Taking Ownership

Our oldest child, Rebecca, who is now 7 years old, has done some things that have surprised us lately.  First, she gave all her spending money that she has been saving for the last month or so away as an offering (that is on top of the normal offering she always gives).  Then, knowing that we have been in a re-building phase with the teachers and volunteers of the toddler’s class at church, she asked permission if she could be a teacher’s assistant.  While all the other second and third graders were in their class Rebecca was teaching the Bible to the 3 and 4 year olds.  It is becoming more and more evident that our daughter has a heart for the city, for the people in her community and church.  The exciting thing is that it isn’t just our daughter, but many others in the church that are taking ownership of this ministry more and more.  It is gradual, but you can see life – people are giving more and doing more…it is a heart of joy, a heart of gratitude….God’s love is transforming us!

Updates

Youth - San Diego Missions Trip

·       Our church sent out its first short-term missions team. 

·       The team stayed with another youth group in San Diego and did work projects (a deep clean of the church and trash pickup in the streets) as well as ministry projects (taught Sunday school, fed and prayed with the homeless, and shared their testimonies with the youth group). 

·       It was really good for the youth to get out of Los Angeles, see more of the world and interact with another youth group that has youth that have been walking with God for a longer time. 

·       They were able to see a little bit of the city and surrounding area as well and came back bonded as a group and ready for another missions trip.  

Part of the team in front of a fountain…our church’s name is “Fountain for the Nations”.  

Picking up trash in the neighborhood.    

Packing lunches for the homeless.

Both youth groups join forces to go out and feed, evangelize and pray for the homeless.  

The youth taught a Bible lesson and craft at the church’s Sunday school class.

Christmas Program

·       The children came up with the concept and then the parent’s helped put on some finishing touches making this year’s Christmas Program a great success.

·       The core message was: “We worship Jesus.  He is the real Christmas gift.”

·       It was exciting because we had four visiting families (friends or family of the child performers).  They got to hear the Christmas message and enjoy a wonderful evening with us. 

·       One of our guests who had refused to ever set foot into a Christian church commented later that she enjoyed the relaxed and joyous atmosphere and was thinking about coming back.  

Pictured above: (1-5) Sharing “The Gift” Christmas program with the church, family and friends.  

A time of desserts, fellowship and games followed indoors. 

Remodeling

·       A work group came in and helped us remodel a few things at our ‘new’ church building.  One of the most exciting was to create an office space.

·       Over the last few weeks our church has been busy cleaning, moving things, re-organizing and painting our new space. 

New Year’s Outreach

·       We had over 250 people come out to our annual New Year’s Fun Fair at the park. 

·       The majority of our church came out to help evangelize, build relationships, serve food and help check people in.   

The check-in booth was run by several ladies and a youth from our church.  

Everything was free, but you had to play games to win raffle tickets and then trade them in for prizes.  This gave us a chance to have more time and conversation with people. 

Beads/Bracelet making table.

We had two bounce houses and a myriad of fun games and activities. 

Lots of hot dogs! 

Face painting. 

Nail painting.

Please Pray with Us…

ü  Youth Winter Camp January 19-21

-Most of our youth have come to know Jesus as their Lord & Savior so pray that this would be a deepening of that knowledge and relationship – a purifying and growing time. 

-There are a few new youth that still need to make a commitment—pray that this retreat would be the launching pad for them to enter into that eternal security and purpose. 

ü  Travel to Mexico

-Our family will be traveling to Mexico this month for a week of pastor’s meetings and a celebration at Fabiola’s home church where the current lead pastor will be handing the mantle and responsibility of leadership to the second generation. 

-We will also have some time to visit with our family there.  Pray for safe, healthy travels and a refreshing, renewing and recharging. 

ü  Church Leadership

-We continue to mentor and disciple people in our church to take on ministry roles from cleaning and maintenance to teaching and leading worship. 

-Pray with us that people would grow in godly character and be F.A.T. (Faithful, Available and Teachable). 

-While we are away in Mexico there will be more opportunities for people to put some of what they have been learning in practice as they lead the church. 

ü  Leader In Training Retreat February 2-3

ü  Worship Ongoing and February 9

-Chad has begun mentoring one of the men in the church in the area of worship and music.  Please pray for that relationship to effectively grow a humble worshipful spirit and a skilled musical leader. 

-We will also be hosting our quarterly music workshop.  Pray for a great turn out of students and teachers – we want to stir up the interest and passion for playing instruments and worshipping God through music. 

ü  Teacher’s Training Conference February 16

-Part of training up leaders and growing as a church is having a group of volunteers that can effectively teach our children.  We have a group of ladies that have been growing in this area. 

-We are blessed to have an experienced and passionate teacher come put on an all day workshop so that we can get equipped and trained to do the job God has called us to do as a church. 

-Along with praying for the conference, pray for us to work out the child-care situation.  At this writing the group we were counting on fell through so we don’t have anyone to watch the children while the parents are in the conference. 

ü  Family

-Cover us as we know the enemy loves to attack God’s children in this area. 

-Pray that our family would have quality times together.  We as parents do not want to be too busy for our children; nor do we want to miss out on quality times with one another as husband and wife.   

-Having our new house apart from the church building has helped us a lot to balance things. 

Thank you again for joining us in this exciting mission! 

Together we are victorious in Christ.  We press on so that more may know Jesus, who gives us life and strength. 

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

Meeting the Special Needs of Our Community

Happy New Year! This year we set out afresh to proclaim the Good News to all people and train others up to do the same. We continue to be broken for the things that break God’s heart and step-up and out to be ambassadors in this dangerous and wicked foreign territory. 

We dearly love the people at our church and, most of all, love worshipping God together with them and giving thanks to Him for all that He has done for us at the church and in the city. Thank you for being part of this ministry; you are an important part of it, and without your prayers it would be hard for us to go on. Thank you for all of your support for those of you who give generously. We are challenged and blessed with the opportunity to continue to give to the Lord what He has given to us – meeting unmet needs and serving others that have been forgotten or ignored. 

Our church is growing in numbers and also growing closer to Jesus.  Fabiola oversees and trains all the other teachers and helpers in the children’s and babies classes.  It is such a joy to teach about God.  What a privilege to show them how to love Him and watch them experience the reality of such an amazing love. The little kids love to pray for their families, for their food, and for any other simple things.  Over the last year, we have been learning how to integrate children with special needs into our various classes as well. 

Last summer, World Impact and Joni and Friends teamed up to have a special camp for families who have children with special needs. One of the families we were able to take up to camp was a single mother from our neighborhood. We had invited Julieta and her two sons to church a couple months before camp and they had been attending faithfully.  We have become much more intentional about making families with special needs children feel comfortable and welcome at church.  Both Julieta and her youngest son came to know Christ at camp and she was one of the ladies that was baptized in September at our family camp. 

Our daughter Rebecca with one of the special needs joys of our church at a Thanksgiving dinner.

Julieta has been on fire for God and has been a great ambassador – sharing Jesus and inviting her friends and others she knows with children with special needs out to church. One of these mothers – also a single mother (with four children) – was sharing recently about how much God has done in restoring her heart and bringing her to a real faith.  She has had to leave a heavy life of sin behind her, which initially wasn’t easy, but now she is serving God with a glad and light heart.  Three of her four children are also learning about God and serving Him along side of her.  

As we launch into this new year, please pray for us as we learn as a church how to work with special needs children and their families…and continue to move towards reaching all people for the Glory of God!

The Hero of the Season

 

Updates

 

The Move

We are now living in our new house.  We’re working at setting up our home again and for the first time since we moved to Los Angeles we have to drive to church.  It feels quite different than just walking out of your bedroom into the family room.  Our church members are having a good time reorganizing the spaces for each classroom and figuring out how to maximize our corporate meeting space.

 

During this transition we have had a couple setbacks.  On the day of our move two big wheel type bikes and a scooter were stolen, along with some really nice potted plants and a jacket.  We have always known that we are being watched by people, sometimes it is just amazing at how much we are being watched.  As we drove off with the majority of our stuff they moved in…when we returned an hour and a half later it was gone.  All these things were just out of plain sight on our porch.  There has also been some new graffiti…we feel that these things just confirm why we are here…people are in need.  Yes, it feels horrible when things are stolen or vandalized, but more reason to keep sharing the Good News.

 

Then our first shower at the new house caused a rainstorm downstairs….meaning our first shower was our last for a while.  Things are now fixed, but even as walls were being ripped out and fixed we found tons of black mold and other issues that had to be dealt with.  The crazy thing is all these setbacks, in a roundabout way, have been answers to prayers.  Not the way we would do it, but all that matters is that God is control.

 

While we are living in the city amongst the people that God has burdened our hearts to spend 24/7 serving we know that our experience, while similar in some ways, is not anything as difficult as what is ‘normal’.  Knowing that our ‘normal’ sized bedroom might be a ‘house’ for a family of 6 or that the black mold and a leaking bathroom may never get fixed helps put things in perspective and appreciate the grace and favor we have – as well as the financial support to be able to focus on ministry and not on survival.  It is also crazy to think how Jesus came into our filthy world and really did experience all the pain and temptations, shame and heartache that we feel.  Jesus is our hero.  He saved us.  He continues to save us!  He is the One we desire to follow every day.  We are so blessed to have Him in our lives!  We are also blessed to be celebrating this Christmas with the many individuals Jesus has allowed us to know and love here in Los Angeles.  We are also blessed to have you in our lives and want to wish you a very merry Christmas. 

 

Thanksgiving: Giving thanks to God as a church

Food boxes were delivered to 20 families…

Our church then went out and fed the homeless and community a delicious feast.  We did this the Sunday before Thanksgiving and nearly everyone from our church came back a few hours after our morning worship service to serve.  It was great how they served as entire families and how they spent time sharing the Good News along with sharing the good food. 

 

 

We then had a special Thanksgiving service and meal the day before Thanksgiving.

