The Beginning (What's in a Year?)

The Greek philosopher Plato once said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” As this year begins please pray that God will grow His church and continue to allow us to meet more people and teach them about who He is so that the amazing stories of transformed lives may not just continue but snowball.  This month we would also like to take the time to reflect back on some of the amazing beginnings that took place in 2010. 

January 11, 2010 – With a team assembled we sat down and made some plans allowing our hearts to dream with God for the transformation He wants in Los Angeles and beyond – we were challenged to write down goals that we knew we could never accomplish on our own. 

  Six months into the process we had made a lot of relationships and had Bible studies meeting in various homes.  As we continued to grow – more women and children came out, but the men for the most part stayed in the shadows.  We asked for prayer in this area because we knew we were just barely scratching the surface of the full potential of reaching our neighborhood for Christ.  In the last few months there has been a wave of men taking the initiative to get involved and help in the various aspects of church life.  I (Chad) have been able to meet with and mentor more men during the week – the beginning stages of raising-up some of the future male leaders of this church.  Please pray for: Primo, Abraham, José, Saul, Merced, Victor, Alexis, Tino, Christopher, Florintino, Adelso, Luz Ángel, Carlos, Alejandro and Roberto. 

 

In October, we launched our first once-a-month Sunday service with just over 40 people in attendance.  The following month we more than doubled in size and continued to see excitement grow.  The holiday season gave us reason to celebrate with our church and grow again in numbers and also in relationship with one another.  Nearly everybody that is now part of our church, Fuente para las Naciones, has recently come to know Jesus Christ or is in the process of making Him their Lord and Savior.  Many are leaving deep, dark pasts with lots of hurts, so these times of fellowship, worship and teaching in the Word in different contexts have helped us all grow closer to God and one another.   

We are now believing that the 120 people that God gave us as our goal for this January will be realized as we meet again for our Sunday celebration service this coming January 9. We have not yet been able to find a meeting place that we can afford.  So, we are meeting outside on our driveway and using our house for the children’s classes.  This is putting a lot of strain on our home, but we are glad to use what we have been given for His Kingdom.  This space, however, is not an ideal long term solution and does not have much more room for growth.  We would like to begin meeting weekly in February and ask that you join us in prayer for a location that will suit all the needs of our growing church. God is causing the growth and we trust He will provide, but know we must continue to ask in order to see a way made out of what right now seems like no possible way. 

 

Here’s to praying God’s will as we believe even more lives will be impacted and transformed by Jesus this year.  Thanks again for praying for us and with us!

Chad & Fabiola

Come Together

Merry Christmas!

God is with us! We certainly couldn’t be doing what we’re doing alone. His handiwork is so fun to discover as we work alongside Him to beautify the depths of the darkest areas of the city. We also have you reading our updates, encouraging us and praying for us – which helps a lot! And we have a great team here in Los Angeles that sacrificially serves to make Fuente para las Naciones what it is today. We all come together collectively to serve our Lord and King Jesus and help other’s know of the Good News!

Pictured below from left to right: Norma, Monica, Fabiola, Justice, Chad, Rebecca, Jessica and Tracy.

Tracy comes during our Wednesday night and Sunday morning services to help wherever needed. That usually ends up being in the nursery (to help Tammy, not pictured) or in Monica’s class.

Jessica (picture above, second from left) works with the youth both during church meetings and throughout the week – planning their discipleship times and fun activities. She has great ideas and a heart that is troubled for seeing these teens through these difficult years of peer pressure, violence and the solidification of their world view. One of the youth recently said, “When I started coming I thought God was fake, but now I don’t. I pray to God when [bad stuff happens in my house] and he answers.”

Norma (pictured above in the middle with two of the women) and Fabiola head up the women’s ministry focusing on Bible based answers, prayer and healing and quality time together as they maneuver through the difficulties of being mothers, wives and new believers (often with unbelieving husbands).

Monica (pictured above with part of her class) works with the elementary aged children. They presented “Joy to the World” in front of the church last Sunday with hand motions and great enthusiasm! What a blessing to have somebody like Monica love and teach the kids. Many families are being blessed by this ministry to their little ones!

Thanksgiving Dinner
Through the collaboration of a lot of different churches, individuals and organizations we were able to collect a lot of food and distribute food boxes to most of our families. The food was meant, in part, to bless them and allow them to have a great family Thanksgiving meal together. We also gave each family the primary ingredients of the dish they were to bring for our church’s Thanksgiving dinner….and what a feast we had!

We had 4 turkeys and a ham along with a lot of all the fixings….and NO LEFT OVERS. We had a great turn out even though the weather was really cold (we didn’t have enough space inside the house for everyone so we were out doors).

The children had fun crafts to make including special cards for their parents to share what they were thankful for.

After dinner we sang music of praise and worship to God giving different people an opportunity to sing on the microphone. We also shared what we were thankful about and then when we opened up the microphone we were surprised at how many people mentioned they were thankful for us and this church. Coming together is such a blessing!

We continued sharing our Thanksgiving on Sunday when we were able to serve some great food to the homeless that live in and around the park.

Christmas at the OAKS

Every year, at the start of December, World Impact hosts an amazing day at their campground outside of Los Angeles for families to get away and celebrate the Christmas season. There are hay rides, adventure sports, family pictures, crafts, games, great food and loads more of fun all around. Last year we took 11 people with us – this year, as you can see in the picture above, we were a larger group (67). Next year we would like to take 200 people up to camp with us. We do not just want to take people that we know or friends of people coming to church, but people that are actually part of the church – so as I told the congregation last week….though it’s God who brings the increase we have a job too and we’ve got a lot of work to do!

Jumping off the “Leap of Faith” was a highlight for many of the men.

So many smiles! Families loved working on a great variety of arts and crafts – many of which became presents they can give away.

Each family also was given a box of fruit and homemade cookies.

Let’s Pray

SPIRITUAL BATTLES RAGE
This last month has brought an onslaught of problems. Several of the ladies that have made the most radical confession of faith and resolve to follow Jesus have been pried away left discouraged and hurt by a lady spreading gossip and confusion. There are some serious relational problems (a lady just left her husband) and sicknesses (several going to the hospital) and an overall heaviness despite some amazing developments and areas of growth in other areas. The devil is definitely out to sow dissention, confusion, hurt and rob, kill and destroy. Pray with us to press on, have wisdom on how to address specific issues and protection over us and all these new believers.

SPACE FOR MEETING
With an average mid-weekly attendance around 50 we are continually battling space constraints in our house. Sunday mornings we have been meeting outside on our patio with a series of tarps overhead (see picture to below), but that isn’t a long term solution. Please continue to pray with us for the right space at the right price at the right time along with wisdom and direction in the process.

FUTURE LEADERS/TEACHERS
We started this letter by telling about some of the great work that the team here is doing – enabling us to focus on other things, but none of them will be here long-term. The interns Jessica and Monica as well as Tracy have only committed until the end of the school year. It is then very important to get something else in place. Ideally this would involve training and raising-up leaders, teachers, helpers from within our church, but given that the time frame is short we may have to also look for other help from outside.

UPCOMING EVENTS
·Church Christams Party – December 22
·New Year Outreach & Carnival – January 1
·Churchwide Day of Prayer & Fasting – January 7
·Community Outreach (Homeless & Rehab. focus) Jan. 8
·Sunday Service – January 9
·Youth Retreat – January 15-17

Thank you! Have a great Christmas.

Chad & Fabiola

The late night calls are the worst….a sobbing voice whimpering out a plea for help. We rushed out as fast as we could and met our friend out on the busy street – she was a complete mess. Her husband, a local gang member who left her and her four children to go live in a drug house where he can freely use and sell the mess, stopped by briefly to rob their last $100 that she had saved up from her part-time job for the coming rent. The week earlier his reason for a ‘visit’ was to take their car from her. When we entered their one-room converted garage the children were huddled around a TV at one corner watching cartoons pretending like everything in life was just perfect or at least wishing it were. We prayed and worked on calming her down and spent some time comforting the children. “Why!?!” she would scream out – worried about how she was going to put the next meal on the table and if they were going to get evicted, but also just cut raw to the core of her heart. It was so hard to watch her writher in emotional turmoil, but what was even harder to watch was how she called her 9 year-old son over to ask him to take care of her and comfort her. We pulled him aside later and helped him understand that he doesn’t have to carry that weight on his shoulders – that Jesus wants to walk them through this situation. What hope there is in Jesus who came to walk through the hardest of situations with us and bring healing, life and light!

The next day we checked in again and the mother said, “I’ve never felt this bad in my life, but I leave everything in the hands of the Lord…I trust in Him and leave this situation up to Him. I just ask that you pray for me and my husband and my children.” Will you please join us in prayer for this family?

We know that a trip out of the city with their church family will not change their situation, but it will help bring that sense of family they need, the calm and peace and fun that families need to have. We are so excited that on Saturday, December 4th we are going to get to take this family up to The OAKS for a great day filled with Christmas family fun. We are also thrilled to take with us a mother and her three children who weeks ago was reunited with her three boys after having them taken away for six months by social services. As you can imagine it has been very hard for this mother to be away from her children for so long – especially the youngest that was only a few months old when they were taken from her (to no fault of her own).

Please pray for this amazing day of crafts, Christmas activities, stories and food we will be able to share as church of people being restored in Christ. We have planned to take 85 people with us – it is so exciting to see that every time we take a trip like this we have more and more people with whom we are working that can benefit from these amazing activities and grow deeper in their love and knowledge of Christ practically and experientially. Please also pray for our monthly Sunday church service on December 12.

During this Christmas season if you would like to give a special gift to one of the men, women or children that we are pouring into here are some practical ways you can do that:

Craft and snack for Bible Clubs (for 1 week/30 children) for our weekly outreach $25
Discipleship packet (2 books and NT Bible) for spiritual growth $25
Groceries for Christmas dinner for families in need $50
A beginner’s guitar and classes (for six months) to train up worshippers $100

If you desire to give to any of these areas please send your gift to World Impact and mark it “ATR 8329 Fuente”

Thank you so much for your love and support.

Merry Christmas,
Chad & Fabiola Wolyn

We're Watching You!

We are safe, blessed and amazed at how God has responded to your prayers. Thank you for praying.

Our Sunday church service and BBQ was a huge success. We never saw Stranger or any of the Playboys. (Part of me has to admit I did really want him to come and sit down and eat a taco with me as we talked about him getting right with God, but maybe that time will come later.) Several people had recommended we call the police and gang unit and so we heeded that wisdom and the LAPD ended up sending some extra patrols during our event and even some plain clothes officers walking around. LAPD knows Stranger and said they would give him a visit. South Park is actually under 24/7 video surveillance. The night prior to the event I was able to talk to the officer on duty in the monitor room and as I walked out my front door she said, “Oh, is that you?” She went on to tell us how she always sees our kids in the park and knows when we do our outreach events on Sundays and our longer outreaches during the summer. She also knows that we minister to the homeless. She even knew what color car we have parked in our driveway. Guess we’re being watched. We’ve never met, but she knows us by watching our actions – our coming and going. Later, talking to the girlfriend of one of the Playboys we found out how much they have been watching us as well.

To take the ‘you’re being watched’ a little further as we walked up and down the streets surrounding our house and the park inviting people out to our Sunday service we were surprised to hear of how many people knew about us, the church and what we’re doing in the community already. It seems that while we didn’t know them, they have been watching and know us. We know that God is always watching, but sometimes we forget that everyone else in the community is also watching.

