Many Hands Make LIGHT work

This summer we were blessed. Well really we are always blessed. God has been so good to us! It is an honor to be working here in Los Angeles where we continue to be about Kingdom business: preaching and living the Good News, raising up leaders and planting churches that multiply.

We have had three amazing interns this summer that sacrificially gave their all so that our church plant, Fuente para las Naciones, could continue growing and maturing. We have also had perfectly timed phone calls, emails, and visits from friends and family that have encouraged us. We are continually thrilled to see how more and more of the individuals at Fuente are stepping up and taking responsibility. Many hands make light work. In fact, as we come together in unity all across this globe, many hands make LIGHT work – where God’s glory and presence is shown and can be known in the darkest areas.

Updates

Reaching Out To Help Pimps & Prostitutes

This last month we were trained by After Hours Ministry to reach people involved in the sex trade here on the streets around where we minister. When you are walking up and down the streets with the pimps and prostitutes it is amazing what you see and the heaviness and pain you feel in your heart. We handed out gift bags and prayed with as many of the young women (many of them are so young) as would allow us. The men were not as willing to talk, but we still greeted them as we passed, praying in our minds.

Unity V.B.S.
Being asked by a church 5 times our size to help them and train them in children’s ministry is quite a compliment to what we do. We ran an afternoon vacation bible school (VBS) for this church as part of an open air church service for the community. The VBS was planned by our team and then executed by a combination of our church and their church. It was great for our church to join in and serve and catch the vision of working in unity for the Kingdom of God and not just focusing on our needs as a local church. There were probably 200- 300 people out for the service that day.

Serving our brothers and sisters in Christ to reach the city. Another local church asked us to help them with children’s ministry while they brought in music and preaching to have an outdoor Sunday service. Our children and mother’s helped put on a fantastic ministry to the rest of the kids. It was great seeing everyone in action.

Sport’s Day Camp

What a fantastic week!

This was our second year of providing this quality camp for our community.

On the first day Fabiola and another lady from our church spent the majority of the afternoon talking with two mothers who had brought their children to participate and at the end of the morning they both gave their lives to Jesus!

The following day instead of meeting inside our home for the Women’s Meeting they met outside in the park under some trees and had the two mothers along with two other first-time guests come and join them for the study.

Throughout the week there were so many smiles from the kids. We had quality training in soccer, football, basketball and cheerleading. There were over 125 children that participated and on Thursday after the gospel message was shared there were over 15 children that decided to make the decision to follow Jesus.

Please pray for us as we continue to follow-up with all of these families. Some of the greatest fruit we’ve had has come from families we met at last year’s camp.

Fabiola with camper Brandon and his new camp T-shirt.

Having the women’s meeting outside was a great idea – drawing several new women to the group.

Camp began and ended with Bible stories, sport’s stories and lots of great songs with motions. One of the girls below (in red) prays with the coaches as they ask God’s blessing and protection on the day.

On the last day the cheerleaders performed the routine they learned.

Our daughter, Rebecca, invited some friends and decided to learn soccer this year (instead of cheerleading like last year) to accommodate their interests. They got to hear the gospel and grow their friendship more. Its amazing seeing 5 year olds full of compassion for their lost friends!

Moving from “I’m just helping out” to “I am committed to serve”
We received a phone call late one night to the excited voice of Abraham. He was saying that he just got word of a church building that was for rent and thought we should check it out. (As you know we have been praying about a building for a very long time now.) Great ownership and fantastic enthusiasm on Abraham’s part to take the initiative. The following day we made our way over to see the building and hear about the price and arrangement. The price was actually reasonable, but we as a church still cannot cover even that expense on our own. This did, however, prove to be a wonderful challenge area and rallying point for us to bring back to the congregation. (The building unfortunately is also too far – since over half of our congregation walks to church it would need to be within walking distance to continue reaching the community where we have planted this church.)

This visit to the ‘potential’ church location stirred us all up and realizing we didn’t have enough money or even leaders to really fulfill what we believe God wants us to do here in this city moved us to action. We called a special meeting and during that meeting Graciela stepped up to pray and fast on a regular basis so that we can see revival in this community – a growing burden on her heart. Erica and Nancy stepped up without being asked or prompted to lead the High School and College Aged ministry. Merced agreed to meet with me in a more rigorous discipleship relationship to move into more of a teaching role.

It’s Fun To Be A Kid of the King DaysThis summer our interns helped us put on several fun days for the children and youth to get together and just celebrate life and enjoy some time together in a healthy atmosphere.

Our interns Nate, Garnett and Misty came up with lots of fun creative games to help build community in our children and youth programs. During one of the days the mom’s all went and sat with some other ladies in the park and got to know them, shared the gospel with them, invited them to church and included their children in the activities (last picture).

