Growth Praying

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." (Samuel Zwemer) Thank you for joining us on this mission and praying with us as we continue to empower the urban poor, raise up leaders and plant churches. We know that we are nothing without God and His people surrounding us and lifting us up in prayer.

We have been blessed with some great growth this first official month of church planting. Last week we had 6 new adults and 6 new children come out. We are meeting new people through our outreach and evangelistic efforts (mostly on Wednesday and Sunday). It was exciting; however, that 3 of the adults that came out were not invited by us but by somebody who just started coming herself. Our weekly totals are right around 30, putting us (within a month) at 25% of our year-long goal. (We believe God has called us to have 120 people under our care in the first year.)

Growing is great! It does have its challenges though. We have to continue to balance the time and energy we pour into the different areas of ministry. We desire to always be about going and reaching out to bring more desperately hungry, needy and lost into our growing family. We also want to be about building a strong foundation with each person by providing quality fellowship and study times as well as a focus on individuals in leadership training and discipleship. Clearly not everything has to happen at once, but we are seeing certain needs arise. We ask that to avoid “growth pain” you do some “growth praying” with us. We know God wants to use us and our church to do some unexpected and different things. We know that He cares way more than we do for the children and their needs, the many lost shouting silently for freedom through their desperate attempts to encounter meaning in this life. He is the one that showed us His desire for a community of people in this neighborhood that love one another and study and apply the Bible as they grow in relationship with their Savior and Lord.

We also have specific times throughout the week where we meet one-on-one with people.
Please pray for our time with Blanca, Bere, Primo, Italia, Juan Carlos and others.

Other important times: Tuesday night – we invite a family/couple/individual from the community over for dinner to get to know them. /Thursdays: 2:30-4:00 Team meeting / Mondays: Much needed day off!

Praise Reports

Blanca has been growing strong in her relationship with Jesus since she committed her life to Him December 9th) she gave her life to Jesus. She is reading big portions of the Bible and memorizing verses and challenging the group to do the same as she brings observations and questions to the meetings. Recently she was inspired by the words of 1 Peter 3:1, speaking of winning an unbelieving husband without words, but with behavior. We’ve been praying with her for her husband, Alejandro, who does not believe in God at all. He has already noticed her change and begun asking many questions about what she is learning and why she is doing what she is doing. She has also taken an interest in learning to play the guitar and so we are teaching her what we know. Please pray for her family (she is one of Primo’s sisters). Blanca and Alejandro (pictured above) have two children, Jennifer and Anthony.

Tina and Adelso –You may remember we first made contact with them one day before Rebecca’s birthday party (in November) and invited them out. They came and since we’ve been able to get to know them a lot better. They are now regularly attending our Wednesday night meeting. Adelso, whose mother back in Guatemala is a Christian, is really interested in growing in God and exposing his family to the Church. Tina has surprised him by being all changed and ready to go with their two children when he arrives from work. Tina, not having any previous exposure to studying the Word of God, has taken a Bible home and been reading portions in between each meeting.

“When I return to my land people there aren’t going to recognize me, they’ll see that I’m a better person, they’ll see something different.” - Primo (pictured above with Bere)

When asked if she had a good time at the Winter Youth Retreat Italia responded, “Yeah, but I didn’t come here for fun—I came here to get closer to God.” And did she ever! She responded for the first time ever to the Gospel call. We’ve been meeting with her for the last 6 months, studying the Bible, having her shadow us in many different ministry activities and finally she responded by giving her whole life to Jesus for eternity!! J She now attends our youth group, along with her older brother Juan Carlos, on Fridays. Tiffany, our youth worker, is continuing to follow-up with her on her decision by working one-on-one through various issues a couple times a week.
Italia and her family L to R: Maria, Ramon Jr., Maricela (mother), Joel, Juan Carlos, Olivia, Italia, Marta


Prayer Requests:

Children’s Ministry Solution — With as many as 7 children (ranging from 8 months to 10 years old) showing up at a given meeting we need help organizing activities/lessons and somebody that can be in charge of these children so their parents can focus on the study and discussion. [We have a vision of training up the parent’s to take turns providing this Biblical education to their kids, but at this time we’re still building a Biblical foundation and getting to know them so we need a solution meanwhile.]

Easter Week Outreach & Celebration Service — With the school’s on Spring Break the week before Easter we are working on a plan to provide a VBS type activity for children and their families building up to a large corporate celebration service and BBQ/potluck afterwards. Please pray for the details and finances for these events.

Rebecca’s (and her parent’s too!) transition into Pre-School — Rebecca will begin to attend preschool in the afternoons starting Monday. She is soooo excited and we are too, but we might cry!


Thank you for doing what you do so that we can do what we do…we each play a part.
Chad & Fabiola