Chris Broom of the OC Region: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation… We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us!” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) Friday, God allowed us to be His “ambassadors” to over 400 teens through “180 Worldwide” – the benevolent arm of the CR Ministry that Russ Preston, a Shepherd-in-Training here in Orange County, has founded! Two of our “Mighty Men” in the Teen Ministry, Eliseo Escobar and Emanuel Jimenez, approached their teacher wanting Carl Buckner – a disciple and Gospel Hip Hop Artist in the OC Region – to perform at their high school assembly. Carl, along with Russ and his amazing wife Lana, were excited when this incredible opportunity came!
Russ & Lana share their love for God and each other
by leading the OC Teen Ministry and the City
of Angels Church CR Ministry!
At the school assembly, Carl shared his testimony while vulnerably addressing his past; being in a gang, drug and alcohol abuse and eventually going to prison. Russ was also able to share about his past and how his addiction caused such devastation in his life. Afterward, Carl did an amazing job preforming two songs off of his new album which both the teachers and students loved!
Carl Buckner shares about his drug and alcohol
abuse (above) and then raps about his
new life in Christ! (below)
During one part of the assembly, the students were given a piece of paper asking them three questions: 1) Has your life been negatively impacted due to drugs? 2) Do you use drugs? and 3) Have you ever been offered help for you or someone else because of drug abuse? Sadly, 70% of all the students answered that they had been negatively affected as a result of drug and alcohol abuse within their families or themselves, and 50% said that they currently use drugs or alcohol on a daily basis.
Excitedly, many teens approached us wanting to change their lives! We exchanged numbers and emails. Most exciting of all is that we had some of those students show up for Teen Devotional that night!
During the Devotional, Russ received a text message from one of the teachers saying, “Russ, thank you for today, it was a powerful message! It’s something that kids at a public school rarely hear or talk about. Praise God!”
And we continue to “Praise God” for the three souls that were added to God’s Kingdom in the OC this week! First, Morgan Thompson was baptized immediately after Women’s Midweek this past Wednesday! Kiana & Azia reached out to her months ago and unfortunately she decided to stop studying. Four weeks ago, Morgan frantically called the disciples desperate for help to seek God. Her twin sister Meagan (just baptized two weeks ago in the Central Region) came to visit as they both started to study the Bible with the OC Sisters. They both had been fighting the “spiritual forces of evil” of witchcraft! After studying the Bible every day and attending every “meeting of the body,” Morgan was eagerly awaiting the waters of baptism and became your sister in Christ!
Morgan (center) joins her physical twin Meagan
as a sister in God’s Family!
Then Jessica, who is the older sister of Kim and Patty, was baptized on Thursday Night!
Jessica is so impacted by watching the lives of her
younger sisters – Kim (far right) and Patty (far
left) – that she becomes a sold-out disciple!
Finally, Dennis Sloan was restored tonight at the Orange County Singles, Campus and Teen Service! Though an officer in the military who understands both sides of authority, Dennis humbly confessed his rebelling against God’s love and sovereignty in his life. What an amazing picture to watch unfold over the past few months as Dennis not only learned again how to trust his God, but he also learned how to entrust himself to his brothers. Encouragingly, the OC Singles Ministry with the addition of Dennis (restored), Eddie Alvarado (placed membership from IE) and Jessica (baptized) all this week, has grown from four singles (all sisters) in January to 14 sold-out singles in the Lord’s Army!