2022 April Newsletter

Greetings from The Keystone Project and All Our Disciples in the Nations

I write this greeting on Resurrection Sunday. This morning, I preached from Matthew’s gospel concerning the account of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the women arrived at the tomb they were greeted by an angel.

“Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:4-7).

The women must have been stunned and confused. They came to find the dead body of Jesus and instead found an angel and an empty tomb. When they saw that the tomb held no body, but only the empty grave clothes of the Lord, they were then sent by the angel on a mission to go quickly and tell the disciples that Jesus was alive. It says that they “left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.” As they ran on the mission, Jesus met them. They fell at His feet and held onto them. Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

From this wonderful account of the resurrection, we can learn several things:

• Jesus will appear to all those who are “looking for Jesus who has been crucified.” Some believe in a Jesus who was a social; activist, others look for the Jesus who was a great teacher, others for the Jesus who feeds the multitudes or heals the sick. We must seek for “Jesus who has been crucified” (see John 12:20-25 and 1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
• We must not be afraid! Jesus has overcome sin, death, and the grave. We have not received a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
• When Jesus left the tomb that morning, He was immediately on the mission! In every one of His 12 post-resurrection appearances, He was on the mission with those to whom He revealed Himself.
• The women were also sent from the tomb on the mission to proclaim the resurrection to the world.
• Jesus went ahead of them on the mission. We have all been called to make disciples of all the nations, and as we do, we can know that Jesus has gone ahead of us on our mission.
• It is as we are on the mission of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) that we will see Jesus!

Let us see by faith that He is alive and let us run to tell the whole world this awesome news!

April Training Update

On April 3 students and coaches began arriving for our month-long international training. It has been a time of transformation for so many of them as they hear and see many mysteries of the kingdom of God. We have about 50 students from 9 different countries, including Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Benin, Uganda, India, Canada, and the USA. Many of the students have never been out on the mission (prayer walking, asking the Holy Spirit to connect them with the lost, etc.). In addition to learning about how to go on the mission, we are taking them on the mission. Last Thursday about 15 people came to Christ as took the students into various areas of the city. It is such a joy to see how the mission has transformed the lives of these students!

We remembered the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday, which was also Passover by celebrating a traditional Seder (Passover) meal with about 85 in attendance. Some of them were students participating in our month-long international training, others were people from our community, and some came from Rapid City. All who attended heard the gospel as we showed them Christ in the Passover. 

We need your help. 

I know many of you want to help us in any way you are able. Here are a few ways you can do that:

• You can spend the summer (June – August or even September) working with us in our hotel.
• If you are 18-25 years old, you can participate in our summer internship program – and get paid for it!
• You can pray for us as we engage in foreign and domestic missionary work.
• You can financially support us.
• You can volunteer at one of our one-week, two-week, or month-long trainings.
• If you have been through our training, you can apply to become a coach in our Online Academy.
• You can join a work team to help us with the many building projects and property improvements we have here on our campus in Keystone.

In all these things, and all that we do, we are on the mission of making disciples of all the nations! We would love to actively partner with you in this great task. You can contact us through our website or by email (contact@keystoneproject.org) if you are interested in the internship program or working with us at the hotel. 

As I said in our last newsletter: this is why we need you. 

There is so much more work for us to do than we can accomplish on our own. We had planned a trip to India in the month of May of this year. Due to a lack of funds and an increase in the price of airfares, we have had to cancel that trip. A trip in which many souls would have been saved and disciples equipped for gospel work and ministry. Your prayers and support are sacred gifts, not only to us, but to our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life that the world may know of His love and mercy. Thank you, and may God bless you all, in Jesus’ name!

Richard W. Greene
President, The Keystone Project, Inc.

Reach the Lost!

Praise the Lord! God is good!

We are currently in the middle of a month long training in which I am helping to coach some of the students. Last week our group went to a homeless shelter where I met a young man who had been homeless for several months. He told me about his struggle with addiction and the dark places that he had been. He said that despite all of the things that he had been through he hadn’t lost his morality like so many on the streets like him. He told me a story about about how a young girl had been abandoned on the streets and how he protected her from harm and brought her to the authorities so that she could be brought to a safe location. He then began to tell me about his family and how he hadn’t seen his little girls in over a year. When I asked him if I could pray for him he asked me to pray that he might see his kids again so that he could be a good father and protect them. I told him that he had a good heart and that God loved him.

I have thought about him and prayed for him everyday since I met him. I would like to invite you to pray for this young man as well.

I read an article recently about Gen Z church attendance that really spoke to me about the urgency of reaching this generation. The article said that when it came to attendance at religious services, Gen Z Americans were far more likely to skip church than to attend on a regular basis. Overall what they had found was that 45 percent of Gen Z Americans reported rarely or never attending church while just 1 in 4 reported attending weekly or more.

I am reminded of the words of Christ in Luke 19:10 that says “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

This is the purpose for which the Son of Man has come. I wonder, for many of us, if we share this same purpose and mission? If we did then we would actively and intentionally seek out the lost that they might be saved. The lost are not going to come to us, so we must go to them.

We must go to them like it says in Jeremiah 16:16 “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.

This is the attitude and spirit with which I would like to enter into this Summer as we begin another Keystone Project Summer Internship.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we prepare for the Summer Internship that will soon be upon us.

James Greene,
Internship Coordinator