Dreaming In Color

“Before I came to church,” shared Judy, “everything was dark and gray.  Life was without any real direction or purpose.  But now it is like I can see everything in full color.”  We have had an exciting month as we join this wave of what God is doing in South Central Los Angeles.  Drab to multi-color.  Death to life.  This is the story of Easter….something only Jesus can accomplish.  As missionaries here in the city we are dreaming in color – though at times what we see in the natural is bleak and shades of gray.  We are leading others to do the same – see, experience and live their life for what God meant it to be – full of Him.  We are celebrating the amazing things God has done and looking with anticipation towards the completion of other things He has said He will do.

Updates…

Easter Outreach

Our church did its first ever – completely on their own – outreach to our community at South Park.  In many ways it was one of the best outreaches we have ever done.  Everyone did a great job, sacrificing time, energy and money to make it happen. We had around 200 people come through and participate in the various activities. 

Prior to the event we had a training on how to share our faith with others.  This was well used as each person at their station was able to share their faith with people throughout the day. 

We had others from our church go around and talk to the people observing and share the Good News with them as well.

Food is always a hit!  We have a lot of people in our church with the ‘spiritual gift’ of food preparation – so what better way to draw people to our event, bless them, give them a reason to stick around and learn more about what Easter is really all about. 

We had several craft stations (all created and implemented by our emerging leaders) each with a Gospel story connected to it.  So as the children and their parents came around our emerging leaders were able to tell and re-tell the Bible story of how God loves us so much and that He wants a relationship with each one of us!

There were also games, a bounce house, music and much more!  Everyone was involved.  Not only that, but it was the least amount of work we have ever had to do personally as everyone really took ownership and did their part well. 

 Easter Sunday

 

For Easter Sunday we had a full house and best of all we had 5 people commit their lives to Jesus.  On Good Friday we had a powerful night of fasting & prayer and praise….but on Sunday it was time to feast.  During the meal it was amazing watching in every corner, at every table there was ministry taking place.  People were crying, laughing, hugging…and most of the conversations were not with people that they had invited personally.

Fabiola’s Birthday

Last month we (ok, it was me, Chad) incorrectly wrote Fabiola’s birthday as March 26^th, but it was (and always is) April 26^th.  (Oops!)  Well, our church put together a nice surprise cake celebration after one of our services to bless Fabiola and share their love. J

Planned Absences

We had a planned absence during our mid-week service (something we hope to do more often to enable more growth without dependence on us) and were very encouraged to have our indigenous team of 3 take care of all the different classes – adults, youth and children…with a larger than normal turn out. 

Mother’s Day

 

We just finished our teaching series on the family, which ended with Fabiola preaching on Mother’s Day.  The response from people is always so strong when we cover these topics, but the enemy really attacks our family every time we do a series or conference like this.  Justice and Rebecca are now well, but got really sick (emergency room sick for Justice) during the weeks of this series. 

Family News

Beniah keeps us on our toes…he is growing up so fast – every day there is something new he is aware of or doing.  He is now 8 weeks old.

Web Page Help

Do you know how to design or create web-pages?  Would like to donate your expertise to our church plant? We would like to get our web-site fixed up and running so that it can be another tool to connect us with more people. 

Please Pray with Us…

·      Bible Series – Our community is severely Bible-illiterate and so for the rest of the year we will be doing an overview study of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation to help motivate people to read the Word, understand the Word and most importantly live the Word.

Pray with us that this would be a powerful time to connect with people; connect people to God and see His might and power revealed in this community on a daily basis.

·      Tutoring Graduation – June 1^st

We’ve been working with about 30 students and it is time to celebrate their progress. 

Please pray for our Awards Dinner, which serves as an outreach to the families that we are ministering to through this ministry. 

·      Summer Events – Please cover the following June/July events in your prayers:

o   Worship and Music classes

o   Sport’s Camp

o   WOW Jam

o   Summer Camps

o   Family outings

o   And much, much more….

