Linda as a seminary student, praying during an Associational Missions Committee Meeting in New Hampshire in 1992 during a snow storm. Two years later, a church starter used our resources to start churches in New Hampshire we were praying about that night.

By Linda Hokit
​God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…
Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46: 1 and 10 (NIV)

Oh, my word. The young ones in my community are on the streets heading for schools, running to cars and buses for pickups and filling the little library in my town after school. The energy level is at a high pitch, the enthusiasm is high and I love to see it. Their hope, joy and enthusiasm are contagious! However, there are times I just want to pull aside and linger with the Lord and imagine how God will turn things to good for them!

If you read the verses between the ones I shared above, you’ll recognize similar upheaval that exists in the world today. Upheavals that affect young and old alike. And yet, we are told to go to God and let Him lay the course for the future.

I remember early in my career hearing about a mother who found a brilliant way to pull aside
and linger in the Lord’s presence. Her name was Susana Wesley. She had a son named John and another named Charles. They were among the 19 children Susana and Samuel had! I can not even imagine what craziness must have gone on in their home! Even so, Susana set aside time during her busy day to pray. As the story goes, she laid her apron over her head when she wanted time alone with God. The children soon learned that when she covered her head and shut out the world, it was time to settle or go outside the house so their mother could pray. John and Charles must have witnessed her prayer routine many times.

The Wesley’s lived in England during the 1700’s, which is before the Revolutionary War. John and Charles were among those God eventually used to bring Spiritual Awakening to England. They also wrote a number of hymns still sung today, such as O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord has Risen Today. They also helped form the Methodist denomination.

In 1735, John and Charles sailed for America to minister to the English who had settled near
what is now Savanah, Georgia as well as the nearby native tribes. James Oglethorpe who
founded the Georgia colony invited them to come. Charles got sick and went home early but John stayed about a year longer. Even though he started the first Anglican church in American, he did not consider his efforts successful. I had the honor of praying in that church!

John may have considered his journey a failure, but it triggered a spiritual renewal in his life. Once back home, a Moravian minister led him to the Lord. Soon John began preaching in the highways and byway of England and was part of a spiritual awakening there. In 1784 John ordained Thomas Coke, who Methodists then sent to American. I fully believe that had Susana not stopped and prayed so faithfully things would have worked out very differently in the livesof John and Charles.

We have had a number of spiritual awakenings in America. However, there were three historically recognized Spiritual Awakenings in early America: 1) The First Spiritual Awakening (1730-1755) that covered primarily the American Colonies; 2) The Second Spiritual Awakening (1790-1840) that spread across the nation existing at the time; and 3) The Third Spiritual Awakening (1857-1859) in New York City known as the Businessman’s Revival. It started as a
result of a noontime prayer meeting when a financial crisis was happening.

There have also been more modern-day revivals. A friend of mine was part of the Saskatoon in 1971. I was part of the awakening known as the Jesus Revolution. Many might be aware of his awakening because of the movie by that name. Although that movie focused on the California
awaking, it happened in other locations. Perhaps you know about one of the revivals that broke out on a college campus over the past few years. And, of course, there were awakenings recorded in the scriptures.
An evangelical awakening was defined by a man named Edwin Orr as, “a movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the church of Christ and its related community.” It often comes about as a result of prayer and in answer to great need.

So, are we willing to pull aside like Susana Wesley on a regular basis? Are we willing to pray on a regular basis for the children and young adults in our families, church and community? Are we
willing to ask God to lead us to our knees and beyond our doors for His sake? Do we believe
God is our refuge? Do we believe He is able and active in our world today?
In closing, I am reminded of the chorus of a song by the late Andrae Crouch wrote in the 1990’s.
Do you remember it?!
Jesus is the answer for our world today. Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way…

By Kaydeen Edwards


This season has been quite challenging for many believers. However, John 15:5 says if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Bearing fruit takes time and it’s beginnings aren’t very beautiful. Fruit starts as a seed which is sown in the dirt. Dirt is not pretty yet it is an important part of the production of fruit. When the seed sprouts it takes root and there’s one major root the tap root  that goes down deep. It is there so that in dry seasons, the plant can still find water even when there’s no sign of rain. Our tap root is the Holy Spirit. 

