God is on the move!

The last few months have been full of equipping and empowering dozens of groups around the world to lead church plant schools and trauma healing groups. After each opportunity we realize more and more how much we love training the trainers and offering pastoral guidance and practical resources to pastors and leaders in communities of poverty.

In the last 5 years we have certified 137 Evangel Deans who have hosted 48 Evangel Schools in 6 countries and 15 cities across the United States. As a result, 381 church plant teams have been equipped to plant new churches around the world!

Just last month I (Chad) was able to lead our first team to Mexico to train a group of key leaders from various Mexican states to be Evangel Deans. Their vision is to plant 500 churches across Latin America. It is always life-giving to see the Holy Spirit in action and be able to stir up the passion that emerging leaders have to win their communities for Christ.

I have also been involved in partnering with the president of Institut Universitaire de Developpement International (IUDI) based in Cameroon (known in English as, Francophone University of International Development) which has a student base of politicians, business leaders and other people of influence from the 27 French speaking nations across Africa. We have been offering trauma healing groups to these leaders. Cameroon has been ravaged by civil war for over four years and many in our training have shared of atrocities and challenges unlike most of us have ever seen.  Despite the heart-breaking stories the group has shared there is a contagious faith, a hope that shines from within them and a desire to take what they are learning and share it with their people.

Other international organizations I’ve been working with these last few months are a chaplain organization (training chaplains to take trauma healing into the jails, hospitals and other places of great need), a language organization (focused on non-dominant languages…i.e. the least reached), and a medical ambassador organization (providing medical and mental health services). Most of these organizations are focused on the English and Spanish parts of the world, but there is more potential to expand ever further.

God is on the move! It is great to join with you, through your prayers and financial support, to be able to provide materials, training, communities of practice and a growing relational network of support to these amazing men and women on the front lines, who often are both living in and ministering to the poorest in their communities. Please keep us and them in your prayers this month.

Redemptive Poverty Work

The last thing we want to do is exploit anyone, hurt anyone or oppress them – we aren’t here to rescue people from their circumstances. Only God can do the rescuing. We put our faith (in word and deed) in the supernatural work of God while we humbly advocate and come alongside those who live in the condition of poverty and join in the work God is already doing. 

These are ideas we have been chewing on over the last six months from a recently released booklet and course by the president of World Impact, Dr. Alvin Sanders, called, “Redemptive Poverty Work”. In this book, the issue of toxic poverty work is identified as a common problem among those working with the poor. Issues such as the savior syndrome, paternalism, cynicism, and burnout lead to causing more harm than good. Over the last 12 years of living amongst and working alongside the poor in South Los Angeles we have seen these toxic tendencies in groups we have partnered with as well as ourselves. It is possible to want to see change in people so badly that we can lose the focus on God’s sovereignty and our roles as guides to cheer on and partner with the true heroes of the community.

At the heart is the belief that there is great potential in the people we meet and a desire to spur them on, to empower them, to help give them opportunities that they may not be able to achieve on their own…so that they can flourish and grow as God desires for them. We can’t control the outcomes, but we can work at being healthy and supportive. As three of our children are in their teenage years, learning to become adults, it makes a lot of sense that the best thing we can do for them at this stage is provide pathways of opportunity, advocate when necessary, ask for forgiveness when we mess up, and admit we haven’t done everything right, but want to cheer them on, guide them, help them and watch them fly.

We want to thank you for allowing us to stand in a unique spot. We are like a bridge. We get to empower urban leaders to reach their cities with the Gospel. We get to share resources and powerful programs, help make connections and provide other strategic support that is “wind in their sails” for these gifted and called servants. What a joy to watch so many grow and accomplish the vision God has placed on their hearts for their communities.

If you are interested in a quick, but challenging read on Redemptive Poverty Work, let us know by sending us an email. The book and/or course may be powerful to work through as a small group or with a mission-minded team of people. We would be honored to guide a group through a course on Redemptive Poverty Work too – so if that sounds interesting or helpful, please let us know.

Please keep our Trauma Healing Groups and Evangel Church Planting Schools in prayer – there are several we are working on right now touching a wide-array of leaders, churches, communities, and countries.

We are grateful for your prayers and financial support. God bless you!

Breakthrough

I just got off the phone with one of our partners that we trained and are coaching in Trauma Healing based out of Los Angeles and she shared that one of the ladies in her most recent group had a miraculous breakthrough during one of the classes letting go of deep-seated, long-held pain and the best part is she gave her life to Jesus for the first time as a result! These are things we love to celebrate as we remember Jesus coming to us during this Christmas season. This lady lives in Mexico and joined the group through Zoom. 

