Not Sitting Idle

With thanksgiving just around the corner we want to make sure we say what we feel so deeply in our heart: we could not be doing what we are doing without the emotional, spiritual and physical help we receive from you…sometimes it is just a little note, email or phone call, other times it is the prayers that we feel being lifted up on our behalf and it also comes in the form of a gift or check.  Thank you so much for all you do, so that we can do all that God wants to accomplish here in the city!

 

This month we wanted to share a couple quick stories about how our church is learning and growing in what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ…it means loving Him, but also loving others – sharing our faith and making disciples as He commanded.  We did not leave our lifestyle and profession to sit idle and ‘hope’ that God will do something….nor are we raising-up people to sit around, but to be active in their faith and move because they have hope. 

Updates…

Sharing Their Faith

It has been encouraging this last month how several people in the church have taken initiative to share their faith.  One young man has been talking to his friends every chance he gets at school.  He even led an “Evangelism Training” for his peers during youth group last week.  Another youth tries to always bring a friend every time he comes to our music academy classes.  It was encouraging hearing their prayers for their friends at a recent Bible study.  They aren’t sitting by passively, but pressing into God to see lives changed. 

One the single mothers from our church asked if we could help her gather a group of people together to go share sandwiches she made with the homeless in the park.  She doesn’t have a lot herself, but knows that it is more blessed to give than receive and made as many sandwiches as she could.  A group then went and shared their faith and prayed with people that needed that word of encouragement and little bit of food. 

Workshops

Recently we have begun to launch a new series of workshops.  We aren’t running these workshops, but empowering our church to share something they like to do….from teaching how to change oil in a car, to a variety of crafts and gift ideas, to special recipes and dishes.  This serves as a new way to foster relationships, empower people to share the gifts, interests and abilities that they have and a place to share their faith with other people.  These groups are providing a great, relaxed social setting where relationships can grow.  Pray with us, as we continue to encourage more of these groups, that disciples would be made and released to do more in and for their community bringing in a greater harvest of people for the Lord. 

Christmas Gifts

This Christmas season we want to give you an opportunity to help this ministry by giving a gift (a donation towards these items or used items in good condition would also be greatly appreciated).

 

·         Craft supplies for our children’s ministry

·         Bass amplifier

·         Christian music for children (Spanish and English)

·         iPOD (or any MP3 player) to load with music for Kid’s Church services

·         DVDs (appropriate for children or toddlers)

·         DVD player

·         Video games for XBOX 360 (Kinect ok) or Wii

·         Scholarship for youth winter camp ($95/person)

·         Large pull down screen (for projector)

·         Piano tuning

·         Books.  In our intern program we have the leaders in training read lots of books. We would like to create a scholarship to help them purchase these books and a library with at least one copy of each book that could be checked out. 

 

Let us know if you would like to give a special gift or send any of the items listed above to help in a practical way as we continue to reach out to the lost and hurting, train-up leaders and plant churches.  We so thank you for making this a team effort – it wouldn’t be possible otherwise. 

Also, we love to receive pictures and news from our friends.  If you are sending out Christmas cards please add us to your mailing list.  Our mailing address is:  The Wolyns / 2001 S. Vermont Ave. / Los Angeles, CA 90007

 

 

Please Pray with Us…

 

ü Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 24 – Thanksgiving dinner for the community.  We are inviting people who live in the park in front of the church as well as many other people that have physical, spiritual and emotional needs to come enjoy a great meal.  This is a time for our church to serve and reach out to others.  We have received so much from God and want to serve others and share our story of coming to know the love and forgiveness of Jesus with others.

 

Wednesday, November 27 – We will gather again for our annual Thanksgiving potluck.  This time is a more intimate time of fellowship and praise for our church body.   

 

ü Christmas Banquet

Sunday, December 15 – We will be dressing up nice and having a special Christmas banquet to celebrate Christmas together.  We hope to have many people from the community join us as well.  All of our tutoring families will be invited…and we are planning some special treats for everyone too!

 

ü Family

Fabiola feels a lot better.  We are excited to have found out that we will be having a baby boy!!!

Please continue to pray for the baby’s (and Fabiola’s) health…some tests have come back indicating that there may be some health concerns with the baby.   

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

With a heart of gratitude we wish you a special Thanksgiving and again say thanks for your love!

 

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

We are thankful for...

Every Thanksgiving we have a tradition at our church to gather for a potluck meal and share testimonies and words of thanks to God and one another.  It is a beautiful time of fellowship and a powerful moment to count our blessings. What God has done and is doing is truly awe inspiring – from the smallest to largest detail. 

In that spirit, this month we wanted to list out some of the things we are thankful for:

-A unified family that loves one another and is committed to serve and minister together.

-A church we got to start that is growing in its understanding and application of what it means to give their lives fully over to Jesus.

-The hundreds of people (like you) that are praying and supporting us financially and cheering us on from the sidelines all over the world. 

-Eight salvations and six baptisms this year so far.

-Our house that gives us space to be a family and recharge our battery to be able to minister more effectively.

-Our health and safety, especially because where we minister there are so many health and safety concerns.

-New life! One of our personal biggest thanks to God is for our third child (yes, Fabiola is pregnant!), whom we expect to join us in March.  J

-Great volunteers that come and help us throughout the year. Some help regularly with things like our tutoring ministry and others come and visit and lend a helping hand just once.  We are grateful for every single person that has linked arms with us to expand God’s Kingdom here in Los Angeles. 

-Our days of prayer and fasting that we hold at the church semi-regularly that press us in closer to God.

-A healthy transition as the other missionaries who were helping us earlier moved on to help in other ministries.

-Nancy and Erika whom we have empowered as leaders from within our church to take greater responsibility in working with the youth and serve in other areas of the church.

-Angel, who was saved and baptized last year and now is going through our leadership program and growing as a worship leader.

-For being located in a strategic location at the center of our community in front of a large park where we are able to interact with, serve and share Jesus with so many people with deep needs. 

-Violent crime is down in the neighborhood where we are ministering.

-Favor with key community, business and government leaders.

-Our financial support base which has been growing up to where it needs to be for us to be fully provided for as missionaries.  We have almost doubled since the start of the year when we were only at 45% (currently we are at 88%).  Please pray for us to reach that 100% goal before the end of the year.

 

We are excited about our church hosting a large community outreach the Sunday before Thanksgiving where we will be inviting the community to hear about Jesus and eat lots of food in celebration of all that God is and all that He has done for us. 

Thank you for your love and partnership in empowering people to be all that they can be in Christ!

Chad & Fabiola Wolyn