When you are hurting you don’t want anybody to touch you.
When you have been ignored for so long you may not know why somebody would want to genuinely know how you are doing.
When you have been ignored for so long you may not know why somebody would want to genuinely know how you are doing.
Our desire is to get out into the community and serve, bless, and love our neighbors and let them know the Good News of Christ Jesus.
New Year’s Eve day we were able to put on a Carnival Family Fun Day at the park with the above desire as our goal. We estimate there were about 120 people that were able to experience the blessing and love in some tangible way. We had a lot of fun activities and games with prizes. The little girls loved the jewelry making and nail painting and one boy could barely walk after jumping in the bounce house all afternoon.
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“It is so wonderful that you are doing something like this for the community. Though I know nothing about Christianity I would be very interested in learning more about your church and what you are doing.” -Nancy (Mother of 2)
It isn’t too common to have a safe, family friendly event that doesn’t cost anything in our community. We had a drama gospel presentation on the stage with a short explanation and invitation in English and Spanish. We were impressed by the responses we heard from different people about the drama. One man said, “That was a really powerful message. I’ve never thought of things that way before.” People are open…we just need to keep reaching out, sharing, loving and inviting. Please pray that we would be faithful and see much fruit in our outreach and evangelistic efforts. We need to continue to pray that people won’t just nod their heads, hear the Word and move on with their lives, but that there will be deep and lasting change – we are believing for 120 of those commitments this year.
Throughout the day we got to mingle and meet a lot of wonderful people and share more about God’s plan for their life and invite people out to our groups. We had an information and prayer table where people got the Gospel of John, other information about being a Christ follower and our ministry. We served over 200 hot dogs along with lots of cookies, punch and other goodies. Sometimes it’s hard to break into a hardened heart or a hurting community, but we feel God has allowed us to break in through genuine caring relationships that we’ve built with people day to day. Now with events like this we’ve found another way to ‘touch’ those that most need the touch, yet still hurt too much to receive it.
The following day, New Year’s Day, we partnered with Total Restoration Ministries, a Christian live-in drug & alcohol rehabilitation ministry, to put on another event. While the day before we had focused on the families this event was primarily for the homeless, addicts, prostitutes and gang members in and around South Park. We handed out hygiene packets, lots of hot food, clothes and powerful testimonies of what God has done to set others free. There were ex-prostitutes and ex-gang members that came to share and testify of what Jesus has done for them rescuing them for this very park and how He is worthy of receiving all our life. Chad translated the whole event in Spanish and was able to get to know some new people as well as build deeper relationships with others. It is a beautiful thing working together in unity for Christ—that’s what love looks like. We’ve had a burden for women in prostitution for a long time, but haven’t found a good opportunity or way to minister to them. Yet some of the ladies from Total Restoration were able to reach out to two very broken prostitutes that were weeping on a park bench in response to hearing the mercy, love and acceptance of their Father, maybe for the first time. One of these precious ladies heard the message in Spanish through the interpretation and the other in English. They’ve now experienced the beginning of what love feels like. They are finally getting to the point where they are sick and tired of being sick and tired…a beautiful place where God can really bring them close to Him and love on them. 
Prayer Requests:
·Winter Retreat – This weekend (January 15-17) two of our youth, Italia and Juan Carlos, will be going to a World Impact youth retreat with our church’s new youth worker, Tiffany.
·Evangelism AND Discipleship – Please pray that we would be able to continue to meet new people and balance making these new relationships with the need to pour into and help spiritually mature those that we’re already meeting with.
·Quality Family Time – Currently we are setting aside Mondays to rest and spend time as a family without attending to the business and urgent needs of the ministry. Pray that we’d be able to have quality times as a family and find refreshing in God and with one another….it’ll allow us to be more effective the rest of the week.
Thank you!
That many might know the love of our Father deeply and richly,
Chad & Fabiola
Prayer Requests:·Winter Retreat – This weekend (January 15-17) two of our youth, Italia and Juan Carlos, will be going to a World Impact youth retreat with our church’s new youth worker, Tiffany.
·Evangelism AND Discipleship – Please pray that we would be able to continue to meet new people and balance making these new relationships with the need to pour into and help spiritually mature those that we’re already meeting with.
·Quality Family Time – Currently we are setting aside Mondays to rest and spend time as a family without attending to the business and urgent needs of the ministry. Pray that we’d be able to have quality times as a family and find refreshing in God and with one another….it’ll allow us to be more effective the rest of the week.
Thank you!
That many might know the love of our Father deeply and richly,
Chad & Fabiola
We rejoice in the new year! It is a time to look back with thanksgiving and a time to look ahead with hope. We must do the work of our Father. He has been so good to us. We are compelled by His love. We must see change—lives are depending on it. God has been so merciful and gracious allowing us to know so many wonderful people. Yet we see the real battle that they are in—fighting drug and alcohol addictions, struggling with overcoming past wounds that are currently causing relational problems, and the outright poverty compounded by so many other complications leaving families without time to be a family as they struggle to eke out their survival day by day.