Safe Haven Urban Redemption
A ministry of Trinity Reformed Church
483 Ferry Street, Newark NJ, 07105
Executive Director: Danny Iverson
Cell: 862-215-2940
Phone: 973-344-8717
Philosophy of Ministry
Who are we?
Why are we here?
We are here because God has called us to be planters, sowing the seeds of gospel truth into the hearts of inner city children and youth, with the hope that someday they will sprout into oaks of righteousness for the glory of God and the display of His splendor. We are here in response to Christ’s sacrifice for us and in view of such mercy, we desire to sacrifice our time, resources, gifts and abilities for the children and youth of our community so that they may see, believe and be transformed into disciples of Christ that do the same. We desire to bear witness to the fullness of the gospel and its power to transform the physical, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual framework of this neighborhood. We are here to be used by the Holy Spirit to break the generational curses in this city and to establish covenant families that will testify to the faithfulness of God and His eternal power to redeem.
What do we do?
We seek to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength by loving kids with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Many of our children are malnourished spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Therefore, we want to minister to them on every level (i.e. bearing witness to the whole gospel for the whole person).
How do we do it? (i.e. How do we accomplish the what, based on who we are and why we’re here.)
The Ultimate goal of our Education Model
The goal of education at Safe Haven through each of these CDAs is for each child’s heart, soul, mind and strength to be renewed by the gospel, thus transforming the framework by which they live their lives, and bringing them into a deeper understanding of how to daily abide in the pleasing and perfect will of their Father in heaven. Gospel centered Education is much deeper than a textbook and a fun teacher, a good curriculum and innovative, organized program design. All of these are indeed important and will be very much apart of our development program. The driving educational philosophy behind our teachers, our choice of curriculum, and program design is the attitude of Christ shown in His lifestyle, His teachings, His death and His resurrection. At the root of everything we teach the kids in our program we will model and reinforce the core values that Jesus lived his life by. Jesus loved God with his heart, soul, mind and strength. He lived a simple, selfless and sacrificial life, and loved God and people above Himself. Jesus is God’s Word in human form and we believe that he is the complete and perfect expression of God’s love, mercy, justice and truth. His life reflected God’s glory and it was in glorifying His Father that he found joy. It was in Him dying and lovingly sacrificing his life that we were brought life and our hearts were changed forever. We want to help kids learn to love God and others with everything they are, just like Jesus did. We want learning to be fun and exciting, bringing forth heart deep joy in exploring and studying the creation they are apart of. With this philosophy at the center of our activities, it is our prayer and desire that each student comes into a gospel-centered world view that furthers God’s kingdom and brings joy to them, to their community, and to this world.
