Merry Christmas!

What a year. While this year was nothing like what we anticipated, there is no doubt God is able to use bad situations and hard times and turn them into good and beautiful things.

We continue to be as busy as ever, but like most of the world we are learning to connect with people in different ways. We’d like to share just 5 highlights of this season and ask for you to prayerfully give to this ministry.

1.      Empowering the local church and reaching the nations through Trauma Healing Groups

God wants to heal people’s hurts. In the city we see some deep and dark pains. Some are self-inflicted, many are not. Regardless of the source we know the church has the answer. We have been training facilitators to lead groups all over the US and world. We’ve all been through a lot this year; facilitators learn how to guide groups to Biblically address these hurts.

If you would like to know more or be trained with a group from your church reach out to us. We’ve trained people in a handful of countries and dozens of different well-known ministries, missions agencies and churches.

 

2.      Sharing our passion for church planting and empowering pastors

There is no denying the burning in our hearts to walk with and encourage other pastors and ministry leaders. We love seeing new churches birthed and struggling churches get the wind in their sails to become all that they can be. We just helped two churches, one in the San Diego area and one in the Portland area, relaunch. This year we have trained and coached and encouraged (lifting up weary arms) dozens of other pastors and look forward to launching several more schools in 2021. 

 

3.     A voice and advocate for Spanish ministry

We’ve been working tirelessly to get the same quality materials that we have in English into the hands of those ministering in Spanish. While the amount and quality of resources available in Spanish is increasing it is not even half of what is made available in English. We have a heart and have been working hard to give the same quality of materials, trainings and resources into the under-resourced Spanish churches and ministries.

  

4.     Celebrating 10 years as an inner-city church and mission

While we had to cancel nearly all our typical outreaches, we have worked hard like many ministries to ‘go to the people’ digitally. This meant raising funds for technology to give out to our people who had no or limited access online. This also has meant partnering with different organizations to hand out 1,000s of pounds of food to hundreds of individuals.

We had a powerful Trauma Healing Group with a dozen women that we hosted at our church and have two ladies now trained as facilitators to continue this ministry. After meeting only online for many months we were able to celebrate our 10-year anniversary and continue to meet outdoors every week following all the safety protocols.

While we decided not to host our annual Christmas Banquet and Toy Store because of COVID-19, we are empowering and blessing the children of our church this Sunday as we hand out toys to each one of them along with an additional toy that they will be given (along with a Gospel book and some other goodies) to give to a friend of theirs that does not attend a church.

One of the most beautiful stories that has emerged during the pandemic at our church is how when 60-70% of our church lost their jobs at the outset of the quarantine families literally sacrificed their own bread and food to share with other families in need. They also willingly invited those without jobs to come work alongside them at their job so that they could share their own paycheck and have something to bring home each week. The sacrificial giving and love in action has really humbled our hearts and given us a desire to give even more to this community.

 

5.     Family

Each one of the kids is doing amazing in school, but it hasn’t been easy being stuck at home, especially for our more social kids. Having our church meet on Sundays has helped some and each one of the kids help with some aspect of the set-up and ministry.

Rebecca hopes to be able to get back to softball in early February – she is doing great in school and especially loves her art class.

Angela started high school this year and has yet to be on campus but is doing wonderfully and started a Hip Hop class (online).

Justice is working on High School applications and scholarships and doing great in 8^th grade and continues to produce very creative stop motion Lego videos.

Beniah is in 1^st grade and has proven to be really good at watching the clock and making sure we all get to our different Zoom classes and meetings at the right time.

Fabiola continues to do way more than is humanly possible as she provides support in all the different ministries and somehow keep the kids and house flourishing.

 

Opportunity to give

Would you consider partnering with us monthly or sending a special gift for Christmas/end of the year as we continue working towards a healthy church for every community of poverty? We could really use your support!

Please send financial support to: World Impact / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007  (Please make check payable to “World Impact” and designate “WOLYN SUPPORT” on the memo)  OR  

You may also GIVE ONLINE HERE.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry, healthy and blessed Christmas,

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Angela, Justice and Beniah

It feels like it has been a long time since we sent out an update. Things have been very busy here with an expanding sphere of influence, growing ministries and our addition to our family (our niece).