Not all our dreams will become a reality, but God has given us some wonderful dreams – and since He is the Author and Finisher we know they will blossom into full-color realities.  It is wonderful to be able to share these dreams, these hopes, these deep purposes and directions with people.  Thank you for dreaming with us as God continues to minister life change in people all around us. 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  Really!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

Spring Showers

Probably the biggest part of empowering the urban poor is introducing each person to Jesus.  Without Jesus the training, education or encouragement that we give only takes them so far.  Many people do not know much about Jesus or the story of the Bible.  We have our work cut out for us.  Full transformation does not take place overnight, but as we continue to invest in the lives of people sharing the Story and Spirit we see real change – change we believe will effect generations and ripple throughout eternity. 

This spring it has been refreshing to watch the transformation in the people we minister to.  After three youth made a strong commitment to make Jesus their Lord, one of them said, “I feel like I just took a shower.”  A week later we got to pray with another young man who counted the cost and decided to follow Jesus.  That is just the beginning.

We have seen shy and timid people willing to be greeters and even find the boldness to go out and share their faith. A group organized an Easter outreach – something that took our church to a whole new level of empowerment and dependence on God.  New believers are inviting their friends and neighbors to come to church and to know Jesus – praying for them on the spot, sharing favorite Bible verses.  We have begun to see more sacrificial giving of both time and money.  People’s vocabulary is changing indicating how they see this church as theirs and not as “Pastor Chad’s” church.  Individuals are taking time to make phone calls to check in and ask how things are going or report and give updates with one another.  People are loving one another…and even loving those that previously were the ‘unlovables’.

Speaking of new life….thank you for rejoicing with us in the birth or our son, Beniah Benjamin.  What a joy he is – and what a month this has been learning to be a family of five.  Continue to lift our family (and our rest) in your prayers please.

Please also be in prayer for our Mother’s Day service and outreach this month. There are so many single-mothers and other women that need to know the love of their Father and be empowered through the grace and love of Jesus. 

Thankful for your prayers that lift up the unlovable and cause true transformation,

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

New Life, Next Exit

Updates…

Reaching Ex-Prisoners: The Unwanted & Despised

Please be in prayer with us as we continue to pursue God’s will for a potential amazing way to continue training-up more leaders and planting more churches.  We are considering obtaining a house near our church to create a men’s home where 3-4 handpicked ex-prisoners could come and be mentored, trained-up and then empowered and released to plant more churches.  This would be a 2-year internship type program and we would partner with other agencies, such as Prison Fellowship, to help us with the administrative and other practical sides of things.  These men will have already been identified and begun their Bible school studies while inside the prison system. 

For the men’s house to be set up we’re looking at probably a year out, but there are a handful of men to be released as soon as this summer that Chad will be visiting with during the next month at the state prison. There are a lot of details and questions that still need to be worked out, but we wanted to include you in the prayerful process to discern what God would want to do through this ministry and through the church we are currently planting. 

Thank You!

·         T.V. Last month we asked for help and we received a great new large screen TV for one of our children’s classes at the church.  It has already been used a lot and really helps as they now can all see the screen when they do their worship videos and other teaching and fun material that they use there.  

BEFORE

AFTER

·   Yard Sale. We also received some donations for our yard sale – thank you to everyone that participated.  We had a very successful yard sale – the first one run solely by our emerging indigenous leaders.  Yeah!!!  They were able to welcome everyone into our property and invite them to come out for our services and Easter programs. 

·        Lobby/Youth Room Transformation.  Currently we’re still waiting on everything to come together for the couches and other elements to transform our youth room into a more comfortable and versatile space.  The goal is that the youth who meet on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays have a nice space that can also be used for our pastoral counseling times, prayer times, as a reception or lobby space after service and for the parents of our tutoring program to have a nice place to be while their children are in classes.

Also we will be starting an ESL (English as a Second Language) class for adult in this same space in May with or without the transform! 

Web Page Help

Do you know how to design or create web-pages?  Would like to donate your expertise to our church plant? We would like to get our web-site fixed up and running so that it can be another tool to connect us with more people. 

Family News:

Our son Beniah is here!  We are so blessed to have Beniah Benjamin in our lives.  Rebecca and Justice love to hold him and give him lots of kisses.  They have great plans for what they will do with him when he is a little bigger.  He was born on March 21^st – so he is just about 1 month old and seems to grow every single day.  We’re taking lots of pictures so you’ll probably see at least one in the next few updates.  J

 
 

Fabiola’s Birthday….is just around the corner!  [March 26^th to be exact.] 

Please Pray with Us…

·         Pray that we may effectively engage, equip and empower our church while we do outreach and ministry in the park, community and during our special services this weekend.  Pray with us that we would see our church engaged, matured and trained-up in God’s love to reach more people for Him. 

Good Friday service

Easter outreach at the park (Saturday)

Easter Sunday service

·         Please pray with us for salvations! We had a great evangelism training time last Sunday after service – the majority of the church stayed after for the training!  Pray that we might effectively share our faith with friends, family, neighbors and even people we've never seen before – so that God might get the glory. 

·         Family Series  - One of the biggest needs in our community is teaching, guidance, help and healing for the families.  God has such a great plan and purpose for us through the family and we will be teaching about that for the next few weeks.  Please pray for a lot of new visitors and for families to be healed and transformed by the Word and the Spirit. 

We are excited about this season, the Easter season, where we are able to really focus on what Christ did for us.  We have new life!  We have left the old and embrace the amazing new life that He has given to us….now let us pray together and labor together so that more people may exit their old ways and encounter this amazing life!

Happy Easter!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

Unity – Partnerships (God’s Our Drug)

While you pour into this ministry and our family we wanted to share how this fountain of blessing continues to extend further.  We have been pouring not only into our own community and church, but into other churches and communities as well.  We want to support others.  We can do more together—unity is powerful.  We are reaching out to see these new partnerships develop so that more people can know Jesus and grow in Him.

We have hosted prayer meetings with other area pastors. We have visited other churches and offered trainings to churches much larger than our own and even worked with some of them to put on outreaches in the park. We have had prayer and strategy meetings with Christian teachers that taught at the public school a few blocks from our church.  These teachers already know hundreds of the high schoolers that walk by our church every day.  We have opened the doors of our church so that through these partnerships we can reach more of these youth and help build a bridge in this community between cultures, languages, ages, and even rival gangs.  Together we can reach more youth for Christ. 

“That’s like your drug, huh?” said one of the youth with eyes wide open as he observed a prayer time.  “You guys just got high, didn’t you!?” he shouted out – amazed at what he had just witnessed.  This youth was trying to contextualize that peace that passes all understanding and that inexpressible joy that comes with being with Jesus.  The disciples were accused of being drunk after their prayer meeting in that upper room and now our youth are witnessing the internal change that takes place when our real, living God comes and meets with them.  We want more people to observe and experience that God is real and get to know and grow in Jesus. 

Lastly, we wanted to thank you for praying with us for marriages and families. As you may already know three couples from our church have gotten married in the last few months.  We held our first wedding at our church at the end of February (see picture in the last post) – it showcased powerfully the transformation that the Holy Spirit is causing in our community.  This couple was also baptized on the same day as their wedding!  It was a great day of celebration for our church family. 

Please pray with us for more baptisms and salvations – especially in this strategic Easter season.  We will be starting a teaching series on the family after Easter, so please pray for that to have a lasting impact as we penetrate deeper into enemy territory to proclaim that “Jesus is Alive!” 

We are thankful for Jesus giving us life and that He has given us you to partner with so that together we can reach even more people for Him! 

The Wolyn Family

Our New Arrival: Beniah Benjamin

Beniah Benjamin Wolyn

 Born in Los Angeles, California  

March 21, 2014  @ 3:55 pm

 

Weight: 6 lbs. 5 oz.  /  Height: 17 ¾ inches

Beniah is a biblical name (we changed the spelling slightly) meaning “The Lord Builds”.  

 

Beniah signifies a character of loyalty, obedience, courage, and great strength.  

 

The biblical figure was a one of King David’s top soldiers, a brave warrior and great leader.  He was in charge of the bodyguard and then later stayed loyal to David’s desire to have his son Solomon anointed king.  He was then appointed at the top army commander. 

 Rebecca and Justice like to call their brother “Bennie Bear”. 

 

2 Samuel 23:20-23 “Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter….performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.  And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah…he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.” (Also see: 1 Kings 7:5-8; 1:28-50).

 

Benjamin, also a biblical name means “Son of the right hand”.  We like this name because it is multi-lingual (recognized in many languages and cultures) and for the strong, virtuous and faithful brother and son Benjamin in the Bible was (the beloved 12^th son of Jacob, and brother of Joseph).  Beniah Benjamin is our ‘baby’ (B.B., in Spanish).

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for praying for us and for rejoicing with us in this exciting new addition to our family!

Love,

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and Beniah

Hamburger Helper

Jesus is calling people to Himself.  Every time we pray we are amazed at how He answers.  His desire is to be with us and that we learn to be fulfilled and find rest in Him.  Real rest only comes through Him….something so many people we bump into weekly are looking for desperately, but in the wrong places.

Updates…

Hamburger Helper 

Many of our pre-teens and teens come home to empty homes.  Some don’t see their parents until the following morning because of work schedules.  After a very rich time of Bible study and prayer one of our youth, who normally doesn't feel comfortable eating alone and often skips meals if his parents aren’t home announced that he was going to take God out on a date to eat a hamburger.  God was so powerfully “with him” that he gained a confidence and strength and was able to rest in the company of His maker and Lord.  We had read about the Holy Spirit being our Helper and also how Jesus wanted to come in and eat with us.  What a great application of what we were learning!

Jesus Calls Families To Himself

Andrea grew up in the church in her home country, but drifted away as a teen and then immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult.  She was recently invited to our church by her neighbor and immediately felt God calling her back to Himself. 

Her husband is not a Christian, but she has been praying for him.  He recently came to church, but promised to do so only if she promised that they leave immediately after the service was over.  Andrea tried to gather the family together and leave, but he no longer wanted to leave…he ended up staying another hour enjoying the fellowship. 

Also surprising to Andrea was how her husband reviewed all the key points of the message with her later that day.  He then said to her, “One day I just know I am going to be a preacher of the Word.”  Obviously this surprised Andrea because he has not yet confessed to follow Jesus, but he is feeling the tug of what is about to happen. 

Later he asked Andrea, “What are you going to donate to the church?”  Looked at him perplexed, she said, “What do you mean?”  He explained how we had talked about an upcoming yard sale we will have at the church that had been announced and offered to donate all of his old construction tools. 

We also stand in awe as we watch God restore Andrea’s daughter after some really bad choices have changed the course of her life.  She is now rapidly making new friends and learning about God’s love for her through our re-vamped youth group. 

Andrea has asked for prayer that she would whole-heartedly follow Jesus and that He would draw her family to Himself.  Soon, we believe, the whole family will be serving Jesus together in the church and living the Christian life in their home and throughout the week.

Weddings

Jose nervously reads the vows he wrote Maricela.

Taking communion after exchanging vows.

Fabiola, Maricela and baby Josue.

Throwing the bouquet.

Wonder if there is another wedding coming????

Friends and family gather to celebrate!

Praying for Jose after he shared his testimony and confession of faith in Jesus...right before his baptism.

The baptism of Maricela.

We celebrated our first wedding at our church with Jose and Maricela. It was a very special and beautiful day.  As you can see they were also both baptized!  What an exciting day.  If you would like to see a 2-minute video of the wedding (compiled of time-lapsed shots) click here: “Jose and Maricela Wedding”

The following weekend one of the leader’s we trained-up was also married.  She will be joining her husband’s church so that they can minister together there.  They will not be too far from us – so we will be able to join our churches together from time to time.  Chad gave the opening word and prayer at their wedding – another joyous occasion.  

Family/Baby Update

This Friday! We are scheduled to go into the hospital for a C-section at 11:00 am on March 21^st.  Please continue to lift us all up in prayer. (See below for some specific bullet points.)

Can You Help?

We have a few needs/wants that we wanted to share with you regarding our ministry so that you can be praying with us or giving towards meeting these helpful tools.

We Need Couches:  Our tutoring ministry and youth ministry use the room pictured below (this is also where we have team meetings, prayer meetings, counseling sessions and hold other ministries). We have 15-25 adults in this room for 2 hours every Sunday afternoon.  Currently we have 2.5 couches (none of which are comfortable) and folding chairs.  Lately some parents have asked permission to wait in their car, which is counter-productive for us because we want to bless them with a comfortable space and use that 2 hour block to be able to build relationships and share about Jesus.  

