Hey everyone

I just wanted to say hi, and thank you for all the prayer. The Urban Discipleship Training School is going very well. We are currently in Tyler, TX for the week hearing a few foundational YWAM speakers. Today is Leland Paris founder of Youth With A Mission Tyler and the DTS Program. Next week we head to Atlanta, GA for the North American Cities Conference. While there we will be involved in some training classes in the morning, and outreaches in the after noons to the community.

Thanks again for all the prayers, words of encouragement, and financial support!
In Christ!!!! Rodger & Katrina & Baby Kistler

Picture of the Pioneer of the YWAM Tyler Bible School (SOTB) Larry Allen speaking about Character and nature of God.

Today in our generation, the rate of urbanization far surpasses anything we have ever seen in human history. Never before have people been moving to cities at such a rate. According to National Geographic we are encountering a “world crisis” due to the mass amount of urbanization. By the end of this century about 90% of the world will be urbanized. Currently, over 700 cities in the world have a population of at least one million. Several of these have more then 36 million. Due to urbanization we are seeing levels of poverty and brokenness of humanity like we have never seen before. All of this is evolving in an environment that has an infrastructure that can’t develop fast enough to keep up with the rate of urbanization.

A close friend of mine has worked in Chicago for the past 20 years. He shared with me a few statistics relating to the rapid growth rate of that city. Chicago has a population of nine million people, with over 200 nationalities represented! Within a five-mile radius of my friend’s place there are over 350,000 people; one out of three is foreign-born. In the nearest public high school more than 53 languages are spoken. This is diversity like we have never seen before! Chicago acquires 170 immigrants a day—that’s over 44,000 a year! Out of those 170 immigrants, 80 are from unreached nations, or some of the least evangelized nations in the world.

After listening to my friend share about Chicago, I got excited. Why? Because we have a missionary God, and urbanization is literally bringing the nations, even the unreached nations, to a reachable location. When immigrants come to our cities, they are doing half the work for us! They come ready to learn the language and culture. This is a gift to the Church…if we can see it.

People move to the city seeking education and advancement because this is where they can be equipped. People come open to change. Who is there to meet them? Will they be greeted by the Church, or by the world? While these people are in a place of making a fresh start are we (the Church) going to allow them to be influenced by drunkenness, pornography, martialism, and humanism? Or are we willing to step out into the streets we call home and greet this global phenomenon with the love and truth of Christ? With such a rapid growth of ethnic communities in the cities, are we willing to engage them with the same energy we would for foreign missions? Do we find the nations represented in the city equally valuable as those across a body of water or a geographical border? I can’t answer these questions for the whole body of Christ, but I know the eyes of a missionary God see these cities with excitement, and heartbreak. I believe God is glorified in the cIties of the world. His character is expressed through the magnitude of diversity of the cultures represented. I find it incredibly exciting that God is inviting us to partner with Him in what He is doing in the nations, which includes the rapid growth of cities around the world. Urbanization is bringing the world to our doorstep. I hear God asking our generation if we will engage, or if we will continue to turn our backs on the cities as they influence every sphere of our culture.

Rodger

New Orleans history tour, and Hurricane Katrina debree clean up. There will never be a boring moment in the Urban Discipleship Training School. Katrina and I are so excited for the 6 months of this school.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support! -RK

Today Katrina and I along with our co-workers and students embarked on pioneering something new! today was the first day of our Urban Discipleship Training School (UDTS). This is so exciting! We have been praying for a missions training school like this one focused on Urban missions for the past five years.
RK

here are a few pictures of
Brad Stanely ( director of YWAM Chicago) teaching.

Here are some pictures from the past three weeks. We’ve spent a lot of time relating and building relationships with locals here in “Nawlins.” We’ve also been working to prepare for our Urban missions training school which starts tomorrow!!

Rodger

I can only guess what you’re thinking… these kids live crazy lives what could possibly be a completely new adventure. Well… there are two things; One is we have moved to the city known around the world for its food, jazz music, parties, and storm. You guessed it New Orleans, LA, known to the locals as “Nawlins!” We have been planning this move for almost two years. Katrina feels like one of her life dreams has finally came true. she has wanted to move here for the past 6 years. So here we have it… God fulfills the desires of our hearts. We moved here to help pioneer a missions training school focused on cities and urban missions. We are excepting 10-12 students on March 28th! I am super stoked to get the chance to assist one of my hero’s in the faith, Brad Stanley (Director of YWAM Chicago.) Please pray for our students as God meets them in a very practical and powerful way during the next six months.

Well, I guess you’ve waited long enough for the second “Completely new adventure” for us. Katrina and I found out on December 22nd (her fathers birthday) that we are going to be parents in August!!!!! Katrina is pregnant!!!!!! We are going to have our first child. It has been so hard waiting to tell everyone, but since we have experienced two past miscarriages we wanted to wait a little while. This is a major new journey for the both of us. We will be waiting until the due date to find out the sex of the baby. As of right now we call it “Stryker” as a code word for the little baby Katrina is cooking up. We are currently 16 1/2 weeks (4 months) along, due on August 24th. Please keep Katrina and little Stryker in your prayers. Pray for complete and healthy development of the little one. Also we ask that you would pray for grace on Katrina’s body as we are in a intense season of life here in New Orleans pioneering this training school.