Here are some quick bullet point updates on the last 3+ months:

Ministry with World Impact

Ø  Trained 13 teams in our Evangel School of Church Planting representing 17 US cities and other nations.  Their combined vision is to plant 1,200 over the next 3 years.

 Ø  Coaching 9 people in church planting and ministry development.

 Ø  Led 2 workshops with 12 ministries/churches involved on helping churches integrate the formerly incarcerated in their churches.

 Ø  200 men at men’s retreat (Interpreted all sessions into Spanish).

 Ø  150 women at women’s retreat. (Fabiola helped with interpretation.)

 Ø  We just handed out over 300 turkeys & food boxes to 25 church/ministries ministering amongst the urban poor. Thanks to all the churches and individuals that donated towards this and prayer for God’s provision!!

 Ø  Chad was invited to preach at a local church’s Cultural Unity Day.

 Ø  Successful deputation time visiting supporting churches, friends and family this summer:  Currently 92% funded.

Ministry with Fuente para las Naciones

Ø  Launching an English service (pilot for the first 3 months of 2020).

Pray for our launch day, January 12)

Ø  Church-wide Serve Day leading up to Thanksgiving.

We went out to the streets and handed out 100 meals to the homeless and most needy in our community.

Ø  Christmas Banquet & Toy Store and other outreaches coming up in the next few weeks.

There has been an increase in visitors checking out our church, being invited by friends. During times like Christmas these events give us more time and opportunity to build relationships and share about Jesus and our church.

Christmas Toys Needed

Are you willing to help us with our Toy Store? 

This annual event gives families from our church and community the opportunity to come buy a gift or two at deeply discounted prices (up to 75% off). This makes getting a special gift for their children more attainable, but still allows for them to feel the ownership and dignity of choosing and buying the gift themselves. There is a real special feel as our church really makes the space festive and hospitable and a group from our church does all the follow-up afterwards to help make a deeper connection for these families.

We need 100+ toys and gifts for boys and girls from 2 years – 18 years old. You can send or drop off gifts, order them online and have them delivered directly to us or send us a check and we’ll do the shopping. Please have money or gifts to us by December 14^th at the very latest.

If you are able to give towards this special event, please send your gift to our church: FUENTE PARA LAS NACIONES (note this is different than our normal support giving sent to World Impact):

Fuente para las Naciones

C/O Chad & Fabiola Wolyn   

2001 S. Vermont Ave.                        

Los Angeles, CA 90007

Family Life

Ø  Rebecca is absolutely loving high school. Thank you to all who helped pray and give to make this possible. She is on the volleyball team and a student ambassador. She loves her Bible, art and theater classes.

 
 Ø  Our niece Angela has slowly been adapting to living her life in Los Angeles with us, she is in 8^th grade. There is a lot more laughter and activity with her in the house. 

 Ø  Justice has been creating short animated videos with his Legos and is doing great in 7^th grade.

 Ø  Beniah started Kindergarten and claims preschool had better toys but has new friends and is doing great…and getting ready for his first Christmas Pageant. 

 Ø  Fabiola is busier than ever with home, school, extra-curricular and church activities. She loves finding a few moments for coffee time in the mornings. 😊

Thank you for standing with us in prayer. We are grateful to you and our God for how we’ve been sustained and able to minister here in the city. It isn’t always easy, but the need and move of God to meet that need is undeniable.

We hope you have a great Thanksgiving and blessed Christmas!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Angela, Justice and Beniah

We are so grateful to have you in our life and excited to share what God is doing now!  Ten years ago, we left our home and job to come live in the inner city of South Central Los Angeles as missionaries with World Impact. This happened because of partners like you and we are so grateful for all the prayers, financial support, encouragement, and great friendships that have been a part of our journey!

When we started, we had two small children not even in preschool yet and now Rebecca is in going to High School, Justice is entering 7^th grade and our youngest is entering Kindergarten. We came to Los Angeles as missionaries to plant churches, to evangelize the lost and train up leaders… and that is what we have done by God's grace. We've started a church from simply engaging with our community and sharing the beautiful story of Jesus with people - letting them know there is hope from their pain and despair. Our ministry has been changing over the last few years as World Impact focuses more on empowering urban leaders – so while we continue to be on the ground, pastoring and involved in the community we are doing a lot more training, equipping and empowering of other church leaders helping them be successful in ministry and life.

As we look forward to what God will do in the coming years, we’re excited that we are able to take a trip to Oregon and the Bay Area to strengthen our support team, reconnect with many of our faithful partners, form new friendships as well get some rest. 

This will be our first time back ‘home’ in four years (and only 2^nd trip in 10 years!) We are excited to spend some time visiting with as many friends and catch up and share about what God is doing in Los Angeles. If you will be in Oregon between June 21-July11 or in the Bay Area from July 12-July 15 and would like to connect please let us know!

Our goal for this trip is to raise $1,200/month in new or increased support. This would allow us to be fully funded and be able to focus 100% of our energies on the mission!

We’ll then return home ready to minister again in all that God has called us to do with World Impact in Los Angeles, which we believe is plant more churches, invite many more people to know Jesus and continually train and mentor more leaders. In fact, upon our return we will run 2 church planting schools, 2 workshops helping churches receive ex-prisoners, officiate 2 Quinceañeras, travel to Wichita for a church planter catalyst training and record a church planting workshop video in Spanish that will be used all over the US and world to train new church planters (along with all the other 'normal' stuff)…all before starting our kids back into school.

To make this trip possible to raise support to get fully funded we need to raise special gifts to cover the cost of the trip. We're projecting the cost to be about $1/mile (for gas, food and other expenses for our 4-week trip). We’ll be logging nearly 5,000 miles for our trip this summer… Would you consider “BUYING-SOME-MILES" to help fund a portion of this trip? We're hoping to get all the funds in before we leave in the middle of June, so if you can respond by then that would be great...

            A gift of $50 would cover 50 miles, $100 would cover 100 miles, etc.

            A gift of any amount will be appreciated and help keep us moving forward in ministry… J

There are two ways to donate if you'd like to send a gift:

1.     Online:  tinyurl.com/wolyns 

2.     Check:  Write a check to World Impact and send it to the following address:  2001 S Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90007.  Memo Line:  “Wolyn Support Trip”

Thanks for your partnership with us in ministry!  We are looking forward to this next season of ministry, and this trip will help launch us forward into God's plans for us. Please be praying for our safety and that our time away from the city would be fruitful and provide a little rest and renewed vision as well.

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

Personal contact info:                                                                                                                                                                    mail: Chad & Fabiola Wolyn / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007 / email: heart4thecity@gmail.com / ph:  503 475-5548 (C) /  web: heart4thecity.blogspot.com

Please send regular financial support to:

World Impact / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007 

(Please make check payable to “World Impact” and designate “WOLYN” on the memo) 

OR  

You may also GIVE ONLINE HERE. 

UPDATE (Review)

We are celebrating 10 years as missionaries to the hardened streets of South Central Los Angeles.

While we have been in Los Angeles we have:

Planted and continue to pastor a church amongst the poor, specifically Spanish-speaking immigrants (the church’s name is “Fuente”).

We have baptized over 50 people.

 We have put on over 50 camps or retreats involving 1000s of individuals.

Missions and Church planting is a priority. We empower and train leaders so that together we can reach more people for Jesus transforming communities, people groups and nations. Since we started the church, we have faithfully given 20% of our budget to missions and church planting, regardless of our own need. 

Run programs such as a job training & leadership development internships - of which we have trained 18 interns in ministry or job-related skills.

Organized and taught at 4 church planting schools. Which had teams from numerous countries, states and cities represented.

Coached 9 other pastors and leaders (and their teams) in helping them establish a new church or ministry.

Help lead/run 2 Urban Church Association’s (monthly meetings and regular connection for fellowship, resourcing and training for pastors).

Taught at Los Angeles Christian School, a mission-focused school giving a Christian education to children K-8 in the community.

FALL 2018

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We certainly are thankful for you and your prayers and support for this ministry.

Updates

We had a great Thanksgiving week – with four different events. Our newest event was caravanning 8 cars through South Los Angeles delivering 120 plates of food to the homeless living in the tent encampments. Many of the youth in our church have done this type of ministry before, but for many of the adults and children it was their first experience. Many commented on how their heart was broken and eyes were opened to the humanity of each person we briefly got to know. 

 Feeding the homeless.

Fabiola giving the welcome to one of our Thanksgiving dinner outreaches at the church. 