A homeless couple came an enjoyed the evening with us as did other friends and family.  We all shared testimonies and gave thanks to God.  We sang songs – English and Spanish, men and women, young and old.  The youth were in charge of creating and running some games and crafts for the younger kids.  We see so much growth from the previous year – we will be able to do more and more as the church continues to catch the vision and take responsibility for this ministry. 

 

Christmas at the OAKS

 

Over 50 of us boarded the bus and headed to the OAKS camp for a day of Christmas fun.  Most of the men and boys took off to play soccer, while the women and girls worked on making special Christmas crafts to decorate their homes or give as gifts.  We all came together again for a full Christmas dinner, some games, a hay ride and family pictures.  

 

 

Journey to Bethlehem

What a great way to see, smell, hear, taste and touch your way through that special night that Jesus was born. 

 We were able to see Mary on the donkey looking for a room, but there was no space at the inn. 

We had to pay taxes to the Roman soldiers and then with the coin money we had left over were able to buy wares from the various shops and even taste yummy foods.

During the night, we looked up and saw the angels giving glory to God and proclaiming the arrival of Jesus.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to go to the stable along with the shepherds and hear everyone’s experience and excitement.

 We almost forgot we were in Los Angeles for a moment…the kids loved it as did the parents and youth.

We continually are looking for opportunities to bring families together around Christ honoring and Christ-focused events.This is one we will be talking about and remembering for a long time.

 

 Please Pray with Us…

ü  Youth - San Diego Missions Trip

 

ü  Christmas Program: “The Gift” an original drama our children and some adults will be putting on for friends and family.  Some of the ladies from the church have been going door to door around our neighborhood inviting people to participate with us.

 

ü  Christmas Service: We will be celebrating Christmas on Sunday, December 23 with another special service and a Christmas dinner.

 

ü  Our new space:  After meeting in the rain and cold weather last week (under our canopies), we have all agreed to come together this week and do some work to prepare the recently emptied house and make meeting indoors possible.  Our Christmas service will be our first service in the ‘new’ space.

 

ü  New Year’s Outreach: (Saturday, January 5)  We will be having a large fair at the park in front of the church with food, prizes and most importantly our church members sharing the gospel to the many still without direction or purpose.

 

Christmas Gifts

We were blessed to receive new student Bibles for all our youth, a new microwave and we have some Sunday school curriculum on the way…thank you so much for your gifts!

 

If you didn’t have a chance to give a special Christmas gift to this ministry there still is time!  Here are some more ways you can help this ministry (used items in good condition, or money donated towards these items would also be greatly appreciated):

·         DVDs (appropriate for children or toddlers)

·         Video games (for XBOX 360 or Wii; appropriate family or kid games)

·         DVD player

·         Craft Supplies for our children’s ministry

·         Coffee Maker

·         Toilet Seat

·         Patio Bench

·         Large Screen (for projector)

 

We pray that you holiday season is bright with the light of our Hero, Lord and Savior, Jesus.

 

Merry Christmas from all of us!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

Her Time to be Saved

“Please explain to me what I must do to be saved,” Liliana asked Fabiola with wide-eyes after the Sunday morning message.  We met Liliana through our park outreach.  She started coming to our church after our summer sport’s outreach and has since invited several other people.  This was her Sunday…a time to get right with God and begin new life.  We praise God for your prayers and sacrificial financial support that is enabling us to keep evangelizing, raising up disciples and planting churches here in the inner city.

We have some other big news to share (though not as big as Liliana’s salvation).  This month we will be moving to a new house.  As you know we have been asking for prayer for a building space for our growing church for almost two years.  We have not been able to find a space that would be big enough in our community for our church that we can afford, so we decided to move out of our current home so the church can use that space more freely and effectively. 

We will miss living in this home, but are excited to see how this ushers in the next phase of our church planting.  Already in the planning phases we have seen how the church has been able to take more ownership in something that is ‘theirs’ and not ‘ours.’  Our new home is not too far and will allow us some healthy separation from the intensity of the growing ministry to be a family, while continually investing in the emerging leadership and those coming to faith like Liliana.    

This month we will also be celebrating Christ’s birth and life with our church and community.  We have our annual daylong celebration – Christmas at THE OAKS, which is a time for our families to leave the city for a day to make hand crafted gifts, bond as families and as a church and learn more about the Christmas story.  Later on this month we will also have our church Christmas party and meal together. 

Fabiola has also been working hard over the last two months with the children to put on a mini-drama musical called “The Gift” for our Christmas service (the Sunday before Christmas).  It has been powerful watching the kid’s grasp a deeper understanding of the meaning of Christmas and be so motivated to bring their families to church so they can keep rehearsing and learning more.  Just last week one of the mom’s shared at our Bible study how amazing it was that her daughter knew so much about the Bible.  She was surprised to find her sitting and teaching her younger sister about the things she was learning at church – things the mom had not yet learned!

What a privilege it is to be here in Los Angeles serving Jesus and preaching about His love and the amazing gift of eternal life.  Thank you for your gifts of prayers, financial support and encouraging words that make this all possible.

Merry Christmas,

Chad & Fabiola