Dear Brother Murray,

Hello, how are you doing? How's the Teen Challenge center (in Perry, Ohio)? You have been on my heart lately. I felt impressed to write you a letter. It is going on eight years - November 9th - since I graduated from there. Teen Challenge remains close to my heart.

My life is changed because you submitted your will to His and chose to be a part of that center there. I just want to encourage you to continue to fight the good fight of faith. I think very highly of you, and I consider you to be one of the great men of God in this world and in my life. God bless you!

I am still in Lafayette, Indiana. I am on staff with Lafayette Master's Commission. I do all the church, evangelism and outreach booking for the Bible School. We travel a lot. The traveling reminds me a lot of the churches we (Teen Challenge) used to go to. I was in Sandusky, Ohio, in June, with my family and another family. I got out and drove downtown to look for a church we ministered at when I was in Teen Challenge. It used to be a bank on the corner. I remember that day, and I found that church (Calvary Assembly of God). I have many wonderful memories of Teen Challenge.

I now hold credentials with the Assemblies of God: I am licensed to preach, and soon I will be ordained. My wife and our daughter Miranda (she is six years old) will be going to the inner cities of America to do church planting when we are appointed as Home Missionaries, within the next year or year and a half.

October 21-23 I will be going to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore to do some inner city outreaches. I am excited. I will get an opportunity to encourage the men at the Teen Challenge in D.C. on that Friday with a devotion.

I would, at the drop of a hat, encourage any Teen Challenge, if the Lord opens the door, because I believe in the Teen Challenge ministry. My life owes a great debt to the heart of Teen Challenge. I am changed because of it. It is an honor to say, "I am a Teen Challenge graduate."

My heart holds a special place for Cleveland Teen Challenge and the city of Cleveland, Ohio. My heart has weighed heavy for an inner city children's church we once visited there (Cleveland Metro Assembly of God and the ministry of Heart and Hand). I want to contact them and bring a team to that church, if they are willing, this spring, to do some type of outreach.

I am glad that the Lord allowed me to be a part of the Cleveland Teen Challenge. There are roots planted in my heart that will cause the tree of fruit to produce in God's kingdom, because of faithful people such as yourself who sacrificed and poured into a life such as myself. I love you and David and the rest of the Teen Challenge staff. God bless you.

A servant in Christ Jesus,

Jay S. Covert

(October 10, 1999)

UPDATE: Jay is a credentialed minister with the General Council of the Assemblies of God and is an M.I.T. (Missionary In Training). Jay and his family currently live in the Washington D.C. area, where they assist in the ministry of starting new churches.

UPDATE #2: Jay and his family have relocated, as of July 2004, to East Saint Louis, Illinois. Jay has a vision to pioneer and develop an urban outreach ministry here in East Saint Louis. His ministry has been endorsed by the Illinois District of the Assemblies of God.

If you would like to invest in Jay's ministry to the inner city, we encourage you to e-mail him for more information. You may also call and speak with Jay at 618-304-7900.

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