Concentric Circles

Updates
Lately as we faithfully focus on feeding the “one” – the “one” being each person as the important and unique individual that they are, made special and loved immensely by God – we have seen the concentric circles forming, radiating out from this one’s sphere of influence, drawing others to come and eat as well.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Mat. 4:4)

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Continually Increased Ownership
We’ve had some amazing study times with Blanca, Dora, Nacha, Primo and Bere lately. We asked them to read through the gospel of Mark during the week. With us mostly looking on they spent over an hour just sharing with one another all the exciting things they read, re-reading entire sections, so that everyone could hear how amazing it all really is. Fabiola was with the five children and I just helped answer any questions that came up and sat in awe of the hunger and excitement of the whole study.

As we’re away in Mexico (see below) they have been given charge of the group – which is our ultimate goal anyway. We have modeled how to lead a Bible study and now two of them will take turns hosting and leading. Our teammate Norma will be there if they need some guidance, but they are really excited about the opportunity to grow more as they lead one another in studying God’s word.

The Circle Continues to Expand
The women that meet with Fabiola every Tuesday have been calling a lot to invite us over to meet more of their family and friends or get advice about something. We’ve been able to take two youth to World Impact’s teen youth program so far and sense more are interested. Also, about a week ago we went to meet Marisol’s brother-in-law who has a lot of struggles, severe depression being one of them. As we were sharing the Good News with him, Marisol realized she needed to get right with God. Fabiola and Marisol prayed right there – a prayer of repentance and gratitude for salvation in front of this family member. This week at the women’s meeting she said to the group, “I don’t care what my family says to me about my beliefs because they aren’t the ones that are going to save me or give me peace. God has done that for me.” Please pray for Marisol that she might continue to walk and mature in that peace. Pray with us also for her large family, that they all might come to know Jesus and Lord and Savior.

Jesús and Emily

Above: Emily

After meeting Jesús and his adorable daughter Emily playing soccer together at the park, we struck up a new friendship and were invited to Emily’s 4th birthday party. Although we tried to do the culturally correct thing and show up late we were only 45 minutes late and ended up being the first ones to show up. (Side note: 1 hour late is very normal; it didn’t really get going until we left about 3 ½ hours later!) Being the only ones there however provided us a wonderful opportunity to get to know Jesús, his wife, Betty and her mom, Maria, better. Since then we have had Emily over to play with Rebecca and this week we went over to their house for a delicious “caldo de camarón” (shrimp soup) and a chance to get to go deeper in our relationship. They seem very curious about God and church and asked some good questions. Please pray with us for Jesús, Betty, Maria and Emily that God would really move on their heart’s and prepare them to come to Him.

Above: Rebecca get’s her face painted by a clown at Emily’s birthday party as Jesús looks on.

Answered Prayer
We now have set up a rotation of teachers for our Children’s classes that take place while we are meeting with the families on our Wednesday night cell group service. We have two ladies that are teaching at the World Impact school and a couple others stepping in from outside churches that we’ve been building relationships with. Thank you for praying with us about this need.

Upcoming Events/Prayer Request

Mexico
We will be in Mexico from March 15–29. We will be part of a Pastor’s Conference at Fabiola’s home church in Puebla, Mexico and visiting several other cites and churches to raise awareness of our mission’s work and ask for prayer as we continually look for more ways and potential future links to expand the Kingdom of God by reaching all nations. Our last trip to Mexico helped us really ramp up our prayer support and break through some spiritual barriers and we are believing for more of that this time as well. During these two weeks Fabiola and the kids will also have a good time between all of this activity to spend time with her mom, dad, sisters and the extended family. This family time may be the most important part of the trip as it is critical re-charging time for Fabiola who gives so much of herself to the church planting efforts relationally, emotionally and spiritually.

Holy Week & Easter
Did you know that a survey that was conducted in 2005 showed that only 48% of people surveyed knew that Easter was connected with the resurrection of Christ! (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 3/25/05)

We will be putting on a Kid’s Club (Vacation Bible School style) during Spring Break— Monday thru Friday (3/29 – 4/2) at our park, South Park. We have three different high school groups helping us make this happen. We anticipate over 100 kids and hope that we can connect with families throughout this week. On Wednesday we will have a large BBQ for the children and their families which will be followed by our evening Bible Study time for those who are interested.

