Good News Email – 12-14-2014

Merry Christmas from Los Angeles! So much has happened the last three weekends: The City of Angels Church Annual Financial Presentation Service, the International College of Christian Ministries last session of 2014, Joe & Capil Estep’s amazing wedding, the Shepherds Retreat, and today’s Annual Christmas Worship Service where the Spirit sent-out the Moscow Mission Team!

Every Sunday following Thanksgiving in America (since this a low visitor Sunday), the City of Angels International Christian Church has our Annual Financial Presentation Worship Service! This year to save money, we met with double services in the Southland Region building. Overseen by a man of great integrity and the Administrator of the SoldOut Movement, Michael Kirchner “broke down” our expenditures and the Spirit’s accomplishments of the year as “we take pains to do what is right not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.” (2 Corinthians 8:21)

Excitingly, even though many were away for the week for Thanksgiving with their physical families, three were baptized that Sunday and one was restored!

The following week was the last session of the ICCM for our first students who began the program in January 2013. Chris Adams and Elena McKean were outstanding in their one hour presentation on Islam. After a short break, Andrew Smellie gave a riveting and convicting class on Atheism. Both presentations brought me to tears as all of us in the ICCM deepened our convictions that we can and we will evangelize the nations in this generation!

The next day on Sunday, I had the privilege to escort Capil Marhatta down the aisle as her “stand-in Dad” to marry a dear brother to many – Joe Estep! As well Oleg Sirotkin and I presided over the ceremony and following a Nepalese tradition, two doves representing “love and a new life” were released after the pronouncement that Joe & Capil were “husband and wife!”

The following weekend was the Shepherds Retreat where our SoldOut Movement Shepherding Couples – Nick & Denise Bordieri and Tony & Therese Untalan – met with Elena & me to evaluate the past year, plan the future year, and pray over all the churches around the world!

On Sunday December 14th was our All Congregational Christmas Service! One extraordinary highlight was the MERCY Toy Drive where each of our members donated “a toy that they would like to receive” to the underprivileged of LA!

As well, we “thanked” Jim & Donna Fenton for overseeing Kids Kingdom for almost three years and the Sisters of Encouragement welcomed five from Miami – of special note is the dearly beloved couple, Princeton & Joy George!

Then after various members of the Moscow Mission Team shared for Communion and Contribution, Oleg Sirotkin – the Moscow Mission Team Leader and the Russian Commonwealth World Sector Leader – preached an unforgettable sermon on The Gifts Of God – Forgiveness, Repentance and the Holt Spirit! (Acts 2:38)

This week in the City of Angels Church, we had nine additions – four of whom were baptisms!

Therefore with 17 days left in 2014, the Lord has blessed us with 493 additions: 356 baptisms, 50 restorations and 87 place memberships – many of whom are from our former fellowship and have come to us seeking revival! And to God be the glory!

And now more detailed reports from each of our World Sectors…

HEADLINE NEWS – LOS ANGELES

Nick Bordieri – Director of MERCYworldwide: Hello everyone! So below is a link to a Youtube Video of the episode of The Bad Girls Club in which MERCYworldwide is featured in Season 13, Episode 10… Start playing around 12:48 minutes in! So a little background… The Bad Girls Club is the most popular show on the Oxygen Channel, now in its 12th Season. The show focuses on the altercations and physical confrontations between a number of highly aggressive, quarrelsome and sadly unruly women. In my opinion, each of the women tend to have psychological and behavioral problems and act mischievously.

That said, “the girls” worked very hard, had a positive attitude, and did a great job helping us paint and repair the “Transition Home” in Compton in June during the Day of MERCY! The MERCY Ambassadors “love bombed” these girls, sharing and giving their hearts during the project! In the end, tears were shed as the “Bad Girls” thanked everyone for the wonderful experience working side-by-side with such a loving and spirited group while “giving back” to the community! (Acts 20:35) Yes, “bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33), but today we witnessed that “good company transforms bad character!”

The Bad Girls Club Redemption – Season 13, Episode 10: http://youtu.be/mQTcLvlOSMw

For our Seventh Annual International MERCY Toy Drive in LA, we partnered with the ABC School District, the second largest school district in Los Angeles! Over 1,000 toys were collected and will be distributed to children of the ABC’s Migrant Educational Program! The Migrant Educational Program serves over 1,500 underprivileged students, whose families live below the poverty line.

The Program Director, Angela Fernandez, tearfully expressed her gratitude to the MERCY Ambassadors of the LA Church for our commitment to these children and families during this holiday season, and for our new budding partnership!