Some of the graduates from our Evangel: School of Church Planting that Chad taught at in October. In our two Evangel Schools this year we had people from Canada, Hong Kong, Michigan, Skid Row (Los Angeles), Fresno, Ontario (California), Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania, Huntington Park (California), Norwalk (California), Miami (Florida), San Jacinta (California) and many from Los Angeles. Chad is now coaching several of these pastors as they prepare to launch their new churches and ministries. 

 Men’s Retreat / September 2018

 

 Women’s Retreat / October 2018

 Fuente KIDS (our children’s ministry) volunteers

 Youth sharing testimonies after returning from their youth camp. Some of our students help lead worship and were part of the drama team.

 Round Table Discussion: A special time of sharing stories about race, privilege and immigration to bring greater understanding and humanity to different people’s perspectives. 

 Our “Media Ministry” has been growing as we train up more people to work with digital media, sound and running the slides for our services.

 One of our community groups studying the Bible together.

 Gospel Concert in the Park! We joined up with another church in the community. We were responsible for giving the message in Spanish. Unified we will be able to reach and impact more people and see greater change in the community!

Christmas Toys Needed

Are you able to help us with our Toy Store? This annual event gives families from our church and community the opportunity to come buy a gift or two at deeply discounted prices (up to 75% off). This makes getting a special gift for their children more attainable, but still allows for them to feel the ownership and dignity of choosing and buying the gift themselves. There is a real special feel as our church really makes the space festive and hospitable and a group from our church does all the follow-up afterwards to help make a deeper connection for these families.

We need 100+ toys and gifts for boys and girls from 2 years – 18 years old. You can send or drop off gifts, order them online and have them delivered directly to us or send money and we’ll do the shopping. Please have money or gifts to us by December 14^th at the very latest.

If you are able to give towards this need please send your gift to either to us personally or through our church (note this is different than our normal support giving sent to World Impact):

Chad and Fabiola Wolyn

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

or

Fuente para las Naciones

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

 “Elves” busily wrapping gifts and parent’s shopping for toys and gifts at last years Toy Store (most of the toys and “shopping” is out of this picture’s frame).

Upcoming Events to keep in prayer:

December 15      Christmas Banquet

December 17      Fuente Toy Store

December 22      Youth Hike and Prayer for the City

January 9-15      Dominican Republic Mission Trip (see below for more info)

January 19          Academy of Music and Worship starts

Other Prayer Requests

1.      New church planters

Please pray for the following pastors/leaders we are coaching:

•      Bayas and Melody
•      Geovany and Jessica
•      Alex
•      Manuel
•      Mario

2.      Rebecca @ High School

Our teenager, Rebecca, enters High School next year. Please pray she would be accepted into the best school. We have public, charter and private schools on our short list. Rebecca’s first choice is a private Christian college-prep school…please pray that we could get scholarships and be able to raise the extra funds for this to become a reality.

3.      Dominican Republic Trip

Please pray for our trip to the Dominican Republic to support a missionary friend there. We have wanted to lead a youth group to the DR for a mission’s trip and this opportunity has opened up for us to go and “scout out the land” while helping minister in churches and community centers and translate for a group from a partner church. The majority of this trip is paid for, but we do need to raise $1,400 for our travel expenses. If you are able to give towards this need please send your gift to either to us personally or through our church (note this is different than our normal support giving sent to World Impact):

                  Chad and Fabiola Wolyn

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

or

Fuente para las Naciones

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

Fuente KIDS (Children’s Ministry): Where children learn the powerful truth of God. 

Thank you so much for praying, giving and loving!

It’s amazing what we can do together when we follow Jesus’ example.

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

If you want to send us a Christmas card / Personal contact info: 

mail: Chad and Fabiola Wolyn / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007 / email: heart4thecity@gmail.com / 

ph:  503 475-5548 (C) /  web: heart4thecity.blogspot.com

Please send regular financial support to: World Impact / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007  (Please make check payable to “World Impact” and designate “WOLYN” on the memo)  OR   You may also GIVE ONLINE HERE. [giving address: https://my.worldimpact.org/default.aspx?page=3826&funds=6605]

We are in an exciting time in the ministry...we have been on the front lines for the last 9 years and have seen God do amazing thing - the most exciting is the many lives and families transformed by Jesus. 

As our sphere of influence continues to expand beyond the streets in our community to other areas of Los Angeles, other surrounding cities and beyond we are growing in our ability to hand-off and empower others to “go” and take on greater ownership and responsibility of their ministry and church.