Easter Sunday we will gather all of the people we have been meeting with weekly in various homes together for the first time, have a great service celebrating the resurrection and of course lots of great food and fun activities for the whole family. Please pray for all of the details to come together and not get in the way of the joyous purpose of us getting together in the first place.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.

He is risen indeed!
The Wolyn Family
Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

The Vision of Fuente para las Naciones

Last month we introduced our team to you, this month we’d like to tell you more about the church we are planting. Our name, Fuente para las Naciones, or in English “Fountain for the Nations” brings with it some symbolism that helps explain our vision. Water - Starting with the essential, purpose and presence (for without the water the fountain would be just a heap of material that ‘looks good’) the water is God’s presence flowing through us.

Fountain - We, the church, are the fountain, the receptacles, jars of clay that have been given the honor and opportunity to be filled by God. Fuente can also be translated as “Source” and so in that sense God is the Fuente. We are not anything worth giving to the nations, but it is Christ in us that we give and that releases power to heal and save lives.

Nations - The nations are every people, tribe, language and nation—every ethnic group on the earth. This is our mission field, our hope is to see the Earth (people) filled, refreshed and freed by the Living Water of Jesus. We are a congregation that is filled with God and pours out so that all might experience the goodness and richness of God’s glory and power.

Like the bridegroom in Song of Solomon 6:2-3 we are able to come into the garden with the whole flock and still delight in the Lord and pick the lilies—not being distracted by the flock (the ministry, the many needs), but allowing the flock to eat of the richest grass around straight from where the Source of water and nourishment is located. We minister out of intimacy with God.

Fuente para las Naciones is a Christian community of believers united in our love for God by God’s love for us that is fulfilling God’s call to a hopeless, hurting world. Out of the riches we experience in God’s presence we will bring the ministry of reconciliation, a true fountain of hope, truth, love and justice, to the world–restoring God’s original purpose of His Kingdom’s reign and rule.

Our church, both locally and globally will be part of God’s arm in extending mercy, justice, truth and love to people near and far. The mission of Fuente para las Naciones is to gather together in the inner room and meet God and then leave proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ extending the Kingdom of God through the training of people, families and leaders first in our city and then to the ends of the earth.

Our Purpose is to worship and honor God and delight in Him, help one another grow sharing our gifts and talents in love, and minister to the world in word and deed to make Jesus known. We want to see the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole person throughout the whole world. We don’t want to be a church with a missions program, but a global church with a missions purpose.

As Anatole Frace said, “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” So far we have three established cell groups (25+ people). Please pray that we can add many more and gather everyone together in a corporate celebration service. We are believing for 120 people in the first year and want to raise up 12 strong leaders in three years.

Blessed that you are praying with us for great things!

Chad & Fabiola Wolyn

Growth Praying

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." (Samuel Zwemer) Thank you for joining us on this mission and praying with us as we continue to empower the urban poor, raise up leaders and plant churches. We know that we are nothing without God and His people surrounding us and lifting us up in prayer.

We have been blessed with some great growth this first official month of church planting. Last week we had 6 new adults and 6 new children come out. We are meeting new people through our outreach and evangelistic efforts (mostly on Wednesday and Sunday). It was exciting; however, that 3 of the adults that came out were not invited by us but by somebody who just started coming herself. Our weekly totals are right around 30, putting us (within a month) at 25% of our year-long goal. (We believe God has called us to have 120 people under our care in the first year.)

Growing is great! It does have its challenges though. We have to continue to balance the time and energy we pour into the different areas of ministry. We desire to always be about going and reaching out to bring more desperately hungry, needy and lost into our growing family. We also want to be about building a strong foundation with each person by providing quality fellowship and study times as well as a focus on individuals in leadership training and discipleship. Clearly not everything has to happen at once, but we are seeing certain needs arise. We ask that to avoid “growth pain” you do some “growth praying” with us. We know God wants to use us and our church to do some unexpected and different things. We know that He cares way more than we do for the children and their needs, the many lost shouting silently for freedom through their desperate attempts to encounter meaning in this life. He is the one that showed us His desire for a community of people in this neighborhood that love one another and study and apply the Bible as they grow in relationship with their Savior and Lord.

