Author: cyberevangelist

Greetings from Los Angeles! Elena & I returned home on Wednesday evening from a month-long missionary journey to Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW), London, Manila and Honolulu! Though “we” had intended to be side-by-side with our dear friends Raja & Debs Rajan in “officially” planting the Chennai Church, the Lord gave this honor to Luke & Brandyn Speckman! Infused with a great faith, the Chennai International Christian Church celebrated their Inaugural Service with an attendance of 236, two baptisms and a restoration!

Our first stop on our missionary trip was the great twin cities of Dallas-Ft. Worth! With 23 disciples on the DFW Mission Team and in the Remnant Group alongside another 25 disciples from around the country, God blessed their Inaugural Service with 128 in attendance!

Elena & I and everyone in the audience were so moved by Tyler’s powerful sermon, The Purposes Of God!

Next the Spirit carried us off to London! Though our heart was to encourage this great congregation as they prepared for the European Missions Conference, we were the ones who were more encouraged at their incredible Midweek Service!

Not only was the singing angelic and the fellowship “hot” but we were privilege to meet their last three baptisms who were all South Africans! After service, we spent time with Jacques & Jeanette Groenewald, two of the original members in the heroic London Remnant Group, as they have made the decision to return to their homeland of South Africa to begin the Johannesburg Remnant Group in July 2015! Lord willing, they will be joined by several of the South African converts in London!

Since our visas were not granted in time to go to India, we flew to Manila to continue to prepare this remnant group of 38 for the coming of Kyle & Joan Bartholomew and the Manila Mission Team in early May 2015!

Though we spent two weeks and endured the aftermath of two typhoons (hurricanes), it was quickly apparent why the Spirit had “redirected” our steps! (Proverbs 16:9) After a gracious welcome on Saturday at the airport, we met with the “core leadership” of the church – Rich & Angie Tabizon, John & Anna Malnegro, and Gina Dela Peña. Here we made the plan to meet with them every day from 10AM to 12Noon teaching many of the lessons from the ICCM.

On Sunday, the extremely low attendance of 38, I thought at first was due to the recent typhoon as some roads were still flooded. But by the end of the day, it was clear that a “spiritual typhoon” of contempt had engulfed the church.

Since we were close to several of the members, we began to root out this demonic attack with lovingly teaching and applying the Scriptures. On the following Sunday – again held in the aftermath of a second typhoon with no real push – God brought 78 to celebrate in our worship service!

Of special note, Lymwel Mejia placed membership from our former fellowship repenting of a “double life” as he was refreshed to have discipling back in his life!

On Monday since the Tabizons had not had much of a chance to see the other municipalities of Metro Manila besides Makati, the leadership core group – joined by Ronnie Gonzalez and Alvin & Marilen Panlilio – set out to “spy out” and claim for the Lord by prayer the key campuses and cities of Metro Manila!

Our first two stops were in Quezon City at the two top campuses in the Philippines: Ateneo University and “UP” – the University of the Philippines! At Ateneo, we prayed for Marc & Maika Carbonell – members of the Manila Mission Team converted in LA and recent graduates of Ateneo – to find an apartment right across the street from this gorgeous campus!

At UP, we were all mesmerized by the potential of the over 22,000 students at this “activist oriented college!” Elena & I reminisced about leading Bible Talks there and the drove of students that were easily gathered to attend!

After a heartsy prayer, we traveled to “Old Manila” and ate at what is known as one of the best Filipino Restaurants – The Aristocrat! Here each of us enjoyed different but equally tasty dishes: Chicken Adobo, Deep Fried Lechon (pork), Pancit Palabok (noodle dish), and Fish Tinola! But for some reason we forgot to order some Kamaro (mole crickets) and Balut – a developing duck embryo boiled alive and eaten in a shell often served with rock salt or spicy vinegar!

After finishing our drinks of Halo Halo and Coconut Juice, we traveled but a short distance on Roxas Boulevard to see Rizal Park and to go into the Old Manila Hotel, where Douglas MacArthur used as his headquarters as the Allied Commander of the Pacific during World War II.

Our final stop was Fort Santiago. Here we were reminded of the price of revolution as we prayed over this historic place where the Father of the Philippines, Jose Rizal, was imprisoned and then led to the park bearing his name where at just 35 years old was martyred by a firing squad on December 30, 1896. One of his most famous quotes greatly inspires most disciples, “It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal.”

At our last service, there was a very tearful goodbye and the promise of “we shall return” for the Inaugural Service in June 2015!

Following our exhilarating time in the Philippines, Elena & I were carried by the Spirit to Honolulu! It was so refreshing to be with our dear friends Lou Jack & Cathi Martinez! After a very informative d-time, many of the lessons that God taught us in Manila about dealing with contempt were able to be tailored for Sunday’s sermon and Bible Talk Leaders Lesson!

Though once more we endured a wet Sunday morning, most excitingly, two women were baptized into Christ!

Upon returning home to LA, we were so encouraged by the Spirit working through the tremendous leadership of Andrew & Patrique Smellie, all the LA Region Leaders and our Shepherding Couples! During our absence of almost five weeks, God blessed the City of Angels Church with 57 additions – 46 baptisms and 11 place memberships, about half coming from our former fellowship seeking revival! And to God be the glory!

And now detailed good news reports from each of the World Sectors…

HEADLINE NEWS – LOS ANGELES

NEWS FLASH – Nick Bordieri, Director of MERCYworldwide: The Third Annual 2-1-3 Arm-to-Arm MERCY-Red Cross National Blood Drive on September 20th was an amazing day! The Red Cross has the “2-1-3″ nomenclature because “every 2 seconds blood is needed; 1 pint of blood saves 3 lives!”

Last year, 136 pints of blood were collected in three participating “MERCY branches” – LA, NYC and Portland! This year, seven cities participated – LA, NYC, Chicago, DC, SF, Portland, and Phoenix – and 521 pints were collected thus impacting 1,563 lives!

A common message we hear from the Red Cross is the continuous need for blood donors throughout the year to support hospitals around the country. Here are two quotes from the Red Cross Staff. Hope, a Red Cross nurse, stated, “Surprisingly, only a small percentage of the population is aware or participates in blood drives. For this reason, the work that MERCYworldwide is currently doing is necessary to spread awareness and give others an opportunity to focus on those less fortunate!” Tammy, an Account Manager for the American Red Cross, stated, “We don’t realize the need until a family member is affected.”

On behalf of the World Sector Leaders, let me express our thanks to the seven participating churches who have now “shed their blood” for the cause!

Chris Chloupek: Greetings from the AMS Region and the City of Angels Church Singles Retreat – SOAR! This weekend’s retreat was phenomenal! Our theme was SOAR from Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will SOAR on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.” 

Sonja & I feel very privileged to lead the Singles Ministry here in the City of Angels Church! With that said, our vision is to raise up single men and women to set the pace for this powerful ministry! We had 13 different single brothers and sisters from the various LA Regions preach at the retreat held at the JW Marriott in Desert Springs! Dennis from Ventura & Corrina from the AMS, who are dating, spoke on Soaring Single! They shared how keeping God first as singles and then in their dating relationship makes it so special!

Then we had an amazing Men and Women’s Program based on 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” For the Women’s Program, Ariel from the West, April from the Central, Lenny from the OC, and Casey from the AMS did an outstanding job preaching on Faith, Love, Purity, Life And Speech.

For the Men’s Program, Brad from Southland, Miguel from Southland, and Anthony from the AMS Region preached vulnerably on the same topics!

Saturday night, the singles had free time to enjoy each other’s fellowship. Some even ventured 8,500 feet up the famous tram in Palm Springs! Sunday, Morgan Martin gave a heartfelt monologue about her love for the cross of Christ. David from the IE did an insightful contribution. There were electric performances by Michael, Heather, Thurzday and Corrina from the AMS throughout the program! And to close the retreat, our keynote speaker, RD Baker from the AMS Region preached excitingly on the reward of Heaven for those who continue to Soar With God! So encouraging were the disciples that traveled from San Diego, Phoenix and as far as Washington DC!

In the AMS Region, we have had four wonderful baptisms in September! Of special note, our son Chase who is 16 years old made Jesus his Lord on September 10th!

There’s no business like “soul” business!

Andrew Smellie: “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2) Greetings from the West Region!

This month has truly been a month of “pruning” as the Lord has purified the “quiet reservations” and discord that have been present in the hearts of “dear friends that have chosen to be overcome by years of past hurts!” Sadly, even today, I was forced to disfellowship and mark a dear friend and brother for contempt. (Deuteronomy 17:12-13)

The good news is that as we focus on protecting the purity of the church and teaching the flock to be brought to complete unity (John 17:23), the Lord begins the harvest! Today, Grace Gana, a Mongolian single who had just moved here in December of last year, was baptized! At her baptism Grace shared how she had come to the United States for one reason, but God brought her here for another reason, so that she could seek Him with all of her heart! In her search, she was unfortunately introduced to a sect of Sun Myung Moon’s Church, where she experienced a great deal of pain. However, this didn’t stop her search for the truth. Grace is now so excited to fulfill her purpose as a disciple and help build God’s church!

Travis Frazier: Greetings from the North Region!!! God has added two incredible sisters to our family!!! Akelee Relliford, a talented singer/artist who has performed on American Idol, decided to give up everything to follow God!

Mariah, an amazing campus student, despite much opposition decided to make Jesus Lord of her life and is now your sister in Christ!

Last but not least, it is with great joy that we welcome Jason Woody, our new Campus Intern!! Since his arrival from Sydney, our Campus Ministry is on fire!

We are so grateful to have this incredible young man be part of our North Region Family!! To God be the glory!!!

Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! The South Region has been learning how to love as we had some “Fun in the SON” at ourBring Your Neighbor Day on September 14th! God gave us a record attendance of 157 with Sophia and Lidia Sirotkin leading the way with bringing out eight visitors!

The Lord continues to bless us as in September we had five awesome baptisms – Audra Oul, Sebastian, Shanay, Alex and finally David from the Campus Ministry who was baptized this Sunday night at 10pm at Belmont Shores!

We also had lots to celebrate as our “young Evangelist” Oleg Sirotkin turned “46” and is just as young in heart and zealous to build God’s house as any young minister in the Movement! If you have any doubt about that statement, please listen to his sermon from this past week about how he broke down the need for “chickens” not “golden eggs,” and you’ll be encouraged, convicted and inspired on getting “chickens!”

Finally, as Forest Gump famously said, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” And little did I know that my boyfriend Joe Estep would take me on a date on a boat with the Sirotkins out in the Long Beach Harbor and that here he would ask me to be his wife! Of course I said, “Yes!” To God be all the glory!!

Chris Adams: God continues to answer our prayers to build family in the Ventura Region! Anthony Zarate, our song-leader, was doubly blessed as his brother Nick studied the Bible and repented by God’s grace, despite strong opposition from Satan at his high school and was baptized on September 14th in front of the whole Ventura family!

Additionally, just a few weeks later at the Single’s Retreat this past weekend, Anthony serenaded a surprised Kassandra Campos (who serves the Ventura Teen Ministry) with his guitar on a boat-ride full of close friends and God blessed them as our newest dating couple in the Ventura Region!

Lastly, Lance & Connie Underhill delivered an outstanding Parenting Workshop this past Saturday for the Married Disciples and some remnant disciples! Their teaching was grounded in Moses’ wisdom from Deuteronomy 4 and which inspired all of us to imitate their humility, perseverance, joy and devotion “first to the Kingdom” and then to our God-given families! All we can say up here in Ventura County is, “IT’S GOOD TO BE IN THE KINGDOM!”

Kyle Bartholomew: Greetings from the Central Region! These past three weeks have been amazing as three have been added to our number through baptism! First, we saw Yifan who is a young Chinese campus student study the Bible and get baptized after just two days of intense Bible study! We have since been invited by his former church’s pastor to preach the message of discipleship to their entire congregation! Pray for this incredible opportunity that has been orchestrated by God! (Acts 17:26-28)

Then Marie, a “Kingdom Kid” whose parents and older sister have already become disciples, was baptized! This conversion was particularly inspiring, as God continues to unite families by the blood of Christ in the Central Region! (Luke 1:17)

Finally, we had our first Pasadena City College student baptized as Armand came to the faith and gave his life to God! We now have a presence on four major campuses in the Central Region of Los Angeles! Pray for us as many more miracles are on the way!!!

Luke Speckman: Greetings from Orange County!!! It has been a very exciting time for us over the past several weeks as we are so grateful for the Velascos overseeing the OC Region while we were in Chennai! During September, the region witnessed 11 added to our number with seven baptisms and four placed memberships! We were especially encouraged by Jermaine, Stephanie and Sophia Peacock placing membership from our former fellowship!

Even though every baptism is absolutely precious to God and to us, there was one that was especially noteworthy for Brandyn and me as our son Malik made Jesus Lord of his life and was saved through the waters of baptism!

Also, today was bittersweet as we sent out the Velasco Family to lead the Palm Desert Sector (soon-to-be-Region) of the City of Angels ICC!

Ashley Godwin of the IE Region: “But the Word of God continued to increase and spread!” (Acts 12:24) Greetings of love from the hot Inland Empire Region! The Word of God is continuing to spread here as we have seen 18 new additions since the beginning of September – 13 baptisms and 5 place memberships! It’s great to see how God is reaching so many different kinds of people in different stages of life through his powerful Word!

Yadira, a 61 year old woman, was reached out to by our dear brother Eddie Alvarado from the OC Region. She started to study the Bible with the sisters just three weeks ago. Though seeking God actively for the past 15 years (reading her Bible and praying), she knew that something was still missing! Her humility towards the Word of God and her excitement to finally start to understand was very encouraging to all of us. She was baptized as a sold-out disciple of Christ this last Sunday!!

During her studies, she reached out to her childhood friend, Eva (62). Eva has been also seeking God for years leading her to be baptized on three different occasions! Last time, to make sure it was really the “right way,” she traveled to Israel and was baptized in the Jordan River! Studying the Bible with the sisters, she quickly understood that the only “right way” was to give up everything and become a disciple of Christ! Today that is exactly what she did as she made Jesus her Lord and her best friend and was baptized in the tap water of Riverside! To God be the glory!

Cesar Limon: “Your God reigns… [so] you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 52:7, 12) Grace and peace in abundance from the East Region! God has been leading us from the front and from the “rear” as we have witnessed six souls be added to God’s Kingdom in the past three weeks! Francois, a Cal Poly student, was reached out to almost three years ago by our brother Nick but declined the invitations several times. God humbled him on his travels back to his homeland in Cameroon and so when he came back he​ humbled out and was baptized! (Special thanks to Blaise Feumba for getting in there with him!)

Also very inspiring was the baptism of Justin, a Chinese exchange student at Mt. SAC straight from Singapore! God did not waste any time in reaching out to him as he was invited out just two weeks after he arrived! Justin quickly heard God’s call, studied and was baptized!

Lastly, God has blessed us with turning in over half of our Special Missions!! God is good! So good that prayerfully this Sunday, He is allowing me to marry His incredible daughter, my best friend, and the woman of my dreams – Debbie Bosch! Pray for us as we are praying for you!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANT AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Evan Bartholomew: Greetings from San Diego – the “City of Motion!” God has been moving very evidently in the church here, as we’ve had a number of incredible victories over the past month! For starters, God answered our prayers for Bring Your Neighbor Day as we had over one-for-one visitors and about 100 in attendance! The following week, we were greatly privileged to join the Orange County Region of the City of Angles Church for an amazing worship service – which was a great encouragement to our congregation! Also, we witnessed three awesome baptisms: Amber, Ramone and Kelsey! We were especially encouraged by the baptism of Kelsey whose father is a preacher in a denominational church!

Last Sunday was also victorious for us as a church – though bitter sweet! The San Diego Church was able to send-out Glenn Cruz to help strengthen the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Remnant Group! It was very sad for me to see him go after all he has done for the church here, but also very exciting since I know he’ll be a great asset for the group in Miami!

Please keep us in your prayers, as my wife & I are 12 days past our due date and are expecting our second son Blake at any (and every) moment!

Victor Gonzalez Sr.: Greetings from Las Vegas! “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24) We are really enjoying the First Principles Classes! It is solidifying our faith; uniting us; and allowing us to be equipped to multiply! Today we had an incredible Bring Your Neighbor Day with a record attendance of 117!!! We had so many Bible studies happening after church!

I’m super fired-up and encouraged about starting the Latin Ministry here in Las Vegas! It is being led by Jose Torres and Liz Gonzalez! As well good news, today we had the incredible baptism of Karla! She is a full-time student at UNLV who had never read the Bible before in her life, but through the studies she became a super sold-out disciple! God answered her prayers of finding the truth but found something different than she had ever heard of – ”THE KINGDOM OF GOD!”

Richie McDonnell: Greetings from the saints of beautiful Santa Barbara! It has been an encouraging month of September as God has been working powerfully through our faith! At our International Sunday, we had a record attendance of 65 with only 23 disciples! Also encouraging is we are now averaging over 50 in attendance on regular Sunday services! Excitingly, our campus ministry, The Vine Ministries, became an official club at Santa Barbara City College, and multiple people are currently studying the Bible!

Lastly, two souls were added to our church with the baptisms of Robert and Nallely, thus putting us “over the top” in our prayer goal for doubling the original 11 disciples on the mission team! They have been studying the Bible and coming around since the church was planted in January. However, because they were living together unmarried, they never were baptized because God calls for absolutely purity in the lives of His disciples!

After much prayer, Bible study and refreshing repentance, they gained the faith to uphold God’s standard and decided to live separately (despite having three children together), thus, making Jesus Lord of their lives when they were baptized into Christ! Incredibly, Nallely is the sister of Memo and Carlos who were baptized previously in the church, and all reached out to by Stephanie, the 11 year-old pre-teen in our congregation! Now, Robert & Nallely are planning to get married very soon and build their family upon the foundation of Christ!

Please pray for our first Women’s Day next week! Love you all!

Jeremy Ciaramella of Phoenix: Greetings from the “Valley of the Son!”It has been an amazing time the past few weeks! Fashion With A Passion (facebook.com/fwap2014) is an exciting event planned by our new AMS Bible Talk Leaders, Josiah & Kristin Smith! It is being held at “The Venue” in Scottsdale and the manager of the facility donated its use – a value of several thousand dollars!

“For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed you are our glory and joy!” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20) Of great joy to the church here are the three baptized in the past three weeks! Taneka is a single mother with two beautiful children and has grown into a joyful, gentle and transparent disciple as she studied the Bible with the sisters in the East! Steve is a mature single man who has developed deep convictions about God’s righteousness and repented of lifelong addictions – devoting himself to being in the CR Ministry for the past couple of months! It was powerful to see them get baptized on the 21st of September!

Lastly there is the encouraging conversion of Telma, a full time ASU student from Angola Africa, repenting and being baptized into Christ on October 1, 2014! What a glorious way to start the “fall harvest!”

HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT AND CANADA

NEWS FLASH – Tim Kernan of Toronto: Greetings from Toronto, Canada! We are so grateful for the amazing things God is doing through His movement here in “the T-Dot” (Toronto)! In the past 18 weeks since the planting of our congregation, our Amazing God has blessed us with 16 additions!

We are so honored to introduce to everyone the eight additions to our fellowship since the GLC! Nikeisha is an awesome childcare worker whose husband is also now studying; Loga an accounting student who dreams of the ministry; Tony & Vita an amazing married couple; and Delray the nephew of our dear sister Bernadine were all baptized into Christ!

Also Stephen & Anna placed membership from our former fellowship and Claud was restored! Last but not least, the Narcisos moved from Calgary to Toronto and are now nestled into a beautiful home in North Toronto! We are so grateful to have them with us! God also poured out His grace among us with 64 in attendance at our recent Bring Your Neighbor Day!

This coming weekend, we are so excited to host the Leadership Couples, Shepherds and Interns of the USA NW Quadrant World Sector from the Mighty San Francisco, Denver, Portland and Eugene Churches here in Toronto for a Leadership Retreat to build stronger relationships with our Lord and one another! Please pray for us as we pray for you! Much love from Toronto! TICC, TICC, BOOM!

NEWS FLASH – Jason Dimitry: “Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for His people, because it was done so quickly.” (2 Chronicles 29:36) I bring you good news from the San Francisco Bay! What God has done in the last twelve short weeks since we landed with the Supplemental Mission Team from Las Vegas has been absolutely incredible! What’s most amazing of all is how quickly it all happened!

God has been able to bless us with raising the contribution over $1,000 per week in giving; restructure the house churches; replanting the San Jose Ministry; appoint a Shepherding Couple and Shepherding Couple-in-Training; raising up unpaid interns; and starting an Open Mic Night in Oakland! If all of this wasn’t enough, God has given us 14 additions in 12 weeks – 10 of them being in the last four weeks!

Among them include an attorney in Oakland, a football player at UC Berkeley (the number one public university in the USA), two restorations from our former fellowship, and God has also given us converts on the SF State, the University of San Francisco, Berkeley City College and San Jose State!

One of the highlights for me was definitely last Sunday! The honor to appoint Cyndee & Gary Ochs as a Shepherding Couple was one of my most memorable moments – not just of being here in San Francisco, but of my entire 15 years of being a follower of Christ!

Please pray that this incredible momentum continues and that many more are brought to the Lord in this great city!

Ricky Challinor: We are so grateful that the GNE is back! The Lord has blessed us with three restorations in the last month! Truly the angels in Heaven are rejoicing over Thomas, Anna and Lonnie! Lonnie was baptized when he was 14 years old about four years ago. However, over the last year, he drifted in his heart and started living a double life. How moving it was to hear him apologize to God, the congregation and plead with anyone to repent of hidden sin like he did!

The Lord blessed our Bring Your Neighbor Day Service entitled,Transformed with 198 present! As well, we are so excited to start our First Principles Series this Wednesday as so many who visited today will hear how to seek God with all their hearts! Lastly, I wanted to personally thank Megan Mathews who has helped us with our administration here in the Northwest and who also has lifted up Coleen & my arms in everything she does; truly we do not deserve her but we are so blessed! Please pray for us as great things are ahead!

Jeremiah Clark: Greetings from the Mighty Denver Church! Over the last few weeks, God has been strengthening and growing the church in many ways. Due to our congregation more than tripling our very first year, we have faced the task of raising up new leaders to meet the needs of our multiplying church! This Sunday, 31 dynamic leaders returned from ourFirst Annual Leaders Retreat at Bear Trap Ranch entitled, Transformed On The Mountain! While worshipping together in the Colorado mountains at over 9,000ft elevation, we truly had a “mountain top experience” and every disciple was forever changed!

Led by the faithful Matthew & Marlo Lovacheff, two weeks ago, we celebrated our very first graduates from Chemical Recovery with the graduations of Jason Reali and Nicole Larocque!

Encouragingly, we also recently witnessed two more additions to the church! One of those was a single girl by the name of Bronte, who was met by Jason Reali at work! Bronte was impacted by Jason’s lifestyle and after quitting her job and spending the next few months living wildly, Bronte ran into Jason and decided to come to “check out his church!” After two weeks of studying the Bible with the sisters till nearly 2AM every night, Bronte decided to make Jesus the Lord of her life and was baptized!“God [truly does] determine the times and places!”

Stephanie Reed of Eugene: Greetings from Tracktown, USA! God has been working miracles as it has been a “September to remember!”

We launched our campaign to storm the University of Oregon and the harvest is plentiful as we have so many people studying the Bible! We have had three additions in the past month – one baptism and two restorations! One significant miracle was a girl named Kassi, who was a friend of our Corvalis House Church Leader – Reina Smith. She was living in Seattle and they were studying through Skype. Reina challenged her that if she really wants to be a disciple she needs to be where there is a church full of disciples. God worked it out… Kassi was fired from her job; moved back to Eugene; studied intensely for days; and she is now our sister in Christ!

Lastly, we have been working tirelessly bringing in a “financial harvest” through tagging, yard sales, car washes and personal sacrifice. Praise God, we are at 52% of our prayer goal! Please continue to pray for us as we continue to build up this part of the Kingdom!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANT

NEWS FLASH – Anthony Eckels: Greetings from Houston! God has done amazing things including adding eight since the GLC in August, and as of this Sunday, officially doubling our number since the planting of the Houston International Christian Church (HICC) in April! We recently welcomed Grant Hills and David Laurel from Austin, Texas! Grant had been striving to make disciples in Austin including baptizing David over a year ago! After visiting the Houston Church, Grant was brought to tears and realized his need to be a part of the movement in order to continue to further God’s Kingdom! Grant and David have established a Bible Talk in Austin and always have visitors out to the HICC Worship Service which is almost a two hour drive!

HICC was blessed to witness the baptism of Akeem Simpson at the Dallas Inaugural Service! Also, we have had three dear friends Lisa Robillard, Noah Robillard and Vanessa Flores place membership from Orlando! The entire congregation was moved to tears as Jay & Angie Hernandez shared about their amazing son Alonso who was baptized two weeks ago! The addition of Alonso also brings the Teen Ministry to five baptized teens – adding all five in just five months!

Finally, this past Sunday we were able to share in the baptism of Vin Simpson, a co-worker of Marc Pierre who both celebrated their birthdays on October 5th, which is now her spiritual birthday as well! How amazing to see God reward Marc’s perseverance with fruit on his birthday!

NEWS FLASH – Tyler Sears: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Greetings from DFW! God has been answering our prayers as the Dallas Cowboys are miraculously 4-1! But much more importantly, it has been a miraculous time since the GLC as the Lord has added three to our number through baptism! Jesee, a young man studying engineering at UT-Arlington, was baptized and already is trying to reach out to his classmates! Another young man named Narada, who is studying engineering at TCU, was baptized the same day!

Narada is part of the Track Team at TCU and is from Zimbabwe and has a heart to go back to his people! Lastly, we saw Ava, a young woman from TCU who is studying social work and political science, be baptized at Women’s Midweek!

Shay & I are so proud of the church and their hearts for the mission of Jesus Christ “to seek and save what was lost!” We are especially proud of the disciples who “held down the fort” before the mission team came as they’ve opened their homes and hearts to help us along the way! Please continue to pray for us as we fight to save souls from a place that is filled with such religiosity and delusion! We know God is going to continue to fight for us!

NEWS FLASH – Princeton George: Greetings from sunny South Florida and the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale International Christian Church! “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10) I’m sure they partied in Heaven, back-to-back-to-back over our first three baptisms since the team arriving in mid-August! Numbered among the three are Carlos Sanchez’s mother Gloria and Eric Shapiro, a friend of our brother Ben in the Gainesville ICC!

Also to be reconciled was Windley, who is a student at Miami-Dade College, reached out to by his longtime friend Chantal, as they dated in the world. After seeing her conviction of wanting to live a pure life and eventually studying the Bible and becoming a disciple, Windley started coming around and couldn’t shake the truth!

Also this week, we had my dear friend and partner in the gospel, Glenn Cruz, place membership from our fired-up church in San Diego! He already adds so much maturity to the group and can’t wait to hit the ground running for the Lord!

Of special note, all of the team has secured jobs and we now have a new official house church location – “Our House!” God so blessed us as we have finally secured our place for only $700! After much paint and cleaning we finally have a place to call home! Please pray for your fellow workers down in South Florida! To God be the glory!

NEWS FLASH – Mike Patterson: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32) When Jesus is lifted up as the standard of the church, the lost will be drawn to Him!

This has been an incredibly fruitful month for the church! We witnessed in the last 29 days, a total of nine precious souls baptized into Christ! Last week we saw four of them baptized into Christ on one Sunday! I’m especially proud of my amazing wife Chenelle Patterson as six of the nine baptisms were incredible women, like Alexis, who is part of Greek life on campus! We are now at 47 disciples since our start with 17 back in January!

With momentum already going, we had our Bring Your Neighbor Day Service on September 7th where 91 people came out! LeJames and Georgina were baptized that day and deciding to honor God with purity and were married at the end of the church service!

Excitingly, we were able to announce not only putting Yinet Montesino on staff as a campus intern to work alongside our other campus intern Marcel Turner, but we were able to announce our “unpaid interns:” Jacob Wessels, Muzic Melara and Brady Vaughn! Pray for us to continue to be able to put on more interns and full-time workers for God as we believe this is one of the keys to effective ministry growth.

With so many young Christians, we have had a blast taking them throughFirst Principles to “solidify, unify, and multiply” disciples! Pray for us as we have our Special Missions Contribution and Women’s Day coming up in November!

Matt Sullivan of Orlando: This past month since our last Good News Email has been nothing less than amazing as “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number!” This is in spite of several times that we were “publically exposed to insult and persecution!” (Hebrews 10:33) The joy of the congregation has grown and weekly more men and women are studying the Bible, while the young disciples are growing quickly as they too take on roles of leadership. After sending out the Gainesville and Houston Mission Teams this year, once again we are having 100 or more at our Sunday morning worship services and having weekly additions!

The Lord blessed us with one “move back,” Curtis White (our fired-up faithful missionary who went to Gainesville and baptized three disciples), one restoration (Chantal who came back to the Lord powerfully and filled with gratitude), and four baptisms! One baptism in particular was so inspiring as Judenie watched her former boyfriend Zico, with whom she has a child, baptized a few weeks ago. She was blown away by his changes and so continued studying till she too was ready and then baptized!

That same afternoon after her baptism, Zico asked her to be his girlfriend – but this time with Kingdom standards! She said, “Yes!” Then three weeks ago during the “Welcome,” Zico got down on one knee and asked Judenie to be his wife… Again she said “yes” in front of the whole congregation! They will be married this week!

HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPE

NEWS FLASH – Michael Williamson: Greetings from London! With six additions in the last five weeks alongside stunning warm weather for the UK, God has been good to us! Since our beloved Deacon Couple – the Groenewalds – have answered the call to plant the South African Remnant Group next July, the last few months have literally been the “SURGE FOR SOUTH AFRICA!” We have seen FIVE South African baptisms! Each disciple has faithfully risen above the many Satanic challenges, persecutions and tests to proclaim, “JESUS IS LORD!”

One brother, whose wife threatened to leave him if he was baptized, has stood strong inspiring his wife to study with the sisters in the church! Next week, Lord willing, he will lead his first Bible Talk! Another faithful brother placed second at South Africa’s National Wrestling Olympics! Then we were so blessed to have Kip & Elena preach at Midweek Service a few weeks ago as they were on their way to Manila, which was not only rewarding, inspirational and convicting, but it flat out lit a fire under the entire congregation!

So last week, the “SOUTH AFRICAN SURGE” continued as we baptized another radical campus brother Frank alongside our dear sister Jeanette who was #10 on UK’s X-FACTOR last year! Jeanette was met by Simon Oxton, encouraged by George & Angelica Grima, convicted by several sisters, and after a “tad bit of running,” she’s now your sister!

We were also blessed to not only have Carlos Vargas place membership three weeks ago, but this Sunday his lovely wife Karla (alongside Camilla their four year old daughter) joined us from Madrid, Spain!

We are only weeks away from the 2014 European Missions Conferencewhere we will unveil the exciting “CROWN OF THORNS EUROPE!” Please pray for and register ASAP at www.londonchurch.org.uk. And to God be all the glory!!

HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Blaise Feumba, the Overseeing Evangelist of Haiti: Since the GLC, the Lord has added five more souls to our Haitian Churches! In the Port-au-Prince Church, powerfully led by Alexis & Maryse Turgeau, Mickenson Pierre-Louis and Sanchez Cherry, a former Seventh Day Adventist, were baptized! As well baptized were a young voodoo priest – who was invited by Alexis named Francky Pierre-Louis – and our new sister Dieunose whose husband was baptized!

In the church in Chantal, a 62 year old woman, Therese Loradin was baptized by our 75 year old former Mainline Church of Christ preacher, Reles Latour!

Lastly, September was also very fruitful with the MERCYworldwideProgram for the needy in Chantal. The MERCY Ambassadors served to gather and fed 33 poor children and more elderly people without help or support of any kind! To God be all the glory!

Lola Lof of Kinshasa: Greetings from the Democratic Republic of Congo! Three weeks ago, the Holy Spirit sent me through your financial sacrifice to Busia in Kenya to build a solid foundation of sold-out disciples there under the supervision of our brother Luke Speckman, the Evangelist in charge of Eastern African Churches. God’s grace was with me despite some trouble in my health due to some diabetic problems, as four were powerfully baptized – Ezekiel, Beatrice, Suzanne and Geoffrey! So as of today, there are 24 sold-out disciples in Busia!

Also, God has blessed the Kinshasa Church with three baptisms: Yves, Elie and Anne! Of special note, Anne is the precious wife of our brother ”Papa” Pierre! (62 years old!) Anne was a Protestant believer since her childhood and struggled a lot to leave her denomination, but finally she has understood that her salvation should be her only priority and decided wholeheartedly to join her husband in God’s Kingdom! To God be all the glory!

HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH

Andrew and Larysa Kaminski: Greetings from Kyiv, Ukraine! On September 21st, we celebrated the first teen addition to the Kyiv Remnant Group – Ira (15)! She started to go to church at the age of six with her mom, our dear sister Ivanna, and is the eldest of four kids in the family. All the efforts of Kid’s Kingdom teachers and Ivanna’s faith finally brought a beautiful fruit!

One of the events that strengthened Ira’s decision to be a disciple was during her school exams in May, when she already started to study the First Principles. Preparing for the first and hardest exam where everyone was supposed to cheat (even teachers hinted that they allowed it), in the last moment, she decided to rely on God and threw away all her cribs. She passed that exam with the highest grade, and the same was with the rest of her exams! Now Ira is not only an excellent student and a great helper in her family, but a faithful disciple and a joy for all the Kyiv Church!

HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA

Raul Moreno: “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) Greetings from São Paulo! The Saints in Brazil love the Kingdom of God with all their hearts and souls and we are excited to hear the good news this week from all over the world! Here, the Lord added six to our number in September: five through baptism and one through a place membership!

Plus we had the incredible honor of having our incredible friends and powerful Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader Carlos & Lucy Mejia from Santiago to preach and teach the church for a weekend!

Of note, Alexandra’s baptism was very special! She is the mother of Viny who is an awesome USP campus student in the congregation! Viny’s dad was baptized about three months ago and now this nuclear family is completely united in Christ as he is the only child! This indeed is the dream of every disciple of Jesus! Much love from São Paulo!

NEWS FLASH – Carlos Mejia: Greetings from God’s Church in Santiago! The last eight weeks have been amazing as the Lord has given us 17 additions: 15 Baptisms and 2 Restorations!

Today Stephen was baptized in our powerful campus ministry! Stephen is a remarkable young man who came to Chile from Ohio seeking to be a missionary in Latin America! Evidently, God “who is seeking true worshipers” didn’t waste time and put the right people into his life to study the Bible and make him into a true disciple of Jesus! Today at his baptism, the brothers shared how inspired they were by Steven’s zeal to help evangelize Latin America as he dreams of becoming an evangelist in God’s Kingdom!

In our very dynamic Married Ministry, a special couple was added to our number! My wife Lucy shared her faith with María José at a favorite lunch spot for disciples, Popeye’s Chicken! The following week, she and her husband, Rodrigo, came to church; they studied the Bible and two weeks later were baptized into Christ! At their baptism, María José shared that the day Lucy invited her, she had prayed that morning for God to save her marriage, because Rodrigo & her were about to separate and seek a divorce!

Since their baptism, God has poured out blessing after blessing and is rapidly healing their marriage! To God be all the glory!

Jared McGee: Greetings from God’s people in Mexico City! We have had four baptisms in the last four weeks! Every conversion this month has been heart moving and very inspiring! Felipe, in his heyday, played professional soccer for the “Cruz Azul” here in Mexico! As well, we saw two UNAM students added, one a Physics major, and the other a Mechanical Engineer major!

For our Bring Your Neighbor Day, the 17 sold-out disciples of the congregation had 51 people in attendance! We also want to highlight the restoration of our dear sister Perla who has been such a great encouragement to us all! God is moving powerfully!

HEADLINE NEWS – PAC RIM & AUSTRAL-CHINA

NEWS FLASH – Joe Willis: Greetings from Sydney, Australia – your mates down under!

I would like to particularly address the USA Churches, as I know at this time you are raising Special Missions to continue the support of the work out here and we wanted to make sure you know that we know and are very grateful for last year’s money and this years!

We have carefully watched the spending of every penny that you have given us, and in imitating your generous hearts, we are raising our own to become self-supporting as quickly as possible! Our Special Missions Contribution for the 26 Christians here is 10X in November. Our prayer goal is over $20,000! To encourage you, our average regular contribution (including students) is over $100 per member each week! Your generosity last year set us a great example to set up the church and this has carried over into our everyday lives!

When we first came, every mission team member decided to give a minimum of $85 regular contribution each week, despite not having jobs and only giving out of savings that they had brought with them. Although there have been a lot of struggles, loss of accommodations due to lack of jobs and money, now these missionaries have been richly rewarded as Jade, Merari, Sean and Erick now have jobs making over $50,000 a year, and Pete with a job of $147,000 a year! God has blessed their sacrifice unbelievably!

Not only have we had financial and career blessings, but most impressively your money has saved souls! The church has grown from 12 to 26 sold-out disciples! God has converted many atheists as well as four Chinese nationals who Lord willing will be the base of the Hong Kong Mission Team and then into the one billion plus souls of China! We now have student ministries on the three main campuses of Sydney!

We have started a professionals ministry which includes young professionals, a doctor and a mortgage lender! As well, there is now a developing “sports ministry” as the Spirit has converted a professional soccer player and a sport therapist for one of the 12 top rugby teams in Australia! Lastly, we are beginning to build an Arts & Media Ministry, starting with Open Mic Nights, dancing and busking!

Hearts are being mended; souls are being saved; marriages strengthened; because YOU sacrificed for us! As you sacrifice once again, please do not tire of doing good for great is your reward in Heaven! You will surely meet the souls your dollars saved and they will thank you for eternity! Pray for us as we pray for you!

Rich Tabizon: Mabuhay Galing sa Metro Manila! (Greetings from Metro Manila!) We are so very thankful for the recent two week visit of the McKeans! After re-laying a sold-out foundation, the power of God is now evident once again in the Philippines! Just as King Hezekiah re-opened the doors of the temple of the Lord, the Metro Manila Church has declared the doors to the Kingdom of God open! (2 Chronicles 29:3) We have consecrated, purified and restored God’s vision for Metro Manila and for the over 100,000,000 lost souls on the 7,105 islands of the Philippines!

Just a King Hezekiah called the remnant of the Lord to celebrate the Passover, we too have called the people to return to the Lord! (2 Chronicles 30) This past Sunday, we held our very first Bring Your Neighbor Day, and our gracious Lord blessed our efforts and allowed a great victory for the 39 disciples in Manila, as we had 103 people in attendance!

Pray for us, as we gather the clusters of fruit the Lord has set before us! To God be the glory!

Lou Jack Martinez of Honolulu: Aloha my sisters and brothers in the Kingdom! It’s been a really bad week for the devil!!! Not only did we have the honor of our beloved parents in the faith, Kip & Elena McKean being in town, but we also had the tremendous joy of seeing TWO (2) amazing ladies born again into the Kingdom of God!!!

Dian (No “e”) Heather Creedan came to Honolulu from Barbados, after a brief stint in New York. The former Revlon model was at the Safeway grocery store and overheard our brother Alex Aehegma talking about Bible Talk. She asked if she could participate in this interesting Bible discussion, and Alex humbly offered his girlfriend, Rufel Gelbolingo‘scontact number! Dian came to church and was blown away but soon she took ill and did not wish to burden the brothers and sisters… So, she essentially disappeared for a while.

She was able to return to church on September 21st and she proceeded to humbly ask Rufel if she could be baptized as soon as possible, given that she was scheduled for surgery on her eye and would not be able to be immersed after the surgery for a very long time. Dian then studied every day and was baptized one week later!!!

In the campus ministry, God has answered a couple “impossible prayers” from Jane Chesmore and Kristin (Fukuda) Aguirre. Jane’s impossible prayer was to see one of her classmates in the same field become a disciple! Kristin’s impossible prayer was to see one of her childhood friends become a disciple… Ainsley Haotai was reached out to by her classmate, Jane Chesmore! Ainsley came to our “Bring Your Neighbor Day” Great Hawaiian Chili Cook Off!!!! When Ainsley came to church, she saw Kristin (Fukuda) Aguirre! Ainsley and Kristin have known each other since the seventh grade! Right after church that Sunday, she told Jane that she wanted to study the Bible and was baptized Sunday!

Finally, this past Wednesday night, we got to witness the baptism of Joey Naranjo, originally from San Diego, CA!!!

Please pray for our Hawaii 5-0 Plan, as well as our upcoming AMS Open Mic Night Kickoff on October 17th, our very first West Region Service October 26th, and our Special Contribution coming up in November!!!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT & INDIA

NEWS FLASH – Chris Broom: Greetings from the City That Never Sleeps! In John 15:5, Jesus states, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Mike Underhill preached an amazing lesson using this Scripture just a few weeks ago to prepare us for the Autumn Harvest!

Then, at our Labor Day Picnic, we celebrated in advance for the harvest that God would bring!

From that time, God has added nine to our number; three baptisms, two place memberships and four restorations! Just today, Mario & Kayla were restored! They are an incredible young married couple that attend City College! Satan attacked their faith during their summer travel and the transition of leadership here in NYC. Sadly, they soon stopped reading their Bibles and as young Christians, it didn’t take long to drift into past sins and stop attending church. Thanks to the efforts of Mike & Brittany Underhill among others and God’s perfect timing to bring Andrew Smellie back to New York for his own father’s wedding, their faith has been restored and they stood before the church today with great humility!

Finally, the church here has sacrificed tremendously to overcome the financial challenges of adding a second full-time couple! Amazingly, through our pledge drive, we raised our weekly giving from an average of $5,281 per week before the Global Leadership Conference in early August to an average of $7,248 per week since that time! Pray for us as we pray for you!

NEWS FLASH – Maria Franklin of Chicago: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21) Greetings from the Windy City!

God is always working and the evidence of His love and grace has been shown to us by many things, specifically with 16 additions the last two months: 14 baptisms, 1 place membership and 1 restoration! Two weeks ago, we had five additions in one week! We are very excited for our Latin Ministry as it went through a challenging time at the beginning of the year, but through the leadership of Victor Montano, it has turned around in a powerful way! Of the 14 baptisms six were from the Latin Ministry!

Of special note is the restoration of our dear brother Mike Rosenau! Mike is a brother from our former movement and was restored this past Sunday! He saw our former fellowship slip into a lukewarm state and chose to go to a denomination out of convenience. After a number of challenging life situations, he reconnected with our Lead Evangelist, Jay Shelbrack, a close friend to him for over 24 years. Once he saw the faith and love of the disciples, his faith was renewed and he showed tremendous gratitude for a chance to be restored once again!

It is with a painful yet joyful spirit that we share that on September 19th our beloved and exemplary brother Bob Sperling passed away at the age of 89. Bob “fought the good fight and finished the race!” This past Friday, we held a congregational memorial for Bob where so many stories were shared as well so many examples of his great walk as a faithful disciple of Jesus! He was such a higher calling to us all!

Finally, for our MERCY Red Cross Blood Drive, we raised 44 pints of blood! Keep us in your prayers as we gear up for our 11X Thanksgiving Contribution!

Joel Parlour: Autumn greetings from Syracuse! In the last three weeks, we have seen three souls added to our number – Brison, Sue, and Deb! After 17 years as a disciple, sadly, Deb fell away from the Lord. During her restoration she said, “I never thought it would happen to me.” Surely, we should take heed to 1 Corinthians 10:12, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Sue’s restoration was equally powerful as she humbly apologized to the church and is one of the most evangelistic sisters in the congregation!

Very special to me however was the baptism of our new brother Brison! Entering the gym one day, I decided to reach out to the best basketball player I saw. After he “crossed-over” some point guards and dunked on many people, I looked at Brison and thought, “The Spirit is leading me to him!” After a few persistent weeks of inviting him out to church – and being “crossed-over and dunked on” a few times myself – Brison finally came out and then it only took a short time for him to fall in love with God and become your brother in Christ! Please pray for our Autumn harvest!

Coltin Rohn: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.” (Psalm 126:1-3) The Lord has truly restored our fortunes here in Boston! On September 28th, we celebrated ourSecond Anniversary Service as we had our largest attendance ever with 117!

God allowed us to have our Overseeing Evangelist from New York City, Chris Broom & his wife Theresa, come and lead us in some of the most inspiring lessons! Thank you Brooms for coming and serving us so powerfully!

Also, God has blessed us with Rico Rodriguez getting restored and four baptisms this past month: David, Jose, Tyrell and Armine!

And today, Jhoally placed membership from San Francisco and is now serving full-time as an intern here! Thank you Jason & Sarah for sending her! Also today, Ted & Sheila Karonis were appointed as a Shepherding Couple in the Kingdom of God!

And on a very special note, on October 4th at 7:24pm, God blessed Mandee & me with our second daughter Trina Elise Rohn, named after my mom who passed away in 2007. And to God be the glory!

NEWS FLASH – Ron Harding of Washington DC: “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves – praise the Lord!” (Judges 5:2) Greetings from the Capital of the United States! The last several weeks have been amazing! Since our Annual Pledge Drive, the Lord not only raised our weekly pledge by about $1,000 per week, but He blessed us with eight additions in the last four weeks, four of whom were baptisms!

Our attendance has also increased from an average of 165 to 180! I’m so proud our House Church Leaders in DC. We collectively decided that we would all pray and go out with extra focus in each finding someone to personally study the Bible with and three of the last four baptisms have come from the our House Church Leaders sharing their faith and being personally fruitful! Because of this great example and the mercy of our Lord the church has more people studying the Bible than any other time this year! To God be all the glory!

NEWS FLASH – Luke Speckman: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says…” (Ezekiel 7:2) Although we had be praying for Kip & Elena’s extended visit to Chennai, India to officially plant this Crown of Thorns Church, our Sovereign Lord had a different plan in mind! Six days before their departure, the McKeans received news their visas had not yet been approved, so Kip asked Brandyn & myself to go in their place as we have five year visas!

What an honor to be a part of this special time for the Chennai Church! The majority of our time and efforts were spent training the 14 Interns to prepare them for their charge to evangelize the 1.7 billion people of the Indian subcontinent!

The Inaugural Service was held on September 21st and God blessed the 84 disciples present with a record 235 people in attendance, as well as two baptisms and a restoration! What a glorious day for the Lord!!!

Though I stayed a week after Brandyn left for LA to take care of our four children, we are equally grateful for the incredible partnership in the gospel as well as our very dear friendship with the Rajans! They are to be commended for their hard work, faith, and perseverance to see “the lost” of India won for Christ!

NEWS FLASH – Debs Rajan of Chennai: Vannakkam! (Greetings in Tamil!) I bring you more good news from the land of 33,000 temples! Tamilians are known to be warm, friendly and hospitable people. No wonder the Apostle Thomas decided to make Chennai his base!

The whole Chennai Church extends their gratitude to Luke & Brandyn Speckman for pouring their hearts and lives into people from the time they landed in Chennai! We had First Principles Classes every day, which included tests, discipling times and reaching out to the lost! The hard work of the Interns and disciples paid off as 84 disciples had 235 in attendance!

The focus was on the campus and the Lord blessed us with many engineers, dentists, under grads, etc…  70% of the visitors were from campuses! Luke preached an amazing message, The Meaning Of Lifefrom Ecclesiastes. Brandyn shared very vulnerably for the communion, which cut our hearts and brought tears!

On that day, we saw David and Darshan baptized and Suresh was restored! Darshan is Jayaprakash and Lilly’s son!

Many studied the Bible and then last Sunday we had seven more men get baptized and one woman restored!

Of special note was Paulpandi, who was a traditional Pentecostal preacher who came to Chennai to buy raw materials to build his church. Johnny, our newly appointed Intern, studied the Bible with him, and Paul quite humbly accepted that was not a true Christian! He then was baptized into Christ! Johnny and Leno have gone with Paul to his home town to study the Bible with his wife and his church!

By the grace of God, there will be so many more getting baptized in the days to come! “The harvest is plentiful” and God has blessed us with the now trained workers, the newly appointed Interns, to reap the harvest! Thank you so very much sister churches in the United States – especially Los Angeles – for your incredible financial sacrifice that allows us to hire so many Interns! To God be the glory!

Dear Brothers and Sisters: Let us always remember, “God’s incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead!” (Ephesians 1:19-20) This extraordinary power resides in each one of our hearts to accomplish the will of God! Be even more encouraged that “God placed all things under Christ’s feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church!”(Ephesians 1:22) This means that our Sovereign God is at work through the weather (typhoons), visas, disease (Ebola and HIV), the ISIS threat in the Middle East, the economic woes of Europe, and the Umbrella Revolution of Hong Kong to bring about His will “that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth!” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

With the Moscow and Manila Mission Teams having been selected, isn’t it remarkable that as we NOW focus on the last three of our 12 Crown of Thorns plantings – Hong Kong, Cairo (or a city in the Middle East), and Johannesburg that NOW Chinese disciples are being converted in Sydney, Sao Paulo and LA? That NOW South Africans are being baptized in great numbers in London? That NOW we have disciples inquiring about initiating a remnant group in the Middle East? Take heart! Our God is moving… And to Him be all the glory, honor and praise!
Much love,
Kip

Greetings from Los Angeles! The 2014 Global Leadership Conference – ZION’S DREAMERS – was filled with awe-inspiring events from the “Pre-Festivities” to the closing theme song from Psalm 126 – Men Who Dream! Highlights included almost 2,000 in attendance on Sunday morning; the Second Annual International College of Christian Ministries Commencement; 13 Kingdom Appointments – seven Evangelists and six Women’s Ministry Leaders; the sending out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, and the Chennai Mission Teams; and the introduction of the SoldOut Movement World Sector Leaders!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2ND

The “Pre-Festivities” began with the gorgeous wedding of Princeton & Joy George in God’s Cathedral (outdoors) at Burbank’s beautiful Brace Canyon Park! Princeton & Joy – excellent ICCM students – left immediately after the GLC to assume the leadership of the new Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Remnant Group!

SUNDAY, AUGUST 3RD
On the Sunday before the GLC, the South, Central, West and Southland Regions met together for an incredible Worship Service that was a glimpse at the “great things [awaiting] us” at the GLC!

Not only was the Spirit stirring in LA on this Lord’s Day, but in Orlando as well as Ryan Sullivan was baptized into Christ! Now all three of Matt & Helen’s children are baptized disciples! All five of the Sullivan Family participated in the GLC! Melissa the oldest will be a freshman this Fall at USC!

MONDAY, AUGUST 4TH
Because of the GLC, we moved the City of Angels Church Staff Meeting to Monday! The moment I walked in the door, I could feel the “GLC buzz!” The first highlight of the day for me was the arrival during Staff of the seven brothers and sisters from Sydney! Then the Willises, the Fetelikas, Marita, Rahnesha, and Teigan – their first baptism – all gave their hearts in an impromptu sharing! Teigan in tears thanked the LA Church for sending the mission team which gave her – a former atheist – salvation! In keeping with the ZION’S DREAMERS theme of the GLC, the Staff Lesson was from Zechariah 12-14 and entitled, The Day Of The Lord!

To conclude the day, Raja, Debs and Shefali (14) Rajan shared what they had learned in their three weeks in LA! They were especially appreciative of the Sirotkin Family that oversaw their visit!

Elena & I are so looking forward to working side-by-side with the Rajans in Chennai for a month! As is our custom when a mission team is sent off, a “specialty cake” reflecting the city and/or nation is presented to the mission team leaders and enjoyed by all the Staff!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 5TH
So many arrived this day from around the globe at the LAX Airport!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6TH
The morning began with the historic first meeting of the SoldOut Movement World Sector Leaders Council! The lesson was from the Book of John and entitled, The Savior Of The World. We learned that John used the word “world” 70X in his gospel! We closed by sharing communion. After each person “broke the bread” but before they ate it, each would hold up their piece of bread and pledge to the group, “We are family.” Then before each person drank from the same one cup of red grape juice – that signified Christ’s blood and His ultimate sacrifice of His life – each pledged before the group, “To the end.” And many tears were shed.

That evening was the gathering of the ever so vital Crown of Thorns Council, which parallels Jesus’ 72 other appointed Apostles in Luke 10! Cory Blackwell – the Middle East World Sector Leader – addressed this amazing group of tirelessly working disciples with the needed message,One In Heart And Mind.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7TH
The Crown of Thorns Council (COTC) continued on Thursday. In the morning were Men and Women D-Groups. Michael & Michele Williamson – the European World Sector Leaders – respectively spoke on the theme, The Word Spread Through The Whole Region. In the afternoon, each of the World Sector Leaders reported on all of “their” churches. Three aspects were shared about each congregation: 1) The strengths of the church; 2) The needs of the church; and 3) How these needs can be met by their world sector and/or by the movement in general!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8TH
At 9AM on Friday morning, the Church Builders Workshop began with phenomenal singing as many of the church leaders had flown in the day before!

In the next section of the program, we heard from several of our younger leaders! Richie McDonnell and Adam Zepeda humbly challenged the Lead Ministry Couples and Congregational Shepherding Couples to select Unpaid Interns!

Fascinatingly, just a few days before, Luke Speckman, who oversees the evangelization of East Africa, shared that he had given the name of a “pastor” – who had contacted him after reading our websites – to our dear brother Beniet Marius. Marius traveled to Busia, Kenya about 300 miles northwest of Nairobi to meet Luke’s contact – Evan!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9TH
CyberCon was a six hour workshop whose purposes were to train our WebDeacons, as well as to identify potential CyberEvangelists and more WebDeacons! This event was emceed by Ron Harding – the Lead CyberEvangelist for the movement!

Our global internet ministries are the primary initial contact point for God drawing remnant (“veteran”) disciples into His movement! The other innovative CyberEvangelists in the movement who taught on this program are: Rob Onekea, Jake Studer, Jeremy Ciaramella and Tim Kernan!

That evening was one of my favorite sessions of the GLC – The Shepherds Fellowship! This important time was overseen by Tony & Therese Untalan – the other World Sector Leader Shepherding Couple! In Tony’s introduction, he shared that movement-wide this group had grown 65% in just one year – from 68 to now 104!

SUNDAY, AUGUST 10TH

The official beginning of the 2014 Global Leadership Conference was our Sunday Service! Not only was the fellowship of almost 2,000 disciples before the first song electric, but it escalated as the eight minute Opening Video simply “brought down the house!” The video began with a “movie like” scene of the Jewish captives leaving Babylon and then eventually reaching Jerusalem – Zion! From there our dream of the evangelization of all nations in this generation flashed across the screen!

Then the video became “a bit light-hearted” by asking the question, “So how’s it going SoldOut Movement?” Then for about four minutes, we saw various clips of disciples from all over the world answering the question by mouthing the song, Everything Is Awesome! While we heard Carl Buckner’s “Christian rap” in the song and in between these quite humorous pieces of footage was the so encouraging news of how the “42 Portland disciples” that planted the City of Angels International Christian Church in 2007 have multiplied – in just seven years – into over 3,000 disciples, with an attendance of 5,000, in 55 churches, in 26 nations, on all six populated continents of the world! The applause after the video – so well crafted by Jose Otero – was deafening!

Communion began with the first time introduction of all of the World Sector Leader Couples! Prayerfully everyone grasped that now the SoldOut Movement not only has a dream and a plan to evangelize the nations, but we have designated Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders whose charges collectively cover every section of the world! Wednesday’s World Sector Leader Communion was shared about and now the World Sector Leaders’ pledge, “We are family… to the end” – Lord willing – will become a deep conviction in everyone in God’s young movement!

Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin – the World Sector Leaders for the Russian Commonwealth – gave the Contribution Challenge! So inspiring is the account of the forming of the Moscow Mission Team which Lord willing the Spirit will send out this December! Amazingly, 17 disciples from the Russian-speaking nations of Ukraine and Russia have now moved for training in LA’s South Region with the Sirotkins! Each of these disciples has paid for their own ticket, as well spending their own money for rent and other living expenses!

Then came the Second Annual ICCM Commencement! The stirring Wagner classic Ride Of The Valkyries was played for the procession of the ICCM Faculty, Board and Graduates! Then a total of 57 BA Degrees were awarded in four different tracks for the first time: 21 were presented with BA Degrees in Ministry; three were given BA Degrees in Ministry and Administration; five received BA Degrees in Ministry and Charitable Services; and 28 earned BA Degrees in Ministry and Shepherding!

Then Tim Kernan spoke on The ICCM And The European Degree System. Elena – our Dean of Women – followed up with the enlightening description of the Equal Opportunity For Sisters In The ICCM.

Following this, three Master of Arts in Ministry Degrees were given to: Kyle Bartholomew, Lianne Kernan and Andrew Smellie; and then, the Degree of Masters in Ministry and Administration was awarded to Michael Kirchner!

Then came a moment that all of us will cherish for a long time; Dr. Tim Kernan “was hooded” and given the prestigious Doctorate of Ministry Degree!

After a short fellowship break, Raul Moreno preached the keynote address for the GLC, ZION’S DREAMER – EZRA! He captured our attention with his humorous (but true) “GLC Trends” and from these launched into a tremendous Bible study on the events surrounding the building of the temple!

Then as the end of the service neared, we witnessed one restoration, two place memberships and 10 baptisms! Two of the most touching to me were April Jones baptizing her mom Lita just three weeks after her father (Lita’s husband) passed away, and Sal & Patricia Velasco baptizing their daughter – Priscilla!

Then came the prayer for the Holy Spirit to send out our three mission teams: The DFW Mission Team led by Tyler & Shay Sears; the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Mission Team led by Princeton & Joy George; and the Chennai Mission Team led by Elena & me nobly assisted by Raja & Debs Rajan!

To close the service, we bridged the aisles while Lou Jack Martinez led us in The International Version Of The Glory Song!

Sunday night of the GLC was The Kingdom Banquet! After prayer, Heather Harvin sang beautifully, I Will Always Love You!

MONDAY, AUGUST 11TH

Monday began with a new feature of the GLC – The International World Sector Forums! For many reasons we combined some of the world sectors, so the five forums were: Europe & The Russian Commonwealth; Austral-Asia & India; Central & South America; Africa; and The Middle East!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12TH
On Tuesday morning were the Women’s and Men’s Programs! For the women, I heard excellent reports about Elena’s lesson on Esther entitled,For Such A Time As This! Her motivating points were: 1) If I Die, I Die; 2) Obey Your Mordecai; and 3) Lift Others High!

We then find out that there are two olive trees by the bowl and the menorah. The olive trees are representative of Zerubbabel (the Governor) and Joshua (the High Priest). In other words, God uses leadership to unleash His Spirit to work among His people to light up the world!

The points of the lesson: 1) Be Still; 2) Be Purified; 3) Be In Awe of The Cross; 4) Be Ready to Lead; 5) Be Fully Invested; and 6) BeTotally Poured Out spell SPIRIT! The evangelization of the nations in this generation will not be done “‘by might nor by power but my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty!” We closed arm-in-arm singing the GLC Theme Song, Men Who Dream!

Much love,

Kip

Greetings from Los Angeles! The Sunday morning opening session of the 2014 Global Leadership Conference – ZION’S DREAMERS – is just 13 days away! Already 745 have registered from all over the world for this life-changing and historic event!

The 2014 GLC will be held at the beautiful JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert about two hours from LA’s airport – LAX. If you have not registered, please go to CAICC.net and register now so that we can be all the better hosts for you!

This weekend was quite busy as the last ICCM Session of the third semester of the BA Degree Program concluded on Saturday! Presently, we have 68 students (34 men and 34 women!) in our BA of Ministry Program, 19 in our Master’s Program, and six in our Doctoral Program!

All of us on the ICCM Faculty and on the Board of Regents are so looking forward to our Second Annual ICCM Commencement Ceremony on the Sunday of the GLC! To God’s glory, 57 will receive BA Degrees in Ministry, four will be awarded Master’s in Ministry Degrees, and one will have bestowed on him a Doctorate in Ministry Degree!

This week, the Lord again graciously blessed the City of Angels Church with 10 additions: seven baptisms and three place memberships, two of whom – Jemal & Tamarah Tucker – placed membership directly from our former fellowship seeking revival! Therefore in the 208 days of 2014, God has added to our number: 312 – 214 baptisms, 37 restorations, and 61 place memberships! And to God be all the glory!

And now detailed good news reports from each of the new World Sectors…

HEADLINE NEWS – LOS ANGELES

Cesar Limon: Grace and peace in abundance from the East Region! This week the Lord added to the East Family an incredible sister namedJasmine! Due to being a full-time student and a full-time banker, she had a very packed schedule, but that did not stop her from getting right with God! The sisters of course worked around her schedule and so they were in “labors of pain” as they had to drive far distances as well as do her studies at 6AM and at 11PM… But it was all worth it as we saw Jasmine be reborn this past Wednesday at midnight!

Sunday Service was also very encouraging for all the East Region as we had Sergiy & Olena Pometun visiting us from the South Region to inspire us in contribution and communion! They did an incredible job sharing about the vision and the plan God has for all nations!

They left our region with a better understanding about our movement’s global vision and therefore they are all the more inspired about going to the GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE! It was evident that their hearts were stirred as we already have over 70% of our members registered, and we are praying (and working) to get everyone in the region registered by the end of this week! Love to all!

Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! The South Region truly has become “the land of milk and honey” this Summer as disciples from around the globe have come to place membership! Many disciples from Russia and the Ukraine continue to flood in for training and to attend the Global Leadership Conference! Anya and Masha of Moscow came over on their own dime just to learn from the disciples here!

Also, the leaders of the Moscow Remnant Group – Eugen & Julia Sobolev with their two beautiful daughters – just landed at LAX this past week!

Also from that side of the world, the Lord brought over the Rajan family for training (Raja, Debs,  Shefali and Isheeta whom we call “Strawberry”) before the Crown of Thorns Planting of Chennai, India scheduled for September 21st.

Finally, Jen “the Baptist” Garcia strikes again as she reached out to another girl Sharnelle that she met at the bus stop recently was baptized! Jen has helped 10 people come to God since her baptism last year at the GLC! This year she’s excited to go as a disciple!

Luke Speckman: Greetings from Orange County! This past week we were able to see the miracle of Austin Bolin being baptized into Christ at our Wednesday Men’s Midweek! As the son of Steve & Kim, both disciples in the OC Region, it can be challenging to find faith for yourself even growing up around disciples! Yet, after studying the Bible with the brothers and having his sins washed away in the Pacific Ocean, Austin is now your brother in Christ! Please pray as his teenage brother, Alex, is now also studying with the brothers in the Teen Ministry!

Speaking of miracles, we are so incredibly honored to be able to host the Zoutendijks all the way from Amsterdam! They are definitely “heroes in the faith” considering their stand for God’s righteousness has led them out of the lukewarm ICOC to truly worship God in a remnant group that consists of just five disciples! Needless to say, they were extremely grateful for the room full of fellowship here in the OC, but Menno reminded us through his communion message to not take this great number of people in our fellowship for granted as every soul is precious to God!

We are all excited to see you in Palm Desert in just a couple of weeks. Safe travels!

Andrew Smellie: Greetings from the Wild West Region! The Lord added two more incredible souls to the West in the past week! First, the Lord blessed the faith of the saints in the West as Arlette Miller, a mother and wife of a US Navy Serviceman, was baptized on Wednesday! Arlette works as an Accounting Manager for SONY and was met by Liliana Zindler! Please pray for her 13-year old daughter who is now studying the Bible!

Today as well, Charlotte Xia, a 20 year old Junior at UCLA studying Chemistry, proclaimed that Jesus is her Lord before entering the waters of baptism! At this tender age, God has saved her from engaging in the sinful lifestyle of so many campus women, who almost destroy their lives. She shared vulnerably about how she has learned to forgive, have compassion, and live a pure life before the Lord. Charlotte is a native of China and is inspired to see what God will do when this powerful nation is planted! She changed her flight back to China for summer break so she can attend the GLC! To God be the glory!

