We Love the Church!

We love the church!  God has set forth an amazing blueprint for expressing His love to the world through His people – we are the Church and amidst its imperfections and quirks there is great power and beauty expressed by the corporate body of believers called the church.  That is why we love planting churches too.  We get to be at the birthing phase of this amazing redemptive process God has set up here on earth. 

Just the other Sunday one the men that comes before service to set up the chairs and help with the sound system began to share his burden for the lost and urgency for the church to rise up and be who we are called to be.  I (Chad) smiled and shouted a great big “yes!” inside of me as he mentioned the need for our church to have healthy families that can be models and guides for the new people that will be coming.  I challenged him and myself that we need to be those families.  We need to live as examples of the hope, joy, peace, love and restoration found in Christ for the whole family.  Healthy families are attractive.

For the months of January and February we are focusing heavily on everything related to the family during our mid-week Bible studies.  Being arguably the largest felt need, not to mention real need in our community we have decided to help rebuild families one life at a time.  One way we are doing that is by modeling.  Fabiola and I have both been blessed in our pasts to have godly families in our churches that we can watch and learn from and then follow in their footsteps.  It is our desire to raise-up many families that will be examples and leaders in the community in our church plant – leading to even greater growth and health in our church and community in the months and years to come. 

There is nothing better than ministering life on life – meaning we share our time, energy, resources and life with the rest of the church family.  They see our successes and our failures and they are there with us when we need to make decisions about the family.  Addressing the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children and even the process of preparing for marriage or dating has a profound impact on individuals and families as we live it out in front of them as well as teach and preach it at a study.

Please pray for us and these families as we press into restoring this foundational building block of society that has been ravaged over the last several generations.  God is pleased at our pursuits and we sense His favor; the enemy, however, has not been giving up easy and there is an increased awareness of the intensity of this battle. 

Chad & Fabiola

An Underground Movement

There is amazing growth taking place! It is what we call an underground movement because much of what is happening cannot be easily seen or measured. Much of our growth as a church plant has been incubating deep within the hearts of the people we minister to day-in and day-out. It’s like the initial growth of a bamboo colony….
Bamboo is an interesting plant. It is known as the fastest growing woody plant on earth, but did you know that at first it appears to just sit there and not grow? It is because the bamboo starter plant acts more like a colony than an individual plant. This colony is mostly underground (80% of its mass). The massive root system builds a foundation of nutrients and strength to enable it to later produce larger plants. When you plant a new bamboo it will only grow underground and you can’t short cut the amount of time it takes a plant to establish it's root system.

Also interesting is that while not noticeable at first, the bamboo as it matures will eventually take on the characteristics of the parent plant. New plantings of bamboo usually take about three full growing years before they produce multiple shoots and take on the appearance of a small grove.

We see the growth in the people at our church, but we long for more growth. There is a process and a period of establishing the foundations in this underground movement. Like Jesus spending time with his small group of disciples we have been given the opportunity to pour into a group of new believers that will grow exponentially and touch the nations.

UPDATES

Christmas Program & Dinner

Highlights: One of our emerging leaders received a new guest from off the street and ministered to him resulting in this man giving his life to Jesus! There was also great food, a Christmas program focusing on the true meaning of Christmas by the children, a gift exchange, a piñata, and musical chairs for all ages.

Our family had the opportunity to get away for Christmas to be with family, but so much got done while we were gone. A year ago – even six months ago – this would not have been possible, but look what our church plant was busy doing:

Serving our Neighbors

There are lots of real needs in our community. One of them is the need to help mothers watch, play and train their children during vacation times. We were able to host two days of Bible clubs with the complete permission and support of the Department of Recreation & Parks.

Hosting a Dinner for 100+

Our men and women prepared and served over 100 plates of food for a visiting youth group. This was such a highlight for both groups. The logistics of having that many people at our house (especially when we weren’t present) was a feat in itself. There was a powerful time of prayer at the end of the evening (pictured below).

End of the Year Carnival

We had over 150 children present – plus parents who stuck around to watch their children’s faces light up with smiles. Our church was in charge of the registration and the evangelism, while the visiting youth group helped put on the carnival fun and food. Nancy, one of the young ladies from our church, has been willing to help in so many different ways. She translated the gospel message into Spanish for the first time in this large, public setting. We’re so proud of her and the whole church for taking this big event on and doing such an amazing job!

Pictures (top to bottom): Above - The registration table, gospel drama, Nancy translating the message, and below - the fun games, crafts, prizes, etc. lasted for four hours on a Friday afternoon.

HELP! Fair
Praying for a lady that is feeling trapped in an abusive relationship and then helping her connect with an organization that can help her, offering hope through Jesus and programs that can help to the many who are ‘solving’ their problems with alcohol and drugs, and providing clothes and hygiene supplies are some of the reasons we have for the third year now partnered with other area ministries to put on the HELP! Fair at South Park (below).

One man from our church, Victor (pictured below), shared his testimony of how he found Jesus after struggling with a drug addiction. Others from our church shared the gospel one-on-one with people and helped organize the 10 bags of clothes we gave away.

Winter Youth Retreat

Pictured above: Kevin, Jim, Flor, Wendy, Italia, Alex, Lupe, Sol, Norma and Chad at the Winter Youth Retreat this last weekend.

Please Pray with Us…..

Youth
The retreat was a powerful encounter for the 7 teens that went. One girl had only come to our church once. We have continued our relationship with her through the various weekly and seasonal outreaches we do at the park. At the retreat she committed her life to Jesus and wants to begin studying the Bible more to understand more about Him. Two others confessed their sins and the fact that friends and other things had been distancing them from God. They came back to Him. Our group continues to get stronger and more unified thought these special times as well. Please pray that we wouldn’t live from retreat to retreat, but see these youth grow deep roots that would spread wide and that they’d shoot up tall for Christ in a city and in schools where it seems that nobody else serves Him.

New Team Members - Jim & Lizzie from Lancaster, CA
They have 20 years of ministry experience working with youth so we are excited to have them on board with us to help us reach the thousands of new students at the new high school down the street from us.
Pray for their safety, grace and fruit as they transition into the neighborhood, church and leadership team.

Leader In Training (LIT) Retreat
For the last six months Chad has been mentoring one of the youth at our church in a leadership program. We will be attending a retreat together on January 28. Please pray that Alex continues to deepen his relationship with Christ and excel in leadership development and ministry preparation.

Safety against Increased Crime
In the last couple weeks two homes (the one in front of us and another a few houses down) and two cars have been broken into on our street. Both the car incidents were literally outside our window. Continue to pray protection over our house (church) and family as well as for opportunities to minister life and love to these people that are lost and living in sin.

A Fresh Touch of the Holy Spirit
Our church knows we need more of God. We have decided to pray every night for a fresh touch and move of the Holy Spirit. When we aren’t meeting corporately at our home we pray individually at the same time (9:00 pm) for this move. Join us and pray for our endurance in seeking God and His Kingdom as well.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Committed to reproduce Christ in others,

Chad & Fabiola

The Needs are Great

Here the needs are great: the physical needs may astound you and leave you a gasp, but the spiritual needs are far weightier and much uglier.  There is a bright glimmer of hope penetrating this depravity and hurt.  Jesus sets people free–brings hope and peace and an amazing joy.  The church is equipped to bring this message.  We are here to plant healthy reproducing churches.

Getting out into the community, asking and listening to individuals is almost as important as actually meeting their felt needs.  It gets us close to people and allows us to speak life to them.  Pulling ourselves away from the tyranny of the urgent and the rut of the routine has proven to take us into some of the richest ministry times we have ever had.  So, the last week of December we closed the doors, no services, no worship time or preaching, and no children’s classes. Instead, our church – family by family – gathered at our neighborhood park to serve and reach out to the community.  God smiled down upon us.

We helped provide families some needed child care.  We were able to talk to the parents about their concerns.  Addressing problems such as how to be healed from the guilt and move through the grieving process when after being separated for years from parents and other family members by borders a loved one dies.  Other questions on parenting and family issues frequently come up.  The health of a family is the most basic and critical element of a healthy community and society.  We care for the family – that is our duty. 

For a couple days we provided fun family oriented activities and shared the gospel.  We also handed out hot meals, tons of clothes, hygiene packets and more to families, the homeless, addicts, gang members and others that make up our community.  We are here for a reason.  It would be a shame to let those purposes slip away being inactive or being busy doing something else. 

We are working with families that are wobbling on the razor’s edge between life and death.  Success and victory is still mixed with some defeat and disappointment.  Little victories like one of our youth recently saying, “I am giving faith a chance,” show us the slow upward progression being made here in the city.  Giving up is easy and is the path many choose in life.  Youth are constantly being bombarded with ungodly, faithless messages and unfortunately the gospel sounds more like a fairy tale than the video games they play.  We offer hope in Jesus. 

This month we are excited about taking our junior high and high school students to a retreat.  Last year this was probably the single most significant breakthrough time for our youth – several giving their lives to Jesus.  Please pray that this year would be even more powerful producing fruit that will remain in the lives of these young teenagers long into their adult life. 

Thank you for praying new blessings over our family and ministry this year!

 

Chad & Fabiola

Fruit Lips

We did not know how people felt about us. Or even realize how much God has been doing in the individuals of our church plant. We had two big events this last month where we were able to give thanks to God and show appreciation to one another. It has grown us all closer to God and one another.

We hope you realize how important you are to us. We have been charged with the task of evangelizing the lost, equipping future leaders and planting churches yet we do this work as a team. We really are surviving on God’s grace and the prayers and encouragement you send our way. Physically we are able to dedicate ourselves to the urban poor and society’s shunned because we have people willing to support us financially.

Through Jesus then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Hebrews 13:15 ~ Thank you!

Updates

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011
Above & Below: Giving thanks together as a church. What a blessed night! We had a fantastic meal that everyone contributed to make maybe not your traditional American meal, but the tamales, mole, flan and chilies tasted amazing and went well with some of the traditional elements. Our youth helped create and organize a game time for the children (below).

Everyone got up and shared a few minutes about what they are thankful for – giving a testimony and praise to how God has done so much for us this year (below). See some excerpts of those comments in the section called “Giving Thanks 2011”. We were amazed and honored at how many people included us in their thanks.

We also had a super fun time praising the Lord! We opened up the microphones and had adults and children alike come up and sing their favorite praise and worship songs with the music (below).

Giving Thanks 2011
“I thank God because he took me out of the garbage. I have never really thanked God for the patience of my wife – the little faith she had – to hold on and trust in me when I was going through my hard times and walking far away from Him. God knows me and that is the most marvelous thing. I know that I don’t deserve the great things that come to me, but God knows. He has been patient with me – life hasn’t been easy, but I see that they are tests and trials of our faith. We need to just keep doing what we know to do – follow God.”

“There is so much to give thanks to God for…this year God has been so generous to me….Sunday we went with the church and helped bring food to the people on the street. It is a privilege to be able to give. People of all ages were trying to stay warm and dry after the big storm and it was amazing to be able to serve them. I was also surprised because the person that donated the food had two small babies in the car. We come up with excuses all the time for why we can’t do things, but we need to give thanks for what God has done through these people.”

“I’m thankful for Fabiola and for this church and for Chad because this is where I was able to meet and know God.”

“I give thanks to God and also for my mom for doing so much for me. Thanks to Chad and Fabiola for having this church. Thanks for this day that we’re all together and enjoying the food and thanks for each one of you.” (14 year old)

“Thanks for my children. I left the way of the Lord because everything was going well and I took my eyes of the Lord and began following man. But thanks to God for bringing us back to Him when we wandered away. I see my children worshiping and serving God and it brings so much joy to my life. The tests have been hard, but thanks to Chad and Fabiola because they have helped us. I’m so glad that I’ve been able to move. I’m thankful for all this food that we have to share with one another. I’m going through a hard time, but God pulls me through. Don’t put your eyes on man – they will let you down, but God will never let you down. Man isn’t perfect; God is! Thank God for life every morning. Things don’t get easier just because we come to church or walk with the Lord, but it will be better.”

“I give thanks to God for everything. The thing I most want to give thanks to God is I always feel like God is with me. I didn’t always feel that. But I know how much He loves me. I was the first in my family to move towards God – and now most of us in my extended family are coming closer to God. Thanks to God for my family, and for my health. I want to encourage those that are just starting to come out and just starting to know Jesus that you may feel discouraged, but that is normal – we’ve all felt that. Don’t give up – stick it out – God is the one that will change us and help us and He will be with you and will bring you through it all.”

“I’m thankful that I can call this church my ‘family’. It has been hard for me to not have any of my family with me since they are all in Mexico, but God has been good to me in bringing me you guys.”

“First I want to thank God for my children, for their health and my health also for being able to know this church. This wasn’t in my plans, but God knows and I know it happened for a reason. God put this church in my path. God picked me up from my hurting place. I wasn’t homeless or anything, but I was on a path of bitterness and had no direction. This hasn’t been easy and I don’t always have the patience that I need with my children [as a single parent of three children under the age of 5]. But God and this church have helped me organize my life a little bit and I’m in school now [to learn English]– and so are all my kids. And there is so much to thank God for and I’m trying to pray like you’ve all taught me to do. I’ve learned a lot of things here – thank you for everything.”

“I’m giving thanks for God’s mercy and love and that we can all be together. It was just two years ago that I was very preoccupied. I was raised in a family that talked about Jesus and my biggest worry was that my two daughters wouldn’t know about Him because my wife didn’t want to know the Good News. I prayed for my family, but she was closed and not interested. First thanks to God and then to Chad and Fabiola for helping bring my wife into the Kingdom of God. I hope that more people can come to the knowledge of our God.”



