Santa Barbara International Christian Church

Category: Good News Email

  • Good News Email – March 6, 2016

    Greetings from Sao Paulo and Mexico City! In Sao Paulo, Brazil on February 19-21, 2016, the First Brazil Missions Conference – EN CHAMAS (ON FIRE) – was held with 231 in attendance! Then on the next weekend in Mexico City, this awesome congregation hosted for the first time the Latin American Missions Conference (LAMC), whose theme was LA GRAN COMISION (THE GREAT COMISSION)! God gave this young church of 72 a tremendous attendance of 249! These two churches and all of us that sacrificed so much to participate were profoundly impacted! This Good News Email will be primarily focused on these two historic events, but first some BREAKING NEWS from around the world!

    The Heroic Bogota Mission Team led by
    Jose & Daniela Otero and sent out by
    the Holy Spirit at the 2016 LAMC!

     

    BREAKING NEWS

    Kyle Bartholomew – Lead Evangelist of the Manila Church: Greetings from the Metro Manila International Christian Church! It has been amazing to see how God is moving so powerfully this year and I want to share not just good news, but incredibly good news! This year our pace-setter in our Campus Ministry is Rizal Technological University (RTU)! This is our newest Campus Ministry that began at the first of the year! RTU’s University Hymn is Dare To Dream! And dream they have as they nicknamed the original Bible Talk and now the whole ministry – “Warrior Nation!” This ministry was planted and is led by two amazing disciples: RJ Castro – from the LA Mission Team and Rose Sobreno – a local convert born and raised in the Philippines! In just nine short weeks, God has allowed the RTU Campus Ministry to grow from just four to now 18 sold-out disciples by adding to their number 14 souls through baptism!

    Rose with new converts, Sam and Cath,
    echo the “Manila Motto” – One
    Kingdom! One Movement!
    To highlight this fact, just two weeks ago, RTU had five baptisms on a Sunday, February 21st and today they had four more! Truly God is working powerfully in the Warrior Nation!

    The five RTU Baptisms on February 21st: Mark,
    Zhaira, Fatima, Janien and Renmar!
    Also, very exciting was last night we had our first Singapore Remnant Group Meeting in which Kuya Ronnie Gonzalez, led a powerful charge to a group of 14 who were all considering whether God is calling them to evangelize this great country! Please pray for Singapore as Kuya Ronnie will be leading the charge to plant a remnant group there this coming June as two disciples are already there waiting – one being his wife Charito!

    In Manila, Kuya Ronnie (red ICCM Shirt) inspiring
    the other 13 Disciples at the First Meeting
    of the Singapore Remnant Group!
    Truly God continues to pour out His blessings on the Metro Manila ICC as since June 7th at our Inaugural Service, we have now seen a total of 125 additions – 96 baptisms, 20 restorations, and 9 place memberships all seeking revival from our former fellowship! We truly serve an amazing God!

    Danthia Carter (not a SoldOut Movement Member) writes on Facebook: At the Golden Corral as these young men walk to their seats they grab each other’s hands and start praying! After they got done, I told them that was lovely and beautiful. They all said thank you and start giving more praises. Saying we need to spread the Word of God everywhere. Let’s see how many “shares” and “likes” we get from this post. They fellowship with THE CITY OF ANGELS SOUTHLAND REGION. (Presently at 3PM on Sunday there are 8.4K likes, 1.1 K Comments, and 9K Shares!)

    Our dear and bold Southland LA Brothers’
    prayer has inspired a viral sensation!
    Debs Rajan – Lead Women’s Ministry Leader in Chennai: Greetings in the Lord! I would like to share with God’s Worldwide Family the moving account of Parthiban Angamuthu – (aka Ben) our Campus Leader – converting his entire family!

    Presently, Ben is doing his PhD in Mathematics! It was not easy for him to come this far… Ben, like David, was tending sheep in his village. During his school days, he studied at night under a lamp because there was no electricity in his house. He lived in a thatched hut without electricity till his 12th Grade. In his 10th Grade, he secured 88% and was the school topper! The school gave him a scholarship to pursue his 11th and 12th. In his 12th Grade, he was again the school topper with 83%! His parents were unable to support him for further studies and wanted him to start working. The school authorities urged the family to send him for higher studies and secured for Ben a scholarship and accommodation in Loyola College! And so the Spirit moved him to Chennai!

    In time, Ben graduated with 88% in Mathematics and continued to do his Post Graduation in Mathematics and received an amazing 90%! The college gave him a full scholarship to do his double Masters and he cleared it with 93%! Ben went on to do his PhD in Mathematics! It was during this time he was invited to the church and started studying the Bible. He had to move to another state in India to continue his PhD, but since there was no church there, he decided to forego his PhD and was baptized as a sold-out disciple willing “to do anything, go anywhere, and give up everything” for Jesus and His movement!

    Parthiban (center) is all smiles after
    being forgiven of his sins!
    Exactly one year later, God answered Ben’s prayers. He was one among three in the whole state selected by the Central Government of India for a full scholarship with accommodation in Madras Christian College (in Chennai) to do his PhD!

    During these days, Ben’s mom Mariyammal got a severe fever and had a nervous breakdown. Her family took her to the hospital, but she was losing her memory and was advised to be shifted to a Mental Institute. Ben was disturbed and spoke to Raja. Raja advised Ben to bring his mom to the church. Mariyammal came to church and started studying the Bible immediately after church that fateful day even while she was suffering with a high fever! Though she is uneducated, her zeal for God and His Word brought about a complete healing and she was baptized! There was no need to go to any Mental Institute!

    Seeing Mariyammal’s zeal, her daughter Mageswari who came to help Mariyammal with her treatment was amazed by the love of the disciples and started studying the Bible! She went back to the village and told her husband that she needs to move to Chennai. She, along with her two daughters (ages six and three), moved to Chennai and Mageswari was baptized! Then the younger sister Seetha came to visit her mother and check out the church! She was impacted by the message and went back to the village and told her husband! Her husband Murali was against Christianity because he felt that everyone was fake. Undeterred, Mageswari brought Murali to church the very next Sunday to check it out! Murali too was impacted by the Word and the love of the disciples! They both decided to move to Chennai with their two children and studied the Bible and now are baptized disciples!

    “Ben” baptizes his brother-in-law Murali!
    Since most of the family had moved to Chennai, Ben’s father Angamuthu decided to come to Chennai. Ben had lost hope that his father could change, because he was a drunkard. After coming for few weeks, there was a drastic change in his father and he wanted to study the Bible! Soon the Word brought about an amazing change and Ben’s father Angamuthu was baptized too!

    Ben’s baptized family: Dad, Mom and his
    two Sisters – Mageswari and Seetha!
    One last piece of good news from Chennai! David, a Pentecostal preacher, was baptized just last Saturday! Our God is the God of Miracles!

    Oleg Sirotkin – Lead Evangelist of Moscow: We are so excited to share with all of you the amazing news that Sergei & Lena Lamekiny – another former fulltime couple in the ICOC – have joined God’s new movement in Moscow! Sergei came to the Inaugural Service of the Moscow ICOC in 1991 and still remembers Kip’s sermon that day! He was baptized a couple months later!

    After 15 years, Sergei (right) meets Kip again at
    Moscow’s First Anniversary Service!
    In March 1992, Sergei started working for the church fulltime. That summer, he was sent on the mission team to Novosibirsk! There in 1993 his future wife Lena was baptized! After returning to serve the Lord in Moscow, in 1996 the Lamekinys came back to Novosibirsk as Sector Leaders. In March 1996, their daughter Kristina was born! In 2001, they were sent to plant the church in Omsk! God blessed them to be leaders of that church for nine years! There God gave them a son Nikita in 2006!

    In the summer of 2010, Sergei & Lena were called to move in Nizhniy Novgorod to take responsibility for the church in this city and two other small churches in Kazan and Samara! They spent two-and-a-half rather hard years leading the Nizhniy Novgorod Church and in December 2012 they were dismissed as “not talented in public and personal communication.”

    For the last three years, they have been dutifully leading a Bible Talk, spending time in tears, and praying to God to give them a new destination! Heartbreak upon heartbreak, during that time their daughter left the church after a year in Christ.

    Then at the first of this year, Sergei contacted me! I asked Sergei to come to our First Anniversary Service and to see Kip again! After studying out the SoldOut Movements Core Convictions with Kip and me, and an overnight visit by Elena & I to Nizhniy Novgorod three hours away, Sergei & Lena joyfully joined God’s movement! They are moving to Moscow very soon!

    The Moscow Disciples welcome Sergei (blue jacket),
    Lena (white jacket), and Kristina (center)!
    RD Baker – Dubai Mission Team Leader: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known…” (Romans 15:20) Truly these are exciting times for God’s Kingdom, as we continue our pledge to plant churches in all nations in our generation thus fulfilling the Great Commission! 2016 will be the year we begin our thrilling, yet difficult work in the Middle East with our first planting – the 11th Crown of Thorns City which is Dubai, United Arab Emirates!

    RD & April Baker – the courageous Dubai
    Mission Team Leaders!
    Dubai, the largest of seven states making up the United Arab Emirates, is nestled in the Persian / Arabian Gulf. Forbes Magazine says Dubai is now one of the five most visited cities in the world! With over 2.3 million people, Dubai is truly made up of all nations, a population comprised of Arabs, Persians, Filipinos, British, Indians, Americans and many other countries!

    The Burj Khalifa in the center of Dubai is
    the tallest building in the world at
    2,722 feet (830 meters)!
    My wife April & I believe that it will prove to be the ideal pillar city for us to plant churches in all the Persian Gulf and throughout the entire 18 countries of the Middle East!

    “A great door for effective work has been opened to me, but there are many who oppose me.” (1 Corinthians 16:9) Knowing the difficulties that lie ahead for this missionary journey in the heart of Islam, the call and need of the hour is for sold-out, dedicated and talented disciples to “step up and step out” on faith and volunteer for the work that must follow! Now is the time we must assemble those God has called for this noble task and are serious about accomplishing the mission at hand.

    2.3 million lost souls live under
    the Dubai Flag!
    We are looking movement-wide for disciples who can obtain employment in Dubai, are teachable, grounded in the Bible, and will bring a mature, stable presence to our team. Knowledge of the culture, a firm grasp on Islam and the Arabic language, and a heart to love the Arab peoples are a plus! Our prayers are that the Blackwells – the Middle East World Sector Leaders – and April & I will “spy out the land” in late May. Then Lord willing, I will have found a job to support my family and start work in Dubai around July 1st. Then the Dubai Mission Team will be sent out by the Holy Spirit on Sunday, July 31st at the 2016 Global Leadership Conference! We have our eye on September 4th for our Inaugural Service! If you would like to join the team, please contact me at rd.baker@usd21.org.

    Tim Kernan – Director of the 2016 Global Leadership Conference: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!” (Acts 1:8) Jesus’ radical vision for the first century church was for it to spread “to the ends of the earth” in the lifetime of the Apostles! Therefore, the stirring theme for the 2016 GLC is REVOLUTION! The date for this momentous occasion is Sunday, July 31st through Tuesday, August 2nd!

    Sign up soon for the 2016 GLC
    at CAICC.net!
    On Friday, July 29th will be the exciting Church Builders Workshop and the inspirational International Campus Devotional! On Saturday will be CyberCon, The MERCYWORLDWIDE Symposium, The International Teen Devo and the fun-filled Talent Show and PURE Dance!

    Registration this year is $185. However, until Tuesday, March 15th, we are offering the Early Bird Special for $160! You may register for the 2016 GLC as well as securing housing by going to the City of Angels International Christian Church Webpage at CAICC.net. Let’s be praying for Jesus’ Global REVOLUTION to extend “to the ends of the earth” in this generation!

    Tim Kernan – the 2016 GLC Director – getting disciples signed up for the Early Bird Special!

    Kip McKean: Dearest Brothers and Sisters, Keep in your prayers the other Geographic Missions Conferences! If you were not able to attend the Brazil Missions Conference or the Latin American Missions Conference, begin to pray that somehow, some way that God will give you the time off work or school, the finances and the visas to attend one of the following life-changing events this year!

    Oleg Sirotkin – Lead Evangelist of Moscow: Privyet! We are praying for as many of you as possible to come to our First Eurasian Missions Conference in Moscow, Russia! We celebrated our First Anniversary Service of the Moscow Church on January 31st! During our first year, God added to the 17 on the Mission Team and the 30 in the Moscow Remnant Group 77 additions – 41 baptisms, 24 restorations and 12 place memberships! The following websites will guide you in registering for and participating in the Eurasian Missions Conference on April 29th – May 1st!

    The theme for the First Eurasia Missions
    Conference is NOTHING
    IS IMPOSSIBLE!
    In English – The EAMC information: http://conf.moscowicc.org

    In Russian – The EAMC Information: http://www.moscowicc.org/evrazijskaya-missionerskaya-konferenciya-29-04-01-05/

    The Moscow ICC Website: http://www.moscowicc.org

    Kyle Bartholomew – Lead Evangelist of Manila: Mabuhay! The Austral-Pacific Rim Missions Conference is just around the corner! Please go to our Metro Manila ICC Website for more detailed information! http://www.mmicc.net/


    HEROES OF THE FAITH is the upward
    call theme of the APRMC!
    Kip McKean: There are three other Geographic Missions Conferences later in the year! The European Missions Conference in London is entitled, LIVING BY FAITH and the dates will be October 27-30, 2016! The First South Asia Missions Conference in Chennai, India will have the theme EXODUS! The dates are November 4-6, 2016! The African Missions Conference is shared about just below by Andrew Smellie!

    Andrew Smellie – World Sector Leader of Africa: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2) On May 22, 2016, the SoldOut Discipling Movement will witness an historic event – the sending from LA of the First Mission Team Planting to the continent of Africa in LAGOS, NIGERIA!! Appropriately called “the Giant of Africa,” Nigeria is the home of over 180 million lost souls – the largest of the 54 nations of Africa with a land mass that is twice the size of California! The Lord has continued to gather His remnant into the Lagos Remnant Group from the Mainline Church of Christ, our former movement – the ICOC, and also a number of Nigerian disciples from the London ICC whose UK visas have expired, but their faith for their homeland is still ablaze!

    Andrew Smellie will return to his beloved
    Africa to plant the Lagos ICC!
    From Friday, June 24th to Sunday, June 26th, we will celebrate our Second African Missions Conference (AMC) entitled, A Great Light Has Dawned! The close of this momentous event will be the Sunday June 26th Inaugural Service of the Lagos International Christian Church!

    The theme of the African Missions Conference in
    keeping with the planting of Lagos is
    A GREAT LIGHT HAS DAWNED!
    This historic event will be held at the Four Seasons by Sheraton – Lagos, Plot 9/10 Block 2, Oniru Chieftaincy Estate, Victoria Island. Please stay tuned as an Eventbrite Website with further details will be up soon! Last year, we celebrated our First AMC in Abidjan, Ivory Coast as over 500 gathered in attendance to worship and witness 12 baptisms! Lyly Ngungu, the wife of Micky Ngungu – the Kinshasa ICC Leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – was restored to the Lord after being apart from her husband in Johannesburg, South Africa due to work challenges! She now serves faithfully beside her husband in her homeland and leads the Kinshasa Sisters powerfully!

    HEADLINE NEWS

    Raul Moreno – Lead Evangelist of São Paulo: Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil! God has been good to our church as history was made as we were able to celebrate our First Brazil Missions Conference (BMC) from February 19th to the 21st entitled, EM CHAMAS! All the sermons and classes were inspired by this great theme!

    The theme EM CHAMAS (ON FIRE) was prophetic
    as every BMC participant left the
    seminar, left ON FIRE!
    Thursday night we had a scrumptious Speakers Dinner, Brazilian style, in an amazing “Churrascaria” (Steak House) on the beautiful Paulista Avenue which is the business center of this great city! It was a great time of fellowship, sharing and thoroughly enjoying all-you-can-eat steak!

    Raul & Lynda Moreno welcome all the speakers
    for the BMC to the Churrascaria Feast!


    Jason & Sarah Dimitry came all the way
    from San Francisco!

    All the speakers were encouraged by the
    hospitality of the Sao Paulo Church who
    provided the Churrascaria Dinner!
    Friday morning, we started the festivities with Registration and our very own Campus Workshop!

    The Sao Paulo Sisters are ON FIRE to register
    Alfredo Anuch who traveled from Santiago!

    The Campus Workshop began with a
    powerful Pre-Service Prayer!
    Then Tim Kernan delivered an unforgettable sermon, in the way that only Tim can do, entitled, Thrown Into The Fire from the book of Daniel! I will never forget one of his points, When Thrown Into The Fire Expect Company! Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fire, but the Angel of the Lord was there to rescue them! This should always give us comfort as God does not forget His servants when we go through difficult trials!

    Tim Kernan’s humor and Biblical insights
    stirred every campus student’s heart!
    Following Tim were seven short charges about several Biblical heroes who were on fire for God!

    The seven short charges were delivered by Adam,
    Shay, Danilo, Carol, Sarah, Jason and Caio!

    Sarah had so much fun delivering a translated
    lesson! Bia also enjoyed the moment!
    Later on, Kip & Elena dynamically presented The History Of The Campus Ministry! In this deep and cool lesson, Kip elaborated on a very interesting and insightful yet innovative premise that the Apostles were in fact the first Campus Ministry because Jesus was a Rabbi (teacher) and the Apostles were his “young” students! You MUST listen to this ground-breaking sermon!

    Kip & Elena humbly shared about some of the
    mistakes they made in building Campus
    Ministries as a young ministry couple!
    Those lessons were enough spiritual nourishment for a whole conference, yet God loves to give us “more that we can ask or imagine.” With this principle in mind, on Friday night we had the official start of our conference combined with our MERCY Night! It was so unifying as a Movement to see the sea of green as everyone had a MERCY Shirt on!

    MERCY Night at the BMC!
    We had two exciting cultural presentations as two brothers and a sister danced the Capoeira! The Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art which has dancing elements to it with music playing in the background! Only Brazilians would think of putting dancing into a martial art! That is one of the reasons why I love Brazil so much!!!! Immediately following, a group of our very talented sisters performed a sweet Afro-Brazilian Samba Dance! They did an incredible job!

    The Capoeira Martial Art Dance!

    The adorable Samba Sisters!


    Elena shares a picture of herself the year that she
    became a disciple and several thought
    the picture looked incredibly like
    our new sister Gaby!

    To end the night, Kip spiritually brought “the fire” with his sermon aptly entitled, Fire From Heaven! The entire São Paulo Church experienced the full range of the emotional spectrum with this sermon! We felt very loved, encouraged, corrected, admonished, rebuked… and then loved again! It is great to have an Overseeing Evangelist come to your church and lovingly meet what was lacking in the church! Thank you Kip!

    One of the amazing highlights for Kip was seeing
    all the preachers that Raul is training to
    evangelize Brazil: Caio, Vini, Flavio,
    Joao Carlos, Adam, Danilo,
    Luca and Renato!
    Because of God working through Kip’s discipling, we have put before the Lord the following goals for the São Paulo Church this year:

    1. Start the ICCM-São Paulo in April.
    2. Begin our Pledge Drive in April.
    3. Re-train all the Bible Talk Leaders to do all the studies and to be effective.
    4. Plant the Rio House Church in July.
    5. Have 80 additions in 2016.
    6. Send out the Rio planting at the 2017 BMC.
    7. Appoint two disciples as Evangelist and/or Women’s Ministry Leaders at the 2017 BMC.

    Wow, I have written so much already and I have only covered one day of the conference! But there are still two days left! Well, Saturday and Sunday were amazing as we heard deep and impactful lessons from Jason Dimitry, Elena McKean, Alfredo Anuch, Renato Tria, Shay Sears, Adam Zepeda and the São Paulo Church Interns!

    Renato Tria!

    Though emotional, Shay Sears preaches in flawless
    Portuguese as she was on the original
    Sao Paulo Mission Team!

    Elena McKean!

    Alfredo Anuch!

    Gina dela Pena traveled 39 hours from Manila
    to preach at the BMC in Sao Paulo!
    I have to say that even in this state of jubilant expectation after the BMC, we are waiting for the great young evangelist and my dear son in the faith Adam Zepeda to join us as a missionary in Brazil! Thank you LA Church for giving up one of your young prophets to this mission field! Hopefully, God will get him a wife here! If he can’t get a wife here, he may need to be like Paul! Lol! (Laugh out loud!)

    Raul’s fatherly touch has inspired Adam to rely
    on God from the day Raul baptized him!
    At Sunday Service, God gave us 231 in attendance with three awesome baptisms!

    Raul preaching to a packed house
    on Sunday morning!


    Marina (center) is a Master’s Student at the
    prestigious University of Sao Paulo!

    Renato’s heartfelt sharing about his
    life was very moving!


    Gustavo’s mom – a sold-out disciple – gives him
    one last admonition before his baptism!


    Gustavo is baptized by his two older brothers –
    Anderson (left) and Eduardo who
    are also disciples!

    Of note, in the last three weeks, the Lord has given us 8 additions with 7 baptisms and 1 place membership! We were also able to unveil the exciting Crown of Thorns Project for the Central & South America World Sector which filled the disciples with dreams of becoming missionaries! God is good!

    The Anuchs help to unveil the Crown of
    Thorns Project for Latin America!

    Shay and all who traveled from afar forged best
    friendships with the amazing
    Brazilian Disciples!
    After this great conference ended on Sunday afternoon, Lynda & I immediately hopped on a 40 minute flight with our dear friends the Kernans, Dimitrys, Shay Sears and Eileen Mengis to Rio de Janeiro to not just see this beautiful city, but this was our first “spying out the land” trip! God willing, we will have an optional Rio “Spying Out The Land” Trip for those who come next year to the 2017 Brazilian Missions Conference and we’ll meet with the Rio Mission Team on Tuesday night for a Devo!

    Rio de Janeiro is a massive city of
    over 12 million!


    Driving along the famous Copacabana Beach!


    Copacabana Beach!

    For the entire “spying out the land” trip, Jesus
    had the Kernans’, the Dimitrys’ and
    the Morenos’ backs!


    At every landmark, the Disciples would pray and
    plant their feet claiming Rio for God’s glory!
    (Joshua 1:3)

    And the fun did not end in Rio! The very next week after our conference, Lynda & I headed to Mexico City to participate in the Latin American Missions Conference! Carlos & Lucy did an outstanding job planning and directing this great conference as they always do with all the seminars that they host! The Mexico City Church is so blessed to have them as leaders!

    Carlos Mejia – Lead Evangelist of the Mexico City Church: Greetings from Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos! The Great Commission was the stirring theme of the 2016 Latin American Missions Conference (LAMC)! For the past three years, the Lord allowed us to host this event in the great city of Santiago de Chile! So this year was the first year for this inspirational occasion to be held in Mexico City! The entire event was held at the beautiful Hotel Hilton Reforma!

    After three years in Santiago, the LAMC is
    held in Mexico City for the first time!

    The population of Mexico City is 25 million…
    and growing!

    The gracious hosts for the LAMC were Carlos
    & Lucy Mejia – the Lead Ministry Couple
    for the Mexico City Church!!
    The Church Builders Workshop was from 9AM to Noon on Thursday, February 25th! The singing was incredible even though many of the Americans could only hum the melody! After all, we sing the same songs with the same sold-out heart! Dr. Kip McKean preached an unforgettable message entitled, The Churches Were Strengthened In The Faith And Grew In Numbers! Kip began with an overview of the Scriptures on the growth of God’s movement in the first century in the Book of Acts. He then laid out from Acts 4:13 that “the extraordinary was accomplished by the ordinary!” I felt very challenged by the message and upped our church growth goal to 100 additions in 2016!

    Raul translates for Kip at the Church
    Builders Workshop!
    Following, we split into Men’s and Women’s Sessions. The Brothers heard amazing messages from Emilio Bonilla of LA, Renato Tria of Sao Paulo, Jose Otero of Bogota, Alfredo Anuch of Santiago, and Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo speaking on The Five Core Convictions Of The SoldOut Movement!

    Emilio Bonilla is one of the most powerful
    young preachers in the movement!
    The Sisters had the same theme for their breakout session! Their speakers were my lovely wife Lucy Mejia, Lynda Moreno of Sao Paulo, Daniela Otero of Bogota, Alejandra Anuch of Santiago, and Dr. Elena McKean of LA!

    Lucy admonishing and encouraging
    the Sisters!
    Then it was off to see the Teotihuacan Aztec Pyramids! About 140 of us boarded three buses and traveled northeast a little more than an hour from Mexico City. Everyone was blown away especially with our singing and praying at the top of the tallest of the pyramids where at one time there were human sacrifices! We sang the song, Dios Tu Pueblo Canta (God Your People Praise You!) In this former center of pagan worship, we sang one verse that can be translated, “You’re the one God, the true God!” Now this renowned place of blood and death has become a glorious place of vision and hope for God’s new movement in Mexico!

    Time to board the buses!


    The bus ride!

    140 Disciples get ready to climb the highest
    of the Aztec Pyramids!

    Whew!!!! That was a lot higher than most
    of us thought… Except Carlos!


    Heard more than a mile away, Malcolm leads us in
    the beautiful song, Dios Tu Pueblo Canta!

    With an inspiring view from the top of the pyramid,
    Renato Tria prays for the evangelization
    of all Latin America!

    Climbing down was soooo much easier!

    Time to get a siesta!

    After climbing down the pyramid we got into the buses again and headed for the famous Gran Teocalli Restaurant! What a celebration we had!

    For some reason as we pulled up to this famous
    restaurant – the Gran Teocalli – we all felt like
    the food was going to be a temptation…

    And we were right!

    What an incredible meal! Then
    came the live Aztec Dance!

    Daniel & Patty and Gordo & Jen really
    got into the performance!
    On Friday night from 7PM to 10PM was the official Opening Session of the LAMC! On an encouraging note, the Americans were starting to get the hang of our Spanish hymns! After the singing came The Welcome, an International Prayer in three languages – Spanish, Portuguese and English, then our Opening Video! Then, Drs. Kip & Elena McKean presented The Good News From All Around The Kingdom! Following was another highlight – The Flag Parade Of Nations!

    The flags of the four evangelized Latin American
    nations were paraded to the stage!
    The first is the Chilean flag carried
    by Jose Andres & Pilar!


    Then came Vini & Vaitsa proudly
    carrying the Brazilian flag!


    Then as Alberto & Lesly stood tall,
    it was “Viva la Mexico!”


    The dashing remnant couple – Salvador &
    Martita Deluque – carried
    Colombia’s colors!

    Then the entire crowd waved small flags from
    all the nations of Latin America… And
    we believed that someday all these
    flags will be on stage!

    Not to be forgotten is Sara Oros Gochez – the
    heroine who single-handedly saved the
    Mexico City Church from false
    teachers in 2014!

    After a short break, Jose Otero preached a fiery sermon – Leave Your Land! We closed with a very special song! On Saturday morning was our MERCY T-Shirt Day!

    MERCY Day at the LAMC!
    To kick-off the day, Raul Moreno delivered a remarkable lesson – Come Follow Me! After the break, we broke into three separate programs: Campus, Singles and Marrieds!

    The speakers for the Campus Ministry
    Program were “increíble!”
    Following, Jeremy Ciaramella – one of our movement’s CyberEvangelists – delivered a powerful lesson on the darkness of the internet and our opportunity to have our lights shine on the internet! We entitled his lesson, Go… To The Invisible Continent!


    Jeremy Ciaramella delivered a message about the
    Internet that should be preached in every
    SoldOut Movement Church!


    Three physical sisters: Adriana (left) and Lorainna
    (right) – both of Mexico City – and their sister
    Elvera Casas in whose home the new
    Cancun Remnant Group meets!

    Then Nick Bordieri, Michael & Sharon Kirchner, and Hector Gomez respectively spoke on Go Heal The Sick, Go To The Ends Of The Earth, and Go To The Noble Hearted! We closed our Morning Session by presenting the Crown of Thorns Project for Latin America! Raul and I were privileged to pray over it!

    Raul and Carlos pray over the Latin America
    Crown of Thorns Project!
    Saturday night was the Kingdom Banquet where Alfredo Anuch spoke on Teach Them To Obey! We also had some special entertainment by mariachis and then a Family PURE Dance!

    The Kingdom Banquet!

    The dearly beloved Kirchers – the World Sector
    Leader Couple for Administration and Law!

    Mariachis!

    Since it was Lynda’s birthday, she & Raul were
    invited to dance along with the Mejias!

    Alfredo preached Biblically that there are
    no excuses for not being sold-out
    for Jesus’ Revolution!

    The momentous evening closed with
    a Family PURE Dance!

    However, Alfredo did not eat at the banquet since
    he was speaking, so he went out late night
    for dinner and ordered a Mexican
    treat… worms and scorpions!

    Ummmm!

    Alfredo cleaned his plate!
    Sunday morning was the grand finale – The Worship Service! Communion was amazing as my sister Cecy Frazier & her awesome husband Travis shared their lives… and many of my sins!

    Travis & Cecy Frazier presided over a
    tremendously moving communion!
    Following was contribution by Hector & Adriana Gomez, who initiated the Bogota Remnant Group and now have moved to Mexico City to establish the Berea / SoldOut Publishing Company! Our first book will come out at the 2016 Global Leadership Conference – Elena McKean’s book entitled, ELEVATE – Jesus’ Global Revolution For Women! In English it will be in hardback and in Spanish a paperback!

    Then came one of the most moving times in my life – the baptism of Lucy’s & my oldest son Carlos! Baptized immediately before him was Daniel, the son of Hector & Adriana! So our Teen Ministry is cranking!

    Hector asks the two most important questions
    of his son Daniel’s life!

    Adriana’s 15 year prayer for Daniel to
    be baptized was answered!

    Father and son become dear Brothers!
    Then came the Send-off of the Bogota (Colombia) Mission Team! This team of five gallant disciples led by two of my best friends – Jose & Daniela Otero – will be joined by the now 30 member Bogota Remnant Group!

    Globes were given to the five on
    the Bogota Mission Team!

    Carlos presents not only the Bogota Mission
    Team (in hats!), but also five remnant
    disciples from Bogota that came
    to the LAMC!
    That night, Kip & Elena graciously celebrated Carlos’ baptism with Lucy, Andrew, Carlos and me with a wonderful dinner! God has been so good to me! Continue to pray for the Mexico City International Christian Church!

    The McKeans celebrate their spiritual grandson
    Carlos’ baptism! As well as being very proud
    of their other grandson – Andrew!
    Jose Otero – Bogota Mission Team Leader: “You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’” Greetings from Bogota! Our God is an Awesome God! Today, the five of us on the Mission Team had our first Sunday service since arriving in Bogota! It was a packed house with an attendance of 55! Truly, when we lift up our voices with a shout, saying, “Here is your God” people listen! And to God be all glory! Amen!

    Malcolm & Alexa (left) will serve as the Campus
    Ministry Couple as Jose & Daniela
    lead the Bogota ICC!


    The Bogota Mission Team is already fruitful
    as Daniela (left) and Martita (right)
    restored Esperanza at the LAMC!

    Alfredo Anuch – Lead Evangelist of Santiago: Greetings from “the ends of the earth!” It is summer here in Chile and even though January and February have historically been slow months of growth for the church, this summer God has blessed us with 12 baptisms in these first eight weeks! To Him be the glory!

    Santiago de Chile as viewed from the
    famous San Cristobal Hill!
    Felipe Roman, a civil engineering student in the Catholic University, was baptized three weeks ago… For around four months, we studied the Bible with him almost every day, and so his faith went from Gnosticism to true Christianity! It was so impressive to hear him say in front of our 23 Campus Ministry Disciples, “Jesus is Lord!” Now Felipe is studying the Bible with others and defends Jesus with passion!

    Felipe is now a radical sold-out disciple!
    Another amazing conversion, was that of Benjamín Gonzalez, who in 1980 was baptized in the Traditional Church of Christ here in Santiago! A while later, he became a preacher and planted two Mainline Churches of Christ! This man, despite his experience and his later studies in theology, decided to become a child to be sure of his calling before God. After three weeks and realizing that what he had believed and taught for years about conversion had been a wrong doctrine, he made the decision to become a disciple of Jesus, be baptized again, and this time go out to preach the good news of Jesus with the same strength and heart from 30 years ago!

    Benjamin – a former Mainline Church of Christ
    preacher – has a vision to help evangelize
    all of Central & South America!
    Because we believe that God can do much more than what we can think of or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), we have decided that our goal as church is to have 100 additions in 2016 and thus finish with over 200 disciples for Christ! Our first step of faith was our service today in a new location in the Marina Las Condes Hotel, which has an event room with a capacity for 300 people!

    After being inspired by the First Brazil Missions Conference and feeling terrible that we only had three disciples from Santiago participate, so today we told the church that the Summer of 2017 won’t be one more summer for the Santiago Church, because the Campus and Singles Ministries (presently a combined 80 disciples) will be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil to be a part of the Second Brazil Missions Conference! God willing, around 100 disciples will be going from Santiago to Sao Paulo for this amazing event! Only one word can summarize what is coming: REVOLUTION!!!

    FAMILY NEWS

    Boston: Tim Roseborough & Jovani Small tied the knot on February 13th! These “love birds” were converted through the Boston University Campus Ministry and graduated just last year! It has been so inspiring to have been able to witness them fall in love with God, and then fall in love with one another! Both their families were greatly impacted as they watched in awe the Roseboroughs’ first kiss and the servitude of all the disciples at their wedding!

    Congratulations to Tim & Jovani!
    Chennai: All the Disciples celebrated the gorgeous wedding and holy union of Subash & Amanda!

    Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Subash!
    Sydney: The Sydney Church had its first and I must say spectacular wedding of Lennox & Kiera Tweneboa! Lennox originally came to the church in our first year after leaving our former fellowship by finding us on the Internet! He also brought Kiera, helped baptized her at the beach, and after much humility, advice and trust in God, saw the desires of his heart come true as married her amid their family and friends, accompanied by a troop of African drummers which he then surprised Kiera by joining and showing off his talents on the drums!

    Congratulations to the Tweneboas!
    Sao Paulo: Two evenings before the Brazil Missions Conference commenced, Danilo Bataglin & Carol Postigo were celebrating their engagement! God was simply solidifying His plans for them – as a married couple – to plant the Rio de Janeiro Church after the February 2017 Brazil Missions Conference!

    Congratulations to Danilo & Carol who Lord
    willing will plant the Rio de Janeiro
    Church in February 2017!
    Los Angeles – Palm Springs Region: “He has made everything beautiful in its time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Last week we witnessed an incredible miracle, as Tony & Munisa Herrera were married in God’s Kingdom! Tony was met by our dear brother and evangelist Salvador Velasco, who shared with him persistently for over a year. Eventually Tony came out to church, broke up with his then fiancée Munisa, and became a true disciple! Fast forward to January… Munisa becomes a baptized disciple and now they have been united in Christ through marriage! Please pray for Lucas, Tony’s son, who is a teen and studying the Bible!

    Congratulations to Tony & Munisa Herrera!
    Los Angeles – Ventura Region: Please welcome the newest addition to the Swann Clan in Ventura! Kyle, Samantha and Scarlet Swann were so happy to welcome Conor Jay Swann into their precious family on February 9th at 4:30am!

    Scarlet’s first meeting with her new brother Conor!

     

    LOCAL LA NEWS

     

    Tim Kernan – Lead Evangelist of the City of Angels ICC: Greetings from rainy and beautiful Los Angeles, California! Lianne & I were so blessed to have been invited to the First Brazil Missions Conference, hosted by some of our very best friends − Raul & Lynda Moreno! The conference was one of the best I’ve ever attended, and Sao Paulo is such a delightful city! We met so many amazing disciples, and we wholeheartedly recommend that as many as possible attend the Brazil Missions Conference next year! After the conference, the Morenos invited the Dimitrys and us to join them on a short flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. We began “spying out the land” there for the 2017 church planting! I just can’t say enough about how impressed we are with the amazing Sao Paulo Church!

    At the Sao Paulo Airport, Tim & Lianne are given
    a SoldOut Movement Welcome with the
    song – We Love You With The Love
    Of The Lord!
    This missions conference deeply reinforced my conviction that it is the best thing for the SoldOut Movement to have Kip & Elena freed up to focus on worldwide growth and the strengthening of our awesome Crown of Thorns Churches! It was amazing to see their effectiveness, and the hunger of the people for their time and skillful discipling. As was written about David, so it can be said of the McKeans, “[The McKeans] shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands [they] led them!” (Psalm 78:72) The disciples beamed with joy at the McKeans very felt presence at the conference!

    Kip & Elena were so proud of Raul & Lynda
    and the Sao Paulo Church for all of their
    planning and hard work to host
    the First BMC!
    “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:7) I’m so very proud of every disciple in the City of Angels Church, and I’m especially amazed by the faith of all 45 Bible Talks that have been fruitful this year! In the first 67 days of 2016, God has given us 76 outstanding additions – 61 baptisms and 15 restorations! Upon my return from Sao Paulo, we had a special Friday Morning Staff Session for all of the Region Leader Men where we dreamed together and pledged ourselves to our Biblical and idealistic conviction that every one of the 138 Bible Talks in the City of Angels Church can, should and will be fruitful this year! It will take skillful and inspirational hands to accomplish this goal, but we genuinely believe we have the Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders for the task!

    Tim & Lianne take the entire City of Angels Church
    Staff up Mt. Shalom to pray for workers!
    We also had a special session for all the Shepherding Couples, the Evangelists and the Women’s Ministry Leaders in the congregation last Sunday night to continue to build unity. We had a rousing study of Genesis 18 and 19, comparing the camp of Abraham and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though the meeting finished at 9:30 PM, the Region Leaders and Shepherding Couples could still be found fellowshipping an hour later! A very special thank you to Denise Bordieri for preparing the food (Nick was at the Latin American Missions Conference), Tony & Therese Untalan for organizing the meeting, and for all our Shepherding Couples across the whole congregation for participating!

    Tony & Therese oversee the Shepherding Couples
    in the SoldOut Movement!
    This past Friday night at the All Congregational Campus Devotional on the USC Campus, Joel & Courtney Parlour − the Seattle Mission Team Leaders − preached an amazing sermon to us entitled, Broken Hearts Break Hearts! Also joining us for the devotional was Brian & Joaly Carr from Boston, who are in LA training and preparing to lead the mighty Eugene Church when Gabe & Stephanie Reed move to the Southland Region in the middle of April! We are so blessed as a movement to have such inspiring and dedicated young leaders!

    Joel & Courtney Parlour preaching at LA’s All
    Campus Devo with more than 300 students!
    On Saturday and Sunday, eight of the 12 LA Regions hosted this year’s Women’s Day Event, creatively entitled Once Upon A Time.

    Rob Onekea designed a special Women’s Day Invite
    for each of LA’s 12 Regions!
    In the North Region, 37 sisters had 86 women in attendance; in the South Region 30 sisters had 70 women in attendance; in Orange County 70 women had 160 women in attendance; in the Central Region 26 sisters had 71 women in attendance; in the West Region 36 sisters had 86 women in attendance; in the Ventura Region 25 sisters had 87 women in attendance; in the Southland Region 83 sisters had an astonishing 220 women in attendance and two baptisms; and amazingly in the East Region, 27 sisters had 125 women in attendance! Please join me in praying for the harvest and the Palm Springs, Inland Empire, Antelope Valley and AMS Regions to blow out their Women’s Day Events this coming weekend!

    Makaela and Sonrisa Bordieri sample the Southland
    Region Women’s Day Breakfast!

    April (pink) has her younger sister Celina (left), her
    sister-in-law Lovenia (center), and her niece
    Moriah (holding her Bible) as visitors
    to Women’s Day in Southland!

    Pam Boea praying over the Southland Breakfast!

    Lisa Davis – Supervisor of Child Development and
    Special Programs for the ABC Unified
    School District – gives a riveting
    testimonial about becoming
    a disciple!

    Elena joyfully preaching the Word!

    Keosha is one of two baptisms at the outstanding
    Southland Region Women’s Day!
    I have included the beautiful theme video for the LA Women’s Days! Brandyn Speckman, Mike Purdy and Evan Bartholomew are to be highly commended for this extraordinary piece of art that renders a sobering and yet inspirational message for all women and men! https://youtu.be/gYIIkgJnTdo?list=PLkPMuF3CMp3dg04BzlHVK8urQ4-3Ypmue

    Finally, it has been great for Lianne & me to be in the West Region to support Chris McGrath and Megan Matthews as they take the reins of this now glorious Region! This last Sunday, however, when Chris pulled out his guitar at the end of his amazing lesson and began strumming and singing Poor Wayfaring Stranger, I turned to Lianne and said, “Our work here in the West Region is done!” Chris and Megan are now fully ready to grab this region and to take it to heights that have never been reached before! Lianne & I are humbled and grateful for all that God has done, and is doing, through all of the over 900 LA Disciples! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

    The Southland Region Women’s Day 2016 – Once Upon A Time (The Keynote Speaker is Elena McKean): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ_qTyWYg4
    Editorial

    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: The motivating vision of God’s SoldOut Movement is the evangelization of the nations in THIS generation! 1 Timothy 2:3-4 reads, “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” This Scripture clearly teaches that God’s will is for all men (and women) to be saved! So the question comes… Is God’s will, your will? If it is then you now have God’s vision for everyone that is living – THIS generation – to be saved!

    One of 20 Starbucks in Sao Paulo!

    One of 122 Starbucks in Mexico City! So
    Starbucks has evangelized the world!
    As well, Jesus prophesied to the 12 Apostles in Matthew 24:9-14 that all nations would be evangelized in their lifetimes! Jesus taught them in what is known as the Olivet Discourse – which are some of His last words before His arrest a few days later, “Then you [Apostles] will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me… And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Jesus conveys in no uncertain terms that the Twelve will be hated by all nations! To be hated one must be known! All nations would know the Apostles’ message and then they would be martyred for this heroic effort! This is again conveyed when Jesus shares that “the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world… to all nations and then the end will come.” The end is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD! This prophecy was fulfilled as the Apostles evangelized all nations in THEIR generation!

    A Sao Paulo Pizza Hut!

    A Mexico City Pizza Hut! So Pizza Hut
    has evangelized the world!
    Paul writing from prison in Rome in 62AD states the same, “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing… This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Colossians 1:6, 23) In fact, the Book of Acts begins with Jesus’ last words before His ascension where He speaks the Apostles about His dream of an evangelized world in Acts 1:8, “You [the faithful Eleven Apostles] will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This becomes Luke’s outline for the Book of Acts! The church begins in Jerusalem in Acts 2:41-42, “Three thousand [were baptized and] they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer!” This is the church and it starts in Jerusalem!

    A Sao Paulo Burger King!

    A Mexico City Burger King! So Burger King
    has evangelized the world!
    By Acts 9:31, Luke records that the gospel has reached “Judea and Samaria” – old Israel, “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.” So part two of Jesus’ vision in Acts 1:8 was accomplished! And of course by Acts 28, Paul reaches Rome and Rome’s influence goes “to the ends of the earth” and this is where Paul writes, “The gospel… has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven!”

    A Sao Paulo McDonald’s!

    Converts to McDonald’s in Mexico City! So
    McDonald’s has evangelized the world
    without the Holy Spirit! Let us not doubt
    that God working through His
    movement can evangelize the
    nations in this generation!
    Our first century brothers and sisters did it! So let His movement in the 21st century become equally resolute to accomplish Jesus’ dream in THIS generation! And to God be all the glory!
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip

  • Good News Email – February 7, 2016

    Stay informed, sign up for the Good News Email Here!

    Greetings from warm and sunny Los Angeles!

    Our Almighty God has been moving powerfully throughout the world as there have been so many exciting events and developments in God’s SoldOut Movement since the last Good News Email on December 13, 2015! And as remarkable as 2015 was with the planting of Moscow, Russia; Manila, Philippines; Sacramento, USA; Stockholm, Sweden; Abidjan and Korezouzoua, Ivory Coast, this new year promises to be even more exhilarating! Lord willing, the Spirit will plant Bogota, Colombia in April; Seattle, USA in June; the Tenth Crown of Thorns City – Lagos, Nigeria in June; the Eleventh Crown of Thorns City – Dubai, United Arab Emirates in August; Tampa, USA in September; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo in October; and Bangalore, India in November! Enjoy reading these chronicled miracles of God! And to God be all the glory!


    Lord willing, the Lagos Mission Team – led by
    Andrew & Patrique Smellie – will be sent-out
    from the City of Angels Church
    on May 22nd!
     
    BREAKING NEWSBlaise Feumba – Overseeing Evangelist of Haiti: “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus!” (John 1:40-42) 30 months after Alexis Turgeau, a former Mainline Church of Christ preacher, was properly converted and baptized during the 2013 Global Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, he eagerly went back to his people and fellow Churches of Christ preachers. Like Priscilla & Aquila to Apollos, Alexis resolved to “explain to [them] the way of God more adequately.” (Acts 18:26)


    Alexis Turgeau – the first sold-out disciple
    of Haiti – rejoices at his baptism with
    Tim Kernan and Blaise Feumba
    at the 2013 GLC!
    Alexis & Maryse Turgeau – the Port-au-prince
    Church Leaders!

    During my first mission trip to Port-au-prince in September 2013, after countless intense Bible studies, seven other preachers came to the conclusion that they needed, like the 12 disciples of Ephesus, to get “properly” baptized!


    The seven preachers baptized during Blaise’s
    first missionary journey to Haiti!


    Alexis again, like Andrew the apostle with Simon his brother, convinced another of his dearest friends and preachers in the city of Jacmel that he had found the true Kingdom of God! Jean-Bonard traveled to the Los Angeles ICC Winter Workshop in January 2014 seeking revival! Alexis and I were blessed to study the Bible with him there and after three days, he was baptized! After the workshop, Jean-Bonard immediately went back to his Church of Christ congregation rejoicing and ready to share with them the truth that he had discovered! So on my second missionary trip, 25 people, including Jean-Bonard’s amazing wife Loverlie, were baptized from Jean-Bonard’s church which was reconstructed to become the Jacmel International Christian Church (ICC)!

    Jean-Bonard immediately after his baptism
    at the 2014 Winter Workshop!

    After my third missionary journey in April 2015, from one sold-out disciple the number of disciples had increased to five churches in five cities – Port-au-prince, Camp-Perrin, Duclair, Jacmel and Mirebalais!

    Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the Island
    of Hispaniola which is not far from Cuba!

    The next amazing miracle the Lord worked through Alexis and his fellow-worker Jean-Bonard is the conversion of another Church of Christ preacher Moise Deshommes in Fort-Lauderdale, Florida! After the 2015 GLC, Alexis and Jean-Bonard resolved to share their faith with Moise. They asked for Matt Sullivan’s help and support as he leads the Orlando, Florida ICC. Astonishingly, Moise, his wife and 13 other people were baptized in Ft- Lauderdale forming the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale ICC Remnant Group! From there, Moise carried the torch of the good news to his friend Wakine Jean, another Church of Christ preacher who was visiting him from a northern city of Haiti – Cap-Haitien! After studying with Moise and Matt, Wakine Jean and his lovely wife Marthe were baptized and eagerly resolved to go back to share what they had learned with their entire congregation!

    Matt (left) disciples Moise (blue shirt) on how to
    study and baptize Wakine Jean and
    his wife Marthe!
    Upon Wakine Jean & Marthe’s return home and with the help of Alexis, Jean-Bonard and their team, many people studied the Bible and we now have 25 disciples in Cap-Haitien, our latest ICC planting in Haiti!

    Adeline Chery is baptized into God’s Kingdom by
    Jean-Bonard (left) and Wakine Jean (right) –
    the leader of the new Cap-Haitien ICC!

    In less than 30 months, from August 2013 to February 2016, from only one sold-out disciple, Alexis, the number of disciples has reached 187 in 6 churches and in 6 cities of the Island of Haiti and 13 more disciples in Ft. Lauderdale – making a total of exactly 200 Haitian disciples! Extraordinarily, 25 of them are former Church of Christ and Pentecostal preachers! To our awesome Lord be all the glory!    Tim Kernan – Director of the 2016 Global Leadership Conference: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!” (Acts 1:8) Jesus’ radical vision for the first century church was for it to spread “to the ends of the earth” in the lifetime of the Apostles! Therefore, the exciting theme for the 2016 GLC is REVOLUTION! The date for this momentous occasion is Sunday, July 31st through Tuesday, August 2nd!


    Save money and register for the 2016 GLC –
    REVOLUTION – with the Early Bird Special!

    On Friday, July 29th will be the exciting Church Builders Workshop and the one-of-a-kind International Campus Devotional! On Saturday will be CyberCon, The MERCYWORLDWIDE Symposium, The International Teen Devo and the fun filled Talent Show and PURE Dance! Registration this year is $185.     However, until mid-March we are offering the Early Bird Special for $160! You may register for the 2016 GLC as well as securing housing by going to the City of Angels International Christian Church Webpage at CAICC.net. Let’s be praying for Jesus’ Global REVOLUTION to extend “to the ends of the earth” in this generation!

    Joel Parlour – the Seattle Mission Team Leader: “I will give you every place where you set your foot…” (Joshua 1:3) First of all, Courtney & I are very grateful for the opportunity to plant a discipling church in Seattle, Washington in just a couple months! It has been inspiring being discipled by Tim & Lianne Kernan, who are great church planters, and training under their leadership!

    The Seattle Mission Team Leaders – Joel & Courtney
    Parlour – with their son Brinton in Seattle’s
    iconic Space Needle!

    Since January we have been able to talk on the phone with the 20 courageous disciples from San Francisco, Portland and Eugene, who are set to come on this mission team! Each of them have such wonderful hearts! We are equally grateful for the disciples coming with us from Syracuse, New York! The Spirit is pulling together so many disciples from around the world to reach out to their friends and family in and around Seattle! I have been amazed at the number of connections the family of God has there – including my wife who is from Seattle!

    Courtney takes Lianne to see the world
    famous Gum Wall!

    Upon arrival at the Seattle Airport, my blood began surging through my veins as the Kernans and us “set our feet” and prayed for God to evangelize the awesome city of Seattle! I was overwhelmed with joy and peace for the next several days as we traveled about the city planting our feet and then praying at every turn!

    Tim, Lianne, Joel, Courtney and little Brinton
    pray and plant their feet all over Seattle
    claiming it for the Lord!

    My faith grew as we overlooked the city and the Cascade Mountain Range, seeing Mount Rainier in the distance and dreaming of the many things God is going to do! The metro population of Seattle is almost four million! Seattle is home to many top tier corporations such as Starbucks!


    Tim & Joel enjoy a cup of coffee at the
    very first Starbucks Store!

    The college campuses – especially the University of Washington – are full of ambitious young people dreaming of making an impact on the world!

    The Parlours can not wait to evangelize the over
    45,000 students at the University
    of Washington!

    My prayer is that God will unleash His Spirit in ways never before seen in the States! Many universities are populated by high percentages of Asian students and I think of the limitless potential for mission teams, specifically for the Hong Kong Mission Team!

    The Seattle skyline with majestic Mt. Rainier
    in the background!

    Please pray for our Inaugural Service which Lord willing will take place on June 12th! It seems to me that so many of you have someone that wants to check things out so do not hesitate to give them my number (312-339-8347), email (    joel.parlour@usd21.org), or my Facebook!Michael Kirchner – Administrator for the SoldOut Movement: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.’” (Luke 2: 13-14) Greetings from Los Angeles! I believe that we are a people who bring “glory to God in the highest” as “His favor rests” on us! Congratulations to the LA, Boston and Santa Barbara Churches for “over-delivering” their 3X Missions Goal! All other churches will conduct their 3X Missions on February 14th and 21st.


    Michael & Sharon Kirchner – the World Sector
    Leader Couple for Administration and Law!

    I have been asked questions with regards to the needs for this early missions. There has been an escalation to our overall missionary needs that include some of the following: We currently have almost 600 disciples in Africa which is now our largest mission field outside the USA! We have sent Andrew Smellie to Africa three times this past year to gather the remnant in South Africa; conduct our First African Missions Conference; to oversee the plantings of the Abidjan and Korozuzoua Churches; and to establish a foundation in Lagos to plant this tenth Crown of Thorns Church early this summer! God willing we will see Kinshasa officially planted in the Fall!    Manila is approaching 150 disciples in seven months after its Inaugural Service! This explosive growth has generated the need to add more ministry staff for the church to support a metropolitan area of over 20 million souls! As well, Sydney has needed extended financial support beyond our original projections. It is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, and Joe and the team have gained significant traction in not only building Sydney but converting several Chinese nationals ready and willing to go “home” to evangelize 1.3 billion Chinese souls!

    In the last several months, we added staff and brought missionaries back into LA for training and strengthening. Tim & Lianne Kernan, Chris McGrath, Megan Mathews, Princeton & Joy George, Emilio & Tatiana Bonilla, Jared & Rachel McGee, and Mason & Nathalie Fetelika are some of those changes! We also desperately needed to add to our Admin Staff Yelena Astanin as well as Nick & Jacque Economo!


    Yelena Astanin is the Financial Administrator
    for the SoldOut Movement!
    Nick & Jacque Economo are the World Sector
    Admin Couple for Los Angeles!


    We need to plan and prepare for the seven 2016 church plantings! Costs occur more and more in advance to get the mission teams set up and ready to grow the churches quickly! Lagos alone will cost almost $100,000 to set up because of flights and the need to give a year’s payment of rent upfront for each of the three apartments – one for the Smellies, one for the sisters on the team, and one for the brothers!    Finally, we have historically set our budgets off the church contribution pledges. Disciples are disciples and we take them at their word that they will give what they pledge. We have fallen short on our projected income with significant “missing” contribution and disciples giving “under” their pledge. That said, there is a “slip” factor that must be taken into account and we are beginning to better understand and manage this for the future.

    On behalf of all of your World Sector Leaders, let me commend your continued generosity to support missions! God and us greatly appreciate your many sacrifices for the cause! Let’s continue to “praise God” for the great missions victories!

    Nick Bordieri – President of MERCYWORLDWIDE: The American Red Cross has a motto, “The worst disaster is not being prepared.” In that regard, over 20 fired-up MERCY Ambassador Coordinators – representing each region in the Los Angeles Church – gathered this past Saturday for MERCY’s Disaster-Emergency Preparedness Team Kick-Off Meeting! LA’s Lead Evangelist, Tim Kernan, led the charge by calling us to be prepared individually and collectively, as well as to be leaders within our church family, in our homes, neighborhoods and in our communities!


    MERCY and the American Red Cross
    partner in a National Blood Drive!

    The vision of MERCY’s Disaster-Emergency Preparedness Team is to equip the disciples first here in LA and eventually in other parts of the world for disaster and/or emergency situations. We will draw on the diverse expertise and extensive experience of our team members. At our first meeting helping to train us were former SWAT police officers, military personnel, medical technicians, nurses and outdoor enthusiasts, to name a few. MERCY’s Preparedness Team will meet on a bi-monthly basis to develop a practical program, leveraging our growing partnership with the Red Cross for specialized training where appropriate!

    The MERCY Logo has gone GREEN!

    Learn more about A.D.E.P.T. on MERCYWORLDWIDE’s Facebook Page!

    HEADLINE NEWS
    The Crown of Thorns Project Update
    In 2009 the Crown of Thorns Project – the SoldOut Movement’s plan for the evangelization of the nations in this generation – was initiated! Phase One is the planting of twelve of some of the most influential cities of the world! Guided by prayer and discernment about governments and remnant groups, these 12 cities were selected: Santiago, London, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Paris, Sydney, Chennai, Moscow, Manila, Lagos, Dubai and Hong Kong! In this updating report, the reporter’s name and their city is followed by the date of the year of planting in parenthesis. These reports will help us to be more specific in our prayers!

    Alfredo Anuch of Santiago (2009): “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)

    Alfredo & Alejandro Anuch – the new
    Santiago Church Leaders!

    Greetings from the Santiago International Christian Church! We are very humbled before God, because He has done “more than all we ask or imagine!” Since my wife Alejandra & I were appointed the leaders of this amazing congregation just eight months ago, God has added 49 souls to His church – 34 baptisms, 10 restorations and 5 place memberships! And, in the first five weeks of 2016, God has added 5 more souls – 1 baptism, 2 restorations and 2 place memberships! To God be the glory! The highlights of 2015 were: Our Third Central And South America Missions Conference where we had more than 300 on Sunday; Women’s Day – LET IT GO – with 140 women in attendance; the sending out of 20 disciples on the Supplemental Mission Team to Mexico City; and a Special Contribution of 14X to help them in their first months!

    The 2015 Central & South American Missions
    Conference gave everyone the vision to
    evangelize their home nations!

    For Alejandra & I, it’s very special that our friends, Marco & Ellia Aravena, disciples from the ICOC for almost 18 years, finally joined us last week in God’s new movement! After visiting for a month, including Sunday Services, Midweeks, and a Marrieds Retreat, their words were, “How many years have we lost? This is the church that we should and want to be in!” Remarkably, Marco studied the Bible with me 14 years ago! God has an incredible plan for each and every one of us!

    Marco & Ellia (center) with the Anuches (left)
    and the Figueroas!
    Last Friday, a young woman from the Catholic University – the number one university in Chile – was baptized! Maria sought God with all her heart and after two weeks she’s now our new sister in the faith!

    Our newly baptized sister, Maria (center) along with
    the women of the Catholic University Campus
    Ministry imitates the challenge given by the
    IE Region of LA, “You will be next!”
    And finally, God in His grace says, “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes!” (Proverbs 24:16) This Sunday, God has brought back to us our brother Manuel! He was a disciple for about seven years, and after he suffered the consequences of living far from God, he remembered the Kingdom of God as the best place in the world! Now, he and his family have a real hope!

    Manuel (center) is joyfully restored by
    Carlos (right) and Giovanni!
    Michael Williamson of London (2010): God blessed 2015 powerfully! God gave us a total of 70 additions (52 baptisms, 8 placed memberships, and 10 restorations) and 13 new dating couples, while collecting an extra $68,000 (USA Dollars) for the Stockholm Mission Team! God also helped us support Russia for $6,000, Africa for $2,000, while raising up two new shepherding couples at the EMC and one radical Nigerian Evangelist slated for the Lagos Mission Team – Yomi Bello! Additionally, the Spirit moved in London to send a dear son in the faith Kolbe Gray to train in LA and prayerfully to bring back his girlfriend Rebecca Rico to London in August!

    Lord willing, in August, Kolbe & Rebecca will
    be heading to London after the 2016 GLC!

    Also, we were privileged to help begin the Johannesburg Remnant Group! We sent nationals Jacques & Jeanette Groenewald accompanied with two single professionals – Kudzai and Clark! The four of them have been doing an incredible job establishing a strong base in this great city!

    On the Sunday of the 2015 EMC, the Groenewalds
    share for Communion before they are sent-off
    by the Spirit to Johannesburg! 
    We ended 2015 with a wonderful wedding celebration of two beloved disciples, Jonathon & Ele Channer! Inspiringly, before they were baptized, they broke off their engagement in order to date purely seeking God will all of their hearts! Of special note, Jonathon’s twin brother, Jermaine studied the Bible first, and then baptized Jonathon, who in turn baptized his fiancée Ele!

    Congratulations Channers!
    2016 kicked-off with our Winter Workshop entitled, We Are Family…Till the End! At the workshop, the Holy Spirit blew in Menno, Yuklin and their beautiful daughter Sulin Zoutendijk from Amsterdam! The Zoutendijks were the last of the faithful remnant disciples to move from Amsterdam to London and their impact has been phenomenal! Encouragingly, this weekend there were many tears as Yuklin was able to baptize her sister Johanna who travelled here from Trinidad only a few weeks after the Zoutendijks landed! Amazingly, Johanna was one of the three international baptisms this past Sunday, and has three sons who live in Toronto, Canada! One of her impossible prayers is to move to Toronto to baptize her boys! We all know that “with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26) 

    Yuklin (right) enthusiastically embraces her
    sister Johanna after her good confession!

    Norlune from Sri Lanka was also
    baptized this Sunday!

    Words cannot express our gratefulness to LA for sending Anthony & Cassidy Olmos! “Instant Impact Anthony” and “Kind Cassidy” have literally changed the church! Please be praying for the remnant disciples from Birmingham and Manchester who are close to forming groups in these respective cities of England!

    London has four faith goals this year! 1) For every member to not only recommit to a powerful walk with God but to become Bible Talk Leaders! 2) To start ICCM-London! 3) To raise up two Evangelists and one Women’s Ministry Leader! and 4) To double in size growing from 150-300! Thanks for your prayers as they are making a huge difference!

    Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo (2011): “Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.” (2 Corinthians 10:15-16) Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil my fellow brothers and sisters around the world! 2015 was indeed an incredible year for the church as we saw a dream become a reality! Like the Scripture above, Paul’s desire was to preach to new “regions.” In 2015, we went from having one service every Sunday to three regions that meet separately throughout this mega city. In doing so, God is raising up leadership to lead these regions! Going to regions is super important because Metro Sao Paulo is over 20 million in population and very spread out!


    The Morenos have begun to “regionalize”
    the fast-growing Sao Paulo Church!

    The dating couple, Danilo Bataglin & Carol Postigo, is leading our West Region! They are both from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and Danilo just graduated last December and is now training full-time for the Lord! Caio Lopes is our South Region Leader and he is also an USP graduate! Last but not least, we have Renato & Maria Jose Tria leading our mighty East Region! They were a powerful couple in our former fellowship that served as an Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader!    After starting with just seven on the mission team in 2011, we finished 2015 with 137 disciples and we are dreaming to have a great year for the Lord, especially on the campus! In the last three weeks we have had five baptisms! One of them being Aline, who is doing post graduate work at USP!


    Aline (middle) jumping from joy after her baptism!
    As well, last Saturday, we had a MERCY Event in which we detonated blood and visited the elderly! Please keep praying for our Brazil Missions Conference in two short weeks!

    EM CHAMAS (ON FIRE) is the theme of the First
    Brazil Missions Conference to be held in
    Sao Paulo on February 19-21, 2016!

    Carlos Mejia of Mexico City (2012): Greetings from the Mexico City Church! We are so incredibly grateful for 2016 as the Lord has blessed us with many miracles! I had prayed at the beginning of the year that the Lord would open the floodgates with 10 additions in January, which for the first month of the year of a church of 50 is a hefty prayer! At the last Sunday service of the month on January 31st, I saw that we ended the month with 9 souls added to God’s Kingdom and I was a bit sad but grateful that we had 9 more souls in the Mexico Church! But… in my mind, we were missing the one “soul!”    Interestingly, I received a call about 7pm that Sunday evening from Hector Gomez and he said, “Bro, there is a guy who wants to finish his studies and is available tonight so perhaps we could baptize him this week!” We met together at 8:30pm that night, and Alberto was on his last study so we finished off the Church Study! At the end of our time, I asked him when he wanted to get baptized. Alberto then responded with a question, “Where is the water?” (Acts 8:36-38) And at about 11:45pm, we baptized him and he is now your brother! The Lord of the harvest blessed our prayers… but it’s always His timing not ours!


    God answers Carlos’ prayer for 10 additions
    in January with Alberto’s baptism!

    We also are very excited that Hector & Adriana Gomez, our remnant group leaders in Bogota, moved to be with us as of January! They moved here with their awesome kids, Daniel, Santiago and Ana Sofia! It was encouraging to see God use Hector to help Alberto get baptized! We can’t wait to see what the Lord will do with Hector & Adriana as they take over Jose & Daniela Otero’s fast-growing Marrieds Ministry!

    Hector Gomez preaching at the
    2015 CSA Mission Conference!
    We were saddened by the departure of some of our best friends – Jared & Rachel McGee – as they did a tremendous job building our Campus Ministry at UNAM! Thanks goes out to the City of Angels Church for sending two of their most effective young interns to lead our Campus Ministry – Miguel Limon & Myrna Lopez!

    Miguel & Myrna are so fired-up to lead
    the Mexico City Campus Ministry!

    Also, please be praying for the Latin American Missions Conference in Mexico City on February 25-28, 2016! We are also excited to have the send-off of the Bogota Mission Team at that Sunday’s service! Please help send any brothers and sisters from your churches to come and get inspired to become missionaries here in Latin America! The following information will help you to register and also book your hotel room at the incredible Hilton Reforma Hotel! Please send any questions to Albert Wagers (    alwagers@usd21org). We love you and can’t wait to see you here in Mexico!To register:
    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-latin-american-missions-conferencela-gran-comision-tickets-18183388003

    THE GREAT COMMISSION is the thrilling theme
    for the Latin American Conference to be held
    in Mexico City on February 25-28, 2016!
    To book your hotel:
    http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/M/MEXRFHH-GRCCOM-20160225/index.jhtml#reservation

    Philippe Scheidecker of Paris (2012): Bonjour les frères et soeurs! In August 2012 when the 12 disciples on the Paris Mission Team – led by Tim & Lianne Kernan – arrived, my wife Prisca & I were so overjoyed! In the first three months, the Paris Church doubled in size! Then Satan struck as the Kernans’ visa was denied in November after being in London for the European Missions Conference! Ultimately, God used this to send the Kernans to encourage the disciples in India, to plant the church in Canada, and eventually He sent them back to lead LA! However, for us in Paris these became difficult years. Since the Team was composed mostly of Americans, over time all of them had to return home to the USA. In retrospect, God has taught us so much in leading the Paris Church.

    The Paris Mission Team – led by Tim & Lianne
    Kernan – a few hours after the amazing
    Inaugural Service where 67
    were in attendance!
    Philippe & Prisca Scheidecker who gallantly
    assumed the leadership of the Paris Church
    after three months when the Kernans’
    visa was not renewed!

    In November, we bid a fond farewell to Anais Laurent, the last member of the Paris Mission Team, as she needed to go back to LA and resume her career. We are so grateful for all the missionaries, as their names are forever engraved on the Paris Church foundations!

    A heroin of the faith in Paris, Anais at her
    Going Away Party… Welcome
    back to Los Angeles!
    For me the greatest miracle of 2015 was the baptism of my daughter Rebecca on the 15th of August! She turned 14 last week! Like her amazing Mom, she is a firecracker and leads the sisters in singing; she shares at communion; and often does the welcome with a brother!

    Girl on fire for the Lord –
    Rebecca Scheidecker!

    We also had the privilege in November to witness the baptism of Yolenne Assignon (her sister Kelly was first baptized in London) and Marianne Zakpa – two very fired-up campus sisters! As well, we organized the first wedding of the Paris Church with Kevin & Sandra!

    In 2015 was the first wedding of the Paris
    Church – Kevin & Sandra Lackenn-Toto!
    They are now very excited to spend their first Valentines together as a married couple! We have a tradition in the Paris Chruch – on Valentines, the brothers cook and serve an exquisite dinner to the amazing single and campus sisters! That the least we can do as gentlemen to honor our dear sisters! Now, I’m excited to announce that plans are being formulated for late this year or next year for the sending of a Paris Supplemental Mission Team from London! Lord willing, this great effort will be led by Anthony & Cassidy Olmos – who were members of the original Paris Team! Please pray that we can secure the visas necessary for them to spend the foreseeable future baptizing our beloved French countrymen! Famille jusqu’à la fin! (Family to the end!)


    Anthony & Cassidy Olmos – the high-powered
    Campus Ministry Leaders for the
    London Church!

    Joe Willis of Sydney (2014): Time has flown so fast as last week we celebrated our Second Anniversary! In this very atheistic country, the Sydney Church now numbers 41 sold-out disciples! It has been great start to 2016 in Sydney as we celebrated our Second Year Anniversary Service with the baptism of a great young leader from the largest Pentecostal church in Syndey – Hillsong Church! Dominik is originally from Germany and trilingual having spent time on as he puts it “the mission field in Peru!” All Dominik wants to do is to go into the fulltime ministry!
     The CBD Bible Talk led by Pete Wade and Merari
    Escalante! Pete met Dominik (center)
    evangelizing in Sydney CBD
    on Christmas Eve!
    This baptism was followed this week with the baptism of a top Master’s Degree graduate from University on New South Wales – Samuel, who is from Lagos, Nigeria! As well we celebrated Chinese New Year with an “All Chinese led Worship Service!” It is so amazing to see gathering people from all nations! Please pray for us as this year as we have a prayer goal to divide the Sydney Church into three sectors and grow from five Bible Talks into 10!

    Joe & Kerry – the Sydney Church Leaders – dream
    of doubling the Sydney Church in 2016!
    Great news from the Hong Kong Mission Team! Just two years ago, the dream started to send out the Hong Kong Mission Team from Sydney as Kip visited Australia for our Inaugural Service and God demonstrated how many Chinese God had placed in here as raw material for evangelizing China! Today we celebrated Chinese New Year with 70 at church with the whole service being run by non-paid Chinese Christians! These young zealots led the singing, welcome, communion, contribution and preaching in Mandarin and English! Dean Lam preached on life can be like his favorite Asian foods: Chicken feet, Jelly fish and Seaweed! 1) Don’t run away like chickens from God’s Word! 2) Don’t wobble like Jelly fish! 3) Step tightly wrapped up in God like sushi in seaweed!

    After the Chinese Sunday Service, all in attendance
    enjoy some tasty Chinese food!
    Hmmmmm! Very tasty jellyfish!

    In just 18 months we will be planting the Hong Kong Church – the Twelfth Crown of Thorns Church! So if you are from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan don’t wait, move to Sydney to be part of the genesis of saving 1.3 billion souls!

    Sydney honors their huge Chinese population
    on their New Year by lighting the
    Opera House in red!

    Debs Rajan of Chennai (2014): Greetings from the Land of the Tamils! Last year in September we celebrated our first anniversary! During that first year, God blessed us with 101 additions – 94 baptisms and 7 restorations! Prayerfully, our second year will be even more fruitful!    We are very grateful that we could attend the 2016 Winter Workshop in Los Angeles! The theme Family Throughout The World stayed on our minds as we came back to our workshop and started focusing on our Bible Talks to make them into living and active families!


    The Chennai Church Disciples at their Winter
    Workshop sport their theme T-shirts –
    “Anchor of Hope!”
    Almost all of our Bible Talks have caught fire and have started having many visitors! One exciting Bible Talk is at Madras Christian College! Very creatively, Parthiban, our campus leader, organized a meeting there for the Mathematics Department so that my husband Raja could preach the Word to the 35 non-Christian students who came!

    Murali being washed of his sins by
    the waters of the Marina!
    The waters make a mighty splash after
    Aaron gets baptized!
    In January, we also organized a “Holy Spirit Convention” with an entry fee! This is simply an extended Bible Study on the Holy Spirit. A few pastors and prominent women came! In all we had a turnout of 37 visitors!

    The Q and A in progress during
    the Holy Spirit Convention!

    God has added seven souls in the past few weeks and one of particular interest is Balaji, who is doing his Bachelor’s in Computer Science! He was met by Harish, a campus disciple. Balaji was so impressed by the changes in Harish’s life that he also decided to follow Christ but his father was upset. So Balaji’s father went to Harish’s house and threatened Harish’s father! Harish’s father convinced Balaji’s father that their sons are going to a safe place and this will do them much good! Memorably, just a few days later, Balaji was baptized into Christ! Continue to pray for all of South Asia to be evangelized in this generation!

    Balaji is so jubilant right after he declares,
    “Jesus is Lord!”

    Elena Sirotkina of Moscow (2015): So great to be in the Kingdom of our amazing God and celebrate the First Anniversary of the Moscow International Christian Church together with our friend, discipler and hero in the faith – Kip McKean! On Friday, January 29th, Kip shared about the good news from around the world and then challenged us with a lesson on King Hezekiah!

    Kip is welcomed by the Moscow Disciples singing,
    “We Love You With The Love Of The
    Lord”     in English!
    On Saturday, all of our students gathered for a Campus Workshop with Kip to discuss the plans and the challenge of faith to baptize more students – a younger generation to evangelize the world! All were very inspired and united in prayers!


    The Campus Workshop!


    The next day from the Moscow Campus Ministry, Artem was baptized! He was met in RCTU University of Moscow and immediately the brothers did the Seeking God Study! Afterward, Artem prayed to God for the first time in his life! Then following a month of diligently studying the Bible, he was baptized at our Anniversary Service!

    Artem was the first fruit of the Campus Workshop!

    As well Valentine, who was baptized a year ago at our Inaugural Service on February 1, 2015, baptized Irina at our First Anniversary Service! As a young woman, Irina wore a veil at the wedding of Valentina! Now Valentina has seen Irina’s spiritual marriage with Christ!

    Irina (left) and Valentine – best of friends
    and now best of sisters!
    This Sunday, God allowed us to witness the baptism of Tengiz – the second Mongolian baptized in our church! Tengiz is a second year university student studying engineering! It is so awesome to see how God is gathering a missionary team for Mongolia! We are truly an international church!

    Zulya (right) is one of two Mongolian
    Disciples in the Moscow Church!!
    Not only is the Spirit bringing open hearts to be baptized, but He is gathering His remnant as well! Alexander was baptized in 1995, when he was a teenager! In 2003 when our former fellowship choose to not have discipling relationships anymore, Alexander fell into a depression and then into many sins. Yet in his tears he prayed to find a church like he was baptized in! Then after almost 13 years, one day God led him to meet on the street my awesome husband Oleg Sirotkin! After one week of refreshing and reestablishing his convictions from the Bible and repentance, Alexander was restored!

    In planting the Moscow ICC, Oleg & Elena through
    God’s power have overcome persecutions, visa
    challenges, bomb threats at their children’s
    school, and the weather!
    The Moscow Church began with 17 members on the mission team from LA, who were remnant disciples from Russia and Ukraine. Each of them supported themselves in LA from two months to two years! Upon arriving in Moscow, they were joined by 30 more disciples in the Moscow Remnant Group! Amazingly, the Moscow International Christian Church now numbers almost 100 disciples as God blessed us in our first year with 77 additions – 41 baptisms, 24 restorations and 12 place memberships!

    The exemplary Moscow Mission Team!

    At the First Anniversary Service of the Moscow ICC,
    Oleg preaches to a standing room only crowd!
    Finally, we would like to invite you to the First Eurasian Missions Conference to be held in Moscow on April 28 – May 1, 2016! Come and share in the faith and love of the Moscow Church and the beauty of the great city of Moscow!

    NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE is the stirring theme of
    the First Eurasian Missions Conference
    to be held in Moscow on
    April 28 – May 1, 2016!

    Sunday of this historic seminar will be held
    at the famous Presidential Hotel!

    Maika Carbonell of Manila (2015): “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20) Mabuhay! At the start of 2016, the leadership laid out the 2016 Prayer Goals before the church with the theme Immeasurably More! It’s exciting to see what God has in store for us, but it’s been amazing to see what He has already done! He has definitely blessed the church as there have been 109 additions since our Inaugural Service on June 7, 2015 — 83 baptisms, 18 restorations, and 8 place memberships from our former fellowship seeking revival!

    Key members of the Manila Mission Team,
    Marc & Maika Carbonell, now serve as
    the World Sector Administrators
    for the Pac Rim!
    Of special note, RJ Castro and Rose Sobrino started the “Warrior Nation” Campus Ministry at the start of 2016! In the few weeks since they began their ministry, they have already baptized four students from the Rizal Technological University (RTU)!

    Though pointing to Maruja, Rose (green shirt) is
    surrounded by the three women she has
    baptized this year – Jenielyn,
    Clarice and Maruja!
    Also of note, God continues to unite even more families in Christ! Bernard, who was baptized last November, wanted nothing more than his wife to become a disciple. Through much patience and perseverance, his prayers were answered as he baptized his wife Jass just yesterday! Also dear to our hearts is the restoration of Charrie, the wife of Ronnie Gonzalez! Despite being physically separated as she lives in Singapore and he in Manila, Charrie saw the changes in Ronnie’s life! This inspired her to get right again with God and His church! Excitingly, they will be united once again in June as Ronnie will be sent-off at the Austral-Pac Rim Missions Conference to lead the Singapore Remnant Group!

    The First Austral Pacific Rim Missions Conference –
    HEROES OF THE FAITH – will be held in
    Manila on June 17-19, 2016!
    Lastly, the first semester of the International College of Christian Ministries – Manila (ICCM-Manila) officially began January 30th! The 39 new students and future church leaders walked in the room with gratefulness and excitement! However, after hearing Kyle’s lesson on Jesus’ Dream, they exited the room with even more zeal and eagerness to give their whole hearts not just to the program, but to the evangelization of the entire Pacific Rim World Sector!

    Kyle & Joan Bartholomew (center) are the President
    and Dean of Women respectively in the
    newly founded ICCM-Manila!
    Please keep praying for the harvest and the workers here in Manila!FAMILY NEWS

    New York City: On December 19th, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, we celebrated the wedding of Aaron & Sharmayne Viscichini! They are a dynamic young couple! Both were converted in Chicago and then went on the San Francisco Mission Team before coming to NYC with their spiritual parents, Mike & Brittany Underhill a little over a year and a half ago. They gave up paid church intern positions in SF to come to NYC and get jobs in order to help build the church here! After only six months, God called them back into the ministry and they are currently serving as the Campus Ministry Couple for the NYC Church!


    Congratulations Aaron & Sharmayne!


    Phoenix: Greetings from the Valley of the “Son!” “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” (Proverbs 31:10) We had the honor as God’s family to see Anthony & Gabrielle united in Christ and made “one flesh” before God and the laws of the land! The wedding was very special, and gave us a chance to really meet and love-up on their respective families! It was so encouraging for the Schultzes and the Ciaramellas to share in their premarital counseling! The humility and sincere desire to honor and obey God in the Pattersons is what makes both of them so “noble” and this has shown through in their engagement and their Biblical standard of impeccable purity!

    Congratulations to the Pattersons!

    They serve here tirelessly as the Tempe House Church Leaders and have stepped-up to also serve as our Singles Ministry Coordinators! Anthony was converted 15 years ago as a teen in Wichita, Kansas and has a maturity about him that is both reassuring and inspiring! Gabrielle was converted in Santa Barbara about four years ago by the McDonnells and is known for her genuine joy and sincere compassion for others! We are so thankful God brought them both here to the Phoenix Family and we were allowed the privilege of celebrating their marriage in Christ! To God be the glory!    Kinshasa: God keeps blessing us with weddings! Dadou & Mimi Gapusu were married on January 17, 2016! So, since the remnant group started in 2010, this is the 18th wedding that we have celebrated!


    Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Gapusu!

    Chennai: Arumugam Rasu & Nisha were blessed with a baby girl! (In India, names are not chosen for a while after birth.) Arumugam & Nisha lead one of the most fruitful Bible Talks!

    At the hospital, Arumugam & Nisha rejoice
    in the Lord with their five day
    old baby girl!

    Los Angeles: So exciting in the South Region was seeing the marriage of Henry and now Shantel Zepeda on December 19th!!! They were baptized at our Christmas Service and that next Saturday were married to bring final unity with their two beautiful little baby girls!

    Congratulations to Henry & Shantel Zepeda!

    Another highlight for the South Region and for many around the world was the long awaited birth of Mason & Nathalie’s baby girl Kessiah Alofamoni Fetelika! Our precious final addition of the year came on December 31st, 2015! She is a joy to the South Region and Mason & Nathalie are such incredible parents!

    Kessi’s first Midweek Service! According to
    Dad, she loved every minute of it!

    On Sunday, December 20th in the IE Region, another awesomely beautiful wedding was Jason & Daniela Woody! Their families so enjoyed all the festivities with the disciples!

    Congratulations to Jason & Daniela Woody!
    Jason & Daniela want to encourage those that want
    to get married this year, “You will be next!”

    The Woodys were dynamic interns in the LA Church, and were sent by the Spirit immediately after their honeymoon to be further trained by Tyler & Shay Sears in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Church! They’ve already had a tremendous impact there as their first Bible Talk at the University of Texas – Dallas had 17 visitors!Vanessa Zepeda & Brian Clavel of the Victorious Ventura Region were zealously married this past Friday, February 5th in Orange County! God brought their two families together in an amazing way, as the joy and friendship of the Kingdom impressed many of their family and friends, who are not yet disciples! This couple was so giving and excited to celebrate with all those they love, that we practically had to escort them out of their own reception to send them on their way to the honeymoon!


    Congratulations to the Clavels!

    Denver: Greetings from the Rocky Mountains, home to the Mighty Denver Church and the 2016 Super Bowl Champions – the Denver Broncos! It has been a great start to the year in the Denver Church as God has encouragingly added seven to our number! We also were able to have a particularly encouraging addition with the birth of Kevin Horton Jr. (KJ). KJ was born on January 6, 2016 to the proud parents – Kevin & Erica Horton.    With a healthy pregnancy free of complications, the Hortons were surprised when at 37 and a half weeks, Erica required an emergency C-section due to a placental abruption. A placental abruption is a very uncommon event in which the placenta separates from the uterus, preventing oxygen and nutrients to get to the baby. The Hortons got to the hospital just in time, and despite KJ requiring resuscitation, had they arrived at the hospital any later KJ would not have made it! God was working! After his birth, KJ’s MRI scans revealed global brain damage, prompting the doctors to predict serious long term developmental complications, future surgeries, and a possible life limited to a vegetative state. The advice from the doctors was to remove baby KJ from life support.

    However, the Hortons refused to submit to the doctor’s ultimatum because as their good friend Joe Ugorji said, “Medicine helps, but God heals.” And He certainly did! With great faith, fervent prayer, loving family and the rallying prayers of the Denver Church, the miracles began to show God’s faithfulness!

    First, after a week in the NICU, the Hortons were able to hold their son! Then KJ came off the breathing machine and did great breathing on his own. Then, the once persistent seizures completely stopped. They saw him eat on his own diverting a potential surgery to install a feeding tube; IV’s were removed; his kidneys were healed; and finally after two weeks and two days in the NICU, KJ was able to come home! To date, he has been to two church services and experienced a Bronco’s Super Bowl victory! To God be the glory!


    KJ is a modern day miracle!
    Syracuse: Congratulations to Gary & Nicole Franke on the birth of their son Thomas Franke! Thomas was born on February 5th at 9:59pm and weighed 5 lbs 9 oz! We are so encouraged that God keeps adding to our family in every way!

    Thomas Franke is the newest addition
    to the Syracuse Church!

    Moscow: In January our spiritual family celebrated an amazing event – the birth of Nazar, the first son of our lovely disciples and heroes in the faith, who were on the Moscow Mission Team – Sergiy & Olena Pometun!

    Meet and welcome little Nazar Pometun!

    As well during Kip’s visit for our First Anniversary Service, Dema Serafonov surprised his girlfriend Tonya Morozova with an engagement ring when he pretended to “just” be going to the Catherine the Great Museum to help Kip better appreciate Russian history! So in Tonya’s mind when Dema asked her and several others to come along to the museum, she was under the impression that at the museum Kip would get a few pictures for the Good News Email.    At the end of touring the museum, for a small fee, anyone could dress in clothes made like those from the late 1700’s during Catherine the Great’s reign! So the entire entourage got dressed up in period clothes!


    The Russian Disciples having a little fun!

    Then, after taking many pictures, Kip said, “Dema, thanks for helping me get these awesome pictures for the Good News Email! We’re done!” That was the signal for Dema to get down on his knee and propose in a very romantic way! Tonya said yes; jumped up and down; and then cried! Of course, this was captured for the Good News Email!


    Congratulations Dema & Tonya!

    LOCAL LA NEWS

    Tim Kernan – Lead Evangelist of the City of Angels Church: Greetings from unclouded Los Angeles, California! It’s been an incredible 38 days in 2016 and God has blessed us with 26 baptisms and 13 restorations – more than daily additions!

     Tim & Lianne Kernan lead the City of Angels Church
    Staff up Mt. Shalom to pray for 2016!
    Lianne & I are so grateful to the McKeans who paved the way for victory in their thoughtful and meticulous passing of the torch of leadership to us on Sunday, December 13, 2015! We are so honored to serve the City of Angels Church!

    Our 2016 really began on December 14, 2015, when we gathered the mighty Super Region Leaders and went into the San Bernardino Mountains after the Christmas Service! The Blackwells, Martinezes, Feumbas, Luke Speckman (Brandyn was home recovering from her miraculous surgery), Lianne and I took the time to share our life stories with one another and bonded in an amazing way!

    The next day we were joined by the LA Region Leaders, the Admins and Congregational Shepherds for an amazing meal prepared by Mark & Keri Garrido and a powerful time of Confession. 1 John 1:5-10 was in full effect as we split up the men and women into two groups and vulnerably shared our sins with one another. We were drawn together in fellowship and our sins were washed away anew! The brothers’ group was feeling pretty good about their thoroughness, but once the last brother shared, we all began to wonder how the women were doing! A full three hours later the red-eyed sisters descended from the top floor to a standing ovation from the brothers! 


    The LA Region Leaders Retreat in the snowy
    San Bernardino Mountains brought
    everyone closer to God and
    each other!


    On the first week of January, we had our Bible Talk Workshop! All 138 Bible Talks had the opportunity to stand before their respective regions and share their newly conceived Bible Talk names, geographic territory, the members names, as well as their faith goals! This invigorated the church and truly launched all the Bible Talks! It also set us up in a powerful way to go into the Winter Workshop ready to learn and draw closer to God! Since that time we have seen a further 12 Bible Talks initiated!
    The 2016 Winter Workshop was indeed the best one… yet! The theme was from 1 Peter 5:8-9, FAMILY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! Highlights included the Church Builders Workshop, the Bible Talk Leaders Workshop, and a Saturday All Congregational City of Angels Church Service!

    Tim Kernan preaches for the All Congregational
    Service, sharing hurtful things in his life
    that he had not shared publicly before!
    The Saturday LA All Congregational Service!


    Michael Williamson of London preaching
    passionately at the Men’s Program!


    At the Women’s Program, Michele Williamson
    shares about God’s tender heart
    towards all women!

    Sunday we met by Super Region! Excitingly, it was announced that Emilio & Tatty Bonilla would be coming down from San Francisco to lead the Palm Springs Region! Jason Dimitry appointed Emilio an Evangelist at the Saturday Service!

    Jason appoints his beloved son in the faith
    Emilio as an Evangelist in the
    Kingdom of God!
    The Winter Workshop was LiveStreamed into 54 nations including: Israel, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and China! Thanks goes out to Alex Rhode and his crew for this amazing service to the Kingdom and outreach to nations where there is not a SoldOut Movement Ministry… yet!

    LiveStreaming all major SoldOut Movement
    Events is having a global impact!

    Coming out of the Winter Workshop, we went into our Generosity Drive where we inspired the members to be generous in their pledges! Amazingly our weekly giving has risen from an average of $29,000 weekly to a consistent average of $39,000! Instead of “burdening the church” this Generosity Drive – expressed in a 25% jump in giving – drove the disciples to put their hearts where there treasure was: in the Kingdom!    Next we charged straight into a powerful Bring Your Neighbor Day! With torrential rain (equivalent of a blizzard in Moscow!), we still broke our all-time high and set a new record of 1,683 in attendance!


    The new class of young prophets and prophetesses
    in ICCM-LA met on January 23rd!
    Another leadership change came in our AMS Region as Princeton & Joy George were graciously received as their new Region Leaders! Enhancing the leadership as well has been the coming of Josiah & Kristen Smith from Phoenix! Josiah serves as a part time intern and Kristen has her own TV Show! Furthering the incredible surge in the AMS has been the overseeing by Andrew & Patrique Smellie and Rob & Burg Onekea being appointed the Regional Shepherding Couple!

    Princeton blew out his first AMS Sermon entitled,
    HEAVEN IS FOR OVERCOMERS!
    With the Peacock Family moving to take the George’s role in San Diego, we prayed for more help to fill the big hole left by Jermaine & Stefanie’s departure from the OC Region! Prayers were answered as we are very excited to welcome Jared, Rachel and Priscilla McGee from Mexico City to be a part of our City of Angels Church Family in the OC!

    Priscilla McGee has great vision for her
    Dad & Mom – Jared & Rachel!

    1 Corinthians 15:57 “…but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Finally, on Sunday, the City of Angels Church demolished the 3X Missions Goal of $89,729! The saints raised $143,602! That’s $53,873 OVER or over 160% of the goal! We want to thank you Jesus! We want to thank all the amazing LA Leaders for their faith, example and dedication! And we want to thank all the LA saints!    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the FAMILY of believers THROUGHOUT THE WORLD is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8-9) In this The Year of Family for the SoldOut Movement, let us continually pray for each other to be “self-controlled and alert” to overcome Satan and all of his demonic angels! Pray this month especially for the impact of the upcoming Brazil Missions Conference and the Latin America Missions Conference! Pray daily for the preparations for the seven plantings scheduled for this year!

    Pray especially for the Tenth and Eleventh Crown of Thorns Cities – Lagos and Dubai – to be planted this year and the Twelfth and last Crown of Thorns City – Hong Kong – to be planted in 2017! If the Spirit accomplishes this, then Phase 1 of the Crown of Thorns Project – the SoldOut Movement’s plan to evangelize the world in this generation – will have been completed in just eight years!


    Pray for RD & April Baker – the Dubai Mission
    Team Leaders – to bring living water into
    the hot desert of the Middle East!
    Finally, pray for Elena & me as we travel to Brazil and Mexico that “words may be given us so that [we] will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel!” (Ephesians 6:19)

    Elena warmly embraces her day old third
    granddaughter – Savannah!
    Thanks for your partnership in the gospel in prayer and deed! And to God be all the glory!
    Much love,
    Kip

  • LA Winter Workshop: Watch it Live

    Stay informed, sign up for the Good News Email Here!
    Happy New Year from chilly Los Angeles!

    During December, Tim & Lianne Kernan and the new City of Angels International Christian Church (CAICC) Super Region Leaders diligently prayed to the Lord and inspired all the LA Disciples so much so that the Spirit blessed the CAICC on the first Sunday of the year – January 3rd – with 10 additions: 4 baptisms, 3 restorations and 3 place memberships! What an auspicious beginning for 2016 and to God be all the glory!


    The City of Angels International Christian Church
    in Los Angeles invites you to the
    2016 Winter Workshop!

    The SoldOut Movement’s theme for 2016 is WE ARE FAMILY! Building upon this tremendous theme on January 8-10, 2016 is the CAICC Winter Workshop Program entitled, FAMILY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! The entire schedule of events is available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/527013434124319/.

    To invite a larger audience, we have moved Livestream for the SoldOut Movement from the CAICC Livestream Channel to be under the USD21 Banner. So our Livestream efforts will now be called “SoldOut Movement Live Events.” The new link is www.livestream.com/USD21.


    Livestream broadcast the historic
    2015 GLC into 69 nations!

    To enjoy this encouraging event, the 2016 CAICC Winter Workshop can be viewed in three ways:

    1. From your personal computer at https://livestream.com/USD21/ww2016 or www.caicc.net.
    2. From the ROKU Streaming Media Player on your TV and be sure to download the Livestream Plugin, then search for USD21 or SoldOut Movement.
    3. If you are on the go you can download the Livestream App on the Google Play Store for Android devices and the Apple App Store for the iPhone/iPad.

    For Livestream Support requests, please first see the Support Section on Livestream.com at http://help.livestream.com/customer/portal/articles/search?q=how+to+watch.You may subscribe to the SoldOut Movement Events Channel using your Facebook account or personal email. In this way, you can stay in the loop about all upcoming Livestream Events and Features. The CyberMinsitry and the Livestream Production Team is here to help you when you just can’t figure it out! In those cases, don’t be discouraged! Please email us at Livestreaming@usd21.org. Provide details and how to best contact you immediately and we will have someone get back to you shortly!

    The following is the schedule (Pacific Standard Time) of the CAICC Winter Workshop Program:

    January 8, 2016
    9AM – 12:30PM Church Builders Workshop
    7:30PM – 10PM Bible Talk Leaders Workshop

    January 9, 2016
    9AM – 11:30AM All Congregational General Session
    1:30PM – 4PM Men’s and Women’s Programs

    January 10, 2016
    10AM – 12:30PM The OC, IE & Palm Springs Super Region Worship

    Please consider 1 Peter 5:9, “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the FAMILY of believers THROUGHOUT THE WORLD is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Be praying not only for the 2016 Winter Workshop, but for the plans this calendar year for the Spirit to plant seven churches: Bogota, Colombia; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Lagos, Nigeria (our Tenth Crown of Thorns Church); Seattle, Washington; Tampa, Florida; Dubai, United Arab Emirates (our Eleventh Crown of Thorns Church); and Bangalore, India!


    Dubai celebrating the 2016 New Years and the
    coming planting of the Pillar Church for the
    Middle East World Sector of the
    SoldOut Movement!

    Lastly, pray for peace in the Middle East! Truly we are witnessing the evangelization of the nations in this generation!
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip

  • Good News Email – Christmas Edition -12/13/15

    Good News Email – Christmas Edition -12/13/15

    Greetings from Los Angeles! Today’s Christmas Service was historic and heartwarming as the mantle of leadership of the City of Angels International Christian Church was passed from Elena & me to our dear son and daughter in the faith – Tim & Lianne Kernan! Surely this gallant couple will lead the City of Angels Church to even greater heights!

    Kip & Elena entrust their beloved City of Angels Church to the gallant couple – Tim & Lianne Kernan!
    BREAKING NEWS

    Debs Rajan of Chennai: Greetings! “Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (Psalm 139:12) Because of heavy rains, our whole city was in darkness for a few days! We had no power for five continuous days, which means no internet connections, no cell phones, no washing machines, no water supply, and no drinking water and the shops were closed because of floods! It was back to good old candle light dinners! As the Scriptures speak about those who love God, “darkness” did not dampen the spirit of the Chennai disciples as God shone His “light” upon us!


    Satish trying to reach the flat on the Chennai Brothers’ street!

    There has been such intense persecution taking place that my husband Raja and a few brothers had to go underground! On Tuesday, December 1st during the heavy rains the brothers had to go undercover! That same night, the waters rose and the city was flooded! The next day, I really appreciate my husband making a radical decision to brave the floods and go against the advice of the lawyers, to come out of hiding and to help the disciples! At the same time, the persecutors also left the city scared of the floods! God was in total control!

    Leyon just before leaving the Brothers’ flat as the waters soon rose to six feet!

    The floods and the persecution have only strengthened and united the disciples! All the disciples made it to church, Leaders Meeting and we even had the test on First Principles! “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done…” through all of this!
    Mishal – our Campus Sister in the green t-shirt – worked relentlessly for three days helping the destitute!

    Last week, we had our Campus Program “UNLOCKED!” Prathap, Vandana and Christopher mightily preached the Word! 33 campus students brought 45 visitors, the best ever so far! Finally, to top it all, God encouraged us with five baptisms this week! 


    Christy (above) and Vandana preaching the Word at UNLOCKED!


    78 students participate in UNLOCKED!


    Prakash is all smiles as he comes out of the water!


    Vignesh baptizes his younger sister Vinitha – a Campus Student!


    Rajesh from Pachaiyappa’s College is baptized, opening the doors to another campus!


    Today, my husband preached a powerful message titled UNLEASH! All of us learned that when we do the Lord’s will, and do not get distracted, God will unleash His blessings upon us! To God be all the glory!

    Jacques Groenewald of Johannesburg: “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Psalm 126:1-3) Greetings from the City of Gold – Johannesburg, South Africa! My family and I feel so humbled to have been asked to come back to our home country and start a remnant group here! We are also very grateful to the London Church for building our faith up so much and sending us out to this “rainbow nation” and to a city that once had more than 3,000 disciples in the former fellowship!


    The great nation of South Africa!

    My lovely wife Jeanette (and our two year old Lisa-Marie) have been so courageous and resilient! As well, Kudzai Mushangwe – a valiant single sister originally being from SA’s neighboring country Zimbabwe – is making a great transition settling in. We were greeted shortly after our arrival on the 18th of November by a very dear sister – Lyly, the wife of Mickey Ngungu the leader of our Kinshasa Remnant Group! She has been a great encouragement ever since!

    Lyly (left) greets the Groenewalds warmly shortly after their arrival in Johannesburg!

    Over the last four services, we have averaged an awesome attendance of 10! Just a week ago, a former disciple from the ICOC, Patricia Muzambi, was restored – our first fruit! Patricia, a more mature sister who with help from the Cyber Ministry kept following the movement, came back and blew us away with how humbly she responded to the Scriptures! This is especially true in contribution and commitment, as she sometimes has to take unsafe public transport at night just make it to the meetings of the body!

    As in the Bible, the J’burg Disciples have a feast to celebrate the return of Patricia (second from the right) to the Lord!

    There is much more good news to share such as one of my affluent religious childhood friends has committed to pay “his monthly tithe” toward the J’burg ICC; my parents came out to service twice; and Jeanette’s mom attended once!

    Sisters’ Night Out and Lyly’s first time bowling!

    Lastly, we were inspired today as the Spirit called Lyly back to her home country of Congo (DRC) to be alongside her husband, leading the church in Kinshasa! Two of her daughters are staying behind as they are studying at universities here where we need to have campus ministries!

    Jacques and the Ngungus met for the first time at the African Missions Conference in Abidjan in June!

    Please pray for our combined “Winter” Workshop (summer in the Southern Hemisphere!) with the Gordon’s Bay ICC which is led by our friend and dear brother Nick Winn! Also please pray for the final two members of the team – Japy Tefera and Heshgood Clarke from London who are due here in January – to receive their visas!

    Eugene Sobolov: Greetings from Moscow! God keeps doing amazing things among us! We were happy to see the baptism of the teenager Dima! It’s so fantastic that in spite of such a young church – the Inaugural Service was on February 1, 2015 – Dima is a fourth generation disciple: Oleg Sirotkin baptized Dima, Dima invited Vitalik – a very famous dancer here in Russia and a participant of the Central TV Dance Show – and Vitalik baptized Dima!


    Dima powerfully shares about the darkness of his life immediately before he enters the light!

    Also, we are happy to report that God blessed our Campus Ministry here in Moscow! This Sunday we witnessed the baptism of Salem – a first year student at the University of Chemical Technology! Salem was invited by her friend and roommate Nicia, who was baptized just two months ago!

    The Moscow Campus Ministry! Zulia (back row, second from the left), Salem (back row, third from the right), Nicia (back row, second from the right) and Herve (lower row, third from the left) – were all baptized within the last two months!
    Please pray for us as we are doing all we can to convert Eurasia! We love you with the love of the Lord!

    Andrew Smellie: On Saturday December 5th in LA was the first meeting of the Lagos Mission Team! Not only were Iggy Odighizuwa, Joshua Ajayi, Simon Ajayi, Ashley Dunn, Ariel Hazelton, Shamika Mejia, Tina Nwachukwu, Patrique and me in attendance, but the newest evangelist in the movement – Yomi Bello of London – joined this historic occasion by Skype! Excitingly Goodhope Atason, the leader of the Lagos Remnant Group, joined us by Skype as well! Please pray for us as Lord willing the Spirit will send us to Nigeria on April 3, 2016!


    The first meeting of the Mighty Lagos Mission Team!

    Denise Bordieri of LA: “It is more blessed to give than receive.” (Acts 20:35) It is so encouraging to hear the good news about this year’s MERCY Christmas Toy Drive! Here are a few updates from around the world: MERCY Sao Paulo, Phoenix and Santiago all served orphanages, with Santiago holding their Christmas Service at the ECAM Orphanage with the kids participating in the Christmas Play!

    The Santiago MERCY Ambassadors
    at the ECAM Orphanage!

    MERCY Chicago held the Lekotek Christmas Party for 75 children with physical and mental disabilities! MERCY Sydney raised funds and have given the gift of money to purchase water filters for families in Haiti! London collected toys for inpatient children at the Queens Hospital! The 50 disciples of Mexico City collected 180 toys!

    The Mexico City MERCY Ambassadors!

    Here in LA, over 1,300 toys were collected including a generous donation from JAKKS Pacific Toy Company! These toys will first be distributed to needy families in the City of Angels Church and then we will distribute them to Foster Youth in LA!
     
    Over 1,300 toys were donated through the efforts of the LA MERCY Ambassadors!

    I’m so proud and grateful for the hearts of the disciples around the world whose generosity will bring joy to many families and children! It truly is “more blessed to give than receive!”

    Joe Willis: Greeting from Sydney! It has been such a special two weeks in Sydney! We had our Annual Retreat, an explosive Christmas Service, and of course our Christmas Banquet!


    Baby Christians – Erick (left), a Maquarie Student, and Allen (second from right), a University of New South Wales Student – showing off their dance moves!
    The highlights have definitely included the three amazing students – Selena, Allen and Eric – baptized!

    Erick being baptized before church on Sunday in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

    Also, another couple highlights have been the church seeing God answer our prayers for the end of the year to grow to 40 disciples and increase our contribution by $500 to $3000, both of which He has kindly answered!

    Prayers are answered as the Sydney Church
    reaches 40 disciples!
    Concerning the evangelization of the 1.3 billion people of China, the Bible tells us that our prayers unleash the Angels (Acts 10:2-3) and so I want to ask everybody to pray for God to do exactly that for the first service on Chinese soil, this coming Sunday December 20, 2015 at 11am! Pray for God and His angels to provide protection for the Christians and non-Christians alike! Pray for our Savior and Lord to be glorified!

    Dean “the Machine” Lam will be preaching at the Hong Kong Service!

    Due to the increase of expected guests, we have changed the venue to a few minutes away from our hotel! Church will now be at the Compass Offices, Level 9, Central Building, 1-3 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong! Their website is.     http://www.compassoffices.com/hong-kong-business-centres-sheung-wan-infinitus-plaza.

    Maika Carbonell of Manila: The Holy Spirit continues to work powerfully as many have been coming to radically change their lives and become disciples! In the last three weeks, God has blessed us with six additions, bringing our total additions since our Inaugural Service on June 7th to 96 – 72 baptisms, 16 restorations and 8 place memberships directly from our former fellowship!


    Jovelyn, an RTU Student, is baptized into God’s Family!

    Of note, Vivian and Jocelyn – physical cousins – have helped unite their family in Christ! Jocelyn’s brother, Arnold, has been living a life of darkness his whole life, and even more so when his wife died one year ago. But after studying the Bible and making changes in his life, he was baptized to the great delight of his two preteen daughters! Belen, Vivian’s mom, saw all the miracles happening in the lives of their family and the church, and also decided to get baptized last week!

    Arnold with his sister Jocelyn, his cousin Vivian, and his two daughters!

    Lastly, after laying out the Crown of Thorns Project of the Pacific Rim World Sector to the church and setting the goal of raising 10X our weekly pledge, we are pleased to report that with a goal of PhP 544,500 ($11, 473), we have collected PhP 672,340 ($14,167)! That is 123% of our goal! The hearts of the disciples to sacrifice and go beyond their own personal goals has truly been inspiring!

    All of the additions in the Metro Manila Church since August!
    Carlos Mejia: Greetings from Mexico City! As I reflect on 2015, I can only be in awe of all the miracles that God has done and grateful for the gifts He has given us by way of baptisms, restorations and place memberships! We started out the year with 18 sold-out disciples and today we are 61 sold-out disciples for the Lord! 

    Jair Soto – a UNAM Student studying nutrition – is baptized into Christ!
    The church has also grown spiritually! By grace we have implemented the CR Ministry, which will surely have many graduates and much fruit in the coming months. Also, the Women’s Day was a great success! Although we are not a “first world” church, God allowed us to collect a Special Missions Contribution, and if the Spirit permits, we will have the tremendous honor to send out the mission team for the planting of the Bogota, Colombia International Christian Church at the Latin American Missions Conference next year!

    LA GRAND COMISION is the theme for the 2016 LAMC!
    The Latin American Missions Conference will be held in Mexico City on February 11-14, 2016. The theme is LA GRAND COMISION. It will be held at the Hilton Mexico City Reforma! Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-latin-american-missions-conferencela-gran-comision-tickets-18183388003. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!

    Richie McDonnell: Greetings from the Mighty Washington DC Church! God has been blessing the hearts of repentance here in DC! Not only did we hit 115% of our Special Missions Contribution Goal totaling $63,150, but in the 27 weeks that Elizabeth & I have been here, there have been 26 additions! One incredible baptism is Tamara from the mighty Delaware Bible Talk! She was met at work by Dr. Janette Nelson! Demonstrating her commitment to Christ, Tamara drives down twice weekly to be a part of the fellowship until she can move here in the spring!

    Tamara gladly leaves her old life behind, grateful that God found her 85 miles away from the closest fellowship!
     
    HEADLINE NEWS
    The LA Christmas Service
    The Annual Christmas Service for the City of Angels Church was extra special this year with the Send Off for Kip & Elena McKean! Lou Jack Martinez and Jason Bond exuberantly led the opening hymns which concluded with Joy To The World!

    Lou Jack leads the singing with all his heart!

    Cory Blackwell then gave the Welcome which included the inspirational reading of Isaiah 9:6-7! Michael Kirchner led us in a powerful prayer for God to move among the nations!

    Cory Blackwell’s welcome and Michael Kirchner’s prayer set the tone for this historic service!

    Following came the “goodbyes” to Roger & Yassa Green who will be heading back to Chennai, and to another dear couple that will be heading to Dallas-Ft. Worth – Jason and soon to be Daniela Woody! As well, we welcomed Devon Donahue of Eugene into the fellowship!

    Devon (center) is a welcomed addition to
    the South Region!
    Additionally, Nick & Denise Bordieri thanked the congregation for the incredible MERCY Toy Drive!

    Winnie Wechsler – Executive Director of Pritzker Foundation – shares appreciatively about all the toys that have been donated to Foster Youth in LA!

    A touching Tribute Video to the McKeans was played to thank them for their eight years of service to the Lord in planting and leading the City of Angels Church! Then a gift from the congregation was presented to them: a world map with all 12 Crown of Thorns Cities highlighted!

    Kip & Elena are profoundly moved by the Tribute Video dedicated to them!

    A quartet of Chris Adams, Thea Beach, and Jason & Susan Bond then beautifully sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Then Chris McGrath presided communion during which time Elena shared her gratefulness to God and to the congregation!


    The well harmonized quartet of Chris, Thea, Jason and Susan!


    Elena shares about Jesus’ elevation of women!


    Christine Martinez sings a
    solo – Silent Night!


    The contribution message was eloquently delivered by our Lagos Mission Team Leaders – Andrew & Patrique Smellie!

    Andrew & Patrique Smellie – the remarkable Lagos Mission Team Leaders!

    After a brief fellowship break and the singing of Hark The Herald Angles Sing, Chris McGrath played on his guitar and sang The Last Goodbye as Kip introduced his lesson, A Fond Farewell with the words of this song!

    The new West Region Leader – Chris McGrath!
    The text for the sermon was Ezekiel 47. This passage on the “River of God” is the last of seven great visions given to Ezekiel from God which prophecies the evangelization of the nations by God’s people both Jews and Gentiles! So appropriately after this tear-filled sermon, we sang Great Among The Nations!

    Kip preaches to thousands at the CAICC Christmas Service through LiveStream!
    During Kip’s sermon, he announced that Ricky & Coleen Challinor will become the newest and youngest members of the esteemed Crown of Thorns Council which oversees the mission efforts of the SoldOut Movement!

    The newest and youngest members of the Crown of Thorns Council – Ricky & Coleen Challinor!
    Then, we witnessed 11 amazing baptisms: Shay (AMS), Anthony (East), Henry (Central), Elsie, Henry, Shantelle, Sean (South), and from the Palm Springs Region: Vanessa, Aaron, Leah and Sal & Patricia Velasco’s daughter – Daniela!


    Our new sister Shay from the AMS!


    Our new sister Elsie from the South Region!


    The Velasco Familia – Priscilla, Patricia, Daniela and Sal!


    Daniela’s older sister Priscilla asks Daniela the two most important questions of her life!


    Our new sister Daniela Velasco of the Palm Springs Region!


    After this joyful celebration was the formal exchange of leadership from the McKeans to the Kernans!

    The passing of the torch of leadership from the McKeans to the Kernans!
    The Movement Shepherds – Nick Bordieri and Tony Untalan – prayed over the McKeans, the Kernans and the City of Angels Church new Super Region Leaders: the Blackwells, the Feumbas, the Martinezes and the Speckmans!

    The charismatic new Evangelist of the City of Angels Church – Tim Kernan!

    Of course, Carlos Diaz closed out the service leading the congregation in Feliz Navidad! This service will be a memory that we will share about in Heaven!

    Carlos Diaz leads Feliz Navidad to close the CAICC’s incredible Christmas Service!
    Nick Bordieri Travels To Haiti

    Nick Bordieri: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:7-8)

    One of MERCYWORLDWIDE‘s core services is bringing pure water to water-impoverished areas, starting with Haiti, one of the most water-impoverished countries in the world. I visited Haiti a week before Thanksgiving to assess the impact of the 71 water filters we purchased for disciples in our five churches. Before visiting, what I read and what I was told was that Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Few homes have running water and basic sanitation is a serious issue. There is a lack of pure water for drinking, bathing and washing food and vegetables. Consequently, water-borne diseases are commonplace, as is malaria. Furthermore, lack of formal education and limited employment is cause for concern and unrest. 


    Typical scenes throughout the Haitian cities!


    Gratefully, I was well taken care of throughout the six day trip by the Lead Evangelist for all of Haiti, Turgeau Alexi who is based in Port-au-Prince, and our leader in Jacmel, Jean Bonard Colin. Blaise Feumba has done a masterful job converting Turgeau, a seasoned Mainline Church of Christ preacher, who became a baptized sold-out disciple! Turgeau in turn helped to baptize into Christ nine other preachers who then converted 170 disciples in planting five SoldOut Movement churches throughout Haiti!

    Best of friends – Jean Bonard, Turgeau and Nick!
    The first few days were spent in Jacmel, a coastal city two and half hours south of the capital, Port-au-Prince. We visited numerous families who were using Vestergaard’s Lifestraw 1.0 Filters which MERCY purchased in Haiti. 

    A Haitian staple for lunch – cooked bananas! Turgeau is loving life! 
    Jean Bornard and his wife Loverlie are doing an incredible job with MERCY. He used to work for the UN and she has a degree in accounting! Both have a big heart for the less fortunate! They have opened up a school, with the approval of the local government, for poor children in the area. Most children do not go to school since public education is close to non-existent. Since the unemployment rate in Haiti is close to 70%, parents cannot afford to send their children to private schools, leaving a generation of Haitians without an education! To help to overcome this tragedy, Bonard & Loverlie have 12 kids in their school, ages 3-6, including their three younger children!
     Jean Bonard & Loverlie’s school building!
    Some of the kids are so poor they come to school without breakfast. Bonard & Loverlie feed the kids and provide school uniforms, so that everyone comes to school neatly dressed. They do this all out of their own pocket. Bonard, Loverlie and I share the dream to increase the number of children and expand the grades in the school and eventually for this school to become our first MERCY School! 

    Jean Bonard & Loverlie with several of their students!

    Later Saturday afternoon, we returned to Port-au-Prince. After a joyous Sunday Service, we headed to Canape Vert – one of many shanty towns lining the sides of mountains, similar to the favelas in Brazil. Our aim was to visit a number of families that live there and who have been using the 1.0 Lifestraw Filters. It took us a good 20-30 minutes to climb to the home of one of our leaders, Brunson, who lives a third of the way up! Brunson is such a great servant, as is his wife, Acefie. Sadly, they lost their baby twins during the earthquake. They are incredible servants in the church in Port-au-Prince!

    Brunson (red shirt) & Acefie (red top), their darling daughter in the chair, and his nephew next to him! Note the Lifestraw 1.0 Filter in the background hanging on the wall!

    We spent two to three hours traversing the mountainside, while visiting disciples to discuss the water situation and the filters. The squalid living conditions – one, two, maybe three small rooms for large families, with no running water and very little space – broke my heart and made me truly understand how “rich” we are in the first world! I was greatly inspired and humbled by the joy exuding from everyone’s hearts! Their genuine love of God, the Kingdom and family and friends is evident despite the challenging living conditions. 

    A mountain village that holds many of our dear Brothers and Sisters!

    To close out my trip, we met with Katyana Wolf, Director for Pluripharm, Vestergaard’s distributor in Haiti. Katyana was raised in Haiti, attended high school in the USA, and then attended university in London before returning to Haiti to help her people here. Turgeau, Bonard and I visited her office and toured the warehouse where they store the Lifestraw Water Filters. We provided feedback on the filters and informed Katyana of the need for bigger filters to accommodate larger families. She then demonstrated the 2.0 Family Lifestraw Filter, which holds up to two gallons and the larger 3.0 Community Lifestraw Filter, which holds 10 gallons and has four spouts, which is used for larger groups like a church or school. The 2.0 is $123 and the 3.0 is $395.

    Katyana demonstrates the 2.0 Family Lifestraw Filter, which holds up to 1-2 gallons!
    In joy of what MERCY is doing and in sadness that we cannot do more presently, I flew home. Please keep MERCY in your prayers for both MERCY H2O in Haiti and future plans for the MERCY School!

    FAMILY NEWS

    Portland: “He has made everything beautiful in its time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) God made DaMarcus & Angie’s relationship “beautiful in its time,” which is always HIS time! Their story supersedes movies like The Notebook, Dear John, and even P.S. I Love You!

    DaMarcus & Angie began their relationship in high school and then while they were both students at the University of Oregon, she became pregnant with their daughter. This was at the same time she met disciples, gave up their long-term relationship trusting God would take care of her, and was baptized while being very pregnant! Seven years later DaMarcus, after much prayer from many people, decided he wanted to get his life together and so he was baptized and the rest is history! Truly it’s a worldwide family as so many came from all over to watch them tie the knot on December 5th at the PSU Ballroom, the very place where they first met! God truly does make “everything beautiful in its time,” which is always HIS time!


    The storybook wedding of DaMarcus &
    Angie Redeau!

    Manila: Love has been in the air these past few weeks! Last December 5th, the Metro Manila Church had its first ever Kingdom wedding with the marriage of our mighty University of the Philippines (UP) Campus Ministry Leaders, Zach & Ariel Shields! In the week that followed, two couples started dating – Lloyd & Lady Lou; and Ivan & Jen! God gave a special gift to the Shields, as Zach’s mom flew in for the wedding the day after she was baptized into Christ in Honolulu!


    Congratulations to Zach & Ariel Shields!


    Zach & Ariel and the UP Campus Ministry!

    Washington DC: Our talented Downtown Bible Talk Leaders Isaiah Okiemen & Jassmine Gaines were joyfully married on December 5, 2015!

    Congratulations to Isaiah &
    Jassmine Okiemen!
    Orlando: As for the wedding of Marcel Turner and Tia Swinson – wow, what an amazing week we all had culminating with an awesomely beautiful wedding on Sunday night December 6th! With so many incredible friends and family in town, it was a week of fun, laughter and celebration! The entire weekend was coordinated by Sonia Green, and she did a fantastic job!

    The wedding started out with Michael Kirchner as he gave a heartfelt welcome to Marcel & Tia and to the packed house! Then our dear brother Devon Hairston opened up with a prayer. Ted Green, one of our incredible Shepherds then gave a funny and yet very deep charge to the future newlyweds. With over 40 years in the Kingdom and over 34 years married, it was a much needed charge! Matt Sullivan performed the ceremony and what a blast it was! From the first minute there were tears… Marcel! He was and still is in awe of how God has taken him from the streets, involved in drugs and so much sin to being full-time in the ministry and now marrying his best friend and partner in Campus Ministry, Tia! Tia was equally grateful, just fewer tears, for how God reached down and hugged her by giving her a man of deep conviction in whom she feels confident will help her get to Heaven!


    Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Marcel & Tia Turner!


    What a joy to see them come back from their honeymoon yesterday during our Leaders Meeting! A great shout went up as they were greeted at the door… We had to stop the meeting for a few minutes! Congratulations to our dear friends and now married couple – Mr. and Mrs. Marcel & Tia Turner!

    New York City: Last Sunday, in Brooklyn, we celebrated the wedding of Mark & Carlen Hair! They joined us in early September as Mark was restored and Carlen placed membership directly from our former fellowship! In the past, Mark was in the full time ministry and Carlen was the wife of a Deacon until she was widowed a few years ago. They have both brought so much joy to the New York Church as they have jumped right in and served with all their hearts and talent! It was extra special to watch Brandon, Carlen’s son, walk her down the aisle! 


    Congratulations to Mark, Carlen and Brandon!


    Back on August 5, 2015, before we started this incredible Family News Section of the Good News Email, Lailah Flor Hardin was born with a true knot in her umbilical cord and the cord was wrapped around her neck. The doctor and the nurses called her a miracle baby! Her parents, Wes & Debbie, are so thankful to their God for their “Little Miracle!”

    Lailah is the Hardin’s “Little Miracle!”

    Honolulu: Aloha! The Honolulu Church celebrated an amazing new addition to the family with new parents Ka’ihe & Cristle Tahara! Kilinahe “Nahe” Kahikina Tahara was born November 23, 2015! Kilinahe was 7lbs 4.4oz and 19.7 inches! Thanks be to God for a healthy mom and beautiful daughter!

    The Honolulu Church welcomes “Nahe”
    to their family!

    On December 12th, we then celebrated the stunningly beautiful wedding of Jane Chesmore & Ted Lam at the gorgeous Kualoa Ranch! It was a joy for Jake Ramsier to officiate his first wedding for such dear friends!


    Congratulations to Ted & Jane Lam!

    VIDEO NEWS

    Heather Harvin is a dynamic disciple in the AMS Region of the City of Angels Church! She has performed during her singing career in countless venues and has made several videos for Hollywood’s music industry that feature disciples! Please listen to Heather’s newest song Christmas Jingle! (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E-KDK986LJs&feature=share)


    Our gifted sister – Heather Harvin!
    The heartwarming McKeans Tribute Video was produced by Elliott Svenkeson of San Francisco and directed by Tim & Lianne Kernan moved Kip & Elena to tears! (https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjfwz44v7bt56gs/FINALFINALFINAL.mp4?dl=0)This video of Billy Boyd (who played Pippen in the trilogy of movies on The Lord Of The Ring) singing The Last Goodbye inspired the title of Kip’s sermon, The Last Farewell!

    LOCAL NEWS

    Tim Kernan: These past few weeks have been enormously busy! To close out the Thanksgiving Weekend, on Sunday November 29th the City of Angels Church met by Super Regions for our Annual Financial Review Service! It is so encouraging to share with the congregation that when our May and November Missions Contributions were totaled almost one million dollars had been sacrificed to propel the gospel around the world! Special thanks to Michael Kirchner and Nick Economo for all their preparation and speaking at these services!


    Nick Economo preaching at the Financial Review Worship Service!

    In the Tribe Super Region – composed of the OC, IE, South and East Regions – another highlight was the restoration of Silver Calzada – a friend of Lou Jack Martinez when they were both in the Harvard Campus Ministry! The Holy Spirit reunited them just a couple of weeks before when Lou Jack was evangelizing at Mt. SAC College, as Silver is now a professor there!

    Silver Calzada – a Harvard grad and a Professor
    at Mt. SAC College – is restored!

    The next weekend – on Friday December 4th – was our Congregational College/Teen Devotional at Dockweiler Beach for a Bonfire! Things were already heating up as earlier that afternoon our dear brother from London Kolbe Gray asked our sweet sister Rebecca Rico to be his girlfriend! She said yes!

    After meeting at the European Missions Conference, Kolbe Gray flies to LA to ask Rebecca Rico to be his girlfriend! She says yes!!!!!!
    Saturday December 5th – was our monthly LA ICCM Bachelor’s Degree Session which now has 80 students! This time we met on the scenic Cal State Long Beach Campus! Our guest professor was Dr. Kip McKean who delivered a lesson few others would even attempt entitled, Writing That Changes The World! A few quotes from the lesson that inspired and convicted me were:

    Martin Luther – “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”
    Winston Churchill – “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
    Dorothy Parker – “I hate writing. I love having written.”
    James Michner – “I’m not a particularly good writer, but I am an excellent rewrite.”

    And my favorite was Kip’s closing quote from a man he met and spent time with in 1995, Nelson Mandela, “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation!” All of us walked out of that session motivated to change the world by learning how to write!


    Luke Speckman – Dean of the Undergraduate School – welcomes everyone to the December ICCM Session!

    That Staff Christmas Party was that evening! What a joyous occasion as we shared our hearts with Kip & Elena who will be focusing in the future on the mission field by building the Crown of Thorns Churches into imitations of the City of Angels Church!

    The CAICC Region Leaders and the Administration Staff Christmas Party was a blast!


    On Sunday, December 6th, Andrew & Patrique Smellie had their Send Off Service in the West Region! They will be devoting themselves to building up the AMS Region as they prepare the Lagos Mission Team to leave for Nigeria on April 3, 2016! The Holy Spirit has raised up Chris McGrath and Megan Mathews to become the new West Region Leaders!

    Also that Sunday in the West Region, Patrique (who was a practicing lawyer before she entered the ministry) baptized Lan – a lawyer from China who is in the process of completing a Master of Laws (LL.M) Program at UCLA! The Chinese government spent thousands of dollars for her to come and learn in LA, little knowing that she would become a disciple of Jesus! She is eager to see all of China won for the Lord! She was met by Charlotte another great Chinese disciple at UCLA!


    Lan cannot wait for the Hong Kong Church to be planted!


    Then of course today’s Christmas Service was phenomenal as we said “good-bye” to Kip & Elena and thanked them for all their years of serving the Lord in planting and leading the City of Angels Church! His lesson was simply entitled, A Fond Farewell! Chris McGrath sung the song The Last Goodbye from the movie The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies just before Kip’s last sermon as our dear Evangelist! The title of the sermon came from this song’s very last verse which Kip read at the close of this message,

    To these memories I will hold
    With your blessing I will go
    To turn at last to the paths that lead home
    And though where the road then takes me
    I cannot tell
    We came all this way
    But now comes the day
    To bid you farewell.
    I bid you all a very fond farewell.


    Kip preaches his last sermon as the Lead Evangelist of the CAICC fittingly entitled, A Fond Farewell!

    Kip & Elena, thanks for our salvation through Christ and thanks for never giving up on God’s dream for the evangelization of the nations in THIS generation! Our prayers are with you!

    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: As 2015 comes to a close, let us all fall to our knees in grateful worship of our Father in Heaven! In 2015, God’s Spirit planted Moscow in February, Manila in June, Abidjan in July, Sacramento and Stockholm in September, and Korezouzoua in November! All of these new congregations are thriving through the power of the Spirit!

    Oleg Sirotkin preaching to the 227 in attendance at the Moscow Inaugural Service!

    Another highlight was the 2015 Global Leadership Conference – SAVIOR OF THE WORLD! Over 2,100 attended this glorious gathering! That Sunday at the Third Commencement of the ICCM, 86 BA Degrees and two Master’s Degrees were conferred! As well, the first Doctorate Degree was awarded to a woman! It was duly earned by “Dr. Elena Garcia McKean!”

    Dr. Elena Garcia McKean is publishing her dissertation early next year as a book entitled, ELEVATE!

    As I have taken time to reflect on all the ways that God has blessed our ministry in the City of Angels Church, perhaps the greatest gift from God to the City of Angels Church has been the more than daily baptisms for the past three years! Since the 42 sold-out disciples planted the City of Angels Church on May 6, 2007, God has multiplied His movement into now 4,000 disciples with 6,000 in attendance on Sunday in 61 churches in 32 nations on all six populated continents of the world! To God be all the glory!

    The beautiful Crown of Thorns Map given to the McKeans as a gift at the Christmas Service!

    I would like to humbly request your prayers for Elena & me to discern which churches to place our energies, now that we can be devoted full time to missions and writing. I am so very thankful to God for my dear wife and partner in the gospel as He cured Elena of cancer last year so that we were able to joyfully celebrate our 39th Anniversary just three days ago on December 11th!

    Kip & Elena’s enduring message to disciples around the world, “We are family… to the end!”
    “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!” Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
    Much love,
    Kip
  • Good News Email – November 22, 2015

    Good News Email – November 22, 2015

     

    Greetings from London, Moscow and Manila! The Spirit is moving in very powerful ways in these cities! Elena’s and my goal in visiting each of these churches was to strengthen and encourage them. Yet during our time with all three congregations, we were the ones who were incredibly built up by their “work produced by faith, [their] labor prompted by love, and [their] endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ!” ()

    The McKeans and Rebecca Rico receive a
    SoldOut Movement Welcome in London
    for the European Missions Conference!


    The Moscow Disciples sing to Kip & Elena,
    We Love You With The Love Of The Lord!
    AM, the Manila Disciples joyfully welcome
    the McKeans back to their beloved Philippines!

    BREAKING NEWS

    Phillipe Scheidecker – Leader of the Paris Church: On Friday night, November 13th, terrorists staged coordinated attacks at six locations throughout Paris. Sadly that evening, 129 people were killed and 352 wounded. First of all we are deeply moved by your support on social medias, your messages, your profile pictures with the colors of the French Flag, and all your prayers!


    Facebook allows Lianne Kernan of LA and
    Prisca Scheidecker of Paris to show
    solidarity of resolve to fight
    against Satan’s schemes! 
    Second it is an honor to serve the Lord with sold-out disciples in Paris! The very next morning after the most violent terrorist attack on French soil since World War II, all the disciples went back into Paris to attend the Farewell Party of Anais Laurent. Some of her own friends did not come because of the restrictions and recommendations of not leaving their homes issued by the authorities. At our next Midweek, everybody shared that the conviction to evangelize has never been stronger!


    All over the world – from Sydney to DC – there
    is heartfelt support for the citizens of Paris!
    Pray for the other cities and nations
    threatened by terrorists!

    It is a paradoxical feeling, being honored and blessed to serve Paris as it is under attack. We feel more like the French Resistance during World War II within the enemy lines. It is over the news that other strikes will happen in Paris and Europe, yet all the brothers and sisters here know that Jesus is the only cause worthy dying for! We are fervently praying that God will use peoples’ fears from this Satanic event to turn many hearts to the love of Christ demonstrated on His cross! Famille jusqu’à la fin! Joe Willis – Austral-China World Sector Leader: Lord willing, the Hong Kong Church – the twelfth (and last) Crown of Thorns City – will be planted in 2017! However, since several of our Chinese students from Sydney are “home for the holidays,” the plans for the first Hong Kong Service are in place! The service will commence am on Sunday December 20th! Our venue will be the Lan Kwai Fong Hotel, 3 Kau U Fong, Central, Hong Kong. We will be speaking in English and translated into Mandarin!


    Calvin, Chi and Themis are eagerly awaiting their
    dream to become reality – a SoldOut Movement
    Service in Hong Kong!

    We already have 25 people committed to coming! We are asking disciples around the world to pray for this historic event and if you have relatives in the Hong Kong area, please make every effort to have them attend! You can reach me at: josephshwillis@gmail.com.Chris Broom – North USA World Sector Leader: God has truly blessed our efforts in the USA North Quadrant as all four of our churches – New York City, Boston, Chicago and Syracuse – far exceeded our Thanksgiving Missions Contributions by giving well over 10X our weekly contribution! Of special note, to insure a victorious Missions Contribution the next day, the Chicago disciples went above and beyond the call by going out and “tagging” in a snowstorm on Saturday, November 21st!


    Nothing stops the forceful advancement
    of sold-out disciples of Jesus!
    Matt Sullivan – South USA World Sector Leader: Exciting news about the Thanksgiving Missions Contribution from all five churches in the South USA World Sector! The four that had their Missions Contributions today all exceeded their 9X Goal – Orlando (101%), Washington DC (115%), Gainesville (125%) and Dallas-Ft. Worth (127%)! Houston will have their Missions Contribution this coming Sunday and they are already %! Oh yes… Adrian Jimenez & Kacie Fligor are engaged!


    Congratulations to Adrian & Kacie!

    Blaise Feumba – Overseeing Evangelist of French-speaking Africa: After counting the cost with the Korezouzoua (Ivory Coast) Remnant Group, 61 disciples became the founding members of the Korezouzoua International Christian Church! At their Inaugural Service three weeks ago, God blessed these 61 disciples with 180 in attendance and 3 baptisms! Then last Sunday, they in attendance and 3 more baptisms! We now have 70 disciples in Korezouzoua which is about a five hour drive north of Abidjan!

    Lola Lof and the Korezouzoua ICC!
    Raja Rajan – Lead Evangelist of Chennai: Pray for the Chennai disciples as our entire city has been paralyzed by heavy rains for the past 17 days! So much so that flights have been diverted from the Chennai Airport, business offices closed, and a holiday has been declared for schools and colleges!

    The flooding in Chennai 1/3 mile (600 meters)
    from the Rajans’ home!
    However, God blessed Parthiban – our Campus Leader – to baptize his mother and sister! His mother Mariyammal was very sick and the doctors could not diagnose the problem. With great difficulty, he brought his mother to church and his sister came along! The Chennai Sisters immediately started studying the Bible with Mariyammal, who desperately wanted to come into the light! Seeing her mother’s eagerness, Maheshwari – Parthiban’s sister – also studied the Bible and both were baptized!

    Parthiban embracing his mother and sister
    after their baptisms!
    Here is a two minute video of the devastating flooding in Chennai! (https://youtu.be/7b82wN5Tob0)
    Raul Moreno – Central and South America World Sector Leader: Greetings my dear brothers and sisters from Latin America! We are working hard to honor God by evangelizing this part of the world! Of note, the Santiago (Chile) Church has been on fire as God has given them 11 additions in the last 3 weeks – 10 baptisms and 1 restoration! God is good!

    The entire Santiago Campus Ministry was
    fired-up by Romina’s baptism!

    Also in Mexico City, we had an amazing Women’s Day yesterday as we had over three visitors for every one Christian! There was close to 100 women at this event which included women from the Cancun ICOC and the Guadalajara ICOC! Lucy Mejia preached the keynote message, LIBRE SOY! Carlos Mejia reports that the fellowship was on fire!

    Lucy Mejia radiates joy as she passionately
    preaches the Word!
    HEADLINE NEWS
    An Around The World Missionary Trip    Kip McKean: In , after the Lord had told Moses that He was pleased with Moses, Moses boldly said, “Show me your glory!” This is what God did for all of us at this year’s European Missions Conference simply entitled, GLORY!

    The 2015 EMC – GLORY!
    The program began on Thursday morning, November 5th with the Church Builders Workshop! Blaise Feumba woke us up with the sermon TO GOD BE THE GLORY, and then Argo Arneson preached powerfully on PROCLAIMING GOD’S GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS!


    Dynamic preachers of the Word – Blaise
    Feumba (above) and Argo Arneson!


    Then came the very practical section, BUILDING THE CHURCH THROUGH BIBLE TALKS. This began with a hilarious short film about how to and how not to do Bible Talks! Several gave short charges but the one that touched everyone’s heart was by Cassidy Olmos, ELEVATING WOMEN THROUGH BIBLE TALKS!

    Anthony & Cassidy Olmos have added so
    much to the London Church Family in
    just a few months!

    Following this spiritual feast was the Speakers Luncheon at a nearby very tasty Indian Restaurant!


    At the Speakers Luncheon, Kaspar asks Ashley
    for her hand in marriage! She says yes!


    The remainder of the afternoon was off providing time for deep fellowship talks – the kind that change lives! The First General Session was that evening! After a rousing video, we heard the message, THE GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS THE WHOLE EARTH! On Friday morning, we had the MERCY Presentation by Nick Bordieri and Michael Ochwa. So touching was Nick presenting Michael with his ICCM diploma since he could not attend the GLC! Though Michael has a Master’s Degree from a prestigious college, he cried as he spoke about how much it meant to him to have an ICCM Degree in Ministry and Charity Services!


    MERCY Day at the European
    Missions Conference!
    Michael Ochwa is overcome with emotion upon
    being awarded an ICCM Degree in
    Ministry and Charity Services!


    Following, Carlos Mejia and Anthony Olmos both blew out their messages! Then Jeremy Ciaramella gave a message that every disciple needs to hear, THE HIDDEN FIELD OF GLORY! Jeremy addressed the evils of the internet as well as the tremendous ways that souls are being won – by baptism and restoration – regularly through Facebook and other internet opportunities! In particular, Jeremy shared the inspirational account of Yuri Zykov of London who joined a “meet-up” group that was a Bible Study interest group in his area on social media. The person who founded the group “left it” and then the “meet up” group (composed now of 117 individuals) voted Yuri in charge! When they set up “meetings” in meet-up, Yuri showed up and those “interested” would show up as well and two have already been baptized from this internet Bible Talk! 

    Jeremy Ciaramella spoke with deep conviction
    about evangelizing the “Invisible Continent” –
    the worldwide web!

    Friday night, Oleg delivered a riveting message on THIS IS TO MY FATHER’S GLORY!

    Oleg Sirotkin of Moscow inspires all at the EMC
    that we will evangelize the world
    in THIS generation!
    Following was a sensational Concert emceed by the gifted Paul Busari! Then came the PURE Dance!


    Simon Oxton!
    Kia and the Popettes!
    Jeanette Yeboah!


    The London Boys!


    Saturday morning was filled with highlights! Of special note were the Kingdom Appointments of the Kukoyis and Vermaats to join Michael & Maria Hart as Shepherding Couples for the London Church! Then came the heartwarming appointment of Yomi Bello to be an Evangelist in the Kingdom of God by Michael Williamson!

    Michael & Michele appoint the Kukoyis and Vermaats
    as Shepherding Couples for the London Church!
    Michael appoints his beloved son in the faith
    Yomi to be an Evangelist in the
    Kingdom of God!

    After a short fellowship break, Chris McGrath – who earlier in his life in the ICOC planted Sydney, Australia and Dublin, Ireland, as well as preached in London – spoke on BRINGING BACK THE GLORY! There was not a dry eye in the conference as Chris closed out his message playing on the guitar and singing the Irish ballad, The Streets Of London!

    To close his powerful lesson, Chris McGrath
    sings an Irish ballad about London!

    Then we broke into MEN’S and WOMEN’S PROGRAMS which covered the FIVE CORE CONVICTIONS OF THE SOLDOUT MOVEMENT. The speakers for the men were: Blaise Feumba of LA, Jeremy Ciaramella of Phoenix, Anthony Olmos of London, Kaspar Tambaur of Stockholm, Philippe Scheidecker of Paris, and Yomi Bello – soon to be in Lagos, Nigeria!

    Blaise preaching at the MEN’S PROGRAM!
    The women speakers were: Elena McKean of LA, Michele Williamson of London, Lucy Mejia of Mexico City, Anu Arneson of Stockholm, Rebecca Rico of LA, Prisca Scheidecker of Paris, and Elena Sirotkin of Moscow!


    Michele grabs the sisters hearts as she speaks
    about A GREATER GLORY!
    The spiritual and charismatic teachers for
    the WOMEN’S PROGRAM!

    In the afternoon was the epic ENGLAND verses THE WORLD FOOTBALL MATCH! This year, England won and regained the trophy lost last year!

    Sunday morning we met in a different and gorgeous place – The British Medical Association! The singing was “off the charts!”


    Paul Busari reclaims the Championship
    Football Trophy for England!
    We then witnessed three restorations! The one that moved me the most was Anup Shayka as he was a Buddhist monk who is a direct descendant of Buddha. His life was threatened several times in coming back to the Lord!

    Under the threat of death, Anup humbly
    returns to the Lord!

    The newly married Erik & Michelle af Klint of Stockholm presided over Communion and Jacques & Jeanette Groenewald stirred our hearts about Contribution as they have given up everything to move back to their homeland of South Africa to initiate the Johannesburg Remnant Group!


    Erik & Michelle af Klint share a
    moving communion!


    Then Michael Williamson gave the message, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY! A fantastic message in the midst of overseeing the entire Missions Conference!

    Michael Williamson’s lesson – SHOW ME YOUR
    GLORY – should be the prayer
    of every disciple!

    There were three baptisms – all glorious! Yet Carlos Vargas baptizing his at one time estranged daughter Carla was awesome! Now they are totally united as brother and sister in the Lord!


    Carla is joyfully baptized by
    her father Carlos!

    In closing, we had the send-off prayer for the Johannesburg Remnant Group Mission Team and a flag ceremony where all the nations on the European Crown of Thorns were represented!


    Jacques & Jeanette – South African Nationals – will
    lead the Johannesburg Remnant Group!
    The three London Shepherds pray over
    the Johannesburg Mission Team!
    The Flag Ceremony gave vision that we will
    reach all the European Nations!

    Truly, Michael & Michele Williamson and the entire London Church allowed all of us visiting to see God’s glory among the European nations!

    So much prayer and planning were put
    into the glorious EMC!
    Bonds of friendship were forged during
    this life-changing conference!
    The five Remnant Disciples from Amsterdam are
    dreaming to plant this great city in 2017!
    After London, Elena & I were off to cold and snowy Moscow! Though we only spent five days in this beautiful modern day Rome, our time with the disciples was exceptional! On Friday evening, we gathered the Bible Talk Leaders and therefore were expecting about 20 to 25 in attendance. Instead over 60 fired-up disciples packed the little room and they received the message of DEEP CONVICTIONS with great joy!

    At the beginning of the Bible Talk Leaders Meeting,
    Artiem asks Sasha to be his girlfriend!
    She said, “Da!”

    Dima, Masha, Anya and Fabrice share a
    common vision for a future
    ICCM-Moscow!
    Saturday was packed with times with key disciples! That evening, the Sirotkin Family “treated” us to the Moscow Circus! What an incredible joy to spend time with the Sirotkin’s daughters – Sofia and Lidia – who have made the difficult transition from LA to Moscow very smoothly and spiritually!


    Elena so enjoyed her time at the Moscow Circus
    with her spiritual granddaughters –
    Sofia and Lidia Sirotkina!


    Sunday, the snow came! Yet the now 90 Moscow disciples (and 10 from the Kiev Church) saw God bring 207 in attendance! It was a special Lord’s Day which was called Prodigal Son Sunday!

    The Prodigal Son Website Banner!
    Elena walking briskly to church!

    The warm fellowship of the Moscow ICC!
    So many fallen away disciples came as well as many non-Christians! For Communion, Elena & I shared a Good News Report from around the world centered on , “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the FAMILY OF BELIEVERS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

    The McKeans shared good news from
    around the world for communion!
    For the message, seemed the most appropriate! Interestingly, the invitation had a hedgehog on the front! I found out that The Hedgehog In The Fog is one of the most well-known and award-winning Russian short films. It’s all about a hedgehog who goes to see his friend the bear cub but he gets lost in the fog! So appropriate for the day! With The Hedgehog In The Fog story woven into the sermon entitled CELEBRATION, many easily saw that they were in a spiritual fog and needed to find their way home!

    Oleg’s translating of Kip was not only word
    for word, but gesture for gesture!

    (You can view The Hedgehog In The Fog at https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=hedgehog+in+the+fog&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003)Amazingly, the Moscow Church Inaugural Service was on February 1, 2015. Since that historic Sunday of 227 in attendance, God has blessed the 51 member Moscow ICC (17 on the Mission Team and the 34 in the Remnant Group) with 59 additions: 34 baptisms, 20 restorations and 5 place memberships!


    Oleg & Elena Sirotkin – the Moscow ICC
    Leaders and the World Sector Leaders
    for Russian-speaking Eurasia!
    After a short night’s rest, we went on a flying adventure as it took us nearly 40 hours of three flights and long layovers to fly to Manila because of strikes and the APEK Meeting in Manila, which meant hour “no fly zone” in Manila! Again our time was relatively short – less than four days! On Thursday morning, we met at the Bartholomew’s apartment for Staff!

    Staff Meeting at the Bartholomews’ apartment!
    Certainly, the Manila disciples were on fire on the Friday evening that we met! Early on in the service Cathy Manresa was reinstated as a Women’s Ministry Leader! 


    Cathy Manresa is reinstated by Joan to be
    a Women’s Ministry Leader in
    God’s Movement!

    After a short fellowship break, the Manila Disciples fully embraced all of the challenges in the lesson, FOOLS FOR CHRIST!  

    Kip & Elena love the Philippines as they
    have joyfully labored there since 1989!
    One of the countless highlights of our visit was studying with Hong Meng who flew in from Singapore to be restored! This humble brother is truly ready to once again “do anything, go anywhere and give up everything” for the Lord and His movement! The Spirit has now gathered a small group of disciples that will most likely form the Singapore Remnant Group in June after the Austral-Pacific Rim Missions Conference!

    Ronnie, Carol and our newly restored brother
    Hong Meng will form the core of the
    Singapore Remnant Group!

    On the Sunday morning that we boarded our flight home to LA, the Manila Church saw four more baptized into Christ and Hong Meng restored!


    After Julius (right) is baptized, he baptizes
    his friend     Juaner!


    The Manila ICC in the Remnant Group and just 9 on the Mission Team from LA at the Manila Inaugural Service. So in the a little over five months since that service, the Lord has added an astounding 89 souls to their number – 66 baptisms, 15 restorations and 8 amazing place memberships all directly from our former fellowship as they were seeking revival!

    The Bartholomews – Kyle, Joan, Brett, Connor and
    Bree – treat the McKeans for their last night in
    the Philippines to Buffalo Wild Wings!

    Spying Out The Land In Lagos

    Andrew Smellie – World Sector Leader of Africa: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” () Greetings from Lagos, Nigeria! It was truly a privilege to visit this incredible country in West Africa from October 31st to November 10th! I am so grateful to report that God is moving in strengthening and multiplying the  disciples across the continent of Africa!


    At the heart of the vast continent
    of Africa is Nigeria!

    Thank you for your love to God expressed in your Missions Contributions which have allowed me to visit South Africa in March, Cote D’Ivoire in June for the First African Missions Conference, and Nigeria in November! God willing, Blaise Feumba and I will fly out early next year to the Democratic Republic of Congo in February 2016 to count the count with the 350 member Kinshasa Remnant Group! Pray for these incredible brothers and sisters as they are scheduled to have their Inaugural Service as a “church planting” in March 2016!    Remarkably, Nigeria is the third largest English-speaking nation in the world after India and the United States, as well as the eighth most populous nation in the world – over 180 million people and growing! I was also surprised to discover that Nigeria is also home to the third largest movie industry after “Bollywood” (India) and “Hollywood” (USA)! It is known as “Nollywood!” Upon my arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on Saturday, October 31st, I was greeted warmly by Goodhope Atason, the former Mainline Church of Christ preacher who has joined our new movement, and two of his younger brothers who have also left the Mainline Church of Christ – Bobby (a movie director), and Lordson who “was” training to become a preacher in the Mainline Church of Christ!

    Lordson, Andrew, Goodhope and Bobby!

    That night we had dinner together at my hotel where I was exposed to authentic Nigerian food for the first time! I had a very flavorful goat stew with rice! I didn’t realize that they used ALL the parts of the goat in the stew, but it was incredible! I also invited to our dinner one of the “stranded” London disciples who had been in Nigeria since 2013 – Akin Idowu!

    The view from the Eko Hotel
    where Andrew stayed!
    Akin (right) with Andrew and
    the Atason Brothers!

    Akin had become a disciple in London while visiting there for schooling, but when his visa had expired he was forced to return to Nigeria. Please pray for him and his family as they prepare to move to Lagos from Abuja – Nigeria’s capital – to be with the church!    On Sunday, I was able to travel to Lekki – a suburb on Lagos Island! Here we had our first official Lagos Remnant Group Church Service in the apartment of Goodhope & Bonita Atason! In attendance were Goodhope, his wife Bonita, their four year old daughter Anita, Goodhope’s brothers – Bobby and Lordson, as well as Akin, Chuks (Goodhope’s friend), and Jane (the Atasons’ nanny)!

    The first Lagos Remnant Group
    Worship Service!

    I preached Kip’s lesson on THE DREAM as we were inspired to see God’s plan to evangelize the world in THIS generation! It was truly convicting to notice that Nigeria, while being one of the most religious countries on the planet, was also one of the most corrupt! Truly the Gospel is needed to unite the hearts of many who are seeking the truth! I was personally moved by the joy of Anita, as she reminded me so much of my own four year old daughter, Naomi!

    Andrew and his spiritual niece –
    Anita Atason!

    The environment of the Atason’s home reminded me of the sacrifice they have made for the sake of joining God’s new movement. Goodhope is a trained IT (Informational Technology) professional and Bonita is an accountant, yet due to the persecution from the Mainline Church of Christ for standing up for Biblical doctrines, Goodhope was forced to resign from both his position as an associate minister and his IT position, due to the fact that one of the elders in his former congregation was also the chairman of the IT company where Goodhope was employed! Despite our movement’s best efforts to help support him financially, his living situation is radically different than before, and Bonita now has to leave the house at 4AM to be able to make it into work by 8AM, yet they are both grateful to join God’s new movement!


    The Goodhope Atason Family’s sacrifice is clear:
    Above is Goodhope’s former home; below is
    Anita beside their present
    residence!


    On Monday and Tuesday, we were able to check out pre-schools for Naomi and Isaiah as well as visit the University of Lagos!

    The beautiful campus of the University of Lagos!

    We also met with an attorney to get our church registered in Nigeria! On Wednesday, we were able to check out locations for our Inaugural Service. Pray for us to nail down the Eko Hotel on Victoria Island! (“Eko” means Lagos in the Yoruba language!)    On Thursday, Goodhope and I were able to take a short plane flight to visit his father and our dear friend Benedict in Umuahia, a city east of Lagos in Abia State. (Nigeria states!) In Umuahia, I was able to meet Benedict’s wife Felicia and his other two children – Queenette, who is preparing to go to Law School, and Princewill, who is in high school!

    Benedict’s (right) family in Umuahia – Goodhope,
    Queenette, Princewill and his wife Felicia!

    Once again, it was extraordinary to see the sacrifice of a man who was well-known throughout the Mainline Church of Christ community, yet sacrificed his job and support to join God’s new movement! Despite the challenges (inconsistent electricity without a generator, no government benefits like Social Security or Medicare, and no car for transportation), Benedict continues to preach the Word boldly! He actually PAYS for the transportation of his visitors to make it out to his Bible Talk! On Thursday, there were 30 people in attendance at the Bible Talk at his home!

    Benedict’s Bible Talk in attendance!

    After returning from Umuahia on Friday, we stayed at the airport to greet our dear sister Damilola Arulogan, another “stranded” London disciple who was presently living in Abuja! Despite persecution from her family, Damilola has been valiantly worshipping with the London Church on Skype since she was forced to return to Nigeria due to an expired visa in May of this year! Thankfully, she finished all her studies to graduate from the University of East London, yet due to her visa expiration will be unable to attend her graduation ceremonies. I was happy to sponsor her flight from Abuja so she could join our fellowship in Lagos for the weekend, and she shared powerfully on Sunday for contribution about the impact that the movement’s sacrifice has made in her life since becoming a disciple!

    Sunday at the Lagos ICC! Damilola (third from the
    left) gave her heart during the contribution!

    On my return home, the dream of seeing not only Lagos, but all of Africa evangelized for the Lord is truly on my heart!

    Andrew is greeted at LAX by his precious family –
    both physical and spiritual!


    Please pray for us as God is working powerfully to gather the remnant in Nigeria! As I prepared to write this message to you, I was connected – through a disciple in our Manila Church (May Kalalang) – with a former ICOC Evangelist in Nigeria – Bolaji Akinfenwa – who is eager to join God’s new movement! Truly, God is saying to us, “The time to plant Lagos is NOW!” Please pray for our Inaugural Service on April 24, 2016! And to God be all the glory!    2016 MISSIONS CONFERENCES NEWSThe Latin America Missions Conference will be held in Mexico City on February 11-14, 2016. The theme is LA GRAND COMISION. It will be held at the Hilton Mexico City Reforma. Lord willing, the Bogota (Colombia) Mission Team will be sent off that Sunday! Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-latin-american-missions-conferencela-gran-comision-tickets-18183388003. Carlos Mejia (cmejia7@gmail.com) is the Director.


    The Latin American Missions Conference –
    LA GRAN COMISION!

     The Brazil Missions Conference will be held in Sao Paulo on February 19-21, 2016. Raul Moreno (raul.moreno@usd21.org) is the Director.

    The African Mission Conference will be held in Lagos on April 23-24, 2016. It will be held in conjunction with the Lagos ICC Inaugural Service that Sunday! Andrew Smellie (andrew@usd21.org) is the Director.

    The Eurasian Missions Conference will be held in Moscow on April 28 – May 1, 2016. Oleg Sirotkin (oleg.sirotkin@mac.com) will serve as the Director.

    The Austral-Pacific Rim Missions Conference will be held in Manila on , 2016. Since some neighborhoods of Manila are “third world,” MERCY Day on th will provide some very special opportunities for MERCY Ambassadors to serve! Kyle Bartholomew (kbartholomew1981@gmail.com) is the Director.


    Kyle, Joan and the entire Metro Manila Church look
    forward to hosting the First Austral-Pacific
    Rim Missions Conference in !
    The Global Leadership Conference will be held in Los Angeles on July 31 – August 2, 2016. Lord willing, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) – the Eleventh Crown of Thorns Church Planting – will be sent out on that Sunday! Tim Kernan (tim@usd21.org) will once again serve as the Director.

    The European Missions Conference will be held in London on October 27-30, 2016. Michael Williamson (tyronee70@hotmail.com) will continue as the Director.The South Asian Missions Conference will be held in Chennai (India) on November 4-6, 2016. Lord willing, the Bangalore (India) Mission Team will be sent out that Sunday! Raja Rajan (soulwarrior@rocketmail.com) will serve as the Director.

    Raja & Debs Rajan are so looking forward to the
    South Asian Missions Conference
    in Chennai in November 2016!

    FAMILY NEWS

    Paris, France: Sandra Vignault was happily married to Kevin Toto on October 31, 2015! Disciples came from London and LA to support this amazing couple on their special day!

    Congratulations to Kevin & Sandra Toto! Sandra
    is wearing a Congolese Traditional Dress!
    This was her smile all day long!
    New York, New York: Truly “love is in the air” in the “Big Apple” as on Saturday, November 21st, we gathered for the first of three weddings scheduled to take place before the end of the year! Viral Naresh Seth grew up in India and Ashley Corgelas in Haiti, but then both of their families decided to move to the United States when they were teenagers. As God planned it, both Viral and Ashley ended up in New York City for college! () It was there that they were baptized as disciples of Jesus Christ and then, while in a Bible Talk together at the City College of New York, they began to share their faith together and fell in love! What a story! It was truly a “magical moment!”

    Congratulations to Viral & Ashley Seth!

    Chicago, Illinois: Polo & Isabel Saravia were married on Sunday November 15, 2015! They were living together and after studying the Bible and seeing God’s plan for purity, Polo moved out! Once they were both baptized, they started doing pre-marital counseling and a few weeks later, they were married God’s way! Their children Julio and Mareli are so thrilled about not only their parent’s wedding but their new church family!

    Congratulations to Polo, Isabel,
    Mareli and Julio Saravia!

    LOCAL LA NEWS

    Tim Kernan – World Sector Leader of Western USA, Canada and India: Greetings from the palm tree lined streets of sunny Los Angeles, California! “The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly!‎” ()

    First and foremost, I would love to share with you all the excitement and joy felt across the whole City of Angels ‎Church last Sunday as we blew away our 9X Thanksgiving Special Collect Goal! ‎With a target of $284,000, the whole church generously gave $330,651 – 116% of our goal! Disciples in every region celebrated that God had used them in such a powerful way! I will personally never forget the Friday before this special collect. As I was driving, Lianne my wife made our last contribution “to Special” as a family over PayPal. She then joyfully gave me a high five and exclaimed, “We made it babe! Our Special is all in!” My eyes filled with tears as I realized for the millionth time what a lucky man I am to have a wife who shares my passion for God and His mission! ‎Thank you again to all the amazing disciples, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters for your incredible sacrifice!


    The generosity of the USA Disciples – in this
    9X Missions Contribution – will allow us to
    plant the Eleventh Crown of Thorns
    Church – Dubai – in 2016!

    Also, it was amazing to ‎have our new ICCM Interns joining the Bachelor Program of ICCM-LA! Our second class of the Fall Semester was dedicated to Jesus’ Principle Of Small Groups – Bible Talks! Let me tell you this next generation of leaders gobbled-up voraciously the Scriptures throughout the whole Bible on this principle! ‎Teaching at ICCM-LA and having the privilege to train this amazing group of budding leaders is one of the greatest honors for all of us on the Faculty and Staff! It is so invigorating to put into practice, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

    ICCM-LA!

    Of special note for all of us here in LA is that our dear sister Wazirah Yamin, Cory Blackwell’s mom, has officially place membership in the City of Angels Church!!! Kip and Cory studied with her! Wazirah is now putting all of her incredible wisdom and experience into evangelizing the world in THIS generation next to her incredible son Cory and the rest of us here in LA! 


    Wazirah – though blind – sees the truth and
    places membership in the City of
    Angels Church!
    Cory welcomes his mom and the others who
    placed membership by leading, We Love
    You With The Love Of The Lord!


    Cory’s two Moms – Wazirah and Elena,
    his spiritual Mom!


    Every baptism is special, however once in a while you hear a story that is really touching… Helen, who was baptized last Sunday in the Pasadena City College Ministry of the Central Region, is just such a baptism! Helen was baptized on her mother Korina’s physical birthday, a godly gift that moved her so much that Korina in turn was baptized today at our amazing AMS Region! It’s incredible what God is doing to unify families! 


    Helen is baptized last Sunday (above), then
    baptizes her mom Korina this Sunday!

    As well, the Central Region had another terrific week as Mark & Keri Garrido spearheaded God giving them five additions in the last six days – 4 baptisms and 1 restoration!Finally Lianne & I are so grateful to have our parents in the faith, Kip & Elena back in LA, safe and sound, after a vigorous missionary journey around the world! “One who is taught the Word must share all good things with the one who teaches.” () Everyone here in LA cannot wait to wrap our arms around the McKeans tomorrow morning at Staff and show them how much we missed them! ‎To God be the glory!

    Dear Brothers and Sisters: For those disciples in the United States, this Thursday is Thanksgiving Day! Most Americans consider that the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims in the Autumn of 1621. From firsthand accounts, this feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were so thankful that the Native Americans had not only taught them to grow corn but how to live off the land (and even to eat eel) when their supplies had dwindled to nothing. Much later in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln – in the midst of the heartbreaking American Civil War – proclaimed a “National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our Beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November!


    The first American Thanksgiving in 1621!

    Yet all disciples of any nation cannot help but remembering the stirring account of the 10 Lepers, when only one – “and he was a Samaritan” – returned to thank Jesus for healing him of this dreaded disease! () So let us all be like the Samaritan with our hearts full of thankfulness to God for “healing our lives” and giving us so many blessings – our physical families, our Bible Talks, and our church family both locally and around the world! As for Rebecca, Elena and me, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because… of your love for all the saints… All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth!” ()
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip

  • Good News Email – October 26, 2015

    Good News Email – October 26, 2015

    Greetings from Los Angeles! Our prayers have been answered! Andrew Smellie – the World Sector Leader for Africa – just received a two year, multiple entry visa to Nigeria! Lord willing, Andrew will leave LA for Lagos to “spy out the land” on November 2nd and return November 11th!


    Andrew is returning to his beloved Africa in early November to lay the groundwork for the planting of the Lagos International Christian Church!

    In this endeavor, he will be nobly assisted by Goodhope Atason, the Mainline Church of Christ preacher that joined God’s new movement in September, as Goodhope leads the Lagos Remnant Group! Therefore, given the “Nigerian Call” by Benedict Atason (Goodhope’s father and also a new member of the SoldOut Movement), the fact that Lagos’ population of 21 million is the largest city on that great continent, and the incredible number of Nigerian nationals in the movement, the decision has been made for the Crown of Thorns Church in Africa to change from Johannesburg, South Africa to Lagos, Nigeria! Lord willing, Andrew & Patrique Smellie will plant Lagos in April 2016!


    Through the Holy Spirit, Benedict (left) issues the
    “Nigerian Call” and Andrew gladly answers!

    BREAKING NEWS

    Seattle, Washington: “The Word of God continued to increase [numerically] and spread [geographically]!” (Acts 12:24) God is leading His movement to more and more USA cities! On Sunday, October 25th, the announcement was made that the Seattle Mission Team will leave from LA at the same service that the Lagos Mission Team will be sent out – April 3, 2016! Joel & Courtney Parlour of Syracuse feel very honored to lead this momentous planting!


    Joel & Courtney Parlour are very excited to lead
    the Seattle Mission Team as Courtney’s
    family lives in the Seattle Area!

    The team will be composed of disciples from Syracuse, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco and LA! Praise God that the Spirit is raising up Anthony & Maria Franklin to take up the Parlours’ mantle and lead “the little church that could… and did” – the Syracuse International Christian Church!

    According to Wikipedia, “Seattle is the largest city in… the Pacific Northwest Region of North America, and, as of July 2013, is the fastest-growing major city in the United States! The Seattle Metropolitan Area of around 3.6 million inhabitants… includes Tacoma and Olympia!” As well, Vancouver, Canada – a metro area of another three million – is only 120 miles to the north, and Portland, Oregon – birthplace of the SoldOut Movement – is only 150 miles to the south!

    Since Seattle is only a three hour drive from Portland
    and five hours from Eugene, these congregations
    are particularly inspired to plant the largest
    city in the Northwest!

    Interestingly, one of the nicknames for Seattle is the Emerald City! And indeed Lord willing at the planting in April 2016, this “somewhere over the rainbow” place is where “skies are blue, and the dreams that [disciples] dare to dream really do come true!” No longer will the lost be “sleepless in Seattle,” but the gospel of peace, hope and love will be preached!

    Courtney readies her son Brinton for their
    upcoming move by gearing him up in a
    Seattle Seahawks uniform!

    Jacob Beas of Sacramento: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I PRESS ON to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12) Greetings from the newly planted Sacramento City International Christian Church! Though our Inaugural Service was September 13, 2015, God has already blessed our “baby planting” with three baptisms and two restorations!


    Jacob & Courtney Beas – the Sacramento City
    Church Leaders – are doing a great job
    teaching their daughter Jezelle
    to hate sin!

    Of note, we just finished our two week campaign entitled, PRESS ON! God really blessed the faith and hard work of the Sacramento State Campus Ministry as we had the largest Bible Talk on our last week of the campaign with 21 visitors! Also even more exciting that week, we had our first campus student baptized! Our new brother Jazz is a Computer Engineering student and a member of Alpha Pi Alpha Fraternity! Great things are happening in the capital of California! Please keep us in your prayers!


    Jacob and Tyler warmly embrace and
    welcome Jazz into the Kingdom!

    HEADLINE NEWS – Campus Ministry

    Kyle Bartholomew of the Philippines: Greetings from the Metro Manila International Christian Church! Upon the mission team’s arrival, we decided to begin focusing on three main campus areas. 1) NORTH: The University of the Philippines and Ateneo led by Zach Shields & Ariel Butler. These are arguably two of the top three universities in the Philippines! 2) WEST: The Manila Campuses led by John & Anna Malnegro. This area consists of a large collection of universities, namely La Salle University which is considered the other of the top three universities in the Philippines! 3) CENTRAL: The Makati/Mandaluyong Area currently led by Jason Alejandro and Rose Sabrino. This area also holds a number of great universities such as RTU and University of Makati!


    Zach & Ariel will be married December 5th!

    Since our Inaugural Service on June 7, 2015, God has grown our campus ministries from just four disciples to an incredible 39 sold-out disciples! So miraculous is that the UP Campus Ministry has grown from zero to 11, the Central Campus Ministry has grown from zero to eight, and our fastest growing campus ministry in Manila has grown from just four disciples to an amazing 20 disciples in just five short months!!! This past Sunday was another astounding example of the incredible harvest of young people that are coming to God, as Reymer, Ralph, and Phillip were all baptized into Christ!


    John & Anna have been so fruitful in leading the
    Manila Campuses even though they are
    blessed with three children and
    Anna works a full time job!

    Reymer was a religious young man who is also a tremendous student athlete at the RTU Campus Ministry! He is the champion in the martial art sport of Arnis at RTU! After watching a young disciple named Clieford share his faith daily at the RTU Campus, Reymer approached Clieford and asked if he could be a part of his church as Reymer was amazed at Clieford’s personal example! After a few weeks of studying the Bible, Reymer made the decision to put God first in his life and was baptized into Christ!


    After his baptism, Reymer is pursuing “a
    crown that will last forever!”

    Ralph, a soccer player at RTU, had studied the Bible a few times but was deceived by Satan to still feel confident in his relationship with God. Yet after studying Discipleship on Friday before Campus Devotional, Ralph was stunned as he realized he was not a true disciple and wanted to get baptized as soon as possible! He studied all day Saturday, and after giving up everything was baptized into Christ on Sunday!


    Ralph (left) is fired up after the Cross Study with
    Clieford (center) and Jason!


    Ralph (center) and Reymer (right) are bapitzed
    through the efforts of Jason (left) and the
    great RTU Bible Talk!

    Lastly, Phillip who graduated from Ateneo-Davao and is currently a master’s student at the University of Philippines was baptized into Christ! Very exciting is that Phillip’s baptism opens an incredible door at the University of Ateneo! Although currently a UP student, he lives in Ateneo’s dormitory! This is a very private university and one we have been praying to get onto! We are praying that as the Phillip of the Bible took the gospel to all of Samaria, the Phillip of the Philippines can take the gospel to all of Ateneo!


    John Malnegro and Gina dela Pena on
    the beautiful campus of Ateneo!

    Please keep us in your prayers, as “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few!” (Matthew 9:37)

    Joe Willis of Sydney, Australia: G’day Family! “Clap your hands, ALL YOU NATIONS; shout to God with cries of joy.” (Psalm 47:1) It brings us such joy to be able to share with you all the incredible things God is doing through our campus students! There is definitely an emphasis on students here in Sydney, as 19 out of our 35 disciples in the congregation are studying either full or part time!


    The fun-loving Sydney Campus Ministry!

    We are on four of the five main universities in Sydney, with a Bible Talk on the fifth! As well, we are at three other colleges! God is amazing as we have been able to see so many miracles through our student outreach!

    Andrew is an incredibly gifted Aussie, who was baptized this past year, and studies Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious Sydney University! Andrew is extremely excited to have our brother Brian from Santa Barbara join him on campus as Brian starts his Psychology studies at the beginning of the new year! Lord willing, there will be a new Bible Talk here starting in January!

    Our largest campus ministry is on Macquarie University, which is led by our dating couple Sean & Teigan! We have five full time students! We playfully (and joyfully) call it the “Chinese Ministry” as Sean & Teigan are the only two that aren’t Chinese! Although this is true, God has been able to use them powerfully to baptize Calvin, Dean “The Machine” (who also leads a Bible Talk on campus), Jeremy and Maggie – all Chinese young people! Despite the culture challenges coming to Australia from China, these dynamic students have grown an amazing amount in such a short time and have really taken up the calling to go back to Hong Kong when God calls them!


    Shaun photobombs Sean & Teigan – the
    Macquarie University Campus Leaders!

    Recently, God has allowed us to start a new Bible Talk at the University of New South Whales (UNSW)! This is led by Chi Leong, who just moved from our fellowship in Chicago and Jenna Loheed, who recently started interning for the church. These two have been on campus every day, and God has definitely blessed their efforts with fruit in the first three weeks! Here Chi met and baptized our new brother, Cain – who is from Taiwan! And it doesn’t stop there as we also have two beautifully bright Aussie women, Chidera, originally from Nigeria, and Leslie who’s family is from Ghana, at Western Sydney University, and are both studying nursing and have amazing hearts for God.

    Additionally, studying part time at colleges are, Erick, Sean, Jade, Merari, Pete – our missionaries, as well as Keiko and Themis! Also, we have been able to see God work not only on campus but in schools! Edward and Vatherine, two young and zealous students from China, were baptized just a day apart and are excited to welcome their friend and another young student, Z, who was baptized just this Saturday morning!


    After Z’s (second from the left) glorious baptism, Sean,
    Edward – a sixteen year old high school student, and
    Dean “The Baptizing Machine” rejoice
    with the angels!

    What seems impossible is always possible with God! Thank you for all your love and support and please continue to pray for us here in Sydney! We love you with the love of the Lord!

    Mike Patterson of Gainesville, Florida: “I looked and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.” (Revelation 6:2) In the apocalyptic vision, some believe that God shows John the Apostle the white (for purity) horse and its rider “bent on conquest” which is to bring the purity of the gospel to the ends of the earth! In the city of Gainesville, 57% of the population is made up of college students! That means that out of five people you share your faith with in this city, about three will be college students! A powerful campus ministry in this city is an absolute necessity!


    The inspirational Gainesville International Christian Church!

    The University of Florida (UF) is one of the most internationally perse colleges in the States and has been called the “Public Ivy League” of the South! With nine baptisms and one restoration in the church since August, the disciples have been “bent on conquest” to evangelize the world, realizing through campus ministry it can be done from the UF! God has given us a campus ministry of 24 enrolled UF students and 11 enrolled at Santa Fe College – ranked the # 1 community college in the USA this year! Collectively, we have begun studying world missions at our last Campus Devotional. I announced how each “LIFE Group” (Bible Talk) will be assigned a nation of their choice or from the SoldOut Movement’s “Crown of Thorns Project” to study and prepare a presentation on how they would prepare to plant a church there if it was just them. We talked about the cost of moving, learning a new language, adapting to the culture, learning world religions, raising money (Special Missions which the GICC has raised over half for November!), persecution, imprisonment, and even death!


    Hannah, a UF student from Nigeria, was baptized
    and celebrates her newfound salvation!

    I then paralleled that to how we can begin training now here at the UF by breaking up the campus into five geographic zones. These zones are based on “Population Centers” where thousands of students hang out and study such as the Reitz Union and The Hub, as well as “Living Complexes” (dormitories and Fraternities/Sororities), and Campus Housing (surrounding apartment complexes filled with students). By being willing to uproot our housing and current LIFE Group locations, we will go to these new places which have more people to reach out to. I unleashed our “Campus Conquest Plan” to send “mission teams” of LIFE Groups to these untapped Population Centers! This plan will help us to reach opinion leaders on campus that can only be reached by going to where they are!

    As well, I challenged our campus ministry to pay the price of humiliation and rejection in reaching out to opinion leaders! In practical terms, this means being willing to move back into the dorms just to be around more students to evangelize, joining intramural sports teams to reach out to their members, and being willing to stay in Gainesville after graduation to help build the church!

    Excitingly as well, we have our first ever Women’s Day coming up this Saturday with the theme UNMASKED! Helen Sullivan of Orlando will be the keynote speaker!


    Pray for GICC’s first ever Women’s
    Day – UNMASKED!

    Already in our campus ministry, God has blessed us with three thriving All Women’s LIFE Groups: 1) The Lakeside Dorm at UF named “Christ Ambassadors,” 2) At Santa Fe College as “Birds of a Feather,” and 3) In one of the apartment complexes mixed with campus and singles which is named “Jewels for Jesus.”


    The “Jewels for Jesus” rejoice at the baptism of our
    new Cuban sister Natalie, an awesome
    Santa Fe student!

    Please pray for me in my Greek Class at the Extension Campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, as I am striving to fulfill my foreign language requirement for my ICCM Master’s Degree in Ministry so that we can bring the ICCM here to Gainesville! Glory be to God!


    Pray for Mike to complete his ICCM Master’s
    Degree so that he can establish
    ICCM-Gainesville!

    Coltin Rohn of Boston, Massachusetts: Greetings from Boston, the “Promise Land” of Campus Ministry! Truly from a campus ministry perspective there is no other city in the world quite like Boston! Being only about 90 square miles, Boston has a population of over 650,000 people, making it the fourth densest city in the USA! Amazingly Boston is home to 56 different colleges and universities! Boston is also home of the oldest University in America, Harvard founded in 1636! Boston University is our largest college with over 41,000 students while second is Northeastern with 37,000 students! Amazingly, out of 655,884 people living in Boston, 336,273 of them are students!!! Pray for us as God has given us such a great charge in campus ministry!

    Starting 2015 with only nine campus students, God has blessed us with 19 campus baptisms! We now currently have disciples enrolled at Berkeley College of Music, Boston College, Boston University, Fisher College, Northeastern, Mass Bay Boston, and the University Massachusetts – Boston! As well this year, the Spirit restored a very dear sister to many in the movement Bridgett Corban of Portland, Oregon! Of course it only took one campus retreat with Boston, NYC and Syracuse to help her see she should no longer “be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed!” (Romans 12:2) Thank you Joel Parlour, Chris Broom, Syracuse ICC and NYC ICC for making our Fall Retreat a time that we all could fall back in love with God and His family! This was one of the best retreats ever!


    Chris Broom preaching with all his heart
    at the Northeast Fall Campus Retreat!

    Another exciting addition is our Japanese brother Sanada Yuki! Yuki was very successful in Japan as a Computer Scientist. However, after a rough porce, Yuki decided to move to the States so he could study English at Boston University English School, hoping to fill the void in his heart. On the 26th day of being in the USA, Yuki – who was an atheist – was invited to Bible Talk! Though Yuki did not know what he was getting into, he came that very instant! On the 60th day in our country, Yuki was baptized as your brother in Christ!

    However, after completing his course at BU, the government would only allow him 60 days to stay in the USA unless he was enrolled in another university. So in order to extend his student visa, Yuki signed up for a two week class at Kaplan which bought 60 more days! We are praying and trying to extend Yuki’s stay again, but be assured, his deep conviction is to move only to countries where we have a SoldOut Discipling Church! Excitingly Yuki starts his new job on November 2nd again as a Computer Scientist, a job he can work from “home” anywhere in the world! And to God be the glory!


    After studying English for five months, Yuki boldly
    shares why he’s a disciple for communion
    from 2 Corinthians 5:14!

    Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo: We here in Brazil are very excited to see God’s dream of evangelizing the world in our generation become a reality! That said, evangelizing the world for us begins right here in Sao Paulo! With exactly 135 disciples in our congregation, we now have three regions that meet separately on Sunday! We have the East, West and South Regions! What is really exciting is that two out of our three regions are led by campus conversions from our University of Sao Paulo (USP) Campus Ministry!

    Our West Region is led by a dating couple – Danilo Bataglin & Carol Portico! Both are majoring in Civil and Environmental Engineering! Our South Region is led by Caio Costa who has a Masters in Physics, and turned down a scholarship to pursue his doctorate at Moscow State University in Russia to go into the full time ministry! Danilo & Carol are three years old in the Lord, and Caio is just two years old in the Lord! So now I better understand the importance of building the Campus Ministry! If we dare convert “five talent” disciples, in a few short years God gives us potential church leaders!


    Caio (left) and Marcus baptize Willy – an
    Engineering student at USP!

    Indeed, the Campus Ministry is the main fountain of leadership for the Movement of God! Some may ask, “Why focus so much on the Campus?” I believe there are six reasons: 1) Idealism of Youth. “Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.” (Psalm 110:3) It is usually young people that are idealists and want to change the world! That is one reason that we need to convert campus students at this very special stage in in life! 2) Unhindered by Life’s Problems. “An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.” (1 Corinthians 7:34) At the “campus stage of life,” most usually do not have to worry about debts, bills, husband, wife or kids. Therefore, you have more time to devote to Jesus’ ministry of seeking and saving the lost. You have more time to be trained!

    3) Hearts Are Less Damaged by Sin. “…From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Sin damages our hearts! Thank God that with Jesus, our hearts can be healed! Yet, the younger that one is converted, the more one avoids destructive sins and so this lessens the impact that sin has on your heart! 4) Talent. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48) God gives talents for a reason; they are to be used for God’s purposes! On the campus, generally speaking, we find a greater percentage of talented people than those who do not have the privilege to go to university.


    Gabi (middle) – an Otheanography student at USP –
    was baptized last Friday after the Campus Devo!

    5) Nationals. “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19) Collectively speaking, the campuses in our cities attract students literally from every nation of the world! These “foreign nationals” are usually their country’s “best and brightest!” All of these disciples hold the potential to “go home” and not only plant the church in a nation that we do not have a foothold, but to become their Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders! 6) Long life. This last reason is self-explanatory! The younger one is converted, the more time that one has to serve God! Also, usually the more energy as well!

    Presently, we have 49 students in the Sao Paulo Campus Ministry! 34 are USP students, and last month, we had our Annual Campus Retreat with 70 in attendance!


    Liliam was baptized two weeks
    ago at the SP Retreat!


    The Sao Paulo Campus Retreat was high impact!

    Finally, God willing, we have the dream to plant the Rio de Janeiro Church in 2017! This church planting will mainly consist of campus students and the leaders of the mission team are Danilo & Carol!


    Danilo & Carol serve as SP’s West Region
    Leaders as they train to lead
    the Rio Mission Team!

    Please keep praying for us as we pray for you, and may we all collectively build campus ministries that will evangelize the world in our generation!

    Cesar Limon of Portland, Oregon: “Paul… took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul…” (Acts 19:9-11)

    Grace and peace in abundance from Portland’s VISION ON CAMPUS Ministry! Imitating our first century brothers, we also have had daily Bible Talks on campus and we have seen God do “extraordinary miracles” as we have witnessed seven campus baptisms in the last seven weeks and one restoration! So since the Supplemental Mission Team from LA arrived in June, God has multiplied the Portland Campus Ministry as we started with 11 students and now we are at 24 awesome campus disciples!


    Out of gratitude for Debbie’s (center) tireless
    leadership, the Portland sisters throw her
    a light-hearted Baby Shower!

    So exciting as well, Domonique Diaz placed membership from the great church in Los Angeles and is dating our new full time Intern, Jorge Castillo!


    Congratulations to Jorge & Domonique!

    All baptisms are miracles but there are two in particular that stand out! First was the spiritual union of the Mendoza brothers! Miguel who was living in Tacoma, Washington needed to move to Portland to be restored! His biggest cost was leaving his family, one of whom was his brother Gilbert! After trusting God and being restored, he moved to the brothers household here and then challenged his brother Gilbert to come visit! Gilbert visited once and was challenged to move after his Discipleship Study! He refused due to his job and after going back home he said things were just not the same after knowing the truth. So he quit his job and moved to Portland with the brothers and was baptized shortly after!


    As double brothers – Gilbert (blue) and
    Miguel (red) – are bonded forever!

    With all these new brothers in the house, they were in need of starting a new household! So they began to search and pray very specifically to find a low-price, high quality apartment, right next to campus! Long story short, God brings Sergio a few weeks ago into the brothers’ lives and they come to find out that he was looking for “Christian roommates” to move into his two bedroom apartment that is a block away from campus! After his baptism this past week, we initiated the new brother’s household! God always provides!


    Sergio’s (second from the right) baptism and
    apartment are answered prayers!

    Lastly, we began the Fall Semester of the new ICCM-Portland! I am so excited to see what God does with these 16 students from Eugene as well as Portland! Big thanks to Tim & Lianne Kernan for flying down to give us an amazing first class – The Ten Commandments Of Preaching! Time to preach the Word! Love you guys!


    Tim & Lianne flew from LA to Portland to preside
    over the opening of the Portland-ICCM!

    Debs Rajan of Chennai, India: At the 2015 Winter Workshop earlier this year, Kip gently challenged us to focus on the Campus Ministry! In Chennai, all of our campuses are guarded and no outsider is allowed to enter. So we had to figure out a plan to get the students to come to us! That’s how Campus Chronicles was born! Once a month on a Sunday evening, we organize a Christian Chronicle Event and invite all the students we know to come! In the month of August, Parthiban, who is doing his PhD in Mathematics; Pamela Edwards, who has done her Double Masters in Physics and was a Lecturer at Women’s Christian College; and Prathap Kumar, who has done his Masters in Social Work and is a Professor in Hindustan College of Arts and Science, shared their lives vulnerably and quite powerfully!


    Ben, the Campus Ministry Leader while pursuing his PhD in Mathematics, gives a powerful speech during the Campus Chronicles Meet!


    Pamela once a Professor at Women’s Christian College,
    just completed her Double Masters in Physics!


    Prathap has not only completed his MBA,
    but he is also a Professor!

    To make it fun, we had creative games, which bonded the visitors and the disciples! Our band also entertained us with Christian Rock Songs! The band attracted many musicians to join us as well!


    Kevin, from Loyola College, is the new drummer
    for the Chennai Church Band!


    Kenny, who is finishing his final year in
    B.E. Mechanical, is a key-boardist!

    In the month of August and September alone we had 16 campus baptisms! In the beginning of this year, we were only on three campuses. Praise God now we are on 10!


    Shajin gets happily splashed in the Marina!


    Anisha is so grateful now that she
    has been forgiven!


    Bhuvaneshwar, another Soccer player from
    Loyola, gets an extra splash!

    Pamela, Prathap, Parthiban, Satish who is doing his Masters in Economics and Amelya Arputharaj who has done her Masters in Business Administration, are dedicated to organizing these events and to generating new studies! We will be having our next Campus Chronicle Event on November 29, 2015! Prayerfully, some day it will be “chronicled” that not only every campus in Chennai was reached with the gospel but every campus in India! To God be all the glory!

    VIDEO NEWS

    Eugene, Oregon: The following is the inspiring Welcome Video at the “Tribe Retreat!” The Tribe Retreat was held by Western USA, Canada and South Asia World Sector in Eugene, Oregon on October 9-11, 2015! ‎This video was produced by the talented Eliott & Camille Svenkenson of San Francisco! Enjoy! https://www.dropbox.com/s/ipv8oldll2zz9mf/thetribews_retreat_2015.mp4?dl=0

    Los Angeles, California: This is a must see! The gifted Heather Harvin of the AMS Region sings at the City of Angeles Church SINGLES NIGHT OUT Devotional. Heather encouraged all the participants by singing her rendition of the late Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. This prepared our hearts for the topic of the night which was Having Great Relationships In God’s Kingdom starting with God! God will always love you!!! https://youtu.be/QpnbtNZrhJQ

    FAMILY NEWS

    Los Angeles, California: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9) On Saturday, October 10th, the light of love shined brightly in the North Region with the wedding of Salvador & Perla Mosqueda! “Sal” as we affectionately call him was restored about two years ago from our former fellowship and has been praying earnestly to find a wife! God answered his prayer! Relatives and parents and many disciples from our former fellowship came to celebrate the union of these two incredible disciples! To God be the glory!


    Congratulations to Sal & Perla!

    The last two months have been incredible in the Central Region as they have enjoyed two amazing weddings. What an incredible miracle it was that after 20 years of being faithful in the Lord, Nate Reed married his best friend Bianca Bell on September 6th!


    Nate & Bianca – “Sweets for the sweet!”

    On October 18th, Sara Oros said “I Do” to the man of her dreams Jovanny Gochez. What an incredible celebration for all of Central Region and especially the campus ministry they oversee.


    Sara & Jovanny found “true love”
    in the Kingdom!

    As well, let’s welcome “Baby Audrey” born July 17th at a very healthy 8lbs. 13oz.! Congratulations Ed & Alicia Washington of the AMS Region on their beautiful baby girl!


    Awww… Baby Audrey!

    Joseph Nihal Estep Jr. was born on September 6, 2015 to Joe & Capil Estep of the West Region! Capil was courageous throughout her pregnancy until the end! (John 16:21)


    Capil and her precious son Joseph Jr.!

    The most beautiful little girl was born to first time parents Pat & Sparkle Boea who lead the Vine City Sector in the Southland Region! Mila weighed in at 8lbs. 13oz.! Pat shares, “What we love about our little Mila is her spunky personality! She is so innocent, talkative and fun loving! Our lives have been forever changed for the better as a result of her birth! She has helped us to understand God’s love on such a deeper level. She is such a great addition to the family and we couldn’t imagine our lives without her joyous presence. Daily we are reminded of the Scripture that says, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him.” (Psalm 127:3)


    Introducing Mila Boea!

    Washington DC: Congratulations to Richie & Elizabeth McDonnell on the birth of Lucy Abigail McDonnell on September 3, 2015! At birth “Baby Lucy” measured a healthy 8lbs 1oz and was 20.5 in.!


    The movement’s newest fashionista –
    Baby Lucy!

    Chennai, India: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) On October 11th, Franklin & Meena Prabakaran were married!


    Congratulations to Franklin & Meena!


    In retrospect, Meena’s life is a modern day fairytale! She grew up on the streets and hardly had three meals a day. She started working at a very young age as a maid to help both herself and her family, as her dad had passed away when she was 12 years old. She worked for 10 years and supported her family. After getting into a relationship, she was rejected by her boyfriend because he found a “better bride” who was wealthy. Because of this her mother used to beat her and said that she was a burden and a disgrace to them.

    Her former boyfriend’s words to her that she was a “beggar” and her mother’s words that she is a “disgrace” kept playing on in her mind and she decided to end her life. As she walked towards the railway station, she questioned God, “Do you exist? Are you for real? I dare you to change my life. Maybe I should just die.” She sat down waiting for the train to arrive, so she could throw herself in front of it and end her life. As she waited, Gayatri came by and invited her to church! Gayatri shared her life and about Jesus being the Savior! She also shared Jeremiah 29:11 that God had a plan to prosper her! Meena accepted God’s Word and was baptized!


    Meena at the Railroad Station where
    she was invited!

    She then remained faithful to God through all her persecutions. When she invited her family for her wedding, they were rude to her thinking that she wanted financial help. She insisted on their presence, so they came and were shocked to see the beautiful wedding of Franklin & Meena! Her mother and her friends were impacted by the love of the disciples and the way the wedding was arranged. Her mother told her friends, “Please go to Meena’s church, they will set your life right!” Her friends commented, “Superb wedding!” Franklin & Meena now live “Happily ever after” in Christ!


    Debs Rajan helps Meena with the final preparations
    for her fairytale wedding!


    In the Kingdom, all of Meena’s dreams came true!

    LOCAL NEWS

    Tim Kernan of Los Angeles: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’” (Isaiah 6:8) Greetings from the City of Angels Church Campus Ministry! Lianne & I are extremely honored to lead this incredible group of disciples, as well as the remarkable South Region! So far in the LA Campus Ministry this year, God has blessed us with 158 student baptisms giving us over 300 sold-out disciples on 31 campuses! Also, at the upcoming 2016 Winter Workshop on January 8-10th, to further the Tyrannus Project to have disciples on all 56 campuses of LA, we are praying and planning that the Spirit sends out Bible Talks to at least three more key campuses!


    Roger & Yassa Green have served the Lord for the
    last few months at Fullerton College learning
    all they can before they return to
    Chennai in December!

    Excitingly, at today’s Tribe Super Regional Sunday Service (South, OC, IE and East Regions), we witnessed seven incredible baptisms!


    The Tribe Super Region Sunday Service!


    Tim – the Tribe Super Region Leader – preaches a
    memorable sermon on Jephthah!


    In the Latin Sector of the OC Region, the Grangers
    make disciples of Jonathan & Lily Gonzalez!
    After Jonathan was baptized he baptized
    his beloved wife, Lily!

    One of the baptisms from the IE Region was Ashley, a world class sprinter who will be competing in the 100 Meter Dash in the 2016 Barbados National Championships for a chance to qualify for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro!


    To introduce Ashely before her baptism, Rebecca
    Rico shares a very moving account
    of Ashely’s life!

    At the conclusion of the service, Jessica Salvador was sent off through the Holy Spirit in prayer to strengthen the Mighty Sydney Church!


    Jessica Salvador – the sister of Patty Granger –
    is sent by the Spirit to Sydney!

    Also baptized last week in the South Region was Tiara a middle blocker on the Cal State Long Beach Women’s Volleyball Team standing 6’4″ tall! She has every reason to be prideful yet her humble heart was like Cornelius in Acts 10. Even while studying the Bible, she brought out three of her teammates to church because she wanted everyone to hear the truth like she had! Truly the Lord is working but pray for us! Go Beach! So, just a quick invite to our dear sisters in the West Region – who gallantly won the City of Angels Church Women’s Volleyball Tournament in September – the South Region is willing to have a “practice match” at any time!


    Tiara’s baptism inspired the entire South
    Region Campus Ministry!

    From the West and AMS Regions, we held our Second Annual Run 4 Missions on Saturday, October 24th from 8AM to noon! 20 disciples gathered together at the Santa Monica Pier to run three miles to the Venice Pier and back to raise funds for our 9X Thanksgiving Missions! Several of these disciples have raised hundreds of dollars, however making us all proud was our campus freshman Klim Kostenko, who – though admittedly not as athletic as some – trained for two months beforehand to run the six miles straight to raise money for missions! What was most impressive was that after he finished the six miles and caught his breath, he then went out immediately to get more sponsors for his run and invite friends to church! What a heart for missions!


    Klim (second from the right) trained for two
    months for the Six Mile Run 4 Missions!

    A last piece of good news: The City of Angels Church continues to build new sectors in her regions in order to multiply in not just our church but in each region! Of special note is the Southland Region which now has four sectors led by RD & April Baker, Ron & Tracy Harding, Pat & Sparkle Boea, and Miguel Mendez who is “assisted” by Cory & Jee Blackwell who lead the region!


    Cory & Jee Blackwell – the Southland Region
    Leaders and proud grandparents of Amdyn!

    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: Please keep Elena & me in your prayers as next week we fly to London to participate in the European Missions Conference – GLORY! (http://londonchurch.org.uk/londonchurch-emc-2015/)


    It’s not too late to register and participate
    in the 2015 EMC – GLORY!

    Then we are off to Moscow for a special Spiritual Enrichment Weekend! To conclude our round-the-world trip we will be speaking in Metro Manila! Truly, we are seeing the miracles of the first century happening again in the twenty-first century! “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.” (Colossians 1:6) And to God be all the glory!

    We are family… to the end,

    Kip

  • Good News Email – September 27, 2015

    Good News Email – September 27, 2015

    Greetings from Sacramento, California and Stockholm, Sweden – the two newest church plantings of the SoldOut Movement! In an effort to be more concise, this and future editions of the Good News Email will focus on the most recent and exciting reports from selected congregations around the world. Pray that these remarkable accounts of the impact of God’s Spirit encourage our global family of churches and give hope to a thirsty remnant!

    Disciples praying on the streets of Stockholm after inviting thousands to the Inaugural Service!


    Prayers are answered as 67 attend the Stockholm Inaugural Service!

     

    BREAKING NEWS

    SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – On September 13th, with a mission team of 14 disciples led by Jacob & Courtney Beas and 35 visiting disciples, the Lord blessed the Inaugural Service of the Sacramento City International Christian Church with an attendance of 132!

    The prayers and dreams of the Sacramento Mission
    Team become a reality as 132 attend
    their Inaugural Service!
    At the awe-inspiring Inaugural Service, Courtney shared in tears about her conversion during communion and Jacob preached a dynamic message from John 4 entitled, A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE JESUS KIND!

    Jacob Beas mesmerizes the crowd with his enthusiastic preaching of the Word of God!

    Already, the Lord has blessed this young congregation with two baptisms and two restorations!
    Ryan Casarez gently restores his friend Alex to the Lord!
    This energetic mission team was composed of disciples from the Portland, Eugene and San Francisco Churches and funded exclusively by our brothers and sisters in San Francisco, while also contributing to our movement’s 20X Missions Collection in May! This is the fifth congregation in the State of California which joins Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara! As Jason Dimitry – the Lead Evangelist in San Francisco – proclaimed, “With churches established in the five largest population centers of this great state, from a Pauline perspective, California has been evangelized!” (Acts 19:10)
    The Sacramento City ICC is the fifth SoldOut
    Movement Church in California!
    Elena & I were very moved as we saw the fulfillment of 2 Timothy 2:2, where Paul admonished Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” In this Scripture are four generations of discipleship: Paul, Timothy, “reliable men” and “others!” So at the service were Jacob & Courtney so well trained by Jason & Sarah Dimitry, who were trained by Tim & Lianne Kernan, who Elena & I were given by God to train!
    Best friends – Jason & Sarah Dimitry and Jacob & Courtney Beas!

    Most often when a congregation sacrifices and sends out the mission team leaders and members, there is a subsequent slowing down of evangelism. It should be noted that San Francisco also had the privilege to host the IGNITE Teen Event in July! Yet the Mighty San Francisco Church remained undeterred and undistracted! Since the 2015 Global Leadership Conference in early August, the Lord has blessed this thriving congregation with 13 baptisms! Two of those baptisms were Sierra and Nicco who were baptized at San Francisco’s Third Anniversary Service last Sunday! They were both brought out by their high school friend and now fellow SFSU classmate, Matthew, who was just baptized two weeks ago! The three of them are now best friends in the Kingdom!The San Francisco Anniversary Service was electric with 176 in attendance! They also unveiled the “Canaan Project” which is the plan that God put on their heart to evangelize the greater San Francisco Area! Pray for all the churches in California to have an incredible Fall harvest! And to God be the glory!

    Jason, Dustin and Emilio – young visionaries – introduce the Canaan Project to the San Francisco Church!
    STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – On September 20th, in the very atheistic nation of Sweden, 67 attended the afternoon Inaugural Service of the Stockholm International Christian Church! Our awesome God used the 14 on the mission team – who were supported by 30 disciples visiting from London, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Portland and Los Angeles – with 23 non-Christian visitors!
    The McKeans are given a warm SoldOut Movement Welcome at the Stockholm Airport!
    The Limons of Portland, the Sirotkins of Moscow and the Williamsons of London travel far to encourage Argo & Anu and the Stockholm Church!
    Argo Arneson preached in Swedish – while translated into English by Erik af Klint – the heartfelt message, A WELL FOR ETERNAL LIFE! Not only did Argo also use the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, but he closed this amazing sermon with Genesis 26:18, “Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.” Argo inspired all with the concept that the Spirit had sent the team from LA to Stockholm to once again dig up the wells of “living waters” that had been filled with earth and rubbish – false doctrine and disillusionment from the fall of our former fellowship. He promised to call people back to the pure Word of God being unafraid to name our efforts with the same names as when our earlier movement was proliferating such as Bible Talks and Discipleship Partners!

    The singing at the Inaugural Service was phenomenal!


    Janno plays the ancient Nyckelharpa for all to meditate on the cross!

    Argo’s incredible message touches the heart of both Christians and non-Christians!
    One of the many highlights of Sunday was the baptism of Tamara from their Campus Ministry led by the new dating couple Kaspar Tambaur & Ashley Godwin! Our fantastic new sister Tamara, who is a student in Stockholm University, has an Iraqi background so the questions before her baptism were asked in her mother tongue. Everybody was inspired to hear Tamara proclaiming her good confession in Arabic, “يسوع هو الرب” – “Jesus is Lord!”
    Our new sister Tamara alongside Anu and Lina issues the new Stockholm Challenge, “You will be next!”

    Congratulations to Kaspar & Ashley!

    That night, we gathered in the same old and striking brick-walled room beautifully decorated and illuminated by candle light to celebrate this great victory for God’s glory! Anu Arneson – who had many sleepless nights preaching the Word and dealing with challenges – prepared “carrot cheese soup,” an amazingly delicious Swedish meal! Afterward, so many on the mission team shared about the incredible service and the openness of their visitors!

    All things are ready for the Celebration Banquet!

    Erik and Debbie enjoy serving the carrot cheese soup!

    Oleg, Elena and Prisca enjoy eating the carrot cheese soup even more!

    Argo begins the heartfelt sharing after the Celebration Banquet!

    Let’s continue to remember the 2015 European Missions Conference in London on November 5-8, 2015 where those that participate will be able to meet our heroic brothers and sisters of Stockholm!
    Elena and Anu pledge, “We are family… to the end!”

    So as Argo proclaimed, let’s reopen the wells of the living water welling up to eternal life in all nations! And to our God be all the glory!NEWS FLASH – The Nigerian Call

    LAGOS, NIGERIA
    Several months ago, Benedict Atason – a 61 year old Mainline Church of Christ preacher from a small city in Nigeria – contacted me on Facebook. I invited him to the 2015 African Missions Conference in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in late June. Proving his sincerity to join the movement, he paid his own way through his savings and selling possessions. At the conference, Benedict studied the Five Core Convictions of the SoldOut Movement with Andrew Smellie, Blaise Feumba and me for three straight days. Afterward, Benedict simply said, “I’m all in!” Then again paying his own way, Benedict came to the 2015 GLC and stayed for a month to learn from the City of Angels Church!

    Benedict embraced by his new partners in the gospel – Andrew & Patrique Smellie!
    He was so excited that he contacted his oldest son who is a Mainline Church of Christ preacher in Lagos. After studying with his father and Andrew, Goodhope Atason joined God’s new movement but the cost was losing his paid position at his Mainline Church of Christ congregation. Excitingly, Goodhope has initiated the Lagos ICC Remnant Group! As of today, he is in Los Angeles visiting us to strengthen his convictions!
    Goodhope and Andrew are ready to build a discipling church in Lagos together!
    Interestingly, Nigeria has a population of 182 million people and is the seventh most populated nation in the world! Forecasters believe that in the next 30 years Nigeria’s population will soar beyond the United States to 440 million! The capital city of Lagos has the present metropolitan population of over 21 million and thus is the largest city in Africa!
    Nigeria is in the heart of West Africa!
    Lagos – located on the ocean – is the largest city in all of Africa!
    In Acts 16:9-10, Luke writes about the Macedonian Call, “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” Very similarly, we have seen a man of Nigeria – Benedict –  begging us to “Come over to Nigeria and help us!” Andrew believes that this is God calling him to preach the gospel to them! So we are getting ready to do this at once! Therefore, this Good News Email is the Nigerian Call for all disciples in any of our churches who hold Nigerian passports (or who can obtain them) to join Andrew & Patrique Smellie when they leave to plant the Lagos International Christian Church on April 1, 2016!

    Already answering the Nigerian Call are Iggy
    Odighizuwa, Tina Nwachukwu, and
    Kwaku & Ashely Sarkodie!

    Therefore, joining our new plantings in Abidjan and Korezouzoua, Ivory Coast, will be the following plantings in Africa in 2016: 1) In February 2016, Blaise and Andrew will travel to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo to plant this congregation through reconstructing the 350 member remnant group! 2) Lagos will be planted by a mission team sent out from LA in April 2016 which will join the small remnant group led by Goodhope! 3) The Johannesburg Mission Team will be sent out from LA at the 2016 World Missions Jubilee in August! After building the Lagos Church for four months, the Smellies will then leave Lagos to lead this Tenth Crown of Thorns Planting!

    HEADLINE NEWS

    CHENNAI, INDIA
    Debs Rajan: Vannakkam! (Greetings!) The Lord has been blessing us abundantly since our Inaugural Service one year ago on September 21, 2014! God has blessed us with 102 additions – 95 baptisms and 7 restorations!

    The Rajans and the original 14 fulltime interns at the time of the Inaugural Service!
    The beginning days were difficult as we did not have a mission team of trained disciples since we were a remnant group. Therefore, most of the disciples were young Christians who had never been outside of India to train in a church such as LA. We are very grateful for Luke & Brandyn Speckman’s effort to visit us, encourage us and train us last September for three weeks. The Speckmans poured out their hearts from six in the morning to late night filling their time with appointments as they admonished and encouraged the disciples.
    While on their mission trips to Chennai, Luke & Brandyn always spend good time with those in need!
    A special thanks to the LA Church for the increased financial support to have full-time Interns. Once these awesome disciples were full-time, my husband Raja could meet with them every morning for teaching and training. We did have a couple of months with no baptisms and Raja personally showed the way in “going out and making disciples” and the fire caught on! Of special note, he baptized Satish, the Captain of the prestigious Loyola College Football Team, who is doing his Masters in Economics! Satish not only Captains the college team but also plays for professional clubs.
    All four of these Brothers play on college soccer teams!
    We also baptized Ritchie, who is doing his Bachelors in Economics and who leads the Dance, Music and Theatre Group in Loyola College!
     Ritchie is in awe that all his sins are forgiven!

    Ilakiya (center) is the 10th nurse to be baptized in the Chennai Church!

    Satan, has been trying to discourage us with intense persecutions but our God has been faithful. We have had threatening calls from several disciples’ parents! One set of parents came to our service with lawyers to question us. Their daughter is 22 years old and was working as a Software Engineer. After the service, they forcefully took her away to their hometown. Her father used to beat her with a stick while asking the question, “Can your Jesus save you now?” She refused to compromise! Her parents then admitted her to a mental institution and asked the doctors to drug her so she would lose her memory and forget about the church and Jesus. But our sister kept fighting the good fight! The ordeal ended when she complied to do higher studies, a plan foretold by a pagan Palm Reader!

    She accepted to study for her Masters… in Chennai! Her mother and uncle brought her back to Chennai for admission. She took the opportunity to come to church and the disciples were overjoyed to see her! Hugs and tears were exchanged! Sadly, that very night our sister was drugged and made unconscious, her hands and legs bound, and then she was transported back to the same mental institution. She is now kept locked in her house. She is still fighting for her faith! Our God has been protecting her and saving her life. Please remember her in your prayers. In spite of all this, God has blessed the efforts of all the leaders of the Chennai Church by giving us exactly 40 additions – 38 baptisms and 2 restorations – in 60 days! 16 are from the campus!

    The Leaders who made the 40 additions happen in 60 days!
    The whole church is now going through the First Principles Classes. The Chennai Church has matured in so many ways over the past year!
    Franklin & Meena are engaged and are soon going to become one in Christ!

    The Chennai International Christian Church Band!

    The Chennai disciples are on fire for God and are ready to “go anywhere, do anything and give up everything for Jesus!” To God be all the glory!

    MOSCOW, RUSSIA
    Oleg Sirotkin: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3) I still vividly remember that it was a very snowy and cold day on February 1, 2015 for the Inaugural Service of the International Christian Church in Moscow! The Moscow Mission Team was composed of 17 Russian and Ukrainian disciples who spent their own money to travel and train in the South Region of the LA Church! Through God’s grace these 17 courageous disciples were joined by the 33 in the Moscow Remnant Group – who all counted the cost – to form the Moscow ICC! These 50 disciples witnessed a modern day miracle as God gave us an attendance of 227!

    The incredibly sacrificial Moscow Mission Team!

    Oleg preaching at the Moscow ICC Inaugural Service!

    Since then God has blessed us with 58 additions – 33 baptisms, 22 restorations and 3 place memberships directly from our former fellowship who were seeking revival! Here are just a few highlights of our first eight months: Dima Serafonov was the first member of the Remnant Group in Moscow in 2008 and now works full-time for the Lord! Of great encouragement since this September he dates our beautiful sister Tanya!
    Congratulations to Dima & Tanya!
    Another brother who joined the staff team is Artiom! After some time of training in LA, he collected enough money to support himself to be an intern for a whole year! Though making less money than before what is very impressive is that Artiom did not lower his pledge or the amount he pledged to our missions contribution!
    Though he is young, Artiom is a very polished preacher!
    We also want to share with you some good news from Kiev, Ukraine! In spite of a very damaged relationship between Russia and Ukraine, at this moment we can truly describe our two churches as one family! Last April, Elena my wife, Sofia and Lida our daughters and I because of visa challenges visited Kiev for several weeks. Sofia studied the Bible with a teen girl Ira – and Ira was baptized! Then in May, Ira invited a campus student Luda, and Luda was baptized! Then the same month, Luda invited her roommate Alina, and Alina was baptized! Then Alina invited her classmate Masha, and Masha was baptized! Now we have a very dynamic Campus Ministry in Kiev Remnant Group!
    Meet Sofia, Ira, Luda, Alina and Masha!
    As Los Angeles pulled us in to train, so we are so happy that on this week the leader of the Kiev Remnant Group – Sasha Axiutkom – is moving to Moscow to train as an intern!
    Sasha is moving to Moscow to train for the ministry!

    Another addition to our “staff family” is Masha who in spite of severe persecutions from her family sacrificed a very well paying job to become an intern! She also was in LA for training and returned to Moscow to plant the church. God used her to start the Teen Ministry here in Moscow and all of us were so happy to see the first teen baptism in April – her 13-year old sister Janet!This summer at the GLC, we also saw the Kingdom appointments of Zhenya & Julia Sobolev – former full-time ministers and the leaders of the church in Minsk from the previous movement! Zhenya first met the new movement in 2010 in Kiev. At that moment he was in sin and had many doubts, but after meeting with Kip decided to join! After his good example, four months later Julia joined the movement wholeheartedly! It is amazing to see how God has raised them up! Prayerfully they will lead a church planting in the near future!

    Zhenya & Julia Sobolev received their
    ICCM BA Degrees at the 2015 GLC!
    Also in 2015, God brought to our congregation two more full-time workers from the ICOC Church of Minsk, Belarus – Slava & Lena Kapskiy! They left their lucrative business and beautiful apartment and moved from Belarus to Moscow to join the new movement and retrain for the ministry!
    The Kapskiys are dreaming to be in the fulltime ministry again!
    Keep us in your prayers as God continues to do “great and unsearchable things” in Russia and throughout all Eurasia!MEXICO CITY
    Carlos Mejia: Greetings from the now 50 disciples in the sixth largest metropolis of the world – Mexico City! On the morning of June 14th, my wife Lucy, our two boys and I arrived with the gallant Supplemental Mission Team from Chile and immediately began to dream and realize the vision to evangelize the over 21 million lost souls of Mexico City!
    Carlos & Lucy Mejia are expert church builders as they have greatly strengthened the Washington
    DC, Santiago and Mexico City Churches!
    One of the highlights of the church before our arrival was the dynamic Campus Ministry at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), which is home to the 365,000 best and brightest students from all 32 states in Mexico! Starting with just four disciples, this ministry had 10 campus baptisms last semester! The diverse harvest of souls included the following majors: three in accounting, two law students, one in electrical engineering, one mathematics major, one in business administration, and a medical student! We are so proud of Jared & Rachel McGee who valiantly led the church before we landed and at the same time succeeded in building an exciting Campus Ministry!
    The UNAM Campus Ministry!
    Another highlight of our good news is our Marrieds Ministry led by Jose & Daniela Otero who restored a very dynamic AMS couple from our former fellowship, Hugo & Adriana! Hugo & Adriana are an artist and voice over actress respectively. Amazingly, Hugo & Adriana have already been fruitful five times in the last few weeks with baptisms and restorations, one of which was a main song leader from our former fellowship! His name is Fernando Cabrera who in turn baptized his wife, Alicia!

    Hugo & Adriana celebrating Mexican Independence Day!


    Fernando & Alicia’s marriage is now a bright light for Christ!

    Incredibly, in the last six weeks this up-and-coming congregation has had 12 additions; 6 baptisms, 5 restorations, and 1 place membership from our sister church in Toronto!In the Singles Ministry, one restoration that was especially moving was a young woman named Sadhvi Monfleur, who was originally baptized in the Teen Ministry in LA in 2000. She drifted as she “fell through the cracks” after the demise of our former fellowship. Once she found us online, she visited and at her first service was asked to study the Bible. Immediately she said “yes” and exclaimed that “this is the church in which I was baptized!” Sadhvi studied diligently every day and was restored the very next Sunday! She immediately “got to work” picking up right where she dropped off!

     


    Sadhvi and Renail Richards!
    Equally encouraging was the baptism of a single man named Sergio who is a paramedic and is the fruit of Ezequiel Gonzalez! Our prayer is to build a very fruitful and dynamic Singles Ministry of totally committed disciples with undivided devotion to our awesome God!

    Jose, Sergio and Ezequiel are standing together for the cause of Christ in Mexico City!
    Finally, we are very excited to announce that the 2016 CSA Missions Conference will take place in this great city in February 2016! Lord willing, our dream to plant the church in Bogota, Colombia will become a reality as we send out the mission team from Mexico City at this CSA Missions Conference! Very excitingly, the team will be led by Jose & Daniela Otero! Please stay tuned for the exact dates of the CSA Missions Conference, which promises to be an historic event not to be missed! We are family… to the end!

    Jose & Daniela Otero are the Bogota Mission Team Leaders!

    MANILA, PHILIPPINES
    Kyle Bartholomew: Greetings from Metro Manila, Philippines! I am excited to report what God has been doing in the church since our Inaugural Service to the present time. On June 7, 2015 we held our Inaugural Service to kick-off the official planting of the Metro Manila International Christian Church! With just 9 disciples on the mission team from LA joined by 49 from the Manila Remnant Group, God gave us an attendance of 306!


    The Remnant Disciples in the Metro Manila ICC (above) have inspired all the baby Christians!
    Since then God has been adding to our number in an amazing way! In less than four months, we have seen exactly 50 souls baptized into Christ, 9 restored to a sold-out relationship with God, and 9 place memberships! Every restoration and place membership has come directly from our former fellowship seeking revival and a renewed vision of the evangelization of the nations! Our membership has ballooned from 58 to 117 disciples!

    “He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:16-17) One of the great stories of inspiration has been the Castro family that came from our former fellowship!After visiting only our Inaugural Service, Simple & Jeniffer Castro decided to place membership! Simple stated right after the worship, “This is the church I was baptized into and I will not deny the Spirit’s call!” He later stated upon placing membership the following Sunday, “Without discipling, the last 10 years have been hell for me and my family! We have been holding on by a thread.” Within the following month, three of his four daughters placed membership and his fourth was baptized into Christ! They have since been one of the most fruitful families in the church bringing many to the Lord!


    The Castro Family – Jeniffer, ChocolateKiss, Keyke, Simple, Kendi and Carmel!
    Another incredible story has been the De Ocampos! Obie De Ocampo humorously stated upon placing membership, “When I first attended a service at MMICC, I did not come for the purpose of worshiping with you but rather to spy on the church!” He even received the approval from his ministry leader in our former fellowship who thought it would be a good idea! But then things got complicated… He gives this account, “By the second week, my children asked if they could study the Bible with the other campus students. I thought to myself, wow, they don’t even want to attend any of the events at our present fellowship and after two weeks they want to study the Bible in this church!” Amazingly within the next month, both of his kids Sam and Geneva De Ocampo were baptized into Christ! Not wanting to be hasty in judgment, Obie took another month, turned in another report of what he saw to his former ministry leaders, and then he and his wife officially placed membership!

    “The Spies who came in from the cold” – the De Ocampos!
    There are so many other stories of inspiration to tell, such as: The revival in the Campus Ministry as we have seen it grow from just three disciples to 27 and now have disciples on 14 different college campuses!


    On Friday, Rose – nicknamed the Fruit Machine – baptizes Roselyn who is our first sister at RTU!


    On Sunday, Mark and Jazz – students at the prestigious UP Campus – were baptized into Christ!

    Lastly, we are so excited to witness the upcoming marriage of the powerful leaders of the UP Campus Ministry, Zack Shields & Ariel Butler!

    Congratulations to Zack & Ariel who will be married in November!

    Please join us in praying for the over 24 million lost souls of Metro Manila as each person that is baptized or restored is a miracle of God! We thank our gracious God for every miracle that He has so powerfully performed up to date and we ask Him to continue to bless us beyond what even we can imagine!

    LOCAL NEWS

    LOS ANGELES, USA
    Tim Kernan: “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord.‎” (Acts 19:8-10)

    Greetings from the Campus Ministry of the City of Angels International Christian Church (CAICC)! Lianne & I are so excited and glad to be back on campus with all the brothers and sisters preaching the Word this Fall! I want to say how proud I am of all the campus disciples and campus leaders from each region who are so bravely and boldly imitating Christ on campus!

    The September Meeting of the 12 Campus Ministry Leaders from each region with Tim & Lianne!
    Very excitingly, this past summer, we initiated the Tyrannus Project which is a plan to reach all of the prominent campuses in LA, which have a combined enrollment of 993,265! Already we have 286 students enrolled on 31 campuses, so we have 25 more to go! At the beginning of this semester, we sent out three mission teams at our All LA Campus Devotional to plant Biola University in the East Region, Cal State Channel Islands in the Ventura Region, and Cal State Dominguez Hills in the South Region! Lord willing, we will plant at least three more campuses at the 2016 Winter Workshop! Pray for the liberating of all campuses across Southern California for the Lord!

    Mason & Nathalie Fetelika sharing at the South Region’s Outdoor Service! They are now the Campus Leaders for Cal State Dominguez Hills!
    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: Since the historic 2015 GLC, because of the almost 300 disciples that have been sent to the mission field from LA in the past three years, the leadership of the City of Angels Church has seen a tremendous need to re-emphasized Bible Talks! In August for three straight Staff Meetings, we heard the lessons: Hit The Reset Button – Parts 1, 2, and 3! Though the CAICC presently has expanded to 118 Bible Talks, the charge was given to our 12 Region Leader Couples to get with each Bible Talk in their region to help them become more fruitful and more family! As well, in an effort to build family, each Bible Talk selected a fun name to create a greater sense of identity and unity!


    The Southland Region took pictures of all 17 of their Bible Talks as an introduction for a video on “How Not To Do Bible Talk!”

    The fruit of our focus on Bible Talks is now beginning to be seen as we had 1,610 at Sunday’s Bring Your Neighbor Day and 15 additions this week!

    Following this very intense month of August, in September the City of Angels Church held its Annual Labor Day Picnic and Fun Day! All of our members and their children gathered that Labor Day morning at William R. Mason Regional Park in Orange County. The 12 Regions were divided into eight teams for sporting competitions. Highlighting these events was the finals of the two day CAICC Women’s Volleyball Tournament! The Women’s Volleyball Tournament was dreamed of and overseen by Brandyn Speckman very similarly as Cory Blackwell built our CAICC Basketball League, where almost all the teams were men. This first year the West Region Sisters won this highly competitive event!

    The West Region Sisters – the Champions of the First Annual CAICC Volleyball Tournament!
     
    Brandyn Speckman was brilliant in planning and directing the CAICC Women’s Volleyball Tournament!
    As for the entire Play Day, we had co-champions – the West Region and the AMS/East Region! Congratulations to all of these brothers and sisters!
    The West Region Team were the Co-champions of the Labor Day Festivities with the AMS/East Team!

    However, the AMS/East Team beat the West Region Team in grabbing the trophy!
    After the Sports Competition, all of the regions had delicious picnics!
    Also, in September was the Red Cross/MERCY National Blood Drive! Nick & Denise Bordieri – our Directors of MERCYworldwide – called this effort “an overwhelming success!” In LA over 200 pints of blood were collected and around the nation over 400 pints have been given so far by willing disciples! The Bordieris recently shared that each pint of blood is valued at $400! Therefore, the MERCY Ambassadors have raised $160,000 worth of blood for the Red Cross!

    Jennifer and Jacque donate their blood and call others to follow their example!
    Pete answers their call!
    Lastly, the International College of Christian Ministries has “gone global!” We now have Extension Campuses which we call: ICCM-Manila, ICCM-Portland and ICCM-Sao Paulo! As well, Tim & Lianne Kernan have assumed the leadership as the President and Dean of Women for ICCM-LA! Therefore we have now established what we call ICCM-Global as the overseeing body for the Extension Campuses. This will allow us to expand to as many churches as their lead evangelist earns their Master’s Degree.

    Cesar Limon – the ICCM-Portland President,
    Kyle Bartholomew – the ICCM-Manila President,
    Tim Kernan – the ICCM-LA President,
    Raul Moreno – the ICCM-Sao Paulo
    President and Kip McKean – Chancellor!
    So on a go forward basis, I will serve the ICCM-Global as Chancellor, Elena is the Vice Chancellor of Women, Chris Adams is the Vice Chancellor of the Graduate School, and Rebecca Rico will serve as the Provost of Academics in charge of report cards for all of the ICCM Extension Campuses! Up to this point in our young “school of prophets,” three have received their Doctorate Degrees, eight have received their Master’s Degrees, and 230 have received their BA Degrees in Ministry! Excitingly, we now have 45 enrolled in our Master’s Program!

    Rebecca Rico – Provost of Academics and her mom in the faith Elena – Vice Chancellor of Women for ICCM-Global!
    Indeed God is moving in unprecedented ways on all six populated continents of the world! “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:2)
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip
  • Good News Email – August 10, 2015

    Good News Email – August 10, 2015

    SPECIAL EDITION
    2015 Global Leadership Conference
    SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

    Greetings from Los Angeles! For God’s SoldOut Movement, 2015 has been jam-packed with incredible miracles around the globe! The Spirit’s forceful advancement on all six populated continents “crescendo-ed” into this year’s Global Leadership Conference (GLC) – SAVIOR OF THE WORLD! Officially beginning on Friday morning, July 31st and ending on Sunday afternoon, August 2nd, the 2015GLC was one of the highlights of my life!


    MERCY Night at the 2015 GLC!

    The 2015 GLC changed the participants, the movement and prayerfully now the world!

    At the Sunday Service of the 2015 GLC, 2,102
    gathered to proclaim, “JESUS IS THE
    SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!”

    However, in many ways for the City of Angels International Christian Church, the 2015 GLC began on the previous Sunday with several disciples arriving early and participating in our July 26th Sunday Worship Services!


    The Mainline Church of Christ Preacher who joined
    the new movement – Benedict Atason –
    arrives from Nigeria!

    Rocky orients the Brazilian Sisters with America’s
    finest cuisine – In-N-Out!

    Cory Blackwell has a pre-service prayer for
    the Southland, West and North Regions
    Worship Service on the Sunday
    before the GLC!

    The Southland, West and North Regions Worship
    Service fills the Southland building!

    Coming all the way from the Netherlands, Arni
    Sicam and his two daughters Beryl and
    Chrys participate in the Southland,
    West and North Regions
    Service!
    On Monday after Staff, Elena & I headed down to the beautiful Anaheim Hilton Hotel where all of the events of the week were held!

    Home of the 2015 GLC – the Anaheim Hilton Hotel!
    There we met the Sirotkin Family who had just arrived from Moscow! Oleg & Elena enthusiastically shared that since the Moscow Inaugural Service on February 1st (six months ago), God has grown the fledgling Moscow ICC of 50 Disciples (17 Mission Team Members and 33 Remnant Group Disciples) by 43 additions – 26 baptisms, 16 restorations and 1 place membership with only 3 fall aways! So we now have 89 sold-out disciples in Moscow!

    The Sirotkin Family – Oleg, Sofia, Elena & Lidia – arm-in-arm with “Kip’s Elena!”
    On Tuesday morning, the WORLD SECTOR LEADERS gathered! We began by falling on our knees in prayer to God! We then heard an incredible lesson from Andrew Smellie entitled THE LAMB OF GOD as all the lessons for this year’s GLC came from the Book of John!

    Andrew preaching the Word to the WSL’s!
    Following we shared a time of communion where we each broke off a piece of the one loaf of unleavened bread that had been prepared for us. We held the bread in one hand and the communion cup of red juice in the other. Then together holding up the bread before each other in unison we pledged, “We are family!” Immediately following we raised our communion cups – that represented the ultimate price Jesus paid and we must too – and we affirmed in unison, “To the end!” We then heard Raul Moreno on the theme, COMPLETE UNITY – THE PRACTICALS!


    A wooden challis inscribed with the pledge
    “We are family… to the end” was given
    to each WSL Couple!

     

    That evening was the FIRST SESSION of the CROWN OF THORNS COUNCIL which oversees the plans for our vision of the evangelization of the nations in this generation! Jason & Sarah Dimitry were introduced as they are the newest members of the Council, because of their passionate hearts for God and their outstanding efforts for the Lord in Las Vegas and San Francisco!

    The Crown of Thorns Council begs God for
    wisdom to lead His great people!
    Following we heard good news reports from around the world! With the Council still “buzzing” over God’s miracles, Michael Williamson delivered a powerful charge, THE SHEPHERD LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE!

    Michael Williamson shares about the
    Spirit’s work in Europe!
    On Wednesday morning, the CROWN OF THORNS COUNCIL had MEN’S and WOMEN’S PROGRAMS! Carlos Mejia and Lianne Kernan spoke on THE WORD BECAME FLESH in these sessions respectively. Carlos’ message was one of the best messages I’ve heard in a long time! He shared in detail about being born and raised in El Salvador and the trials that he and his single mom endured. There were few dry eyes in the room! This message prepared our hearts for a time of sharing, confession of sin, and prayer.

    Carlos & Lucy Mejia are heroes in the faith
    for all of Central & South America!
    After lunch, we returned for the afternoon session! Since Argo & Anu Arneson are members of the Council, upon our arrival a beautiful cake in honor of the Stockholm Mission Team greeted us! In the SoldOut Movement it is our custom to celebrate each send-off of a mission team with a “specialty cake” emblematic of the city where the Spirit is sending them!


    The gallant Stockholm Mission Team Leaders –
    Argo & Anu Arneson!


    The Stockholm Mission Team!


    Ann Cathrine Arneson trying to save a piece
    of the Stockholm Mission Team Cake
    for her parents!

    During the afternoon CROWN OF THORNS COUNCIL SESSION, the SOLDOUT MOVEMENT ROAD MAPFOR 2015 – 2018 was presented; Michael Kirchner addressed the movement’s FINANCES AND ADMINISTRATION; and collectively the World Sector Leaders reported on all 59 churches in the movement!That evening was the MERCYWORLDWIDE DIRECTORS DINNER and the ICCM FACULTY AND BOARD RECEPTION!


    The ICCM goes global: Limons lead ICCM-Portland,
    Bartholomews lead ICCM-Manila, Kernans
    lead ICCM-LA, and Morenos lead
    ICCM-Sao Paulo!

    Kip’s new role as Chancellor of ICCM-Global will
    focus on creating new ICCM Extension
    Campuses! So congratulations to Tim
    Kernan who is the new President
    of ICCM-LA!
    As well on Wednesday night was the INTERNATIONAL CAMPUS DEVOTIONAL! This event was hosted by Raul & Lynda Moreno, who lead the incredible Sao Paulo Campus Ministry which now has 49 college students – 32 of whom are from the University of Sao Paulo considered by many to be the number one university in all Central & South America! Mike Patterson, who leads the incredible University of Florida Campus Ministry, delivered the sermon, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!

    Mike Patterson’s UF Campus Ministry is a
    great light for the movement!
    Thursday morning from 9AM to 1PM, 472 Evangelists, Women’s Ministry Leaders, Shepherding Couples, MERCY Directors, and Interns participated in the glorious CHURCH BUILDERS WORKSHOP! The message of RIPE FOR HARVEST was enthusiastically delivered by Argo Arneson! Then ten different practical sermonettes were given on such themes as RADICALIZING THE REMNANT to VISITING THE SICK AND SHUT-INS to CREATIVE KIDS KINGDOM PROGRAMS!

    Argo Arneson boldly challenges the SoldOut
    Movement Leaders to multiply disciples!
    That afternoon there was the opportunity to attend CYBERCON overseen by Ron Harding – the Lead CyberEvangelist of the SoldOut Movement, or the MERCYWORLDWIDE SUMMIT emceed by our new fulltime Directors of MERCYworldwide – Nick & Denise Bordieri! Then on Thursday evening was the TALENT SHOW and the PURE DANCE!


    The Kingdom’s got talent!


    As the Kingdom DJ, Rob Onekea kept the music
    clean, the dancing pure and the
    evening lots of fun!

    Friday morning was the official OPENING GENERAL SESSION of the 2015 GLC! Amazingly, the 1,603 paid participants registered quite efficiently by our outstanding Registration Team coordinated by Rebecca Rico! Also, we all need to give a huge thanks to Tim Kernan – the GLC Director – and the entire GLC Staff who worked so tirelessly around the clock! As well, special thanks to Jason & Susan Bond who were our liaisons with the Hilton Hotel!Astoundingly, Alex Rohde and the “Livestream Staff” reported through Google.com that the 2015 GLC was broadcast by Livestream into 69 nations which included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and China!


    Livestream broadcast the 2015 GLC into 69 nations!
    Paul wrote in his day in Colossians 1:6, “All over the world this gospel’s bearing fruit and growing…” We can now say as well that the world is being evangelized in our day!

    Many thanks to the AV Crew!
    The Welcome at the OPENING GENERAL SESSION began with a dazzling video over-viewing the life of Jesus by Jose Otero! This dramatic video inspired us all the more to appreciate this year’s compelling theme and opening message – SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!

    Kip McKean as seen on Livestream!
    As well, the Sobolevs of Moscow and the Tabizons of LA were appointed Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders respectively!
    Immediately after the Sobelevs and the Tabizons
    were appointed, the entire congregation sang
    to them, We Love You With The
    Love Of The Lord!     
    To close the FIRST GENERAL SESSION, the HISTORY OF THE SOLDOUT MOVEMENT (THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE) was given year by year from 2003 to date! Each speaker was selected for “their year” as each was able to give “firsthand accounts” of the workings of God’s mighty hand!

    Matt Sullivan lays it out about 2005 – LETTERS AND MORE LETTERS!

    Therese Untalan gives the sad but heartfelt report
    on 2008 – PORTLAND’S DEPARTURE!

    Michele Williamson spoke on the year 2009 –
    THE CROWN OF THORNS PROJECT INITIATED!

    Blaise Feumba preached about 2011 – GRACE AND MERCY!

    Oleg Sirotkin and Joe Willis shared from their lives about 2012 –
    FROM THE FARTHEST HORIZON!

    Michael Kirchner joyfully recounted 2013 –
    THE FOUNDING OF THE ICCM!
    In the afternoon were several events from which to choose: the AMS CONFERENCE, SHEPHERDS FORUM, LATIN FESTIVAL (in Spanish!), SONG LEADERS WORKSHOP, TEEN WORKERS SEMINAR, CHEMICAL RECOVERY CONVENTION, and the ADMINISTRATION WORLD CONGRESS!


    The large room for the SHEPHERD’S FORUM
    was packed out!

    Friday evening was the SECOND GENERAL SESSION – THE KINGDOM BANQUET! Many were on “encouragement dates” – even the Marrieds! And what a feast of food and love was that entire night!


    The Kingdom Banquet was truly a taste of Heaven!


    Last year at the Kingdom Banquet, the Peacocks
    joined God’s new movement!

    So moving were the Kingdom Appointments of Princeton & Joy George and the remarkable reinstatement of Chris McGrath!


    Princeton & Joy George courageously
    lead the San Diego Church!


    Chris McGrath’s three sons – Josh, Shane and
    Christopher – honored their father by
    standing beside him during
    his reinstatement!

    Appropriate for THE KINGDOM BANQUET was the message – THE FULL EXTENT OF HIS LOVE – by the truly electrifying Evangelist, Cory Blackwell! In his passionate presentation, Cory called us all to be more like Christ by being servant leaders!


    Cory Blackwell shares powerfully about his
    mom’s love paralleling it to the way
    we need to love all disciples!

    Saturday we enjoyed the MEN’S and WOMEN’S PROGRAMS! Both sessions had the same theme for the main lesson: JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES BAPTIZED! Elena fervently addressed all the sisters!

    Elena on Livestream!
    Kyle Bartholomew inspired all the brothers with his amazing accounts of the planting of the Metro Manila International Christian Church two months ago! Astoundingly, the 9 on the Manila Mission Team were joined by the 50 in the Manila Remnant Group to have God bring 306 to their Inaugural Service on June 7th! During these two months, there have been 38 additions – 24 baptisms, 8 restorations and 6 place memberships directly from our former fellowship!

    Kyle Bartholomew mesmerized the brothers
    with his accounts of the “unbelievable”
    miracles in Manila!
    Another equally moving event was the appointment by Andrew Smellie of Adam Zepeda as an Evangelist in the Kingdom of God!

    Adam thanked his entire family – who are all
    disciples – for their prayers and incredible
    support in becoming an Evangelist
    and ICCM graduate!
    In the second half of the WOMEN’S PROGRAM, eight sisters spoke on CHARACTER STUDIES FROM THE BOOK OF JOHN! Included were MARY MAGDALENE, MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS, MARTHA and the SAMARTIAN WOMAN!


    The WOMEN’S PROGRAM both delighted and convicted!

    The second half of the MEN’S PROGRAM had nine short CHARACTER STUDIES FROM THE BOOK OF JOHN, which included: ANDREW, BARNABAS, PILATE and JUDAS!


    At the MEN’S PROGRAM, it was so inspiring to hear
    both the young and old preachers dig deep
    into God’s Word!

    Saturday afternoon was dedicated to the WORLD SECTOR FORUMS! Because of space, we had to combine a couple of the World Sectors. So the forums were: UNITED STATES & CANADA, CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA, EUROPE & THE RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH, MIDDLE EAST, ASIA & THE PACIFIC RIM, and AFRICA & THE FRENCH-SPEAKING CARRIBBEAN!

    THE MATURE SINGLES ICE CREAM SOCIAL was so amazing that not only did they fellowship from 5:30-7:00PM, but they even returned back to the same room after the MERCY NIGHT SESSION!THE THIRD GENERAL SESSION was the much anticipated MERCY NIGHT where every disciple – every “MERCY Ambassador” – wore their green MERCY shirts! To begin the evening we enjoyed the CYBER-MINISTRY and MERCYWORLDWIDE REPORTS!

     


    On MERCY Night, our new fulltime Directors
    of MERCY – Nick & Denise Bordieri – shared
    their global vision for MERCY!

     


    Jeremiah Clark and the Mighty Denver
    Church are awarded one of six
    “Top Kingdom Websites!”

    Then we were profoundly touched by the “selected” TALENT SHOW PERFORMANCE by the New York City Disciples!

    Austin Broom and the NYC Dance Ensemble
    give a very moving performance!
    Following the performance were the Kingdom Appointments of Amy Ciaramella and Jacob & Courtney Beas!

    After many years of training, Sonja Chloupek
    joyfully appoints Amy Ciaramella
    to be a WML!

    Jason & Sarah Dimitry appoint their beloved
    partners in the gospel – Jacob &
    Courtney Beas!
    Concluding the evening’s festivities was the marvelous sermon by Chris Broom –
    IT IS FINISHED! Chris challenged each of us that “we are not finished” and “the evangelization of the nations is not finished!”

    Chris Broom delivers a message that
    brought us to the foot of the cross!
    All of the previous week’s events were leading up to the SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE! The singing of the over 2,000 in attendance was beyond “off the charts!” After the welcome, we witnessed two touching restorations and four amazing place memberships!

    Through the efforts of Lance Underhill and the
    South Region, Eric and his physical
    sister Karla were restored
    to their “first love!”
    Then came the remarkable Kingdom Appointments of Amadou & Angele Sountoura of Abidjan and Rebecca Rico, who also was the Women’s Valedictorian for the ICCM Class of 2015!


    Rebecca Rico is appointed a WML in the Kingdom
    of God, because so many sisters poured
    their hearts and wisdom into her!  

    Our “international” COMMUNION was presided over by Argo & Anu Arneson, followed by the CONTRIBUTION “message” by Oleg & Elena Sirotkin!

    Oleg & Elena inspired us to give our contribution
    through sharing about the sacrifices
    in the Moscow Church!
    After a brief break, Wagner’s epic composition – Ride Of The Valkyries – filled the auditorium and the historic THIRD COMMENCEMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES began with the processional of the ICCM Faculty and this year’s graduates!

    Chancellor McKean leads the ICCM Processional!


    The colorful pageantry of the jubilant ICCM
    Processional brought glory to God “for
    prophets and kings longed to
    see”     what we saw! 


    Dr. Tim Kernan explains the European Degree
    System and the founding of the ICCM!


    Elena, the new Vice Chancellor of Women
    in the ICCM-Global, shares about the
    extraordinary impact of the ICCM
    on both men and women!


    Cesar Limon was distinguished at this year’s
    graduation as he was the Men’s
    Valedictorian of the Class of
    2015 and he received his
    Master’s Degree!

    A total of 83 BA Degrees were awarded in four different tracks: Ministry, Administration, Charity Services and Shepherding!

    BA Degrees were awarded in four Tracks:
    Ministry, Administration, Charity
    Services and Shepherding!

    Lord willing, Stefano will soon leave
    for Santiago to gather the Lima
    (Peru) Mission Team!

    Daniela Payan received the BA
    Degree     of Ministry!

    Jacque Economo was awarded the
    BA Degree     in Administration!

    Ted Karonis of Boston received the BA
    Degree in Charity Services!

    Prisca Scheidecker of Paris received her
    BA Degree in Shepherding!
    Then came the “hooding” of Cesar Limon and Raul Moreno who received the prestigious ICCM Master’s Degree which will allow them to “open” an extension campus in their cities of Portland and Sao Paulo!

    Raul Moreno is “hooded” and conferred
    the Master’s Degree in Ministry!
    Then perhaps for me the highlight of the week was my dear wife receiving the first ICCM Doctorate Degree awarded to a woman! Elena’s dissertation was on the “Women’s Elevation Section” found in Luke 7:11-8:56! All ICCM Doctoral Dissertations are written in book form. So Elena’s book – ELEVATE – will be published by the SoldOut Movement’s new Berean Publishing House this Autumn in five languages!

    Dr. Elena Garcia McKean and her precious
    daughter in the faith – the Women’s
    Valedictorian of the Class
    of 2015 – Rebecca Rico!

    After transferring their tassels from the right to
    the left – thus signifying formally receiving
    their BA Degrees – the class of 2015
    begins to celebrate!
    After this incredible event, we sang a new song that the whole movement so enjoyed, Let It Rise! On the final verse, we sang with all our might, “Let the Savior of the World rise among us…” Then Tim Kernan preached the message that we all needed to hear, DO YOU TRULY LOVE ME?

    Tim Kernan on Livestream!
    Then we witnessed 17 people answer Jesus’ question, “Do you truly love me?” with the good confession, “Jesus is Lord!”

    In the AMS Region, TJ – a Kingdom Kid – returns
    to the Kingdom and his faithful
    mom, Chantelle!

    Jesus is Lord and the SAVIOR
    OF THE WORLD!
    “I now baptize you, ‘In the name of the Father,
    the Son and the Holy Spirit…’”

    To TJ (above) and our other 16 new brothers
    and sisters, we say, “Welcome
    to the Family of God!”
    Even then, there was more to come – the Spirit sending out the Sacramento and Stockholm Mission Teams! Globes were given to the mission team members and then Nick Bordieri and Tony Untalan – the Movement’s Shepherds – prayed over the teams mentioning each disciple by name!

    In the SoldOut Movement, upside-down globes are
    presented to each Mission Team Member to
    signify that they are part of “turning
    the world upside-down!”
    (Acts 17:6 RSV)

    Tony Untalan and Nick Bordieri – our Movement
    Shepherds – pray over the Sacramento and
    Stockholm Mission Teams!
    Like Jesus (John 17:1), little Jezelle Beas of
    the Sacramento Mission Team prays
    with her eyes open!
    The Super Sacramento Mission Team!
    The Spirit-filled Stockholm Mission Team!
    Then we closed out the 2015 GLC as we do every year with Lou Jack Martinez leading us in the song that he wrote which records the modern history of the Discipling Movement – The Glory Song (International Version)!

    Lou Jack Martinez leading over 2,000 in the
    singing of The Glory Song!
    Sunday afternoon, Elena’s and my two sons and their families gathered with a few of our closest friends in our spiritual family to celebrate not only Elena receiving her Doctorate Degree, but also to celebrate her 60th Birthday! (Our daughter and her family celebrated with us on Saturday!)

    Elena’s cake celebrates her Doctorate
    and her 60th Birthday!
    After Sunday lunch at the party, we had a time of sharing about Elena. I began the sharing by reading parts of Proverbs 31, “A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her… She gets up while it is still dark, she provides food for her family… She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy… She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and full instruction is on her tongue… Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her; ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!” These inspired words so aptly describe my very best friend, partner in the gospel and wife of almost 39 years – Elena!

    Elena hasn’t changed a bit in almost 39 years
    of marriage, but as for Kip…
    Dearest Brothers and Sisters: As Elena wrote in her dissertation, it is my prayer that the 2015 GLC moves those of us in the United States from being “American Christians to Global Disciples!” Inspired by the GLC, in the Movement and in particular in the City of Angels Church, we will begin this week to focus on rebuilding each of our Bible Talks to be modeled after “Jesus and the Apostles.”

    Global Disciples – Cassidy of England, Yassa
    of India, and Sasha of Russia!
    So three days ago, I delivered the Staff Lesson to the Men Region Leaders entitled, HIT THE RESET BUTTON! To reset your computer is to bring it back to its original setting or state… In the City of Angels Church we are determined to bring each of our 100 Bible Talks back to the “original state” of the planting of the City of Angels Church in Los Angeles on May 6, 2007! The original 42 sold-out disciples from Portland on the LA Mission Team were divided into eight Bible Talks which God blessed with 104 baptisms our very first year!

    We are determined to build our 100 Bible Talks
    in the City of Angels Church to be just like
    the original eight Bible Talks which
    had 104 baptisms in our
    first year in LA!

    So the call to each Region Leader was to: 1) In the next two weeks meet with each one of their Bible Talks teaching from the Scriptures and discussing with them how to be more effective (Acts 14:1). 2) As well at this meeting to call the individuals in the Bible Talk to “reset” their lives by repenting of “viruses” (that slow us down) such as cowardliness, unbelief, contempt and laziness. 3) At the same meeting, the Region Leader is to help each Bible Talk come up with a “catchy name” such as Jesus called His group – “The Apostles!” literally “the Messengers!” 4) And lastly, if the Region Leader is not presently leading a Bible Talk, then he is to begin so thus having a fruitful example for his other Bible Talks to imitate.Again, thanks to all who made such incredible sacrifices in order to attend the 2015 GLC!

    Therefore, “now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that [Jesus] really is the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!” (John 4:42)
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip
  • Good News & Important Updates For the GLC

    Good News & Important Updates For the GLC

    Greetings from Los Angeles! “Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” (Proverbs 25:25) We are excited to announce that on July 31 through August 2, 2015, we will be hosting another historic Livestream Event: The 2015 Global Leadership Conference! The schedule will begin at 9AM (Pacific Coast Time) on Friday, July 31st with the exciting opening video for the 2015 GLC! Indeed Friday and Saturday will be filled with incredible messages and miracles!

     


    The 2015 GLC – SAVIOR OF THE WORLD – is just 11 days away!

    Of special note for the Saturday Evening Session will be MERCY Night! Not only will Nick & Denise Bordieri – our new fulltime Directors of MERCYworldwide – give an exciting overview of MERCY’s extraordinary global efforts, but we are asking every disciple that is a GLC participant to wear their green MERCY t-shirt! This will remind us not only that every disciple in the SoldOut Movement is a MERCY Ambassador, but it will help us all to envision our unique “unity” as God’s movement! (John 17:17-20)

    Every SoldOut Movement Disciple is a MERCY Ambassador! On Saturday night every GLC participant will wear their green MERCY t-shirts as a sign of unity among the churches!

    Another highlight of the entire weekend will be the Sunday Worship Service where we will witness the Third Annual Commencement of the International College of Christian Ministries, Tim Kernan’s closing sermon – Do You Truly Love Me, and the send-off of the Sacramento and Stockholm Mission Teams! Joining us at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel will be our sister churches in Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara!

    On Sunday as well will be the Kingdom Appointments of Rebecca Rico – Valedictorian of the ICCM Class of 2015 – and Amadou & Angele Sountoura, the Lead Ministry Couple for the newly planted Abidjan (Ivory Coast) International Christian Church! (At the Abidjan Inaugural Service – just this past Sunday, July 19th – 116 disciples had 303 in attendance!)


    The vivacious fellowship of the Abidjan ICC!

    The Abidjan Church Leaders – Amadou & Angele Sountoura – will be appointed at the 2015 GLC!

    To enjoy this momentous event, the 2015 GLC can be viewed in three ways:

    1. From your personal computer at https://livestream.com/caicc/2015GLC or www.caicc.net.
    2. From the ROKU Streaming Media Player on your TV and be sure to download the Livestream Plugin.
    3. If you are on the go you can download the Livestream App on the Google Play Store for Android devices and the Apple App Store for the iPhone/iPad.

    For Livestream Support requests, please first see the Support Section on Livestream.com @ http://help.livestream.com/customer/portal/articles/search?q=how+to+watch.You may subscribe to the CAICC Channel using your Facebook account or personal email. In this way, you can stay in the loop about all upcoming Livestream Events and Features.The CyberMinsitry and the Livestream Production Team is here to help you, when you just can’t figure it out! In those cases, don’t be discouraged! Please email us at Livestreaming@usd21.org. Provide details and how to best contact you immediately and we will have someone get back to you shortly!


    Alex, AJ and Mario – “the AV guys” – propelled the gospel through Livestream to bring the 2014 GLC to 52 nations!
    Also, we are building into the Livestream new and cutting-edge media concepts! This year, excitingly Princeton George will be “hosting” and Jason Bond will be directing the interviews during the Evening General Sessions and the Sunday Church Service!
     

    At the 2014 GLC there were just under 2,000 for the Sunday Worship Service! In 2015 even more will be gathered to embrace the vision to evangelize the nations in this generation! 

    I would like to close by thanking Alex Rohde – our Livestream Director for the CAICC (Livestreaming@usd21.org) – and our entire Global Internet Ministry for allowing us to witness the modern day miracle of the gathering of disciples from so many nations around the world! See you on July 31st!

    “We are family… To the end,”
    Kip

  • Good News Email – July 6, 2015

    Good News Email – July 6, 2015

    Greetings from Manila, Sydney, Abidjan and Los Angeles! Elena & I arrived in the Philippines on Thursday night June 4th to help with all the preparations for the Inaugural Service of the Metro Manila International Christian Church (MMICC)! For the next three days we could not help but reminisce about bringing the original Manila Mission Team of 26 disciples in 1989! With joy we remembered that God provided the Makati Intercontinental Hotel as the cheapest venue! At that incredible service in 1989, God gave us an amazing attendance of 260! On this historic Sunday of June 7th, the 49 disciples of the Manila Remnant Group joined the nine disciples on the Manila Mission Team from LA at the same hotel in the same room, and God blessed the Inaugural Service of the MMICC with 306 in attendance!


    306 attend the MMICC Inaugural Service!

    To prepare for the Inaugural, we celebrated the Day of MERCY one week early on June 6th! The MMICC served the children of one of the more impoverished neighborhoods of Metro Manila called Payatas. Payatas is the home of 5,000 poor families who make $1 a day scavenging the dump-site for scraps of plastic, metal, paper and glass to sell to junk shops that surround Payatas. Here songs and food were shared with the very grateful children! As well, over 200 pairs of flip flops were given out!


    Manila’s MERCY Ambassadors in Payatas!

    The MMICC had an incredible beginning as in their first eight days, God showered them with eight additions – three baptisms, three restorations and two place memberships of disciples seeking revival directly from our former fellowship!

    Ace was baptized by Michael Kirchner
    immediately following the MMICC
    Inaugural Service!
    On Tuesday, June 16th, Elena & I continued on our missionary journey and landed early in the morning in Sydney, Australia! Joe & Kerry Willis have done an outstanding job leading this now one year old church in this very atheistic country.

    The McKeans’ first night in Sydney was spent
    with the Willis Family – Joe, Kerry,
    Ally and Luke!
    Yet, this second year, the Sydney Church has not seen the forceful advancement for which they had dreamed and prayed. For the next few days, we spent time with the leaders listening to their perspectives, studying the Scriptures and praying.

    Sean & Teigan!

    Mason & Nathalie!
    Two aspiring ICCM Students – Jenna and
    Dean “The Machine” Lam!
    The Clagues and the above leaders each
    had a “D-Time” with the McKeans!
    Then we preached to the church on Thursday night! On Saturday, Elena preached for the Women’s Day on the theme – LET IT GO! Praise God that Sydney’s 13 women disciples had an attendance of 34!

    Themis is so excited about the
    Sydney Women’s Day!


    The success of the Women’s Day breathed
    faith into the entire Sydney Church!

    With this great attendance, the entire church believed again that “the fields are ripe for harvest!” (John 4:35) This Sunday, another awesome Chinese college student was baptized into Christ continuing to build the Hong Kong Mission Team!I flew back with Elena to LA on Sunday, June 21st and met that evening with Tim & Lianne Kernan – who did a marvelous job leading LA in our absence – and the LA Shepherding Couples: Nick & Denise Bordieri and Tony & Therese Untalan to catch up on how the City of Angels Church was doing! A glowing report was given!The next morning, I was off to Abidjan, Ivory Coast for the First African Missions Conference (AMC)! After four plane flights, I arrived at about 10PM on Tuesday night and received one of the warmest welcomes imaginable! Not only did the 75 disciples at the airport sing in French We Love You With The Love Of The Lord, but then I was ushered outside where I was presented with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers!

    Kip receives his biggest bouquet of flowers…
    It was also his first!
    What a welcome!

    Then to the beat of African drums, the Abidjan disciples spread a beautiful blanket on the ground and one by one different disciples danced on it for me as my formal welcome! Then Blaise Feumba whispered in my ear, “Bro, get ready because they would like to have you dance for them!” Andrew Smellie must have seen my facial expression, and encouragingly said, “Bro, just take my hand and follow my lead and I’ll help you out with the rhythm!” So Andrew and I danced for the Abidjan Church!

    Micky and Kip meet for the first time!
    In many respects, the AMC began in earnest the next day! I was blessed to have a brother and preacher from the Mainline Church of Christ in Nigeria – Benedict Atason – come from contact on Facebook! After three days of Bible study and discussions about the differences between the International Christian Churches and the Mainline Church of Christ, Benedict wholeheartedly decided to join God’s new movement and to bring those he influences in Lagos with him!

    Benedict Atason (second from the left) – a Mainline
    Church of Christ Preacher – joins
    God’s new movement!
    Officially the AMC began on Friday afternoon with the Bible Talk Leaders Session!


    Friday afternoon’s Bible Talk
    Leaders Workshop!

    On Saturday, we had Men and Women Sessions in the morning. Then in the afternoon, we participated in a very moving MERCY Event of feeding the starving children in the heart of Abidjan!

    The MERCY Ambassadors were so fired-up
    to feed the children of Abidjan!
    Saturday night a Great Banquet was held at Paul & Odile Bekoin’s house! An incredible feast was prepared which included such delicacies as fish heads and giant snails!


    Paul & Odile were gracious hosts for the
    Saturday Night Banquet at their home!

    On the Sunday morning of the African Missions Conference, gathered with the 200 disciples from Ivory Coast were a total of 26 other disciples from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, France, England and the United States! We had an amazing attendance of 498 with 12 baptisms and the restoration of Lyly Ngungu – the awesome wife of Micky Ngungu!

    A rainy Sunday morning does not dampen the
    spirits of anyone heading to the
    AMC Worship Service!
    The Ushers!


    The AMC Worship Service begins with an
    African drum presentation! 


    Blaise & Patricia Feumba welcome
    the AMC participants!


    12 souls were baptized into Christ!


    The 498 in attendance at the AMC Worship
    Service display the unity that will
    ultimately evangelize all
    of Africa!

    With so many remnant disciples in Africa joining the new movement, I am reminded of God’s words in Jeremiah 23:3-4, “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. I will place shepherds over them [so] they will no longer be afraid, nor will any be missing!”I began to fly home that night… and after five flights arrived in Los Angeles late on Monday night tired but totally in awe of God and His forcefully advancing movement!For the City of Angels Church, the months of May and June have been times of leadership transitions! The Spirit has sent out incredible leaders from LA: Kyle & Joan Bartholomew, Marc & Maika Carbonell, Zach Shields, RJ Castro, Johnny Cortez and Ariel Butler to Manila; Cesar & Debbie Limon and Fernando & Jackie Chavez to Portland; Anthony & Cassidy Olmos to London; Jake & Jen Ramsier and Curt & Morgan Valdez to Honolulu; Princeton & Joy George to San Diego; and Dennis & Corrina Sloan to Santa Barbara! In total so far in 2015, exactly 40 disciples have been sent out to strengthen and plant churches!

    Princeton & Joy are now leading the
    church in Sunny San Diego!
    During this same two month span, we have welcomed several new leaders to our church family: Tim & Lianne Kernan from Toronto, Ricky & Coleen Challinor from Portland, Evan & Kelly Bartholomew from San Diego, Ron & Tracy Harding from Washington DC, Nick & Jackie Economo from Chicago, Rich & Angie Tabizon from Manila, Preston & Shawna Inkley from Boston, and Lou Jack & Cathi Martinez from Honolulu – who baptized their daughter Christine on July 4th!

    Christine is baptized by her awesome
    dad and mom – Lou Jack &
    Cathi Martinez!
    Also, we are beginning a training program for South Asia Missions in the OC Region of LA under the dynamic leadership of Luke & Brandyn Speckman – who oversee this geographic area of the world which includes the 1.27 billion people of India! Roger & Yassa Green of Chennai have just arrived to train for six months!


    Roger & Yassa, welcome to America!

    In addition, congratulations to all of our High School and College Graduates! A very special congratulations goes to Avrie Blackwell who was the Valedictorian for Crenshaw High School!

    Cory Blackwell’s daughter Avrie is the
    Valedictorian of Crenshaw
    High School!
    As well, congratulations to our Central Region Interns Bryson & Jazmine Okuno, who were married in their home city of Honolulu on June 14, 2015! Also we are so happy for Mike & Stephanie Schafer of the OC Region who were married on June 19th!

    Bryson & Jazzy Okuno!
    Mike & Stephanie Schafer!
    Our third wedding was of extra special joy because after years of living together Juan & Eunice Luna became disciples in the Southland Region, and then were married today! Their two kids Joey and Jenisis were as fired up as dad and mom!

    Juan & Eunice Luna!
    Even in the midst of all these transitions, in the first 181 days of this year God has blessed the City of Angels Church with 247 additions – 190 baptisms, 21 restorations and 36 place memberships! And to God be all the glory!NEWS FLASH: The 2015 Global Leadership Conference is just days away! Though the “pre-festivities” begin on Tuesday, July 28th, the actual conference begins Friday morning July 31st and concludes Sunday afternoon August 2nd! Our theme this year is SAVIOR OF THE WORLD and indeed this is why we gather annually in LA for this historic seminar!


    Register for the 2015 GLC today to worship
    with disciples from all around the globe!

    The registration fee is $175 again this year and you may register online at: 2015glc.eventbrite.com. So far 441 have registered. Our “break even goal” is 1,400! So please register today and pray for this life-changing conference!
    NEWS FLASH – Nick Bordieri: “You’re So Special!” – The Seventh Annual International Day of MERCY! “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6) Everyone needs that special touch of Jesus, and this is especially true for the poor and needy around the world!I was so encouraged to receive the good news to hear about how each of you, MERCY Ambassadors, expressed your faith through love by touching the lives of those less fortunate across the globe from the Annual MERCY Community Day Fair in Hilo; to serving orphans in Santiago, Sao Paulo, Haiti and Phoenix; to community beautification projects in Chennai, San Francisco and Boston; to restoration projects in NYC; to youth education programs in Dallas, Syracuse and Washington DC; to serving those with disabilities in Chicago and Moscow; and to encouraging the elderly in Brazil and Houston; and feeding the poor in Abidjan and Manila!

    London Ambassadors earned over $1,000 tagging
    for MERCY’s Haiti Water Filtration Program,
    which will supply over 20 water filters
    to families in need!
    For the International Day of MERCY in Los Angeles over 600 MERCY Ambassadors divided up into five super regions, and were provided the basics of disaster and emergency preparedness by the American Red Cross. The question is not if something happens, but when! By being prepared for what to do in a natural disaster or emergency situations, like fires, car accidents, shooting incidents and terrorist acts, we become part of the solution rather than victims that need special attention. Echoing the Red Cross’ slogan for disaster and emergency preparedness, “The worst disaster is not being prepared!”

    In LA, the MERCY Ambassadors were readied
    by the Red Cross for “when” disaster strikes!
    The impact on the lives of so many around the world during the International Day of MERCY 2015 can be summed up by the three words in a card written by one of our youngsters to encourage the homeless in London: “You are special!”I’ll close with a quote from Trina Strand, the Director of Janus Youth – a transitional housing program for homeless youth in Portland, “These kids get forgotten by everyone else, and the fact that you guys are here helping shows them that they matter!”

    Thanks to Nick & Denise Bordieri – our Global
    MERCY Directors – for coordinating all the
    efforts of the MERCY Ambassadors!
    Thank you MERCY Ambassadors for letting the poor, needy and less fortunate in your communities know that they matter to us and to God! Through your relentless efforts, the loving touch of Jesus is making them feel “so special!”And now more good news from our world sectors around the globe…HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANTJeremy Ciaramella: In 1 Chronicles 28:17 it is written, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”

    In the Valley of “the Son,” we are rejoicing that God has blessed the willing hearts of the brothers and sisters! We blew out Special Missions with over 104% of our goal! God also blessed us with five additions in the month of June! We are so grateful for the efforts and creativity of our AMS House Church Leaders, Josiah & Kristin Smith! They planned the “So You Think You Have Talent” Event this year and rallied many in the church around this amazing production! Some very talented artists performed and were reached-out to as well as over $5,000 profit was raised for missions!


    Joshua & Kristin Smith organized the “So
    You Think You Have Talent” Event!
    We also profited greatly from our brother Anthony Patterson’s visit to the African Missions Conference! Upon his return, he gave a very stirring and sobering account of his experiences in Abidjan, opening our eyes to how privileged we are in the USA!

    On the streets of Abidjan, Anthony (second from
    the right) hangs with Jonathan of LA, Lola
    of Kinshasa and Jacques of London!

    Anthony sharing about his adventures at the
    AMC with the Phoenix Church!
    The first of the five added to our number by God was an amazing single mother – Tasha Moore! She’s been attending church for almost a year and her oldest teenage daughter Jazylyn is now studying the Bible! Next, God brought us “triplets” on Father’s Day! He added a college student named Cisco, a single brother named Darryl, and the physical sister to our campus ministry women’s leader Brittany Bulerin – Deliisa! It is totally inspiring to see God change Deliisa’s heart from persecuting her sister to now living as a joyful and faithful disciple!

    The Phoenix Brothers pray with Cisco as
    he prepares to enter the Kingdom!
    The Lord also added to our number our newest sister Regina Daniel, and so all of us are so very grateful to see God growing His church!

    Regina rejoices in her salvation!
    “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples!” (John 15:8) We are humbled and grateful to be witnessing our Father’s glory in Phoenix!Victor Gonzalez: Greetings from Las Vegas! “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…” (Ephesians 3:20) A year ago, David & Sonia Green came to Las Vegas as a part of the missionary group to strengthen the church! Now after having an awesome and productive year, they are being sent to Orlando as potential members of the Miami Mission Team to continue their training under our dear friends Matt & Helen Sullivan! I am super proud of my daughter and my son in the faith and even though it is very painful to separate from them, my wife Sonia & I understand that this is the price to evangelize the world!

    David & Sonia are sent by the Spirit to
    pursue their dream to help plant
    the Miami Church!
    Last week, we had Jonathan & Bree’s wedding! Today is David & Sonia’s last Sunday here in Vegas and we had an awesome Sunday, as well as another wedding – Saul & Shirlyn – and they were baptized immediately following the ceremony! It is incredible seeing God change their lives!

    Congratulations to Saul & Shirlyn!
    We are getting ready for an amazing GLC and super fired-up to have the opportunity to fellowship with disciples from all over the world!HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT & CANADACesar Limon: “In His defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.’” (John 5:17) Grace and peace in abundance from the Portland Saints! Sadly this past week, Oregon passed a law where people are able to consume, grow andpossess marijuana legally and now there are more marijuana shops in Portland thanMcDonalds or Starbucks! Satan is working to numb out people from reality but thankfully God and His church are working here to do just the opposite as this past month we held the first Portland – ICCM Session, hosted five MERCY Events, and wewitnessed nine added to the Portland family – three baptisms, three restorations and three place memberships!First to be baptized was Megan from the Singles Ministry; then Mercedes from the Latin Ministry; and lastly, Arrow at today’s service!


    Megan gives the new Portland challenge,”The
    Living Waters will reach you next!”
    It was amazing how God worked with Arrow to bring him out! Arrow had a prayer Monday morning to find people to study the Bible with and about four hours later he met Jorge Castillo at PSU! Fascinatingly, that same morning Jorge had prayed a specific prayer for God to add more “arrows” to his quiver (Psalm 127:3-5)… Who would have thought that God would not just give him a great PSU student but that his name would literally be “Arrow!”Baptisms are incredible, but equally awesome are restorations and this week Whitney Santos-DiLoreto, a very dear sister to many in the Kingdom, was restored to the Lord! She also gave birth this past week to her new baby boy, Noah!

    Whitney gives birth to baby Noah the
    same week she is restored!
    Lastly it was amazing to have heroes in the faith Juan Carlos, his wife Betty, and his mother Blanca place membership with us from the New York City Church! Great to be in God’s SoldOut Movement! Mucho amor from Portland!

    Heroes in the faith to many Juan Carlos, his wife
    Betty and his mother Blanca all place
    membership from NYC!
    Jake Studer of Toronto: Warm greetings from the “Eh-Team!” We have had an exciting month as God has already richly blessed the work of the campus disciples with our first campus baptism of the summer on the FIRST day of summer – Father’s Day! Our new brother John Froese is a second year Criminology Major at the internationally renowned University of Toronto!

    John’s baptism ignites the fervor
    of the Toronto Brothers!
    In addition, we are humbled to have celebrated our FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY today and enjoyed an incredible service complete with a commemorative video which can be seen on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/m5rcVzgzYUw. To God be all the glory!

    The Toronto MERCY Ambassadors!
    Jason Dimitry of San Francisco: “So the Word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly!” (Acts 6:7) June has been a month of incredible victories here in the Bay! We have seen the number of disciples increase by six giving us 106 sold-out disciples in the San Francisco Bay Church!

    The SF Sisters adore their baby sister Rachel!
    We were all truly blown away on Father’s Day when we took up our Special Missions Contribution collecting 144% of our Movement Goal! This abundance gives us the means to now see “the Word of God spread” to Sacramento, which means from a Pauline perspective California has been evangelized!It was so inspiring last week to “spy out the land” with the Beases! Jacob & Courtney have so much vision for California’s capital city! Another highlight was seeing the beautiful wedding of Elliot & Camille Svenkeson!

    Congratulations to Elliot & Camille!
    So excited to see you at the GLC!Jacob Beas: Greetings from the soon-to-be Sacramento Church! We are thrilled to report incredible news from the “spying out the land” trip we took with the Dimitrys on June 22-24th! It was both a faith-building and humbling time to visit the Capital of California and to realize that God has already given this incredible city to us! We made a special point of visiting the four largest campuses praying at each one for many souls to be saved there! Then we claimed the land by stomping our feet in unison!We were also able to take the majority of our mission team the following weekend for a day trip, imitating the faith-building time we had with the Dimitrys!

    The Sensational Sacramento Mission Team!
    We are eternally grateful for our amazing leaders, Jason & Sarah, who took us under their wings and have invested so much to get us ready for this mission! Can’t wait to be sent out at the GLC! See you there!HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANTMike Patterson: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24) Greetings from Gainesville! We have been in the race to win souls not only spiritually but physically as well! Our Annual 5K Run For Missions is a fundraiser for our Special Missions Contribution to support God’s work around the world. We run the race and then have church in the park!

    Gainesville’s Annual 5K Run For Missions!
    Congratulations to Jason (University of Florida baseball player and disciple!) who won the event this year! It was coordinated by our brother Brady Vaughn with this year’s theme being the Fire & Ice: Water Run!

    Jason wins the prize “that will not last!”
    We added a “slip and slide” in the middle of the race and at the finish line with participants being sprayed with water guns and possibly hit by water balloons! God helped us the following week to blow out our 25X Special Missions Goal by raising over $36,000!

    The Gainesville Disciples were soaring
    after blowing out their Missions Goal!
    Not only are we running the race to raise money to win souls but also to complete “the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” through people being added to God’s church. On June 24th after Men’s Midweek, we saw an incredible University of Florida student named Evenson baptized into Christ and then today we were able to witness an amazing young woman named Kelsey make Jesus Lord by entering the waters of baptism!

    Kelsey surrenders all and makes Jesus
    her Lord and Savior!
    We also want to thank Anthony & Elizabeth Eckels for hosting an incredible Singles Retreat in Destin, Florida last weekend for the US South Quadrant Churches. We came back with a vision of an AMS Ministry and had our first ever AMS Life Group (Bible Talk) with five visitors at a coffee shop that was hosting an Open Mic Night! Please pray for our Bring Your Neighbor Day this Sunday! We look forward to seeing you at the GLC and to God be all the glory!Tyler Sears: Greetings and “Howdy Y’all” from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)! The last couple weeks have been encouraging as the Lord added three to our number – one baptism and two restorations! Several weeks ago Sarah was baptized into Christ after meeting Jodwin at his job. She was doing an internship and was impacted by Jodwin’s boldness and his life!Also, Anthony & Kayla Clark were restored last week! After moving to DFW from Tulsa, Oklahoma for the sake of being in a SoldOut Movement Church, they shared how their sins had taken them out of the Kingdom but rejoiced at the chance to do it “God’s way” again! Shay & I were personally inspired as they were an answered prayer!

    Anthony’s & Kayla’s restorations means
    so much to Tyler & Shay!
    Matt Sullivan: Greetings from the Orlando Church! Indeed, nothing is impossible for our God! We committed to the needs of the movement months ago to give $38,000 for Special Missions and to give again in November… but wanted to give all at once so our goal June 15th was $50,000! We then set a faith goal of $65,000! God did the impossible and blessed us with $76,106!Another financial miracle was seeing God answer our prayer to have Adrian Jimenez come on Staff! So we prayed and his family committed to supporting him for a year full-time by giving his intern salary directly to the church! Also a joy to the entire congregation is our newest dating couple – Adrian Jimenez & Kacie Fligor!

    Congratulations to Adrian & Kacie… Kacie’s
    many friends are looking forward to
    meeting Adrian at the GLC!
    In the last three days, the Lord added to our number again as Dinayjah and Stefen were baptized from our Full-Sail Singles/Campus Bible Talk! And to God be the glory!HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPEMichael Williamson: Greetings from London England! Amidst historic warm weather here in the UK, it’s been a joy watching the Holy Spirit move through the London International Christian Church! God has blessed the church with eight additions and a new dating couple in the past five weeks! It was awesome to see two siblings come to the Lord; Jeanette Yeboha’s brother Ridge was the first to be baptized; then Kenny Giwa’s brother and semi-pro footballer (soccer player) Sadique was baptized a week later! The Kingdom unifying families is what it’s all about!

    Sadique is so fired-up to have
    a purpose beyond “football!”
    The following week Sadique was determined to convert his best friend Michael who is actually just as talented on the football pitch! God blessed his prayers as Michael was added just a week later!We then baptized an incredible young Hungarian woman named Eni (Annie) who’s gentle and quiet spirit refreshed the saints! Eni’s story is amazing as she was baptized into the Golders Green Bible Talk after her cousin, who stopped studying the Bible, gave her a share card and said that Eni would find the studies helpful!

    Eni enjoying the Singles Retreat!
    The following week, we hosted the Singles Retreat where an incredible zealous brother Sean, asked our dear sister MJ to be his girlfriend!!!!

    Jenn Watkins not enjoying the Singles
    Retreat as much as Eni!
    We also restored our sister Stephanie at Campus Devo, and baptized an incredible Lithuanian single professional man named Arunis!

    Arunis (pictured with his daughter Saula) was
    baptized thanks to the prayers of our
    Lithuanian brother Martynas
    in the Stockholm Church!
    The following weekend, we had an incredible Marrieds Encouragement Weekend, where we were able to have a lovely boat cruise, dinner and for “dessert” all the men recited poems to their wives (flowers in hand) in front of huge crowds in South London’s beautiful historic Richmond Area!Lastly, Anthony & Cassidy arrived from LA on Monday and the church is so fired up! Anthony has already been dubbed “Instant Impact Anthony,” accompanied with his amazing wife “Kind Cassidy!” We are so honored to work side-by-side with this amazing couple building Europe for God’s glory! Thank you LA, and all who have poured their hearts into this amazing young couple!

    Anthony & Cassidy are profoundly moved
    by the love of the London Church!
    Cassidy wilted hearts with her communion, and Anthony flat preached the Word at Bible Talk Leaders Meeting! Can’t wait to see you in a few weeks at the GLC!HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTHElena Sirotkina: Greetings from the Moscow, Russia and the Kiev, Ukraine Churches! This past month in Moscow started out great as we had the encouraging visit of Luke &BrandynSpeckman fresh from their missionary trip to Chennai, India!With this boost in June, the Moscow and Kiev Churches added 11 new brothers and sisters by baptism! Our two great and faithful brothers from Congo – who were baptized less than two months ago – shared their faith with students in the People’s Friendship University of Russia. And so at the beginning of June, Stephen from Cameroon and Zhan-Pol from Congo were baptized!

    The next Sunday, we had an amazing International Service where everyone came in costumes representative of their nationalities! It’s was funny, colorful and most importantly a fruitful service, where we witnessed four baptisms – two men and two women!


    The Kapskys share at the International Service!

    The Moscow International Christian Church!

    The Moscow Sisters enjoy the fellowship
    after the International Service!
    So great to see how God is adding to the church in Moscow people from different nationalities who are living in Russia! This Thursday, we had the baptism of Timur from Kalmykia (Muslim Republic) from the Bible Talk of Timur & Vika Butakov! Now we have two brothers and a sister from this country! So pray for the mission team that God is forming for this great nation!

    Our new brother Timur (left) from Kalmykia shows
    Timur Butakov where Kalmykia is located!

    Kalmykia is in red!
    Another great news is from our dear church in Kiev, Ukraine! One year ago our daughter Sofiia was baptized into Christ! After one month, we were able to visit Ukraine and encourage our church there. On Sunday service, Sofiia met her friend Irina from Kids Kingdom! Irina, was very humble to ask Sofiia to study the Bible with her. Sofiia felt privileged to do it and after some time Irina was baptized!Irina, who is 15 years old, prayed to be fruitful, and two months ago she shared her faith on campus and invited Ludmila, who started to study the Bible! Ludmila shared her faith with her roommate Alina and both of them decided to become disciples and were baptized! Then Alina asked her classmate Masha to help with preparation for an exam. Masha was kind and came to help, but Alina thought that she doesn’t have the money to pay Masha… Then she realized that she had a lot more than money – her faith and a little knowledge of the Bible! Masha was atheist, but because of Alina’s teaching from the Bible, she was interested to go to service. Last Sunday, we were able to see this miracle of faith as Masha was baptized!

    Left to right: Sofiia studied with Irina; Irina
    studied with Ludmila; Ludmila invited
    Alina; Alina studied with Masha!
    For the Day of MERCY, Moscow held a photo contest titled, “The Moment” to raise awareness for people with disabilities. Over 110 photographs from across Russia were displayed. This momentous event was attended not only by the public but also government delegates, sponsors and founders of philanthropic foundations!

    Moscow’s Day of MERCY – “The Moment!”
    On June 27-28th, we had our first Campus Retreat near Moscow and five new disciples from Ukraine registered and after 20 hours trip by bus came to their first Campus Retreat! In a time where the countries of Russia and Ukraine have a very tense relationship, it great to see that in the Kingdom there is nothing but peace and love! To Him be the glory!HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICAAndrew Smellie: To my African Brothers and Sisters: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) I thank God for the opportunity to have met all you at the First African Missions Conference of God’s new movement! It was a privilege to worship side-by-side with you as we prayed for God to gather His remnant from the farthest horizon! (Nehemiah 1:8-9)

    Upon their arrival in Abidjan, Andrew & Patrique
    are greeted in French with We Love You
    With The Love Of The Lord!
    Jacques Groenewald (left) of South Africa
    and Tamru Belhu of Eithiopia!
    I will never forget the privilege to feed the children for our Day of MERCY!

    The International MERCY Ambassadors!
    Or the “conga-line” of disciples dancing as Micky led your glorious singing! The Lord blessed us with 498 souls in attendance on Sunday (not including the dancers!) As well we witnessed 12 baptisms and one restoration – Lyly Ngungu!

    With Micky Ngungu leading the singing,
    the entire Abidjan Church does the
    “Spiritual Conga” around
    the auditorium!

    Micky & Lyly are hugged by Kip
    after Lyly’s restoration!
    To God be the glory! It was especially encouraging to notice that the first two baptisms were Soumaila & Judith Gouba, who are now eager to start a remnant group in Burkina Faso!A special note of thanks is due to Amadou & Angele Sountoura of the Mighty Abidjan Church for being such incredible hosts! Patrique & I felt completely cared for and loved. It is my hope that our time together was just the beginning of uniting our hearts as we serve together faithfully building our ministries!

    Amadou & Angele Sountoura – the Abidjan
    Church Leaders!
    Dear African Family, Let us all take the challenge to have weekly D-times with our discipling partners as we pray for God to bring forth an abundant harvest throughout the continent of Africa! Pray for the “reconstruction” of the Abidjan and Korezouzoua, Ivory Coast Remnant Groups (numbering about 140 and 60 respectively), where each member will “count the cost” to be added to the official membership list! Prayerfully, Abidjan will celebrate their Inaugural Service on July 19th and Korezouzoua will celebrate their Inaugural in late August!Looking forward to returning to Africa in early 2016 with my wife and dearest partners in the gospel – Blaise & Patricia Feumba – to see for the first time our 325 member Kinshasa, DRC Church dynamically led by Micky Ngungu and Lola Lof!

    Lyly points to Johannesburg on the Crown of
    Thorns Project because with her restoration
    the J’burg Remnant Group has begun!
     
    For a slideshow on the AMC please see go to: https://drive.google.com/a/usd21.org/file/d/0B4P43SUHI40mUkE3N0ExYzR1Tk0/view! We are family…to the end!HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICAAlfredo Anuch: Greetings from Santiago de Chile! Although the past few weeks have been extremely cold here (it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere!), the church has been completely on fire!!! In the last five weeks, God has blessed us with eight additions!Ramón, the father of our young disciples Gonzalo and Paulina, came to visit and when he realized the changes in his children, he decided to study the Bible… In less than two weeks, Ramón was baptized! His words were, “Finally, after so many, many years, I’ve found the church of God!”


    Ramón (striped shirt) is baptized because
    of his children’s awesome example!
    Onésimo & Jolymar, an incredible Venezuelan married couple, visited the church after finding us on the Internet! Onésimo, having studied theology and with an ample knowledge of the Scriptures, and Jolymar, a journalist by profession, became like children to receive the message and thus be born again!

    The Central Sector Disciples are overjoyed
    by Onésimo’s & Jolymar’s baptisms!
    Equally encouraging, Jorge was baptized in the ICOC in 1990 which was the year that the church here in Santiago was planted! He was a faithful disciple up to 1996… After 19 years of being lost, José Andrés, our Shepherd-in-training, had Jorge on his heart. So José Andrés contacted him, talked about the Lord, and the new movement! Jorge was so excited that after a month of studying and repenting, he was restored!

    Jorge is restored to the Lord by José
    Andrés (left) and Giovanni!
    And, this Sunday, Felipe – another Civil Engineering student at the prestigious Universidad Católica – was baptized! Malcolm met him and in just two weeks Felipe became a disciple! To God be the glory!

    Felipe is baptized by Malcom and Gonzalo!
    Raul Moreno: “For this reason I kneed before the Father, from whom every family in and on earth derives its name.” (Ephesians 3:14-15) Greetings from your fellow brothers and sisters in Sao Paulo, Brazil! We look forward to seeing all the churches at the GLC in just three weeks!In June, the Lord was good to us as two more USP campus students were baptized! First Sandra was baptized who is doing her doctorate in Statistics! Then Rafael was baptized, who is in his first year doing Engineering! As well this past month, two amazing single women were baptized! Their names are Giovanna and Amanda! God has been very good to us! We love you with the love of the Lord! 

    Amanda (third from left) is the spiritual
    twin of Rafael (fourth from the left)!
    Carlos Mejia: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) Greetings from the SoldOut Movement disciples in Mexico City and a very Happy Fourth of July to all of our American brothers and sisters!The month of June brought with it the spiritual winds of change with the bulk of the Supplemental Mission Team from Santiago arriving in June. Although change can be challenging (especially when moving from country to country) these 12 gallant disciples have given up every comfort for the cause of Jesus and have already strengthened the church here in immeasurable ways! We are all eager and excited to build a pillar church for all of Mexico and Central America!

    The Mexico City Supplemental Mission
    Team from Santiago!
    Amidst all of the transitions, God has not ceased to add to our number through baptisms and several restorations! Noteworthy was the restoration of a very dynamic “veteran” couple, Hugo & Adriana Barcelo who came directly from our former fellowship seeking revival! After coming out to service to see a longtime friend Jose Luis Cruz be restored, they immediately recognized that this was the “church that they were baptized into!” As they traversed through the Bible studies, skillfully led by Jose & Daniela Otero, the Barcelos were asked how they felt about placing membership, to which they emphatically responded, “WE NEED TO BE RESTORED!” Many tears were shed as they shared at their restoration!

    The Mexico City Church was refreshed
    by the humility of the Barcelos!
    And so all of us, together with the angels in Heaven, rejoiced in the fact that the Lord is gathering His remnant! And to Him be all the glory!HEADLINE NEWS – PACIFIC RIM & AUSTRAL-CHINAKyle Bartholomew: “The Word of God continued to increase and spread!” (Acts 12:24) In early May, the Manila Mission Teamwas sent out from the City of Angels Church! Upon landing there was so much to do, but the Manila Remnant Group and especially Rich & AngieTabizon made it a very smooth landing!On June 7, 2015 was our Inaugural Service where 49 disciples from the Remnant Group and nine from the Mission Team saw God bring 306 and one baptism and two restorations! There were so many open people and remnant disciples! We so appreciate Joe & Kerry Willis, Michael & Sharon Kirchner, Kirk & Margie Hamula, and especially Kip & Elena helping with all the visitors that day!


    The incredible Single Interns of the MMICC!
    One very special remnant couple visited that morning – Simple & Jehney Castro! Though they were a bit distant at first they were quick to accept an invitation by the McKeans to study with them about the core convictions of the new movement!

    The Monday night study with the Castros
    (second and third from the right)!
    The following Sunday was spectacular as we had 155 at service as Kip preached a great lesson on True Greatness! Other highlights that day included two more baptisms and the placing of membership by the Castros! They brought their four daughters, and at their time of sharing before the congregation, Simple in tears and holding up a very weathered Bible said, “For 14 years my life has been Hell! Though I have never missed church, when the former fellowship abandoned discipling and accountability, to my shame, I went back to my old sins even worse than before!”

    Simple preaches with his weathered Bible
    that discipling is a command of God!
    This Sunday, the three oldest daughters placed membership – Kendi (pronounced “Candy”), Keyk (pronounced “Cake”), Chocolate Kisses – and the youngest – Caramel – was baptized! Needless to say, the Castros are a very “sweet” family!

    The Castro Family – Jehney, Chocolate Kisses,
    Keyk, Simple, Kendi and Caramel!
    So just 29 days after our Inaugural Service, God has blessed us with 22 additions – 11 baptisms, six restorations and five place memberships directly from the ICOC!

    Joel Tesoro was restored at the MMICC Inaugural
    Service! Yesterday, he passed on into glory!
    Amazingly, he was fruitful with May Kalalang
    last Sunday and prayerfully will be fruitful
    again with Astrid Castaneda this week!
    Joe Willis: Greetings from the Kingdom “DOWN UNDER,” also known as the Sydney International Christian Church! If we could explain the love and joy that have been bred into the disciples by the Lord’s triumphant and gracious victories, it would be best depicted in Psalm 96:11, “Let the Heavens REJOICE, let the earth BE GLAD; let the sea RESOUND, and ALL that is in it!”First off, on the 20th of June this year, God blessed the church with such inspiration through a gorgeous and spectacular Women’s Day! What a “faith-increasing” moment it was as the 13 sisters stepped up to the plate and were therefore blessed with an amazing total of 21 friends and family present! With the beautiful theme LET IT GO, the Spirit truly led the event to deeply impact everyone’s hearts! From vibrant sea-blue colors in flowers and decor, to heart-wrenching testimonies of young and tender-hearted Christians, to an outstanding powerful skit creatively pieced together, and to finally, the courageous barrier-breaking speech brilliantly done by Elena McKean, so many friends and family eagerly signed up to return for either Bible studies or to be part of Bible discussions!

    The incredible Sydney Women’s Day!
    In addition to God’s generosity and plan to encourage us with Kip & Elena visiting, at our church’s MERCY Event, we cleaned up a common beach area at Neutral Bay by taking away glass, drug needles, etc! A local resident took notice of the significant efforts made by the disciples who served wholeheartedly that day! This kind gentleman saw it in his heart to thank the Sydney International Church with a donation to Special (in a time of such need) totaling $200!


    The Sydney MERCY Ambassadors!

    Since Kip & Elena’s visit, with renewed vision and direction, we have seen a dramatic change in forceful advancement, starting with the baptism of our new Christian brother Calvin Shuen, an Australian national from Hong Kong studying at Macquarie University! This baptism is doubly special as he is the younger brother of our sister Themis, who had been praying to see her brother become a Christian this year as part of her “2015 impossible prayers!”


    God answers Themis’ impossible prayer for
    her brother Calvin to be baptized!

    HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT & INDIA

    Chris Broom of New York City: Greetings from “The City That Never Sleeps!” The disciples here have been working tirelessly to fund-raise for World Missions and now, the Global Leadership Conference! With a Missions Contribution goal of $148,000, the 136 disciples of NYC gave $156,905! Amen!

    Then, in the spirit of missions, on Sunday June 28th, we bid farewell to some incredible disciples! First, we sent-off some of my dearest friends, Juan Carlos Garcia, his wife Betty, his daughter Samantha, and his mother Blanca to be with the Portland Church. Juan Carlos has been very ill for many years, is still in need of a kidney transplant, and is on dialysis every day. Despite all this, he has fought valiantly to build Spanish Ministries in all the churches that he has been a part of, and now as he returns to the Portland Church, we pray that he will be able to regain his health and be a powerful part of the Spanish Ministry there!


    The Garcia Familia heads to Portland!
    The Lord has blessed us to receive two incredible sisters: Hope Gbadayor, from the Syracuse Church, and Malorie Dela Cruz, from the San Diego Church who has come to train for the ministry alongside her boyfriend Amar Panduranga!

    Amar & Malorie are thrilled to be
    training together in NYC!
    We were also thrilled to send Aaron Viscichini & Sharmayne Villarino to Manila to be a part of the Inaugural Service there! Sharmayne brought out 14 of her friends and family to church that day! Aaron & Sharmayne are engaged to be married on December 19th and are our newest Region Leaders as they now lead the Brooklyn / Staten Island Region!

    Sharmayne’s 14 guests at the
    MMICC Inaugural Service!
    Aaron has hit the ground running and baptized two men at St. Francis College (both named John)! We are currently praying to baptize “3rd” John! Also, another CCNY student, Marcus, was baptized as well!

    Aaron and Angel baptize John from
    St. Francis College!
    Finally, our incredibly talented brother Ernest Felton Baker, winner of the US Presidential Scholarship at the Kennedy Center, and a cast that included 18 disciples and some of our “talented teens” performed this month on the main stage at the historic 2015 Harlem Arts Festival! His Biblically inspired work HOME is an incredible performance that involved praise, hip hop, African, contemporary and interpretive dancing, hymns and sermons! When asked by the announcer what HOME was about Ernest said, “The journey from dark to light!” To God be the glory!

    NYC Disciples perform at the 2015 Harlem
    Arts Festival and look forward to
    performing at the GLC
    talent show!
     Courtney Parlour: This past month has been action packed here in Syracuse! Joel was grateful to see a lifelong dream be fulfilled as he went to the African Missions Conference! He came home with an inspired faith and vision! Thank you Abidjan Church for hosting such a historic weekend! This is only the beginning of the thousands of miracles to come! Also, we are very happy to have our Russian missionary home from Moscow, Oksana Ososkolo!

    Joel overlooking Abidjan!
    About nine months ago, Akilah was reached out to on campus by Miriam and Gina. She studied the Bible and almost got baptized but then walked away. The women stayed in contact with her and through their persistence and many prayers, Akilah was inspired to come back to church! She studied the Bible for a few more months and finally surrendered everything over to God! When it was time to answer the questions at baptism she quickly said, “Jesus is Lord! Let’s go!” She could not get into the waters of baptism quick enough!

    Akilah so appreciates the Syracuse Church
    the second time around!
    Also, our brother Kwaku was restored today! He is more zealous than ever before to win Syracuse University to Christ! A special thanks to Chris Broom for preaching an incredible sermon today! Chris & Theresa and many other disciples from Boston and New York City joined us for worship today and then we had the amazing wedding of Tyler & Sarah Payne! We believe God is going to do countless miracles through them in the years to come!Maria Franklin of Chicago: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” (Lamentations 3:22-24) What an incredible month! Today we celebrated the Great Chicago Church’s Nine Year Anniversary! It was an awesome time of celebration of what God has done these past years!Jay’s sermon however encouraged us to make tomorrow and the days to come the “Glory Days!” Of note of the original Chicago Mission Team, so manyhave been sent out from Chicago on other plantings all around the movement! That said only five remain: Jay & BarbShelbrack, Joe & DeniseChiappetta, and my husband Anthony Franklin!This month God has blessed the church with six additions – four baptisms and two place memberships! Two of the baptisms were daughters of members here in Chicago! Marisol is the daughter of Letty & Moises! Jennifer, a teen, is the daughter of Veronica who was just baptized in March!


    Tashonna rejoices at her baptism!
    Also of note, Walter, who is from China, was baptized and will be graduating with a Masters in Accounting at DePaul University!This month we participated in our Fourth Annual Men’s Retreat with the North Region blowing out the competition and winning the coveted “Diotrephes” Trophy. (Diotrephes in 3 John “loves to be first!”) It was a day of food, fun and games!

    The rules are laid out for the Watermelon
    Eating Contest… No hands!
    The final match between Omar and Theo
    in the Arm Wrestling Contest!
    Finally we are so fired up to have seven new Unpaid Interns for the Summer! Pray for us to have an incredible Summer Surge this month!Coltin Rohn: Greetings from Boston – the land of many “hahvast fields!” “‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:8) With a Missions Contribution Goal of $50,000, God gave us over $52,000 – thanks to 30 disciples giving well over 100%!God also allowed us to baptize a physical therapist from Nigeria and is God’s encouragement to us and the movement as his name is “Endurance!”We also had a great Day of MERCY as we continued our bond with the Lynn School District Coalition, and also with KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program)! Pray as Ted Karonis may become the Camp Director for “Camp Free” and would provide a way to help so many poor children throughout the North Shore!


    Ted Karonis hard at work during
    the Day of MERCY!
    Debs Rajan of Chennai: Greetings from the land of 210 languages – India! Raja, my awesome husband, has deep convictions that in order to evangelize India and the surrounding nations, every disciple needs to know a minimum of three languages: English, Hindi and the local language of the state! So the Chennai disciples have started taking Hindi classes!

    The Chennai International Christian Church!
    Excitingly, Philip, a Pentecostal Pastor who was baptized in Chennai, went back to his hometown in Raipur and started preaching about his transformation and God’s new movement! To assist him, we sent Roger, Yassa, Parthiban and Amanda to study the Bible with his congregation! Bad weather, poor living conditions, different food habits – nothing could stop these valiant disciples from baptizing those who were willing!So amazing, Anil, who was leading three churches, studied the Bible and went back to his churches and told them that “he is not a ‘true Christian’ so they too are not ‘true Christians!’” Then he too came to Chennai and was baptized!

    The Chennai Disciples welcome the Raipur
    Christians at midnight – Kingdom style!
    Philip’s wife Pinky, his niece Dolly, Alisha and her sister Asha, her friend Princykala and Dhasharath’s wife Sushma all were baptized in the river! We now have nine disciples in the Raipur International Christian Church! To God be the glory!

    Philip with his wife Pinky, Dolly, Alisha
    and Anil the ex-Pentecostal Pastor!
    Dear Brothers and Sisters: In closing, let us fall to our knees to praise our Almighty God and Father for an incredible 20X Missions Contribution in the United States Churches for international missions that now totals over $1,500,000! As well, let us give praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the Day of MERCY celebrated by all 59 SoldOut Movement Churches in 29 nations!

    Kip in his beloved Manila with the children
    at Smokey Mountain in 1989!

    Kip with the children of Payatas
    in Metro Manila in 2015!
    Let us continue to pray for what promises to be the best Global Leadership Conference… yet! “Finally, brothers, pray… that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you!” And to God be all the glory!
    We are family… to the end,
    Kip