Another lady, Pastor Jennifer from Florida, was in this same group and shared that she did not want to come to the third class because her mother had just passed away the day before. While that is understandable something inside of her gently pushed her to log-on and join this healthy, loving community and share the loss of her pain. It just happened that the topic of the class was “What happens when someone is grieving?” and she learned valuable skills on how to go through the grieving process in a healthy way and help others as well. She shared that the timing and content was like a ring that fit perfectly on her finger. Now Jennifer and her husband, Pastor Efrain, are launching Healing Groups in their church to help others learn how to deal with the heart wounds that come through loss and the other hurts so many of us pick up through life.

Here are a few other short testimonies from some of our more recent Trauma Healing Groups:

 

·        “I came to this group just to see what it was about not thinking I needed any help, but God has used this group to show me that I had trauma and pain stuffed deep in my heart. I never really spoke about that pain, but through this group I found a safe place and easy strategies to share. I felt that as I shared my pain a deep healing began in me. I praise God for this group and that I can now walk in more freedom and wholeness!”

 

·        “Thank you to all the facilitators for sharing and being part of my healing process. Today I am an overcomer and more than a conqueror in Christ, so that I can help the many other woman who are out there that need to know their value and will be brought to healing in the name of Jesus.”

 

·        “I was touched and helped by being able to share testimonies and hear from the others in the group. The Lord truly has strengthened us, each one of us in a unique way, and to Him be the glory.”

Thank you for joining us in prayer for:

 

·        The Trauma Healing ministry to continue to expand and impact lives. Pray for us to connect with and to train key leaders and ministries so that the empowering work through these groups can expand.

·        Pray for upcoming Dean Schools (training teams to teach Church Plant schools) in Northern California in January and in Mexico in March.

·        Please keep our family in your prayers as we maneuver some challenges in family dynamics.

 

May your Christmas be a time of deep gratitude, joyful celebration, and expectancy of what is to come!

Drug Addict Stalker with Machete

Thank you for your love and support. We wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

During a year full of so many challenges we hope you are able to see the goodness and majesty of God. We have certainly had to stop and lean in numerous times this year because things have been hard, but we continue to marvel at His faithfulness, power and overall goodness. We share this update with hopes you will join us in prayer, but also in celebration for what God has done, is doing and will continue to do!

DRUG ADDICT STALKER WITH MACHETE

It all started with our neighbor sending us a video of a homeless man smoking meth while sitting on our chair in the enclosed patio area right outside our kitchen – while we were home. We didn’t notice him, but our neighbor chased him out. Our neighbor was keeping an eye out since this same intruder had attempted to steal our neighbor’s motorcycle the day before. Since then, he has come back more times than we can count (usually at least daily), threatened us with a knife and a machete.

The police have come numerous times and there is now a restraining order against him. Fabiola has prayed for him, and we have tried to talk to him, but sadly he is not well and does not want to be part of a program that could offer him help. When the police came one night after the machete incident, they couldn’t find the 2-foot blade that he had hid while the police were enroute – but the next day we found it buried in the planter space outside our neighbor’s door. He continues to pound on doors at 3am in the morning, use the bathroom and do drugs on our property.

We have had a few prayer meetings with our neighbors on the property. We have installed cameras, motion lights, locks and have the police and neighbors involved too. Everyone is on edge and not feeling super confident or comfortable coming and going – especially at night when we just don’t know if he’ll be waiting outside the door or behind a car.

Here is a video of the intruder escaping while the police were looking on the side of the yard. (12 seconds)

The police were only able to find a smaller knife and drugs on him, but later we located the machete he used to threaten us with (before we retreated indoors) hidden in the space outside the front door. [Not sure why it looks so much smaller in the photo.]

The morning after being arrested he returned to look for the machete he had buried. (8 seconds)

This was from last night...(on right side) (16 seconds)

FIRES STILL AT BACK DOOR

Some have asked how the fire situation continues…well, we did have a major fire incident last week, but thankfully the fire department was very quick to respond with two engines. With the weather getting cooler and darker we smell the fires burning more and more once again. We appreciate your prayers for safety.

 

CHURCH PLANTING – 100s of Churches for 2022

We had an international church planting school planned to help train key leaders from Bangladesh, India and some other nations in Africa and Asia, but it has proven very difficult for them to get visas right now with COVID still lingering. There is great need and great interest, and we continue building and training online, but pray for opportunities in the coming year for this gathering.

COVID also made us adapt our plan for a school in Mexico for this month, but we plan on being there in March to train up key leaders to lead their own church planting schools. They have a goal to plant 500 churches throughout Mexico and Latin America.

Continue to pray for Pastor Javier who I have been coaching as he has been working with 10 churches in Columbia as he trains them using the Evangel School of Church Planting that we did with him. We believe next there will be even more multiplication through him and his growing network!

A small network of churches reached out to us this last month looking for help bringing their churches that are over 75 years old and started in the city but have not been growing. It is such a privilege to come alongside and provide resources and teaching that can help plant or rebirth churches and ministries.

 

TRAUMA HEALING – A Growing Need; A Growing Network

I have just finished training 3 groups of new Trauma Healing Group Facilitators. These are 9-week courses that equip key leaders who will lead healing groups in their churches or ministries. It is encouraging to see how impactful this material is and how our community network is growing. Two of these groups were in Spanish with people across the US, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the other in English. Three of our facilitators are working on their advanced training (about a year-long process) and soon will be able to help us grow our reach even more as they can co-facilitate these trainings with us.

We already have several exciting groups lined up for the start of 2022 and plan on one of them training key leaders in much of French-speaking Africa.

 

REDEMPTIVE POVERTY WORK – No More Toxic Charity Work

In this holiday season a lot more attention tends to be given to giving and serving especially those in need which is great, but here at World Impact we have learned a lot over the years and are working on helping others understand that there are both helpful and harmful ways to help. We are having great conversations with churches big and small, rural, suburban, and urban about how we can help in a way that empowers and doesn’t hurt…this framework is called Redemptive Poverty Work. It is moving beyond ‘charity’, shifting our mindset from rescue to advocacy towards empowerment. If you are interested in knowing more for yourself or for a group (small group, church, missions team, etc.) let me know and I can send you some material or set up a time to dive even deeper. The last thing we want to do is offer help that makes things worse.

 

FUENTE CHURCH – Real Community; Real Impact

Our church continues to re-establish itself in the community that has been hit hard by COVID. Most families lost jobs, have been sick and have not fully recovered. We have provided a lot of physical resources thanks to churches and organizations (and individuals) that have partnered with us. We also take very seriously our call to minister spiritually and have started some new small groups in the community and are working on new ideas and outreaches to the community for 2022. For Thanksgiving we have given away over 100 meals and for Christmas, while we won’t have the huge production that we usually have we will be working with a handful of families to pour out blessings on them.

 

OUR CHILDREN – Our Co-Laborers and First Ministry 

Rebecca is a junior and on the Ministry Team and playing varsity softball.

Angela just got on the basketball team at her school, she is a sophomore. She is also doing a work internship at our church where gradually she is learning different practical skills that will help her in future job opportunities.

Justice was in his first play, Our Town, and is on the JV soccer team and really loving high school; he is a freshman.

Beniah is reading a lot and drawing great pictures and making comic books. He keeps us all smiling as he tells us all that he loves us constantly. He is in 2^nd grade.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! We are blessed to serve Jesus and be able to do it with you!

Thank you,

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca, Angela, Justice and Beniah 

Supporting Their Vision

This month we ask for prayer for a training we will be doing in Mexico with Pastor Daniel. Pastor Daniel has a vision to plant 500 churches. In under 10 years he has raised up a great network of pastors and leaders and has planted over 40 churches (reaching over 1,000 people). When he found out about our church plant school he asked if we would come down and train some of his key leaders so that they could use our resources to equip and empower more leaders throughout Mexico and Latin America. They don’t have a lot of resources, but they do have a lot of heart and we are inspired that they see barriers more like hurdles to go over than something that stops them in their tracks.

On the other side of the US, in Miami, and the other side of Latin America, in Columbia, we are launching two more church plant schools with a couple that we trained last year, Javier and Martha. Please keep them in prayer as they prepare to train over 60 church planters. One team that is being trained in Miami has a vision to plant in Cuba, those in Columbia want to start new churches all throughout that country. Join us in praying for these laborers who so eagerly serve the Lord in the expansion of the Gospel and for fruitfulness in the harvest through their efforts.

This month we will also be training a core group of leaders at a local church that serves the community near where we live. Each of the pastors and key leaders will be going through our Trauma Training and once trained want to take everyone in their church through a Healing Group that deals with how to heal from all types of heart wounds from a Biblical perspective.

A huge thank you to everyone that has been praying with us about our housing issues and move. In just two weeks’ time we had a fire behind our house destroying the homeless encampment and a large portion of our neighbor’s fence and yard, 2 broken car windows, a break-in/things stollen from our minivan (different vehicle than broken windows), a broken washing machine, and the stove stopped working…and we still haven’t moved to the new house due to safety issues and other complications. Living out of boxes in a part of the city that just doesn’t play fair has been difficult, but we are thankful for what we do have – which when we sit and think about it is so much compared to many of our neighbors and people around the world.

 Please join us in praying for:

 

·        Pastor Daniel and our Evangel Dean School to train pastors that will train church planters in Mexico and beyond.

·        Pastor Javier’s two Evangel Schools of Urban Church Planting in Columbia and Miami.