A plant is also rooted, so that when the storm comes, and the wind blows, this plant will not be uprooted. Sometimes there are many seasons before a plant produces fruit. In those seasons, not only is there no fruit, but this plant must weather many storms. The more storms the tree weathers the stronger its roots. It is like our faith we weather many seasons that are unfruitful. When we experience dry season, we must tap deeply into Jesus that we could be refreshed by the well of life. 

Eventually, the seed that was planted many storms and seasons ago bears fruit. The thing about fruit trees is that not only do they bare fruit, but they must be pruned that they will become even more fruitful. The seed of faith has been planted within us, and we will experience, dry seasons. We will also experience storms and winds. 

Eventually we will bear fruit, however, it does not end there. There is the upkeep of our faith and that means we will experience seasons of pruning and drought. Yet the more seasons we weather like the tree, the stronger our faith grows and the more fruitful we will be. 

So I love when James says consider it pure joy the testing of our faith because it is joy is not the in the pain that we feel, but joy is in the result of testing. As the apostle Paul said I have learned to be content in any in every season. Contentment is a place we can live because in the storms God is with us and when we bare fruit, he is with us still. And there nothing can separate us from the love of God for he will always be with us. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

By Rebecca Vickery

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.  1Peter 4:7-11

However your eschatology looks, the end of all things is nearer today than it was when Peter warned of it being near.  He did, of course, remind us that God was not slow to bring about his promises (as some understand slow to be) but instead that God was patient, not wanting that anyone who was supposed to come to faith to perish.  At any rate, we have some good instructions for the times.  

We are to be sober minded so that we can pray.  This might mean we have to spend less time taking stuff into our minds that will make it harder to pray.  For some that might mean spending less time surfing through reels on Facebook or Instagram, Tik Tok or other social media.  It might mean less time taking in Fox News, or CNN, or other media machines.  It might mean you don’t keep drinking or having substances that might make sober thought literally impossible.  Whatever it is, we are to be alert to pray.  How is your prayer life?  What would our world be like if believers everywhere took time to pray for our neighbors, our families, our friends, our communities, and our nation?  What would that look like for the kingdom of God?  Revivals and entire movements have started with believers on their knees.

Love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  What a beautiful thought.  I don’t know how that works in the fabric of our reality, but if I my love can cover over a multitude of sins, I want to love well.  Again, what would the world around us look like if we loved so well that they could know we were Christians just by seeing it.  I believe that our capacity to love is one of the biggest ways that God’s love is made visible in this world.  And yet sometimes in American Christianity, we justify stingy love.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, AND Love your neighbor as yourself.  Believers, we have been given a love that can never run out, so that we can share it with the world.  
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  And from Hebrews13:2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.  Won’t it be neat to get to heaven to find out that some of the times we have welcomed guests into our home, we were entertaining angels unaware?  Sometimes in our hurried schedules, we forget to think about showing hospitality, but we ought to be interruptible.  We ought to be those who hear a knock on the door and don’t hide in the basement, but instead open the door and say, won’t you come in?  I think in this way we could transform our neighborhoods.  And if we show hospitality, we will have more opportunities to know our neighbors well enough to pray effectively for them.

And while I am encouraging you to show hospitality, let me add a personal note.  September marks our 6 year anniversary of having started attending Daybreak.  I have been to many churches before this one, and I have greatly appreciated being welcomed into such a wonderful Church that offers hospitality frequently to others, and without grumbling.  To those of you who serve in the kitchen, and in the areas of hospitality, I say, thank you.  You are seen, and appreciated.  

Dearest friends, no matter if the time left is years, decades or any other number that God sees fit, we would do well to follow the encouragements in 1 Peter 4 and the verses I have started.  For more understanding of the rest of these verses, stay tuned for Part 2 of, The End of all Things is Near.  

By Toney Driver

​Joel 1:15 For the day of the lord is near, and as destruction from the almighty comes 2:1 let all the inhabitants of the lands tremble, for the day of the lord is coming it is near 2:13 Return to  your lord your God, he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he relents over disaster.