CCR celebrated its 20 year birthday in May. Praise God for His Faithfulness through the years!

Many thanks to Ken Garza for hosting CCR in monthly radio interviews with DYNAMIC HOUSTON 6:30pm to 7:00pm on KKHT 100.7 FM.

On February 19 Focus on the Family LOVE WON OUT conference was here in Houston at Grace Community Church. There were over 900 people in attendance! Many (including numerous friends of CCR) visited our exhibit table. Joe Cline, whose son I counseled in 1986, spearheaded the billboard campaign in Galveston.

Adrienne leads a weekly women’s mentoring group on Mondays! Her group recycles every 6 weeks. Ginny and Kay (UPLIFT) and others serve as mentors to the women.

Ruben Gonzalez, LIVING WATERS coordinator in Caracas, Venezuela visited me in Houston four weeks during February and March.

On March 9 I did two sessions of TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL for TEACH 2005 conference?

CCR assumes administration of the AWAKENING parents and friends group in San Antonio in March. So we now have a branch office. Welcome Gloria, Tom and Martha!

Monthly meetings in College Station with male students there.

In March we had a joint meeting of UPLIFT, men’s and women’s groups. Everyone is always enthusiastic about the encouragement they receive from these joint meetings

Barnabas group for men continues in weekly monthly modules.

I helped with LIVING WATERS training in Cordoba, Argentina April 12-27. Many from the 2004 CA LW team returned. Many of last year’s participants from Chile and Argentina joined us as assistants for small groups. My small group assistant, Gustavo Manzanelli, an Argentine psychologist blessed me in our ministering together. More younger people at the conference! God is building up His Body to minister to areas of sexual brokeness in the church in South America! It is a powerful work. Tentative plans are to have an Argentina training every year

I was an interpreter for many Hispanic friends at the Exodus Global Leaders Retreat and Conference near Toronto May 7-15. There were probably about 125 in attendance from over 15 countries. I was very encouraged by the strong Asian presence, as well.

Much of the current individual mentoring Adrienne and I do is with teen-agers and college age clients

June 22 I helped with the WAY OUT task force booth at the SBC convention in Nashville with other Baptist Exodus ministries

Ginny is hosting a weekly prayer/ intercession time for CCR and our people. Prayer covering and intercession are so important.

July 17-23 I attended the national Exodus conference at Ridgecrest, near Asheville, NC. Attendance was about 900. Kathy Koch was one of the featured speakers dealing with learning styles (God really blessed me with some specific insights through her). We also had an excellent leaders conference. I met various International delegates (from Belgium, Peru, Colombia, and Dominican Republic). After the conference French speaking Jean-Marie Collin from Brussels, Belgium spent the week in Houston with me!

This is the year for weddings for CCR alums! Wedding bells for three of our men! Shortly after finishing seminary, one of our LIVING WATERS graduates was recently married, another will marry in September, another in December! I rejoice in the work God has done in their lives.

Recently I have been meeting with Wilfred Darden and several other Afro-American pastors with Equipping the Saints Outreach Coalition (ESOC). Its purpose is to challenge Afro-American churches to address the issue of homosexuality, and I will be their resource for training. That is really exciting. God is sending us many more African Americans these days.

CCR has completed payments for the 1997 Nissan Maxima company car!

Praise God for board member David Alston donating a reconditioned Pentium III computer and printer to CCR. Our only challenge is that the CD burner is non-operative.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Centrally located donated office space (office has been in my apartment since February because space crunch in our host church)

Frequent flyer miles i.e. Continental (50,000 for Spain trip 2006, 50,000 for Argentina trip 2006)

More volunteer staff (especially for men’s groups)

More dedicated monthly pledge partners to join our faithful ranks

We have increasing numbers of high school and college students coming to us for help. We have added new groups, although our monthly dedicated pledges have not increased substantially. This is our ONLY fundraising effort during the year!

Thank you so much for your financial support, prayers, and words of encouragement.

Blessings,

Michael Newman

Christian Coalition for Reconciliation
PO Box 420437 Houston, TX 77242-0437 
www.ccrhouston.org
281 497 7044

NON-FUND RAISING EVENT FORM
____ Sorry, I don’t trust you and amateurs at a CARWASH. Here’s the $10 donation anyway.
_____My life is too busy to find junk for you to sell or to buy any of yours. Here is $25 to save me the aggravation.
_____ My social life is already too busy, and I hate rubber chicken at fund raising banquets. Here is $____ so I can spend that rare free evening at home.
_____I have fallen arches and can’t stand the heat, so I don’t want to participate in walk/ride/bike/anything A-THON. Here is $50 to avoid medical expenses I may have had afterwards.
_____I’m terrible at soliciting pledges or selling stuff, so it’s worth it to me to give you $15 so I don’t have to.
_____I can’t face another partners’ luncheon, so here’s $100 for me and the friend I couldn’t find to invite.
_____ My wife/doctor/scale tells me to stay away from those sweets, so I’m willing to pay you $75 to avoid those dessert gatherings.
_____Nor do I need to bake any goodies for aforementioned dessert gatherings. I will donate $20 instead.
_____I hate phone solicitations, but hate to be rude. Here’s $40 to soothe my conscience.
_____I realize that if there were larger numbers of dedicated financial partners, CCR would not be so dependent on fundraisers. I will pledge ___________ monthly from ______ to ______ so CCR treasurer will not have those monthly headaches!

Tell me more on how to give.