September 1, 2013

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Dear <<First Name>>,

Greetings from Los Angeles! For the past few days in the States, we have enjoyed the Labor Day Weekend! Since 1894, this yearly holiday celebrates “the contributions of strength, prosperity and well-being” made to America by her workers. Also, for most Americans, Labor Day signals the end of the Summer even more than the September Solstice, because it is traditionally when our schools open to begin a new year!

 

So every Labor Day, the City of Angels Church celebrates our Annual Fun Day and Picnic again brilliantly directed this year by Chris Broom! Over 1,000 gathered in beautiful William R. Mason Park to enjoy one last day of summer! Highlights included the games well managed by Tyler Sears and of course the incredible lunch feast overseen by Victor Gonzalez Sr.!

 

Amazingly, though a vacation for most, the Lord blessed the City of Angels Church with 7 baptisms this week!

And now more detailed reports from around Los Angeles…

Jake Ramsier of the AV Sector of the Central Region: This Sunday, we praised God for the baptism of Kristin, the teen daughter of the faithful disciples John & Sharmeen! Because Kristin’s parents divorced before Sharmeen became a disciple, Kristin is a part of two households: John & Sharmeen’s and her father & step-mother’s. Kristin had to fight opposition from her father’s family to come to church each week and continue studying, but she was driven to become a disciple!

Her baptism after church was miraculous in multiple ways, because not only did her faith bring her father and step-mother out, but also her grandparents and other relatives, who have persecuted her mom Sharmeen for years! Sharmeen told us after the baptism that this day was the first time Kristin’s grandfather had been in their house! It’s incredible how one young woman’s life can impact her family and the world!

 

Garrett Bradly: “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘See, I am about to something that will make the ears of everyone who hears tingle.'” (1 Samuel 3:11) Greetings from the Mighty IE Region where God has been moving in ways that has everyone’s ears tingling! So encouraging were the two baptisms that we had this Sunday! First was Robert, father of our dear brother Brandon from the San Diego Church! As Brandon shared about his dad before his baptism, Brandon described that he was amazed at his father’s transformation and humility towards the Scriptures. It was truly awe-inspiring to see father and son united together in Christ!

Then Jennifer, a student at RCC, was baptized! In July, Jennifer first came out to Bible Talk at RCC. She was so encouraged by it, that she did a Bible study right afterward! Although she was heavily persecuted by her mother, she continued to study the Bible despite her mother’s attempts to hold her back. When Sunday came around, her family told her that she should not get baptized, but Jennifer put Jesus first and she is now our sister in Christ! God has been moving powerfully down here in the IE, as we have had 11 baptisms in the month of August! And to God be all the glory!

 

Joe Willis – Leader of our North Region and Sydney Mission Team: Greetings from the North Region Student Ministry! The Teen Ministry has started with a big splash with Anthony, the brother of Victoria Mabry, being baptized! Starting in July with just a few disciples, the whole CSUN Ministry – led by Mason & Nathalie – celebrates this as their fourth baptism in the last two months!

 

G’day mates! Continue to pray for the 13 member Sydney Mission Team as there are only 16 weeks before – Lord willing – we are sent out at the Christmas All Congregational Service on December 15, 2013! The following compose this incredible group of LA sold-out disciples: Mason & “soon-to-be” Nathalie Fetelika, Merari Escalante, Merita Gethers, Jade Rubenstein, Eric Valenzuela, Sean Valenzuela, Rahnesha White, Jason Woody and Kerry & me! And of course, Ian & Margot Clague are “waiting” in Sydney for us! The “Bonsai Tagging Team” was out hard at work on Saturday, as we are striving to collect $5,000 for each member of the team before we land in Australia!

 

Richie McDonnell of the Santa Barbara Sector of the Ventura Region: My wife & I want to thank Luke & Brandyn Speckman for the incredible training we have received in Phoenix and Los Angeles! It has been awesome planting the newest sector of the LA Church, which Lord willing, will become an official church planting in January 2014! This week was incredible as we finished our campaign for the Santa Barbara City College, rated the number one community college in America by the Aspen Institute! It started with daily prayer at 6AM, and concluded with a visitor-packed “Back to School Party” with an attendance of 25! Amazingly, all of the visitors are set-up to study the Bible this week!

 

All this hard work bore fruit this week as we had our first two baptisms: Alex Flurry on Tuesday night and Cameron Forbes on Sunday! Alex is an incredibly talented UCSB graduate student, pursuing a Master’s in Mathematics. He graduated high school at 15, graduated Stanford at 19, worked at Yahoo for a couple of years before deciding to go back to school, as well as teaching undergraduate math classes. Alex came from a Scientology background with almost no knowledge of Jesus, and in just under three months came to faith in Jesus, and completely opened up his heart to the fellowship and has become one of the most thoughtful brothers!

 

Cameron is an awesome carpenter living in the student populated area known as Isla Vista, that was met through our tagging efforts! He overcame a challenging past and was baptized today on the beach of one of the most wicked areas of the whole Santa Barbara County – Del Playa! It is the ocean front street that is infamous for its flagrant sin and today God placed a ray of shining light there, as Cameron’s sins were washed away in the Pacific Ocean! Love you all and thank you for your many prayers!

 

HEADLINE NEWS – USA 

NEWS FLASH – Matt Sullivan of Orlando: “They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies (the people of Orlando and Florida) over to them, because they cried out to Him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him.” (1 Chronicles 5:20)! Today the Lord blessed us with five additions!

At the end of service, we all walked down to the water’s edge at Cocoa Beach at our Annual Labor Day Service! It was stunningly beautiful as about 125 gathered around to hear two recommit themselves to the battle. Keith Crawford openly apologized to the church and to God for turning his back on God. Then Tia Taylor shared that she had allowed her heart to harden due to difficulties and then looked to people for comfort rather than God in an idolatrous way. All were moved by Tia’s “broken and contrite heart” as she returned to her “first love!” It was awesome as all of us then sang to them, We Love You with the Love of the Lord!

 

Also, three came to be baptized today! First was Kiki who is the cousin of Keyanna who was baptized right there at the same beach just two months ago! Kiki is a very talented young lady who loves to sing and literally “preached” how fired-up and grateful she was to become a disciple today! She is a fantastic addition to our AMS Ministry!

Then Nazarina, a UCF student who is from Bolivia, gave her good confession! She had literally just moved to Orlando the day before meeting the disciples on campus! As she reflected on this, it was a clear signal to her that God was searching for her!

 

Also, Aaron – a student at Valencia College and the boyfriend of Nazarina – was baptized! He shared how he saw God’s plan for his life unfold as his girlfriend had been invited to church that first day! Convicted by her example, he changed all his plans and pursued God with all his heart! Both of them have become dear to the campus ministry in just two short weeks and were baptized as sold-out disciples today! “God answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him!”

Lastly, the definition for remnant is a small surviving group of people, and that is why we are going to South Florida to reach out to those who have survived the spiritual destruction and to start rebuilding God’s Kingdom!  If you are interested in attending this meeting or being part of this great work please join us on September 13th & 14th at 10335 NW Mnr Coral Springs, Florida 33065 at 6PM. Hosting this event is Lance Underhill of LA! Also joining us will be Jason Dimitry from Las Vegas! Please come and hear a powerful message of hope for the remnant. To end the evening, we will discuss our plans for starting a remnant group in South Florida! For more information please contact Lance Underhill at 714-463-0025 or Lanceunderhill50@gmail.com

 

Kelly Bartholomew of San Diego: Today was an incredible day as the church gathered for our Annual Labor Day Park Service! For a “non-push” Sunday, we had a full house with an attendance of over 90! Evan, my amazing husband, challenged the church with an inspiring lesson entitled, Fruitful Labor!

However, the highlight of the day had to be the baptism of Amber Anderson! This young woman is a zealous young “Apollos-ina” who simply needed to be taught the Scriptures “more adequately.” She is also the physical sister of our beloved sister in the faith, Kristin (Anderson) Smith from Phoenix! Kristin & Josiah drove the six hour trip this morning to see Amber get baptized, and will now drive the six hour trip home so that Kristin can be at work at 3AM tomorrow since she is a newscaster!!! It was so incredible to see these two sisters become sisters in Christ! Please continue to pray for us, as many more are on their way to stirring the waters of baptism!

 

Coltin Rohn: Greetings from Boston the land of many “HaHvest” fields! With over 100 colleges and universities in this small city, it is a sight to see as all the campus students move back into town as Boston’s population almost doubles! “Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s hahvest time!” (John 4:34-35 Message Translation)

Ironically almost half the church moved this week as well! Thanks to the tireless help of the brothers’ household, 17 people were successfully moved! Encouraging was the move of our sister Angelique who placed membership with us today! Angelique is a senior at Harvard “Hahvahd” University (ranked by many as the number #1 university in the world!) and is studying Economics, Spanish and Theater! While on an internship in Los Angeles, Angelique was baptized under Chris & Sonja Chloupek’s leadership in the City of Angeles Church! And Angelique brought a friend to service today! It’s so great to be a part of a movement that is working together to evangelize the world!

 

Back in January we released a few prayer goals for the Boston ICC! Two of those prayer goals were to have a fruitful Spanish Bible Talk along with a dynamic AMS Ministry before the end of the year! God is faithful as this week officially starts up our Latino Ministry (led by Rafael & Melissa Jerez) and our fired-up Arts Media & Sports (AMS) Ministry (led by Sal & Jen DiFusco)! We are all excited for our ESL Spanish Bible Talk and Open Mic Night (September 17th 7:30pm @ Ryles Jazz Club) to help kick start these efforts! Pray for us as we are now settled into news homes, and have nine Bible Talks which will launch this week!

 

Courtney Parlour of Syracuse: The past couple weeks have been a time of transformation and great refreshment for the church! There were nearly 100 people at church today as Joel motivated us with a lesson entitled: We Are The Dreamers! The points inspired us to believe in our Great Calling (1 Peter 2:9-10), to obey the Great Command (Luke 10:27), and to live out the Great Commission (Acts 1:8)! We were able to see firsthand the desperation of world evangelism as we had Syracuse University visitors out from China, Korea, Togo, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Colombia!

Joel & I are honored to have the opportunity to fight in the battle alongside men and women who have been faithful to God for such a long time here in Syracuse. Please pray for us, as we start our “Solomon’s Colonnade” this week at Syracuse University and continue studying the Bible with the thousands of starving souls! We love you all very much!

 

Andrew Smellie: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning!” (Psalm 30:5) Happy Labor Day Weekend from New York City! Today the church celebrated the fruits of much “spiritual labor” as Saiida was baptized into Christ!

Two years ago, tragedy struck this young mother of two. She learned that her worst nightmare had come true, as she returned home to an ambulance carrying the body of her recently deceased son. Little did she know that this tragedy would spark the beginning of the rest of her life. After her son’s death, she spiraled into a deep sadness, but today all that changed! Saiida was baptized into Christ as the New York City Church cheered her on along with her pre-teen daughter, Faith! Truly, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit!” (Psalm 34:18)

 

Emilio Bonilla of Las Vegas: Greetings from “Saint City!” Jason preached a scorching hot lesson at Sunday Service titled, Spiritual Reality. God blessed our 28 disciples with our second highest attendance of 69 adults!

One of the encouraging aspects of being in Las Vegas is our relatively close proximity to LA, our movement’s modern day Jerusalem! We almost never fail to have brothers and sisters visit, and this week we had several from the AV Sector, the South Region, and the Central Region’s Shepherding Couple – Damon & Vicki James. Most encouraging was having God’s latest miracle, Gabe & Stephanie Reed, who were here on their honeymoon, share their hearts for communion!

Another flat out miracle was the baptism of our new brother Kyle, who is a first year business student at UNLV! Though young, Kyle embodies 1 Timothy 4:12 as he “set an example in faith,” as he made the most important decision of his entire life during his first week in college by making Jesus Lord! Please continue to pray for our “Back to the Bible” Bring Your Neighbor Day Campaign! As always, to God be all the glory!

 

Mike Underhill: Here in San Francisco the church is standing in awe as we watch God building His Kingdom! Among so many incredible disciples sent out from the Syracuse Church, another family has been added to the list: the Fergots placed membership today! We are so grateful for “the little church that could,” does, and continues to do in Syracuse! Because the Fergots were on the 2012 Mission Team to San Francisco, but were held back by severe health challenges, we gratefully presented them with the Mission Team Globe that we had saved for them for the past year! It was a powerful day!

 

Ricky Challinor of Portland: Greetings from the City of Bridges!!! It was great to have Michael & Sharon Kirchner with us here at the beginning of this last week! After speaking at Staff, Midweek and spending great time with many individuals in the congregation, the Portland Church was truly refreshed and fired-up to take this city on! A huge thanks to the Kirchners for all their sacrifice and love for Co & me, as well as all those in the movement!

 

God blessed us with an incredible service today! Though a “non-push Sunday,” we had an amazing 197 in attendance! Nearly 50 visitors in our English Service! Much of this was due to two incredible baptisms! The first was Xanthe Williams (pronounced Shaunte) – a “Kingdom Kid” whose mom is a disciple in the Latin Ministry. It was incredible to hear her convictions on the Word, forgiveness and gratitude. When asked why she wanted to be a disciple, she responded that she wanted to be saved and to save other people! After her baptism, three teen girls asked to study the Bible!

The second baptism was Junior Montes who had ELEVEN visitors!!! We first met Junior when we went to play basketball by our house. Even on the court it became apparent that he would become an incredible disciple! His sharing moved everyone to tears including his mom and her boyfriend, his friend, brother and sister who are all going to a Bible Talk this week!

Jay Shelbrack of Chicago: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:1-3) It was an exciting week for us here as we witnessed God’s power transforming lives!

Last Monday night, Jhenell – a law student at DePaul University – was baptized in Lake Michigan! Jhenell shared that she had received scholarships from two different schools and had decided to go to another school in another state but somehow the scholarship had not gone through till it was too late, and so she finally decided to go to DePaul. She shared how she saw God directing her here, and within two weeks of her arrival, she became – through many radical changes – a true disciple!

 

Then Latesha was restored today through Gods mercy! She shared how she had given into sin and lived a life of deceit and guilt. She was also grateful for God’s patience and allowing her the honor to be restored back to Him. Finally, we were very elated as Alton Liu placed membership today! He has come to Chicago – from the UCLA Ministry where he was converted – to enter the Master’s Program in Applied Mathematics at the prestigious University of Chicago! We began a new semester for our campuses here and have had amazing results because of the faith and hard work of our students. Please pray for us as we make every effort to honor God in all we do!

HEADLINE NEWS – INTERNATIONAL

NEWS FLASH – Michael Williamson reporting from Amsterdam: “‘I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number!’ declares the Lord!” What an incredible weekend! Eight disciples from London (Michael & Maria Hart, Deirdre & James Morgan, Javaline Mathuew, Kia Pope, and Michele & I) two disciples from Sweden (Kaspar Tambaur and Kristin Kivi), and one radical Frenchman who rode a bus virtually all night (Phillipe Scheidecker) traveled to the most populated city of Holland to “kick-start” the AMSTERDAM INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH!

 

Upon our arrival, we were met by our brother Menno Zoutendijk  and his wife Yuklin singing the Kingdom song that lets you know you are home – We love you with the love of the Lord! The Dutch are known to be somewhat reserved as they do not touch or hug each other publicly very often. We were however showered with encouragement, great food and incredible humility the entire weekend!

 

Menno, Yuklin, Renee and Anita are the four brave warriors who have stepped out of our former fellowship to begin our new church of sold-out disciples! After two days of intense evangelism campaigns, we were ready to participate in the first service this Sunday! Menno shared during communion with tears on how grateful he was to be in God’s Modern Day Movement, as “THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS LEFT OUR FORMER CHURCH.” Renee & Anita Vermaat (the new Shepherding Couple) were encouraged that so many disciples from many different parts of Europe came to help out as they were without marriage discipling for ten years!

 

Some of our guests included Denise Kukoyi’s brother, alongside Thirza Overman and her whole family, who Maria Hart had invited. Thirza was the first baptism in Curacao in 1996, and her mother and father (who also came to church) were the second and third additions in Curacao respectively! (Curacao is a Dutch territory in the Caribbean.) Her little sister Jessica was also baptized two years later in 1998 at the age of 14 shortly before the Hart’s moved to Jamaica for further training. Since then this family having moved to Amsterdam have all been wandering in the desert going from church to church, but never finding the “sound doctrine” and discipleship that they were part of before.

 

Just one month ago, Jessica took her parents to what is left of our former fellowship in Amsterdam looking for revival but was surprised to see how “things had changed and how there was no joy, no fire in the fellowship as they knew before.” So they decided not to come back. After service, Jessica asked Maria “What happened to the church?” They all want to be restored! God’s timing is amazing! All in all 18 disciples brought 18 visitors – 36 in attendance! Given what’s left of our former fellowship is only about 35 members in number, God truly blessed the hearts of this new church and is fulfilling His promise for His people to return “to their pasture, where they [are] fruitful and increasing in number!” And to God be the glory!

 

NEWS FLASH – Blaise Feumba of London and the overseeing Evangelist of French-speaking Africa: “So the Word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7) The Spirit of the Lord has moved powerfully in August in Abidjan after the GLC, as in the last three weeks eight more souls were added through baptism to God’s Kingdom! Also, with 120 disciples, they had an attendance of 234 last Sunday! Pray as plans are being made for the First African Missions Conference to be held in Abidjan next May!

 

When I was in LA  last month for the incredible GLC, I was so encouraged to study with Alexis – the Mainline Church of Christ Minister from Haiti – and to see him baptized as a sold-out disciple of Jesus! Then, the Lord brought to me another preacher named Akin, who was invited by Jason Green and Simon Oxton! Akin studied the Bible just like Apollos with a humble heart even though he was already preaching in the Redeemed Churches of God in Nigeria and East London. After been challenged to give up his ministry to become a sold-out disciple, Akin surrendered to God’s way of making us righteous with Him and was powerfully baptized today! He is travelling to Nigeria to bring his wife Betty back to London next month for her to study the Bible and for both to be trained and get ready to go back to Nigeria to bring the gospel to their nation of more than 120 million lost souls!

 

Then two weeks ago, I met Gabriel from Romania while he was preaching in the streets of Stratford in East London. After rescuing him from two Muslims who tried to disturb his preaching, I invited him to examine the Scriptures with me the next day. He came with two visitors and started studying the Bible right away! After admitting that he was still lost by Jesus’ discipleship standards, Gabriel has now done The Church and Persecution Studies and will be ready to count the cost this week!

Be praying for me as I join Alexis in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Wednesday to study with many more “priests” and believers from the Mainline Churches of Christ in my scheduled 11 day stay, where we will formally initiate the Port-au-Prince International Christian Church! To our Awesome God be all the glory!

 

Yomi Bello of London adds: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  (Zechariah 4:6) The Spirit of God is achieving its purpose in London! This Sunday, Paris Kennard a young single Englishman that’s been a member of a denominational church for five years, desperately began seeking God in the place millions of people go every day – the internet! After finding our Campus Ministry Website, Paris was eager to study the Bible. For two weeks, he wrestled intently with the fact that he had never been truly saved. His openness and vulnerability during his sharing Sunday moved several in the audience to tears, and he was immediately baptized after church!

On another note, we ask you to please pray for a man studying the Bible by the name of Anup. Anup is not only a Buddhist, but claims to be a direct descendant of Buddha! He also holds leadership and media responsibilities in his home country, Sri Lanka. Anup wants to become a disciple but major Buddhist leaders are flying into London this Tuesday to try and dissuade him. Please pray we convert this major opinion leader!!

 

Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo: “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9). Our Lord is indeed our “fountain of life!” Similarly the Lord used a “fountain” at USP University this past Campus Devotional that allowed Tatiane to “see [the] light” of Jesus through the saving waters of baptism!

 

Also, a remnant (“veteran”) couple from our former fellowship were able to see Jesus’ light more clearly by placing membership this Sunday! Marcio & Claudia have been around for a long time as he has been a disciple for 20 years and she for 10! They were members in the Trias’ Sector in our former fellowship! We love you with the love of the Lord!

 

John Malnegro of Manila: Mabuhay! God’s miracles continue to unfold through His remnant church here in Manila! Today, we witnessed our dear sister Rodelyn get restored in her relationship with our Father in Heaven! Rodelyn is a chemical engineer and industrial engineer by profession and was met by our sister Marilyn (Alvin Panlilio’s wife) about two months ago at a certain bookstore, and since that time Rodelyn has never missed church!

Another exciting news is that Nina, our sister Toni’s youngest sister, was baptized! I want to lift-up our incredible sisters Gina and Anna, along with all the sisters for their hard work in the Lord! And last, but not the least, today is a very special day for the love of my life Anna, as she celebrates her 17th Spiritual Birthday! To God be all the glory!

Nimrod Malnegro: Good News from the Remnant Group of Davao City, Philippines! Our God has been moving powerfully here the past few weeks! As of our 15th worship service as a church, excitingly we had another couple (Oliver & Venus Ociones) from our former fellowship place membership! Also, we have three campus students studying the Bible, a couple studying to be restored, and several adults studies as well! Keep us in your prayers!

 

Vic Gonzalez Jr.: Greetings from the plentiful harvest field of Mexico City! This last week was amazing, as my dear friend Miguel Angel was baptized! Miguel is an incredible man who studied at Ibero one of the top schools in Mexico City! Please pray for the harvest in “El DF!”

 

Anthony Olmos: Bonjour de Paris! The Paris Church has been so inspired by what the Spirit is doing all over Europe! As God has opened up a door for His Kingdom in Amsterdam our fearless leader, Philippe, was able to take part in their Inaugural Service! In his absence however, the Lord did not hesitate to send over some reinforcements! Saturday, three courageous disciples from the Moscow Remnant Group arrived to spend the week with us. Though they don’t speak a word of French, they have inspired the church by their boldness and zeal as they share their faith everywhere they step foot!

Blaise Feumba of London also arrived this Saturday. He began his visit by spending time with our brother Didi, who is making a recovery from his recent heart surgery! (Didi is scheduled for a full recovery!) Sunday, Blaise preached a powerful lesson where he told the story of Gideon and how God doesn’t look at who we are, but who we will become! Our dear sister Heidi arrived earlier this week and is already immersed into her language course in preparation for her second year at the Sorbonne! Not only is Heidi at the Sorbonne (“the Harvard of France”), but we also have two other disciples in attendance for this upcoming year!

 

We are continuously grateful for all of the prayers and sacrifice that make a church in Paris, France possible! We love you all with the love of the Lord!

Alfred Muratov of Moscow: Paul Yarmoshyna is 19 years old and a student in the second year of the Russian State Humanitarian University. He is actively involved in youth politics and social projects. We studied the First Principles with Paul and he understood that we are fighting for the souls of men. After our return from the GLC, Paul was baptized! Glory to God!

 

Jared McGee of Santiago: “Seek glory, honor and immortality!” (Romans 2:7) August was an awesome month as the church witnessed eight additions culminating with Francesco’s baptism! Francesco, a native of Naples, Italy, came to us as a stark atheist! However, after his girlfriend Alexandra broke-up with him to seek the Lord, his heart started to soften. He “battled it out” with the Scriptures while he studied the Bible every day for a week, and smashed the idols of disbelief, his ex-girlfriend, and an addiction to cigarettes and was baptized! When Francesco was asked why he wanted to become a disciple, his response was, “I want to be immortal!”

We also saw Claudia baptized today, the first baptism of prayerfully a very fruitful month for us! Let’s all have a “September to Remember” as we “seek [God’s] glory, and [through this our] honor and immortality!”

 

Tim Kernan: Greetings from Chennai, India! India is about one third the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world with a population of 1.24 billion – FOUR TIMES the population of the USA! In this abundant land more than a million Indians are millionaires, and yet sadly, the majority of Indians live in grinding poverty on less than two dollars a day! Linguistically 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country besides the 19 officially recognized ones! It is a beautiful yet suffering land of diversity that is thirsty for faith and hope!

Excitingly this week, all 14 of the new Bible Talks grabbed hold of Jesus’ dream and burst into action around the city! Many of them reported having “one-to-one visitors” and record attendances! Of special note is a talented young Christian named Roger Green, who led three Campus Bible Talks this week with great success! Also, we inaugurated our first Campus Devotional at our home. About 30 disciples joyfully gathered together to dream and scheme for the over 400 Universities in India! This week, Arun was baptized into Christ!

 

Lianne & I continue to be so touched by the hearts of Raja & Debs who have built such an amazing group of disciples here and I know their dream will continue to grow until everyone in India knows of their dream which is Jesus’ dream of an evangelized India and an evangelized world in this generation!

 

Please pray for our Bring Your Neighbor Day Service, called Invitation Sunday in India, which is coming up September 29th to kick-off a “bumper crop” harvest month in October!

 

Dearest Brothers and Sisters: On Sunday close to midnight, I learned that my beloved 84 year old partner in the gospel John Beshai passed away and joined our Father in Heaven! John – an Egyptian Lawyer – was baptized in Boston in the late 80’s. He then moved to LA, where he baptized many more in his “Middle East Bible Talk!” I will forever be in his debt, as John was the one who found the place for our Cairo Church planting in 1988 to meet. As the Vice President of the Sadat Peace Foundation, John used his considerable influence to protect all the disciples in Egypt on many occasions, including my family when we led the Cairo Church.

Upon hearing the news, I cried. Some were tears of joy knowing that John died faithful as John came to our 2013 GLC less than a month ago! Some were tears of sadness, as John did not see “his dream” of the new movement establishing a discipling church in Cairo! Prayerfully, John will be like Moses, who only saw the Promise Land but those he loved conquered it! Let us in tribute to this great soldier of the cross determine all the more to make John’s dream a reality not just in Egypt, but throughout the entire Middle East! As I went to bed I was happy for John, as he had “fought the good fight” and won! Indeed, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Psalm 116:15)

 

Stirred on by the reality of the shortness of our days, let’s consider that the Summer has ended and the Autumn months have begun here in the Northern Hemisphere, and as the Winter ends and the Spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere, let us “Stand firm! Let nothing move you! ALWAYS give yourself FULLY to the work of the Lord, because you know that your LABOR IN THE LORD is not in vain!” (1 Corinthians 15:58) And to God be all the glory! Amen!

Much love,

Kip