·        Pastor Alex and Octavio and the team from La Viña as they go through the Trauma Training and beyond.

·        Our move to be a blessing and create a safe and comfortable space where our family and ministry can thrive.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support that make this ministry possible.

Exponential Expansion

Karen is a single mother from El Salvador who was invited to our church by a lady that found us herself looking for help for her child as she was adapting to a new life in the US. When our church offered a Trauma Healing Group offered through our work with World Impact, Karen was eager to attend with her friend. They both grew a lot in the following weeks – learning basic biblical and mental health principles related to trauma care. They also dug deeper in important topics like forgiveness and skills like active listening.

After eight weeks both women were feeling the change and renewed hope as well as the desire to share this training with others. So along with a group of 6 other people that we had gathered from other groups we have led we trained them to form and lead their own Healing Groups. Since then, this group has trained people in numerous cities, states and countries. One of the ladies that was in Karen’s first group is Maria and she is also taking what she has learned to share with others – she brainstormed 89 people to invite for her first few groups and since has expanded her list considerably.

Maria works with a group of international chaplains that minister in jails, hospitals, shelters, half-way houses, homes for women recovering from abuse, prostitution, addiction and more. We have partnered up to offer not only Healing Groups but Trauma Training for these chaplains so that they can bring practical tools to those most in need. As the reach multiplies and the testimonies come in, we are reminded of how being faithful with the little and loving the person that is in front of you is God’s wisdom for seeing lasting change in communities.

We appreciate your partnership more than you know because it allows us to love, serve, equip and empower women like Karen and Maria and countless others as they reach areas that none of us have access to – from the homeless on streets in Columbia to women leaving the sex trade in Florida and beyond.

 PRAY WITH US ABOUT:

 

·        Continued growth of the Trauma Healing program. We have been working almost single-handedly at building a network of trainers in Spanish (aside from what we do in English) so that our reach can continue to grow far and wide throughout the US and Latin America and beyond.

 

·        We mentioned the fires and other problems behind our home in the last letter.

Here is an LA Times article we were interviewed for (just a little bit at the end) related to the fires: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-12/surge-in-fires-at-la-homeless-encampments-growing-crisis

 

 

·        A strong start for our children at school this month. Rebecca enters her junior year. Angela will be at her high school IN PERSON for the first time as a sophomore (her school never opened during COVID). Justice is starting his high school career (freshman year). And Beniah continues growing as a 2^nd grader.

Church Planting Testimonies

As we stated in our last letter, we want to share some more details about the teams we have been training to lead church plant schools.

• Javier & Martha, who we mentioned last time, are working with us to start a school for church planters in Florida and then they want to do something in Ecuador, Columbia, and Honduras. Their goal is to have two schools per year (one in the US and one abroad).

• An international prison ministry who served nearly 350,000 prisoners in 2020 and is in prisons in 30 countries wants to plant churches inside the prisons all over the world. Our dean school is helping them launch into that work.

• Jean Pierre, a Haitian who lives in New Jersey, is planning on not only training church planters in NJ, but also going 4 or more times a year into his ravaged homeland to train church plant teams there. For years helping others plant churches has been on his heart and now the potential to see 10s, if not 100s of churches is real.

• Our team from Kenya had 8 church planters representing a diverse swath of their country all eager to learn how to help others plant more churches and reach more of their nation for Jesus.

• Sudipta's ministry in India is taking people "from hopeless end to endless hope" in what he says is "a nation where millions of people perish every day without knowing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." He is thrilled to be able to equip more church planters to help move their vision forward in reaching India for Jesus. 

• Our US partners are in major cities from coast to coast where they are working with their networks to see more churches planted. They share our burden to reach out to and equip and empower under-resourced urban leaders so that these communities will be transformed by the Gospel. We are believing with them that areas that have been plagued by racial division and economic disparities can emerge as places where God’s Kingdom is advancing, and the flavors of heaven come to earth.

We are humbled to be able to train and equip so many wonderful leaders full of vision and heart through our Dean School and we can’t wait to see how many churches are planted in the coming years as a result.

Thank you for your prayers and generous financial support that helps us get affordable resources to these precious partners as well as be able to dedicate our time to put on these intensive trainings. We know that the message of God’s love, hope and restoration will continue to be multiplied throughout barrios, cities, prisons, and slums – the darkest edges and neediest corners – due to our combined efforts as we lean into and are led by the Holy Spirit. Thank you!

Lastly, would you lift up our community and housing situation. Throughout COVID the number of people without homes living behind our home has greatly increased. As a result, there have been 6 major fires (burning down trees, fences, trash, etc.). We are working with other city, and community leaders for solutions for people without homes looking for a place to stay warm and cook their meals and we appreciate your prayer covering for safety and guidance.