josiah thomas ritner

two sources of news

2007-04-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Click here to visit our web page. Click here to visit my web page.

she said yes!

2006-12-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

I am getting married. Click here for all the details.

New Blog

2006-05-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

Check out my blog for updates, news, photos, and much more. You can also subcribe to the page. All you have to do is enter your e-mail address and you will get an e-mail everytime I update. www.josiahritner.com

School of Digital Communications coming soon

2006-04-03T04:19:00.000-07:00

School of Digital Communications is only a week away! Eight students from the USA, Canada, Sweden, and Taiwan will be joining us next week for the fourth school of Digital Communications (SDC). I'll be helping to lead the school this year. This will be the second SDC that I'll be helping to staff. I did my SDC in April 2004. I'm excited about the school this year. I believe that Christians need to take back Magazines, Movies and the Internet!! This school help give people the tools they need in all three of those area's of Communications. I want to see Christians making blockbuster films that totally change Hollywood, and the world. I want to see more short films like the ones that www.nooma.com produces, these will change complacent and self seeking youth groups, and churches. The focus needs to be on Him and how He can and will use us to see change happen. I want to see Christians creating web pages that offer cutting edges elements that people are drawn to. Millions of people all over the world look at Porn on the internet, we need to have web sites that target those people. Like www.xxxchurch.com. Jesus went to the people that were lost and had never heard of the hope that He brings. I want to see these area's used to reach those people. I want to see Christians develop awesome, effective, life changing movies, and music. Not silly Christian idea's and lyrics, but powerful in your face stuff, that brings a generation to it's knee. Lord I want to see your Glory!

Podcast

2006-03-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

Podcast are brilliant. If you haven't started to listen to and view podcasts you really should. I use iTunes to download podcast. There are other programs you can use. For windows you can use, Juice, iTunes, or Dropper. For Mac you can use iTunes or Juice. You can search google for podcasts. Youth with a Mission has an audio podcast about our Foundational Teachings. Reef to Outback has a Audio and Video podcast. You can find podcasts on just about everything. I enjoy Relevant Magazines Podcast.Mac Pro Podcast (this is a video podcast) is really good. Also check out God's iPod! Here are our last two video podcasts. I host then, and then put them together.
In addition to our monthly news, we want to bring you more short stories from around our centre. We'll call these Video Podcasts. In this edition of our video podcast hosted by myself josiah ritner, we had the privilege of having Justin Claypool come and talk to us about the October Discipleship Training School that just graduated. It was sad to see the 40 students leave our centre, but it is really exciting as they will be venturing out into new things.

To watch this video podcast click on the link below.

Video Podcast 2_Goodbye to the Oct DTS

Links to Articles related to the show:

* Discipleship Training School (DTS)

You can also check out the older editions in the Video Podcast Archive.

You can also check out the our monthly news in the Internet News Archive.

Show length and size: 5:26 minutes, 8.7MB

In addition to our monthly news, we want to bring you more short stories from around our centre. We'll call these Video Podcasts. In this edition of our video podcast hosted by myself Josiah Ritner (You'll have to give me a bit of grace, it's my first time hosting, and i was a bit nervous), we bring you a story from our new Saturday night program called BackStage. This week will be our fourth week of BackStage it's been going amazing! We are averaging around 60 youth a week at this point. It's really awesome!

To watch this video podcast click on the link below.

Video Podcast 1_BackStage

Links to Articles related to the show:

BackStage

You can also check out the older editions in the Internet News Archive.

Show length and size: 3:01 minutes, 6.6MB

Thoughts: 28/2/06

2006-02-28T02:26:00.000-08:00

I've been getting more revelation on the fact that our lives are really only a blink. It's already the last day of february. I still can't really believe I'm 21. I never really thought about being 21 years old, and then all of a sudden it was my 21st birthday. The revelation brings a sense of urgency with it. Everyday people all over the world people are dying without knowing the love of Jesus. It brings a challenge with it. Are you living each day as if it's your last? Are you walking in intimacy with the Lord? Are you looking for every opportunity in each day to serve the lord? Are you being active in sharing your faith? This morning our a time of worship and prayer here on the base. We watched a bit of The Passion of Christ. The film is so hard to watch. I was sitting there watching it this morning, we were watching the end of the film where Jesus is nailed to the cross, as I watched, I just felt dirty, i felt worthless kind of, like who was I to even sit in this presence. I even turned away at different points. But through it all the thing that really stuck out to me this morning was the fact that the veil in the temple was torn. The holy of holies is open for all to enter. We can come into the presence of God anytime, because of the fact that he died for us. Because of His grace. That is an amazing thing. Matthew 27:51