Lance Underhill: “[We] press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) Privet from the Sold-out South Region! On Sunday, we tearfully said good-bye to Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin and their two extraordinary daughters – Sofia and Lydia! We will miss them dearly along with Dima, Artem, Sasha, Masha, Oleg, Victor, Jenia, and Kirill & Lesia, as the Holy Spirit is sending them back to Moscow where over 40 other Russian disciples are waiting for them!

The South will now “press on” straining toward what is ahead as Anthony & Cassidy Olmos – our new South Region Leaders – have “hit the ground running” by calling everyone in the South to be sold-out! Amazingly, in the past couple weeks, God has blessed us with two fathers of disciples being baptized – Juan and Elpidio – through the Singles Ministry valiantly led by Stacy & Lynette Ybarra!

Jee Blackwell of the Southland Region: November was an incredibly fruitful month for the Women’s Ministry! Our brother Emmanuel Gonzalez, who is one of the original nine that started the Southland Region four years ago just celebrated his 5th Spiritual Birthday! His birthday prayer was that his little sister would become a disciple. He had his prayer answered when his little sister Jasmine came to Los Angeles from Fresno in November, made Jesus Lord of her life, and was baptized!

Richard Cradle, our awesome Belizean brother who is also our Head Usher, celebrated his 2nd Spiritual Birthday! His prayer was for someone in his family to become a disciple. The week of our Marrieds Retreat, his cousin Sharisse Beard came out to service! She started studying the Bible and was baptized into Christ in November!

About four years ago, our awesome evangelistic brother Miguel Mendez befriended a woman on Twitter named Alicia Marie Jones – a flight attendant with American Airlines. Time passed, but Alicia was keeping up with the movement through social media! A few weeks back some of the disciples were at a local Popeye’s Chicken in line to order food… Miguel was also there! Alicia was in the same line! She was invited out to church! She studied the Bible almost every day with the sisters and was baptized into Christ!

Lastly our Campus Ministry on Cal State Dominguez Hills met a girl named Sad’e and was baptized at our Thanksgiving Financial Workshop! Jesus’ words hold true that if we “remain in the vine we will bear much fruit.”

And to God be all the glory!

Morgan Valdez: Greetings from Central Region! God has been moving powerfully here in the Campus Ministry despite most of our ministries being at the tail end of their school semester. We have a new sister in Christ as Jennifer was met on ELAC last week, studied every day, and was baptized on the last day of school! By her full submission to the Scriptures, she told her boss she could no longer work Sundays and in response he changed her entire schedule that very night!

Also, very exciting is that Yofi, who is a USC campus student, was baptized! Please keep his sister, Adjoa – who is also a USC student, in prayer as she has also been studying the Bible and God willing will be baptized this week!

Ighodaro Odighizuwa: “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5) Warm greetings of love from the Inland Empire Region! God never ceases to amaze us by staying true to His promise to do the impossible! During the past five weeks, God has given us 13 additions: 10 baptisms, two restorations and one placed membership! Today’s service was historic as we had our 112th member, Julian, baptized into Christ!

It was incredible because we started out 2014 with 56 sold-out disciples and God has exactly doubled the number of disciples here in the IE! To Him be all the praise, glory and honor!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA SW QUADRANT & THE MIDDLE EAST

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.

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!

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!

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!

Janelle Rushen: Greetings from Phoenix! I am so proud to share that after studying the Bible and working through her heart, Teya Robinson made the decision to get baptized and make Jesus Lord of her life!

During her studies Teya was challenged to work through bitterness with her father and a few other family members. After having those difficult and challenging talks she was able to mend her relationship with her father. He came out to witness her baptism along with and her stepmother and mother Friday after devotional in a chilly ASU fountain! They were deeply impacted by her radical change and the love of the disciples!

On Saturday, 70 MERCYworldwide Ambassadors gave their hearts to about 100 orphans in a Christmas Celebration at Sunshine Acres Orphanage. For our toy drive, each disciple HANDMADE a Christmas card and placed a gift card of the child’s choice inside.

Truly, we’re striving to live out James 1:27, “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Evan Bartholomew: Greetings from the beautiful – and of late wet – city of San Diego! The Lord has blessed us in these past few weeks with some very encouraging victories! First, we were able to welcome into our Kingdom family Alan and BrookeLynn through baptism! Both were met at San Diego State University, where Alan is a student and BrookeLynn “just so happened” to be signing-up people for the Bone Marrow Registry to help those battling with Leukemia. Both Alan and BrookeLynn have amazing hearts, and have quickly endeared themselves to the disciples here!

Also, God has worked through us once again to blow out our Thanksgiving Mission Contribution Goal of $13,649 by several thousands of dollars! I am so grateful and continue to be inspired by the church here as they have given so sacrificially over and over again!

