Be Transformed Ministries

Hello dear Be Transformed Ministries family!
We pray you are all well and involved in spreading God’s wonderful Gospel! As usual, we have some very exciting news to share with you all!
Did you know that there is a great revival happening among the young people (especially males) in our country right now? The “Gen Z” generation comprises 13-28 year olds. It seems many of them are tired of the way things are, and are looking for genuine relationships, which now include seeking Jesus.
This is important, because they are “ripe fruit” for the Gospel, and we want to be part of what God is doing through our books, brochures, and media presence.
That being said, we’ll start our update with a letter from a chaplain in Tennessee who ministers at a juvenile detention facility. He is using our New Beginnings books for discipleship and says: “Over the past several weeks, God has allowed us the opportunity to build relationships with several young men at our facility. With each visit, a few more seeds of thought were planted in the minds of these unbelievers.
Last Sunday, six of these boys came to church service and four of them invited Jesus Christ into their hearts! The smiles of joy on the faces of these new believers caught my attention. You don't see many young boys smile in a juvenile facility...but these four new believers could not stop smiling... Thank you all for your prayers and your books. Please pray for these new believers... sometimes new converts are persecuted for their faith. Thank you”. What a privilege to be part of this ministry!
We have a pastor friend who moved to Georgia, and went on a mission’s trip to Nicaragua. He took some of our New Beginnings (Nuevos Comienzos) books with him, and we received a good report that they were well-received and they would probably want more books!
Another great story is that we contacted a ministry couple in Southern California who belong to our 501C3. They minister to a few prisons in the High Desert. They are sending us names of inmates around the country and we’re sending books out to more inmates through this avenue!
We have been in touch with Chaplain Ken in Louisiana for a year and a half now. He is precious, and loves his flock there, which is so refreshing. They have been using our books steadily in their training courses. He also gave Sharon the contact information to another Chaplain in Louisiana so we can get our books into the women’s prison. Chaplain Ken also invited us to speak at their prison, so now we have invites to THREE prisons in Louisiana! We’re praying about the possibility, since our health is still not back to normal.
We have been so blessed with the Chaplains that God has put in our midst! Another Chaplain from South Carolina writes “Your Bible Studies have been a blessing. They are being used with our Discipleship Ministry. The guys use the material at least three times a week”. This is especially precious to us, because Chaplain Ken ministers at a prison known for violence. Many prisoners are getting saved though, and are praying for churches and pastors on the outside! They say that “the two groups of people who have some of the greatest influence on prisoners are the Muslims and the gangs. Christians need to come alongside these inmates in a powerful way” to help point them to Jesus.
One of the men Michael connected with on Facebook lives in Lake Elsinore, where Michael lived as a boy. Marcos has been using our books to minister to the local men’s shelter, and “is so excited to have solid material in order to train these men”.
So exciting is the publishing of our Kurdish New Beginnings book! You can look it up on Amazon just to see it in print. Simply type in a search for “Sharon Dutra” and scroll down. What’s even more amazing is that we have a friend we met at Mount Hermon when we spoke there about 6 years ago. Linda ministers in Southeast Asia, but she comes home to the Bay Area periodically. She has been in touch with a Kurdish Muslim woman who lives in the Middle East, and Sharon is now in touch with her and will carefully share our Kurdish Sorani language book with her! Please pray for their conversation, as there is a great awakening in that region. Also please pray for Hamid Hakim in Iraq who translated our New Beginnings book into Sorani. He was going to print 1000 books in neighboring Iran, "as it was so much less expensive", and we have not heard from him since.
Below are some pictures. The first one is Sharon with another lady after a speaking event in Delano. We call it “Joy”! The second picture is of a man we gave a Nuevos Comienzos book to at a restaurant. (We give away LOTS of New Beginnings books in restaurants!) And the third picture is of a man who is using our New Beginnings book in a Center in Ventura. This is how effective it is to share these books with others!
Please continue to pray for us, and those we serve with the Gospel. We appreciate every effort, and as we always say “We could not do this ministry without you”!
Blessings, Sharon and Michael