Two more years in Australia

2006-02-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

Most people have heard that I was granted a new visa. I just got the offical stamp in my passport a couple of days ago. Here is a picture of the stamp. Also the story of getting my visa is below, if you haven't read it yet. On Wednesday February 1st I was faced with a hard reality. The visa I was on would be expiring on the 10th of February. I had to apply for a new visa. The visa I had to apply for was called a 428 Religious Workers Visa. Only four people on the base had received that visa up to this point. So I was a bit nervous. I needed to start filling out all the paper work, but I didn't have the money. The visa costs around $650 dollars. So here I was wednesday night. I haven't started the forms, I had no money to pay for it, and no hope in my heart that I would see this happened. My roommate and another guy suggested that I send out an e-mail to people asking them to consider giving me $10 to help with my visa. That night I sent out an e-mail. By Friday afternoon, I had seen over half the money come in. I sent off my forms friday afternoon as well. On monday the rest of the money came in. On monday I heard from Immigration that they had received my forms and would start processing them. That was a good sign, but I still had a long way to go. There was no guarantee that I would get the visa, and the process could take three or four months. On tuesday during our base worship time, we spent some time praying for visa's. People prayed for me, and other that we would get our visa. We never expected what would follow. On this past wednesday the 8th of February, exactly a week sense I had sent out the e-mail. I received an e-mail saying my visa application had been approved. It's a total miracle. There is no logical explanation for me getting the visa. It was totally the hand of the lord! I can now legally stay in the country until the 8th of February 2008. GOD IS SO FAITHFUL. I can not deny it. Thank you to all who gave! You now have a huge part in what God does in my life, and the lives of the people around me for the next two years. Thank You Lord!!

Filming Impact World Tour in Geraldton

2006-02-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here are five pictures of me filming in Geraldton, Western Australia. Impact World Tour ran a weeks worth of campains and I went over to film for the main nights, gather footage, and see what it all looks like. The Tour will be coming to Queensland, in july and august of this year. In the pictures where the stage is kind of far away, you'll see me on the left side of the stage. I'm wearing a grey shirt in the second picture, and black shirt in the last one.

February Internet News

2006-02-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

Studying the Life of King David

2006-02-03T23:58:00.000-08:00

I've been studying the life of King David (1 Samuel 16). I'm listening to a teaching by a guy named Mike Bickle. The teaching is called "Leadership lessons from the life of David." I don't usually recommend stuff, but I do recommend this series. It's really good. I'm learning a lot about watching your attitude. Being able to have a good attitude in the good times and not so good times. Glorify God is about having a good attitude in the not so easy times. Being a good leader is about having a good attitude. It's about serving no matter what the task is. David had been anointed king, yet he was still watching the sheep. But he didn't just watch the sheep. He put this heart and soul into watching the sheep. He was faithful even in the mundane times. Good things to think about. Always do a self check, and make sure your fresh is dead.

Deadly Snake on the Road

2006-02-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

Truck heading to Geraldton

2006-02-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

On February 15th through the 18th Impact World Tour will be running a week's wroth of campaigns in Geraldton, Western Australia. A local business from here in Townsville, called TalkinAudio is going to be doing all the stage and light, etc for the event. The man who owes TalkinAudio is a good friend of our ministry. He will be doing all the stage and lighting, etc for the campaigns when the come here to Townsville later this year. On friday February 3rd a semi truck, with two trailers full of equipment left Townsville head to Geraldton. It's takes four days of non-stop driving to get to Geraldton. Most of the drive will be through the middle of the country, which is all dessert. If your curious look at a map. We went out to where the truck was loading up and took pictures, and got some footage. It was really cool to see the truck leaving. It a huge step toward seeing the tour happen in Geraldton.

24/7 Prayer: 31:01:2006

2006-01-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

We are currently in a three-week season of 24/7 prayer. We believe that we cannot afford not to pray. We do not want to just function. We believe strongly that we must seek the lord in all we do. During this season we will spend personal time in the prayer room, strengthening and growing our relationship with the Lord. We will also spend time fighting for God’s purpose’s here in Townsville, Queensland, Western Australia, and in the World. I'm helping to lead this season of prayer. I have an ever increasing passion for intimacy with the Lord. I can not go on with out more of Him. During these times of prayer. The Lord always meets with me in big ways. He is so faithful.