 

Television:  In our children’s classroom we have a very small TV screen, which is used for some lesson videos, worship videos, watching DVDs and playing the XBox.  With 10-20 kids it is hard for everyone to see the screen, so we would love to mount a large screen TV on the wall (like where the bulletin board is currently). 

Yard Sale: We will be having a yard sale to raise funds and awareness for our church on Saturday, April 5^th.  If you live in the LA area and want to donate something for us to sell please let us know.  

Mural Art: We would love to decorate our toddler’s classroom (and maybe other parts of the church building) with some fun mural art.  If you are talented in that area (and are able to come to Los Angeles) please let us know! We’d love to add some color and fun to the space.    

Fabiola and Maricela leading a group of children in the toddler’s room (where we would like to paint a mural).

Please Pray with Us…

Birth of our son:

o   Safe, healthy delivery

o   A healthy baby!

o   Rebecca (8) and Justice (6) would do well through the transition and many changes. 

o   Rest for all.

o   Quick recovery for Fabiola.

Growth opportunities for the church:

o   Fabiola is handing everything off for the next month, giving a lot of people the opportunity to put into practice what they have been learning.

o   Chad is handing off most things for a week and then will continue to train-up and give others the opportunity to discover their gifts and minister using those gifts. 

Easter

o   At our church a big focus of the next month will be in preparing our service and outreach for the Easter week.

o   Pray that we may effectively reach youth, children and families as they are on vacation and more aware of spiritual things during the Easter season.

§  MANY SALVATIONS!

o   Pray that we may effectively engage, equip and empower our church while we do outreach and ministry in the park, community and during special/regular services. 

§  MORE LEADER’S TRAINED-UP and MORE CHRISTIANS ENGAGED and MATURED in their LOVE & FAITH.

“So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper.” Hebrews 13:6a (Amplified Bible)

Thank you for standing with us in the comfort, encouragement and confidence of the Lord our Helper. He is truly the one who does all great things…and yet He chooses to use you and me to accomplish them.  Glory to God!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and baby boy

Yard Sale - What's That All About?

When you think about a yard sale do you think of:

A) A way to grow personally (in being responsible, in leadership and team work)?

B) A way to reach out, know and be known more by your neighbors?

C) A way to raise funds for a worthy, growing ministry?

D) All of the above?

Well, our church recently held a yard sale and it was definitely “D) All of the above.”  One couple, Juan and Maria, who recently gave their lives to Jesus, really took charge and lead the endeavor.  They organized a team, set the date and time, put out signs, invited friends and neighbors and worked hard.  Later they shared with our small group what the yard sale meant to them: 

‘We have never done anything that was not for ourselves. If we sell things, it is to make money for us.  If we help out it is for our own benefit.  We were exhausted (after 14 hours from set-up to tear-down), our muscles ached, but there was this amazing satisfaction in having given so much of ourselves to something bigger – to God and His people.  We really could have used some of the money to help pay for some extra medical bills, but guess what?! (They both were smiling ear-to-ear.) Though I have been working as manager at my job for five months I was never given a raise. But when I went to work the day after the yard sale my boss called me in and said he was going to give me a big bonus for taking on the extra responsibility of being manager. It felt like God was showing us that He will take care of us…that we should keep serving Him without expecting anything in return.’

We were also able to meet new families from the neighborhood.  One family came out to church the next day and is interested in getting more involved.  They have no church background, but after speaking with somebody from our church recognize that raising their family in the church would be healthy for all of them.  They know they have a lot to learn, but are eager to understand who God is and how He can be a part of their life.  Please pray for this family and many others that we reached out to during this yard sale and our other community events last month.  Pray that people may see that Jesus is the answer to the better life that they seek. 

We are excited that by the end of this month we will be holding our baby boy (and missing some sleep?) – in just a few more weeks!  Please keep all of us in your prayers.  Pray for a healthy baby, healthy delivery and smooth transition into living as a family of five in the city.

Lastly, if you use Facebook, you may enjoy the periodic pictures and videos that we post of our growing church on our church’s Facebook page (Fuente para las Naciones).

May God get all the glory and more people come to Jesus! Thank you for your prayers!

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Justice and baby