As a family we ask that you would join together with us, and pray for Gods continued provision and protection over this pregnancies. We will be needing to see God provide all of the expenses for the prenatal care, labor, ect because we do not have health insurance. God’s word says He will take care of us, so we are standing on that to be true.

Thank you all for all of the encouragement and support over the past 6 years. We are deeply grateful for each of you.

In Christ,
Rodger & Katrina (& Baby) Kistler

With over 50% of the world’s population living in cities, we now have the first urban generation.
In less than 25 years over 5 billion people will live in cities, yet these remain some the least evangelized areas of the world. Today’s global youth culture is post-christian in its orientation and worldview. We need to see a generation of Christians who know God in a world of urban strugglers, value systems, and opportunities.

Katrina and I (Rodger) are teaming up with the ministry leaders from Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and New Orleans to host an Urban Discipleship Training school (UDTS) at the YWAM New Orleans campus this spring. The UDTS isn’t only for those who are from the city, but for those who have a heart like ours for the city, and a desire to understand the character of God in an increasingly urban world.

We both are incredibly excited for the opportunity to pioneer this urban missions training school with some of our heros in the faith. We will be moving to New Orleans March 13th to start preparing for the students who arrive on the 28th. We will be living at the YWAM campus in Algiers Point. Just one direct ferry ride from the French quarter and downtown.

01/29/2010 5:46 AM Update from Terry Snow
16 days since the earthquake! Has it been that long? Days run together with short nights and little sleep. First there was the numbing reality of the situation, almost like a nightmarish dream you couldn’t wake up from. I think I had a bit of denial of the reality that the earthquake really happened. Yet there was no escape from the shocking reality that it was true. The destruction and death was everywhere and reported death totals were grossly under estimated. The death totals are much higher than realized. For the people who ask me how I know this, my response is simple; “Where are all the people?” There were approximately 3 million people in PAP before the earthquake, 60 to 70% were left homeless, I ask again. Where are all those people now?

By the approach of the second week I was asked to serve on a committee for the organization of the refugees that were expected to flood into the city of St. Marc. We planned, we prepared but no one came. Again, where are all the people? Refugees are reported to be in big numbers in Cap Haitien, Gonaives, but in St. Marc, which is actually located closer to Port Au Prince than either of these two cities, we’ve had no massive wave of refugees. After a week of registering victims in St. Marc that are staying in homes and churches, we have located 3000. We are still registering refugees and feel there maybe as many as 4000 to 6000 currently in the city. With over 2.5 million people left homeless, where are all the people?

We are finding in PAP groupings of people in fields, streets, and city parks. They are lost; no shelter, no supplies, still trying to figure out what to do. Thank God it is the dry season. Left out in the elements during rainy season would only have led to more deaths! These victims don’t know where to go or how to get anywhere. Many are too fearful to enter their homes to retrieve precious goods, money, or legal documents due to the continued after shocks that are still felt, yes even today.

We have been scrambling to formulate plans and preparations to receive these victims that are left in PAP but with no leadership or structure, it has been difficult to accomplish a lot quickly. Yet, help is on the way! Some would be content to let the need go unanswered, but we feel a call to proclaim that this is the hour for change and we must respond! In St. Marc, YWAM has linked with the local administration, non- governmental organizations, private foundations, churches and the UN to ready the local schools as temporary housing for those who are still sleeping in parks and streets in PAP. Currently there is a ship scheduled to arrive Monday, Feb. 1st, at the St. Marc port. This shipment brings 43,000lbs of rice, a 40′ trailer of assorted food and equipment and two 20′ trailers to assist an orphanage with food and materials to make repairs. Currently, in St. Marc, churches are being funded to feed hundreds of people daily. A once gutted and retired hospital has been re-enforced and repaired and our first medical team aided the sick just this past week.

In PAP we have located land to develop temporary communities that we will be ministering in for many days to come until the city is rebuilt and they are back on their feet. Our YWAM medical teams are treating 300 plus a day in front of the National Palace. They are also strategizing on the lay out temporary communities and ways to further assist as they transfer from a crisis team to a relief team. By this weekend we will have
130 plus volunteers working in PAP, St. Marc, and Gonaives!

Right now we are assembling tents, 16x14ft., to be shipped in. We have 200 ordered and a team of people coming to set them up. Each tent will cost approximately $300 USD which includes shipping. The first batch of tents could arrive as early as Feb. 10th. We plan to house people in schools and churches until then. The plan is to ship another order of tents directly following this first order. We need your help to get these tents here as quickly as possible. The order was placed in faith as we know they are needed and God will hold back the rains for only so long. By giving to YWAM Haiti “Relief” you will be contributing to see these tents purchased, delivered, and set up to provide temporary shelter for one to two years!

Let us know today if you can help make this possible! Below is the information on where you could send your funds to see this effort advanced.

Taking the High Places!

Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti

If you would like to help you could send a US Dollar contribution payable to YWAM Haiti “Relief: and mail to;

YWAM Haiti
PO Box 236
Akron, PA 17501