Javier Preaching
Thank you for praying for Javier. He did a good job preaching. The church was really blessed. We continue to pour into him and others to develop their gifts and their skills in leadership.

Christmas at the OAKS

A group from our church headed up to the OAKS campground for special all day time together. It was cold (for Southern California) and the bus broke down, but thankfully we were able to pull together a few vehicles and get to camp. Unlike previous years where families go off and do their own thing, this year we all stayed together like one HUGE family.

We started off at the fire circle sharing words of encouragement and affirmation to one another (see picture above). Then we went on a hike together. The rest of the day we spent doing eating and doing Christmas crafts.

Please Pray With Us About…..

Christmas Program & Dinner – Friday, December 16
Our church really wanted the opportunity to spend quality fun time and fellowship for Christmas. We had such an amazing Thanksgiving together (see above for more details) and this provides an easy place for everyone to invite friends and family to a church event.

Serving our Neighbors – Thursday & Friday, December 29-30
During these two days of vacation our church will be providing some child care for women in our neighborhood for two hours. Pray that this will be an effective bridge into sharing the Gospel and building relationships.

Fuente para las Naciones hosts dinner for visiting church
Want some authentic Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadorian food? You should come and visit us sometime when we are organizing an event like this one! Our church will be putting on a feast for a visiting youth group that is helping with some of these evangelistic outreaches.

End of the Year Fair (at South Park) – Friday, December 30
We are hoping for at least 100 children – and great conversations with the parents and grandparents. This will be our third year doing this carnival type event in the park – but this time our church will be out in full force to serve in every area possible. See our cool shirts (pictured in the Christmas at the Oaks group picture).

HELP! Fair (at South Park) – Saturday, December 31
We have been pooling resources and unifying with other ministries and organizations all year to be able to help the community from just about every angle. We will cover their spiritual needs through testimonies, preaching, music – rap and worship, dramas and dance. We will have food, clothes, hygiene packs and other resources (like counseling, medical, shelter or rehab programs, etc.) all on hand as well to cover their physical and emotional needs.

Family Teaching Series
Starting in January we will be studying God’s design for the family – including everything from dating to marriage and family dynamics including child rearing. This is one of the biggest real and felt needs in the community. Pray we’d be able to attract and reach a new group of people. We will be advertizing this series at all of the above events.
Our sacrifice of praise to God is to let the fruit of our lips overflow with thanksgiving to Him and we thank Him dearly for your life and partnership with us here in the city.

God's Not a Fairy Tale

We invest in training our children as well as our adults – igniting them to be lovers and worshippers of God and to walk out their destiny in Christ Jesus.  This is not easy work, but I think about Mara who I met at a special Bible Club we held almost a year ago.  After sharing the Gospel I got to pray with her to accept Jesus.  She has been coming to our weekly Bible Club ever since and has really been growing in her knowledge of God even though she has no parental support. 

Unlike like Mara there are others who have been coming out to our church regularly with their parents.  And there are several children in our church who are praying with fervor for their unsaved friends and family.  Their prayers go beyond cute prayers into the realm of fiery faith-filled intercession and followed up by action.  Bethany’s mother – a new believer that came to know Jesus through our ministry – was so excited when she told us about her daughter. 

First, one of Bethany’s classmates came up to her and said that God did not exist – that God is just a fairy tale – and she boldly responded, “He exists! I know Him and talk to Him every day.” A few days later a different classmate was crying because she got into trouble and had a very real fear of the harsh, abusive out lash she would receive when she got home with the bad news.  Bethany reached out to this classmate urging her to pray to God for help.  The girl prayed.  She came back the following day stunned and excited telling Bethany that, “it really worked!”  She then asked Bethany if she prayed and Bethany responded, “Yeah, all the time.”  The first classmate later came back to Bethany and asked her to tell her more about this God that really does exist.

Please lift up Mara and Bethany and the many other children and parents we minister to every day.  They thrive on our prayers and need God’s protection in this hostile environment.  Also continue to pray peace over our neighborhood.  Two Sundays in a row now there has been major crime activity – first a massive rival gang standoff and shooting at the park and then arson to the park building where we were ministering drawing eight fire trucks, but fortunately not doing any major permanent damage.  Then a few days later there was a homicide a block from our home.  This isn’t uncommon, but it does feel like something is stirring and we want to bring all wickedness to a halt and declare peace and protection over the many people living in this community – including our own family. 

Lastly, 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 (1 discipleship book) for spiritual growth                                             $15
Discipleship outings (A meal/coffee for a one-on-one mentor meeting)                               $10
Groceries for Christmas dinner for families in need                                                           $50
A beginner’s guitar and classes to train up worshippers (class is $25)                               $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