“Before I came to church,” shared
Judy, “everything was dark and gray.
Life was without any real direction or purpose. But now it is like I can see everything in full
color.” We have had an exciting month as
we join this wave of what God is doing in South Central Los Angeles. Drab to multi-color. Death to life. This is the story of Easter….something only
Jesus can accomplish. As missionaries
here in the city we are dreaming in color – though at times what we see in the
natural is bleak and shades of gray. We
are leading others to do the same – see, experience and live their life for
what God meant it to be – full of Him.
We are celebrating the amazing things God has done and looking with
anticipation towards the completion of other things He has said He will do.
Updates…
Easter Outreach
Our church did its
first ever – completely on their own – outreach to our community at South
Park. In many ways it was one of the
best outreaches we have ever done.
Everyone did a great job, sacrificing time, energy and money to make it
happen. We had around 200 people come through and participate in the various
activities.
Prior to the event we
had a training on how to share our faith with others. This was well used as each person at their
station was able to share their faith with people throughout the day.
We had others from
our church go around and talk to the people observing and share the Good News
with them as well.
Food is always a hit! We have a lot of people in our church with the ‘spiritual gift’ of food preparation – so what better way to draw people to our event, bless them, give them a reason to stick around and learn more about what Easter is really all about.
We had several craft
stations (all created and implemented by our emerging leaders) each with a
Gospel story connected to it. So as the
children and their parents came around our emerging leaders were able to tell
and re-tell the Bible story of how God loves us so much and that He wants a
relationship with each one of us!
There were also games, a bounce house, music and much more! Everyone was involved. Not only that, but it was the least amount of work we have ever had to do personally as everyone really took ownership and did their part well.
Easter Sunday
For Easter Sunday we
had a full house and best of all we had 5 people commit their lives to
Jesus. On Good Friday we had a powerful
night of fasting & prayer and praise….but on Sunday it was time to
feast. During the meal it was amazing
watching in every corner, at every table there was ministry taking place. People were crying, laughing, hugging…and
most of the conversations were not with people that they had invited
personally.
Fabiola’s Birthday
Planned Absences
We had a planned absence during
our mid-week service (something we hope to do more often to enable more growth
without dependence on us) and were very encouraged to have our indigenous team
of 3 take care of all the different classes – adults, youth and children…with a
larger than normal turn out.
Mother’s Day
We just
finished our teaching series on the family, which ended with Fabiola preaching
on Mother’s Day. The response from
people is always so strong when we cover these topics, but the enemy really
attacks our family every time we do a series or conference like this. Justice and Rebecca are now well, but got
really sick (emergency room sick for Justice) during the weeks of this
series.
Family News
Beniah keeps
us on our toes…he is growing up so fast – every day there is something new he
is aware of or doing. He is now 8 weeks
old.
Web Page Help
Do you know how to design or
create web-pages? Would like to donate
your expertise to our church plant? We would like to get our web-site fixed up
and running so that it can be another tool to connect us with more people.
Please
Pray with Us…
· Bible Series
– Our community is severely
Bible-illiterate and so for the rest of the year we will be doing an overview
study of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation to help motivate people to
read the Word, understand the Word and most importantly live the Word.
Pray with us that this would be a powerful time to
connect with people; connect people to God and see His might and power revealed
in this community on a daily basis.
· Tutoring
Graduation – June 1st
We’ve been working with
about 30 students and it is time to celebrate their progress.
Please pray for our Awards Dinner, which serves as an
outreach to the families that we are ministering to through this ministry.
· Summer
Events – Please cover the following
June/July events in your prayers:
o
Worship and Music classes
o
Sport’s Camp
o
WOW Jam
o
Summer Camps
o
Family outings
o
And much, much
more….
Not all our dreams will become a reality, but God has given us some
wonderful dreams – and since He is the Author and Finisher we know they will
blossom into full-color realities. It is
wonderful to be able to share these dreams, these hopes, these deep purposes
and directions with people. Thank you
for dreaming with us as God continues to minister life change in people all
around us.
Thank you for your prayers and
support. Really!
Chad, Fabiola,
Rebecca, Justice and Beniah
