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