Sunday Service & Carne Asada
We had 80 people at our service (40 adults and 40 children). 20 of these people were invited first time guests. We did a lot of inviting, visiting and calling as a team, but all the new visitors that came were invited by people in the church. It is wonderful to see growth through these relationships – people taking ownership of their church. 15 more people from Fuente showed up late – so we ended up having 95 total – almost double what we had last month! We were able to invite other people that were at the park to join us and hear about what we’re all about and have their kid’s join us at the jumper and in other games. All in all we (with the generous help of a team of volunteers from Simi Valley Community Church) were able to serve over 150 people at our BBQ. Each family from our church brought out food in mass – it was a great day!

We are sorry there are no pictures in this update. We had some great ones ready to share, but our camera was stolen at the park on Sunday afternoon. Not only did we lose all the pictures from this great day Sunday, but a previous event and Rebecca’s birthday celebration shots. Bummer!

Other Updates
We had asked you to pray with us about using Main Street Elementary School as a meeting place, but found out it is way out of reach for our church at this time because the price to rent it for one Sunday service is $727.08. Some men in our church and I worked all day Saturday to put up a large tent structure in our driveway – so we had a ‘building’ for our service and will continue until doing this until we can find a better option.
Let’s Pray for these Upcoming Events
·Thanksgiving Dinner (with Fuente church family and guests)
Tuesday, November 23 ·Thanksgiving Dinner 2 (at the park for children’s ministry outreach & homeless)
Sunday, November 28

·Christmas at The Oaks (all day family excursion to the camp – taking 85 of us)
Saturday, December 4

·Our 3rd Sunday Morning Church Service
Sunday, December 12


With the wave of prayer that went up due to our urgent prayer need we felt such an amazing love and protection – thank you for supporting us and playing a real vital part of this ministry!

From the fish bowl,
Chad & Fabiola

Overflow With Thankfulness

Our hearts are filled with gratitude and frankly we do not express it enough. We are serving a God beyond comprehension or description in an organization that supports and guides us and is an amazing community of believers and on top of that we have friends and family praying and supporting us financially which is literally impacting hundreds of people. We often ask, “why us?” Why do we have the privilege to be in front row seats for such an amazing work God is doing in the hearts and lives of so many people in South Central Los Angeles and soon spreading throughout the world? He has called us for such a time and place as this and all we can do is thank God for using us and connecting us to World Impact and give you a big “thank you” for partnering and helping make this all possible. Colossians 2:6-7 reminds us that we shouldn’t just receive Christ Jesus into our lives as Lord, but be rooted in Him and continue to be built up – getting stronger in Him…and as we do that we should overflow with thankfulness. We are overflowing with thankfulness as we look upon our Lord and as we reflect on what He is accomplishing here in this hardened city through our people in this very new church, Fuente para las Naciones. We are seeing Bere and Blanca and Abraham and others step-up and serve in various capacities according to their abilities and interests to serve the church as a whole.
Recently we taught on how to share our faith, helping us all get deeper roots of understanding and grow stronger in our faith. What excitement to hear about how Maricela took this commission and went to see her mother that same week to share the Gospel. Her mother, because of the change she has seen in her daughter, is very open to hearing more and coming out to church. José shared with a co-worker about what he has been learning about himself and his Maker by studying the Bible and not just following some religion. Juanita shared with her neighbors about our church and has invited them to come and meet us to continue some deeper conversation. Dora invited Erika and now Erika wants to get more involved. Maricela, José, Juanita and Dora are all people who have come to know the Lord just recently (within the last couple of months) and we overflow with thankfulness that they are growing, getting rooted deeper in the community of believers, serving one another in very loving and practical ways and now seeking to expand this great fellowship by sharing this amazing news of a God that loves us so much that He sent His only son to live and die for us – that we might have ever lasting life!
We are also so thankful for Alicia, Evelia and Ruby all women that we have gotten to know through three different outreaches over the last year that have recently begun to come to the women’s Bible study every week. There are so many needs represented in all of these people in whom we have spoken. Deep, dark pasts that are still being unraveled and healed by God’s grace and love – they need our prayers, but we must include not only prayers of petition and intersession, but prayers of gratitude for what God has already accomplished.

Thank you for being by our side and for being by their side,
Chad & Fabiola Wolyn

Celebrate!...The Family

As we mentioned last month for the next four months we will be having a monthly Sunday celebration service bringing all of our church together for a time of corporate worship, fellowship and teaching (during the week we meet in different groups). We had our first Sunday service October 10th and it was amazing. The adults met on our driveway and the children took over the inside of the house. Though some key people were not able to make it out this month we still had 46 people at our first service.

The most exciting part was having everyone participate to make it such a powerful and positive day. Abraham (pictured above), who not too long ago was living at a mission on Skid Row in downtown LA after coming out of drug related health problems, helped set up the sound equipment that we were able to borrow from a neighbor. He also helped lead worship choosing the songs and really setting the tone for our worship to be heartfelt and our praises full of joy. Maricela (pictured below) share a powerful testimony of how God has saved her and delivered her from her Meth addiction, her crazy life and being estranged from her mom – bringing not only freedom and restoration to her mind, body and soul but also peace, love and joy to her family. She thanked God and Fabiola for such an amazing transformation in her life. Blanca (pictured below) read the Scriptures. Graciela, Tina, Juanita and José all brought refreshments for the adults and children for afterward.

Graciela also invited two new people to come out and then really challenged all of us to do the same for the next month’s celebration service. Primo and Mona came early to set up the chairs and Nacha helped pass out the bulletins and pass around offering basket. Italia, one of our youth, came not to receive, but to serve in the nursery working hard the whole time and doing a great job. There were so many people helping that really the whole service went smoothly and it was great to see leaders and servants emerging from within our growing family.

After just about every meeting we have been getting together with different couples to do marriage relationship intervention and counseling. Families have lived in dysfunction for so long and the need for Biblical relational skills is very high. We see that disciplining children is typically yelling at best so for the health of the family and the health of our church as we grow as a family and community we are walking alongside and helping everyone grow in these areas. Because healthy families are one of our core church values and the need is so high in this broken place we have launched a two month teaching series on the family to complement what we’re doing with individual families.

Along with Bible studies and some other resources we will be going through this book "Answers for the Family: Practical Solutions to Difficult Questions"

Other Highlights

DODGER GAME We had some Dodger tickets donated to us and were able to take a family out to the game. We all had a great time getting to know one another better and talking about just about everything. Though the husband hardly has come out before the game he has come out two times since this game and has been very much a part. Pictured below from left to right: Florentino, Flor, Norma, Juanita, Fabiola, Justice and then in front Martin, Rebecca and Chad.

CHAD’S BIRTHDAY I can’t remember too many surprise birthday parties in my life, but this year our Wednesday night group completely surprised us (Fabiola didn’t even know). The whole group showed up an hour and a half early and we had a full on party. We had birria (a Mexican beef stew meat) with all the tortillas, rice, beans, salsa and fixings you could want, a huge cake, tamales, a homemade fruit punch and much more. Our fellowship and our study were very rich that night. Two different people took off work early to make this possible. Sacrificial giving, teamwork (they had to coordinate this all on their own, exchanging numbers and all contributing), and real service. We had people cleaning our house past 10pm that night and there were visitors that came out that night too who have continued to come – seeing such a community of new believers would attract me to stay too! This may have been the greatest honor and compliment I have had since moving to South Central Los Angeles….a community of new believers that Fabiola and I have raised up and have been pouring into gave back and showered love on me. What a blessings!The night before my surprise birthday (on my actual Birthday) I had two other cakes delivered to my house. There was a lot of good impromptu fellowship and way too much sugar.

JUSTICE’S BIRTHDAY There was another really special day (October 4th) this month….Justice turned 3 years old. We did not have any big public parties, but did enjoy some special time with our big boy as a family. What a blessing it is to have the privilege to raise such a precious young child to love and know God. We’ve been enjoying more one and one time with him now that Rebecca is in Kindergarten. He no longer just speaks sentences – he shares entire paragraphs of exciting news with us.