What God is doing…

•         New small groups are popping up
•         We are seeing an increase in first time guests in our church
•         There is a greater interest in evangelism and church planting
•         Vision and faith for a greater impact beyond our community is growing
•         New ministries are being formed
•         The church is working as a team
•         The youth are getting more involved in the day to day activities and ministry of the church

UPDATES

There is so much to tell, but we’ll just share a bit of what happened this last week where we celebrated mother’s and the youth led the Sunday service.

Pampering Mom’s – Annual Mother’s Day Celebration

Over 30 women came out to be pampered with great food, special gifts, a photo booth, manicures and makeovers. Their children were cared for – making special Mother’s Day crafts, playing and having lunch on their own. Fabiola gave a moving message on motherhood bring both laughter and tears.

More than half of the women were invited guests. Many either came back for the Sunday service or have jumped into a small group meeting at the houses of one of the ladies who invited them.

Youth-Led Sunday Service

Amazing! Literally everything from creating the bulletin and being greeters to ushering and leading worship – even the cleaning of the building afterwards was led by the youth. We were all moved and encouraged by the powerful words given by the students. Instead of 1 message – we had 4 short messages, each on a different woman of the Bible. The service was really honoring to all the mother’s, but really powerful to see the youth using their gifts to bless the whole church. The time preparing for this service was invaluable because it gave us and the youth leaders innumerable opportunities to come alongside and really guide and work with each student in the area they were serving. We now have several new children’s ministry volunteers and 3 new people to help run the media.

Rebecca (standing in front right) and some of her friends at winter camp.

Our oldest child, Rebecca is finishing up her 7^th grade year and has some great news and an opportunity to share with you:

Hello, my name is Rebecca Wolyn and I am part of a leadership development program at my school and we are working on developing different areas of our leadership abilities. A couple of the things I am working on is growing in confidence and in speaking in front of others. Only 6 students from my school were selected to participate in this program. A really cool part of this program is that this summer I will be attending a trip to Washington DC. We will be flying to Washington DC and also visiting New York City and Philadelphia. While on this trip I will continue to be given tasks from planning to leading different parts of the trip to help develop me more as a leader. My hope is that I will then be able to help and lead others better. Me being a pastor’s daughter, I’ve always wanted to have an opportunity like this to be able to bring up my leadership skills and to become a leader at my church and school.

One thing you could do for me is to pray for me so that I can learn a lot of things in this program. You could also pray that I would be safe on my trip and that I’d be able to excel in what I do and become a better leader. I leave on Wednesday, June 20^th and return on Thursday, June 28^th.

My goal for this trip is to raise $525 and it would be more than amazing if you could help me reach my goal. I would truly love it if you could give anything. Can you help me out by supporting me with a gift that will help support me as I take this next step towards my goal of becoming a stronger leader?

Thank you! God bless.

If you would like to give to help Rebecca with this amazing opportunity, please send you checks through our normal missionary support:

Please make check payable to “World Impact” and

designate “Rebecca Wolyn, DC Leadership” on the memo

Send to:

World Impact

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

OR

You may also GIVE ONLINE HERE.

[giving address: https://my.worldimpact.org/default.aspx?page=3826&funds=6605]

Also, if you are planning on praying for her I’m sure it would bless her to get a little note or know who is lifting her up through the end of her school year and into this trip. You can mail her directly at:

Rebecca Wolyn

2001 S. Vermont Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

or I can print out any emails you want to send to her at heart4thecity@gmail.com

Thanks!

Upcoming Events please be in prayer…

·        Evangel Church Planting School (May 31-June 2) – We are hoping for over 20 new church plant teams to come through our school…several of which we will be personally coaching throughout the planting process over the course of the year.

·        Men’s outreach and family picnic (Father’s Day celebration) (June 16)

·        Rebecca’s Leadership Trip to East Coast  (June 20-28)  see above letter from Rebecca

·        Youth Camping Trip (June 22-23)

·        Summer Camps for grades 1-3, 4-6, 7-12 (July 1-6, July 17-20, July 29-Aug 3)

·        LA Mission Trip (July 12-18)

Thank you for lifting us up in prayer. We need it! It is always a blessing to hear from you – we do pray for you as well. As you move into summer may God continue to be your light, your refreshment and your joy.

Blessings!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah