The Orlando International Christian Church was truly inspired by the Exodus Conference in Los Angeles hosted by City of Angels International Christian Church in August. Upon returning we were honored to have Kip and Elena McKean as our guest speakers which fanned into flame our faith and desire to do greater things in God’s church.
The Book of Exodus was the theme of the conference which gave the church a renewed conviction about upholding God’s honor. Moses was slow to accept God’s calling. Moses knew he was called by God when he was 40 years old, but fear made him run from his calling. Moses hid in Midian for another 40 years before he responded to God’s calling! What about you? God did not give up on Moses, and in the same way He is patient but persistent with us. Exodus 34:6 says: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Although God is slow to anger, eventually his patience wore thin with Moses, because Moses made excuses as to why he could not serve God and asked God to choose someone else! Exodus 4:14 says: “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses…” Here we see that fear is a dream killer. We must get out of our comfort zone so we can be who God wants us to be. Insecurity and thinking too lowly of ourselves is another form of pride. Interestingly, Moses stated about himself in Exodus 4:10 “I am slow of speech and tongue”. Others viewed him much differently! In fact, in Acts 7:22 the Bible states “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action”. When Moses committed to God’s calling and stopped thinking about himself, God used him to lead his people out of Egypt. God was passionate about redeeming a people of his own to love and glorify him. He zealously states in Exodus 4:22-23 ……’this is what the Lord says: Israel is my first born son, and I told you,’ to let my son go so you may worship me, but you refused to let him go so I will kill your firstborn sons.’ The Lord is fiercely protective and passionate about his people. There is nothing that God wants more than for his people to worship him and be wholeheartedly devoted to him. God still has that same desire today. God was so zealous about having a sold-out unified people of his own to worship him that he gave up his son Jesus to be the ultimate and final sacrifice for our sins in order to create a purified body of Christ for his glory. If God is that passionate about the body of Christ, how passionate should we be? Let us respond to God’s calling by overcoming fear, pride and selfishness with faith, humility and selflessness, so we can glorify God and give him the honor he deserves. Revelation 5:9-10 “and they sang a new song: you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
OICC praises God for those he has recently added to the body of Christ. Brittany Miller, who was first introduced to the Chicago ICC by a friend, moved to Orlando in July. She was baptized on July 18th and is now attending Valencia and co-leading the Valencia East Campus Ministry! She is also singing in the church band.
God blessed June Fisher with double fruit a few weeks ago. Lara Alao-Aboko, an honor student at Valencia West Campus was met on the bus by June. She began studying the bible with Betty Mesarina and June Fisher and was baptized in September. God’s Kingdom is made up of “all nations” and we are excited to have our first Nigerian disciple in the Orlando ICC. She is a great addition to our Westside Bible Talk and is presently being trained to lead a Valencia west campus bible talk for the campus ministry.
Carl Miller was also met on the bus by June Fisher. He began studying the bible with John Goss and Anthony Eckels and was baptized in September as well. Carl also plays the guitar and drums and is a very talented singer. His musical talents will be utilized in the band, and the Westside Bible Talk is excited to have him.
The day after the Eckels returned from the LA conference, Elizabeth met Calvin Pichardo at Panera Bread, after praying for musicians to become disciples. Calvin, a Medical Laboratory Sciences student at UCF as well as a talented guitarist, was baptized into Christ in September. He is such an inspiring friend to all, and we are grateful to have him as an addition to the church band as well. It is also very exciting to have another Spanish speaking disciple to help us reach out to the ever growing Hispanic community in Orlando!
God continues to build our leadership to sustain the growth of the church and train new leaders. We are excited to have Chris Jones from Phoenix ICC join us as our first male intern on UCF’s campus! He comes to us with great humility and enthusiasm for the campus ministry! He was converted at Arizona State University, where Phoenix ICC has one of the fastest growing campus ministries in the movement! The church is also very excited to have Elizabeth join her husband, Anthony on staff as a full time women’s leader. Elizabeth is excited about training new leaders, implementing children’s ministry programs and strengthening the women’s ministry!
It was very exciting to see Calvin Pichardo as a one month old disciple baptize his friend from UCF, John Fretwell ! John is a former professor at UCF and is now studying at UCF to be a doctor. His beautiful wife and three boys joined us to celebrate his baptism, which was a very moving time. Hearing his wife share about how her husband has changed and how their marriage is growing due to the word of God was very touching and had a great impact on everyone who attended!
Betty Mesarina and Paula Harpole invited Linda Rose to our Bring Your Neighbor day in August when Kip McKean came to speak for the church. Linda visited and saw the love of God’s Kingdom that she was first baptized into. Many tears were shed when she was restored to Christ and God’s Kingdom last month. She shared that her mother told her that she felt like she had her daughter back. Linda has been such a joy to the body of Christ and we love her so much. God is going to use her life to influence many! She has already brought at least a dozen people to hear the word of God and to see the love of the Kingdom.
God has blessed us with Maxim and Natasha Potapov, along with their daughter Maria, who placed membership on Sunday, October 3rd. Maxim and Natasha were instrumental in building the Kiev remnant church to 75 members. Following Kiev they moved to New York City for more training in the ministry. We are grateful they have chosen to join us in our mission to evangelize Orlando. Maxim is a tennis trainer and a very talented teacher in the kingdom of God.
We also would like to congratulate Lisa Robillard and June Fisher who are our new central Women’s Bible Talk leaders. Their new Bible Talk is centrally located at Barnes and Noble on East Colonial Drive near the Fashion Square Mall on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. God is using them powerfully to reach many women.
Let us pray continually for the newly baptized and restored disciples, knowing that prayer strengthens the body of Christ. To God be the glory!
By Anthony and Elizabeth Eckels
Leave a Reply