Needing a new visa: 31:01:2006

2006-01-30T22:33:00.000-08:00

I need a new visa. My current visa expires on the 10th of February. I need your prayer. I believe that God has called me to this country. He has huge plans for me. I have a ton of paper work that needs to be filled out. I need to make sure I fill it out correctly. The whole process will take at least three months. Please pray that everything goes smoothly. I also need to raise $380.00 (USD) to pay for everything. I need that by the 8th of feburay. I have had this listed under my article "I need a miracle," but it's getting really close to date, and I still need a lot of prayer, and funds. Thank You. God Bless. Total Need: $500.00 Total raise to date: $120.00 Still needed: $380.00 (USD)

20:01:2006-26:01:2006

2006-01-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

A Link to an article on my Reef to Outback page. I need a Miracle....UPDATED.

19:01:2006

2006-01-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

One of my jobs in the communications ministry area is to do our monthly internet news. I just took over this role in december. The december edition was my first one. I've just finished the January edition. You can check it out by clicking on the link below. January Internet News To see the December edition or any of the other past edition's, click on the link below. Previous edition's of the Internet News

11/01/2006

2006-01-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

For the last week and a half I've been back in the lecture room, during a training course called Certificate IV in Assessment. I'm doing to get a better understanding of training people. I help out with some of the schools and things we run here, but it will be useful in everyday life as well. I've been doing that in the morning's and then working at my desk in the communications office in the afternoon. I've been working on a couple of short films, as well as some other little things, like print up material, so that when the DTS outreach teams leave this weekend to go on outreach for 8 weeks, they've have the things they need. The base is pretty busy these days. We started the Impact World School last week, we have the October DTS leaving this weekend to go on outreach for 8 weeks. We have new people coming back to join us on staff. We are also starting the January DTS this weekend, and the School of Music and Missions. It's crazy times, but really exciting times as we see more and more young people trained and equipped and sent back out to change the world.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

New Office:

2005-12-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

The base is growing. Because of that we had to merge our office with the IT office. Here are some pictures of my new work space.

christmas eve, christmas day, and 21st birthday!

2005-12-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you had amazing days with friends and family! We had a great day here in australia. It was about 90 degree's and 80% humility, which is a cooler summer's day here in townsville. A good friend of mine, and her family who came over from america to visit, made me a epic waffle breakfast for my birthday. It was brilliant. I open some presents. Then I headed to the base for lunch. We had about 125 people here for a huge christmas lunch. We were blessed to such an epic lunch. It was amazing. I had an awesome day. It was really hard to be away from my family for the third year in a row, but I have some amazing friends and family here who made it a very special day. I had a good christmas eve. I had dinner with Matt and Nat Thomas, as well as Crystal, and Chris. After dinner I headed over to Andrew and Faith Dutton's house for the annual christmas eve party. The party was a lot of fun. It always feel more like a fourth of july party then a christmas eve party. It's hot, everyone brings food, and we play sports and hang out in the backyard.

the family....July 2005

2005-12-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

Sailing....

2005-12-21T15:41:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Stable on the Strand....

2005-12-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

16:12:05

2005-12-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

I got an Air Conditioner! It's a huge answer to prayer! It's getting so hot. Being able to have air in my room will be amazing. Getting a good nights sleep is the best thing ever. Thanks to those who gave!

10:12:05 Saturday

2005-12-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

22:11:05:Tuesday

2005-11-22T02:06:00.000-08:00

The inside of our prayer room. This is a picture from our Mini DTS lectures last week. The topic was "Studying Your bible." From left to right are, Christina, Stefan, and Crissa. Three of my very good friends. Oh and our friend Freddy (the bowling ball). We rescued him from the trash pile.

Some Pictures

2005-11-02T06:50:00.001-08:00

A Picture of the front of our base. The main office is where I work. It's on the right. The the grassy nole in the middle. The warehouse is on the left. Some random things. A random picture of me. I'm wearing a shirt that my mom was given at her 30 year high school renuion for having the most kids.

Prayer Times

2005-10-31T02:39:00.000-08:00

I will be praying in the prayer room during the following times. If you want to pray with me from wherever you are. The times are in eastern standard time. 9:00am to 10:00am on Tuesday, November 1st 9:00am to 10:00am on Wednesday, November 2nd 10:00am to 11:00am on Friday, November 4th 2:00pm to 3:00pm on Saturday, November 5th Midnight to 1:00am on Sunday, November 6th 2:00am to 3:00am on Monday, November 7th 10:00am to 11:00am on Thursday, November 10th

Mark Anderson is here. Week four of the Mini DTS.