We are looking forward to joining those who will be in LA for the 2015 Winter Workshop! Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the saints in San Diego!

Victor Gonzalez Sr. of Las Vegas: It has been a privilege being able to witness God’s power and the unity in the Spirit within the church that was planted by the Dimitrys here in Las Vegas! They did an awesome job building an amazing base of sold-out disciples! Then this past summer, the LA Church was very gracious to send 16 missionaries from their East Region to help build and strengthen the church here even more!

It was super inspiring to have the First Principles Classes with the whole church and see the “Blazing Bereans” win the competition with almost perfect scores all around! We gave to the Lord our 10X Special Contribution for Thanksgiving and in fact gave much more than what was expected! Also, we had the incredible visit of our brother Josue Soriano, a missionary from the Mexico City Church! It was very encouraging for everyone to have him preach what he has learned being on the mission field!

Lastly, we had an amazing new sister born into Christ last Sunday – Reny! Reny is a campus student from CSN and promises to be a great leader for the sisters! Pray for us! Feliz Navidad!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA NW QUADRANT & CANADA

Jeremiah Clark: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Greetings from the Mighty Denver Church! The last few weeks have been truly encouraging as God continues to use His people to bring the “good news” to the Rocky Mountains! Inspiringly, we have seen three campus baptisms over the last few weeks: Ashaad and Lizzie from our CU Denver Campus Ministry and Christel, a freshman at the prestigious CU Boulder Campus!

God also blessed us as we were able to blowout our Thanksgiving Missions Contribution by giving over 150% of our goal! Lastly, it was so encouraging to see our fired-up Marrieds Ministry keep pace with the Campus Ministry by adding two to their number last Sunday as we saw David & Kristin united with Christ in the waters of baptism! To God be the glory!

Tim Kernan: Greetings from Toronto, Canada… eh! God has truly blessed the disciples here “more than we could ask or imagine.” It’s been an incredible time of growth for the congregation as God has added two more remnant disciples and three through the waters of baptism in the last month!

Also, God blew out our Special Collect Goal of $5,000 with $6,400 contributed! Also, with a goal of 70 for our Christmas Bring Your Neighbor Day this Sunday, we were so happy that God gave us 73 at service! Lastly the Toronto Teen Ministry led by Kevin Smellie went horseback riding this Saturday and had a blast!

The following video is our “Christmas card” to all of God’s Movement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43hBzmmpM10

Gabe Reed of Eugene: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Greetings from Track-town USA and home to the #2 Football Team in the country – the University of Oregon Ducks! (My alma mater!!!!)

It has been an incredibly inspiring time as we’ve seen God working so much in the past month! First we’ve gotten the privilege to witness six added to our number in the past four weeks: five baptisms – Sandy, Anthony, Makayla, Forest, and Courtney; and one restoration – Lynne Pengra!

Also another victory was with our Special Missions Contribution! Our goal was $10,380, but through tagging, fundraisers, personal sacrifice and a lot of prayer, we were able to blow out our goal with a total of $12,756! And to top things off, during today’s service we were privileged to see the seven members of our “Corvallis House Church” sent-off! This has been a long-standing prayer for the church and it’s been incredible seeing how God has answered by blessing all the members to get jobs and housing before the actual send-off! We are all excited to finally see a Bible Talk at Oregon State University!

Pray for us as we prepare for God to use us in even more powerful ways as we come into the new year!

Jason Dimitry: Greetings from San Francisco! God has done amazing things since our last report in early November! We saw nine baptisms in November, one of them being Amanda, a pre-med student and our 2nd baptism at UC Berkeley!

Since the arrival of the Supplemental Mission Team from Las Vegas in mid-July, we have seen the church grow by 40%! God is working in all four of our house churches and I’m so fired up about the powerful leadership team that has been forged in this great city! On December 7th, we had our Fall Special Missions. Our goal was $28,700, yet God allowed us to raise – through diligent tagging and sacrifice – over $37,000 for missions! Also, today at our Christmas Service, it was so encouraging to donate over 100 toys to orphans in Oakland through the Big Brother and Big Sister Program!

Finally, it was great to have Aaron Turner place membership from our sister church in Portland, where he has valiantly served as an intern for the last two years! I know this powerful young prophet will add so much to our Campus Ministry! We also want to wish all our dear brothers and sisters throughout the Kingdom a very Merry Christmas! Much love from your family in the Bay!

Ricky Challinor of Portland: Greetings from the City of Bridges!!! The past few weeks have been some for the record books! Since the last Good News Email five weeks ago, we have been honored by God to add nine to our number: five baptisms, two restorations and two place memberships! We were also able to see two new couples start dating! The first were Caleb Cohen & Lizbeth Flores who are our Teen Leaders, and the second couple is Andrey Astanin & Cynthia Maldonado who have been an incredible help to the church in the Campus and Latin Ministries!

Of course the most inspiring moments the last month were the five baptisms we were privileged to see! Included are: Mario & Alejandra are the most humble and mature couple and Arturo & Jessica who have been dating and living with each other for over eight years. They are now engaged in the Kingdom of God and are doing it the right way, God’s pure way! The last baptism was Jessica’s sister Blanca whose sharing brought the whole room to tears.

As well, we were filled with great joy to welcome back our dear brother, Mason Lally to the place where it all began for him! Excitingly that same Sunday, we collected our 6X Missions Contribution. With a prayer goal of $18,200 and an impossible prayer goal of $24,000, God brought in $24,704!!!!!!

To close out the service we were a bit saddened, but honored to send-out one of my best friends and “son in the faith” Aaron Turner to San Francisco to start the next chapter of his life! Words cannot express my deep gratitude and love for this incredible brother in the Lord!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA SOUTH QUADRANT

Matt Sullivan of Orlando: “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42) Excitingly in the last 10 weeks, the Lord has blessed us with 17 additions: three place memberships, one was restored and 13 have been baptized! We have also been able to celebrate marriage at our Marrieds Retreat entitled, The Honor of Marriage with Chris & Theresa Broom as our guest speakers! They were used powerfully as the Lord bonded hearts and strengthened our marriages!

Then, Helen & I were so fired-up to host our first Church Leaders Retreat for the USA South Quadrant World Sector! Mike & Chenelle Patterson of Gainesville, Anthony & Elizabeth Eckels of Houston, and Tyler & Shay Sears of Dallas-Ft. Worth came to town to be with my wife & me and I must tell you that it was an incredible time of dreaming, scheming, praying and planning for the evangelization of the South USA with some Caribbean dreams mixed in!

Finally, two of our newest disciples, Zarius and Zico have been abundantly fruitful as the Lord has used them to see six become disciples in the last few weeks: Judiene, Will, Fred, Kyle, Adrian and Yolanda! This has inspired so many to say… “We know [now for ourselves] that this man really is the Savior of the world!”

Mike Patterson: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing…” (Acts 6:1) As my brother Kip would say, “And that is how it needs to be in these days” and certainly it is here in Gainesville! In the last five weeks, we have seen eight come to Christ in baptism: three University of Florida students, two single men, a married woman, and two teens from Buchholz High School to start our Teen Ministry!

At our November 30th First Annual Financial Presentation, we saw the Scripture fulfilled in Malachi 4:6, “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…” as family members were united in Christ! Dave & Ticia Fergot, who courageously moved from our sister church in Syracuse to help plant the San Francisco Church and then moved to Gainesville earlier this year to help us, baptized their 14 year old son Sammy!

Jacob Wessels, who was our first University of Florida baptism in February of this year, baptized his mom Gloria!

Another highlight was to see Tim Le baptize another one of his co-workers from “Mind Tree” – Robert! Tim now has three disciples at his work place, not including himself, and still others studying the Bible there!

2014 has been phenomenal! In the last couple of weeks, we officially started our Chemical Recovery Ministry with Rob Bolton leading it; we became an official club at the University of Florida called “LIFE on Campus;” and we just finished our Gospel of John Sermon Series which has resulted in “much fruit!” (John 15:8) Starting with 17 disciples at our Inaugural Service in January of this year, our Father in Heaven has blessed us with 47 baptized into Christ and 10 place memberships! Our total membership is currently 57! And to God be the glory!

Bill Hamilton: “Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, ‘Come let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few!’” Greetings from the Charlotte International Christian Church! This Scripture rings true in the hearts of the eight disciples in Charlotte who moved from the awesome Washington DC Church a few weeks ago!

This week, we witnessed the congregation’s first baptism followed by an attendance of 17 this Sunday! The baptism of Khrystyne “Keer- Sten” Jones was indeed an awesome early Christmas present from God to us! Keep us in your prayers!

Tyler Sears: “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17) Greetings from DFW! It has been quite an encouraging time for the disciples in Dallas the last few weeks as the Lord blessed us with the baptism of a young woman named Whitney! Our zealous brother, Bryan, invited her out at his job and Whitney made sure not to be “foolish” but found “the Lord’s will” for her life and was baptized!

Whitney represents the start of another Campus Ministry, which means the Lord has allowed us to grow from one campus to five in our first year!

