Blind & Shortchanged

Nelli has been faithfully coming to church since we visited her in her home at the end of April –many times she comes twice a week. At a recent church service she shared these words with us, “I’m thankful for this church; it is helping me get to know God and get closer to Him.” She had never been to a church before coming to our church plant Fuente para las Naciones, but has a real hunger for God.

Nelli has three children under the age of five and an alcoholic, drug abusing husband who is currently in prison. She shared how she feels so shortchanged by the life she has lived so far…missing out on what is really good. “There is so much more to life that I have never known. I want my kids to have this life that you are living.” Just to be clear she is talking about a deep peace, love, joy and hope that come through knowing Jesus. Nelli and her family have been living in black and white – actually just black, while God longs that we all live in full color. Nelli, like so many people in this neighborhood, have been locked into a dark box of lies, blinded spiritually by the things their ancestors and culture have taught them and oppressed both spiritually and physically. Sound extreme – it is! The darkness here is something even the blind can sense. She recognizes that she has not been living life to the fullest. Her heart yearns to know her Maker and live according to His plans. We proclaim that Jesus is the only One who can rescue us from this darkness and bring us into everlasting life. Please keep Nelli and her family in your prayers as she continues to press in to the things of God more and more.

“Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in your law.”
Psalms 119:18

At the men’s retreat, Salvador, who also just recently started coming to church, began crying out that God would take the blinders off of his eyes and allow him to see God’s glory. His wife has been connected to the church for nearly a year now and finally her husband has left his drinking behind and is coming out with the family. He shared how his middle son, a first grader, would plead with him to stop drinking, but that he just couldn’t. Know he hasn’t had a drink in four weeks and is pressing in to times of prayer and study like somebody that really wants God and to walk in the Spirit.
“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and can’t understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2:14) We thank God for answering our prayers and allowing the Holy Spirit to illuminate and direct Salvador’s way.
Some highlights of the men’s retreat were:
·Early morning prayer times with the guys
·A praise & worship time in our cabin during free time
·Great conversations – about so many things
·An early morning hike and time to reflect on God’s goodness and grandeur
·A time where one of the guys began to share his burdens and the other guys were able to listen and counsel him with little help by me.
This Sunday (June 19th – Father’s Day) the men who went on the retreat will be sharing with the church what they learned. They are all fired up. After a week of application and testing as we’re all back in our daily routines our prayer is that they can share from their heart and inspire and encourage others based on what God is doing in their lives.


Please Pray With Us

WOW Jam - Saturday, June 25
Our church is sponsoring/hosting this huge outreach crusade again this year. We’ve been getting the word out to the community for the last couple weeks. Last year we attracted 4,000 people. We hope for even more (praying for 7,000) people this year so more can hear the Good News. We have been working hard to train everyone in our church in the basics of evangelism, follow-up and praying with people so that during the event and at the altar call we can have our whole church activated and helping bring new people into the Kingdom of God.

Sunday Service – Sunday, June 26
This post WOW Jam service has the potential to really help add more people to our congregation. If even 1% of the crowd came out that would be 40 new people based on last year’s numbers. We pray that we would be ready and that the ministry would be done by those that are being equipped for the ministry and not just our family.

Summer Camps
Please pray for our counselors and campers this summer:

1st – 3rd Grade Camp
June 28 – July 1
Counselors: Norma, Nate, Graciela, Faustina
Children: Stephanie, Valerie, Leslie, Michelle, Araceli, Brandon, Alan and Luis

4th – 6th Grade Camp
July 3-8
Counselors: Misty and Nate
Children: Jennifer, Martin, David, Michael

Jr. High Camp
July 17 -22
Counselor: Sheila
Youth: Flor, Sol Angel, Liliana,

High School Camp
July 24 -29
Youth: Alexis

Thank you for your partnership. Your prayers and financial support to this ministry is literally allowing people to come out of spiritual darkness and bondage and see the light for the first time.

Rejoicing together with you and the angels,

Chad & Fabiola