hearts, souls, and minds of these inner city kids who grow up seeing this evil first hand. How can we leave?  When we came here and felt the call we knew it would be hard

and we had to be willing to give our lives in every sense of the word so that the hearts of our people here may be changed by God’s grace. That calling has been confirmed all the more through this adventure and Kimberly and I see that God has His hand even in this and we feel more protected than ever since we are  in the center of His will.  We also feel that the enemy of our souls really does not want us here and is doing everything He can to try and discourage us.  God has been using Safe Haven in mighty ways to bring kids and teens to Himself and there is definitely a war going on.  I feel we are right on the edge of a huge break through and that this ministry has all the potential to explode and be used by God to redirect the course of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of urban kid’s lives.  This email isn’t just a praise report, but a call to each of you to join with us in this battle by praying for us.  Oh, how we need your prayers.  The war rages all around us and we need strength. We are reminded that the Lord is a Shield about us and our Glory, the Lifter of our head. He is sovereign and in control and it is such a joy for us to participate in this part of building His Kingdom. Stay Connected at www.safenewark.org

Urban Warrior Retreat for Young Men

This past weekend 16 guys, our Urban warrior group (pic Below) went to Battlecry and saw God do some powerful things. On the way home, one of the guys I disciple who has been highly recruited by the gangs said “If I hadn’t met you I would either be dead or in jail. I thank you for that.”  We continued to talk about life, and His faith and the many struggles he faces in trying to live for Christ in the project he lives in.  He opened up, I got to see really deep into his heart and got to see the work the Holy Spirit was doing in Him.  I realized that I would dodge a thousand more bullets in the name of Christ just for that experience. My heart rejoices at the work the Lord is doing and the countless other stories of redemption happening in the midst of this spiritual wasteland that the church as a whole has abandoned.  What a glorious Kingdom we labour for and what a blessing it is to be able to participate in planting Gospel seeds in the hearts of these precious kids.

A Call for Help!

One of the girls that Kimberly has invested in is named Kanniyah. She is a precious second grader who is growing so much in her faith and really excelling in school too.  It has been awesome to see her grow and her whole family (minus the dad) join our church this past Easter. They have been coming faithfully for 2 years now and Mrs. Dent has brought all those kids all on her own with only a stroller. This family is experiencing some serious hardships and testing right now and we want to try and help them as much as we can.  There are five kids in the home, 4 of them under the age of 4. (She just had another baby a few months ago)  Her husband got sent to jail last month and she has just been dropped from welfare. They have nothing and no one to turn to besides the body of Christ. As you know, Trinity our church is a mission church and extremely poor. We are doing everything we can to help her but we fall short in meeting many of the financial needs she is facing such as paying her rent.  We want to show her that the body of Christ is there for her and we are asking if you would pray about giving towards our deacon’s fund to help The Dent family during this difficult time.  Please do pray about it. Even if everyone on this email list just gave $20 we would be able to pay her rent for the next two months while we try and find other ways she can generate an income.  I am working on trying to get her a job and she has found someone who will babysit so she can work. It is very tough in this area to find work so please pray for that as well.  If you would like to help please send a check to 483 Ferry Street, Newark NJ 07105 made payable to Trinity Reformed Church (write “The Dent Family” in the memo) If you would like to write a note or a Bible verse to encourage them that would be great as well.  Mrs. Dent is really trusting the Lord and we are amazed at the faith she has even despite her hard circumstances.  She is trying so hard and as our sister we feel strongly that it is the job of the body Christ to help bring her up and meet the many physical needs of her family. It is our job, as the church, even more so than the stupid godless man-made welfare system. We are asking you to rise to this challenge with us and help in any way you can through your prayers and giving.

May God Bless each of you as you seek His face daily,

For the King and the Kingdom

Danny, Kimberly and DJ Iverson.