Giving to Others

Happy New Year!

 

Isn’t it amazing how we are able to give to others what we, apart from God, have no ability to impart?  We get to bust out of our comfort zones and share this truly free gift of God’s love with others.  Salvation comes from God.  Salvation comes through living, speaking and sharing the Truth with others.  What a cool mission we’ve been given! New Year’s Outreach ·  We started the year off with a park outreach. ·  We had a drama presenting the gospel.  We talked about forgiveness. ·  We preached the gospel.  ·  But more than that we shared the gospel individually with people and showed them we cared by praying for their needs and giving them a great time with their family and neighbors.  ·  In our planning meeting leading up to this event we continued to equip and prepare our church to be the one that would share the gospel – so it was fun to be able to present it from up front, but also hear the Good News proclaimed before and after the upfront stuff by our own church members.  ·  We had games, bounce houses, food, prizes, face painting, crafts, nail polish galore…and lots of smiles! ·  We also gave away over 100 thermal mugs with our church information written on it…as a gift and reminder of how they can stay connected with us and God.

Work/Building Projects

This month we removed the carpet from our youth room (which is also our reception area for the tutoring program).  This allows us the option to expand our Sunday church meeting further back - adding more chairs.  

You can see the before picture (above), stripping nails and sanding phase (below), 

 ...staining (above), and then the glossy sealant (below).  

 
 We also put up new white boards in our classrooms (below) and did a little work outside (above) making a pathway and barrier to solve some of the problems the rain had caused. 

Please Pray with Us…

SMALL GROUPS.  We are training our church right now how to do small groups so that they can grow in their faith through this process and so that we can expand and reach more people for Christ in the community.  Please be in prayer over the next couple months as we focus on training, equipping and releasing groups into the community.

PRAYER  MINISTRY.  Prayer is what moves the mountains and opens the doors.  We know that ministry cannot function without prayer.  The couple that we raised-up and released in our prayer ministry at church is moving to San Diego this week.  They have grown so much and are excited to start some new ministries down in their new city, but obviously this is a big loss for our Los Angeles church family.  Pray with us that our church would step-up and continue to grow in and press into prayer. 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

·         Finance Conference – January 17

·         Winter Youth Camp – January 17-19

·         Tutoring/ESL  (Start of Winter Quarter) – January 18

·         Filming for World Impact (Fuente church plant focus) – January 22

·         Men’s Night (Bible & Billiards) – January 23

·         Church Ministry Planning Meeting – January 25

·         Pastor Felipe & Judy (special guest preacher) – February 1

·         Membership Class – February 7

We thank you for being a part of this mission.  A mission to hand over what God has given us to others – especially the gospel message of Christ’s redeeming love.  May your 2015 be full of God, full of love and full of giving to others!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

Beniah, 9 months, enjoying a swing at the park.

I know that I need Him!

Happy New Year! We are excited for a new year and the fresh start that it symbolizes for so many lives as God continues to lead our family into building a mighty army and loving spiritual family that will help expand His Kingdom throughout the greater Los Angeles area and beyond.

As I walked into the living room where we were gathering for prayer I saw a lady sitting on the sofa that I had never met.  I introduced myself and found out that she was a neighbor of the family that was hosting.  She let me in how the host family had shared about our church and other ministries and let her know about God.  Then she just blurted out, “I want to find God…..I know that I need Him.”  She then shared story after story about her family and how they are wading through brokenness without any hope of escape.  We prayed.  Many of us.  Together.  And God is answering!  God says His mercies are new every morning.  So much starts with prayer.  God does the work, but wants to use you and me.  Isn’t that exciting?  We love seeing our church – people for the most part we have led to the Lord – minister to their neighbors, coworkers and classmates….sharing this new life. 

Just the other night we put on a special evening outreach service and one of our spiritual ‘grandchildren’ returned home. Tanya and her family were invited to our church about two years ago by another family in our church and she got really involved…but then things got tough at home.  Her brother went to jail, her sister got pregnant, and finally her mom decided to move them out of the neighborhood.  After being baptized, Tanya knows she wants to follow God, get involved again and really be a part of the spiritual family that our church has been for her.  We believe that this year will be a year for starting fresh and growing in Christ. 

We are also excited to share we now have double the meeting space. We have been meeting in our old home since we started the church. As the church grew, we got ‘pushed’ out and now even the first floor space we have been using has gotten to be too tight.  Thankfully we are now able to expand our classrooms, teen space, tutoring and English classes along with a prayer room – all upstairs.  This has given us more room to have our church service and have meals and outreaches downstairs.  It has also given the men in our church and community a reason to come together to work on various fix-up projects. 

As a church we are starting this year in prayer and fasting.  We know that God has great things in store.  We look back over 2014 in awe – what a mighty God we serve.  How is it that He has done so much!  We thank you for your prayers on behalf of our family as well as for each one in the spiritual family we minister to throughout the year.  Lastly, please keep our youth in prayer this month as they have their winter camp in a couple weeks where we expect God to do great things in their hearts and lives. 

To the new life we see daily in our own walk with God and in the lives of those we pursue for Christ,

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah