Greetings from Los Angeles! Our prayers have been answered! Andrew Smellie – the World Sector Leader for Africa – just received a two year, multiple entry visa to Nigeria! Lord willing, Andrew will leave LA for Lagos to “spy out the land” on November 2nd and return November 11th!
In this endeavor, he will be nobly assisted by Goodhope Atason, the Mainline Church of Christ preacher that joined God’s new movement in September, as Goodhope leads the Lagos Remnant Group! Therefore, given the “Nigerian Call” by Benedict Atason (Goodhope’s father and also a new member of the SoldOut Movement), the fact that Lagos’ population of 21 million is the largest city on that great continent, and the incredible number of Nigerian nationals in the movement, the decision has been made for the Crown of Thorns Church in Africa to change from Johannesburg, South Africa to Lagos, Nigeria! Lord willing, Andrew & Patrique Smellie will plant Lagos in April 2016!
Andrew is returning to his beloved Africa in early November to lay the groundwork for the planting of the Lagos International Christian Church!
BREAKING NEWS
Seattle, Washington: “The Word of God continued to increase [numerically] and spread [geographically]!” (Acts 12:24) God is leading His movement to more and more USA cities! On Sunday, October 25th, the announcement was made that the Seattle Mission Team will leave from LA at the same service that the Lagos Mission Team will be sent out – April 3, 2016! Joel & Courtney Parlour of Syracuse feel very honored to lead this momentous planting!
The team will be composed of disciples from Syracuse, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco and LA! Praise God that the Spirit is raising up Anthony & Maria Franklin to take up the Parlours’ mantle and lead “the little church that could… and did” – the Syracuse International Christian Church!
HEADLINE NEWS – Campus Ministry
Kyle Bartholomew of the Philippines: Greetings from the Metro Manila International Christian Church! Upon the mission team’s arrival, we decided to begin focusing on three main campus areas. 1) NORTH: The University of the Philippines and Ateneo led by Zach Shields & Ariel Butler. These are arguably two of the top three universities in the Philippines! 2) WEST: The Manila Campuses led by John & Anna Malnegro. This area consists of a large collection of universities, namely La Salle University which is considered the other of the top three universities in the Philippines! 3) CENTRAL: The Makati/Mandaluyong Area currently led by Jason Alejandro and Rose Sabrino. This area also holds a number of great universities such as RTU and University of Makati!
Since our Inaugural Service on June 7, 2015, God has grown our campus ministries from just four disciples to an incredible 39 sold-out disciples! So miraculous is that the UP Campus Ministry has grown from zero to 11, the Central Campus Ministry has grown from zero to eight, and our fastest growing campus ministry in Manila has grown from just four disciples to an amazing 20 disciples in just five short months!!! This past Sunday was another astounding example of the incredible harvest of young people that are coming to God, as Reymer, Ralph, and Phillip were all baptized into Christ! John & Anna have been so fruitful in leading the Manila Campuses even though they are blessed with three children and Anna works a full time job!
After watching a young disciple named Clieford share his faith daily at the RTU Campus, Reymer approached Clieford and asked if he could be a part of his church as Reymer was amazed at Clieford’s personal example! After a few weeks of studying the Bible, Reymer made the decision to put God first in his life and was baptized into Christ! Please keep us in your prayers, as “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few!” (Matthew 9:37)
Coltin Rohn of Boston, Massachusetts: Greetings from Boston, the “Promise Land” of Campus Ministry! Truly from a campus ministry perspective there is no other city in the world quite like Boston! Being only about 90 square miles, Boston has a population of over 650,000 people, making it the fourth densest city in the USA! Amazingly Boston is home to 56 different colleges and universities! Amazingly, out of 655,884 people living in Boston, 336,273 of them are students!!! Pray for us as God has given us such a great charge in campus ministry!
Starting 2015 with only nine campus students, God has blessed us with 19 campus baptisms! We now currently have disciples enrolled at Berkeley College of Music, Boston College, Boston University, Fisher College, Northeastern, Mass Bay Boston, and the University Massachusetts – Boston! As well this year, the Spirit restored a very dear sister to many in the movement Bridgett Corban of Portland, Oregon!
Another exciting addition is our Japanese brother Sanada Yuki! Yuki was very successful in Japan as a Computer Scientist. However, after a rough divorce, Yuki decided to move to the States so he could study English at Boston University English School, hoping to fill the void in his heart. On the 26th day of being in the USA, Yuki – who was an atheist – was invited to Bible Talk! Though Yuki did not know what he was getting into, he came that very instant! On the 60th day in our country, Yuki was baptized as your brother in Christ! Excitingly Yuki starts his new job on November 2nd again as a Computer Scientist, a job he can work from “home” anywhere in the world! And to God be the glory!
Raul Moreno of Sao Paulo: We here in Brazil are very excited to see God’s dream of evangelizing the world in our generation become a reality! That said, evangelizing the world for us begins right here in Sao Paulo! With exactly 135 disciples in our congregation, we now have three regions that meet separately on Sunday! We have the East, West and South Regions! What is really exciting is that two out of our three regions are led by campus conversions from our University of Sao Paulo (USP) Campus Ministry!
Our West Region is led by a dating couple – Danilo Bataglin & Carol Portico! Both are majoring in Civil and Environmental Engineering! Our South Region is led by Caio Costa who has a Masters in Physics, and turned down a scholarship to pursue his doctorate at Moscow State University in Russia to go into the full time ministry! Danilo & Carol are three years old in the Lord, and Caio is just two years old in the Lord! So now I better understand the importance of building the Campus Ministry! If we dare convert “five talent” disciples, in a few short years God gives us potential church leaders!
Indeed, the Campus Ministry is the main fountain of leadership for the Movement of God! Some may ask, “Why focus so much on the Campus?” I believe there are six reasons:
1) Idealism of Youth. “Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.”(Psalm 110:3) It is usually young people that are idealists and want to change the world! That is one reason that we need to convert campus students at this very special stage in in life! 2) Unhindered by Life’s Problems. “An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.” (1 Corinthians 7:34) At the “campus stage of life,” most usually do not have to worry about debts, bills, husband, wife or kids. Therefore, you have more time to devote to Jesus’ ministry of seeking and saving the lost. You have more time to be trained! 3) Hearts Are Less Damaged by Sin. “…From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Sin damages our hearts! Thank God that with Jesus, our hearts can be healed! Yet, the younger that one is converted, the more one avoids destructive sins and so this lessens the impact that sin has on your heart! 4) Talent.“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48) God gives talents for a reason; they are to be used for God’s purposes! On the campus, generally speaking, we find a greater percentage of talented people than those who do not have the privilege to go to university. 5) Nationals. “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19) Collectively speaking, the campuses in our cities attract students literally from every nation of the world! These “foreign nationals” are usually their country’s “best and brightest!” All of these disciples hold the potential to “go home” and not only plant the church in a nation that we do not have a foothold, but to become their Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders! 6) Long life. This last reason is self-explanatory! The younger one is converted, the more time that one has to serve God! Also, usually the more energy as well!
Presently, we have 49 students in the Sao Paulo Campus Ministry! 34 are USP students, and last month, we had our Annual Campus Retreat with 70 in attendance! Finally, God willing, we have the dream to plant the Rio de Janeiro Church in 2017! This church planting will mainly consist of campus students and the leaders of the mission team are Danilo & Carol! Please keep praying for us as we pray for you, and may we all collectively build campus ministries that will evangelize the world in our generation!
Dearest Brothers and Sisters: Please keep Elena & me in your prayers as next week we fly to London to participate in the European Missions Conference – GLORY! Then we are off to Moscow for a special Spiritual Enrichment Weekend! To conclude our round-the-world trip we will be speaking in Metro Manila! Truly, we are seeing the miracles of the first century happening again in the twenty-first century! “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.” (Colossians 1:6) And to God be all the glory!
We are family… to the end,
Kip
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