Dear All,
Greetings from Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil! This year’s Central & South American Missions Conference was – in Spanish – “increíble!” From the greetings at the airport to the goodbyes the following week, the Santiago disciples displayed their passionate love for the Lord in the countless ways that they served each us whether from Brazil, Mexico or the United States!
The up and coming world city of Santiago de Chile
with a population approaching eight
million lost souls!
Carlos & Lucy Mejia and all the Santiago Disciples
gave each participant of the CSA Missions
Conference a warm “Latin Welcome!”
The historic Sunday Morning Worship Service of
the CSA Missions Conference had a
record attendance of 245!
Thursday morning was the Church Builders Workshop accompanied by discipleship and prayer groups! It was especially encouraging to be working side-by-side in the gospel with the leaders of our three Crown of Thorns plantings – Vic & Aurora Gonzalez of Mexico City, Raul & Lynda Moreno of Sao Paulo, and Carlos & Lucy Mejia of Santiago! That evening, a lovely dinner was held at which Matt Sullivan delivered the message: Be Holy Because I The Lord Your God Am Holy!
Vic & Aurora Gonzalez – the dynamic
Mexico City Church Leaders!
Excitingly, 14 former and present ICCM students
attended the life-changing CSA Conference!
Then on Friday morning, the conference participants traveled to the orphanage that MERCYworldwide has “adopted” for one of its local projects. This day was in fact the celebration of the new “formal alliance” of ECAM (Fundaciones de Egresados de Chile de Menores) and MERCY! This project underscores the tremendous efforts that Job & Erin Sterling have done as the Directors of MERCY for Chile!
The unveiling of the “MERCY Mural” which
celebrated the formal alliance between
ECAM and MERCY!
Friday evening we were formally welcomed to the CSA Missions Conference as Aimee Paulino de Osias sang the beautiful theme song Yo Soy Tu Dios (I Am Your God) where the words were an adaptation of Marc Anthony’s hit song, Vivir Mi Vida! Carlos Mejia, Jared McGee and Alfred Anuch – the Santiago Evangelists – combined to preach the message El Dios De Abraham, Isaac Y Jacob!
Aimee opens up Friday night singing the theme
song of the conference, Yo Soy Tu Dios!
Saturday morning was the outstanding Men’s and Women’s Programs! Elena delivered a very moving lesson for all the sister leaders entitled, I Am Your Shield, I Am Your Great Reward!
Four generations of discipleship: “Abuela Elena,”
Lucy, Rachel and her daughter – Priscilla!
The afternoon was “free” for fellowship! Then we gathered that evening for the “Banquete del Reino” (Kingdom Banquet)!
“Blessed is the [disciple] who… eats at the feast
in the Kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15)
At this incredible event during the delicious meal, folk dances from various Central and South American countries were elegantly performed!
Viva Brazil!
Abelardo & Elida Flores – Lucy’s uncle and aunt –
proudly perform the Mexican Hat Dance!
Viva Venezuela!
Viva Chile!
Viva Colombia!
Raul Moreno stirred our hearts with message El Es El Dios De Vivos!
Raul Moreno is a master preacher in English,
Spanish and Portuguese!
The 245 that gathered for this record attendance on Sunday morning witnessed the “grande finale” of the CSA Missions Conference starting with the “goodbyes” to Job & Erin who will be a part of the Dallas Ft. Worth Mission Team and to Eugenia Godoy and Yamin Leyton who will be helping to form the Auckland, New Zealand Remnant Group! Then came the historic appointment of Renato & Marie Jose Tria of Sao Paulo by the Morenos to be recognized as an Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader in the Kingdom of God!
Renato & Maria Jose Tria were appointed
Evangelist and Women’s
Ministry Leader!
Another historic highlight of this most memorable day was the announcement of the Bogotá, Colombia Mission Team – to be led by Jared & Rachel McGee! Lord willing, this team will be sent off next February at the 2015 Central & South American Missions Conference!
Lord willing, Jared & Rachel will plant the Bogata
International Christian Church in February 2015!
After seeing three baptisms after the service, late that afternoon we gathered again to witness the gorgeous wedding of Malcolm & Alexa Abbott!
Alexa’s father came all the way from Colombia
to escort his dear daughter down the isle!
Malcolm sings to his beloved bride!
Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Abbott!
Thanks to Carlos & Lucy Mejia for directing this life-changing seminar!
In the Kingdom friends will be friends forever!
Thanks to the Mejias for an incredible
CSA Missions Conference!
On Tuesday, Elena & I left for Sao Paulo just four hours away by plane! There we enjoyed the fellowship of the church leaders that evening!
According to Wikipedia, the extended metro area
population of Sao Paulo is almost 28,000,000!
On the Metro, you can meet most of them!
The rest of our time was spent with the Morenos, Trias, and their Campus Ministry Leaders – Danilo Bataglin & Carol Postigo!
Danilo & Carol – the USP Campus Leaders!
Since an amazing one third of the now 80 members of the Sao Paulo Church participated in the CSA Missions Conference, and since it was the fastest growing congregation outside of the USA last year with 133% growth, on Thursday evening, we were blessed to address the entire congregation to commend them as their “faith is growing more and more!” (2 Thessalonians 1:3) Several remnant disciples came out so we had over 100 adults at this fantastic service! Unfortunately, we were torn away from the fellowship quite abruptly as our flight back to Los Angeles left that night!
The beautiful Moreno Familia – Raul,
Lynda, Filipe and Bella!
A special thank-you to my dear brother Chris Broom who led the City of Angels Church in my absence during my trips to Santiago, Sao Paulo and Sydney these past three weeks. Praise God that during those three weeks, the Lord has added 45 to our number – one place membership, eight restorations and 36 baptisms!
And now more detailed reports from around Los Angeles…
Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! These past two weeks have been super-fruitful and inspiring down in the South Region as we have seen two restorations, one placed membership, and a baptism!
An incredible couple Stacy & Lynette Ybarra were restored after falling away from the church twelve years ago! Chris Chloupek knew him from our former fellowship and was contacted by them as their daughter was asking them about Jesus and wanted to get baptized! That was a huge wake-up call for the Ybarras as they realized that they needed to get themselves right with God before they could baptize their daughter!
Stacy & Lynette return to the Lord and will
be powerful servants in the South Region!
Also, we have solidified our Campus Ministry as a hero in the faith Anthony Almos returned from Paris as he has been there since the mission team launched in 2012!
As well, Elizabeth and Ivonna were walking along and saw a woman who had just parked her motorcycle and so invited Diana out to Bible study! She was so excited to get baptized and get her sins forgiven that she even gave Aliona a ride on her bike after counting the cost! Needless to say, she is very brave and we are very proud of our new Women’s Biker Ministry!
The founder of our new Women’s
Biker Ministry – Diana!
Finally, we are gearing up for this Sunday’s Women’s Day 2014! We are so honored and blessed to have Elena McKean as our honorary guest speaker. Year after year, Elena continues to love and teach the younger women how to live a godly life just like in Titus 2 “so that no one will malign the Word of God!”
Pray that the message of Jesus’ “UNCONDITIONAL”
love reaches hundreds at this weekend’s
Women’s Day in LA!
Please be praying for Oleg and the preparation of the Moscow Mission Team as he travels this week to Kiev and Moscow! Pray especially for the authorities and leaders of Kiev and the nation of Ukraine during these dangerous times in that part of the world. (1 Timothy 2:1-4) Amen!
Adam Zepeda:
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at a proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) God has been doing incredible things here in the Orange County Campus Ministry! Aware of the upcoming City of Angels Church Basketball League, all the guys prayed that God would give us a tall basketball player with the same sense of humor as ours! Sure enough, in November God put 6′ 4″ Gavin Proctor in our path who not only played four years of high school basketball but has a crazy sense of humor just like the rest of us at FJC! Gavin came into the studies with many questions and somewhat of an atheistic mindset but through the power of God’s Word and the love of the disciples, Gavin went from an ATHEISTIC mindset to a FAITHEISTIC mindset and is now your brother in Christ!
With the Lord adding Gavin to the OC
Basketball Team, perhaps this year
they will not falter in the
Championship Game!
Another incredible story is our brother Juan who was baptized today! In Juan’s Word Study, he was explaining to us how he was met by a man named Aaron two years ago. Amazingly, we came to realize that it was Aaron Turner who led the FJC Campus Ministry before moving to Portland, Oregon with Ricky & Coleen on the “Supplemental Mission Team” two summers ago!
With Juan getting a new phone they were unable to contact each other but since God doesn’t give up on people, He allowed me to meet Juan sitting alone on a bench one night on campus. Juan is a man who loves the Word as he has been reading his Bible daily for at least an hour! At Juan’s baptism, Adam Blanco shared 1 Corinthians 3:6 with a slight variation explaining that “‘Aaron’ planted the seed, the ‘FJC Ministry’ watered it, but God made it grow!” Pray for us in the Orange County Campus Ministry as we have many studying the Bible eager to be baptized!
Juan knew that God was seeking after him
as Adam reached out to him two years
after Aaron had first met him!
Chris Chloupek: “How Ya Do’in?” from the Wonderful AMS Family! In the last two weeks, we had two amazing women and two awesome men baptized! (Special thanks to the West and Southland Regions who helped with two of these conversions! Also, Ricky, who lives next door to Sonja & me, was restored to the Lord!
Nnekea – a former Muslim – is won to Jesus
Christ by the love of the AMS Sisters!
The West and AMS Regions come together
to see McCurry baptized into Christ!
Great news: Ed Washington & Alicia Rodriguez were engaged! Woo Hoo! Also, recently we had all the Singles in the City of Angels Church gather together for a Singles Night Out! Carl Buckner from the Mighty OC Region sang an original song he wrote called, The Real Gospel! He rocked house! It is so encouraging for the Singles from our 11 Regions to meet together once a month to have the opportunity to build new friendships!
Lastly, here at the AMS, instead of a Campus Ministry, we have Dance and Acting Workshops that are bearing much fruit with talented young people! Our motto is: “Heart for God FIRST and Talent SECOND!”
The fruitful Actors Workshop at
the Millennium Complex!
God is definitely bringing another harvest of people into God’s wonderful Light! Until next time… Remember: There’s No Business Like “Soul” Business!
Kyle Bartholomew: Greetings from the Central Region! These past two weeks have been faith-building as six have been added to the Kingdom through baptism! First, last week LaQuisha, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, gave up her misconceptions of the gospel and was baptized into Christ! Secondly, our brother Abel – who was just baptized in January – had the joy of seeing his sister and brother-in law baptized!
Then on Friday night, the incredible couple Josue & Mirna united their marriage through the teachings of Jesus and were baptized into Christ! Lastly, this Saturday Alana, an incredible CSULA student, was the third woman this year who has been baptized through the labors of the Mighty Women’s Dorm Bible Talk!
Alana (second from the left) and the Mighty
Women’s Dorm Bible Talk at CSULA!
And our “seventh addition” was the birth of Joan’s & my third child and first daughter – Bree Bartholomew!
Let’s welcome little Bree Bartholomew to
the City of Angels Church Family!
Ighodaro Odighizuwa: “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
(Acts 2:42, 47) Greetings of love from the Inland Empire! The Lord has done something in our region last week that we are all still in awe of! God gave us daily additions as seven were added to our number! God blessed us with six baptisms and one restoration last week!
An awesome RCC student Jonathan was baptized Monday evening in our Riverside Sector and Raveen was baptized in our new Palm Springs Sector!
Our Sunday service was incredible as we witnessed Heather restored to her “first love!” Right after that we had four – Jessica, Saray, Alicia and Fatima – come to be baptized into Christ!
Alicia experiences the refreshment of salvation!
Fatima and the Teen Ministry issue the IE’s
now daily challenge, “You will be next!”
Jessica has to be the fastest ever to be fruitful as her best friend Saray was baptized right after she came out of her waters of baptism! Jessica reached out to Saray after studying the Discipleship Study with the sisters and seeing that she had to be a “fisher of men” in order to become a follower of Jesus! She felt challenged and convicted and went straight to her best friend Saray to get her studying the Bible with the sisters!
Saray (left front) and Jessica (right front)
simultaneously issue the IE challenge,
“You will be next!”
This week the Spirit continued to move in the IE as we had two more added to our number – Aldo and Alida! God has really been blessing our efforts to find those that are truly seeking Him.
I want to lift up our new dating couple, our Palm Springs Sector Leaders – Cesar Limon & Debbie Bosch – who started dating at the CSA Missions Conference in Chile!
Cesar & Debbie are still glowing on their
second day of dating!
God has blessed Cesar & Debbie’s efforts in Palm Springs with weekly additions! So, in the seven weeks since they planted the Palm Springs Sector with just nine disciples, the Lord has blessed them with seven baptisms! God has been extremely merciful to us here in the IE as we’ve had 18 additions – 17 baptisms and one restoration – so far this year! And to God be all the glory!
HEADLINE NEWS – USA & CANADA
NEWS FLASH – Tim Kernan, the Toronto Mission Team Leader and the Director of the 2014 GLC: Based on Psalm 126, the theme for the 2014 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) is ZION’S DREAMERS! The GLC will “officially begin” Sunday, August 10th and conclude on the afternoon of August 12th! All of the sermons, lessons and classes of this year’s GLC will be based upon the books of many of “Zion’s greatest Dreamers” – Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai and Zechariah! This momentous era spans from 536 BC to around 450 BC. Their challenges and opportunities so valiantly engaged give us encouragement and hope as we confront many parallel trials to evangelize the nations in our generation!
The theme of the 2014 GLC is ZION’S DREAMERS!
We are inviting you to join us for the 2014 GLC which will be held at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa! (This is a two hour car ride from LAX, so best to fly directly to the Palm Springs Airport.) This year’s conference has a “special opportunity” and that is to purchase your 2014 Global Leadership Conference Registration Tickets early. The registration fee for this year’s seminar is $175, but from now until April 1st the “special early bird rate” is $150! (For those invited to the Church Builders Workshop on Friday, August 8th, there will be a small $20 registration fee collected at the door.) You may register for the 2014 GLC at the City of Angels International Christian Church Website – CAICC.net or you may go directly to https://glc2014.eventbrite.com. Please keep the 2014 Global Leadership Conference in your prayers!
NEWS FLASH – Mike Patterson of Gainesville:
“But the seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15) Today 49 souls listened to “the seed” that is God’s Word as I taught on the Parable of the Sower! Certainly the church here has been producing a crop of souls as in the first eight weeks of 2014 we have seen nine additions to God’s glory!
Our Inaugural Service is still bearing fruit as a woman named Elizabeth who was brought out by our brother Curtis White and Betty Mesarina (who was visiting from Orlando a day early to share her faith!) was baptized last Sunday! Elizabeth was deeply religious, which made it all the more miraculous when the “scales fell from her eyes” and she saw the truth of God’s Word!
Elizabeth like the blind man of John 9 exclaims,
“I once was blind but now I see!”
Today was amazing as Jacob was our first University of Florida student baptized into Christ! Having a “noble heart” he “eagerly examined the Scriptures every day” with the brothers radically repenting of Catholic false doctrines and turning from his lifestyle of sin. We now have a “son of the Kingdom” at UF, and with tons more studying from this amazing college we are ripe to see a harvest!
Jacob is the first UF Student baptized!
NEWS FLASH – Richie McDonnell: Greetings from Santa Barbara and Santiago! I had the privilege of going to the CSA Missions Conference this past week and it was an incredible time and a life-changing experience for myself! The church showed incredible love by housing so many of us and giving us tours of the city! A special thanks to Carlos & Lucy Mejia, as well as the loving Santiago Church for organizing such a memorable event! It was special to meet the disciples for which we gave sacrificially for many years while my wife & I were members of the Phoenix Church. Never did I think I would have the privilege to meet the disciples our church supported before meeting them in Heaven! What a privilege it was!!
Richie (far left) singing in Spanish
at the CSA Conference!
Here in Santa Barbara, we held our Inaugural Service on January 26, 2014! Today, less than a month later, we witnessed our first baptism as a small but prayerful 11 man mission team! Juan Carlos made Jesus Lord and was baptized in the ocean after Friday Night Devotional!
The first baptism of the Santa Barbara
Church – Juan Carlos!
Lastly, this weekend was historic because the SBICC had the first ever of our monthly MERCYworldwide Events! Karyn Bowman, our awesome MERCY Coordinator, arranged for us to serve STRIVE For Youth Inc., a high risk youth program, by helping them prepare items for their yard sale fundraiser. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! We love you all!
Matt Sullivan of Orlando: “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:6-10)
Sunday, February 23rd was phenomenal as it was our Send-Off Service for the Houston Mission Team! Just 18 months ago, the Orlando Mission Team arrived with a vision and a passion to honor God as we sought to glorify Him by laying down our lives to “rebuild the walls” here in the Southern United States.
Matt & Helen Sullivan planted not only the
Orlando Church, but the Santiago
Church as well!
God has done far more than we asked or imagined! So far 85 have been baptized, 25 have moved in, and 11 have been restored! We grew to almost 100 disciples and then began sending disciples off to other cities. The original plan was to send out a church planting to Atlanta after our first year. That plan was redirected by God! We were “kept by the Holy Spirit” from going there and were given the vision of Gainesville. What an incredible detour! The Gainesville Team is multiplying powerfully as Mike & Chenelle lead the way with the support of the sold-out brothers and sisters there!
In addition, we had no plans on the table for another mission team and so Houston was a giant surprise and a gift from God! Anthony & Elizabeth Eckels have worked so hard on their hearts and have been so humble in learning to build a multiplying ministry, that the timing is perfect! The amazing Houston Remnant Group has given us a solid place to land in sending a team to fulfill “the vision!”
Houston, with almost seven million lost souls, is a key city in Texas. When we heard of the financial opportunity presented by the presence of a remnant group, “we got ready at once to leave”…literally the 14 from Orlando and one from Gainesville have had only about seven weeks to get ready! Yet no one has stressed out or complained, rather they have rallied together and worked diligently to leave! So four moving trucks will be packed up this week and off they go to Houston!
The Houston Mission Team led the entire service yesterday and did an amazing job leading the songs, doing the welcome, the sermon (Anthony’s best…so far!), the communion and the contribution! After service we all ate a huge feast together as 138 celebrated in the park the send-off of the team! We were able to present the team a “Texas size cake” highlighted with a giant star on Houston! (Kip promises to bring each team member the traditional upside down globe at the Inaugural Service on April 13, 2014!) What a glorious and inspiring day as the little Orlando Church proudly sends off our second mission team in under three months’ time! And to God be all the glory!
Pray for the big hearted Houston Mission Team!
Jeremiah Clark: Greetings from the Mighty Denver Church! “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) It has been such a great month as God has truly led the Denver Church to victory adding five to our number! Over the last three weeks, we have seen three amazing baptisms and two powerful place memberships!
Just three weeks ago, we watched God work powerfully in the Becker Family, as they were able to baptize their daughter Brittany! Inspiringly, we also saw Cisco, Brittany’s ex-boyfriend and father of their daughter “come to his senses” and unite with Christ in the waters of baptism!
Cisco (front left) and the Beckers’ daughter Brittany
(back right) are now united to raise
their daughter in the Lord!
Today, our service was phenomenal from start to finish! The singing was angelic; the fellowship was electric; and many new faces were in the crowd as we are now nearing almost 80 in attendance every Sunday! Encouragingly, God led two more amazing “veteran disciples” into the vibrant Denver Church as we had Joe & Ashley Campbell place membership from our former fellowship!
The Campbells find spiritual revival
in the Mighty Denver Church!
In fact, many disciples have visited recently from our former fellowship seeking revival. After service, one brother that was visiting shared with me that even though he has never stopped attending church, after seeing the life and faith of the disciples in the Denver ICC and seeing the sin in his own life, he asked if we would restore him to the faith. Another shared with me that he was blown away by the service and the love of the disciples and that it reminded him of when he was first baptized 22 years ago! He stated that many false things have been said about our fellowship and that we are nothing like he thought we would be or what he has heard.
Lastly, to end the service, we finished with yet another heart-warming baptism as we saw Alix, a campus student at Metro State, baptized into Christ! We are so thankful to God as we have watched Him add 25 to our number since our Inaugural Service in September!
Alix is the 25th baptism of the Denver Church
since it was planted in September!
Our “Mile High Faith” continues to grow higher and higher in the Rocky Mountains! To God be the glory!
Jacob Beas of Eugene: Greetings from Track Town USA!!! We are rejoicing in the fruit that God has given us this February! The SOUL Campus Ministry is “off and running” as God has blessed us with two baptisms! The first was the baptism of an incredibly talented young woman, Devon Donahue, who made Jesus Lord after our BYND Service! Then yesterday, we were delighted to see Caleb, who like his Biblical name sake truly has a “different spirit,” enter the Kingdom through baptism! God is continuing to move in Eugene! Please keep us in your prayers!
Caleb inspires the entire Eugene Church
with his zeal as he enters the Kingdom!
Emilio Bonilla of Las Vegas: Greetings from all of the disciples in “Saint City!” The Lord has been moving in the hearts, as we have had three additions in the last three weeks! Our newest sister in Christ is Sabrina, who is a teen mom and the niece of Roger Garcia – who was baptized a month ago!
Sabrina finds hope in Christ and His Church
for herself and her child!
The second addition came by way of our amazing CSN Campus Ministry. Arvind, a very well-versed young man who attended Bible School since elementary and was a missionary for a Pentecostal church, was met by several disciples. After seeing that he was not a disciple and had never become one, Arvind made the decision to study the Scriptures. During his Light And Darkness Study, I challenged him to make his number one priority to come into the Light. Arvind wholeheartedly took the challenge and decided to study the Bible for the next 12 hours straight and was baptized that same day!
After 12 straight hours of Bible Study, the Las
Vegas Brothers had to carry Arvind to
the waters of baptism!
We are so fired up to have James Mitchell’s mother, Bydea Faithful, place membership from the South Region of the City of Angels Church! We are very grateful to have her as she now fulfills a very important role as a “mother” to our very young church. Additionally, she is a drug and alcohol counselor, and “faithful” she is, to want to help our efforts in the Chemical Recovery Ministry as soon as possible for this dark city!
“Faithful” is Bydea’s last name and first
priority in her Christian life!
Lastly, this week was especially encouraging as we had Tim & Lianne Kernan visit! Tim preached an incredible lesson entitled, The Second Coming Changes Everything at our Campus Devotional. We were all challenged and inspired to make every effort to blow out this year’s Bring Your Neighbor Day! Encouragingly, we had a record attendance of 80 giving us one for one visitors! Pray for the Lord to continue to work through us to turn this spiritual desert into an oasis. As always, to God be all the glory forever and ever! Amen!
Maria Franklin of Chicago: Greetings from the Windy City! We have had another two weeks of excitement and joy in the Chicago Church Family! First, on Friday night, Ryan was baptized into the powerful HYPER Teen Ministry! Ryan is a senior in high school and captain of the football team! He shared that although he grew up attending church, he was still enslaved to the same sins. When Ryan longed for freedom, then God sent our brother Branden who shared with him on the bus! Ryan is now eager and excited to be a worker for the Lord and encouraged the congregation by sharing that he has already made efforts to start a Bible Talk at his high school!
Ryan’s (green shirt) baptism encourages the Chicago
Teen Ministry to find their strength in the Lord!
On Saturday, the church was overjoyed to witness the union of Nana Budu & Maiya Eubank in marriage! It was so very encouraging as so many flew in from other churches that these two wonderful disciples have served in!
Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Budu!
With so many in town for the wedding, we were privileged to have guest speakers for today’s service! To start off, from the inspiring DC Church, Ron Harding was on fire as he preached a captivating sermon entitled Everything Starts With A Dream! Based on Joseph the dreamer in Genesis, he inspired the congregation to take hold of God’s dream for the evangelization of the world! Then, Kwaku Sarkodie of New York City, delivered a powerful communion message. Following, James & Jennifer Haynes of DC inspired us by sharing their personal sacrifices for the contribution message.
The visiting disciples who came for the Budus’
Wedding and inspired the Chicago
Church at Sunday Service!
Finally, the church was elated as Amber was restored to the Lord! Three weeks ago, while Lisa Fellis from San Francisco was in town for the Dawson Wedding, she reconnected with Amber and invited her to church. She attended, and since then she has been aggressive to get right with God! Pray for us as we pray for you!
Coltin Rohn of Boston: Greetings from the land of many “Hahvast” fields! This month we have been going after our Bring Your Neighbor Day
Service entitled, Faithbook: Get Your Face In This Book which took place today!
Coltin & Mandee Rohn on the Boston
University Campus!
With 43 disciples God gave us a total attendance of 101! God was listening to our prayers as many were moved by the service and want to have personal Bible studies this week. Maybe it was the special song Read All About It performed by the Kevin & Janah Dawson or the Skit called Grace, or maybe the vulnerable communion by Sal DiFusco that moved so many peoples’ hearts to want to know more about God and his “Faithbook!” However, I think we were all inspired by the scientific facts that are found in the Bible thousands of years before scientists proved them to be true which I listed in the beginning of my sermon, helping people understand science simply supports our faith and is not in conflict with our faith. The fellowship afterwards was amazing and carried on to many of our homes for lunch! Pray for the “Hahvast!”
Mike Underhill of San Francisco: Hello from the Bay Area! It’s been incredible watching God advance the church here! First, a Kingdom “young man” (not kid) named CJ was baptized after his dad left everything in Reno to be restored here in San Francisco! Ryan Casarez led CJ’s father powerfully towards being restored and a young man raising up in Berkeley, Teddy Armand, helped CJ to finally repent and be baptized… uniting a father and son as spiritual brothers!
CJ (second from the left) comes out of the brisk,
refreshing and moonlit Pacific Waters
forgiven of his sins!
Also, Peter was baptized after overcoming addiction to cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs as well! He was met when he approached Christian Casarez, an awesome brother from CCSF, walking through the mall with his Bible. Peter’s now an entirely different person and is a man on a mission!
Peter repents of addiction and is
baptized as a disciple!
Also, yesterday it was incredible to see Gary & Cyndee Ochs coordinate a Casablanca Marrieds Dinner for a “belated Valentine’s Day Celebration!” They mean A TON to the San Francisco Church and have poured out their lives to build an amazing church here! And, finally, today we had three regional services throughout the Bay Area with almost 100 people out! There’s a lot more but I’ll leave it at that! With love, your Family in SF!
Ron Harding of Washington DC: Greetings from the Capital of the United States! The last couple of weeks have been truly remarkable!
A few weeks back, we baptized Dala in our Campus Ministry. With genuine care and concern, his family tried “to take charge of him” to keep him from being baptized. (Mark 3:21) Through his faith and perseverance, Dala was able to convince his father, mother and sister to attend church with him. Not only did they love church and connect with the Gutengs – who also persecuted their daughters – but to everyone’s amazement, they looked over and saw Dala’s brother! To the astonishment of Dala, his family and all of us, Dala’s brother Tone had begun studying with our Singles Ministry and was sitting just two rows in front of them! All of us were speechless when we saw that the Lord had “determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:26) so they could both seek after the Lord at exactly the same time without even knowing it!
Then we saw Zula from Mongolia, who speaks no English, declare “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:11-12) She was studied with and baptized by Enkhee & Tsermaa completely in Mongolian! She shared that she now longs to be trained to go speak the truth about God to her home country of Mongolia!
Our new sister Zula has a Kingdom Dream to
return to her homeland of Mongolia
to plant the church!
As we strive with all our might to “finish the work” of helping Denver become self-supporting, the DC disciples blew my mind with their response to the call of the movement and our local church’s needs, collecting just under $7,000 dollars in our weekly and a nearly $15,000 in early Missions Contribution to help the movement! We are truly blessed with the most sacrificial disciples I’ve ever seen on one ministry! I’m honored and humbled to lead the incredible DC Church!
Lou Jack Martinez of Honolulu:
THERE WAS NO GOOD NEWS EMAIL LAST WEEK, BUT THERE WAS PLENTY OF GOOD NEWS!!!
It was ANOTHER BAD DAY FOR THE DEVIL as Richard “Stitch” Aschenbrenner was BORN-AGAIN, BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST LAST SUNDAY!!! Stitch is the “second piece” of our newly forming church band, as he plays a mean BASS GUITAR!!! He has played with such music legends as Clarence Clemons (Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band saxophonist), Sister Souljah, Bootsy Collins and Third Eye Blind!!! Great job Mike Watari, Alexander Ahegema, Scott Utter, and the entire SINGLES MINISTRY!!!
Now the Angel Band is playing in honor of Stitch!
Additionally, we have another dating couple in the Singles Ministry!!! Alex Aehegma asked Rufel Gelbolingo to be his girlfriend, and she said “YES!!!” They lead the Ala Wai Bible Talk together and should be fruitful again this week!!!
What a darling couple – Alex & Rufel!
Lastly, while celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary, Victor & Sonia Gonzalez, Sr. CHANGED LIVES with a SUPER-INSPIRING Campus Devo on Friday and an equally touching communion sharing and sermon on Sunday!!! Thank you so much, Victor & Sonia, for speaking the truth IN LOVE to all of your brothers and sisters in Honolulu!!! And to Almighty God be the glory!!!
Mexico is never far from the Gonzalezes’ hearts
even as Victor & Sonia celebrate their 30th
Wedding Anniversary in Hawaii!
Andrew Smellie:
“They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.” (Joel 2:7) Greetings from the spiritual “warriors” of NYC! In these past two weeks, the Lord has added three more incredible “soldiers” to the Kingdom of God!
Last week, Michael White, an Airman in the United States Air Force, was baptized into Christ! Michael is training to become a Medical Doctor (M.D.), and is stationed at the McGuire Air Force Base in Trenton, New Jersey! Michael has been faithfully coming to church for the past seven months, having first been invited by his former girlfriend who is a new sister in the Chicago Church! Despite the 73 miles and almost two-hour journey between Trenton and New York City, Michael has humbly studied the Bible and is eager to make an impact for the Lord on his base! Now he is a “partner in the gospel” with our new Jersey City Bible Talk led by Cassel & Erica Spence, who were just fruitful with Krystal Velez, a Seton Hall campus student a few weeks ago!
Michael joins the Great Physician’s Team
even before he becomes a doctor!
Today was also special as we welcomed Paul & Amy Ludwig into the NYC Family as they moved here from Syracuse, New York with their two beautiful children! Patrique & I have known Paul & Amy for years, as Paul (a Registered Nurse) was converted 15 years ago in Albany and Amy (a Beautician) has been a disciple for 21 years, having first been converted in the NYC ICOC’s Arts, Media and Sports (AMS) Ministry!
The Ludwig Family receive a gracious welcome
into the NYC Church Family!
Excitingly, the Lord continues to bless our “labors” for Him as Wyatt Daniel Hardin (the son of Wes & Debbie Hardin) was born on Saturday, February 22nd, at 11:51pm, weighing 7lbs and 1 ounce! In Wes’ words, “He is here and ready to rock!” To God be all the glory for all our “labors of love!” No matter the “walls” that we must overcome, the Lord has given us the strength to “scale” them like His soldiers without “swerving from (the) course!” To the end!
Little Wyatt is “ready to rock!”
HEADLINE NEWS – INTERNATIONAL
NEWS FLASH – Raul Moreno: Greetings from São Paulo! Last week was amazing as 27 disciples from Brazil went to Santiago to participate in the CSA Missions Conference! It was an astonishing conference! Carlos & Lucy Mejia did an masterful job as always planning and coordinating this excellent effort for the Lord. We are very spoiled having their incredible talents in Latin America!
For me, some of the highlights were the announcement of the Bogota, Colombia Mission Planting next year; the appointments of Renato & Maria Jose Tria as Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader in God’s Kingdom; the great news of the many baptisms in Mexico City; and the wedding of our very own Malcolm & Alexa!
After the conference, we had the privilege of having Matt & Helen Sullivan along with their awesome disciple daughter Melissa stay in our home for two days! Equally as exciting was having the McKeans with us as is their custom to come here after the CSA Conference in Chile. They super inspired the church to take it much higher for Jesus and really discipled Lynda & me! I have a list of 20 things to change – no exaggeration! Discipling is awesome! By the way, Kip delivered a Midweek Sermon that blew me away! It super inspired me as well as put the fear of the Lord in me! You can hear it in Saopauloicc.org.
Also, very encouraging, was having Lance & Connie Underhill from LA! Lance did a great job leading a Marriage Devotional and preaching on Sunday! Their youngest son Joey has been a very fruitful missionary here!
Lance Underhill preaching the Word at the
Sao Paulo Sunday Service!
An inspiration to the entire SoldOut Movement –
Lance, Connie and Joey Underhill!
Last but not least, it was great to see the baptism of Waldir who is doing his Masters in Computer Science at USP University, and to also witness the restorations of a great married couple: Cicero & Dilma. They were both baptized in the early 90’s but once again found God’s Kingdom and are ready to win souls for Christ! We love you with the love of the Lord!
Cicero & Dilma return to their “first love!”
Omarr Theranciel: Bonjour de Paris!
“Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”
(2 Corinthians 9: 13) What a victory for the Lord as the Paris Church had a chance to witness the baptism of Kevin Toto! Kevin was met by our dearly beloved brother Anthony Olmos, who is now in LA doing great things for the Lord as an intern in their South Region!
Anthony had the opportunity to meet this young man after a “100 person sharing challenge” and they quickly exchanged numbers! Little did Anthony know that Kevin was the youth leader of his church! After numerous texts, many phone calls, and nearly a month and a half later, Kevin finally decided to call him back! After spending time together, Kevin began to study the Bible, and soon realized that he wasn’t baptized as a true disciple and that he had to get his life right with God regardless of his religious background.
Despite Anthony having to go back to Los Angeles, he gave Kevin a charge, after the Kingdom Study, to continue to study the Bible and become a true disciple. Our mighty leader, Philippe Scheidecker, led him through the rest of the studies, and after counting the cost of leaving his leadership position in his former church, he decided to become a true disciple! He was so eager to be right with God that at 9:30 at night he boldly dove into an icy cold river to be baptized! Kevin has desires to do great things for God and hopes to someday be in the fulltime ministry in God’s Kingdom! Nous vous aimons de l’amour du Seigneur! (We love you with the love of the Lord!)
Philippe, Kevin and Bernard!
Blaise Feumba reporting about Kinshasa: A long series of conflicts ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) throughout the 1990’s, destroying most of this Central African country’s infrastructure. Recovery continues to be a slow and complex process, making DRC one of the least developed – and most desperate – countries in Africa!
In much of DRC, living conditions are dismal, access to health care is minimal, and violence still erupts in unstable areas. Rape and violence against women may be more common in DRC than anywhere else in the world!
According to a 2008 United Nations report, DRC has a population of over 57.5 million people. Of these: 75% live below the poverty line; more than half have no access to drinking water or to basic healthcare; three out of every 10 children are poorly nourished; and up to 20% of children won’t live past the age of five, and nearly half will die before their 40th birthday!
Without a doubt, our dear Congolese disciples are the modern day heroes in God’s Kingdom as they continue to preach the gospel of Christ day in and day out without complaint and with a grateful attitude in spite of their daily challenges! (Acts 5:40-42) The Lord is certainly pleased with their loyalty to Him, as God has added three more souls to their number in the past two weeks: Pecos, Lisette and St. Eloi!
St. Eloi is baptized and becomes a true Saint!
Please keep all the disciples in your prayers!
Michael Williamson of London: God is on the move in the great city of London! Two weeks ago we had over 170 in attendance at our BYND, and witnessed the baptism of an incredible young Filipino campus student!
Ely who moved to London to study Interior Design, was raised in Qatar and was met in January by our Campus Intern Kia Pope. Kia invited Ely out to the All Women’s Bible Talk she leads at the University of Middlesex called “God Crush!” Ely loved it and at her baptism, shared vulnerably how grateful she was for the Kingdom as she had spent many lonely nights with a pillow covered in tears praying to meet true Christians. Her dream is to go on a mission team back to the Middle East after she finishes school! Shortly after her baptism, Ely’s mother wrote an email from Qatar thanking the church for taking care of her beautiful daughter!
Ely and the Sisters with a “God Crush!”
Last Thursday, George & Angelica Grima, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the largest city and capital of Spain. Madrid boasts of more cloudless days than any city in Europe and the Lord definitely came through during our time there! It’s the third largest city in the EU after London and Berlin. The Remnant Group Leaders – Carlos & Karla Vargas – showed true Christian hospitality driving us all over the city, scouting campuses, dreaming and scheming while enjoying some of the best food on the planet!
Michael & Michele fell in love with the
great city of Madrid!
As beautiful as the city was our main goal was to inspire the brothers and sisters in Madrid to move to London, and train to be a part of a mission team that will be sent back to this great city. After sharing several Scriptures about God’s heart to GATHER THE REMNANT we ended our last night in Madrid to an acoustic guitar and belting out I HEAR GOD SINGING TO ME in Spanish! The next day as our dear brother Carlos raced us to the airport he then unexpectedly pipes up, “Brother we don’t know exactly how but the answer is ‘yes!’ We hear God calling us to London!” Please pray for these brave disciples as we coordinate their move to England!
The Madrid Sisters “open wide their hearts”
to Angelica and Michele!
We arrived home to London on Saturday night “whooped” but fired up! The next day the church baptized an incredible teenager whose older brother is one of our most fruitful disciples in the church – Antony! I’ve been so proud of Yomi and Kia as we are now approaching 40 campus and high school students. What made this miracle special was that our fired up teen brother Antonio led all the studies!
Jason Alejandro of Manila: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30) Greetings from the Philippines – the archipelago of 7,107 islands! Sundays are just not Sundays without baptisms!
Josephine “Phine” dela Vega was first met by Rose Sobrino (the most fruitful sister in the church) and attended the First Anniversary of the Metro Manila SoldOut Remnant Group in November last year. Deeply moved by Kip’s message entitled God’s Secret Plan, “without delay” Phine immediately studied Seeking God and bought her very first Bible that same afternoon! After three months of wrestling with the Scriptures, and after much prayer and perseverance by the sisters, Phine finally made Jesus the “Lord and Savior” of her life! Now, her heart’s greatest desire is to reach out and convert all her friends and family members!
Phine give thanks to the Lord for
all He has done for her!
Debs Rajan of Chennai: The Land of Tamils has developed its venerable culture over many, many centuries. Our state is known for its rich tradition of literature, music and dance which continue to flourish today. On Valentine’s Day, we had a “Fancy Dress Competition” and the disciples, brought out the rich tradition of this state – the Kudu Kudu Pandi (Fortune teller), Kurattis (Gypsies), Kuruvikkari (Bird hunters), Jhansi ki Rani (Queen of Jhansi), Warrior Princess, and we also had from Disney World – Ice Princess, Mother Gothel, Vampire, Minnie Mouse, Evil Step Mother from Snow White and Charlie Chaplin! It was a fun filled evening and the winner was Mythili, our teen who was a Gypsy!
Arumugam was the Fortuneteller!
Hannah came as a Gypsy!
Meena is Mother India!
And our dear brother Thomas was the
infamous Charlie Chaplin!
The night continued as we had an All Night Prayer which had a perfect ending to the Valentine’s Day with Francis getting engaged to Kirthi!
Francis gets engaged to Kirthi at the All Night Prayer
Session! Perhaps more brothers should pray
longer to find their fiancee!
This Sunday, we had Suraj and Anu from Bhuvaneshwar (Capital of Orissa) visit the church! Suraj was part of our former fellowship, and discovered much about the SoldOut Movement through our websites and Rob Onekea! Upon arrival, the disciples welcomed them at the station with the song We Love You With The Love Of The Lord! They were deeply moved meeting the church and have decided to give up their jobs and relocate to Chennai! We also had Allan a Dental College student and Manoj a nurse by profession get baptized! And to God be all the glory!
Roger and Samuel celebrate Allan’s baptism!
Dearest Brothers and Sisters: One last very exciting “good news from a distant land” is that Blaise, Patricia, Helena, Odelia and Yoel Feumba have received their visas to come and be with us in Los Angeles most probably in May! They will serve the Mighty North Region, when Tim & Lianne Kernan depart to plant Toronto!
The heroic Feumba Family!
As well, please keep in your prayers the City of Angels Church Women’s Day – UNCONDITIONAL – to be held in six different locations around the five county area of Greater Los Angeles over this coming Saturday and Sunday! And may “the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.” (Revelation 22:21)
Much love,
Kip
