2023 June Newsletter

“SO DAVID BLESSED THE LORD IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE ASSEMBLY; AND DAVID SAID, ‘BLESSED ARE YOU, O LORD GOD OF ISRAEL OUR FATHER, FOREVER AND EVER.

YOURS O LORD, IS THE GREATNESS AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY AND THE VICTORY AND THE MAJESTY, INDEED EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH; YOURS IS THE DOMINION, O LORD, AND YOU EXALT YOURSELF AS HEAD OVER ALL.

BOTH RICHES AND HONOR COME FROM YOU, AND YOU RULE OVER ALL, AND IN YOUR HAND IS POWER AND MIGHT; AND IT LIES IN YOUR HAND TO MAKE GREAT AND TO STRENGTHEN EVERYONE.

NOW THEREFORE, OUR GOD, WE THANK YOU, AND PRAISE YOUR GLORIOUS NAME.

BUT WHO AM I AND WHO ARE MY PEOPLE THAT WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO OFFER AS GENEROUSLY AS ALL THIS? FOR ALL THINGS COME FROM YOU, AND FROM YOUR HAND WE HAVE GIVEN YOU.

FOR WE ARE SOJOURNERS BEFORE YOU, AND TENANTS, AS ALL OUR FATHERS WERE; OUR DAYS ON THE EARTHY ARE LIKE A SHADOW, AND THERE IS NO HOPE.

O LORD OUR GOD, ALL THIS ABUNDANCE THAT WE HAVE PROVIDED TO BUILD YOU A HOUSE FOR YOUR HOLY NAME, IT IS FROM YOUR HAND, AND ALL IS YOURS.

SINCE I KNOW, O MY GOD, THAT YOU TRY THE HEART AND DELIGHT IN UPRIGHTNESS, I, IN THE INTEGRITY OF MY HEART HAVE WILLINGLY OFFERED ALL THESE THINGS; SO NOW WITH JOY I HAVE SEEN YOUR PEOPLE, WHO ARE PRESENT HERE, MAKE THEIR OFFERINGS TO YOU.

O LORD, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND ISRAEL, OUR FATHERS, PRESERVE THIS FOREVER IN THE INTENTIONS OF THE HEART OF YOUR PEOPLE, AND DIRECT THEIR HEART TO YOU.’” (1 CHRONICLES 29:10-18)

King David, in his old age, gathered his people to assemble before the Lord. He gave charge to his son Solomon to build the temple to the Lord in Jerusalem. David showed those assembled how much of the building materials he had prepared and collected, and then called upon his people to join him in giving to the Lord that which would be needed to complete the great work of the temple. He challenged them with these words: “Now with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God… Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?” (29:2, 5) The people responded with great joy and gave more than was needed for the building of the temple. David’s prayer was his response to their willing consecration to God.

Brothers and sisters, many of you reading these words have been blessed by the work we are doing in the nations. We have done this work at our own expense, on our knees, and with integrity in our hearts. You know that we offer our training at no cost to the many students who travel here to Keystone, South Dakota and to those we train in the nations. I ask you to consider how you can join us in this great work through your prayers and giving. We need your help. The time is short, and the work is great. With supreme urgency and sacrifice we are raising up laborers for this historic end-time harvest of souls. David wasn’t begging his people for money; he was asking them for their consecration to the Lord. I am asking you, those who have been blessed by the ministry of The Keystone Project, to do the same. I ask you, “Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?”

May I be able to say as King David said, “So now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings to You.”

In Jesus’ name!

Prayer

• Please continue to pray for our disciples around the world, especially those living and working in dangerous areas of persecution.

• Pray for students who are applying to attend our training events, asking the Lord to send those whom He has chosen and prepared to attend.

• Pray also for favor as they apply for US visas.

• Pray for the financial success and growth of The Keystone Project and our hotel, The Rushmore Express Inn & Family Suites. Please know that the hotel generates only 30% of the total revenue we need to do the work of the ministry, so we need your financial support.

• Pray for our new fundraising effort calling upon our supporters to sponsor an international student to attend our training programs. The cost to train one student is $1200 per year ($100 per month). Your gift will enable us to continue to provide our training at no cost to the students. You can find the details about this on our website (www.keystoneproject.org). Any amount given towards the training will help us continue the work of the Lord.

• Pray for our staff, who work so hard and have sacrificed so much to serve the Lord through the mission God has given to us.

• Please pray also for the following ministry events:

o August 22-September 6 – Trip to India,

o October 2-27 – International Leaders’ Training.

o November 1-15 –Trip to Peru and Ecuador

We have received over 2,000 applications for the October training. This will be a very full training event, so if you wish to attend you must complete the registration process quickly (application completed and approved, secured visa, and purchased air tickets). We are able to accommodate only 80 students and have over half that number confirmed already, so do not delay.

As always, we deeply appreciate your prayers and support for these events, thanking the Lord for all of you and praying for His blessings in all that you do for His glory!

For God’s Glory,

Richard Greene,
President of The Keystone Project

The Transformation of Keystone One Friend At A Time

Thank You, everyone, for your continued prayer and support. 

The town of Keystone is getting busier every day. We are already seeing several international students come into town to work for the summer. We are excited and anticipating the work that the Lord is going to do in our community over the next few months!

As we open the hotel and prepare for the tourist season, it’s easy to get caught up in the work that we have year after year. Sometimes we get so caught up in living the day-to-day, doing the work that the Lord has laid before us, that we don’t see the effect that we have on the world around us or the significance of what we do. But over time the world really does change. I first joined the Keystone Project as an intern 10 years ago when I was 19 years old and have been working closely with the ministry ever since. This town was very different in 2013.

