Summer 2022

Summary: God has been blessing the ministry with many new people trained and sent out as church planters and workers amongst the broken throughout Los Angeles and the world. We also have a big financial need for our kid’s schooling so please see how you can help at the end of this letter. THANKS!

 

Highlights…

 

Church Plant Schools

So far this year we have already run two Evangel Church Plant Schools with 16 people representing at least 8 cities in at least 5 countries. We say at least because several teams are already thinking and praying about the church plant that will come out of their church plant (babies and grandbabies). 

Formerly incarcerated, now planting churches for God and standing up to the cartel to defend his community. 

Some of the individuals we were able to train and send out as church planters in Mexico (from Veracruz, Sinaloa, and Baja California).

Also spent some time in jail and grew up in Southern California, but after being deported is now making a difference in Mexico as a strong role model and church planter. 

A church plant team at our Evangel School in Mexico begins to strategically map out their plan to reach a new community for Christ. 

One of the teams plans on starting a new church in the jungles of Costa Rica where they need to reach the communities by horseback or 4-wheel drive.

9 New Deans in Mexico & Central America

Dean Training is training key leaders how to run their own Church Plant School. We know that we can’t possibly train everyone ourselves, so we partner with pastors and leaders with the vision to plant many churches and train them to be trainers of our Evangel Church Plant School.

Between a trip to Mexico in March and an online training with pastors from Central America we have trained 9 pastors as deans so far this year. The earliest school that will be run through these leaders is in August in El Salvador.

One of the deans we trained up a couple years ago, Javier, has already hosted several schools. This year he finished one in Columbia and has just started another in Florida. Javier planted a church in Florida and just handed that church off successfully so that he could move to Ohio to start another church. While he is building relationships in Ohio, he is still reaching back to train others in Florida how to plant so that there can be even more churches in his old state. 

Our three church plant teams from Central America on our Zoom training.

Trauma Ministry Expanding

So far this year we have trained 65 people from 10 countries as facilitators or trainers in Trauma Healing ministry. That is up from 38 people from 6 countries all of 2021, and 17 people from 2 countries in 2020 and we are only halfway through the year with people in cue waiting for advanced trainings in Spanish.

I want to share a bit of a correspondence with one of our African brothers:

My warm greetings to you Sir, 

I was so proud of receiving the certificate. Today I introduced it to my collegue pastor then he suggested to form the trauma healing ministry which might be very helpful to our parish and community because the people who are suffering from trauma are a lot due to civil war which has been occured in our country. He has even chosen the psychologist who will be my assistant so I would like to request your prayer so that God can make it fruitful. 

I will be giving the report when we start.

Thank you for everything.

Then a little later this same brother in Christ wrote of his first Healing Group, "I would like to let you know that I have started the first session on trauma healing. It was wonderful, God has been with us."

Here is a picture from another healing group that was formed as a result of our training in a different part of Africa:

Testimony Gathering of the Previously Incarcerated

“Were you on the inside?”, asked the gentleman standing in front of me as we waited for our burgers at the In-N-Out truck serving our lunch. “No," I responde, "but I love to go into the prisons and jails and share Jesus!" The gentleman gave me a strong slap on the back and said, “Thank you, I was in for over 20-years, but now I’m out and getting my bearings and want to shine for Jesus…it’s amazing being here with so many guys and gals that have been locked up like me and who love Jesus like me!”

What a powerful time to hear story after story of deliverance and re-established purpose for people that once were locked up (many with life sentences) who now run ministries, write books, teach classes, pastor churches and live healthy, productive lives.

Through our TUMI seminary classes (The Urban Ministry Institute) which we offer inside (and outside) prisons and jails we have built a great network and family of people throughout the state of California and beyond. It is an honor to be a small part of some of these relationships and to be able to look for ways to provide the encouragement, resources and support they may need to make an even bigger impact.

You can watch a little more about this ministry partner and event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBU8_Bq-KQ

 

Fuente Church & Community

Yard Sales continue to be an effective and practical way to help fund the church ministry to the community, bless the community with good, affordable items and build community contacts. Fequently people come and share their life stories and pains and walk away with prayer, a Bible, and an invitation to be a part of what God is doing in and through Fuente.

Our Good Friday, Easter and Mother’s Day outreaches were a bit smaller than in years past because our volunteer base shrunk some during COVID, but we still had good turn outs of new people to hear the Gospel and receive prayer.

This summer we will be watching Season 1 of the series, “The Chosen”, (in Spanish) and walking through life application in small groups. Our hope is we will all walk away more in love with Jesus and more aware of who we are in Christ as the chosen, activating our faith in greater ways. This series will allow us to reactivate our lay leaders for in-person ministry times after being limited to Zoom meetings for the last season.

Home Front

We praise God that we have not had any recent problem with fires, theft, stalkers, or vandalism for many months now.

We are still in ‘limbo’ living in a partially packed home (for 1.5 years now) awaiting everything at the house we are moving to (several blocks away) to be finished being repaired and readied for our move. We hoped to be moved in by the end of summer, but at this time it is looking less likely…so maybe mid-fall???

Prayer Needs

1.     Provision for children’s schooling. ($12,800 needed)

2.     Grace, provision, God’s timing on move to missionary housing. (We would love to be moved in by start of school, but also want house to be ready and not a construction zone.)

3.     Covering for all the amazing people we have been able to get to know, train, encourage and send out.

 

Thank you for cheering us on and partnering with us.

May Christ be known in the darkest, hardest of places from the city streets to the jail to the many other countries God is putting before us!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Angela, Justice and Beniah 

 

More Church Planters Trained

We just finished another fruitful and powerful training school for strategic leaders across Central America. Their 3-year vision is to plant 144 new churches as they equip the next generation of leaders in the church and to win their cities, neighborhoods, and regions for Christ.

First, we trained 4 leaders to become deans of their own church plantings schools, equipping them with the resources, theology, missiology, support, and strategies. The four will focus primarily on the nations of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.

Next, we immediately partnered with these four leaders (instead of just doing everything ourselves) to help them train their first 12 church planters at their church planting schools. Their vision is to host their church planting schools twice a year so that they can constantly be raising up leaders and sending out church plant teams all over Central America. These four leaders are working together to support one another, which we believe is a key component of long-term success.

In our last prayer letter, we mentioned the group of over 20 French-speaking men and women that are faculty, students, and alumni of a university in Cameroon (Africa), Institut Universitaire de Développement International. The amount of trauma, war, violence, death, betrayal, and other cultural dynamics mostly unseen in the US that were shared over the course of our 3-month training was eye opening. The hope is to continue and expand the training on-site within a year because each leader has many others that he or she knows that want and need the same training. As we train the trainer, we create a platform for these strong leaders to take these trainings even further than we could ever do on our own.

Here is a picture of some of those that were trained and equipped: 

Words are not enough, but Thank You! for your prayers (that really make a difference) and every dollar you sow into this ministry as we partner to see more people equipped and empowered to win their communities – communities of poverty full of desperate need – for our gracious and loving God.