Cory Blackwell: Greetings from Southland! There is so much good news! First of all, I am filled with joy as on July 28th Jee & I will celebrate our First Year Anniversary! I love Jee with all my heart! I am so grateful that God gave me such an undeserved gift. She is an awesome wife, mother and incredible partner in the gospel!

The past two weeks have been amazing as God continues to add to our number! Tony, an 18 year powerful young man, came to our Paramount Bible Talk which had 35 visitors that night! Although he was full of anger and bitterness toward his family, when he saw the love and joy of the disciples, he then studied the Bible. Immediately afterward, Tony went and apologized to his family asking forgiveness and then was baptized!

Erica studied the Bible then stopped as she received persecution from her mother who decided to come see what we were doing. She came and was quite pleased to see the “goodness” in the fellowship. Erica then made the decision to get baptized and her mother is now studying the Bible herself!

Delron is the longtime friend of our sister Sharece. He had been coming to church and Bible Talk for about a month. He knew what he needed to do and was baptized!

The Teen Ministry baptized a young man named Alex! He was the answer to the prayer of his older brother Isidrio who is a powerful disciple! Alex had to make the tough choice of breaking up with his girlfriend. He chose to make Jesus Lord of his young life and get baptized! Now his girlfriend is studying the Bible!

Then there is Jojo. He had been coming around Southland since it started! His best friend of many years Emanuel – one of the original nine who started this region – had been praying for him since he became a disciple four years ago. Well, persistence paid off as Jojo was baptized this past Midweek as 160 people cheered him on! Jojo now has the dream to plant Fresno as that is where he and Emanuel grew up! 

Please continue to pray for us that God will continue to raise up leaders and mature us. To God be the glory!

Jake Ramsier of the Antelope Valley Region: We had a “doubly blessed” Sunday on July 20th with two precious sisters added to the AV Region! First, we celebrated the place membership of Renee Shutt from our awesome sister church in Hilo! Renee has joined our intrepid ICCM “Unpaid Intern” Team and immediately made an big impression on us by diving into serving the church from the moment she landed! We are deeply grateful to the whole Hilo Church Family for sacrificing such an incredible sister!

Second, we rejoiced at the baptism of Julia! Julia initially began studying with her close friend Daysha of the North Region, but since she lives in the AV, sisters from both regions joined forces to guide her into the water! We could immediately see a vision of God’s plans to do great things with this new sister when she brought a whole row of family members to her baptism!

Finally, I have to note that we had an awesome Beachside Worship Service today with our Ventura Region neighbors with an attendance 176! Some may be slightly sunburned but all were greatly encouraged by the fellowship and fun at the beautiful Marina Park! I was personally inspired by the 45 Ventura Region disciples, as it was a great victory seeing God use them to bring 55 of their friends out to church today! Don’t forget to send your prayers up the “14 Freeway” for us!

Jason Bond: Hello from the AMS Region here in Hollywood, California! We had a great week: one baptism and two placed memberships! Alfred was baptized Wednesday night! And Jasminn Dove, Jabari Farrow’s girlfriend from Washington DC, placed membership as well as Miyumi Hockenhull placed membership from the Central Region’s Teen Ministry!

We had a packed house today, and of special note, we celebrated that two dear brothers, Jabari Farrow and Anthony Wise, graduated from the Theater of Arts College for the Contemporary Actor with degrees in acting. (Between the two of them, they had 10 friends and family at church!) Anthony’s mom came up to me after service and said she was so impacted by the love of the brothers and sisters and feels grateful that Anthony has found a “church home” with the AMS!

Chris & Sonja returned from encouraging the Phoenix Church and their vacation just in time this week for Princeton & Joy’s wedding this Saturday at 5PM at Brace Canyon Park in Burbank!

Also, the AMS will be showcasing our short film “RESPECT” at the GLC! We will have copies available for purchase at the GLC for only $5.00! Remember, THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE “SOUL” BUSINESS!!!!

Erik af Klint: Greetings of love from the Inland Empire! Since the last Good News Email two weeks ago, God has given us four more additions in the IE! First of all, there was Daniel & America who had two wonderful kids but were not married. They came to our Palm Springs Sector on their Ohana Service and they loved it! Then like the Bereans, they studied the Scriptures daily. After being shown the truth, Daniel joyfully left the family home and was married the day after with the love of his life – America! They were then introduced to their new “first love” – God – as they were baptized last Sunday as sold-out disciples of Christ!

And today, we had a wonderful couple place membership directly from our former fellowship: Jemal & Tamara Tucker! When their son Justin challenged them to join the SoldOut Movement, they turned him down. But as lukewarmness crept into not only the church they were part of, but their very lives as well, they became greatly alarmed! They even stopped inviting people to church because no one wanted to help show their visitors the Bible!

However, when they visited various SoldOut Movement Churches, they were blown away by the wonderful zeal, the incredible singing, the ongoing Bible studies, and the love for God they saw! Today they came to be part of the good soil that “produces a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:8) Oh yes, their two daughters – Tierra (22) and Elena (12) – after seeing a change in their parents have started to study the Bible to become disciples!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANT AND THE MIDDLE EAST

NEWS FLASH – Jeremy Ciaramella of Phoenix: Greetings from the Valley of the “Son!” Jesus Christ teaches us in John 15:16-17, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.“ Amy & I are very grateful for Chris & Sonja Chloupek visiting us this past week and their powerful preaching about “the most excellent way“ (1 Corinthians 12:31) – the way of love!

Chris preached a passionate thought-provoking sermon about love and how it is even greater than miracles, knowledge, faith and even commitment! (1 Corinthians 13:1-4) Sonja’s vulnerable communion was also heartfelt and impacting! Chris then taught the leadership about converting the heart and how it’s essential to have fun in order to build family and foster deep friendships with those we are bringing to Christ! The church was certainly refreshed and strengthened by the Chloupeks who took a heroic stand to start the Phoenix Church in their living room in 2005!

Excitingly, God is moving to raise up shepherds and deacons in Phoenix! It was a great honor for Amy & me to appoint Rick Romney as the Deacon of the Teen Ministry and Chris & Darby Schultz as a Shepherding Couple! Rick is a man who continually makes great sacrifices for God’s people, tirelessly serves the teens, and often perseveres through some severe health challenges!

Chris & Darby serve as the MERCYworldwide Coordinators, lead a Bible Talk, and Chris also faithfully serves as the Administrator for the church. As I appointed Chris, I gave him the sword “Glamdring” from theLord of the Rings. In the story, it is this sword that was used heroically to fight an ancient demon of darkness and flame, and the hero who fought it gave his life for his friends in the process. Disciples fight darkness and flames with the sword of the Spirit and we also lay our lives down for one another. I believe this spirit of sacrifice is at the heart of serving as a shepherd in the Kingdom of God! Amy shared about the heart of the“good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” and how this heart has shown itself in Darby!

This Sunday we also celebrated two baptisms! Scott & Sandy Lunde have been diligently loving and preaching alongside the disciples in their house church and today God blessed them with an incredible Latina sister, Linda Gonzalez! Her husband, children, mother, father and many others of her family members were there to witness her baptism! 

Also in the North, God has done an amazing thing in leading David Burdick to the saving waters of baptism! David’s daughter Natalie was baptized just three months ago in the ASU Campus Ministry! After being challenged by the brothers with the Scriptures – David adamantly insisted his salvation was settled and was close to walking away. His daughter tearfully challenged him with her concern about his salvation and he agreed to keep studying. Through prayer on our knees and uncompromisingly preaching the Word, David finally saw his need to truly make Jesus Lord after 40+ years of false doctrine and is now your brother baptized into Christ! To God be all the glory! 
 

 
Richie McDonnell: Greetings from beautiful Santa Barbara! Excitingly, today we were able to celebrate our Sixth Month Anniversary as a church planting! These past two weeks have been incredible as we have had three baptisms! One woman – Emily – from UC Santa Barbara, and two men from SBCC – Josh and Brian! Josh in an incredible “catch” as he is from the island of Roatán (off the coast of Honduras), is on the SBCC Soccer Team, and is a natural preacher! Though he once was a false doctrine Pentecostal preacher, he is now excited to preach the truth!

Today, we also had Brian’s baptism, which is the answer to a radical prayer! Brian and his best friend started studying the Bible back in January. They loved the fellowship; they fell in love with the Bible; but after really counting the cost, they both decided that they couldn’t commit to being a sold-out disciple, and that school and sin were more of a priority for them. The stopped studying the Bible, and stopped coming to church.

Then this past Thursday morning, I prayed, “God, please let someone who’s already studied the Bible all the way through, and who knows what it means to follow Jesus, contact me and get baptized this Sunday.” That very night Brian went against better judgment and decided to try a new drug out with some friends. He described going on a “drug trip” where he was in Hell; he felt like he was burning in Hell, and heard people around him screaming! This helped him come to his senses and realize he couldn’t wait any longer! And that next afternoon he contacted me to get together and talk about getting baptized immediately! So finally, and with a truly repentant heart, Brian was baptized in the Pacific Ocean and couldn’t be happier! I am encouraged by Jesus’ words, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22) God truly answers prayer!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT AND CANADA
 
Coleen Challinor: Greetings from the City of Bridges! It has been incredible since being back from IGNITE! Ricky & I are so honored to be able to direct such an impactful and life-changing program! Truly it is amazing to see these young men and women who have the Spirit and the vision that the world will be evangelized in our day! And here in Portland, it hasn’t stopped! Last week, the teen disciples of Portland were in charge of the service as though IGNITE were here! From the singing, preaching, communion, contribution and sermon, the teens truly electrified and “IGNITEd” the hearts of the disciples!

The highlight, however, was the baptism of a wonderful teen named Brenda Avila! Brenda is 13 years old and is going into her freshman year. Her sharing brought everyone to tears and she broke everyone’s heart with her pure love for God and His Kingdom. She is an incredible teen who truly “gets it” that the whole world is lost and she as a disciple is to use the rest of her life to bring salvation to all women!

Excitingly, Brenda is one of five disciples in her family. Her grandmother and parents are in the Latin Ministry and lead an incredible “Charla” (Bible Talk), and older sister Frida, who is a “sharing beast” in the Campus Ministry, are all disciples! The most incredible thing is that Brenda although 13 is going to the GLC along with her entire family! Although she is the youngest member of our church she is “setting the pace” by going door knocking and having car washes so even more disciples can attend the GLC!

Jeremiah Clark: Greetings from the Mighty Denver International Christian Church! “For God says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) The Lord has truly shown His people tremendous favor over the last two weeks as He has strengthened and encouraged the entire church! This month, we hired our very first interns – Matthew & Marlo Lovacheff to lead our North Region!

We also greatly rejoice as our brother and sister, Kevin Horton & Erica Triche, have been united in marriage! Theirs was the Denver Church’s very first wedding! Their dedication and commitment to purity has been a light and hope to our Singles and Campus Ministry!

We have also had the privilege of restoring our brother Junior Onyeali to the fellowship last week! Throughout his time with us, he has fully immersed himself in the Campus Ministry. His commitment to the family of God has already made a tremendous impact and has inspired us greatly!

Finally, after an amazing Park Service this Sunday, God showed His incredible grace and mercy to our new sister, Salama, as she was baptized into Christ and added to God’s Kingdom! Salama is our eighth addition in the last six weeks! Therefore, since the Denver Mission Team was sent out at the 2013 GLC, God has increased our number from 18 to 55! To God be the glory!

Gabe Reed of Eugene: “News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” (Acts 11:22) In the first century, we find that key leaders did not have an attachment to any one congregation. Rather they went to where they were most needed at the time. The Spirit sent them to places where they could best serve. In the first century, the leaders were “Global Christians” not simply Jerusalem Christians, Antioch Christians, Philippi Christians or Corinthian Christians!

For over 10 years the Eugene International Christian Church has been all about world evangelism in this generation! From this local congregation, disciples have been sent out to encourage and strengthen others churches all over the world in places like Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Santa Barbara, Sao Paulo and Washington DC! Truly the impact of the disciples in “Track Town, U.S.A.” is racing all around the world in this generation!

Today marks a significant day in the Eugene International Christian Church. In an effort to reach more souls all around the world and to meet the immediate needs of the Eugene Church, we are initiating the Eugene Leadership Academy! The ELA is our plan to prepare our members for the mission field and to train leaders that are qualified to meet the needs of our local congregation. Our prayer is that through the ELA, we will cultivate an atmosphere that is conducive to raising up the spiritual leaders needed to further God’s Kingdom!

The ELA along with Eugene’s other incredible disciples had a Day of MERCY this past Saturday, since my wife’s & my arrival made June too difficult of a time to do things excellently! We were able to serve the Relief Nursery again this year. Relief Nursery is a non-profit child abuse and neglect prevention agency proven to strengthen high-risk families and keep young children safe. We were able to clean up two of their playgrounds that had not been cleaned in over a year. The Coordinator expressed how grateful the children were that we came and cleaned up the playground!

Lastly, we were able to hear Jeremiah Clark preach this Sunday in Eugene! We are so grateful to be a part of the movement of God. Few things are more impacting for a disciple than to see that what they believe is being preached “everywhere in every church” all around the world! (1 Corinthians 4:17)

Tim Kernan: Greetings from the Toronto International Christian Church (TICC)! Well, it’s been an incredible week here in the church as we had our historic first Toronto ICCM Session!

‎It was amazing how God has already gathered seven Bachelor’s Degree students including three for whom this was their first class: Daniela Juarez, Donna (Smellie) Clark and Kevin Smellie! Of special note Michele Miranda, or “Sparkles” as she is known here, scored 96% on her exam!

Also, excitingly, we have 11 students in the Toronto ICCM Master’s Program including my lovely wife Lianne, Jake & Megan Studer, Jason & Sarah Dimitry, Jeremiah & Julie Clark, Ricky & Colleen Challinor and Gabe & Stephanie Reed! They will all take their Old Testament Entrance Exam on September 1st and their New Testament Exam on November 1st! Please pray for them!

We are also so excited that seven delegates from Toronto will be coming to the GLC!

Last but certainly not least, we witnessed the powerful and moving restoration of Nanette Weber, the wife of our dear brother Harvey! Everyone was so moved to see this incredible couple now fully united in Christ!

Much love to all from Toronto! TICC, TICC, TICC BOOM!
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANT
 
NEWS FLASH – Mike Patterson of Gainesville: “When Barnabas arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.” (Acts 11:23) God’s amazing grace is being seen in the numerical growth and spiritual growth in the Gainesville International Christian Church! Today we celebrated our Lord as two women were baptized into Christ: Mara, a University of Florida (UF) student, and Alexis, a Santa Fe College student!

Starting with just 17 disciples at our Inaugural Service on January 19th, we now have exactly 40 members which was one of the church’s prayer goals to be reached by the end of 2014! In addition to that, two amazing families (Tim & Katie Le and Dave & Ticia Fergot) from San Francisco are on their way and will be placing membership Sunday which will greatly strengthen our incredible Marrieds Ministry! We are so grateful to the Dimitrys and Underhills for sending them!

In our quest to continue to multiply disciples, we will officially begin our “Singles Professional Ministry” Monday night with our new Singles Devotional! From this new ministry, our own Joseph “Music” Melara and Courtney Abraham are now engaged!

Perhaps one of the greatest miracles of this month was seeing Amy baptized last Sunday! Amy didn’t have a religious background and was eager to study the Bible but was in a two year relationship with her boyfriend. When she saw the Biblical teaching that disciples date disciples (2 Corinthians 6:14-18), she took the call to “give up everything” (Luke 14:33) and broke up with him.

However, Satan viciously attacked as afterward – drawn by curiosity – she read so much persecution online (spiritual pornography) towards the disciples. We had done the Persecution Study and she had read Ron Harding’s A HISTORY OF THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY IN MODERN TIMES at KipMcKean.com, but Satan continued to wage war in the spiritual battle for her soul! The sisters kept calling her to the Bible and to make a decision if she wants to be a disciple or not. Amazingly, after she prayed and read for a week on her own, she finished the studies, took up the cross, and was baptized! She is such a natural part of our spiritual family!

By the grace of God, we have only seen four fall aways since we started back in January, but it’s still four too many. With so many new disciples I started teaching today the Follow Up Studies at our Leaders Meeting to make sure every new disciple is fed spiritually. We will also begin our First Principles Series in the Fall to “solidify, unify and multiply!” So far, around 12 of us are coming to the GLC! We will see you all soon!
 
Anthony Eckels: Greetings from Houston! God blessed the sacrifice of the church as we exceeded our 5X Special Missions Goal of $7,000 by collecting over $8,000! However, two days after missions, Satan tried to discourage us as our meeting place almost doubled the rental cost. We begged God for a new location, and in a couple of days, God answered our prayers with a better hotel for almost half the cost!

On Monday, our World Sector Leader for the South USA Matt Sullivan visited Houston! He graciously called us all higher with a lesson on Exodus entitled, The Lord Is Among Us. Also in town for this meeting were Tyler & Shay Sears of DFW!

We are excited to welcome from our sister congregations Marley Depew of Hilo and Selethia Jackson of South Florida! As well, Jason Nolasco was restored! Jason listened to the online sermons of the Houston ICC, gained convictions, and came to study to be restored! See you soon at the GLC!

Matt Sullivan of Orlando: “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.’” (Matthew 11:4-5) God is working powerfully as the good news is being “preached to the poor” and this has produced a harvest as 11 have been baptized and two have been restored in the last eight weeks!

Of the two baptisms today, Jazmyne’s (Jazzy) was quite unique! Amazingly, a fallen away sister, Jessie Clerzeau (restored last week) was working on her heart and had made the decision several weeks ago to repent of not sharing her faith. She was on campus and decided to share with Jazzy, who is blind. Jazzy came to church and loved it but could not “see” – physically or spiritually. Jazzy grew up in foster homes until she was a teenager. She eventually ran away from home and lived a “wild life” and then sadly at the age of 19 she contracted an unknown disease that caused her to go blind. She still suffers from the disease and yet humbled by God she has learned to love life and is a vibrant and friendly woman!

Although she cannot “read” the Word of God, she fought hard to draw close to God and by “hearing” the Word! Kathy Green, who helped study with Jazzy, shared with her today from Matthew 11 that the “blind receive sight” as proof of God’s compassion for us and His ability to perform miracles! Jazzy was moved to tears and spoke powerfully and from the heart that she was so happy to finally be able to “see” the truth! We were all deeply moved as Jazzy is already dearly loved by the church and is now your sister in Christ!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPE
 
Michael Williamson of London: God is moving across “The Pond!” This week Michele & I were able to visit our brothers and sisters in one of the most beautiful cities in the world – PARIS, FRANCE! However the most touching moments were the love, encouragement and hospitality offered by the disciples in Paris, especially Philippe & Prisca! Amazing fellowship, “dreaming and scheming” about evangelizing Europe, and coordinating plans for the EMC Worship filled our times together! Of course we saw the iconic Eiffel Tower, and Philippe and I sang the words to Aux Champs Elysees, on the Champs Elysees! Bonded as partners we are ready to crank Europe!

We returned late Saturday night to hear the exciting news that Victor Komo & Krista Cameron became engaged! Stay tuned for wedding plans!!

The next day at the East House Church Service a Jamaican native MICHAEL WILLIAMS was baptized! Michael not only saw that he was lost, but he realized that he and his girlfriend were living in sin and that he needed to move out showing repentance by deeds. His girlfriend should be baptized next week as she’s been studying diligently as well!

We ended Sunday night with the Going Away Party for George & Angelica Grima! George & Angelica have made a huge impact on the church! As one brother commented, “Physically you two will be gone, but you left your heart for the gospel here in London with us!” See you guys in a couple weeks!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICA
 
NEWS FLASH – Lola Lof: Greetings in the Lord from your African brothers and sisters in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo! What a tremendous week as our God keeps performing miracles in a very exceptional way! The first miracle is our 13 “Kingdom Kids” who took their final state exam to complete their studies in the secondary school in order to go to the university; all of them have brilliantly succeeded! Thirteen out of thirteen! This is the result of hard work and a basic Christian education. All the parents “rejoiced in the Lord” and said ”thank you” to God and ”congratulations” to their children!

Then the second and great miracle which moved God’s heart is the conversions of three guys who were powerfully baptized into the body of Christ; Delphin (a religious preacher), Thierry and Lebon!

Of special note, Lebon is the son of Odon & Jeannine, an awesome couple in God’s Kingdom! They are very happy to see their family members becoming members in God’s family! To Him be all the glory!

 
Blaise Feumba – Overseeing Evangelist of the French-speaking churches in Africa and the Caribbean reports: “Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” (Proverbs 25:25) Our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ are really fighting hard in spite of their daily challenge to put food on the table and an ongoing struggle against poverty and diseases to seek and save the lost without excuse!

The Lord added two more souls to their number this week! In our awesome church in Jacmel, Jean Bonard is still preaching the gospel calling all members to be completely sold-out in their love for the Lord and the lost. There a young married woman named Nativita Chery was met by disciples and after being invited was open to studying the Scriptures and made the commitment to become a sold-out disciple! She was baptized last week! Please be praying for her husband to study and become our brother soon!

Also in the church in Port-au-prince, powerfully led by Alexis & Maryse Turgeau, another miracle was witnessed with the baptism today of a young man named Joseph Daniel!

Alexis & Maryse and Jean Bonard & Loverlie are eager to join us soon to be part of the Zion’s Dreamers Leadership Conference where we will all be better equipped to go and win the world for Christ in our generation!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH 
 
Oleg Sirotkin – Moscow Mission Team Leader: “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.” (Jeremiah 23:3) God collects disciples from all of the countries! The conference in August has become a really strong magnet for many remnant disciples around the world! Great joy overwhelms my wife Aliona & me to see disciples sacrificing everything to be trained and to go on the Moscow Mission Team!

Maria Bizimova, who lives in Moscow, has been saving money in the last year so that she could come to LA for six months to train! Great news… she is now an ICCM student! Anya Korotova, from the Campus of the Moscow Remnant Group, also came for training and is in the ICCM!

Excitingly, the woman church leader in Kiev Larissa Kaminski received the visa to come to the GLC! As well, it was a great joy to meet at LAX our dear partners in the gospel – Eugene & Julia Sobolev, the leaders of the Moscow Remnant Group, with their wonderful children Anya and Sasha! Now in Moscow are 38 faithful disciples of Christ and 14 Russian-speaking disciples are training in LA!

One more piece of good news: After 19 years of hiatus, Dima returned to the dream of Jesus to be full time for God! Congratulations!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA

NEWS FLASH – Carlos Mejia of Santiago: “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your Word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”(Psalm 119:9-11) Saludos from Chile! This last week has been amazing as God has added three amazing young people to our number – two baptisms and one restoration!

Our Teen Ministry, powerfully led by Anna Hernandez and Jorge Valenzuela, has been on fire as they started out the year with just one teen boy, Yamin Leyton. Last Sunday with the baptism of Loreto Navarro, we now have five sold-out teens and many more to come!

 
Our second baptism was a very dynamic single woman named Emily Valqui from our Oriente Region! 

Finally, the Lord brought back our brother Javier Aracena, who was restored today! He will be part of our AMP Ministry, as he is a talented percussionist. We are very grateful that God has given the AMP Ministry an amazing spot for our monthly Open Mic Night, which we are certain will continue to bear fruit and bring many more to Christ!

We are excited to see you all at the GLC in just a little over a week and also very happy that 10 disciples from Santiago will be there this year, as well as Hector & Adriana Gomez from Bogota, Colombia! We love you all with the love of the Lord! 

Raul Moreno: The saints in São Paulo are fired up to participate at the coming GLC really soon and to hear all the good news from all over the world! We have six disciples going and we are super excited to learn all that God wants to teach us!

But we also have good news here! Last Saturday, we witnessed the baptism of Malu who is a fired up 18 year old USP Literature student who is ready to win many souls for Jesus!

Also, it was awesome to see the baptism of another courageous single named Vera this Sunday! She is very grateful to be in God’s Kingdom and to serve Jesus with all her heart!

And lastly, thank you LA Church for sending Rocky to be a missionary here for about a year! She has already refreshed the hearts of the saints! We love you with the love of the Lord!

Jared McGee of Mexico City: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (1 Corinthians 4:10-12) Greetings from the “City of Hope!” We are so excited to soon participate in this year’s Global Leadership Conference! The GLC is phenomenal every year, but there does seem to be a greater excitement heading into LA this August as God’s Kingdom has been spreading so rapidly and powerfully throughout the whole world! Although we will be few in number from Mexico, we will have a jubilant contingency of eight disciples attending this year’s seminar!

Going to LA is like a homecoming for Rachel & me, as I was baptized there and Rachel was a part of the original “42!” The City of Angels Church is home to so many, and has so often been “given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in ourmortal body!” Recently I was able to witness first-hand how the sacrifice, or “death for Jesus sake” of LA has given life to “our mortal [church] body” here in Mexico! The interns from LA have brought conviction, energy, faith and life to our congregation here! One who shines exceptionally brightly is Sara Oros! Sadly, Sara enjoyed here last Sunday here in Mexico today, and she will soon head off to encourage the East Region of the LA Church in a great way, and become an incredible support to Cesar & Debbie! We are so grateful for Sara’s sacrifice and all of her hard work on the mission field, and we are so grateful to be a part of God’s modern day movement where the “life of Jesus” is “at work in [us]!”

 
HEADLINE NEWS – PAC RIM & AUSTRAL-CHINA

NEWS FLASH – Joe Willis: Greetings from the Sydney International Christian Church! John 13:34-35 rings so true as it states, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It has been a “RIDE of a ROLLER COASTER” here in Sydney as all of the disciples have persevered through trials, embraced the victories, and have grown increasingly more and more in their love for “one another.” The joy that comes with fighting to live an obedient life for Christ has definitely been overflowing even into the streets and campuses of the place we can call home – New South Wales, Sydney! So much so that more and more guests come walking through our doors and are curious to find out why all the love? Why all the joy?

Last week, we experienced the thrill of our “evangelism quest” as the brothers from the North Region Macquarie University Campus, courageously baptized our most zealous brother in the roaring waters (literally roaring) of Coogee Beach! Dean is our first Chinese male convert who can speak fluent Cantonese, Mandarin and English!

What is so powerful about Dean’s conversion story is that he was first reached out to by our baby Christian Maggie, as they have been friends throughout Maggie’s prior life in China. Dean is an individual who was completely atheistic and sincerely battled through what he had always “known” – that there is no God. During the fellowship, he would ask several disciples why they believed in God, but now, Dean is OUT THERE on campus and in the fellowship asking OTHER visiting guests why THEY don’t believe in God! It was such an “encouragement boost” to witness the changes that Dean had made!

Equally encouraging was the serene and beautiful baptism of our new baby Christian sister, Nonto! In the very middle of a sunset, the sisters from the Central Region Sydney University Campus gently placed Nonto completely into the water in view of Australia’s glorious Anzac Bridge! God was literally making it so special as the Sydney disciples have been genuinely praying for a “Uni” campus student to be saved!

Amazingly, Nonto is a talented woman who comes from the sovereign state called the Kingdom of Swaziland located in the South African Region. It is so exciting to know that her hometown is just neighbors away from Johannesburg! Thank you for all of your prayers for us, and faith that God CAN do it! Eight of us will be at the GLC including our first baptism – Teigan!

NEWS FLASH – Lou Jack Martinez, the Overseeing Evangelist of the Hawaiian Islands: Greetings from the Pacific Rim World Sector!!! God is doing amazing and unprecedented things in our world sector, particularly in the Islands of Hawaii!!! First of all in Honolulu, we have begun the initial stages of what we call “Hawaii FIVE-O” which is the plan of FIVE (5) NEW CHURCHES PLANTED OVER THE NEXT FIVE (5) YEARS:  1) West Oahu (2015); 2) Guam (2016); 3) Kona (2016); 4) Maui (2017); 5) Kauai (2019)!!! And we are doing this by moving TWELVE LEADERS to various parts of the movement to achieve our dream!!! SIX (6) LEADERS to the Mainland (for more training) and SIX (6) more leaders to Kona and Hilo to bolster those ministries!!!

Greetings from Scott & Terra Utter and the amazing Hilo International Christian Church!!! For our first Bring Your Neighbor Day – with only 37 sold-out disciples on island – we had an attendance of SIXTY-NINE (69) people at our Sunday service today, as well as the long-awaited baptism of Erin Winkler!!!

Erin is an amazing new single sister who was reached out to over a year ago by Karyss Richardson while they were working together. She finally came to a deep conviction that she was totally separated from God, and that the ONLY way for her to be saved was to be BORN AGAIN, in the waters of baptism as a sold-out disciple of Jesus Christ!!! Erin made that“pledge of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21) and was baptized TODAY!!! She is now committed to seeing ALL of Hilo and the Hawaiian Islands reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ in her lifetime!!!

Here’s some great news from David & Beth Kelly in Kona: God has blessed our little Kona House Church/Bible Talk in immeasurably more ways than we could have asked for or imagined!!! Beth & I are so very excited about what God has been doing!!! We were so grateful for our humble home in Waimanalo, that God decided to bless us with an even bigger and more amazing home here in Kona! Our new home in the Holualoa Township, just above Kona Town, is simply unbelievable! We have an amazing view of the ocean during the day and incredible sunsets every evening! There is a macadamia nut orchard next door with wild pigs and there are wild turkeys roaming through our garden every day!!! 

Our little house church here – which Sarah Chang calls the “City on the Hill” – has been really great in hosting our last two Bible Talks which had more visitors than disciples! 

And, last but not least, here’s a report from our pillar church in Honolulu:  IT’S ANOTHER BAD DAY FOR THE DEVIL ON THE ISLAND OF OAHU AS GRANT POHIN-HERNANDEZ WAS BORN AGAIN, BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST AT MAGIC ISLAND TODAY in front of many witnesses!!!

Grant is a bright young man who suffered a traumatic and debilitating injury because of a car accident when he was only six years old; but God had a plan for this young man as Simi Fruean, Jr., Ned Lam, and Kimo Kahihikolo Miranda studied the Bible with this determined young man, made him into a disciple, and baptized him into Christ!!! Grant will truly be a tremendous “lure” for more people to be reached, and disciples to be made, as he shares his faith with EVERYBODY, loves people, and is as bold as a lion, telling it “like it is!!!”

God has made it clear that the Islands are His, and we are confident that our Hawaii 5-0 Plan will bring MUCH glory to God!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT & INDIA
 
Chris Broom: God continues to answer all our prayers here in NYC! Almost all of the 31 disciples on the NYC Supplemental Mission Team have arrived and God has blessed us with great places to live all over the five boroughs of New York City and incredible jobs as well! We have two disciples that have secured jobs in the financial district near Wall Street! Lisa is a court reporter for the Federal Courts and Drew was hired in the IT Department for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation where they had been trying to fill that position for two years and never even sent anyone to Human Resources until Drew, an MIT Grad, applied! I am confident that the last few homes and jobs will be coming soon!

On Sunday, an amazing young man was baptized! Tristan grew up in Harlem and attended the Professional Performing Arts High School not far from where Theresa & I live. He now attends FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) where he is studying Marketing. Omar, one of our most zealous brothers, had known Tristan and invited him to church and Bible Study for years until one day when Tristan called Omar and simply said, “I need church!” He shared powerfully in front of the church before his baptism about how hopeless he had become as how his life had spiraled out of control. Since his baptism, he has not stopped sharing his gratitude to all of us who loved him and taught him the Bible!

We can’t wait to see you at the GLC! Pray for the over 70 disciples who are fundraising daily to make the trip!

Joel Parlour of Syracuse: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Today the sermon was about A Greater Love that only comes from the example that Jesus gave us! So we have been working very hard to bring out new people to church and study the Bible with a harvest of lost souls! This week, God blessed us with a baptism and restoration of two incredible guys!

The baptism was a young single man named Pat who has been studying the Bible on and off for about two years! It was inspiring to see the disciples not give up on Pat and for him to surrender everything to God which included quitting his job which interfered with the Kingdom. His joy has refreshed the hearts of us all!

The restoration that really moved my heart was of Rich Kim. This truly was miraculous as Satan has attacked Rich in so many ways over the years. His story relates to a majority of those from our former fellowship who left God while pointing fingers at all those who hurt them. During his restoration he spoke about how after leaving the Lord that he had finally realized his pride and then humbly admitted he was the only one to blame. We are so grateful to see Rich boldly declare Jesus as his Lord!

Coltin Rohn of Boston: “When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.” (Acts 1:13 NAS) We first felt like the Israelites in the Old Testament as God “came down in a dark cloud” and rained us out of our Park Service! Then we had people in the “upper room” at the Karonis’s and so we felt like the Apostles in the New Testament! I’m fired up we are “Bible Church!” Amen!

God is moving in Massachusetts! Today a whole group came to church from Springfield (over 85 miles away) in western Massachusetts, just to be a part of the Movement of God! Kevin, who was baptized in 1993, teared-up in the upper room as he found the church he was baptized into so long ago! Sadly after visiting a couple of months ago of what’s left of the ICOC in Springfield, he was shocked that no one could tell him what had happened to the church and why it was so lukewarm.

His desire to find the truth led him to a conversation with Kip and then to our House Church Service up in Lynn! Today Kevin is determined to come back to the Lord and bring as many as possible! God is calling out the remnant in western Massachusetts to help us evangelize the rest of the world! Thanks be to our God for giving us a new movement to evangelize the world!

Maria Franklin of Chicago: “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in Heaven and Earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the Kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” (1 Chronicles 29:11) God is always working powerfully and here in Chicago it has been manifested in the salvation of two precious souls in the past two weeks!

Last Sunday, Sallie’s sins were washed away! Sallie is a married woman. Incredibly, her daughter was invited to Bible Talk at UIC Thursday night and she went and brought her mother Sallie! Sallie then studied the Bible Saturday, came to church Sunday, and studied the Bible every day and was baptized in a little over a week! She has such an amazing and eager heart to be right with God and inspired the whole church to be reminded that the harvest indeed is plentiful! She is an amazing addition to the Downtown Region! 
 

Today, Jesus was baptized through the efforts of the Mighty Central Region! Jesus shared powerfully and with deep gratitude and commitment his excitement to be with God and help others come to the Lord. Prayerfully his fiancé will be baptized  this week!

In addition, the Second Annual Men’s Retreat was held last Saturday! The “Diotrephes (“who loves to be first” – 3 John 9) Trophy” was taken from the Downtown Region and given to this year’s winners, the Mighty Central Region! The men bonded through fun-filled competitions including a pie eating contest, tug-o-war, push-ups, races and arm wrestling among others! They also grilled steaks, but savored the Word of God the most through powerful preaching!

Last Sunday tears were shed and tales were told as we said our final goodbyes for the “Fab Four” who are leaving for LA to help strengthen the Southland Region! 
 

Lastly, through countless tagging efforts including Saturday when we raised over $4,000, we are finalizing the details to help at least 80 get to the GLC in just two weeks! Please keep us in your prayers and see you all soon!

Ron Harding: Greetings from Washington DC! “Likewise, teach the older women to…teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God.” (Titus 2:3-5) We are so excited that we have not only outgrown our meeting facility, but the DC Church has expanded from three to four regions! To meet our growing needs, we have secured a new theatre which will allow us to triple our present size!

Tracy & I are especially encouraged by the older women in the DC Church. Just as the older women took care of the needs of Paul’s ministry, our older women saw the growing need for shepherding with our young Christians and four of our “mothers” have stepped up to train and shepherd the younger women in the church, becoming “church mothers.” Each week they speak with the ministry leaders and travel around the different ministries training the younger women. The face of the entire church has change as everyone has been inspired to see the zeal and wisdom of these inspirational mature disciples of Jesus! All of us cannot wait to see all of you at the GLC!

Jason Dimitry of San Francisco: Greeting from “The Bay!” One of the greatest things about transitions is “GDO’s” – “golden discipling opportunities!” And God has used this time to teach, correct and rebuke us through the steadfast counsel of the Kernans. I’m super grateful to have this opportunity to learn and grow spiritually. Sarah & I are honored to be building on the foundations that Mike & Brittany Underhill absolutely poured themselves out to lay! I have known Mike for 19 years and I so grateful for his partnership in the gospel!

The first two weeks have been so inspiring with the 19 on the Supplemental Mission Team finally all here! Thankfully, all on team have found jobs! Also, with two nights of tagging, we were able to raise almost $2,000 for GLC registrations! Looking forward to seeing you at the GLC!

Roger Green of Chennai: “To fear the Lord is to hate evil…”(Proverbs 8:13) This very Scripture turned the heart of our new sister Maria who was from a Hindu family and only went to the denominational church because of her husband but found nothing convicting or life-changing! The very first time she visited the Chennai Church, this was the message preached by our dear brother Raja which so convicted her! Also she was simply blown away by the fellowship and love she saw in God’s Kingdom! Now Maria and her husband Christopher (who was baptized a week before) are now a happy couple in the Lord!

We are very thankful and so grateful to God and to the LA Church for having our Shepherding Couples – Johnson & Vandana and Thomas & Shirly – attend this year’s GLC and also be a part of the “official mission team” that will be sent out at the GLC to evangelize the 1.3 billion lost souls in our beloved India!

Chennai loves all of you! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
 
Dear Brothers & Sisters: Just a reminder that this year’s GLC will be broadcast via Livestream.com! In using Livestream.com, there are multiple ways to catch all the major events!

• You can view the 2014 GLC Event Page onwww.new.livestream.com/CAICC/2014GLC.
• Also there will be live video players posted on multiple church websites.
• Livestream also features apps for your iPhone / iPad/ iPod Touch via the APP Store, Android Phone / Tablet via Google play, and Roku TV Set-Top Box. After you have installed the app on your device, just search for 2014GLC!

For all the “twitter tweeters,” we will have a live twitter handle @Zion2014GLC where you can follow us, get instant updates, and maybe have your encouraging comments displayed live for the entire movement during the Livestream!

Here’s the Livestream Schedule for the 2014 GLC:
Sunday, August 10         9:00AM Church Service
6:00PM Kingdom Banquet

Monday, August 11         9:00AM Austral-Asia / India World Sector Forum
7:30PM Evening General Session

Tuesday, August 12         9:00AM Women’s Session
11:30AM Closing Session

For too long, the internet served Satan through persecution, pornography and “pushing the agendas” of the liberal press. Now, God’s movement is learning to shine His light into all the nations through this incredible technology so that those who simply cannot attend the GLC will share in the joy of being ZION’S DREAMERS!      

So looking forward to seeing so many of you at this year’s GLC! “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” 
Much love,
Kip