We also have specific times throughout the week where we meet one-on-one with people.
Please pray for our time with Blanca, Bere, Primo, Italia, Juan Carlos and others.

Other important times: Tuesday night – we invite a family/couple/individual from the community over for dinner to get to know them. /Thursdays: 2:30-4:00 Team meeting / Mondays: Much needed day off!

Praise Reports

Blanca has been growing strong in her relationship with Jesus since she committed her life to Him December 9th) she gave her life to Jesus. She is reading big portions of the Bible and memorizing verses and challenging the group to do the same as she brings observations and questions to the meetings. Recently she was inspired by the words of 1 Peter 3:1, speaking of winning an unbelieving husband without words, but with behavior. We’ve been praying with her for her husband, Alejandro, who does not believe in God at all. He has already noticed her change and begun asking many questions about what she is learning and why she is doing what she is doing. She has also taken an interest in learning to play the guitar and so we are teaching her what we know. Please pray for her family (she is one of Primo’s sisters). Blanca and Alejandro (pictured above) have two children, Jennifer and Anthony.

Tina and Adelso –You may remember we first made contact with them one day before Rebecca’s birthday party (in November) and invited them out. They came and since we’ve been able to get to know them a lot better. They are now regularly attending our Wednesday night meeting. Adelso, whose mother back in Guatemala is a Christian, is really interested in growing in God and exposing his family to the Church. Tina has surprised him by being all changed and ready to go with their two children when he arrives from work. Tina, not having any previous exposure to studying the Word of God, has taken a Bible home and been reading portions in between each meeting.

“When I return to my land people there aren’t going to recognize me, they’ll see that I’m a better person, they’ll see something different.” - Primo (pictured above with Bere)

When asked if she had a good time at the Winter Youth Retreat Italia responded, “Yeah, but I didn’t come here for fun—I came here to get closer to God.” And did she ever! She responded for the first time ever to the Gospel call. We’ve been meeting with her for the last 6 months, studying the Bible, having her shadow us in many different ministry activities and finally she responded by giving her whole life to Jesus for eternity!! J She now attends our youth group, along with her older brother Juan Carlos, on Fridays. Tiffany, our youth worker, is continuing to follow-up with her on her decision by working one-on-one through various issues a couple times a week.
Italia and her family L to R: Maria, Ramon Jr., Maricela (mother), Joel, Juan Carlos, Olivia, Italia, Marta


Prayer Requests:

Children’s Ministry Solution — With as many as 7 children (ranging from 8 months to 10 years old) showing up at a given meeting we need help organizing activities/lessons and somebody that can be in charge of these children so their parents can focus on the study and discussion. [We have a vision of training up the parent’s to take turns providing this Biblical education to their kids, but at this time we’re still building a Biblical foundation and getting to know them so we need a solution meanwhile.]

Easter Week Outreach & Celebration Service — With the school’s on Spring Break the week before Easter we are working on a plan to provide a VBS type activity for children and their families building up to a large corporate celebration service and BBQ/potluck afterwards. Please pray for the details and finances for these events.

Rebecca’s (and her parent’s too!) transition into Pre-School — Rebecca will begin to attend preschool in the afternoons starting Monday. She is soooo excited and we are too, but we might cry!


Thank you for doing what you do so that we can do what we do…we each play a part.
Chad & Fabiola

Shalom to the Strangers Amongst Us

Here is a link to a message I gave at Living Way Community Church of Los Angeles.

It is the third from the bottom. You can listen there or download it for later.

God Bless! ~ Chad

Our Team

A few weeks ago we chartered our new church plant, Fuente para las Naciones (Fountain to the Nations). We had a productive and inspiring strategic-planning time for our church plant with our newly formed team. We would like to introduce you to two of our team members (also World Impact missionaries) and ask for your prayers for each one of us especially that God would knit us together in loving unity for His glory. It is exciting seeing how God has brought us together for this task--we all complement one another well with our different gifts, talents, interests, and personalities. Pictured L to R, The Fuente para las Naciones church plant team: Norma, Rebecca, Chad, Fabiola, Justice and Tiffany.