Jr. High Summer Camp

We got a text from the counselor about half way through the week stating that the girls were going through a bit of a ‘social’ and ‘city’ detox and on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough. Some great things happened, but a few weeks later we see the choke-hold that the devil has on many of our teens. The decision to follow Christ is so unpopular and so unsupported in their home and social lives that making that move is may require more than just a powerful week at camp.

Please continue to lift up our teens as we pursue the best way to support them and challenge them in living lives that are pure and 100% committed to Jesus.

Please Pray With Us

School Supplies Outreach
We are blessed to have received donated school supplies from Separated for Christ Ministries and plan on distributing those next week to those most in need in our community.

We are praying that this will open up new relationship so that we can share the Good News in word and deed with more families in this community. We are also shooting for this to be a church run ministry (volunteers from the church) and not something that we do by ourselves.

Wolyn Family Vacation
We have not had a true – do nothing/be with nobody – vacation since moving to Los Angeles two years ago. We will be staying at a beach house that somebody has given us to use so that we can recharge and keep running to win this race that God has given us.

Pray that our time would be truly restful and we would create memories as a family that would last a lifetime.

Family Camp - September 3-5 (Labor Day Weekend)
There are 80 of us heading up to the mountain to enjoy some time away from the city as families and as a church family. We are planning four teaching times, powerful worship as a church and some hard hitting Christian movies in addition to tons of fun and relaxation that will take place.

Pray with us for unity and powerful ministry times.

Derek Cardwell visits from the Philippines - September 6-11
We are so excited and honored to have long time missionary Derek and his family come and spend close to a week with us. They will be ministering to our church on three different evenings and we hope to be able to minister to them in a powerful and real way as well.

We are praying that our congregation will grow more passionate and go deeper in the things of God as a result of what God does through this time. We are also praying that our congregation gets stirred up for world missions and falls in love with the nations of the world beyond their comfort zone.

The Workers Are Few….
We have implemented a rotation of assistant teachers to help provide all the parents that regularly attend the church meetings an opportunity to see and learn what ministry to their children looks like.

Pray with us that the parents would catch the vision, take ownership and have passion to serve as Sunday school teachers and teacher’s assistant in the various age groups.

Follow-up to Sport’s Camp
We have a lot of homes to visit!

Please pray for God’s favor and soft and hungry hearts as we follow-up on the children and their families that came out to the Sport’s Camp we had at the beginning of this month.

First Day of School
Our son, Justice, is on his way to Preschool starting the beginning of September. Rebecca is starting first grade at a new school. This means for the first time since Rebecca was born we’ll have half a day with no little people in the house --- well except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays when we have Bible studies in the mornings and the mothers bring their kids.

Please pray for our family in this time of transition. It is exciting, but always a little hard to move to the next stage. We’re praying they will both do well and make really good friendships that honor God.

Thank you for folding your hands with us in prayer – many hands makes LIGHT work,
Chad & Fabiola

Identity: Who are you? Whose are you?

Summer is still in full swing, yet God has already moved in a big way in many people’s lives here in LA.  We kicked off the summer with a huge community fair and crusade-style outreach attracting thousands of people and leading many to get saved and even baptized right then and there at South Park - the park in front of where our church Fuente para las Naciones meets. 

We then sent over 20 young people from our church to four different summer camps at THE OAKS where the children and youth were loved by our counselors and parent volunteers and impacted and challenged by the message and activities to be rooted deep and built up in Christ. 

Also this summer, our Sunday school program has continued to grow and mature as we have looked at different ways to involve more people from our church and challenged the children and youth to memorize verses, pray and worship.  The reports we are getting from the parents about the changes at home are encouraging.  Six-year-olds interceding for their parents and asking to have a family worship time gets us excited!

In the outreach, the summer camps and in the Sunday school classes we have been teaching about identity.  Who are they?  And more importantly, whose are they?  We did an activity at the outreach in the park where we asked children what they wanted to be when they grow up and then we used that as a launching pad to do two things: first, dress them up in an outfit and take a picture of them and second, to pray over them and speak destiny, purpose, hope and God’s will over their lives.  Many families were blessed to have this focused attention and needed truth given to them.  This acceptance and identity in Christ is changing people’s lives right before our eyes. 

Please pray with us for:

·         Our Sport’s Camp the first week of August.  This camp’s theme is “Breaking Free” and will be a powerful week long, half-day day camp for the kid’s in our community.  Pray that many children would give their lives to Jesus and that they would bring their families to church regularly to learn more and grow in Christ with us. 

·         Our three summer interns: Nate, Garnett and Misty will also be heading back home to get ready for another year of school this month.  Please pray for their safe travel and our church’s transition back into life without their talents and help.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

 
Chad & Fabiola