Concentric Circles

Updates
Lately as we faithfully focus on feeding the “one” – the “one” being each person as the important and unique individual that they are, made special and loved immensely by God – we have seen the concentric circles forming, radiating out from this one’s sphere of influence, drawing others to come and eat as well.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Mat. 4:4)

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Continually Increased Ownership
We’ve had some amazing study times with Blanca, Dora, Nacha, Primo and Bere lately. We asked them to read through the gospel of Mark during the week. With us mostly looking on they spent over an hour just sharing with one another all the exciting things they read, re-reading entire sections, so that everyone could hear how amazing it all really is. Fabiola was with the five children and I just helped answer any questions that came up and sat in awe of the hunger and excitement of the whole study.

As we’re away in Mexico (see below) they have been given charge of the group – which is our ultimate goal anyway. We have modeled how to lead a Bible study and now two of them will take turns hosting and leading. Our teammate Norma will be there if they need some guidance, but they are really excited about the opportunity to grow more as they lead one another in studying God’s word.

The Circle Continues to Expand
The women that meet with Fabiola every Tuesday have been calling a lot to invite us over to meet more of their family and friends or get advice about something. We’ve been able to take two youth to World Impact’s teen youth program so far and sense more are interested. Also, about a week ago we went to meet Marisol’s brother-in-law who has a lot of struggles, severe depression being one of them. As we were sharing the Good News with him, Marisol realized she needed to get right with God. Fabiola and Marisol prayed right there – a prayer of repentance and gratitude for salvation in front of this family member. This week at the women’s meeting she said to the group, “I don’t care what my family says to me about my beliefs because they aren’t the ones that are going to save me or give me peace. God has done that for me.” Please pray for Marisol that she might continue to walk and mature in that peace. Pray with us also for her large family, that they all might come to know Jesus and Lord and Savior.

Jesús and Emily

Above: Emily

After meeting Jesús and his adorable daughter Emily playing soccer together at the park, we struck up a new friendship and were invited to Emily’s 4th birthday party. Although we tried to do the culturally correct thing and show up late we were only 45 minutes late and ended up being the first ones to show up. (Side note: 1 hour late is very normal; it didn’t really get going until we left about 3 ½ hours later!) Being the only ones there however provided us a wonderful opportunity to get to know Jesús, his wife, Betty and her mom, Maria, better. Since then we have had Emily over to play with Rebecca and this week we went over to their house for a delicious “caldo de camarón” (shrimp soup) and a chance to get to go deeper in our relationship. They seem very curious about God and church and asked some good questions. Please pray with us for Jesús, Betty, Maria and Emily that God would really move on their heart’s and prepare them to come to Him.

Above: Rebecca get’s her face painted by a clown at Emily’s birthday party as Jesús looks on.

Answered Prayer
We now have set up a rotation of teachers for our Children’s classes that take place while we are meeting with the families on our Wednesday night cell group service. We have two ladies that are teaching at the World Impact school and a couple others stepping in from outside churches that we’ve been building relationships with. Thank you for praying with us about this need.

Upcoming Events/Prayer Request

Mexico
We will be in Mexico from March 15–29. We will be part of a Pastor’s Conference at Fabiola’s home church in Puebla, Mexico and visiting several other cites and churches to raise awareness of our mission’s work and ask for prayer as we continually look for more ways and potential future links to expand the Kingdom of God by reaching all nations. Our last trip to Mexico helped us really ramp up our prayer support and break through some spiritual barriers and we are believing for more of that this time as well. During these two weeks Fabiola and the kids will also have a good time between all of this activity to spend time with her mom, dad, sisters and the extended family. This family time may be the most important part of the trip as it is critical re-charging time for Fabiola who gives so much of herself to the church planting efforts relationally, emotionally and spiritually.

Holy Week & Easter
Did you know that a survey that was conducted in 2005 showed that only 48% of people surveyed knew that Easter was connected with the resurrection of Christ! (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 3/25/05)

We will be putting on a Kid’s Club (Vacation Bible School style) during Spring Break— Monday thru Friday (3/29 – 4/2) at our park, South Park. We have three different high school groups helping us make this happen. We anticipate over 100 kids and hope that we can connect with families throughout this week. On Wednesday we will have a large BBQ for the children and their families which will be followed by our evening Bible Study time for those who are interested.

Easter Sunday we will gather all of the people we have been meeting with weekly in various homes together for the first time, have a great service celebrating the resurrection and of course lots of great food and fun activities for the whole family. Please pray for all of the details to come together and not get in the way of the joyous purpose of us getting together in the first place.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.

He is risen indeed!
The Wolyn Family
Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice