It is a lot of
work, but the payoff is amazing. Like
the miners of past we moved from our home in pursuit of treasure – treasure
that is often buried deep in the dirt, muck and mire of life. God sees each one of us as precious, more
precious than gold, and we constantly ask for His eyes and His heart to see that
gold. Amongst a flurry of ministry this
month we have seen some of the precious lives come out of the water….some quite
literally. In this last month we have
had four first-time salvation commitments and three baptisms (well actually
more like 64 baptisms, but you’ll have to read below for more on that).
UPDATES
Summer Activities in the City
Throughout the week the children
and their mothers, aunts and grandparents are building community and having a
great time throughout the city. Above
they are panning for gold at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. Another day they all got together and got their
hands dirty making cookies while the adults were able to sit back and get to
know one another better. One mother in
particular has caught the vision of inviting her unchurched neighbors out to
enjoy in these activities and introduce them more to the church. The youth have also been out and about –
going on bike rides, going hiking, stopping at historical donut shops and great
times of talking through the Bible and other relevant conversations.
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Enjoying the majesty of God’s creation – worshipping together on the beach – spending time as families who are growing together and learning more about how to love one another. We had lots of food, fun games and good down time.
No real agenda—just time to relax and grow together. There were about 50 of us and God was at the center the whole time.
Baptism
One of our youth had planned on getting baptized
in the ocean, but decided the waves were too strong and the water too cold so she was baptized the following day at church.
It was a great celebration and she shared a powerful
testimony of how God’s been working in her life. She is currently in a leadership/discipleship
program. She is pictured to the right
with the youth leaders and some of the younger youth that we hope will make a
decision to get baptized soon.
4th of July – Declaring our Dependence on
God
With bombs bursting in air (if
you’ve never been in the inner-city during the 4th of July you may
not understand how ‘war like’ it really is with guns and bombs really bursting in the air) we
gathered for a time of worship around the bonfire. We also re-dedicated ourselves to depend
fully on God and thank Him for this great country. The food was amazing and families from our
church really reached out to two new families that came out.
Training-up Leaders who love to Worship
This month we finished up a
second 8-week guitar class. One of the
music students then played in the worship band.
We are rotating the responsibility to lead worship a little more frequently
as well getting more people exposed to all that entails. We also just had a really successful half-day
music workshop where nine people from our church came out to learn more about
playing different instruments. Our
church is worshipping more and more and still is yearning for more.
When we first started nobody would sing or clap or anything, now they
are begging for more!
WOW Jam Outreach Crusade
We were the host church for WOW Jam for the third year. Thank you for praying – we are seeing more fruit that appears to be ‘lasting’ than the last two years. We took over the park – there were over 5,000 people in attendance! This year we set up right in front of our house. As we were on the stage all we had to do is point and say, “that is where our church meets”. The Good Year blimp was even flying overhead (though the blimp was probably there for the X-Games a few miles away J).
Here are some of the numbers:
10 babies rocked
90 bikes repaired
161 faces painted
89 family photos taken
285 bags of groceries given
66 haircuts given
100 kids crafts made
84 makeovers given
2,465 meals given
77 nails painted (well, actually 770)
202 plants given away
630 snow cones passed out
998 water given
239 volunteers helped out
373 salvation cards filled out
63 baptized
It was powerful talking with some of the people that came
out to just have fun or get some ‘free stuff’ and ended up walking away with
new life in Jesus. You could see
people’s countenance change – they couldn’t stop smiling and talking about how
life was so different now. Amongst the
63 people we baptized were two girls from our church who recently have
connected with God thanks to their grandmother who has been bringing them
out.
Summer Camps
LITs at Camp (Leaders In Training)
While we can’t be at camp every minute (we have a few other
things we’re doing in the inner-city) we have been able to go up towards the
end of every week and check in with our campers, counselors and LITs. Alex (pictured abpve in the hat) is in his
second year and Italia (pictured below with the water gun) is in her first year. It is a three-year program where we are
mentoring and training them in ministry.
For their summers they get further practical training at the camp (and
they get paid too!). They are both
learning a lot about the Bible and deepening their relationship with God. We are impressed with how well these High
Schoolers are doing at leading worship and camp songs, leading games and
activities and counseling the younger children.
They will be coming back to Los Angeles this weekend to teach Sunday
school and then return to finish up their summer at camp.
Justice finishes preschool
Our son ‘graduated’ from preschool this month! Fabiola worked hard as a part of the parent’s
committee. They will both miss the
school, but are looking forward to Kindergarten. He will join his sister and us parents will
have two children on the same schedule and at the same school (nice!).
Please Pray with Us…..
ü Strength,
protection, growth for the four people that were recently SAVED.
ü New Bible
Student
Grace and focus for Merced, one of
our men who is interested in leadership and possibly pastoring, while he takes a
Bible class at The Urban Ministry Institute on “Practicing Christian
Leadership”.
ü Summer Camps
Still ahead we have four more
camps:
o
7th –
8th Grade July 22-27
o
High School July
29-Aug. 3
o
Special Needs
Camp 7/29-8/3
o
Sport’s Day Camp Jul.30-Aug.3
ü Youth Group transition
We will be launching a bigger
youth ministry this fall. We have been
attending a World Impact community youth group with our youth and now are
moving towards replicating something similar in our own community - with our
youth helping to take some of the leadership.
Pray for our ability to connect deeper into the new Maya Angelo High
School just a block from our new teen center.
ü Tutoring
Program
Part of our practical outreach
into the community and connection to both the high school and the elementary
school that sandwich our teen center is offering tutoring to the children and
youth. We are finishing up a pilot
program and getting ready to launch more officially in the fall. Pray
for the details, volunteers and students.
ü Meeting
space
We are still feeling crowded and
limited in our home. Pray with us for God to lead us to the right
space soon.
There is more gold to
find! Thanks for panning with us
through your prayers, words of encouragement and financial support.
Chad
& Fabiola
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