2005-10-31T00:18:00.000-08:00

Monday October 31st..... Mark Anderson who runs Impact World Tour around the world, is in town for a few days. He did a seminar on Sunday, October 30th on discipleship here at the base. We had around 89 come and listen to Mark speak. It was really exciting. Mark walks in a lot of authority in this area. He brought a lot of conviction to us all. I filmed and recored the seminar. We are planing on putting the audio teaching on our new web page. Sou you can look forward to that in a couple of weeks. Today Mark is in Mackay which is about four hours south of here. We are planning on running impact world tour down there, we have a team of staff who live in that city. They are having a fundraising banquet tonight. Mark will be speaking at it. He'll be back here tomorrow to speak in our staff meeting, and then again at the Townsville IWT fundraiser tomorrow night. I'll be recording the session he does in our staff meeting as well as the event tomorrow night, i'll also be running sound. This wednesday night we'll be having our fourth week of the mini Discipleship Training School. We've had around 50 youth come each week. This week the topic will be "Making Jesus the Lord of your Live." Lordship is awesome a hard topic, but it's a very key topic. Pray the youth will be open this week. One of my biggest desires for this time, is that they would begin to put the things they learn into actions. The knowledge is good, but there must be action. Very Exciting times. 24/7 Prayer is going amazing. Everyone on base as really gotten into it. It's been hard to find a slot to sign up for. I think that is incredible. I mean there is really nothing on this earth better then hang out with jesus. Just being in love with him. I'm so stoked to see so many people just diving into this. I was in there the other day, and I was listening to a CD called "The Awakening." Absolutely brilliant CD. Go to www.aplacefortheheart.org to get a copy. In one of the song's Jonathan sings about how there is nothing holding us back, the curtain has been torn. (Matthew 27:51) He is talking about the curtain in the temple that hide the holy of holies. Before that happened you couldn't just go into God's presence. This is some thing I don't think we have enough revelation on. The curtain is TORN! There is now nothing holding us back from entering the holy of holies. From entering His presence. And his presence is the best place in the world to be. People are finding that out in a big way through spending time in the prayer room. And I'm seeing it reflecting in there lives. It's brilliant. Run to Him. Run to that secret place, where it's just you and Him. Allow him to love on you. Hear his heart. And then GO! Save the lost, heal the sick, raise the dead. Make Disciples. Don't be afraid, let Him use you. Trust in Him. He will not give you some thing you can't handle, and He will equip you for every task He gives you. Just hear His voice and GO! Move!

2005-10-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today we started a new season of 24/7 Prayer. We are going to be praying around the clock for the next 21 days. I'm very excited about this time. I love when we do season of 24/7 prayer. So often we get so busy and caught up in our daily tasks that we forget to take time to just sit and wait before the lord. I'm helping to lead the base during this time. This is a bit of my vision and desire for us while we pray. I have a hope that we would develop a deep understanding of how much we are loved by Christ. That nothing we do will make Him love us more, and nothing we do will make Him love us less. He loves us because that is what he does. It is His nature to love. That He would blow our box of what that love looks like. As we get a new understand of how much he love us, we would form a deep and intimate friendship with him. As friends of the bridegroom, we would develop a deep understand of His heart for the lost. Christ is our best friend. He has things on his heart that he needs to share with us. Things that He needs us to do as His hands and feet. As His hands and feet, it is our role to stand in the gap on behalf of the things He shares with us. As we understand this love more and more. We will become closer and closer to him. From that we will begin to recognize His voice in greater ways. I'll try to post up some of the times that I will be in the prayer room and you can pray with me. For more information on the 24/7 movement. Go to www.24/7 prayer.com What does 24/7 look like? An hour that you set aside to hang out with Him. Growing in your understand of His love. Developing your friendship with Him. Hearing and acting on the things He speaks. That in it self can look like many different things. For a while it may just be sitting in silence as you practice waiting on Him, and hearing His voice. You may put on your favorite worship cd. As you get use to hearing Him speak you may start doing different things. You may want to write, draw, or paint. You may want to sing, or play an instrument. The prayer room is about hearing him speaking, and fighting for those things. When you fight you don’t just sit still. You become active. You do whatever it takes to win the battle. Let Him love on you. Develop an intimate relationship with Him. Hear His voice, and Be active.

Impact Summer Flyer and Poster

2005-10-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Impact Summer Poster Front of Flyer for Impact Summer Back of Flyer for Impact Summer I designed a Flyer and Poster for Impact Summer. Impact Summer is a nine day program we run over christmas break. It includes four days of Training and Discipleship, as well as five days of outreach. The outreach phase is part of Stable on the Strand. Most of the youth who are currently coming to the mini DTS will be involved in stable on the strand. I have help with impact summer the last two years. I will be involved again this year.

New People

2005-10-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

A Huge Weekend Ahead! This weekend we have around 55 new people joining us. 14 of those will be coming to do a Staff Leadership Internship (SLI). It's really exciting to have 14 people join us on staff, and making a one year commitment to our ministry. Nine of the new staff interns are from the DTS that I helped staff last October. It's really exciting for me to see these guys that i prayed for, and fought for coming back, and moving forward into their destiny in the lord. We also have 41 students on the October DTS which starts this weekend as well. New DTS's always excited me. DTS is a time that totally changes your life. You learn so much about yourself and about how God wants to work with you to see the world changed. I'm really excited for the new DTS students.

Mini DTS

2005-10-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Night we started our first Mini Discipleship Training School. A DTS usually last for 6 months. We are going to try to run one during the next 10 weeks. Every wednesday night youth people from different churches in the city will be coming to the base to eat dinner with us, and each other. After dinner we have a time of worship and lectures. Each week we will have different topics and different speakers. The goal is to see a generation raised up like never before. The students range in age from 13 to 28. They come from nine different churches, and like seven different denominations. We are our first wednesday night meeting this week and it was amazing. I'm so excited to able to be a part of this. We had 48 students come for the first night. As a part of this program we are also going into the churches that the students come from and being a part of there services. Myself and two other are helping out with the High-school aged youth at a church called The Rock. I'm really excited about be able to go to this church every week and get involved in what God is doing there. We join in with the main serious. We will also be meeting to and hanging out with the youth to talk about and discuss what happenend during the wednesday night meeting. I want to see my generation Disciple like never before.

End of the SDC Internship

2005-10-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

End of SDC Internship. Last week the three-month internship for the School of Digital Communications ended. We had five of the eight students from the school, stay for the extra three months and do the internship. The internship is kind of like the outreach phase of the School of Digital Communications. The students are given projects to work on for the base as well as for the city. Some of the projects they did was a Stable on the Strand promotional video. The Reef to Outback internet news. As well as working on the new Reef to Outback web page which will be up at the end of the month. Last week we went down to the strand (the beach) and had a barbecue with the interns. We wanted to honor and thank them for for all the hard-work the put in. It was an amazing blessing having them be a part of the ministry for this time. Here are some pictures of our lunch.

Matt and Natalie Wedding Reception

2005-09-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

Matt, Natalie, and Kristina on the back-row. Jon, Myself, Stefan, and Jennifer on the front-row. Justin and Myself looking brilliant. Stephen and Myself. Matt and Natalie just came back from getting married. We had a reception for them here at the base. Everyone was dressed to impress. Living in community like we do here, can sometimes be hard, but it defiantly has it's good times.

Stand out in the Crowd...

2005-09-13T23:58:00.001-07:00

Tired of living your life the same as everyone else. Take a stand for what you believe in. Stand out in the crowd.

monday evening....

2005-09-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

Monday night a couple of us went to our local shopping mall. I decided to take my camera along for the walk. Here are a few of my snap shots. Jon getting ready for this week long trip to NZ. I'm at peace with my inner child. Mount Suart the back drop of townsville.

One of those days you don't forget for a while....

2005-09-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning three of the guys from the base and myself went out to the cowboy's stadium. The cowboys are our professional rugby team. There is a business in town called Talk’in Audio. They do sound and lighting for most of the major events that happen in Townsville. The owner of the business is a good friend of our ministry. We have been sending people to help them with different events. It’s good because we are learning a lot, as well as getting to bless this company. Saturday they asked if four of us would help them set up some stuff at the stadium for the game Saturday night. So we went over there and set up some speakers and stuff. They gave us passes so that we could get into the game. Saturday afternoon five of us headed up to a place we call “peanut.” It’s about an hour north of Townsville. You have to drive half way up the side of this mountain range, and then hike down a little ways to get to this hidden piece of heaven. The reason we call it “peanut” is because the pool of water is shaped kind of like a peanut. It’s an amazing place to go, I love getting away from the city. You can hike, tan, go for a swim, and do some awesome cliff jumping. Saturday night we headed out to the cowboys game. It was the last home game of the year. The Playoffs start next weekend. The cowboys are in the playoffs and have a chance to go pretty far. The game was great. The cowboys won 30-24. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

8Inchgaskets

2005-08-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

While I was at home. I had the oppurtunity to work for Anchor Industral. I learned how to make Gaskets. I cut a lot of Gaskets during the two weeks I worked for Anchor. I have a couple of pictures of some gaskets I cut as well as the van I had the honor was driving while I was in high point.

My Trip To North Carolina

2005-08-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

I am back in australia now after a five week trip back to High Point, North Carolina. I had an amazing time catching up with my family and friends. Here are some pictures of me with my brother (Sam) and my sister (Heidi).