Norma was born in Mexico and came to the United States when she was nine years old; she is one of eight children. Norma and her whole family came to know Christ through World Impact Bible clubs. Norma has been working with World Impact for 20 years. She started her ministry at THE OAKS camp, where she worked with the youth teaching them basic work skills and cooking. She enjoyed teaching them about Christ.
Norma moved to Los Angeles six years ago and has been working as a church planter, first with a Spanish-speaking church and most recently with an English-speaking simple church (house church). Since her time in L.A., she has explored the different gifts that God has given her. She enjoys meeting people in the community when she goes out and evangelizes throughout the week. She has also been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and an aerobics class to ladies in the community. Norma enjoys discipling ladies and will be helping with the pastoral care and training of the women.

We met Tiffany in Wichita, Kansas, at a church-planting training two years ago. It was at that time we realized how well our gifts meshed but did not know what God might have in store. Tiffany, originally from Chicago, has been in Los Angeles for less than a year, but she is already discipling youth (junior high, high school, and college age) and training them to be future leaders in the city. She will help our team by focusing on some of our key youth with whom we have established relationships. Using her gifts, abilities, and passion to disciple and train up youth, she will pour into them biblical foundations, vision, and sincere relationship. She will also train others to minister to the youth and children leaving the ministry in good hands in the future.

Please join us this month by praying for:
• A male team member (Spanish speaking, faithful, available, teachable, shares the same values).

• Norma to be able to move into the neighborhood so she can be more fruitful with relationships and time (living incarnationally rather than commuting 15 minutes).

• Powerful, fruitful ministry and positive team dynamics as we work together for God’s glory.

For God’s team,
Chad and Fabiola Wolyn

What Does Love Look & Feel Like?

When you are hurting you don’t want anybody to touch you.

When you have been ignored for so long you may not know why somebody would want to genuinely know how you are doing.

Our desire is to get out into the community and serve, bless, and love our neighbors and let them know the Good News of Christ Jesus.

New Year’s Eve day we were able to put on a Carnival Family Fun Day at the park with the above desire as our goal. We estimate there were about 120 people that were able to experience the blessing and love in some tangible way. We had a lot of fun activities and games with prizes. The little girls loved the jewelry making and nail painting and one boy could barely walk after jumping in the bounce house all afternoon.

“It is so wonderful that you are doing something like this for the community. Though I know nothing about Christianity I would be very interested in learning more about your church and what you are doing.” -Nancy (Mother of 2)

It isn’t too common to have a safe, family friendly event that doesn’t cost anything in our community. We had a drama gospel presentation on the stage with a short explanation and invitation in English and Spanish. We were impressed by the responses we heard from different people about the drama. One man said, “That was a really powerful message. I’ve never thought of things that way before.” People are open…we just need to keep reaching out, sharing, loving and inviting. Please pray that we would be faithful and see much fruit in our outreach and evangelistic efforts. We need to continue to pray that people won’t just nod their heads, hear the Word and move on with their lives, but that there will be deep and lasting change – we are believing for 120 of those commitments this year.

Throughout the day we got to mingle and meet a lot of wonderful people and share more about God’s plan for their life and invite people out to our groups. We had an information and prayer table where people got the Gospel of John, other information about being a Christ follower and our ministry. We served over 200 hot dogs along with lots of cookies, punch and other goodies. Sometimes it’s hard to break into a hardened heart or a hurting community, but we feel God has allowed us to break in through genuine caring relationships that we’ve built with people day to day. Now with events like this we’ve found another way to ‘touch’ those that most need the touch, yet still hurt too much to receive it.