I remember years ago, there was animosity throughout the town of Keystone. All the businesses hated each other and fought with one another, caught up in a spirit of competition. We had a particularly bad relationship with the hotel next door for some time. I am not sure why and we were confused as to what would make them so upset and embittered towards us. Once, a staff member got confused about which dumpster to throw some trash into. They made a mistake and threw it in the wrong dumpster, the dumpster that belonged to the hotel next door. The owner came into our hotel lobby, furious, carrying the trash bags, and emptied them onto the floor, and walked out. 

Another time some of our guests parked their vehicles in a no-parking zone that we mistakenly thought was okay to park vehicles in. The owner next door called the sheriff and had him ticket every vehicle parked in that zone. We asked to be allowed to let the guests move their vehicles but we were told it didn’t matter and they would get ticketed anyway. The sheriff told us that if we wanted to go out and collect the tickets afterward and pay for the tickets ourselves instead, then we could. I remember sneaking out late at night and grabbing the tickets on all the vehicles so that our guests wouldn’t have to pay for them. 

It went on like that for a year or two, until the owners next door sold the hotel and moved away. Now, we have a fantastic relationship with the new owners. We let them park their vehicles in our parking lot and they let us do the same. Sometimes when they have an overbooking we help them out and provide rooms to their guests and when our pool is down, they will allow our guests to use their pool.

Relationships within the town, from business to business are improving. Business owners are helping each other, and camaraderie is growing.

God has also given us the ability to build intentional friendships over the years with the international college students who travel here to work.

However, many of these international J-1 workers have been severely mistreated in the past, underpaid, overworked, and not provided with adequate housing, sometimes housing boys and girls together and in very tight spaces. I once personally, heard of a group of boys that was stuffed into a very small apartment with four bunkbeds, no room for dressers or any of their things, and hardly any room to even walk around. One of the students called the cops because he knew that their employers just had to be violating some kind of safety or health code by putting that many people into one small room. He showed the officer the conditions that they were living in and from what I was told, the officer brushed it off like it was nothing. I saw the room that they were living in and it was absolutely awful that anyone would put that many people in there, even if it was just for a summer. 

Throughout the years, we heard of a number of extremely concerning things happening in the midst of, and to the international students even rumors of human trafficking.

We would hear and witness this unjust treatment as we spent time with the international J-1 workers and visit them at their dorms. Some of the employers did not like us there, which we believe is because they were afraid of unethical practices being exposed. I remember getting the cops called on me, personally, once simply because I was spending time with a group of Filipino students at their dorms. I was accused of poaching their workers to work at our hotel. I was told that I was trespassing and needed to leave. The students were extremely upset after this happened and complained to their managers at work. I was apologized to a day later and invited back to visit with the students. 

Forming friendships and intentional relationships with the students from all over the world is one of the greatest joys of doing God’s work here in Keystone. Through our relationships, we are able to minister to them, encourage them, and help them navigate their time in our country. We provide guidance and resources that oftentimes is overlooked or not provided by their hosts or employers. We help them get cellphones, take them into Rapid City to get groceries and run errands, and help out with transportation needs. Many will go back to their countries and instruct their friends, who are participating in the same work and travel program, to find us and work with us. Many of them still reach out to us from time to time to see how we are doing. We have even visited friends that we met here, in their home countries on our own trips overseas. 

For the most part, we have not heard of any J-1 international students being mistreated by any employers for the last couple of years now since we have been heavily involved with them, meeting with them, regularly taking them into town for groceries and other necessities.

Please pray that God would continue to do a great work of transformation in this town. Pray for hearts to be drawn to him. Pray that we would be faithful with everything that God has entrusted to us. 

James Greene,
Internship Coordinator

We Are in the Nations and Going To the Nations!

I am sharing an update on the work of The Keystone Project in our global outreach.

Hello everyone, I send you greetings from Houston, Texas. I want to bring you up to speed on what God is doing in the nations through the Keystone Project and our upcoming mission trips. God is moving powerfully, opening doors, touching lives, challenging His church to engage in the mission, and we are thrilled and honored to join Him by doing our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.

We continue to see growth in the online Academy. In the last six months, we’ve trained more than 100 students from Latin America, including students from 5 different nations. We have been working on launching additional training hubs in Liberia and India. These “hotspots” are used by God to connect people’s hearts to His vision of reaching the nations. Once you equip passionate people with the essentials to launch disciple-making movements, the Holy Spirit takes it from there, and things begin to happen. We are getting reports of students engaging in the mission, many people are coming into the kingdom, and the church is being mobilized to the world’s unreached people groups.

We are also getting ready to go to India and planning to explore some options in the Middle East. Our India trip is scheduled from August 22 to September 4, 2023. India is the most unreached nation in the world. With more than 2300 people groups, and most of them are unreached, it is a country that requires a true miracle and visitation of God to be reached with the gospel of Jesus. Persecution is also rising in India; we are getting reports of churches being burned down and entire communities being displaced. There are reports that the government has been promoting an antichristian sentiment. This is why we are actively engaged with leaders from India. We’re asking you to pray for us as we are putting together an itinerary to train hundreds of leaders in that nation. We believe those leaders will go and make disciples who make disciples. Let us believe together there will be a Kairos time for India and that everything sowed in that nation is about to bear fruit to the hundred-fold for the glory of God. Coming back from India, I will stop in the Middle East to connect with some leaders. Please pray for supernatural divine connections, provision, and protection as we navigate security concerns in some nations.

In November, we will go to Peru and Ecuador to train hundreds of leaders from different regions. I will share more details of this trip and other missions we are planning to go on in the upcoming months.

Thank you for your partnership! May we see the greatest harvest in church history in the years to come, in Jesus’ name, amen.

David Saldivar,
Global Operations