I want to start by saying THANK YOU to you all for your continued support and investment into God's kingdom through my ministry work with Consumed.
This month has been 10 years since I joined the Consumed Ministries staff team. I've been spending some time reflecting on all the opportunities God has opened doors to these last 10 years and the work He has done. It has included being a part of the Urbana worship team, helping the Celebrate Recovery ministry to grow inside the Waseca Federal Women's Prison, gathering to worship and share the love of Jesus inside an eclectic coffee shop where many New Agers would meet, teaching Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace class out of our home with Jake, leading worship at retreats and conferences for college students, coming alongside families to lead them in prayer and singing worship songs as they've grieved an unexpected loss of a family member, leading worship at various churches, bringing groups with me into the Women's Shakopee Prison to worship with the women inside and pray for them, worshiping together via Zoom during the heart of the pandemic, mentoring young worship leaders, leading worship for MN Adult & Teen Challenge, and most recently getting to connect with women who were formerly incarcerated inside the Women's Shakopee Prison on both a weekly basis (our weekly check-in support group) and monthly (Prison Fellowship alumni breakfasts). It is truly humbling to remember all the ways that God has moved and has touched my heart and others' through these experiences in the last 10 years. I'm just so grateful. Thank you dear family and friends for your continued love, support, and investment into God's kingdom. Your prayers, giving, and support are intertwined in these experiences and stories shared. Much love, Jackie
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Thank you prayer warriors for praying for me while at Urbana! It was a huge encouragement to have such strong prayer support for me while I was there. Thank you for being part of my Urbana journey in this way. This event was life-changing for me and I am beyond grateful that God extended an invitation to me to be part of it. I experienced a new freedom in worship where I felt unleashed to lead the way God designed me to lead in my specific giftings. It was incredible to lead worship in front of 16,000+ people and declare Christ's name in that stadium! I feel very fortunate that my fiance', Jake, was also able to attend- and he loved it! He really felt God lay it on his heart to be part of a Bible study in the new apt complex we'll be moving into, so he's already started meeting with a future apartment neighbor and friend of ours to chat more about this . We are both thankful that we got to be in St. Louis together and Jake has already asked about going to the next Urbana together in 2015! For a glimpse of what our week was like at Urbana, check out this summary recap video and the photo album I created on facebook. Also, here is a video of us singing "Revelation Song" in multiple languages (I am leading the verses in this song). It was an awesome sound to hear 16,000 voices praising God in all those languages! If you have more time on your hands, here is a complete video of our worship time one of the nights (25 mins. of music). Here are some statistics and a note from the Pres. of InterVarsity of what we saw God do at Urbana:
"This was a very special Urbana. I suspect that twenty years from now, Urbana 12 participants will be spreading the Kingdom of God all over the globe – proclaiming the Good News, healing infirmities, fighting injustice, and discipling new believers." Many deep commitments were made at Urbana '12: To serve at least 2 years in missions – 4,224 (2,676 in 2009) To lead an evangelistic Bible study – 6,434 (5,034 in 2009) To follow Jesus for the first time or to make a recommitment – 96 & 3,740 In addition, I praise God for the sheer amount of resources mobilized: 32,000 AIDS caregiver kits made, $800,000+ in offerings, and social enterprises launched. The comments of three exhibitors spoke volumes to me: “I need to say this: BEST. URBANA. EVER.” “Quality of students is the highest I’ve ever seen in all the four Urbanas I’ve been to.” “Our high-quality conversations in this one Urbana surpassed the TOTAL of the previous two Urbanas combined!” Merry Christmas! I am flying out tonight to head to the Urbana Missions Conference in St. Louis to get ready to lead worship. 18,000 students from around the globe will be gathering at this conference to learn about God's mission for the world and their role in it. We would love your prayers! Here is a picture of the stage getting set up from where I'll be leading. Can you imagine the sound of thousands of voices praising our Creator in this stadium?! The conference takes place from Dec. 27-Jan. 1. There will be live streaming for certain parts of the conference including main session speakers and theater and dance pieces. Unfortunately, the musical worship will not be streamed, but you can get a small taste of Urbana if you want to listen in online. For live viewing and a schedule of the conference events, check out www.urbana.org/live. You can also check out our worship team bios, the Urbana worship CD our team recorded, and this video of our team singing Revelation Song, sung in 3 different languages.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have given financially toward my role with Consumed Ministries that allows me to share the Gospel through music at events like this. THANK YOU! I am honored to be partnering with you in advancing God's Kingdom! If you haven't given yet but still want to, you can go to www.consumedministries.com/giving. All donations are tax-deductible. I have set a goal to raise $2,500 more by the end of the year and have raised $1,450 of that so far. Thank you for your generosity and investing in changed lives! Thank you for your support in how you pray, give, and encourage. You are such a blessing to me! Here's what's been happening... Networking I've had the privilege of getting to meet with a couple different worship pastors in the area who are connected to Consumed Ministries. It's been great to hear their stories of how they got involved in leading worship music and of their involvement in the Twin Cities. Both people I met with were able to suggest young college students to me who are part of their churches and who they think would benefit from being mentored musically as worship leaders. I am excited to connect with these students and see where God leads! I've also been invited by both worship pastors to come as a guest to their church and sing on their worship teams. This will be a great way for me to meet these students to develop relationships with them. Waseca Prison On Monday, I got to go back to Waseca to visit my girls. I hadn't gone to visit since May so it was great to be back and to hear about all that God has been doing in their lives! If you remember from my last update, I asked for prayers that a staff worker would be hired to replace the one who was overseeing Celebrate Recovery and who recently retired. Without someone else to fill his position, Celebrate Recovery was again at risk for being discontinued, which would have forced the girls to stop meeting together as part of this Christ-centered recovery program. I am happy to report that that position will be filled in the next couple weeks! God is faithful!!! During this visit, we had a great time of worshiping together. Joy immediately filled my heart as I walked into this room filled with about 80 inmates, each one as precious to me as a dear sister. The room erupted in applause and cheers as we got to come together to be reunited again. We started our time by listening to the Spanish choir sing a worship song that they had worked hard to prepare, followed by a woman named Pauline who shared her testimony. Pauline was caught years ago for running a meth lab and was sent to a federal prison in California. It was there that she met Jesus and learned about this abundant life she could have in him. She later got transferred to this prison in Waseca, MN where she is now one of the small group leaders for Celebrate Recovery and helping other women inside learn about how to follow Jesus. Praise God for such an awesome testimony of a life transformed! After Pauline's testimony, I led us in a time of worship. I learned that the girls were currently working through step 4 of the 12 recovery steps, which involves doing a personal inventory of everyone that they've hurt and who they've been hurt by. Forgiveness. It is the most time consuming and hardest step of the recovery process. So knowing this, I felt led to guide us through a time of prayer ministry, where I asked for 5 volunteers to come up front and pray with others who wanted prayer to help forgive those they needed to make amends with. We spent the next 25 mins. in a time of prayer, where I continued to lead us in worship while woman after woman came forward to receive prayer. The Holy Spirit was on the move as He began healing hearts and filling women with courage to forgive. I think my favorite story, though, out of my time there, was an inmate named Sonja who is a strong believer and leader among this CR group. She was one of the women who volunteered to pray for others. During this time, God directed her attention to a fellow inmate who she had never met before and heard Him say to her, "Tell her to 'Just Believe'. " So Sonja without hesitation went up to her and said those words, "Just Believe". The woman looked at her with shock in her eyes and couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth. She then told her about how she's been struggling with believing in God and been on the fence with all things related to faith. And how she knew Sonja's words were a direct word from God to her! Can you see why I love getting to visit these girls so much?!!!!!! Urbana This weekend I will be flying to Chicago to record our worship album with the Urbana worship team. This will be the CD that will be available to all 18,000 Urbana participants at the global conference in December. Only 4 1/2 months away!! On a personal note... I am so thankful for the man that God has brought into my life, Jake Dixon. On July 12, Jake proposed to me and I said YES!!! Can't wait to be the future Mrs. Dixon :) Planning to get married in March and we're so excited!!! For a glimpse of some pics, check out the ones attached or view the full album and the story of our engagement on my Facebook page: Engagement pics. Excited to continue to share about what God is doing. Thank you for helping to make it all possible! Hello friends and family!
Well, I am settling in to my new life in the Twin Cities and loving what God is doing already here. Here are some highlights: -Within the first week of moving to Bloomington, I met a man who was part of an AA group and very curious about spiritual things. I got to tell him about Celebrate Recovery and gave him a Bible as we parted ways. -PULSE is the organization that helped the college ministries at WSU sponsor our campus-wide outreach event last November. I have stayed in contact with their ministry team and found out they are in need of worship leaders to travel with them to host prayer/worship nights at the campuses they'll be reaching out to. They are in need of a band that they could call to take on the road with them and have asked me if I'd be interested in forming a team of musicians. Pray for discernment to know how God wants me to be involved in this and if so, that He would provide the right musicians and connections. -I met with a young woman last week (a strong believer) who is working her way through much anger and emotions after being raped last year. At the end of our conversation together, she asked if we could start meeting once a week to help her continue to allow God to meet her in her pain. *Clara (name changed) is a singer/songwriter with a passion for music. Please pray for her and this connection that's been made to see where God will lead. -For those of you who live in Winona, I will be coming back this Sunday to lead worship at Pleasant Valley. This is exciting for me, not only to be back, but to be able to be a resource to worship leaders who need someone to fill in or need a break. Chad is a gifted worship pastor at PV Church and I'll have the honor of leading worship as he vacations with his family. See you Sunday! Upcoming things to pray for: -There is a small group at a church I'm connected with who regularly ministers at the Shakopee women's prison. Pray I can get connected with the leader of this small group and partner with their ministry there. -I have 2 meetings with different worship leaders in the metro area, one tomorrow and one next Wednesday morning. Pray for God to open doors to more connections through these people. -I've been traveling with the Urbana worship team this year in preparation for the Urbana conference this December. We will be recording our CD next month. Prayers needed for our team members as we work hard to prepare the music (and learn songs in 7 different languages!) to have it ready for recording. You can follow our blog here. -I recently got news that the staff person at the Waseca prison who was overseeing CR retired at the end of June. Pray that the Chaplain or someone else takes CR under their wing so the program can continue running. CR will continue for the next 3 months, but if someone is not in place to take it over after that it will be discontinued. Celebrate Recovery was the ministry I partnered with that allowed me to do music ministry inside the prison. Without this minisry in place, it would be difficult for me to go inside to continue doing music ministry. I got to see many lives transformed through this ministry. Let's lift them up in prayer together! Thankful for your support and encouragements and for helping to make what I'm doing here possible. I am so excited to see what God has in store! |
Jackie Dixon
I love Jesus. I love my husband & family. I like dark chocolate. And hats. Traveling. Slippers. Hand written notes. And thrifting. These are a few of my favorite things! Categories
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