Please Pray With Us:

· Sunday Service NOVEMBER 14th
We will be having a huge Carne Asada BBQ and family fun time after our second Service. We are encouraging everyone to invite as many friends and family members as possible. Pray that the turnout would more than double (92 or more people) from this month and that people would continue to serve and grow in their gifts. Pray that the service would continue to get people excited about God and the Church and provide momentum for more growth.

· Building Use
We have also turned in paper work to use Main Street Elementary School for our Sunday celebration services (where Rebecca attends, just 3 blocks from our house), but are praying and waiting for the answer and cost (pray: FREE).

· Sharing at Simi Valley Community Church
Chad will be sharing his heart for the city, the poor and broken-hearted on October 31st with a church in the greater Los Angeles area. Pray that those that hear would have their heart’s broken for the things that break God’s heart and moved into action.

· Rebecca’s Birthday
Pray blessings over Rebecca with us as she will be turning 5 on November 5th.


Celebrating YOU, part of our extended family,
Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

A New Season

This last month has been one of some big changes. September has been a time of increased faith and new growth personally, as a team and as a church.

Interns Arrive

Jessica and Monica joined our church plant team as support members in our children’s ministry – a big need since over 60% of our church is currently children and youth. They are both World Impact interns for the year. They have both brought fresh energy, skills and gifts to add to our team. Jessica is focusing on the teaching, discipling and mentoring of children from 4-10 while Monica is doing the same with the older children ranging from 11 -16. Each has a wide range of ages, but has provided a huge – and much needed – relief for Fabiola who was working with 22+ kids from 0-16 on any given day. Jessica, coming to us from Indiana, is a passionate person who is sensitive and compassionate towards the needs and feelings of others – especially those under the darkness and brokenness that engulfs the city of Los Angeles. She studied Christian Ministry at her college and desires to see youth rescued from the lies that saturate their culture and help them take a stand for their faith.

Fuente para las Naciones church plant team: (Left to Right: Monica, Jessica, Chad, Fabiola and Norma.)

While focusing on children and youth both interns also are involved in other areas of the church plant process. Monica shares that “in ministry, I find myself relying on prayer and intercession as the foundation of bringing life into people and communities. I can only do so much, but when I usher in the Kingdom of God, He can do infinitely more.” Monica is from Orange County and as you can ‘hear’ has a vision to really raise-up pray-ers and worshippers amongst our little ones. We continue to work on a strategy to equip parents and others from the community to take more responsibility in raising godly children.

Please pray for both of them as they continue to adapt to the life in the city and maneuver through the extra torrents that come against us all as missionaries and church planters. Their gifts and personalities compliment our team well and we are excited to lead this team further into the dark places of this city to continue to shine brighter and stronger for Jesus. Please also lift me (Chad) up as the leader and our team as a whole as we continue look to do God’s work His way in unity and love. Please also pray for the interns' transition from the academic world to the difficulties of inner-city life and challenges of church planting.

First Day of School

Rebecca is now attending Main Street Elementary, the closest of our neighborhood schools. Having our ‘baby’ in school has been a lot to adjust to for all of us, yet immediately so many natural and wonderful opportunities have opened up for new relationships. We, like the majority of the parents, walk her to and from school. We are not only thrilled to get to know more children and parents, but also working on building strong relationships with the teachers and staff at the school. Further, as we continue to grow as a church we have been looking at this site as one of the better potential locations to host Sunday services. Rebecca seems to absolutely love and be made for the social and intellectual atmosphere that the neighborhood school has offered her so far. Please be in prayer for Rebecca’s teacher Mrs. Lopez and all of Main Street’s students and staff.

The assembly of parents and students at the first day of school.

“Our charge is to both proclaim and embody the gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God's love in tangible ways,” wrote Richard Stearns. And that is what we need prayer for. Real change! No more quick-fix, Band-Aid solutions, but real transformation and restoration. Please pray that we might be the embodiment of God’s love to others – those that have already been gathered and are part of Fuente para las Naciones Church and those that we will continue to meet whether at Main Street School, the park in front of our home or on the street. The needs are great! Our God is bigger!!

Thank you for standing with us,
Chad & Fabiola