Category: Good News Email

Greetings from Los Angeles! For the past two weeks as Elena & I visited the great cities of Toronto and Orlando constantly on my heart was my favorite Scripture, “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men [and women] who dreamed… Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ …And we are filled with joy!” (Psalm 126:1-3) The highlights of our missionary journey were the past two Sundays that “filled [us] with joy!” The first was Sunday, July 6, 2014 – the historic Inaugural Service of the Toronto International Christian Church where two were restored, two placed membership from our former fellowship seeking revival, and with 10 disciples on the mission team and 25 visiting from the States God gave us 77 in attendance!

Then on the following Sunday, July 13th, there were two events “among the nations” – The World Cup and the more important one to God – theIGNITE Youth Service hosted by the gracious Orlando Church where 210 gathered to celebrate God as He raises up the “next generation”of leaders for the SoldOut Movement! (Psalm 78:6) 
 

In returning to LA, we reflected that these past eight weeks in the City of Angels Church have been “a time to plant and a time to uproot… [and] a time to weep and a time to laugh.” (Ecclesiastes 3:2-4) We have said “tearful good-byes” to those sent out by the Spirit: to Tim & Lianne Kernan and Jake & Megan Studer as they planted the Toronto Church; to Megan Mathews who now serves the Portland Church fulltime; to Victor & Sonia Gonzalez as they are now leading the Las Vegas Church; to Gabe & Stephanie Reed as they are leading the Eugene Church; and to Tyler & Shay Sears as they prepare to plant the DFW Church, as well as saying our “good-byes” to all the sacrificial disciples that accompanied these powerful leaders!

Also during these transitions, we “gladly welcomed” Blaise & Patricia Feumba from London in May to lead the North Region, and just last week, we once again joined the disciples at LAX to “welcome back” Andrew & Patrique Smellie from New York City to lead the West Region! Lord willing, the Smellies will lead the Johannesburg Mission Team in 2016 which will “spearhead” our efforts in Africa! Also leading new charges in LA are: Chris & Kerri-Sue Adams leading the Ventura Region; Luke & Brandyn Speckman leading the OC Region; Jee Blackwell leading the Southland Women; and Cesar Limon & Debbie Bosch leading the East Region!

Interestingly, 83 disciples have been sent out from LA to plant and/or strengthen churches since January 1, 2014, at which time our membership was a little over 700 disciples with almost 1,200 in attendance on Sundays! So in spite of all these transitions, it is all the more amazing that the Lord has blessed the City of Angels Church in the 194 days of this calendar year with 288 additions: 201 baptisms, 36 restorations and 51 place memberships – several of whom have joined us directly from our former fellowship thirsting for a zealous fellowship with a “family feeling!”

Michael Kirchner – the World Sector Leader of Administration – shares about the entire SoldOut Movement: “In the midst of 200+ disciples moving to plant or strengthen churches, six church leadership changes, five church plantings, and five new region leaders in the LA Church, God has continued to add generously to our numbers! In the first six months of 2014 for the SoldOut Movement, there have been 879 additions – 579 baptisms, 90 restorations and 210 place memberships! This is five additions per day!!! We are almost through the heavy transition period and look forward to the late summer and autumn harvests of souls!”

And now more good news reports from our new World Sectors…
 
HEADLINE NEWS – LOS ANGELES
 
Patricia Feumba of the North Region: “The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” (Isaiah 60:22) The Lord has been working among us here in the North Region in a very inspiring way since we moved here two months ago! What an incredible group of sold-out disciples with a heart to do “whatever it takes” to reap the harvest from dead souls in “a valley of dried bones” (The San Fernando Valley) in our part of God’s worldwide mission field! We initiated a Summer Surge Campaign a few weeks ago entitled F.I.T. (Family, Instruction in the Word, and Team Work) with a calendar that covers most Saturdays up to the GLC. We began in Lake Balboa Park playing volleyball, praying and learning what it means to work as a team by hiking the Griffith Observatory Mount and praying to build character and perseverance. God has blessed us with weekly baptisms since!

Amongst the other miracles that happened, the highlight of the campaign occurred Saturday, July 12th where we had 13 guests from the CSUN Campus join us for our Bowling Night. An amazing woman, Kandie Haynesworth, had been visiting our church for over 19 years with her sister Rotasha Lewis, a dear servant of the Lord. After 19 years of Rotasha’s relentless prayers and faithfulness to God, Kandie decided to study the Bible! After a couple of weeks of applying the Scriptures to her life, Kandie began to transform! She quickly made the decision to make Jesus Lord of her life and was baptized!!!

It doesn’t stop there, God continues to blow us away by His unconditional love and desire to unify families in Him! Maribel Rodriguez, who is a modern day Lydia, visited our congregation for a couple of years. Inspired by her daughter Lindsey, she decided to begin studying the Bible. Maribel is a true Berean and researched the Scriptures constantly to make sure that her doctrine was correct. After much studying, Maribel decided to submit her life to God and was baptized!

 
Again, the miracles continue!!! God has brought some incredible single women with a desire to love and honor Him! A young woman, Ayrica Avery who was met by Garret Underwood, visited the North Region and studied the Bible a year ago… Now after much wrestling with the Scriptures, she began to seek God with all of her heart and was powerfully baptized!

And, yes, there is more!!! An extraordinary single mom, Carolina Guardado, who was invited by Javier Hernandez, was prompted to study the Bible when she visited our fellowship and saw the love among the disciples! (John 13:34-35) She decided that nothing was more important than loving our God and was baptized!!

Last but not least, God continued to add to our number from my beloved home nation of France!!!! We are so grateful that Heidi Santa Cruz of Paris will be a part of our North Region Family over the summer!!! We’re all unified and are committed to build God’s Kingdom and save as many as possible from the eternal fire of Hell!

Sonja Chloupek: “Hoe gaan dit?” (Afrikaans for “How ya doin?”) from the AMS Region! (Sonja is South African!) Today Jeffery Tuason was baptized! His father and mother, Jake & Dada, were converted in the original AMS in the 90’s along with Chris & me! Lord willing, they will soon be leaving the USA, after many years, to go back to their home town, Manila, as missionaries! Jeffery’s brother, John, was baptized a couple of years ago and currently serves as one of the best Kids Kingdom coordinators we’ve ever had! What a great inspiration the Tuasons are to all of us!

We also were blessed to welcome into our AMS Family a special brother, Jamal Ellis, from the fabulous Phoenix Church! Jamal was our third baptism after we took a stand and started the Phoenix International Christian Church in 2005! He has been a fruitful vine, following his dear mother, Melinda’s decision to make Jesus her Lord! They have seen four other family members saved since and Jamal was also the person that brought us incredible people such as Coltin Rohn, Chenelle Patterson, Kristen Smith and Ashley Godwin just to mention only a few!

There’s no business like “soul” business!

Kyle Bartholomew: Greetings from the Central Region! These past two weeks have been awesome as four precious souls were added to our region! First and foremost, a special thank you goes to the Hawaiian Churches for sending two incredible disciples, Loa’a Pine and Bryson Okuno! Both of these young men were serving as interns in the Hawaii Churches these past two years. They will be in the ICCM and training to go fulltime in the ministry!

Secondly, we were privileged to see Chris, a young man from ELAC, push through intense persecution from his family and get baptized!

Finally, this past Sunday a young woman Alex who walked away from God over a year ago came back to her senses, apologized to the congregation, and was restored to the Lord!

Please pray for us as many more are on the way!

Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! We are now 71 sold-out disciples strong and are climbing vigorously “inch by inch” to reach our prayer goal of “100 disciples for the Lord” by the Moscow Send-Off Service which is December 14, 2014! The South is turning up the heat this summer as two more came to get baptized in the hot sun on top of Table Mountain during our Annual Regional Retreat which was three weeks ago!

Again speaking of the Moscow Mission Team, two more moved from Moscow into the region to train – Lesha & Ira Voroschenko who just got off the plane last week – jumped right into the work of God! Also Sonia from the IE placed membership last Sunday! Much love from the South!

Luke Speckman: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) Greetings from the amazing Orange County Region!!! We have witnessed God “making it grow” in the OC the past three weeks with four additions within our Teen Ministry! Over the past couple weeks, Karen and RJ washed their sins away through baptism! Then today, Bibi and Johanna placed membership with us from the Mighty East Region!! We are super excited to watch God continue to grow the Teen Ministry in the OC! We are also very honored to have such incredible hard working Teen Workers: Kirk Hamula, Margie Flores, Michael Schafer and many others who serve our teens!

Also, we’re fired up to announce Kwaku Sarkodie and Ashley Watson, both ICCM students, are the new UC Irvine Campus Leaders!

To conclude our service today, we had the privilege to send off Rocky to Sao Paulo, Brazil! She will be with Raul & Lynda Moreno!

I absolutely love being a part of God’s movement as we work together as a family to make sure every church has its needs met around the world!! To God be all the glory!

Chris Adams of the Ventura Region: “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” (Acts 5:42) This is the theme Scripture for our five week Summer Campaign in the Ventura Region! On each of the next four Saturdays leading up to the GLC, the whole region will be sent by the Holy Spirit on a powerful missionary journey to four of the key cities of Ventura County: Camarillo, Moorpark, Ventura and Oxnard!

Already God is opening the floodgates and on this past Wednesday night, the Ventura sisters baptized a bold, young campus disciple named Crystal, pulling her into the Kingdom of Light! After persecuting one of the sisters for her faith when she was in high school, Crystal came to a change of heart and wanted to apologize to the sister. So as Crystal is selling door-to-door and is let into the backyard for a presentation, who does she find but the sister to whom she wanted to apologize! Of course, the sister forgave her, invited her to church, studied the Bible with her, and after three weeks of “wrestling with God and women,” Crystal was baptized!

Andrew Smellie: Greetings from the “cool breeze” of the West Region of LA! It is remarkable to be back in the region that was so dear to our hearts just three years ago! While the transition from the NYC Church has left us with a lifetime of memories, the brothers and sisters here in the West Region have welcomed us back with open arms as if we never left! From an outpouring of meals, hospitality and the like, the Lord has blessed our transition, as we moved into our apartment in Brentwood in just over one hour due to the incredible servant hearts of the West disciples!

Already there are a couple of souls who are eager to be baptized, and today’s worship service was inspiring as Erica Spence sang a “Kingdom re-make” of Adele’s “Skyfall” entitled, If We Don’t Fall, inspiring us about the importance of God’s Kingdom! Preaching to over 330 students at our Congregational Campus & Teen Devo was also exciting, as many teens were also at the IGNITE Program! Please pray for the work here as Patrique & I are also excited to bond with the Feumbas (North) & Speckmans (Orange County) to dream for evangelizing all of Africa! We love you!

Ighodaro Odighizuwa: “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.” (Mark 3:13-14) Greetings of love from the Inland Empire! This past couple of weeks, God added to our number four new souls! Even with our fearless leaders Argo & Anu Arneson out of town in Stockholm, Sweden, the IE continues to serve the Lord in incredible ways!

Our newly formed Palm Springs Sector is proof that Jesus’ plan to raise up and send out leaders is God’s plan to reach all nations! Palm Springs started with a group of nine valiant missionaries and they have had 22 additions so far this year!! They had a special service last week centered around the concept of building family, entitled OHANA – the Hawaiian word for “Family!” Everybody wore Hawaiian clothing and Garrett Bradley preached the Word powerfully! The Lord blessed them with a new record attendance of 51!

Here in the Riverside Sector, we had our special “Hat Service” two weeks ago! That was a very encouraging and funny event because everybody had to wear a hat! Argo preached an insightful lesson entitled, Jesus – The Man Of Many Hats!

I’m also very thankful working together with Kaspar Tambaur and David Jefferson starting the IE “Young Guns” Preachers Training Program, called L.O.E.G – League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! The whole purpose of the program is to effectively train and raise up preachers so that more souls could be won for God. We created also an IE Crown of Thorns Project, and now have a plan that we are laying before our God to evangelize our region of four million lost souls!!

Pray for us, as we are tagging to raise money to register everyone for the GLC, and to help give all our young disciples a vision for the Kingdom around the world! With a faith goal of $3,500 needed to have everyone register, the Lord has blessed our first week of tagging with $1,400 DOLLARS! See you soon at the GLC!

Cesar Limon: Grace and peace in abundance from the East Region! It has been an amazing ride for Debbie & me in having the privilege to serve the incredible disciples here in the East! God is moving as two people have been granted a new life through baptism this past week: Alejandra and Jose!

Today, we witnessed a miracle as Jose Meza was able to baptize his father right after the World Cup Game and thus be united with him in Christ! Although he was discouraged that Argentina LOST the World Cup, he couldn’t be more excited that HE is no longer LOST, and that together with his son he can fight to WIN more souls into the Kingdom of God!

We are also very excited about the prayer goals announced for the East Region this year and I ask you pray for them as well! The first is that God doubles the region this year bringing us to 72 disciples! The second goal is that we start a Latin Ministry! Our third goal is that we can have four new interns! And our last goal is to register every member of the East Region for the GLC! We are tagging four times a week to get it done!

Also to get everyone ready for the GLC, we are going through aRebuilding The Temple Of God Series! It is remarkable to see how the challenges and opportunities that the Israelites faced in rebuilding the temple are the same ones that we face today! We are all grateful that God has “granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God.” (Ezra 9:9) Love you all! 
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANT AND THE MIDDLE EAST
 
Elizabeth McDonnell: Greetings from sunny Santa Barbara and a small part of the Middle East World Sector! God has been doing amazing things!

Two weeks ago, we witnessed Rodrigo’s baptism!! He is a student at Santa Barbara City College and was reached out to by one of our ICCM students, Dale Bryant. Dale saw Rodrigo about to open the cafeteria door and shouted at him, “Stop, don’t open that door! I have another door for you to open…” This received Rodrigo’s attention long enough for Dale to share his faith and invite him to do a Bible study! In talking to Dale, Rodrigo told him that he had been praying for God to reveal Himself! After this first meeting, Dale invited Rodrigo to come help us move and he did! What a great servant-like heart! He then studied the Bible and in two short weeks, fell in love with God’s Word and was baptized!

Today we had our Bring Your Neighbor Day themed Faithbook! God blessed us with a record 42 in attendance with only 19 in our membership! The service was electric and my husband inspired everyone to have a purpose for their life and to study the Bible.

Please be praying as we have quite a few women who are close to the waters of baptism! 

Jeremy Ciaramella: Greetings from the Valley of “the Son!” Jesus teaches us that we must remain in the vine or there will be no fruit in our lives. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Jesus also teaches us that it is to his “Father’s glory, that [we] bear much fruit, showing [ourselves] to be [His] disciples!” (John 15:8) The other week, God blessed Josiah & Kristin Smith as Josiah’s diligent patience in loving his coworkers paid off because “God opened [Paula Deen’s] heart to respond to [His] message!” Paula was baptized into Christ Saturday, June 28, 2014!

Most outstanding today was our incredible Bring Your Neighbor Day! We’re continuing in our theme of In The Vine and today the 184 in attendance were challenged with the sermon – Are You In The Vine?We are so grateful that Scott & Sandy Lunde continue to be used by God to strengthen and deepen the convictions of disciples in the church with their tireless efforts in the CR Ministry as today we witness four disciples graduate from Chemical Recovery: Doug Hunt, Tommy Quintanilla and Dan & Laura Barrett! 

We also had the privilege of welcoming Kelsey Campbell – who is placing membership here and is moving to train for the 2016 Summer Olympics! She is a sister who will serve in in our Campus Ministry and one who has done a lot of wrestling – with God and with women, literally! 
 

Most excitingly of the day was the baptism of King Solomon Burke! It was a joy seeing this fiery young man share his heart for God today! King shared how he had to “humble himself” and take ownership of preaching false doctrine thus becoming that “hypocrite” mentioned in 1 Timothy 4 and then radically repent! Thanks be to God for this “fruit!”  
 

Pray for us to “remain in the vine” and to convert the numerous new studies from our BYND so we may give the Father glory “bearing much fruit, showing [ourselves] to be Jesus’ disciples!”

Victor Gonzalez of Las Vegas: Greetings from the “ALL IN” Church! The Word of God teaches that the only way to be a disciple is to give up everything you have! (Luke 14:33) I am super fired up to be leading the Las Vegas International Christian Church, where Jason & Sarah Dimitry have done a spectacular job planting this incredible congregation! God has been taking care of the Supplemental Mission Team in every way! From the 16 members from LA, everybody has a residence and 14 have jobs!

This week, we had two incredible baptisms: Nallely, a teen who had an eager heart to know God, and her mom Maria who originally did not allow Nallely to get baptized for almost a year! After studying the Bible every day last week, Maria’s heart was changed through the Scriptures and she expressed with tears her apologies to her daughter Nallely saying, “I am sorry for not letting you get baptized last year, but I am very happy that today we are going to be baptized together!”

We also have two more awesome dating couples in the Las Vegas Church – JD & Karen, and our song leader, Udo & Sara Gonzalez!

Please keep praying for us as we are working hard for the Lord here in “Saint City” and we are so encouraged to be in the Middle East World Sector with Cory & Jee and willing to “go anywhere!” We look forward to seeing you all at the GLC!!! 
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT AND CANADA
 
NEWS FLASH – Tim Kernan: Greetings from the Toronto International Christian Church (TICC)! Well it’s been an incredible forty-three days since we arrived here in Toronto, Canada! Last week, we were so grateful for all the disciples who came from around the world to encourage us! We are so grateful for our dear leaders Kip & Elena from LA along with Lance & Connie Underhill, Jay & Barb Shelbrack with a crew from Chicago, the wonderful Rivera family from New York City, Joel & Courtney and the gang from Syracuse, the crew from Boston, and Prisca Scheidecker all the way from Paris! 

During the Inaugural Service, we saw two powerful restorations! The first was Kevin Smellie a former Canadian Professional Football player on the Toronto Argonauts!

And the second restoration of this historic day was Bernadine Kakakeway – an incredible sister from the Cree First Nation!

Also, forming a Remnant Group in Calgary, Alberta, we were joined by the incredible Jun & Michelle Narciso! They will be moving to Toronto in the coming months but will try to gather as many as they can from Western Canada to come with them! 

This week, the church was overjoyed to welcome Donna Smellie to our fellowship! She is the sister of Kevin Smellie and is a former member of the Canadian Olympic Team! She was also a member of the Toronto ICOC Staff along with her brother Kevin!

Lastly today, we saw the incredible baptism of Sylvie!

With that baptism the Toronto Church has now doubled! Thanks for praying for the Toronto International Christian Church (TICC)! TICC, TICC, BOOM! 
 
Jeremiah Clark: Greetings from the Mighty Denver Church – the light of the Rocky Mountains! “The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge!” (Psalm 19:1-2) God’s amazing voice has truly resounded in the Denver Church as we have had the privilege to worship Him in His creation at park services and at our First Annual Denver Church Camping Trip this past weekend in Estes Park! Over the last two services that we met in the park, God truly blessed us as we had record attendances two Sundays in a row with attendances of 104 and 110!

Today, we capped off an incredible church camping trip with two tremendous baptisms! Tara, the faithful wife of Joel who was baptized just three weeks ago, and Rayvon, a campus student, were baptized side by side in a cold tranquil lake nestled beneath a majestic Colorado mountain!

In just one year since our planting, God has poured out His blessings on the Denver Mission Team as we have seen 40 added to our number bringing the total number of disciples to 53! To God be all the glory!

Sierra McClelland of Eugene: Greetings from Track Town, USA!! This week has been incredible for the Eugene Church! First of all, we had the privilege to have one of the Movement’s Shepherding Couples, Nick & Denise Bordieri, visit us from the LA Church! It was such a joy to show them around the beautiful campus of the U of O and the rest of this “green city” that God has given us to evangelize!

Then on Sunday, God gave us an phenomenal victory during our Park Service as we had a record breaking attendance of 101! The atmosphere of the service was electric as two young brothers, Daniel Jouvin and Everitt Smith preached the Word and challenged us to obey it! We closed out service with another miracle as Jazzman was baptized into Christ! Jazzman is a single mom who was reached out to by her cousin, Macque, from the Portland Church!

Equally as exciting was Naarah Wilson placing membership from the AMS Region in LA! God has already blessed us with 11 additions in the first seven weeks of the Reeds’ ministry! We are praying that He adds even more to His Kingdom in the following weeks! And to God be the glory!

Mike Underhill of San Francisco: “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:8) I’m writing this as I’m riding a 26 foot moving truck with nine people’s belongings on board heading to NYC! My wife Brittany & I are excited to serve God in that great city, but looking over the SF Bay, there are no words to express the longing my wife & I feel for the great church in San Francisco! Our hearts will forever be with the disciples that so loyally served the Lord with us in planting the church there. We have seen many miracles, have had our hearts broken, and felt Satan’s push back many times as we fought spiritual trench warfare for God. SF Church, you are our heart!

 
We’re so encouraged by all the incredible gifts and encouragement as we said goodbye yesterday. We can’t imagine life without the SF Church but I know God promises prosperous plans when we seek Him wholeheartedly, so I know the unknown holds great things for us! It’s exciting to know that the Spirit will now use the Dimitrys to advance the SF Church and take it to even greater heights!

Also, it’s been miraculous to see all the SF disciples rally for six weeks to raise an additional $31,000 for all the expenses needed for Kingdom needs… especially the 16 LV disciples coming here as well as our nine going to NYC! The disciples have blown out the expectations… What’s incredible is that with our May Missions Contribution and our June 29th Supplemental Missions Contribution, we raised over $70,000! To put this in perspective, we came back from a $5,000 deficit in May to blow it out by $25,000 in June! I’m so grateful for the bold men and women who never gave up tagging some 20 times these past two months and blew it out for God’s Kingdom! 

HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICA

Lola Lof: Greetings from the Lord’s warriors in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo! Two weeks ago we appreciated the works of the Holy Spirit in His church here in Congo as God has opened the doors for a new Bible Talk that we call the ”Corneille (Cornelius) Ministry!” (Acts 10:1, 8)

The first fruit was the baptism of Kotoko, a brave and humble policeman! After that his wife Clarisse was so moved by his deep convictions about God’s Kingdom and the complete changes in the behavior of her husband that she has made up her mind to follow Jesus! So last week, Clarisse was powerfully baptized into the body of Christ! Of special note, Kotoko’s & Clarisse’s conversions attracted another villager, their neighbor Thérèse who was an usher in a denominational assembly! But after studying the Scriptures, she is now a baptized disciple of Jesus in God’s modern day movement! And to God be all the glory!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANT

NEWS FLASH – Ricky & Coleen Challinor, the IGNITE Directors:Greetings from IGNITE of 2014!!! This year’s program was nothing short of astonishing! The teens all arrived from all over the world on Saturday, July 5th and left completely changed on Monday, July 14th!

For the first section of the program, we were able to travel up to Greenville, Florida, just 30 minutes south of Georgia. We stayed at an incredible plantation. For the second section, we stayed in Orlando near Disney World.  Over the last nine days, these teens have been called to a radical repentance, as well as to the ideal to imitate our great leader – Jesus! We had a full length lesson with multiple d-groups everyday based on core qualities of great leadership.

As well, we were able to serve in a great way for MERCY as we went to a “dementia center” to sing and give our hearts. For our day of fun, we went kayaking where we saw dozens of manatees (sea cows)! On Saturday, we went to the malls to evangelize. We were kicked out of the first and so moved on to a second mall where we shared and pleaded the good news with over 500 people!

The Sunday Service was electric as the teens did an “all world job” of leading the worship!

My personal thanks to Matt & Helen Sullivan, Mike & Chenelle Patterson, and Princeton & “soon-to-be” Joy George for all the help they provided as the Florida Church Leaders!

Teen IGNITE is a program to push and propel teens to become the future leaders that will ensure the evangelization of the nations in THIS generation! I truly believe that these teens will become pillars to forcefully advance Gods movement! Lastly, I am excited to announce that next year’s IGNITE Program will be held in San Francisco!!! The event will be July 4th through July 13th! See you next year teen leaders!

NEWS FLASH – Matt Sullivan: “Many of the people of Israel will he bring back 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 fathers 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)

These past three weeks have been amazing as God has added six to our number: two awesome restorations and four powerful baptisms! Two Sunday’s ago, George Flores was restored after months of trials and some radical decisions he was able to give his heart fully back to the Lord. Excitingly his son Gabriel Hamblin was a great help. “Gabe” as everyone calls him just graduated from Missouri State and played basketball there. As a “D1 player” he engrossed himself in the world and then began to pay the price. George always reached out to him but there was no power there as he had left the Lord.

Gabe graduated and George convinced him to come to Orlando. His first week here he came to church then walked up to me after the sermon and said “I have to study the Bible because you were talking directly to me!” George was inspired to be the example of a “disciple dad” again and was restored and then helped baptize his son! What a glorious day!

A few days later at our Campus Devo, a lesson was preached entitled,What Are You Waiting For? My daughter Amanda was listening and something just struck her that night! She pulled Tia Taylor (one of her best friends) aside and said, “I have heard sermons like that for my whole life, but tonight I get it! I have to become a disciple!” Tia and several other sisters studied the Bible with her for about two weeks and Amanda was baptized last Sunday! I am so grateful to God as He has literally given me two “daughters in the faith” – Melissa and Amanda! My son Ryan is not far behind as he too decided to start studying the Bible! Please pray!

This past week was so encouraging as Helen & I were able to “spy out the land” in South Florida with Princeton George & Joy Axelson of the AMS Region of LA! We all met up with Jack & Jeanne McGee in Ft. Lauderdale and explored Broward County, Palm Beach County, and then on Thursday, Miami-Dade County. All of us fell in love with South Florida and have dreams of an incredible church of sold-out disciples being built very soon! Our vision was enhanced as the Lord blessed us with 18 at our Midweek Service!

Finally, this Sunday was a highlight that I will never forget! It was incredible having the Challinors powerfully lead the IGNITE Program here in Orlando that cumulated in the IGNITE Teens leading the entire Sunday Service where we had our largest attendance ever of 210! Each IGNITE Disciple did an amazing job as they sang, ushered, rapped and preached! The entire Florida contingency of churches was in the house as the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Church and the Gainesville Church were there worshiping with us!

My wife had 10 visitors come with her and poured herself out the last two weeks helping get our daughter ready to be baptized, scouting out the land in South Florida with Princeton & Joy, as well as studying with Ashley who was baptized and Jesse who was restored! What an amazing woman of God as she also took care of me… and our household! It was also so encouraging to have Kip & Elena in town as they equally poured themselves out to encourage us especially preaching to the Florida Church Leaders on Friday night! As well on Sunday, Kip’s parents, Admiral & Mrs. McKean, were in attendance and were so inspired by the IGNITE Teens!

God gave us the joy of seeing Jesse restored; a UF football player from Gainesville baptized… then Ashley, and finally Tray closing out our IGNITE Weekend with four additions to the Florida Churches! Tray shared powerfully how he had to give up everything for the Kingdom of God, even a girlfriend! He simply said, “I thought hmmm, God or girlfriend… And I chose God!” Tray is a “cornerback” for the football team at Winter Park High School where my kids go to school and where Kip attended many, many, many years ago! Tray is the fifth teen baptized in Orlando in the last five weeks! Truly God is bringing so many back and “turning the hearts of the fathers to their children!”

Mike Patterson of Gainesville: “The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.” (Acts 25:23) Following the Spirit of God, when Paul preached he would target the “prominent opinion leaders” who could in turn impact the multitudes for Christ! (Acts17:4, 12, 34; 18:8) Certainly God does choose the foolish, weak and lowly to do the mighty works of God! (I consider myself in all three categories!)

In Gainesville, we have been praying for “opinion leaders” to be baptized! I shared already how God gave us a fraternity brother from the PIKE Fraternity named Mitch who has already been fruitful by baptizing his friend Ben! Two weeks ago Michael (who was met by our sister June “the Baptist” – the most fruitful sister in Florida) was baptized on a Monday night! He is part of a “Christian fraternity” on campus called Kappa Phi Epsilon. Once he saw the truth of God’s Word, he realized he never was a Christian as well as those close to him! Right now he is working with his fraternity brothers, so pray that we may get some opportunities to speak at the fraternity! Lord willing, the Chaplin should be coming to Bible Talk this Tuesday!

Then last week an amazing UF woman from Kenya named Charity was baptized! Finally, Kerollin Francois was baptized today! Kerollin plays football for the University of Florida and is the first (of hopefully many) Gator football players to be baptized! As with King Agrippa in the Scripture above, these guys are held in such high honor in Gainesville as the city revolves around the exciting Gator Football. Kerollin was tired of the world and although he was religious and going to church, he saw clearly that he was not a disciple of Jesus after our courageous intern Marcel Turner reached out to him. He chose to put God and His Kingdom above football!
 

Tyler Sears: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit…”(Ephesians 4:3-4) “Howdy y’all!” from Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW)! Six of the fourteen disciples on the DFW Mission Team arrived on Wednesday and joined together with the valiant 10 disciples in the Dallas Remnant Group to worship on Sunday. The Spirit moved powerfully as the disciple’s hearts were immediately knitted as one!

We would like to thank all the disciples in Dallas for their sacrifice and hospitality, as well as all the disciples in the movement whose sacrifices have helped us get to DFW! It was equally exciting as a brother from Austin, Texas, Grant, joined us from Austin after contacting several disciples around the USA! It’s such a blessing to be part of a unified movement! Please pray for us as we continue to “hit the ground running” before we come back for the official send-off of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Mission Team at this year’s Global Leadership Conference and our Inaugural Service on September 7th! We love “y’all” so much!
 
HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPE 
 
NEWS FLASH – Michael Williamson: Greetings from London! Three weekends ago, Michele & I visited the remnant group in Amsterdam. Upon arrival we enjoyed an incredible dinner with the lead couple Menno & Yuklin Zutijdk – who you’ll meet at this year’s GLC! The following day, we had a powerful Friday Night Devotional where the entire remnant group agreed “as one” to move to London! Renee & Anita Vermaat were Shepherds in our former fellowship before joining us a year ago. Of note, Renee (a mathematician) & Anita (a teaching assistant) both exemplify a noble character in taking such good care of their special needs child Rean.

Arnie Sicam is a former evangelist in the Philippines and top scientist in Europe training and teaching PhD students at the “eye hospital” in Rotterdam. During our time there, Arnie not only confirmed his decision to move to London but also booked his flight to the GLC! During our absence the disciples in London rejoiced at hearing the great news about Amsterdam, as they baptized two incredible South African converts! Brandon (a former leader in his church) and Hepworth left their congregation (the largest South African Church in London) after finding out they were not disciples and therefore were not saved!

The following week, we celebrated our International Sunday which was spectacular! Finally this week, we had a great remnant sister (who Maria Hart converted) visit from Spain and wants to be restored and move here as soon as possible! We also had three incredible souls make Jesus Lord! Joseph who was met by Brandon (our new South African zealot) was baptized Wednesday night at the end of a very fruitful First Principles Series!

At Sunday Service, a young man Miguel was baptized in Campus, and Michael (Mikhal) from Bulgaria shared deeply about how after hearing the gospel “he couldn’t resist but become a true disciple!” Michael, only 19, has been kicked out of his house for following JESUS CHRIST, and his father showed up at church threatening violence against our courageous Yomi Bello if Michael was baptized! Police were called, a huge commotion was stirred in front of church, but Michael threw off everything that hindered and was baptized! God is moving! See you in a few weeks!

HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH
 
Eugen Sobolov: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1) Privet from Moscow! I am very proud of the disciples here who are ready to sacrifice all they have to strengthen the Kingdom!

Last Friday we said goodbye to Alexey & Irina Voroschenko who moved to LA for the next two months to be trained! But God is very merciful – He gave us two additions this week! First was Viktoria, a single mom from our sister church in Kiev! She decided to move to Moscow with her six year old daughter and finally she did it! Second was Tatiana, a single sister. She left the church two years ago because of bitterness and unforgiveness. God was leading her through the desert of loneliness and sadness and finally she repented! Her testimony moved many of us to tears! And to God be all the glory!

Oleg Sirotkin reporting for Kiev: In the month of February, a women named Natasha went to Kiev from a city called Zaporizhia hoping to find a job. But on her way there, someone stole all of her money. Right after she came out of the train, she started praying to God begging Him to help her find a church that would surely help her with her life. Without having any money, she came to Kiev’s main square – where she could eat and sleep, because the revolution was at its peak.

And so, that is where she was invited by a women named Luda Voytsekovskaya! For her whole life, Natasha thought that the closest people in her life were her family members, but when she was invited to God’s church, the disciples became her real friends and family! Moreover, God gave Natasha a job and a place to live! By 12 midnight on the 7th of July, she was baptized in the Dnieper River!

The Spirit continues to work in Moscow and LA to officially plant the Moscow International Christian Church in December! We have 38 disciples in the Moscow Remnant Group and 12 Russian speaking disciples training with us in the South Region of LA! So if the Moscow Church were to start today we would have exactly 50 sold-out disciples… But evidently God wants us to grow more before we even start! And to God be all the glory!

HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
 
Raul Moreno: “When the Lord restores His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” (Psalm 14:7) This Scripture is being lived out in the Sao Paulo Church as two came to be restored to Christ: Dalva and Lucieni! Although they both never stopped going to church in our former fellowship, when they came over, they realized that they had both fallen away from God since they lost the commitment and heart of a disciple of Jesus! It is great to have them in the fellowship with a renewed spirit! Helping to draw them back to God were Dalva’s sister and Luciene’s daughter who are in the Sao Paulo Church! Our love can save our family members! 
 

Lastly, Moises was baptized as a 17 year old USP student majoring in Math! He has a great heart as he works fulltime to help support his family and then he goes to school at night! We love you with the love of the Lord! 
 

Jared McGee: Greetings from God’s people in Mexico City! We are rejoicing with the heavenly hosts as the Lord has added two more to our number in these past two weeks! A young man named Alejandro was approached by two brothers at UNAM, after they noticed that he had been crying and was markedly sad. After a couple of weeks of Bible study and sold-out fellowship, Alejandro joyfully proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord” and was literally crying tears of joy as he shared for his baptism!

Equally inspiring was the restoration of our dear sister Andrea! Andrea is a business student at UNAM, and we are so grateful to have her there as we forcefully advance the gospel on this great campus of over 300,000 college students! And to God be the glory!

Carlos Mejia of Santiago: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28) Greetings from “the ends of the earth!”This Sunday while I was visiting the awesome DC Church, God was tirelessly pouring out His blessings on the Santiago Church! I heard from several disciples that Sunday service was amazing as Jose Otero preached a very powerful lesson with nearly perfect Spanish! This is truly remarkable because Jose is a “NewYorican” missionary from Jersey via Los Angeles and DC! I’m so proud of Jose and his lovely, six months pregnant wife, Daniela! They have together grown so much in their leadership and in numbers! We are also SUPER grateful for Jose giving all of his talents for the Kingdom as he is the designer for all GLC art and media!

The best part of the service was of course the baptism of Cristobal, a biology student at Universidad Catolica, which is now rated the #1 University in all of Central and South America! (Our condolences to perhaps the movement’s strongest Campus Ministry at the University of Sao Paulo – USP – which fell to #2!) We are very humbled by God´s grace, as it is a “difficult” campus to evangelize but we are beyond hopeful and very faithful that God will continue to enable us to harvest this amazing campus!

Finally we would like to share that our two remnant groups in South America – Bogota, Colombia and Caracas, Venezuela – will be represented at this year’s GLC! Hector & Adriana Gomez and Gerson & Alexandra Higgins respectively will be attending this year´s conference in LA! Please meet and greet them as they will be in need of sweet fellowship and the encouragement that only comes from sold-out disciples of Jesus!!!! See you all in just a couple of weeks!

Hector & Adriana Gomez of Bogota: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’” (Matthew 9:37-38) Greetings from the Bogota ICC! This prayer is being answered as God has added to our original remnant group of four disciples! We have had disciples from our former fellowship added through restoration as well others from the world by baptism! As of today, we have 11 sold-out disciples and 15 people studying the Bible! Please pray for an amazing harvest from God!

 
Two amazing women had their hearts captivated by our loving God last week! Jenny Fonseca and Johana Ninco were both baptized! It has been truly marvelous and inspiring to see God change their lives and give them the hope that one day their own teen children will be baptized and make Jesus Lord! Sisters, welcome to the Family of God!

HEADLINE NEWS – PAC RIM & AUSTRAL-CHINA
 
Lou Jack Martinez: It was yet another BAD DAY FOR THE DEVIL as Brad “Alika” Kawawaki was baptized into God’s Kingdom at Electric Beach in Nanakuli!!! Alika had met David Kelly earlier this year through mutual friends in the body-boarding community, and they quickly became great friends! Alika studied the Bible all the way through to the Church Study with David, Scott Utter, Martynas Justinavicious, Daldos Carr and Alex Aehegma over several weeks. He then got “cold feet” and dropped off the radar for a awhile! Three (3) weeks ago, Alika sent David a text saying: “Ok I give up. The best thing for me right now is to get baptized and follow Jesus fully; I gotta stop putting it off by doing this part time. It’s too hard!”

After an attack from Satan in the form of a serious illness and some scheduling difficulties, Alika was able to get together with David and Alex for a “marathon refresher study” and get baptized TWO days later!!!

What a great send-off for David heading to Kona with his wife Beth and his daughters Rachel and Charlotte to lead the Kona House Church!!! Additionally, we also sent Sarah Chang & Martin Justinevicius to Kona, as well as Scott & Terra Utter, who will now lead the Hilo International Christian Church!!!

Finally, Bryson Okuno left for training in LA! Please be praying that God blesses the awesome sacrifice of our Honolulu Church!!! We will miss these folks immensely, but we know God is going to use them in unprecedented ways on the mission field!!! Please be praying for our first official BAPTISM SUNDAY, where we will meet for worship at Magic Island and, good Lord willing, baptize several of our studies after they count the cost and make their individual pledges of a good conscience toward God!!!
 

We love you ALL with the love of the Lord and look forward to seeing so many dear friends at the Global Leadership Conference 2014 in Palm Desert!!!

Jason Woody of Sydney: Greetings from “Down Under!” The Bible reads in Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” On August 2, 2014, we will be celebrating the Sixth Month Anniversary of the Sydney Church Planting! Amazingly, God has already more than doubled our church!

This past Sunday, Ben, a university student, made Jesus Lord and was baptized into Christ! It was truly obvious that it was “God that changed his heart!” He made the decision to be baptized after nearly two months of studying the Bible and wrestling with God. He is the first Aussie brother in our student ministry!

Secondly, today was very exciting as we welcomed Joe & Chesca Ugorji into our fellowship! Joe & Chesca have a very inspiring story as they have been disciples for many years. Living in Cincinnati and attending our former fellowship, they were searching for spiritual revival and longed to be used by God in a powerful way once again. Through much prayer and being led by the Spirit of God, they gave up their lives in America and moved here with two children (one still being an infant)! It is already very clear that God will use this couple in a very power way in His Kingdom once again! Please be praying for us, and for God to continue to build His church here in Sydney!

Gina Dela Pena of Manila: “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’” (Nehemiah 1:8, 9)

This Scripture has come alive to a 17 year old teenager named Deborah! Deborah’s parents met at church in the Hong Kong ICOC then were married in the church but eventually fell away. Their family moved to South Africa and then they moved to China. The pressures and challenges of their living conditions made Deborah became bitter. Deborah started working at the age of 11 and being the eldest, she was pressured by the responsibilities that was put on her shoulder; subsequently she became rebellious and stubborn and fell into different sins.

As God would have it, to discipline Deborah, her parents sent to Manila as her punishment. Then one day when she hit rock bottom, Deborah realized that she needed God. She googled to find the church in Manila; found John Malnegro’s number and John gave her my number. She first attended a House Church Service at the Tabizons’ residence. Then she started studying the Bible and has made the most important decision in her life to be a sold-out disciple of Jesus on July 6, 2014! It is now her dream to reach out to her family and relatives who once became disciples from the efforts of the ICOC! 
 

The angels are again rejoicing over Metro Manila as another soul is won by the grace of God! Our new sister in Christ, Rona Smith, was invited to church by her co-worker Toni Panlaque. Rona was searching for the “Real Church of God” and once she began her Bible studies Rona knew there was no turning back! Rona is married and finishing her Masters in Guidance and Counseling; she is looking forward to finishing her degree next year so she can join her husband Jason who currently resides in Arizona. Rona is grateful to God and is eager to join our sister church in Phoenix next year!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT AND INDIA

NEWS FLASH – Ron Harding of Washington DC: “Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.” (1 Samuel 23:16-17) The last few weeks showed the DC Leadership things you can only experience in God’s Movement – the love and sacrifice of sold-out disciples and churches who will sacrifice people, time and money to help one another! A few weeks ago, after having 10 additions (7 Baptisms, 1 restoration, and 2 Place Memberships directly from our former fellowship), we had our Second Annual International Day, where we saw a record 650 in attendance!

Satan seized the moment and immediately mounted his largest scheme, attacking the unity of Tracy & my marriage as well as the unity of the DC Leadership. After a week, it was apparent we needed help badly! In a selfless act, the LA Church paid for a round-trip ticket to send Carlos Mejia from Santiago to DC for one week to help Tracy, me and the DC Leadership to “find strength in God.” It was a powerful time of vulnerability, repentance and great vision for how powerful the DC Church can really be. God used Carlos to repair what was broken, to breathe life into the church, and to give instruction and a plan to keep us unified. As he leaves DC, the leadership’s relationships are stronger than ever! We are filled with gratitude and vision for one another.

We acknowledge the great sacrifice that it has been to have Carlos travel to Mexico, Bogota, and to again have him make an unplanned trip to DC! We want to thank the Santiago Church, the Mejia Family, and the great LA Church for their love and their sacrifice of people, time and money to strengthen the DC Church. We are eternally grateful for the love and support that is only seen in God’s new movement! Much love from the Hardings, Chapmans, Rangas, Hamiltons, Onekeas, Haynes and the entire DC Church!
 
Chris Broom: Greetings from New York City! First, Theresa & I want to send our love to the LA disciples and especially those in Orange County! We miss you and can’t wait to see you at the GLC!

Secondly, we want to thank Andrew & Patrique Smellie along with the NYC Shepherds, the Chins and the O’Donnells, and the entire New York City Church for the incredible welcome we have received! We are in awe of our God and all that He has done to bring the Supplemental Mission Team to New York from our sister churches in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Syracuse! Our heartfelt thanks to those churches for their sacrifice! Many team members have already secured incredible apartments and jobs! We have fallen in love with the church here and are so humbled that God has chosen us to serve them!

Finally, God has added an awesome young man named Nick to our number! He grew up in Texas… as did I; moved to New York City to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy… as did I; and we baptized him in the lake at Central Park only a few blocks from where I was baptized in 1990! Obviously God wants to remind me of my own conversion and give me great vision for this great city! Keep us in your prayers!!!
 

Joel Parlour: What an incredible few weeks we have had in Syracuse! First of all, a special thanks to Tim & Lianne Kernan and the entire Toronto Church for hosting us and so many others at their awe-inspiring Inaugural Service!

And also a special welcome to the New York City Supplemental Mission Team! Within a five hour drive in nearly every direction, we have churches in Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City and Boston! I am excited to serve under the leadership of one of my best friends and greatest influences Chris Broom! I know the Northeast USA will be evangelized!

Over the past few weeks, we have had the honor to send out “our best” to sister churches! I could share about these disciples at length, but for time’s sake… I won’t! Sharon Groman has served and served in Syracuse for many years and is one of the most genuine and sacrificial disciples I know! Now she is living out Romans 12:9 in New York City! Alvina Baugh has been a mother to us all in Syracuse! She lives out Romans 16:13 in Las Vegas! Yinet Montesino is a lot like Lydia in Acts 16 as she has been very persuasive and fruitful over the past eight years here! Now she brings that heart to Gainesville!

Drew & Tina Henshaw are one of the most dynamic couples I know and have tirelessly served “under the radar” in Syracuse since the 1990′s! Now they live like Priscilla & Aquila in New York City! Along with these people goes their sacrificial efforts and nearly $2,000 a month in sacrificial giving! We will continue to sacrifice for the sake of God’s Kingdom and give “our best” for all time!

God is doing great things in Syracuse and I believe the miracles will now multiply! God blessed us with a powerful restoration and an amazing Singles Retreat! 
 

Please pray for God to blow out our 21st Anniversary Service next Sunday! To Him be the glory!

Coltin Rohn of Boston: “After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos.” (Acts 21:1) We recently had to tear ourselves away from Mercedes Bonilla who was sent out from Boston to be a part of the Supplemental Mission Team to San Francisco! All of our hearts were sad to see her go but we rejoice in knowing that the evangelization of the nations is been accomplished by her work there in the Bay Area!

It’s always good when God brings families together and over the past few weeks God allowed the Rydstedt twins to be in the same church once again as David moved from Los Angeles to be with us here in Boston. Thank you Los Angeles for sending David to us!

Very exciting is a new dating couple Brian Carr & Jhoally Vallejo, who was visiting from our sister church in Las Vegas!

We are all very excited to see everyone at the Global Leadership Conference and have been “tagging” in the streets of Boston to raise money to help with registration and plane tickets. Last week at Midweek Service and at Friday Night Devotional, the Lord bless us with raising over $1,000! See you at the GLC!

Jay Shelbrack of Chicago: “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like the eagles; they shall run and not be weary.” (Isaiah 40:31) So much transition has happened in the last few weeks that we are eager to move forward! After we sent out the “Tenacious 10″ to New York City, we began to prepare the “Fab 5″ for LA! We also sent our three amazing teens along with their fearless leader K.C. Cook to Orlando for the Teen IGNITE Program where at the Sunday IGNITE Service, Danielle shared in Spanish; King delivered the Contribution Message; and Jose preached the main message with two other disciples entitled, Breaking Down The Gates Of Hell!

Last weekend, eight Chicago disciples took the nine hour drive to Toronto to help support the church there with the Inaugural Service! We were very encouraged and felt very loved by the mission team. It was such a blessing to work together as we were handed a stack of invites to spread the Word and help get people to church! We were more than convicted as it reminded us of all the hard work it took the Chicago Church to get started. We need to get back to the spirit of each Christian being a missionary!

We are also working hard to get 90 disciples to the GLC! We calculate that to do so we will have to raise at least $96,000! As usual, we have been tagging to raise the money. This Saturday 14 disciples, led by the Millers, decided to tag in spite of severe thunderstorms. These brave 14 were still able to raise over $2,000 in just six hours convicting many others who chose not to go! So looking forward to seeing everyone at the 2014 GLC!

Roger Green of Chennai: “If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26) Greetings from India – the nation of 1.2 billion lost souls! This Sunday service was particularly special as the whole body rejoiced along with Arul Francis & Keerthika as they took their vows and became one in the Lord!

Last week, we had the amazing baptism of Priya who was very much against Christianity! However, when she came to the Rajans’ household and started studying the Bible she was blown away by the love and care and most importantly with the tremendous change that happened in her life! She is a certified pilot and also won the award for best actress in a short film! She is a “bold lioness” who is like Deborah of the Bible and will lead many to the Lord!
 

We also had Christopher who in spite of strong persecution from his former church was very clear about the truth and made the courageous decision to get baptized!

The Delhi Remnant Group’s brothers and sisters now have a new hope to see India evangelized in the light of Kip’s & Elena’s visit to India this coming September! Pray for more and more hurting and/or fallen away disciples to join God’s movement in India in the coming months!

Lastly, we are very grateful to the LA Church for their love and support of the Rajan Family during their four week stay there to attend the GLC and to learn from the gracious disciples in this awesome congregation! Chennai loves all of you in God’s movement very much!

 
Dearest Brothers and Sisters: Excitingly, the Sunday morning opening of the 2014 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) – ZION’S DREAMERS – is just 27 days away! Last year, we had a record 1,114 paid registrants! This year since we are inviting so many missionaries and their families to “return home to LA” our “financial break even” registration number for the GLC is 1,230. Presently, we have 504 registered – which is more than last year at this time! That said, let’s all pray and work toward each congregation in the movement to have considerably more participants than last year, and Lord willing, we will shatter last year’s attendance! If you have not registered for the GLC, please go to the City of Angels International Christian Church Website atCAICC.net and pay online the $175 registration fee.

Sadly, all the rooms at the beautiful JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort which is the location of the GLC are sold out, but there are many hotels in the Palm Desert Area that have plenty of openings!

Excitingly this year’s Global Leadership Conference will be broadcast via Livestream.com! All of those who are unable to attend the conference can still catch all the major events and workshops in real-time! Via Livestream.com there are multiple ways to catch all the major events!

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

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

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

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

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

Pray for us to reach the nations through this incredible technology!

On the Monday after the Toronto Inaugural Service, Tim & Lianne drove us about an hour and a half outside the city to share one of the most spectacular natural treasures of Canada – Niagara Falls!

Along the way, we stopped off in the Niagara Wine District. There we “waded” into one of the local vineyards. Tim pulled out John 15 on his beloved “Canadian Blackberry” and read it on the spot! Lianne later wrote to Elena & me: “It was wonderful to spend time with you in Toronto and the Niagara Region! The vineyard was an incredible spiritual moment for us. Those vines were amazing; what an interesting way for Jesus to describe Himself! What was equally remarkable were the branches! After much pruning not only do they bear much fruit but they have so many leaves which provide shelter for all those precious and vulnerable baby grapes. What a reminder for Tim & me to provide safety and shelter for the remnant and the lost we are bringing to God! And yes, now I’m so thankful to God for our times of pruning!” Indeed, that visit will forever live in Elena’s & my memories!

Lastly, Elena & I are so very grateful to all of you that are fellow workers in God’s worldwide vineyard!

Let us as a movement not have a “summer slump” but a “summer surge” of fruit, “so that [through discipling] all nations might believe and obey Him!” (Romans 16:26) And to God be all the glory!
Much love,
Kip

Greetings from Los Angeles! Unique to the SoldOut Movement is that we share Jesus’ dream to evangelize the nations in a generation and we have a definitive plan to accomplish this noble task which we call the Crown of Thorns Project! (1 Timothy 2:3-4; Isaiah 32:8) This plan is being realized as the City of Angels International Christian Church was planted in LA by 42 sold-out disciples from Portland on May 6, 2007! During these seven years, the Spirit has multiplied these disciples into over 3,000 disciples with a Sunday attendance approaching 5,000 in 54 churches, in 25 nations on every populated continent in the world!

As most are aware in the SoldOut Movement, we divide every city where we plant a church into regions. Under the Lead Ministry Couple, every region has an appointed Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader who have the charge of not only taking care of the “flock” but to evangelize that area of the city. (2 Corinthians 10:13-17) So similarly to fulfill Jesus’ dream, we have divided the globe into “world sectors” that collectively span the globe “so that all [196] nations [of the world] might believe and obey Him!” (Romans 16:26)

In keeping with Jesus’ plan to focus on a few and after much prayer by Elena & me, the Spirit has put on our hearts to select the following couples to be the SoldOut Movement’s World Sector Leaders (WSL’s): Chris & Theresa Broom – USA North Quadrant And India; Tim & Lianne Kernan – The USA Northwest Quadrant And Canada; Matt & Helen Sullivan – USA South Quadrant; Michael & Michele Williamson –Europe; Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin – Russian Commonwealth; Andrew & Patrique Smellie – Africa; Cory & Jee Blackwell – Middle East; Raul & Lynda Moreno – Central & South America; Joe & Kerry Willis –Austral-China; Kyle & Joan Bartholomew – Pac Rim; Nick & Denise Bordieri – Movement Shepherding Couple; Tony & Therese Untalan – Movement Shepherding Couple; and Michael & Sharon Kirchner –Movement Administration and Law. For the present time, Elena & I will continue to lead the LA Church, which through our Region Leaders disciples all the churches in the USA Southwest Quadrant… which we have called “Judea” for the past five years in reference to the Crown of Thorns Plan. (Acts 1:8)

Beginning at the 2014 GLC, each “world sector grouping” will include the following existing churches: USA North Quadrant And India: Boston, Chennai, Chicago, New Delhi, NYC, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Washington DC; The USA Northwest Quadrant And Canada: Denver, Eugene, Montreal, Portland, San Francisco, Toronto; USA South Quadrant:DFW, Gainesville, Houston, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (South Florida), Orlando, San Antonio; Europe: Amsterdam, Curacao (Caribbean), London, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm; Russian Commonwealth: Kiev, Moscow, Novosibirsk; Africa: Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Haiti, Hire, Kikwit, Kinshasa, Polokwane; Central And South America: Bogotá, Caracas, Guatemala City, Mexico City, Santiago, Sao Paulo; Austral-China:Sydney; Pac Rim: Alakanuk (Alaska), Davao, Guam, Hilo, Honolulu, Manila; and since the Blackwells are still in LA, the USA Southwest Quadrant and the Middle East will be combined and include: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.

In Luke 10, we find that Jesus commissions a second group called “The 72.” (Fascinatingly in the Eastern Orthodox tradition they are called “The 70 Apostles.”) These preachers along with “The 12,” Jesus’ family and His women leaders compose “The 120″ of Acts 1:15. These “120″ become the foundation of the church as “The 3,000″ that are baptized after Peter’s Pentecost Sermon are “added to their number that day.”(Acts 2:41-42) Also unique to the SoldOut Movement, we are building a second group of unified preachers and their wives – “our 72″ – which we have chosen to call the “Crown of Thorns Council.”

Let’s pray that God’s Spirit working through all of these leaders can bring our rapidly growing number of churches “to complete unity to let the world know” our wonderful Savior and awesome Lord – Jesus Christ! (John 17:23) And to God be all the glory!

Another historic event was on June 14, 2014 – The SoldOut Movement’s International Day of MERCY! Since every SoldOut Movement Church is a MERCY Branch and every disciple in the SoldOut Movement is a MERCY Ambassador, the impact of this incredible day was literally “felt” around the world! Read on and discover that in each world sector our “light [shone] before men [to] see [our] good deeds and praise [our] Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

 

 
HEADLINE NEWS – LOS ANGELES
 
Chris Broom of the OC Region: “In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers… While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”(Acts 13:1-3)

What an incredible couple of weeks it has been in Orange County! Just two weeks ago, we prayed over Chris & Kerri-Sue Adams and the four awesome disciples the Spirit sent with them to lead the Ventura Region! Then last week, we prayed over Gerey & Lori DiCastro and their son Corbin as the Spirit sent them and the rest of their precious family to Dallas! Lori is Shay Sears’ sister and is so looking forward to being with Tyler & Shay as they plant the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Church this summer!

Then today, we welcomed Luke & Brandyn Speckman and their family along with Ashley Watson and Scotty Kendrick as they joined the OC Region from Ventura! I have peace in my heart knowing that the Spirit has chosen such a wonderful couple as the Speckmans to take over the work here in Orange County! To close my last service in the OC Region today, we prayed over Adam Zepeda who the Spirit has chosen to go to the West Region to in time to lead the entire LA Campus Ministry, as well as Carl Buckner, Tracy Shelbrack and Amar Panduranga who are going with my family and me on the 31 member NYC Supplemental Mission Team!

Also, I would like to say a special thank you to Sameer & Loidy Frenzley who were nothing short of amazing as they coordinated our Day of MERCY last weekend! Their efforts in particular helping to rebuild the Sensory Wall for the Blind Children’s Learning Center was absolutely phenomenal!

Lastly, I would like to welcome our two newest brothers who were baptized in the OC Single’s Ministry: Adrian and Armando!

Cesar Limon: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11) Grace and peace in abundance from the East Region! Debbie & I are extremely grateful, honored, and excited to be able to serve in the Mighty East as their newly appointed Region Leaders! Victor & Sonia Gonzalez Sr. have done an outstanding job building the “foundation of Jesus Christ!” It was evident by the love, joy and serving attitude of each disciple that they are all incredible sold-out disciples… or as Victor would put it – JUST DISCIPLES!

We are also very thankful for the three disciples that dropped everything in Palm Springs to join us in serving the Mighty East: Ashleigh Friends, Richard Noches and Valeria Garcia! God has already begun the miracles as Marcos Torres was baptized after our first Leaders Meeting! Marcos’s gratitude for his salvation was evident as he gave up his full-time job and has been taking long bus trips to make it to every meeting of the body!

Pray that we can continue to build on the foundation that has already been laid – Jesus Christ! We love you all!!

Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! “In view of God’s MERCY, we offered our bodies as living sacrifices…” (Romans 12:1) Last Saturday on our Annual MERCY Day, we served the Rescue Mission in Downtown Long Beach. We had four different projects that included: serving the homeless food in the Samaritan House; painting facilities; helping organize their thrift store; and even pampering the women at Lydia Home with mani’s and pedi’s!

MERCY Weekend wasn’t complete without a soul added to God’s Kingdom and our new sister Hannah received God’s “mercy!” Hannah was met by her friend and now brother in Christ Christian Ybarra!

Three more placed membership with Jessica Rosas and Saray Valencia coming over from the IE Region, and Artem Varlakov from Moscow, Russia who came to train for the ministry and prepare for the Moscow Mission Team.

Finally, my awesome boyfriend and co-leader of the Teen Ministry Joe Estep and Artem Varlakov were accepted into the ICCM! They were very honored! To God be the glory Amen!

Chris Chloupek: “How Ya Do’in?” from the AMS Region! Most excitingly, we baptized our first teen, Natalyn! Her Mom, Brenda was baptized about a month earlier!

As well, everyone is still talking about the LAST CITY OF ANGELS SINGLES NIGHT OUT event titled; DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY! It was truly a night to remember as Singles from our 11 Regions attended!

Lastly, we were so encouraged by our intern Princeton George when he asked his girlfriend Joy Axelson to be his wife at the end of the “good news sharing” at Staff! They will be getting married near the GLC and then Lord willing they’ll be heading to Florida to lead the South Florida Remnant Group! 
 

There’s no business like “soul” business!

Garrett Bradly of the IE Region: On Tuesday night, we had the privilege of witnessing Bryant, a business major at UCR, become a part of God’s Kingdom! Bryant was originally reached out to by our valiant Sydney missionary, Jason Woody, and studied the Bible all the way toLight and Darkness, but his stubborn pride prevented him from making the leap to become a disciple. The brothers tried to contact him for months, but he would ignore their calls and text messages, and he admitted that he even purposely avoided the brothers at the colonnade!

About a month ago, Bryant’s best friend from second grade, Asante, also began to study the Bible! One Friday, they “randomly” ran into each other on campus and Asante shared with him about how he had been studying the Bible with this group called “LIFE on Campus.” Astounded that his best friend was studying with the same group, Bryant slowly began to study the Bible again. A week later, Asante was baptized (with Bryant in attendance) and when he was asked “who’s next?” he simply pointed at his friend and stated, “Bryant will be next!” Well, God blessed his faith, and Asante was able to baptize his best friend two weeks later!

Michael Kirchner: Greetings from LA! Even through the “heavy lifting” of raising almost $600,000 in LA’s Mission Collection in May, as well as sending out almost 50 disciples to plant and strengthen churches in the last six months, the City of Angels Church continues to be blessed by God as in the first 142 days of 2014, there have been 252 additions – 184 baptisms, 32 restorations and 36 place memberships! Never lose sight that “each number” is a precious soul with a name to God! And to Him be all the glory!
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANT AND MIDDLE EAST
 
Richie McDonnell: Greetings from Sunny Santa Barbara! These past few weeks have been amazing! For our MERCYworldwide Event, we served at Casa Esperanza, a homeless shelter where we prepared meals for dozens of homeless people! One of the volunteers was so impacted by our group that he came out to church the next day saying, “I’ve been to a lot of churches and there’s just something different about your group! You have a zeal and spirit that I’ve never seen!”

That same weekend, we had the baptism of Guillermo “Memo” Beltran! Another addition to our awesome Single/Marrieds Bible Talk! He’s the second brother to be baptized of our sweet pre-teen, Stephanie! She started coming around a few months ago, and then decided to “join” our church and leave the Mormon faith, of which she had just been baptized into. She’s currently going through the “Character Studies” while still being super evangelistic at only 11 years old! Her other sibling, her sister Nallely as well as Nallely’s fiance Robert, are both close to the waters of baptism! Never underestimate the impact of loving the neighborhood kids! 
 

We are so excited to be discipled by the Blackwells and to be in the Middle East World Sector! Pray for us as we believe that planting the Santa Barbara Church in January is preparing us to plant a church of sold-out disciples in the Middle East in the not too distant future!

Chris Shultz of Phoenix: Greetings from the Valley of the “Son!” For our Annual MERCYworldwide Event, 59 disciples and 32 visitors braved the 110 degree sun! We partnered with a local orphanage, Sunshine Acres.

This amazing facility houses over 100 children and provides them with a safe, nurturing environment. They take in children who would otherwise be homeless due to their parents being incarcerated or incapacitated by drugs and/or alcohol. We helped organize the donations so they could incorporate those items into the store for sale. Matt, who is the store manager, was a child that was raised there. He stated, “It is always uplifting that God provides for our needs through people like you!” In fact, due to our collective efforts, we provided an entire week’s worth of labor for the orphanage – a savings of over $2,500 and over 460 labor hours!

Darby & I are so proud of the hearts of the disciples who not only give their time, but make this an evangelistic event! Julie Rosselli, who was one of those 32 visiting, was baptized earlier this week! She is an amazing single mother of three energetic boys and braved the heat so she could serve alongside her future brothers and sisters! 
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT AND CANADA
 
NEWS FLASH – Gabe Reed of Eugene: Greeting from Track Town, USA!! So far in our very first month in this great city, the Eugene Church has had nine additions: three baptisms, two restorations, and four place memberships from LA to strengthen this congregation! Amazingly, the four from LA have already been personally fruitful four times!

In the Campus Ministry, we have a prayer goal to double the number of students at our University of Oregon Ministry by the end of the summer from three disciples to six! Excitingly one of the baptisms was a young man named Ryan who will be getting his degree in Business Administration this fall… already bringing our total to four!

