Santa Barbara International Christian Church

Category: Santa Barbara Good News

  • Santa Barbara Good News – Week of 8/9 – 8/15

    Santa Barbara Good News – Week of 8/9 – 8/15

    Following the exhilarating Global Leadership Conference (GLC), the Santa Barbara church led the week with a powerful start! Sunday Service was filled with enthusiasm. The buzz of the fellowship was loud and proud. God allowed the church to have 7 visitors attend service! One was a newly baptised sister from the central region of LA, Chelsey, who move up to Santa Maria for the summer to stay with family. We wrapped our arms around Chelsey and welcomed her to the Santa Barbara family as she will continue to fellowship with the church until school returns in the fall.

    There is a mighty flame building up in the men and women’s ministry. Wednesday nights, the men gather for MOG (Mighty Men of God) meetings, led by our new leader Dennis Sloan. The men are training to become excellent examples of Jesus in leadership, servitude, and even health and fitness. We are excited to see how much God will help the men grow and powerfully lead the way for the church!

    The Mighty Men set their foot on UCSB Campus.
    The Mighty Men set their foot on UCSB Campus.

     

    Additionally, the spark has caught fire with the women! On Wednesday, our new women’s leader, Corinna Sloan, preached an inspiring mid-week lesson titled “Hit the reset button.” The point of the lesson was that now is the time to reset, not reboot, our lives and goals in the ministry with a new fresh record. All the women were fired up to do so, and decided to imitate the men and create a similar MOG group for women. Although the final name has not yet been discovered, the women are already set to meet up the following Wednesday for a mighty women’s meeting!

    Look out for what God will do with these women!
    Look out for what God will do with these women!

     

    We finish the week celebrating the beautiful unite in marriage of Anthony Zarate and Kassandra Campos of the Ventura region! What an honor was it to have the Santa Barbara Church attend and serve to make their wedding spectacular.

    Kassandra was radient as she walked down the aisle while Corinna sung “Your Guardian Angel” by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
    Kassandra was radient as she walked down the aisle while Corinna sung “Your Guardian Angel” by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
    Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Zarate!
    Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Zarate!
    I was honored to perform the song “For the Love of You” by the Isley Brothers during their cutting of the cake.
    I was honored to perform the song “For the Love of You” by the Isley Brothers during their cutting of the cake.
    The Sloans enjoy a dance together.
    The Sloans enjoy a dance together.
    We had a spectacular time dancing salsa, cumbia, and more!
    We had a spectacular time dancing salsa, cumbia, and more!

    The Lord has blessed us with an amazing week. As we finish the last week of summer, we are all ready to reset and make the end of this year one to remember. Like Joshua, we pray for God to give us every land that we set our foot and to grant us success in the mission of Jesus here in Santa Barbara. Glory be to God.

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    – Dara Teamer

  • 2015 Global Leadership Conference – Savior of the World

    2015 Global Leadership Conference – Savior of the World

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    The 2015 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) was held at the Anaheim Hilton on July 31st-August 2nd. This year’s theme was Savior of the World with an emphasis on the Book of John. Approximately 1,600 disciples attended the GLC. The fellowship with disciples from all around the world was incredible—from kingdom dates, quiet times, prayer walks and hanging out between sessions, the GLC gave disciples many opportunities to get to know our brothers and sisters from all nations. This year’s GLC was the first for many of the Santa Barbara disciples. A few of the disciples, who have been before, were reencouraged with strong faith to forcefully evangelize the city of Santa Barbara!

    After Michelle’s first GLC, she is ready to preach the word to the Latin nation!
    After Michelle’s first GLC, she is ready to preach the word to the Latin nation!

    Our sister Michelle Peralta gave her insight on what impacted her most at her first GLC. “The sermons that impacted me were the women’s session and the Latin festival.” Michelle’s favorite part of the GLC was learning from Jesus on how we can evangelize the world! She feels prepared with tools to take back to Santa Barbara, “We need to get into bible studies with people. This generation is in darkness and it’s up to disciples to continue working for Jesus.”

    Dominic is ready to get back to Santa Barbara and work hard for the Lord!
    Dominic is ready to get back to Santa Barbara and work hard for the Lord!

    This also was our brother Dominic Sandoval first GLC. When asked what sermons made the most impact on him, Dominic said, “The men’s program when Kyle Bartholomew laid it out to the mighty men of God! Kyle spoke about how the growth of the church starts with bible talks and bible studies. If we aren’t doing these basic steps, our church won’t grow.” One of the main tools Dominic learned was, “The willingness to be consistent with the work I do for God. The only bad work that can be done is no work at all! God is calling us to do the work whether I feel like it or not.”

    This was Corinna’s third GLC! She’s ready to use her talent of dance for God’s kingdom!
    This was Corinna’s third GLC! She’s ready to use her talent of dance for God’s kingdom!

    The GLC provided multiple social events for disciples such as the talent show, pure dance and ice cream social. Our sister and women’s ministry leader Corinna Sloan, gave her perspective on the talent show and pure dance. “The talent show and the pure dance are my favorite parts of the GLC! Seeing the incredible talent of my brothers and sisters—in music, song, dance, theater and poetry—and how they choose to use it to glorify God is so inspiring! I know these people can change the world with their God-given talents,” said Corinna. When asked about her thoughts on the pure dance, Corinna said, “It’s the best party I’ve ever been to. We all leave super sweaty from all the dancing! The amazing thing is it’s with absolute purity. I’m already pumped for next year!”

    We closed out the GLC with an awesome four-hour church service that ended with 17 baptisms! It was a bad day for the Devil! We are excited to have new brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God from all over the world. What an amazing family to be a part of! The Santa Barbara disciples learned many valuable lessons at the GLC and are ready to continue to God’s work in evangelizing Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara International Christian Church can’t wait for the GLC next year with even more disciples! We are family till the end!

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    -Laura Lewis

  • Savior Of The World

    Savior Of The World

    Posted by Santa Barbara International Christian Church on Sunday, August 2, 2015

  • Sam’s Baptism – December 2014

    Sam’s Baptism – December 2014

    Richie McDonnell: Greetings and Happy New Year from Santa Barbara! The Lord has been blessing us with some beautiful weather as we close out January! (Praying for you Boston, Syracuse and NYC!) To start off the month, we combined our Winter Workshop with the San Francisco Church in that great city! The workshop really was an UPWARD CALL! Upon coming home, we launched a sharing campaign for both the Campus and Singles Ministries. Also, today was our First Anniversary Service, marking the successful completion of our first year as a church where we more than doubled in size!

      

    On top of all of this, we had an awesome baptism of a student at the SB City College, Sam! Sam had a troubled and neglected past, full of many hurts, but finally found what he was looking for – the “pearl of great price!”(Matthew 13:45-46) To God be the glory!

  • Kashira and Alynna’s Baptism – December 7, 2014

    Kashira and Alynna’s Baptism – December 7, 2014

    Elizabeth McDonell: Greetings from Santa Barbara! This whole year has been just fantastic, but the last few weeks have been exceptional! To start, we went on our first church-wide retreat titled, We Are Family.

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    The fun-loving Santa Barbara Disciples
    at their Fall Retreat!

    Then to close out the retreat – which was held by a nearby lake – at Sunday service we had our first restoration, Guillermo Beltran, and a baptism of a UCSB student, Kashira! Kashira has been a zealous rights activist, but now sees that the most worthy cause is to save souls for eternity!

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    Kashira (VINE t-shirt) rejoices in her new salvation!

    Then, amidst the torrential downpour of rain and 60 mph winds, we baptized another woman, this time a SBCC culinary student, named Alynna on Thursday! It was a bit scary but God protected us! She’s an awesome addition and already is studying the Bible with two of her friends here in Santa Barbara!

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    Alynna – baptized in the midst of a storm –
    finds peace in Christ!

    And as one disciple put it, with the ending of the spiritual drought in the Women’s Ministry came the ending of the physical drought here in Santa Barbara! Please continue to pray for us and we love you with the love of the Lord!

  • Richie’s Baptism – November 3, 2014

    Richie’s Baptism – November 3, 2014

    Richie had been studying the Bible for a couple weeks, but had hit some roadblocks in really wanting to give up everything for God. But after my husband preached about our ultimate goal, “little” Richie came up to him and told him that he wanted to fully commit to Jesus and wanted to get baptized as soon as possible! So on Monday they met up and “Richie” McDonnell multiplied himself and baptized “Richie” Huerta in the ocean! He is an incredible addition to our growing SBCC Campus Ministry!

  • Robert and Nallely’s Baptism – September 7, 2014

    Robert and Nallely’s Baptism – September 7, 2014

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

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

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  • Josh and Brian’s Baptism – July 27, 2014

    Josh and Brian’s Baptism – July 27, 2014

    Richie McDonnell: Greetings from beautiful Santa Barbara! Excitingly, today we were able to celebrate our Sixth Month Anniversary as a church planting! These past two weeks have been incredible as we have had three baptisms! One woman – Emily – from UC Santa Barbara, and two men from SBCC – Josh and Brian! Josh in an incredible “catch” as he is from the island of Roatán (off the coast of Honduras), is on the SBCC Soccer Team, and is a natural preacher! Though he once was a false doctrine Pentecostal preacher, he is now excited to preach the truth! Today, we also had Brian’s baptism, which is the answer to a radical prayer! Brian and his best friend started studying the Bible back in January. They loved the fellowship; they fell in love with the Bible; but after really counting the cost, they both decided that they couldn’t commit to being a sold-out disciple, and that school and sin were more of a priority for them. The stopped studying the Bible, and stopped coming to church. Then this past Thursday morning, I prayed, “God, please let someone who’s already studied the Bible all the way through, and who knows what it means to follow Jesus, contact me and get baptized this Sunday.” That very night Brian went against better judgment and decided to try a new drug out with some friends. He described going on a “drug trip” where he was in Hell; he felt like he was burning in Hell, and heard people around him screaming! This helped him come to his senses and realize he couldn’t wait any longer! And that next afternoon he contacted me to get together and talk about getting baptized immediately! So finally, and with a truly repentant heart, Brian was baptized in the Pacific Ocean and couldn’t be happier! I am encouraged by Jesus’ words, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22) God truly answers prayer!

  • Guillermo’s Baptism – June 22, 2014

    Guillermo’s Baptism – June 22, 2014

    This 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!

     

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  • Esmerelda’s Baptism – May 18, 2014

    Esmerelda’s Baptism – May 18, 2014

    Elizabeth McDonnell: Greetings from beautiful Santa Barbara! What a faith building few weeks it has been as God answered our prayer for a woman to be baptized here in Santa Barbara! Esmerelda was baptized into Christ on May 18th! Though she lives in Ventura County (some 40 miles away), she commutes each day up to Santa Barbara to go to the highly acclaimed Santa Barbara City College! After years of being beat up by the world, the love of the Kingdom blew her away; in fact, she was so impacted that she now plans on moving into the sisters’ household in June! She is a very sweet, kind and a genuine woman and is a great addition to the church here!

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