December 2013

see the vision...feel the passion...join the mission
I am blessed and honored to share with you the CitiVision Year end newsletter. My prayer is that you will read it with eyes of faith and celebrate what has been, and what Lord willing will be. Our theme this year is Vision. I want to start out this year by praising God for each and every one of you who we call partners in ministry. Thank you for your love and support. Vicky and I are overwhelmed by the strength and encouragement we receive from knowing that we have so many wonderful churches and brothers and sisters in Christ supporting the mission and ministry of CitiVision.

Giving Glory to God for Visions that become realities.

Transformation Life Center has been transforming the lives of men for the past thirty years. The Vision was cast around ten years ago to start a Women's Recovery House. We want to celebrate that this year Transformation Life Center purchased a piece of property from CitiVision, which will become the Women's Recovery House, and will be the fulfillment of this ten year long vision into reality. All the money was raised that was needed to purchase the property through the very generous donations of people moved by God, to support this ministry. We are thrilled to see this vision become a reality!
www.tlc911.org
Louisiana State Prison (Angola) Revival. CitiVision has produced and just finished mailing 1,000 copies of the Angola Prison Revival series to the Prison Fellowship Ministries. CitiVision has partnered with Prison Fellowship to distribute the 1,000 copies to Prison Fellowship Chaplains all across the Unites States This 4 disc DVD series, documents God's power, through the establishment of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, to transform a Prison from the bloodiest to the safest in America. It also provides inmate testimonies and training tools for transformation.

Vision to Equip and Empower men and women around the world to reach their cities with the gospel.

UGANDA
This past year, we visited Uganda twice through our partnership with TCON (The children of the Nile). TCON is a ministry that empowers widows to receive and plant seeds so that they can become self supporting. On average each widow cares for between 5-7 orphans. We were able to distribute seed to over 3400 women and saw more than a thousand of them receive Christ as their savior during one of the conferences that CitiVision held. We also held a pastors conference with 506 pastors and leaders. We distributed a brand new Bible to each pastor, in their own dialect and were able to connect the pastors with widows from their areas to learn to work together. We also worked with TCON during their soccer camp week, ministering the gospel to over 300 teenage girls, 37 of these girls trusted Christ as personal Savior.
NY and USA Churches
I was able to continue to serve in teaching and preaching the gospel and training leaders here in America as well. The list of Churches both locally and around the country where I have been invited this year to motivate, train and equip is lengthy. I cannot, for the sake of time, list each Church or ministry event. Just know that this is where my my passion lies and this is what occupies most of my time throughout the year. I never let an opportunity slip by at these events, so there is always an invitation for salvation as well as a call to take a stand and make a commitment to sharing the gospel.
I continue to teach the men of Transformation Life Center weekly when I am in town. I look forward to this time with the men in the program and have been blessed to see their salvation and transformation. Vicky and I want to thank all of our partners for continuing to prayerfully and financially support us.(Making Motivating and Equipping Disciples to impact their cities with the gospel.)
Greece
We partnered with Hellenic ministries on project Operation Joshua 6 this past July. It it was a tremendous success. We distributed, house to house, 126,000 Bibles in over 500 villages.
In November, I went back to Greece, to speak at The Pastors Refresh conference, held in Athens. We had over a hundred pastors and their wives in attendance. It was a tremendous time of encouragement, unity and refreshment.
I was invited to preach, in Greek, at one of the largest evangelical churches in Athens. During the invitation, 15 people responded to the gospel and trusted Christ as personal Savior. There were over a 100 believers who rededicated their lives to Christ. We had a great time of revival and experienced the presence and power of God in a dynamic way. Pastor George Patsaouras and his wife shared with me their desire to have me come and preach the gospel to a broader audience. We began to pray and plan an evangelist crusade to reach the lost in Athens and Thessaloniki in 2014.

Pastor Emeritus

Recently, in November, I was honored by the people of Manhattan Bible Church with a new title, Pastor Emeritus, for the 40 years of ministry in NYC. I spent that Sunday afternoon listening to stories by many of the pastors, teachers, friends and family who were with me at MBC in the early years. It was an honor that I was not expecting and truly a blessing to hear the stories of how God was able to take me from a drug addicted, troubled teen, and transform me, through the power of the gospel, into someone who could be used to impact the lives of others. I shared with the group who had gathered, that in retrospect, anything that was a God idea, worked. Everything that was a Tom idea, did not. I share this to encourage you not to fear attempting to do great things for God. If you are willing to let him mold and use you He will. Share your faith and don't be afraid to make a few mistakes along the way. God can and will use it for His glory.

Vision...Seeing further and reaching more 2014

We can plan all we want, but only God can open doors. Whenever I am starting a new year I take a few weeks to seek God and pray with Vicky and look at what doors are open and which doors appear to be closing. January is a month where we will be ministering to local churches in NYC. We will end the month at a Prayer Summit with 350 pastors from NY, Connecticut and NJ. Luis Palau and A.R Bernard will be the speakers for the summit this year.

There are scheduled meetings for evangelism and pastors conference in Peru, China, Greece, Mexico, and USA. We will update you in January on specific prayer needs for each trip

Prayer requests for events in December and ministry needs:

For the month of December, my focus is to preach the gospel, throughout NYC, and in our ministry events that have been planned. Join with me in prayer for the events listed below.

December 8th

Angel Tree at Manhattan Bible Church

Several hundred children who's parents are incarcerated, will come and have a Christmas dinner, receive presents and hear the gospel.

December 13th

Manhattan Christian Academy Christmas Concert

Hundreds of family members will come to Manhattan Christian Academy to hear the concert and gospel message.

December 14th

Love Kitchen Banquet, at Manhattan Bible Church

A wonderful time of sharing the gospel, giving presents and providing a sit down meal for the homeless.

December 15th

Preaching at the Manhattan Bible Church

Pray that Church members would invite unsaved friends and family to hear the Christmas message.

December 21st

Transformation Life Center Banquet and Christmas party at TLC property

Pray as Manhattan Bible Church gives Christmas presents to the men in the program who are not with their families during the holidays.

December 29th

Preaching At the Church at the Gateway

Please consider making an end of year donation to CitiVision. We are aware it is a sacrifice above and beyond a tithe to donate to a ministry like CitiVision.

Please prayerfully consider if you would be able to make a one time end of year donation or if you would like to become a monthly partner. Donations can be mailed to the CitiVision office and are tax deductible.

Tom Mahairas
Founding President, CitiVision
http://www.citivision.org