Also, personally encouraging to my wife and I is the “tenth addition” of the month with the birth of our beautiful daughter, Abigail Rosalyn Reed! I am so inspired by my wife! In her last month of pregnancy, we moved to Eugene and she has been personally fruitful! She is truly an upward call of tenacity and I am so grateful that God has allowed me to marry this incredible woman of God! Lastly, a very special thank you to all the disciples in Eugene who helped us so much during this time by cooking meals for us every night while my wife recovers from the delivery!

 
Tim Kernan: Greetings from Canada… Aye? It has been an incredible first 22 days here in Toronto! In the past three weeks, God has blessed us with two wonderful restorations: Lianne’s incredible father Steph Brown and Harvey Webber! God’s hand is truly moving here in Canada! Thank you to the brothers and sisters in LA and Chicago who reached out to and encouraged these resurgent prayer warriors!

Also, we had our first service out of my apartment and in a proper location today! All the disciples sang extra loudly and with great joy! The level of encouragement here is electric as between our three Bible Talks we now have over twelve hot studies! This week alone we have four group sharing times planned where we are going to hit the pavement at the incredible University of Toronto – a campus of almost 65,000 students!

Please pray for us as we have only 14 days left before our Inaugural! We can’t wait to see the disciples from LA, Paris, NYC, Syracuse and Chicago! Love you all very much from the Toronto International Christian Church (TICC)! As we say here in Toronto: TICC, TICC, BOOM!!!

Jeremiah Clark: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Greetings from the mighty and greatly encouraged Denver Church! God continues to lead us to victory as we joyfully spread the gospel in the Rocky Mountains! This past Saturday, we served both the Denver and Boulder communities for the Day of MERCY! With donations of food and water from local businesses totaling over $2,500, we hit the streets to take care of the needs of over 250 homeless men and women!

Over the past week, God has added four to our number through baptism! Included were two campus students, Anastasia and Jordan!

As well, two amazing men from the Marrieds Ministry! John Bujaci, the husband of Christy who was baptized in November, made Jesus his Lord today! And secondly, another baptism today that was personally encouraging for me was that of a powerful man by the name of Joel. Just six months ago while I was on a prayer walk, the Spirit prompted me to share my faith with Joel. He shared today through tears (bringing most of the congregation to tears as well) how the cross has completely changed his life and purpose!

Lastly, we were able to give and blowout our First Annual Special Missions Contribution in the Denver ICC. It was delightful to watch the children be the first among us to give! They put their own hard earned pennies into a giant piggy bank kept in the children’s ministry class which they broke open together and gave to God in front of the congregation totaling nearly $400! The adults then followed suit as they “opened wide their [own] hearts” and gave without hesitation bringing our total missions contribution to an amazing $45,434 which is nearly 30X our weekly pledge! God was truly glorified today as His people gave everything they had, and “even beyond their ability!” (2 Corinthians 8:3)

Mike Underhill of San Francisco: For the past few weeks, we have been tagging as a church for Midweeks and Friday Devotionals and it’s been awesome seeing what God has done! First, we have seen that San Francisco residents have amazing hearts when we are bold, because after going out three times a week this past month we’ve already raised $14,000!

But since money doesn’t really matter to God – since He Has all the money in the universe at His disposal – we wondered why God wanted us to tag. Well another reason came to light this Sunday when an incredible SF State woman was met and baptized by our joyful sister Tahlia! Tahlia was going door to door asking for money. She knocked on Eva’s door, but really it was Jesus knocking through Tahlia! When Eva was asked to donate, Eva said “Why not?” Then Tahlia asked her to come out to church and Eva said, “Why not?”

Eva came and immediately started studying the Bible! During her sharing before her baptism, she read Luke 14:33 where Jesus says one must give up everything to be His disciple. Eva did give up everything and it turns out that knock at the door really proved to be Jesus asking for everything in Eva’s life!

Sarah Dimitry of Las Vegas: “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and MARROW to thy BONES.” (Proverbs 3:6-9 KJV) Greetings from Saint City!

This Sunday was very special as we watch Eli make Jesus Lord of her life! Her persevering and fighting spirit leaves all of us with no excuses, as she is by morning, a radio talk show host and by day, a graduate law student at UNLV, all the while battling the 4th Stage of bone marrow cancer! As Eli read the above Scripture at her baptism, she explained that God could heal her, if He willed it, even down to her “marrow and bones.” I smiled with tears.

Ricky Challinor of Portland: “For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands.” (Psalm 92:4) Greetings from the City of Bridges! The International Day of MERCYwas amazingly led by David & Margarita Jackson! The disciples were able to pass out care packages to the needy of the city and there was definitely great joy for the privilege of being able to serve in this way. We are so grateful for MERCYworldwide as we are truly making a “worldwide” impact!
 

The Lord has added four to our church family these last two weeks – two baptisms and two placed memberships! Shaunai is a freshman at PSU and eagerly studied the Bible during the week of finals! She truly put the Kingdom first and was baptized into Christ during finals!

Janet is an incredible woman who was baptized in the Latin Ministry! She came with a friend to Bible Talk and although her friend didn’t make it, she saw that God had a plan for her life!

Caleb Cohen placed membership with us from the incredible church in Eugene! Caleb now wants to train for the ministry! Lastly, we are extremely honored to have Megan Mathews place membership with us! The church truly is grateful for LA’s Southland Region to “send” their “best and brightest shining star” to us here in Megan! My dear wife has the powerful partner in the gospel that she has longed and prayed for!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANT
 
Jeanne McGee of Miami-Ft. Lauderdale: Our first baptism since the Spirit planted our remnant group two weeks ago is a “Kingdom Baptism!” Welcome your new sister Selethia (Lee) Jackson! She was baptized today in the Atlantic Ocean leaving the dark behind and entering into the light!

I think of her as a “Kingdom Baptism” because she was contacted by her former basketball coach, Chantelle Anderson, who is now a sister inHouston! Chantelle was reached out to by her physical sister, Kristin Smith, who lives in Phoenix! Selethia began her studies with sisters inOrlando and she was driving over two hours to attend services there! When Jack & I moved here a few weeks ago, I was able to take over her studies and she began to attend services with us in the newly formedSouth Florida International Christian Church!

We have fallen in love with Selethia because of her integrity and her heart for God and we are sad that she will be moving to Houston in the middle of July. We are not worried about her as she has a job, a best friend and a loving church family waiting there for her!

Anthony Eckels: Greetings from the two month old Houston International Christian Church! On June 13th, my wife Elizabeth’s birthday, God gave her the best birthday present ever: Jay, Angie, Alonzo and Nathan Hernandez moved to Houston from Hilo, Hawaii! We are so grateful to have their partnership in the gospel and their friendship!

Saturday, they jumped right in to serve as we had our first HoustonMERCY Project feeding over 100 needy people in Hermann Park.

We are so inspired by our sister, Chantelle Anderson! She was fruitful with her friend Selethia who is presently in West Palm Beach! Sunday we watched her baptism on Skype from Houston! As Chantelle enthusiastically stated, “Selethia’s baptism is a great example of why it’s so important to be connected with other disciples as a worldwide church!”

Mike Patterson: God’s power continues to be displayed here in Gainesville, Florida! For The International Day of MERCY, the church volunteered with Rebuilding Together to help make repairs and paint a Boys and Girls Club! Tina, the Director of our Project, shared how she almost cried when she walked in and saw all the volunteers saying that most groups only have ten percent of their volunteers show up! Impacted by this display, she came to Women’s Midweek and has started studying the Bible! She even came to our Leaders Meeting today and said she has never seen so much joy in a group that comes to serve! Please pray for her Bible studies!

Mitch one of our newer conversions at University of Florida (UF) shared his faith with his classmate named Ben. Ben comes from the Jewish religion and decent. God was already working in his life to bring him to a faith in the Messiah and so Ben went looking for answers in the Catholic and Mormon Churches. As God would have it, the first classmate Mitch shared with after his baptism was Ben! After enduring family persecution for leaving the Jewish religion, Ben was baptized into Christ last Thursday night!

Today we witnessed another miracle as Tomas was baptized! Tomas is over 60 and our seasoned brother Curtis met him sharing his faith before our Inaugural Service in January. Tomas came to our Inaugural Service and after six months of wrestling with the Scriptures, Tomas in tears expressed his gratitude to God and was baptized! Please pray for his wife and children to become followers of Jesus as well!

We can’t wait to see you all at the GLC!

Matt Sullivan of Orlando: “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation!” (Psalm 71:17-18) Old and young alike have been praising God the last few weeks here in the “renewed” Orlando Church! Almost 40 people are now studying the Bible and three have already been baptized!

God is exploding our Teen and Campus Ministry as all three baptisms these last three weeks were in their teens! In addition, God has given us two record attendances (since the planting of Gainesville and Houston) of 130 at our Annual Cocoa Beach Service with Gainesville visiting and then yesterday we had 124 at our International Day! The food was amazing and the winners for Best Presentation, Best Overall, Most Authentic and Best Dessert were honored! After the amazing lunch, we had a piñata for the kids and an unbelievable Tug-o-war Competition that will go down in history till next year! Campus, the “youth,” is licking their wounds as the “old and gray” got the best of them this year!

A few months ago a young lady from Winter Park High School slipped a note into my daughter Melissa’s locker asking to make sure she was a Christian and to see if they could talk. Melissa followed up and Jocelyn began to study the Bible. At 16, she began to receive persecution at home but stood firm with her convictions. Jocelyn was an answer to Melissa’s prayer for three years to help other teens become disciples as she was baptized and is now your sold-out sister!

Then the very last week of their senior year, a 17 year old senior, David, decided it was time to ask Melissa out on a date – figuring it was his last chance as Melissa was going off to USC for college! He asked her out and Melissa simply responded, “I only go out with guys from my church, but I want to invite you out to visit.” David felt a bit rejected and yet left happy that at least he got an invitation! He came to Devo and loved the fellowship! David studied the Bible faithfully and made radical changes. Sunday at service his mother and other friends and family got to witness his “new birth” and now David is your brother! Please pray with us as we have a prayer goal of baptizing 10 Campus and Teens by the end of summer and God has already given us three!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPE
 
Michael Williamson: Greetings from the London MERCY Ambassadors!

The past two weeks have been moving rather quickly as we began our annual First Principles Classes for the new Christians, placed memberships, and restorations. It’s been incredibly unifying as the First Principles coincide with our separate Men’s and Women’s Mature Classes taught by George Grima and my lovely wife Michele. What excites me most is the buzz afterwards from both classes! The disciples are definitely seeing the value of deepening their conviction as they study!

That said… nothing was as inspiring as seeing our brother Clebber baptized immediately after the Seeking God Class! Clebber is an incredibly dynamic Brazilian single professional who happens to be the manager of our brothers Jamal Roul and Ashley Adjai at the famous Portuguese BBQ Chicken restaurant “NANDOS” – Kip’s favorite spot to eat in London! It was so faith building seeing these two young men grow in their character to the point where they inspired their boss to become a sold-out disciple! He’s an incredible addition to the Singles Ministry!

Additionally, we had our dear sister Roslyn from the Island of Curacao (Mother of Denise Kukoyi) join the church for the next few months alongside an incredible young Columbian campus student! Marisol is very excited to join the church for two months over the summer until school starts up again in Madrid! Encouragingly she’s from our beloved Madrid Remnant Group and is studying law at the prestigious La Complutense University. Marisol plans to complete her Bachelor’s by January next year and then move to London!

Finally please pray for our trip to Amsterdam this week as we gather God’s remnant. Pray that all five disciples will move to London before the EMC to build the Amsterdam Mission Team! Oh yes… Go Team USA!!!!

HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH
 
NEWS FLASH – Eugen Sobolev: Privet from your Moscow MERCY Ambassadors!

We are all so happy here to see the story of three friends – Masha, Tanya and Sasha! Masha got baptized first in 2011. She invited her friend Sasha and she became a disciple as well. But it took three more years to persuade Tanya to follow Christ’s steps, but finally – a week ago – she got baptized too! It was so awesome to see that her mother was so happy at Tanya’s baptism that she attended the church this Sunday and started to study the Bible!

The great news of the Russian Commonwealth World Sector is so encouraging! We have remnant groups in Kiev, Ukraine; Novosibirsk, Russia; and Moscow, Russia. However, when the McKeans and Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin visited in November 2013, we gave a plan to God to bless! We would focus on building up Moscow in preparation for the mission team coming from LA in December 2014. We prayed that the Moscow Remnant Group would grow from 20 to 40! As of today through move-ins from Kiev and Novosibirsk, restorations and baptisms we are now at 42 sold-out disciples… and counting! 
 
HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICA
 
NEWS FLASH – Blaise Feumba, the Geographic Sector Leader of French speaking Africa and the Caribbean: I bring you greetings from the five churches of French speaking Haiti all of whom were initiated by the conversion of the former Mainline Church of Christ preacher – Alexis Turgeau at the 2013 Global Leadership Conference!

Another former Mainline Church of Christ preacher after being taught one must be a disciple at baptism (Matthew 28:19-20), Jean Bonard, was baptized in January of this year in LA during the Winter Workshop!Since then, the Lord has been blessing his passion to build a “SoldOut Church” of only baptized disciples in Jacmel. So in six months with the recent baptism of Monique Jean Baptiste, a Teacher Nurse, the church now has 40 sold-out disciples!

Please keep the churches in Haiti in your prayers as they are recovering from a Chikungunya Epidemic!

Amadou Sountoura: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zechariah 8:23) Greetings from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire! God has continued to bless the church in Abidjan with nearly weekly baptisms, as this week Janvier and Michelle were baptized and added to His church! 
 

 

Another great miracle that really encouraged the disciples and impacted millions of Ivoirians was the two young girls from the Abidjan’s Kids Kingdom! Grace Nda and Prisca Don – respectively eight and nine years old – passed the Middle School Final Year Exam among the higher scores in the whole country! They had the chance to appear on the National TV during a very popular program viewed in almost all French Speaking Africa to share their success story! As well, they were congratulated by the musical group “Magic System” – well renown in Africa and Europe!

Lastly, it was so encouraging for all of us in Abidjan to know that we were side-by-side all of the MERCY Ambassadors around the world!

Lola Lof of Kinshasa: Greetings from the “MERCY Ambassadors” in the Democratic Republic of Congo!

As described in JOHN 2:17, Jesus’ disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” If Jesus was consumed by “excessive love” for the “house” of his Father, we must do the same!

Some weeks ago, one of our former brothers Thomas who is a policeman and who had been in prison with me when I was under arrest on the military base for the cause of Christ, surprisingly attended last month’s Congregational Service and decided to study the Bible for his restoration!

Then I made up my mind to go and set up a Bible Talk where Thomas lives on the military base with the permission of his chief. While there, God touched the heart of another policeman who usually attends our Bible Talk meetings. After studying the Bible with us, Kotoko decided to make Jesus the Lord of his life and was baptized!!! His wife was so astonished to see the life change of her husband of whom she declared, “If a church can change the unchangeable heart of my husband, I will become one of the members!” Please pray for Kotoko’s wife, Clarisse who is studying the Bible, and also for the restoration of Thomas who has opened the gate for the salvation of lost souls on the military base! We believe more souls will be saved and to God be all the glory!
 

 
HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
 
Raul Moreno of São Paulo: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” (Psalm 118:1) Dear Family around the world: The Lord has been good to us here as three have been added through baptism in the last two weeks! First, Madalena was baptized as a “young spirited” 73 years old! She deeply loves the Kingdom of God!

Then two USP Engineering students were baptized into Christ through the efforts of the Campus Ministry! Ramon is in his second year doing Computer Engineering and Jonatha is doing Naval Engineering in his first year! They are both fired up for the Lord!

We also had our mighty MERCY Event! It was awesome! The church went to an activity center that serves orphans and very poor children. We had a ton of activities and a lot of fun and food! At the end, the disciples did a play called, David And Goliath that everyone enjoyed very much!

Lastly, we had the privilege to host Adam Zepeda from the Mighty LA Church for a little over a week here in São Paulo! Adam’s spiritual growth as a three year old disciple is amazing! Adam is a mighty man of God who did an incredible job preaching and encouraging the disciples here! He was also blessed to experience all facets of São Paulo… He even experienced tear gas for the first time in his life as we both got caught in the middle of a World Cup protest! I’ll tell you, it is great for clearing up the sinuses! LOL!

Jarod McGee of Mexico City: Greetings from the “La Ciudad de la Esperanza!” (The City of Hope!) We have had an incredible two weeks here in Mexico as God has been moving powerfully! Today, a young campus student from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with over 324,000 students!) named Eduardo was baptized!

Last week, Hector Becerra was restored to the Lord and His church! We were all stirred in our hearts as he shared with such passion, zeal and brokenness! Amazingly, Hector was baptized in 1995, but in the last few years began to drift from God, and eventually walked away from his Savior. We are so happy to have our brother back!

Lastly, our International MERCY Day was an incredible success! We were able to feed over 50 homeless people in an area inundated with displaced and uncared-for souls. Of the many times I’ve been able to serve in this small way of passing out a bagged lunch, I have never seen people more grateful to receive a nutritional meal! The hearts of all the disciples were deeply moved, and we couldn’t help but think of the day when we’ll be able to feed thousands of people here in Mexico! We thank God for His “mercy” and we are so grateful to be a part of “MERCY… worldwide!”

Carlos Mejia: Saludos from the Iglesia Cristiana Internacional de Santiago! We had an incredible time of serving last Saturday for ourInternational Day of MERCY! We had the privilege of serving ECAM Chile – Fundación de Egresados de Casas de Menores which is a home for children that have been abused or/and abandoned. We have an ongoing project with this foundation to improve the quality of life for the 40 children that live there.

Albert Wagers and Michelle Brown did a fantastic job organizing and assuring that our day of service was excellent. We were able to give them 44 new mattresses as well as mattress covers, install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, and insulate the windows as we are entering the winter months in the Southern Hemisphere… and it gets really cold! We also did landscaping – cleaning the yard and trimming trees and bushes. It was a very encouraging time for the disciples as many guests accompanied us, including Lucy’s parents who were visiting with us. Her parents shared that they were impacted by the work of MERCY and happy to be there serving!

Also this past week, two fired up young disciples, Paola Huerta and Isaac Garcia from our sister church in Mexico City, placed membership with us to work as fulltime interns! 
 

Hector Gomez of Bogotá: “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’” (Luke 15:17) This is what Nestor Melo said at the time of his restoration during our Sunday service! Nestor was baptized when he was 17 in the Campus Ministry of the ICOC in Bogota, Colombia, where he also served as an intern for two years! Six years ago, he fell away from God but on June 1, 2014 he was restored! 
 

Nestor’s fire and passion for God and His charge to “make disciples”has been reignited as he continues to bring visitors to church every Sunday! God is already blessing him by bearing fruit as Jenny Fonseca was met by Nestor! Jenny was baptized today as a true disciple of Jesus after having to confront her family’s very strong traditions and Catholic background! Jenny has brought her daughter Laura, who is studying the Bible with the “Youth League” (taken from the Justice League of Superheroes) which is the Campus/Teen Ministry of the church! Please keep us in your prayers so that we can “bear much fruit” in Colombia! 
 
HEADLINE NEWS – AUSTRAL-CHINA
 
Joe Willis: Greetings from Sydney, Australia! Last Saturday was special on so many levels! As a church not only did we watch the Australian Soccer Team play Chile at breakfast, but we also Skyped the Santiago de Chile Church at half time! It was inspiring to show our many young Christians how unified we are in the worldwide movement of God!

We then proceeded to take part in our first International Day of MERCY serving autistic kids!

And to round off the day, our young disciple Lennox Tweneboa – who plays semi-professional soccer for St. George in the Sydney League – scored the “Goal of the Week” as shown on this link IGA Goal of the Week – Round 14. Indeed a pretty spectacular goal!

 
HEADLINE NEWS – PAC RIM 
 
Mike Watari, Founder of the Hawaii Christian Gamers League: “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Āina i ka Pono!” (The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. – Hawaii State Motto) Aloha from Honolulu! The life of the land is indeed perpetuated in righteousness, as the Kingdom here on Oahu literally “worked the land” for our 2014 Day of MERCY! The disciples teamed up with Kāko’o ‘Ōiwi (an organization aimed at preserving Native Hawaiian culture and practices) to help maintain their Lo’I (taro patch). Taro was a staple food of the Ancient Hawaiians and this edible tuber is what is used to make poi, a Hawaiian delicacy!
 

 
The disciples learned what it really means to “wade in the water” and to be a “stick in the mud” (as Mary Santos puts it), as the Lo’I is essentially a giant pit of mud and water! A lot of puns were thrown around (as well as mud) as the disciples helped clean the Lo’I and learned how to cultivate and plant taro!

In addition to our Lo’I cleanup, we also held an “Airbed and Canned Food Drive” for the Next Step Homeless Shelter, which helps over 200 men, women and children to get back on their feet. Many were surprised and encouraged that we came out with several airbeds, considered by the homeless in these shelters to be a very generous and rare donation!

This past Sunday was (as Lou Jack says) “A BAD DAY FOR THE DEVIL” as Alex Moon was baptized into Christ! Alex (an IT professional) is the very FIRST (1st) BAPTISM in our newly established Christian GAMERS MINISTRY! Filling a need to “be all things to all people” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23), we started a “nerd outreach” (myself with the help of a few other like-minded disciples) which quickly became the Hawaii Christian Gamers League – our Kingdom’s very own Gamers Ministry!!! Alex was reached out to by Jazmine Yogi and me at our first official Monday Night Gaming Session, and quickly fell into good, clean “Kingdom habits,” as he attended each and every “meeting of the body” and fellowshipped with disciples at every opportunity!

Before Alex was even baptized, he was already looking for opportunities to jump into studies to help others receive God’s gift! We look forward to seeing more fruit, as many more potential souls study God’s Word in our Gamers Ministry… because EVERYONE (including the geeks and nerds) needs Jesus Christ in their life! 
 

MAHALO AND GOD BLESS FROM BEAUTIFUL HONOLULU, HAWAII!!!

John Malnegro of Manila: Greetings from the Philippines! We too feel so honored that our future Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader – Kyle & Joan Bartholomew – will be the Pac Rim World Sector Leaders! As well, we are so grateful for Rich & Angie Tabizon as they have strengthened the Manila Church with their convictions from the Word of God and are helping us to establish a foundation of only sold-out disciples!

In addition to this, we are in the midst of a pledge drive that will enabled us to hire Gina Dela Pina, who was a former Women’s Ministry Leader in the ICOC and has continued to faithfully serve in that capacity in our current fellowship! She has been a great inspiration and an example for our church while demonstrating faith under fire!

Because of all that God is doing, we have now created a new prayer goal for this next year before the Manila Mission Team arrives on June 1, 2015.  Our prayer is that God will work through us to double our number from 35 to 70 sold-out disciples in a little under a years time! This would give the mission team an incredible foundation to build on to bring the message of God to our entire country! Please join with us in prayer as we strive to see these dreams become a reality!
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT AND INDIA
 
Andrew Smellie: “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20) Greetings from the Concrete Jungle of New York City where the MERCY Ambassadors are literally giving their blood to save the city!

The past two weeks have been an overwhelming flood of emotions as we celebrated both Father’s Day and my final service as the Evangelist for almost three years of the remarkable NYC Church! During these two marvelous weeks, through the power of God, we were blessed with three more incredible baptisms: Anayka, a campus student from Staten Island; Elaina, a model and talent scout from Manhattan; and McDillon, a Trinidadian single from the Bronx!  
 

The church is excited to welcome the Broom and the Underhill Families, as well as the 31 sold-out disciples from around the movement, who will help to build the NYC Church to even greater heights as the pillar church of the new USA North Quadrant World Sector! Please pray for Patrique & me as we head back to the West Coast to re-join our spiritual family in Los Angeles and bond with the Feumbas and Speckmans as we prepare to evangelize the great continent of Africa!

To our dear brothers and sisters of the NYCICC: You have made our days of service in this great city a joy that we will never forget! A special “Thank You!” is also well deserved to our incredible Shepherding Couples, the Chins & O’Donnells, who have served tirelessly with great faith and courage to become the “spiritual parents” of this young church! We are eternally grateful for how they refreshed our spirits and discipled our marriage! We [will always] love you NYC Church with the love of the Lord!

Coltin Rohn of Boston: The hearts and spirit of each disciple was so awesome to see as everyone had a smile on their face as we served the poor for the International Day of MERCY. God blessed us through the Karonises’ with two incredible projects in Lynn: One being an elementary school that needed some love and care from masonry work to carpentry work to cleaning and painting; the other project was building planter boxes for the locals to grow vegetables in. Not only does this provide healthy food for nearby families, but has also successfully pushed gangs out of the area! Ted was also appointed as our Boston Director ofMERCYworldwide!

On Father’s Day, Sal & Jen Difusco were appointed as a Shepherding Couple in the Kingdom of God! Sal & Jen were once in the ministry here in Boston in the ICOC. However after leaving and being in the world for 10 years, they knew it was past due to get right with the Lord once again. When searching for a church with strong convictions on the Word of God they came across the Boston ICC through divine intervention!

Now after 22 months, they are stronger than ever and capable of being Shepherds for the entire congregation! Last Sunday, I presented a “Pompeii Gladius” to Sal & Jen with the inscription of Psalm 149:6 engraved on the blade, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edge sword in their hands.” This is the same type of sword the Romans had in Jesus’ day and could of been the type of sword Peter carried with him! (Luke 22:49-50) This sword was primarily used to defend and protect the family!

This past Sunday was filled with laughter, songs of joy, but also tears of sadness as we officially “sent out” Roger & Kama Parlour and Naamah Armstrong to NYC! We are truly sending out our “best” as these are amazing disciples! Roger preached the sermon of his life and quite frankly I believe every disciple should listen to it! (Watch BostonICC.orgto see the video!) After everyone was “sliced and diced” and encouraged to change, we had our newly appointed Shepherd pray over Roger & Kama (who have served tirelessly as Shepherds) and Naamah. Pray for us as we pray for you!

Maria Franklin of Chicago: Greetings from the Windy City! The Spirit is blowing in all directions so we are working hard to take care of all the disciples that are in transition in God’s “Move” ment! (John 3:8) Last week, it was exciting to have Cory Blackwell preaching at Midweek! He came into town to choose the “Fab Five” that will move from Chicago to strengthen the Southland Region of LA! Today in the Latin Service, we honored Juan Carlos & Betty Garcia, who labored arduously to establish and build the Latin Ministry from a few to 52 adults and 54 kids! They will be leaving this Friday to join the Supplemental Mission Team heading to New York City! We will miss them greatly!

Last Saturday, it was fun and humbling to have 150 MERCY Ambassadors serving the homes with residents with disabilities! Thanks to our MERCY Coordinator Joe Chiappetta every year we have been able to participate in this incredible service to the community!

To finish out the fundraising to send our three teens to IGNITE, the teens and teen workers held a bake sale. With the church’s support of providing amazing baked items, they were able to raise over $500! Now that’s a crankin’ bake sale!!!

Love is in the air! Saturday night, our Central Region Leader, Victor Montano, proposed to his lovely girlfriend, Marlyn, in front of the renown Buckingham Fountain, and she excitedly said YES!

Lastly, congratulations to our fearless and loving leaders Jay & Barb Shelbrack as they celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary last week! We are so grateful for their exemplary marriage that draws those with hurting marriages into God’s Amazing Kingdom!

NEWS FLASH – Debs Rajan: Greetings from your brothers and sisters in Chennai, India! Sheril, a Human Resources Manager, battled between pleasing God and her family for more than a year and decided to please God and be baptized even though her family emotionally blackmailed her!

Sudha, married with two boys, had to go through a lot of persecution as her husband asked her to “choose him or choose the church!” When Sudha chose Jesus as her Lord, her husband beat her very badly and walked out of her life. He still gives threatening calls to her and us, but Sudha remains strong in God’s grace!

Anand, a campus student doing his Civil Engineering, was impacted by Samuel’s love and made Jesus the Lord of his life and was baptized! It is awesome to see all these men and women deciding to choose Jesus against all odds!

Last of all, today we witnessed the most beautiful and wonderful marriage of our Interns Roger & Yassa! As in fairytales, this couple had to face a lot of opposition from their families, but it ended with “Happily Ever After!”

 
Dear Brothers and Sisters: The 2014 Global Leadership Conference – ZION’S DREAMERS – is less than two months away! The registration fee is $175 and covers all the activities from Sunday August 10th to Tuesday, August 12th! One of the many highlights will be on Sunday evening at The Great Banquet where Blaise Feumba will deliver the message from Nehemiah, MEET THIS THREAT! Most of the sessions will be “live-streamed” around the world! Please register atCAICC.net.

A very special thanks goes to Nick & Denise Bordieri, the Directors of MERCYworldwide, as well as to all of our local congregational MERCY Directors for making the International Day of MERCY such a success! The true impact of our Day of Fasting last Friday and InternationalDay of MERCY the following day will only be known in eternity!

“To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen!”(Philippians 4:20)
Much love,
Kip

Dear All,
Greetings from Los Angeles! What an incredible weekend: the CAICC Basketball Championship Game, the 3 Point Contest, the All-Star Game on Friday; the gorgeous Dylan & Kayla Erickson Wedding on Saturday; and by Sunday, the Lord had blessed the City of Angels Church with nine additions – seven baptisms, one restoration, and one place membership!

At 7:30PM on Friday evening, the opening ceremonies for the CAICC Basketball Championship Game began! The atmosphere was electric as the famed Inglewood High School Gym was packed with disciples! The young prophet, Princeton George magnificently hosted the evening! The opening prayer was given by the CAICC Basketball Commissioner Tony Untalan. Then Heather Harvin beautifully sang the Star Spangled Banner acapella and it was “game on” as the talented OC Knicks faced the undefeated Southland Bulls!

The Knicks raced out to a six point lead by the end of the first quarter led by the “Brown Mamba” – Amar Panduranga, the league’s leading scorer! However, by halftime, the “Silver Fox” – Cory Blackwell –  had inspired the Bulls to surge ahead to stay! The final score was Bulls 53 and Knicks 44!

The leading scorers for the game were Isaiah Todd (17) for the Bulls and Amar (16) for the Knicks, even though he did not play the entire game as he was severely injured with a little over a minute to play! (Let’s keep Amar in our prayers.) Amazingly, Carl Buckner of the Knicks led the rebounding with 14! To be commended are Chris Broom and Pat Boea who were outstanding in coaching the Knicks and Bulls respectively!

The 3 Point Championship was very exciting as the best eight “3 Point Shooters” from the CAICC League Regular Season went head-to-head! In the final round, Carl Buckner was narrowly defeated by the sharp-shooting Kyle Bartholomew – aka the Bald Eagle – of the Central Region Heat!

Then came the All Star Game! What incredible talent was on display!

The game had several lead changes, but in the end Kyle Bartholomew’s play gave the North All Stars a thrilling 51 – 50 victory over the heavily favored South All Stars! Kyle was named MVP for the All Star Game!

 

For the season, Cory Blackwell received the League MVP Award, Levi Bartholomew of the Heat received the Top Rebounder Award, and Gavin Proctor of the Knicks received the Sportsmanship Award! Only in the Kingdom could everyone have so much fun – win or lose!

To view the highlights of the Championship Game just go to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njn6-11e18M&feature=youtu.be. And to God be all the glory!

And now more detailed reports from around LA…

Jake Ramsier: Greetings from the Antelope Valley Region! This past weekend was so inspiring and encouraging as we all celebrated the wedding of Dylan & Kayla Erickson! Of note, Lou Jack Martinez preached the Word at the wedding, and all were full of praise for God when Lou Jack shared that Dylan & Kayla dated purely according to the Bible’s standard!

The celebration brought together a multicultural group of supporters: of course the entire AV Region, many disciples from the ICOC, members of the Mormon Church who are friends of Kayla’s family, even some of Dylan’s extended family from India, and Lou Jack & Cathi Martinez along with their children Christine and Philip from Hawaii! Truly the Lord’s “light was shining before men” as the disciples tirelessly served the families and the guests from early morning to late that night! I might even add that the AV disciples did an especially excellent job of expressing their joy on the dance floor!

A special “thank you” from the whole AV Family to Lou Jack & Cathi who also encouraged us again on Sunday! Lou Jack not only preached his heart out but sang as well, and Cathi shared a creative and vulnerable testimony for communion!

Don’t forget to send those prayers up the 14 freeway!

Curtis Valdez: “So Jacob was left alone, and wrestled [with the Angel of God] till daybreak.” (Genesis 32:24) Greetings from the Central Region! This week God blessed us by adding another brother to His Kingdom in the East Los Angeles College (ELAC) Ministry! Estaban is a wrestler for the university who quickly began applying the principles in his sport as he “wrestled” with the Scriptures! Estaban’s heart was just like that of Jacob, as he was eager to be blessed by God and receive the forgiveness of sins as soon as possible! Estaban received “his blessing” on Wednesday night as he was plunged into the waters of baptism!

Two more pieces of not good, not great but “awesome” news: 1) Melissa Sullivan of Orlando has decided to attend USC in the Fall! Everyone in the Campus Ministry is so fired up to have this “awesome” sister join us!

2) Those of us from Hawaii are so proud of our Honolulu Evangelist as he passed both the Old Testament and New Testament Exams to officially enter the ICCM Master’s Degree Program! Congratulations to our “awesome” brother Lou Jack Martinez!!!

Capil Marhatta: Greetings from the Sensational South! The South Region seems a bit like Long Beach Airport at times with continuous “arrivals and departures” for mission teams – Paris (2012), Las Vegas (2013), and the Wademans, Daniela Juarez and Michelle Miranda to Toronto! (May 25, 2014) Swirling around as well are disciples returning from the mission field such as Anthony & Cassidy, and Russian-speaking disciples moving from former Soviet Union Nations to train with Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin for the Moscow Mission Team which leaves in December 2014!

After the arrivals of five baptisms on Easter Sunday, we had a New Christian Orientation for all those baptized (11), restored (4), and placed membership (6) in the last few months! The room was full of miracles because we believe that every addition is a miracle!

Yesterday, we made over $1,000 in tagging and today Lance challenged everyone in the congregation to sell “something” just like in Acts 4:32-37 where from “time to time” the disciples sold their possessions and laid them at the apostles feet! We are praying for a “Son/Daughter of Encouragement” to step up so we can blow out our 20X Special Missions Goal!

Finally, be praying for us in the South “to strike while the iron is hot” to capitalize on the “many studies” and see Long Beach – as our brother Stacy Ybarra always says, “The Greatest City in the World” – to be evangelized on every corner and in every neighborhood! To God be the glory!

Sparkle Boea: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) Greetings from the Southland Region! This past Friday was victorious as we witnessed how God blessed our Southland Basketball Team – the Bulls – giving them an undefeated season! The great thing about it is that this unity can been seen in our ministry both on and off the court, as God has blessed us with many additions during the CAICC Basketball Season!

Recently, Gabriel Barbosa, who was originally baptized in our former fellowship in 2005, was restored! Despite his family’s persecution and disbelief about his repentance after having once fallen away, Gabriel fought hard to not let it hinder him from being right with God. He was restored during this Sunday’s service!

Leslie – a single mom of two and a long-time friend of nine years to our sister Charlette Newton, an awesome ICCM student – had studied the Bible about a year ago but wasn’t ready to commit to making Jesus Lord of all. She recently called Charlette and wanted to study again! After showing a consistency to God by attending “the meetings of the body”on a regular basis, giving up a 12 year relationship, and her partying ways, Leslie went from being unwilling to even pray to allowing God to soften her heart to become your sister in Christ!

We are convinced that God will continue to do amazing things through our unified commitment to serve Him!

Chris Adams: Good News from the Orange County Singles! “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) God is definitely blessing the OC Singles Ministry with abundant fruit! Two weeks ago, immediately following Ryan & Nikki Williams’ Friday Night Bible Talk, Viri was baptized into Christ! Viri fasted and prayed to have a humble, broken heart and even went with the sisters to the beach at 4:30AM to ask God for a spirit of openness!

Today, a young woman named Janet, who was met by Dennis (OC) and Corina (AMS) four months ago, overcame all her fears and “ran” to the light! Ever since seeing 12 people confess, “Jesus is Lord!”  at our Congregational Easter Service two weeks ago, Janet was determined and inspired that she too could confess, repent and be baptized! I’m so proud of my wife Kerri-Sue, who loves to baptize and even more… loves to train other women to be fruitful! 
 

God is also blessing us with Missions Miracles! Abby Chien shared today that a couple of years ago, she had asked a man who wasn’t open to studying the Bible if he would give to Missions… He gave $20 the first time… then $200 and then $300 as each time she asked for more, God moved his heart to give that amount! Then she changed jobs and lost contact with him; however, HE found HER at her new job and asked her if she needed any help this year for Missions Contribution! She had a quick “Nehemiah prayer” and responded with even more faith and asked him for $500… and he promptly wrote the check out for that very amount!  

Our OC Missions’ secret weapon is the family team of Lenny and her daughter Lizbeth, who was born with spina bifita. They tagged together for less than two hours and raised almost $100 on the streets of Santa Ana! As well, this past Saturday night into Sunday, Daniel Granger ran a “Ninja Night” at his Martial Arts Dojo for $60 per kid and gave up sleep for 24 hours… He had over 30 kids show up and all profits will be donated to missions!

Lastly, my wife & I are going after pledges for my participation in our upcoming OC Region 50 Mile Bike-a-thon that Wayne Willoughby and John Astwood have masterminded! The first 10 people that I have asked to sponsor me have all said “yes” and pledged between $30 (thanks, Mom!) and $250 (gifted by a generous remnant disciple who I’ve known for 20 years)! By God’s grace, I will not only go over the $1,000 mark this week, but also hit $2,000 by May 17th!

Myrna Lopez: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19) Greetings of love from the Inland Empire! During the last two weeks, the Lord worked incredible miracles as His grace allowed us to see five souls “repent and turn to God” as they were added to our number through the refreshing waters of baptism!

First off was Jesse, a UCR student, who was baptized at our Friday Night Devotional! Jesse’s eagerness to study the Bible was inspiring to all of us as she came to believe in Jesus for the very first time!

Second to be added to God’s family was Desmond, who was baptized into our incredible TNT Teen Ministry! Desmond, despite being 15 years old, showed a very mature understanding of the Word of God. Moved and inspired by all the baptisms after our Easter Congregational Service, Desmond came to his Bible study getting open about his sins and expressed his desire to be baptized as soon as possible! Five days later, he became our brother in Christ!

Very inspiringly, his older sister Deven was baptized today!! Deven, despite only being 17, showed an urgency to study the Word as she realized that her earthly success of being one of the top students in California and receiving several acceptance letters from prestigious universities, all counts for nothing if she is not walking with God! And so Deven became the second addition to our incredible TNT Teen Ministry this past week!

Sunday service was over but the miracles were certainly not! Chrisna, an RCC student, was feeling so deeply troubled, convicted and challenged by the message preached by Argo Arneson that she decided to keep studying until she was baptized and so Sunday before midnight she became our sister!

Also we had Sabrina join the family of God in the Palms Springs Sector through baptism! Sabrina’s family was persecuting her for her decision to get baptized and so they came to “check it out,” but little did they know they were going to be hit with the power of the Kingdom! Her family quickly shared after service that they saw that she was “in good hands” and her uncle was sharing in tears about how impacted he was from the service!

Pray for us as our Lord is not only working miracles in the lives of those around us, but also in our Special Missions as these past two weeks we have raised close to $1,400 through tagging and concession stands at special events such as the basketball games and concerts at the local university! We are praying to blow out our goal with just two Sundays left!

Tyler Sears: Greetings from the West Region! What an incredible few weeks it has been! God has been so gracious and faithful to us and we’re so amazed at all He is doing through the disciples! This week, the Lord added two to our number through baptism with Herbert and Soyoloo – a very talented woman from Mongolia!

Herbert was converted through our Singles Ministry after studying all week, while Soyoloo took a little more time – beginning back in October of last year! Her friends from Washington DC, Doku & Zula, became disciples and then reached out to make sure that Soyoloo and the father of her child “Bill” connected to Michael & Sharon Kirchner. Michael & Sharon persevered with them… They were married on Saturday, and Sharon “counted the cost” with Soyoloo and baptized her the next day!
 

I am especially proud of Michael for his serving heart as last week he officiated a wedding and then this week hosted the Mongolian couple from DC who came for the wedding and baptism, coordinated Bill & Soyoloo’s wedding, helped his ministry be fruitful, and brought out a friend to church!

We are equally excited about Special Missions and several disciples helped to make an amazing board for us to track our progress! Already we’re 75% of the way to 20X our weekly pledge!

Lastly, we are honored to be able to send out Miguel Limon to Mexico City to help support the church. He has already become such a dear brother to so many in the West and it is “bittersweet” to see him go. We are faithful that he will do amazing things while there, and Lord willing, Miguel will come back and be part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Mission Team after our August Global Leadership Conference! Please continue to pray for the West Region!

Victor Gonzalez Sr.: Greetings from the East Region! If you asked me to described the disciples here in the East Region, I would simply tell you that they “GET IT!” They GET that God wants them to bear MUCH fruit! They GET that we must financially support the vision of the evangelization of the nations in this generation! And they GET that God wants them to go to all nations!

Three miracles that attest to the disciples’ convictions here: The first miracle is that in the past three weeks we saw God add three to our number through baptism! First was Gilbert who gave up his job at a medical marijuana dispensary to become a disciple! The second baptism was Mauricio. Initially the brothers planned to go support our Celtics Basketball Team in the playoffs, but the game “just happened” to be postponed! So the brothers went and shared their faith instead. They met Mauricio, who came to church the next day, and was baptized a week later!

The third one to be baptized was Jose DeLeon, or JD as we call him! He moved all the way from Boston to play quarterback for the Mt. SAC Football Team! But when he heard about the Kingdom of God, he decided to put his football career on hold so that he could focus on becoming a disciple, and JD was baptized last week as well!

The second miracle, is that after much fundraising, including tagging everyday Monday through Saturday for three weeks straight, we were able to blow out our Special Missions Goal one month early!

The third miracle that brings us great joy, as we have the privilege of sending three more disciples down to Mexico City to help with the church there! Sara Oros and Josue Soriano are returning to Mexico City after being a part of the original mission team. And now one of our ICCM students, Dulce Jimenez will join them! We have full confidence in them and know that they will do an excellent job there!

Here in the East, we have no greater joy than contributing in whatever way we can for the salvation of the world in this generation! Much love, mercy and grace to all!
 
HEADLINE NEWS – USA & CANADA

NEWS FLASH – Richie McDonnell: “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to His name, for that is pleasant.” (Psalm 135:3) Greetings from beautiful Santa Barbara! God has been very good to the Santa Barbara Church just planted with 11 disciples in January and we are especially grateful to Him! In the last five weeks, God has added eight to our number – five through place membership and three through baptism!

Last week was incredible as Gabrielle Murillo and Chris Baty from the great San Diego Church placed membership; Dashawn Kelly – a campus student at SBCC was baptized into Christ; and we successfully collected a 19X Special Missions Contribution, overshooting our 15X Goal by collecting almost $12,000!

Dashawn is an incredible young man that was met in our neighborhood and invited to a Friday Night Devotional. He came and immediately fell in love with the church, and spent a lot of time with the disciples afterwards even joining us for our 10.5 Mile Walk-a-thon for Special Missions! During his very first Bible study, he boldly declared, “I’m all in!” He came to almost every church meeting for the next couple of weeks, continued studying the Bible, and was baptized last Sunday night! Dashawn has been such a great addition to the church, bringing much “refreshment to the hearts of the saints” (Philemon 7) in Santa Barbara because of his pure, humble heart.

Lastly, God has blessed us with an incredible new meeting location for our Sunday services, a huge upgrade from where we were previously meeting, and still within our budget! We now meet at the Fess Parker Double Tree by Hilton Resort (633 E Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara, CA 93103) located right on the beach in gorgeous Downtown Santa Barbara! Please be praying for us as many others are close to making Jesus their Lord and Savior!

NEWS FLASH – Jason Dimitry of Las Vegas: Greetings from Saint City! Our awesome Father in Heaven has blessed us with two more incredible weeks with the additions of three more souls to the Kingdom of God!

First, Anthony Jacobs, an ex-Minnesota Vikings NFL defensive end who has very deep convictions about the Bible, moved to Vegas a couple weeks ago for a job but Anthony now believes that the real reason God brought him here was to hear the truth and become a sold-out disciple of Christ!

Next to be baptized was Vanessa Perez, who truly had the Acts 2 “What shall I do?” attitude, as she gave up whatever she had to give up to enter the body of Christ!

Lastly, Mariah Robinson – our second dorm and sorority student – was baptized on Wednesday during Women’s Midweek! This gives us seven baptisms in the last three weeks! God is working powerfully here in “Saint City!”

Ricky Challinor of Portland: Good news from the City of Bridges!!!! Last Sunday was incredible having Seth Roy baptized! This story goes back over one year ago when Seth was first brought out by Jeff Eitelbach, who is now in Las Vegas! Seth reached the Discipleship Study but wasn’t ready for the call to GO ANYWHERE, DO ANYTHING and GIVE UP EVERYTHING!

A few months ago, Seth reconnected with Jeff and myself. God “had done work in his life” and Seth came back ready to give his life to God! Though it has been a battle, Seth has overcome SO MUCH to become a sold-out disciple of Jesus Christ!!!

I was personally encouraged as Seth was a state champion wrestler in high school and wrestled in college as well! Seth has been an answered prayer for me personally to baptize a wrestler! Continue to pray that God may bless the church with open hearts toward the Word!

Andrew Smellie: “Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God.” (Zechariah 6:15) Greetings from New York City or “La Ciudad de Nueva York” in Spanish! Today was an inspiring day for both our English and Latin Ministries as our dear friends Joel & Courtney Parlour (Evangelist & WML of the Syracuse Church) preached and shared powerfully for our English Service, and another dear brother and future Latin Minister Saul Saveedra preached for our third Latin Ministry Service only hours later!

Since New York City is privileged to have a large racial diversity – almost 30% of New Yorkers come from a Hispanic background – there is an urgent need to reach these 2.4 million lost souls! As a result, Saul preached a powerful lesson entitled, When God Speaks, You Should Listen, and two dynamic couples from the Chicago Church Latin Ministry – Juan Carlos & Betty Garcia and Josue & Maria Guerrero – shared for Communion and Contribution! Both of these couples were also in town to “scout out the land” as they prepare to move to NYC this summer!

As Patrique & I get ready to move to LA in July in preparation to lead the Johannesburg Mission Team, the NYC Church will welcome the new leadership of Chris & Theresa Broom and also Mike & Brittany Underhill to continue building a powerful pillar church here for all of the East Coast! In order to financially sustain these two incredible ministry couples, 25 disciples from across the movement have accepted the call to “come and help build the temple of the Lord” here in New York City! It was so encouraging to host seven of these visiting disciples today as they journeyed to NYC to “scout out the land!” Please pray for God to work powerfully for them to find new housing and jobs as they give their hearts to “diligently obey” the call of the Lord! We love you!

Mike Patterson of Gainesville: “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases… These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” (Luke 8:1-3) Today was a celebration as we collected our Special Missions Contribution! Jesus called His Twelve to leave everything and train for the ministry full-time. The people impacted by their ministry gave out of their own means in order to help the Twelve train full-time in the ministry with Jesus!

Through prayer and counsel, we decided to use our first Special Missions of 10X to put on a full-time campus intern at the University of Florida. It is a sacrifice for us personally and the church but we believe as Jesus, the best way to train is full-time! Our goal was $10,000 and our amazing God gave us $13,398 and there is more coming in!

We are also very excited to announce that because of this miracle, Marcel Turner will be our “UF Campus Intern!” Marcel was baptized in Portland, Oregon in 2007! Matt Sullivan who was leading the Phoenix ICC at the time took out of his own funds to hire me full-time as their Campus Minister and I asked Marcel to come with me. Building upon the Sullivans’ campus work, Marcel and I continued to build the ministry at Arizona State University, where many leaders of God’s movement were baptized: Coltin Rohn (Boston), Richie & Elizabeth McDonnell (Santa Barbara), Ashley Godwin (Los Angeles), and my beautiful wife Chenelle Patterson (Gainesville)!

Sadly, Marcel left the Lord three times since those early days. I’m reminded of Peter who disowned Jesus three times and when he was restored Jesus asked him, “Simon son of John do you love me more than these?” (John 21:17) Jesus then commissions him to “Feed [His] sheep.” Thanks to the efforts of Luke & Brandyn Speckman of LA and a unified brotherhood around the world, I believe Marcel has radically changed. Since being restored last year, he has been very fruitful but most of all I have seen a broken man who relies on God in his weaknesses. We are very excited to have Marcel on staff! Please pray for this internship as Marcel continues to train, work on his character, and prove himself to God and to men!

Jeremy Ciaramella of Phoenix: Greetings from the “Valley of the Son!” God blessed us at our Men’s Night Out with an incredible ASU student, Brice, being baptized! It was very refreshing for all of us to study with someone who had the heart of a Berean! As well, Brice also was somewhat like Apollos – as he was a recognized teacher in his former church! After Brice’s baptism into Christ, his former pastor/mentor “shut-down” his church literally this week and Brice promptly invited them all out to our service! We are grateful that our Father has brought us another brother, another soldier, to help us build the ASU Campus Ministry. Pray for us as we pray for you!

Jay Hernandez of Hilo: Greetings from the “Waterdogs” of the Big Island of Hawaii! God continues to bless us as we raise money for Special Missions, and as we raise up His banner for the lost! Joanne was baptized this evening despite some difficult times in our Campus Ministry. It was a great reminder to me that God makes us grow; He does the work; and He gives us the strength! Joanne first came to the Kingdom with her boyfriend who had studied the Bible a few years ago. Every week she became stronger in her faith as the sisters loved her enough to call her to give up her boyfriend of a couple of years. Despite some very emotional days, Joanna gratefully made Jesus her Lord this beautiful Hawaiian evening!

Mike Underhill: Greetings from the San Francisco Bay! This year we are excited to be doing three different Women’s Days to better evangelize the different geographic regions in the Bay Area. Last Saturday, five San Jose women had an attendance of 31! This week, 12 sisters from San Francisco and San Mateo had an attendance of 38! Everyone was very moved by the inspiring preaching from our very own Cyndee Ochs, as well as the sisters who so vulnerably shared their testimonies!

Additionally, last week, the church was so glad to have James & Becky Mitchell of Las Vegas place membership with us! They are the first of the 13 moving here from Las Vegas this summer! Today, we were honored to have our brother Johnny Rock Page in town from LA, and he shared joyfully for contribution from Malachi 3 about “having fun with God” by testing Him with radical financial giving! Thank you for all your prayers and we are praying for you as well!

Maria Franklin of Chicago: “Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!’” (Psalm 118:15) The Lord continues to do mighty deeds for us here in Chicago! Last Sunday, with a challenging goal of $101,000 for our 15X Special Missions Contribution, the generosity of the disciples overflowed as we collected just under $107,000!

Love is in the air as in the last two weeks, four new couples have started dating! Congratulations to Jasmine & Cordero, Wendy & Daanyel, Erica & Umberto, and last but not least, Ashley & Velmont!

Of great excitement for us ladies, our Annual Women’s Day was held yesterday! Our theme was PASSIONATE! It was such a phenomenal and excellent event all around and completed with a chocolate dessert party! We were honored as Helen Sullivan spoke to us about being “passionate” for our relationship with God! In the English Program, 81 sisters had 171 in attendance, and in the Spanish Program, 26 sisters had 81 in attendance for a combined attendance 257! Although the preparation work for Women’s Day is over, the real work has just begun for us as we seek to gather an incredible harvest from this event! 
 

To close out an incredible weekend, at church today, John was baptized into Christ! John had been faithfully attending church and Bible Talk every week for the past two years ever since his awesome daughter Tiffany (a student at UIC) was baptized! Tears were shed as our hearts were stirred to see a father and daughter bonded by the precious blood of Jesus!

Coltin Rohn of Boston: “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at His house!” (Luke 5:27-29) What a great time we had this past weekend at our New Christian Orientation!After Jesus called Matthew to “follow him” they celebrated with a feast!

We also had a feast for those who have decided to make Jesus Lord of their lives and follow Him over the past few months! Each new disciple was given a folder with a bunch of “Disciple Needed Goodies!” With five charges from the Scriptures, the disciples were solidified in their recent decision of becoming true Christians! Fellowship was sweet as we ate and truly “feasted” the night away! We are so grateful for the amazing disciples God has blessed us with here in Boston!

Ron Harding: Greetings from Washington DC! Jashana, a Howard University student who was a high school valedictorian, hailing from the Virgin Islands, humbled herself like the Eunuch, studied the Scriptures like a Berean, literally memorized the entire First Principles Study Series, confessed “Jesus is Lord,” was baptized and entered God’s Kingdom! Please pray for her sister Vanessa who is also studying the Bible to be become a true disciple of Jesus!

 HEADLINE NEWS – INTERNATIONAL 

NEWS FLASH – Carlos Mejia of Santiago: I am excited and grateful to announce the birth of the Bogotá ICC Remnant Group! One of the highlights of the 2014 Central and South America Missions Conference was the announcement of the Bogota, Colombia Church Planting scheduled for February, 2015! As God is always at work, a remnant group has come out of this great city of eight million, where there was once a church in our former fellowship of 1,900 disciples! As the church became lukewarm, fractured and splintered from returning to Mainline theology, today there are only 400 “members” left.

Lucy & I had the privilege to visit and work with Hector & Adriana Gomez, the former ICOC Lead Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader, who built this once glorious church from 800 to 1,865! During their years of service, they sent out two other mission teams to key cities in Colombia – Medellin and Cali! These two awesome disciples joined by five other amazing disciples are fired up to join God’s new SoldOut Movement and build a base for us as we prepare to send the mission team next year! At the first service of the Bogotá International Christian Church, the Lord blessed us with 45 in attendance!

 

This is so exciting for the Santiago Church as we approach our Special Missions Contribution on June 1st! The disciples are beyond motivated and jubilant as we will have the honor and privilege to participate in“Phase Two” of the Crown of Thorns Project by Lord willing, planting Bogatá, Colombia!

Upon our return to Santiago we were blessed to see two baptized into Christ: Belen a teen and sister of our dear sister Claudia, and Edwin, a young single man were added to God’s Kingdom!

Finally, we were so sad to say “goodbye” to our beloved Jared & Rachel McGee, who the Spirit is sending to lead the church in Mexico City! The Going Away Party was amazing as usual in the Kingdom, complete with heartfelt sharing, a video to honor the McGees, music and food! The Santiago Church will greatly miss Jared, Rachel and their awesome missionary baby, Priscilla, as they have become amazing leaders for God’s Kingdom. It was so heart-moving to see not only the campus and teens, but also marrieds and singles share with tears about how they have been transformed because of the love of Christ shown through Jared & Rachel.

Pray for the evangelization of Central & South America in THIS generation! 

Gina Dela Pena: “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told!” (Habakkuk 1:5) Amazing news from the Metro Manila International Christian Church! Our Women’s Day has continued to bear fruit as Analyn Corminal, another woman whose first attendance was during our Women’s Day, was baptized after service today!

So from eight remnant disciples in November 2012, the Metro Manila International Christian Church has grown to 40 sold-out disciples… and still counting and growing! We are looking forward to seeing many more baptisms as another 17 people are studying the Bible! Lastly, everyone is looking forward to Kyle Bartholomew’s visit at the end of the month, when he will introduce the Tabizon Family – a newly appointed Shepherding Couple in LA – who are moving here permanently to be partners in the gospel and win the Philippines for Christ! To God be the glory!

Blaise Feumba reporting on Haiti: The Lord is continuing to use to the SoldOut Movement disciples in Haiti, as three more souls were baptized in Port-au-prince and in Camp Perrin: Dulva Alva, Gethro and Valmont!
 

Equally moving news was about the “50 street kids” that were invited and gathered for a meal by Jean Bonard, Loverlie his wife, and the Jacmel ICC disciples! For those kids that Saturday looked like a “taste of Heaven” as they barely have a proper meal each day!

 

Please be praying for Alexis Turgeau – the first our Haitian Preachers to be baptized – as two of his sons were kidnapped for two hours by unknown gunmen who threatened to kill them! Praise God, through a series of events – some we know, some we don’t know – they were delivered by God’s hand! This happened shortly after Alexis has ministered to a Restoration Movement Church pleading for revival and teaching how to make disciples! It has been “suggested by outsiders” that this was the reason for the attack! To God be the glory!

Blaise Feumba reporting on Abidjan: A month ago, Amadou Sountoura the Abidjan ICC Leader started a Radio Program that is turning the city upsidedown! Every Friday from 8:30PM to 10PM, the gospel is preached through the radio waves “with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” (1 Thessalonians 1:5) After every program, 20 to 30 people respond by calling directly to study with Amadou! The Muslim journalist who directs the program has been so impacted by Amadou’s messages that he stopped attending his mosque and has bought himself a Bible to study! This Sunday this program bared its first fruit with the baptism of Sophie – a 25 years old student in French Literature!

Blaise Feumba: Greetings from the London Church! Sunday was the Feumba Family’s last Sunday Service with the awesome disciples of the London Church! We can’t believe three years have passed since we first landed in London in July 2011. We will always cherish the memory of the gracious reception at Heathrow Airport and the incredible love that the disciples here have shown to us.

The London Church has been for us a “city of refuge” and we are so thankful to Michael & Michele for their hospitality, friendship and support! We have become part of the amazing family of SoldOut Movement disciples here. The sharing today at our Send-off Party from our dear brothers and sisters tore our hearts apart as they expressed what we meant to them with so much love and grace. We are so looking forward to the next chapter in our lives in moving to LA to serve in the awe-inspiring City of Angels Church!

The Lord made this last Sunday even more special with the baptism of Thomas, a talented young sports coach from Poland! Three years ago, Thomas was invited to the first Bible Talk I attended in East London and for three long years he has resisted and doubted the Lord’s call for his life! A few weeks ago, Thomas finally made the decision – through the perseverance of Michael Ochwa – to surrender to the cross. He studied daily this past week with eagerness and great fervor! Today at church for his baptism, Thomas had four guests out including his roommate “Peter” who is also now studying the Bible! Suffice to say he’s no longer “DOUBTING THOMAS!”

Raul Moreno: “Paul took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” (Acts 19:19) Greetings from São Paulo! In the spirit mentioned in this passage, two campus men were baptized! First, Douglas was baptized and he studies Civil Engineering at FMU University! Then, Benjamin was baptized and he studies Electrical Engineering at USP University! He is a very talented young man as he is Chinese Brazilian and is fluent in five languages – one of them being Mandarin Chinese!

We are excited to see what the Lord is continuing to do around the world! We love you with the love of the Lord!

Debs Rajan of Chennai: Greetings! (English) Namaste! (Hindi) Vanakkam! (Tamil) This weekend, Yesuraj (means Jesus reigns) was baptized and now he lives up to his name of Jesus reigning in his life!

The month of May has always been fun with Summer Interns and campaigning for souls! On May Day (May 1st), the whole church joined the campaign for souls! We gathered in five locations to do Bible studies and in one day we had 33 personal Bible studies! Looking forward to the harvest of souls and seeing everyone at the GLC!
 

 
NEWS FLASH – Joe Willis: G’day from Sydney! Last weekend, our first stunning All Church Retreat was set in Australia’s breath-taking Blue Mountains! The fireside devotional, the early morning quiet times, and the powerful sermons were just what the Sydney Church needed to be refreshed to once again be “poured out like a drink offering” for the incredible Australian people! (2 Timothy 4:6)

Having come down from this mountain top experience, this weekend, God showered us with love from above as two very special people were added to Gods Kingdom in Sydney! Lennox (a professional soccer player) and Keira (a massage therapist for two of the top rugby clubs) arrived at our Sunday service in March after searching online for (in Lennox’s own words) “a church that believed in repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”

Lennox had become a Christian in our former fellowship three years prior, but had drifted from God and in that time had started dating Keira. However, always knowing what the truth was, he decided to look for God once again and after studying the Scriptures was restored this Sunday at church! Then to make God’s joy complete, Lennox baptized Keira at the beach later that afternoon!

The night before, Keira had kindly given many of us free tickets to see the International Rugby Game between Samoa and Fiji. Mason was able to see more of his “Samoan countrymen” than ever before and through their heartsy victory was truly inspired to be the leader for his people and take the Word to the Islands! 
 

 
Dearest Brothers and Sisters: Just a quick reminder that this coming Sunday is Mother’s Day! So let’s “give honor to whom honor is due”by letting our Moms, Grandmas, Spiritual Moms and Spiritual Grandmothers know how very much we appreciate their love expressed in so many ways in our lives! (Romans 13:7)

Lastly, please keep Elena & me in your prayers as we travel to Mexico City this weekend. We will be assisting in the leadership hand-off from Vic & Aurora Gonzalez to Jared & Rachel McGee! We are excited to have the Gonzalez Jr. Familia coming back home to LA! Also, coming with us from LA to stay and build up the Mexico City Church are: Dulce Jimenez, Miguel Limon and Josue Soriano!

Then the following weekend, we travel to San Francisco to familiarize Jason & Sarah Dimitry – the new leaders of this great church – with all the exciting evangelistic opportunities in this metropolis of 7.5 million lost souls! As well, we will be participating in the worship at the San Francisco Bay Church that Sunday morning! Then, Lord willing, on Sunday May 25, 2014 is the Send off Service for the Tabizons and Tuasons to Manila and the Toronto Mission Team! Pray for these gallant disciples!

One last piece of good news, my awesome co-editor of the Good News Email celebrates her 25th Birthday today on Cinco de Mayo! Congrats Sis!

And “may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Much love,
Kip