Dear Friends,

Lisa and I hope that all is well in your world today. We are still in lockdown since our last newsletter. The British government is reevaluating whether to open things up or not at three-week intervals. We’re in the second three-week period now.

What does that mean for us?

Well, we are mostly restricted to our lovely home. We are allowed to go out once per day for exercise, while keeping to the social distancing requirements. The weather has been absolutely fabulous. So Lisa and I go for a long walk each day. Our neighborhood is on the edge of town. So there is plenty of green space nearby for walking.

We used to stop by the grocery store every other day or so because it was so convenient. Now Lisa just goes once a week instead. She discovered that if she gets to the store right when they open at 7am, she practically has the whole place to herself. That makes it easier and faster for her to get her shopping done!

We’ve been to our Bible college facility twice in the past month for quick trips each time to take care of those few things we really can’t do from home.

Ministry Opportunities

Fortunately, ministry has not stopped. Not even close.

Our Bible college students already do much of their studies online. Since we cannot meet in person at the moment, we started using Zoom to video conferences in place of our on-campus Saturdays with our students.

Our team realized that many are unable to work with the lockdown and might appreciate some mid-week encouragement. So we started a praise and prayer time on Thursday evenings via Zoom. 

We call these “open meetings” because they are extra and optional. We allow folks to pass on the links to others they have relationship with who might appreciate some extra encouragement too. That keeps things a little more intimate than if we posted a link on social media or advertised a truly public meeting.

We also added two similar optional hours of encouragement and teaching on the off Saturdays when we aren’t scheduled to meet for our normal school time at the student’s request. These optional meetings are also open to those with a connection to our campus. Attendance is growing and we have upwards of 60 people join us for the extra ministry Zoom meetings!

Then on Tuesday afternoons, I started doing a Bible study on Facebook live with our team member, Andrew Sharp. They are being received really well. Andrew and I are completely different in personality and style. So I think that adds a little entertainment value to the quality Bible teaching we deliver. You can find them on our Charis Dumfries Facebook Page here.  

Plus, I am also doing the Financial Friday Bible study on Facebook live too. You can find those on our NewCREEations Facebook page here. I’ve had some challenges getting the live stream to work on YouTube in addition to Facebook. I’ll research it a bit more and hopefully find the right solution for that.

We are also making it a point to connect with our students one-on-one. And in between all that, Lisa is connecting with various folks all around the world for mutual ministry time.

Not only are we busier now than we were before the lockdown, but we are ministering to more people than ever. God is good!

Encouraging Words

During one of our walks early on in the lockdown God had a word for Lisa and I, that might be encouraging for you too. He took me to Isaiah 54 where we find these words (I love having my Bible app in my phone so I can look up scripture wherever I am!)

“Enlarge the place of your tent,
And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;
Do not spare;
Lengthen your cords,
And strengthen your stakes.
For you shall expand to the right and to the left,
And your descendants will inherit the nations,
And make the desolate cities inhabited.”— Isaiah 54:2-3 (NKJV)

God said that we shouldn’t look to what the world was doing right now because, for us, this is a season for expansion. We will do well to prepare to receive the increase He is bringing our way.

He followed that immediately with a second word for us. God took me to Genesis 26 where Isaac sowed during a famine/drought and reaped a hundredfold harvest:

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;— Genesis 26:12-13 (NKJV)

Not only do we need to exercise our faith by increasing our capacity to receive from God, but I believe God is saying to us that this is the season to plant seed for a supernatural harvest. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the world is experiencing financial drought and lack. We serve a far bigger God! 

Our Response to Those Words

Lisa and I took action to put our faith these words from God in motion. In the past two weeks I’ve made some significant improvements to our website and our system for receiving donations. We invested in some software to accomplish this. And I put in many extra hours to get everything in place and working.

Now we have a much simpler donation process. Instead of multiple forms across several pages, it’s all in one donation form. People can make one-time donations, or start monthly partnerships in a variety of currencies all from the same form.

Plus, now each of our partners now has their own account on our website where they can securely access their giving history, update their payment information when their cards expire, and manage their partnerships. They can also download yearly giving statements right from their accounts!

All new donations will automatically create an account on our website. And I’ve added the data for all of our current monthly partners as well as all who made one-time donations via our website since the first of the year. So we’re effectively starting clean with the new system as of January 1, 2020.

If you are a current monthly partner or made a donation through our website since 1 January 2020, you can go to the My Account page, click the “Lost your password?” link to reset your account password using the same email address as your previous donation/partnership. And you can see the new donation form on our partnership page. 

Adding this better system increases our capacity to continue serving our ministry partners with excellence.  

In addition to increasing our capacity to receive, Lisa and I are also responding to God’s other word for this season by increasing our own giving too. In the past few weeks, we’ve given some alms, sown some financial seed for specific harvests, and such, just like I explain in my Rejecting Mammon book. 

Walking in Kingdom ways is a lifestyle, and we are preparing for God’s increase!

The Months Ahead

We have no way of knowing how long the current disruption will last, or how long it will take for things to return to normal. We don’t know when we’ll be able to meet with our students in person again, or when we will be able to schedule the graduation ceremony for this year’s class.

But there are some things we do know.

We know that ministry will continue for NewCREEations, and opportunities will continue to grow for us to positively impact and influence people for the Kingdom of God. We know that God will turn this thing that the enemy intends to harm us into something amazingly good for His people.

We know there is still much ministry to do here in Scotland as we continue to encourage believers here in the goodness of God. We know that God has plans to expand NewCREEations so that we can reach even more people than we do already.

And we know that we are still blessed, healthy, and prosperous regardless of what happens in the world around us.

Finally, I just want to say a very heart-felt thank you to all our ministry partners. Going through all the data entry with the change over to the new system for our website impacted me greatly. It was a vivid reminder for me of how generous and faithful you all are. Lisa and I could not be here doing what we do without you! Thank you again for your love, friendship, prayers and faithful financial support.  We are eternally grateful!

Abundant Blessings,

Chris & Lisa Cree

P.S. Lisa and I would like to bless you for reading all the way down to the end of our newsletter this month by giving you a free copy of the eBook version of Rejecting Mammon. To get it, click here and then change out the $9.00 in the “Set Your Donation” field to $0. Next, click the “Add to Cart” button and complete the transaction in our e-commerce cart to access the download link for free. We pray you are blessed by learning these Kingdom ways as much as we were when we learned them!

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NewCREEations Ministries
953 Forest Edge Rd
Woodland Park, CO 80863