The following day, New Year’s Day, we partnered with Total Restoration Ministries, a Christian live-in drug & alcohol rehabilitation ministry, to put on another event. While the day before we had focused on the families this event was primarily for the homeless, addicts, prostitutes and gang members in and around South Park. We handed out hygiene packets, lots of hot food, clothes and powerful testimonies of what God has done to set others free. There were ex-prostitutes and ex-gang members that came to share and testify of what Jesus has done for them rescuing them for this very park and how He is worthy of receiving all our life. Chad translated the whole event in Spanish and was able to get to know some new people as well as build deeper relationships with others. It is a beautiful thing working together in unity for Christ—that’s what love looks like. We’ve had a burden for women in prostitution for a long time, but haven’t found a good opportunity or way to minister to them. Yet some of the ladies from Total Restoration were able to reach out to two very broken prostitutes that were weeping on a park bench in response to hearing the mercy, love and acceptance of their Father, maybe for the first time. One of these precious ladies heard the message in Spanish through the interpretation and the other in English. They’ve now experienced the beginning of what love feels like. They are finally getting to the point where they are sick and tired of being sick and tired…a beautiful place where God can really bring them close to Him and love on them. Prayer Requests:

·Winter Retreat – This weekend (January 15-17) two of our youth, Italia and Juan Carlos, will be going to a World Impact youth retreat with our church’s new youth worker, Tiffany.

·Evangelism AND Discipleship – Please pray that we would be able to continue to meet new people and balance making these new relationships with the need to pour into and help spiritually mature those that we’re already meeting with.

·Quality Family Time – Currently we are setting aside Mondays to rest and spend time as a family without attending to the business and urgent needs of the ministry. Pray that we’d be able to have quality times as a family and find refreshing in God and with one another….it’ll allow us to be more effective the rest of the week.

Thank you!

That many might know the love of our Father deeply and richly,
Chad & Fabiola

What A Year This Will Be!

“We become the voice of the voiceless, pleading their cause all the way to the throne of heaven. We demand to be heard. We insist that changes be made. Like Abraham we bargain with God over the fate of the city. Like Moses we argue with God over the fate of the people. Like Esther we plead with God over the fate of the nation.” –Richard Foster

While we fix our eyes on the individuals—men like Primo, Francisco and Miguel, women like Bere, Zaira and Soila, youth like Italia, Juan Carlos and Yesenia we pray and teach and serve them believing they will walk out their godly calling leading many others in turn. We are pouring our lives out for these individuals, but continue to be stirred with compassion for the many more that await the Good News.

A while back we took a group to a UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl. While we enjoyed the conversation, camaraderie and closeness of being with the 15-20 people sitting with us the experience would not be the same without the other 92,535 people filling the Rose Bowl. While we are excited about the few that have made the stand to turn from sin and walk with Christ, we feel the urgency to press in and see more people won for our Lord. This battle is won in prayer. We walk it out in faithful obedience, but we need your help to see these people through to experience all they were made for and for God to get the glory in their stories. We rejoice in the new year! It is a time to look back with thanksgiving and a time to look ahead with hope. We must do the work of our Father. He has been so good to us. We are compelled by His love. We must see change—lives are depending on it. God has been so merciful and gracious allowing us to know so many wonderful people. Yet we see the real battle that they are in—fighting drug and alcohol addictions, struggling with overcoming past wounds that are currently causing relational problems, and the outright poverty compounded by so many other complications leaving families without time to be a family as they struggle to eke out their survival day by day.

Looking back over our first sixth months here in South Central Los Angeles we realize we are still newbies in many regards, yet our roots have been set into the soil of our community. God has led us and not let us stumble. We are constantly in awe at how God chooses to use us and allows us to be His hands and feet, his mouthpiece and listening ear to so many. More Lord, for you glory!

Thank you for praying. Here are some answered prayers from the last few months:

·We’ve been able to enter more homes. We have been praying for the sick and down trodden and studying the Bible with individuals or groups in some of the houses in our neighborhood (and enjoying some great food too).

·We have a small team formed and will be having a strategic planning meeting this month looking ahead at the next few years and moving ever closer to an official launch for our church. (Please pray for this time.)

·Lots of new friends, most who are sincerely interested in knowing God in a real way.

Please pray with us for the precious people God has given us care of (some are listed above) as we continue to follow-up and disciple them, but also join us in prayer for the many great things that we believe God has in store for our neighborhood and our church in this coming year.

Remaining in the vine (for apart from Him we can do nothing),
Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice Wolyn