As well, it was a blessing to be able to serve our community for the MERCY Toy Drive Event on Saturday! We served at a local organization called “Captain Hope’s Kids” and organized nearly 3,600 toys that will be sent out to homeless children in the community. I was so proud of Job & Erin Sterling who coordinated this momentous effort! Job was “making the most of [the] opportunity” and brought out co-workers and students from his job!

Lastly, Shay & I had the privilege of spending time with the church leaders of the US South Quadrant World Sector in Orlando last week. It was a faith-building and life-changing time for us both as our hearts were melded as one with the Sullivans, Eckels and Pattersons. We can’t wait to see all God is going to do in the coming years in Texas, in the South USA, and around the world! Thanks for all your love and prayers!

Anthony Eckels: Greetings and Merry Christmas from the Houston ICC! Elizabeth & I were so encouraged to travel to Orlando last week for the South Quadrant Church Leaders Retreat! We are grateful to Matt & Helen Sullivan for the amazing work they are doing in Orlando, and it was especially exciting and inspiring to see all of our sons and daughters in the faith that we left behind in Orlando now baptizing and living out the Great Commission!

This past Sunday we celebrated the body of Christ by giving each member and their children a framed design that had their name, Psalm 139:14, and a word cloud including the personal strengths that they each contribute to the body of Christ here in Houston! These words were compiled by their fellow disciples in the congregation and everyone was inspired reading what strengths everyone appreciates about them!

We also welcomed Hannes & Krista Vakkur as they placed membership at our Thanksgiving Worship Service!  Hannes & Krista joined us from the Mighty DC Church and have jumped right in helping at the Austin Bible Talk.The Austin Bible Talk has also been blowing it out with an average of one to one visitors! Although Austin is a two hour drive from Houston, they had five visitors with them on Sunday!

God is teaching the disciples to love deeply and their love is reflected in the record attendances for the last two Sundays!

HEADLINE NEWS – EUROPE

Michael Williamson: Greetings from London! The title Finish Strong was our Leadership Lesson a few weeks ago as we approached the end of this incredible year in London! And this has certainly been the case with two more campus students baptized this month and God blessing us with over $26,200 (6X) raised for our 5X Christmas Missions Contribution!

As we reflect on the year highlights, they have certainly included our nomination as one of the top societies at Middlesex University (where our brother Charles Nwabuze was also elected Valedictorian of his Law Class); the solidification of our West Region largely from the efforts of George & Angelica Grima; the Spirit’s surge of South Africans added to our number (five in total) through the powerful leadership of Yomi Bello; and the North Region inspired our brother and sister from Madrid, Spain – Carlos and Karla Vargas – to move to London! Not to mention a few months after our April Missions Contribution, 26 sold-out disciples raised the funds ($1,800 average per disciple) to make it to the August GLC in Los Angeles!

Then in November, we were inspired at this year’s European Missions Conference – ZEAL FOR MY FATHER’S HOUSE where six were added to our number! Also, our AMS Ministry was fruitful with the 2013 X-Factor Finalist Jeanette Yeboah as she too was baptized! So, with 51 additions this year, we now have 114 sold-out disciples in London! Merry Christmas!

Omarr Therranciel of Paris: “What an indescribable gift” from God to be dating my best friend in the Kingdom – Beatriz Acosta from the London ICC! And the awesome privilege to ask her on the lock bridge viewing the Eiffel Tower! Paris is definitely “La Ville de l’Amour!” (The City of Love!)

HEADLINE NEWS – AFRICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Luke Speckman – Overseeing Evangelist for East Africa: I bring you warm greetings on behalf of the brothers and sisters in Busia, Kenya! As many of you know, this summer the Holy Spirit planted a church in the remote village of Busia, which is on the border of Kenya and Uganda. Marius Beniet, a brother converted by Blaise Feumba in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, traveled to Busia and after counting the cost, baptized a local church leader (Mike) as well as several in his congregation.

Over the next few weeks, Marius made several trips to Busia and baptized about 20 disciples! Soon afterward, Lola Lof of the Kinshasa ICC spent a month in Busia to walk with Mike and train him as well as to strengthen the church.

I am so proud of Mike as he has powerfully led this fledgling church through great difficulties including having no money for salary or a building so that they meet in a make-shift “tent” with wooden legs and a tarp as a roof. And yet the Busia ICC has still continued to multiply!

Recently, four more were baptized into Christ by Mike: Jael, Philis, Moriss and Violet! Please pray for your brothers and sisters in Busia, as well as for all of Kenya and Africa!

Alexis Turgeau of Port-au-Prince: “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.’” (John 4:34) My wife Maryse & myself came back from the 2014 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) in Los Angeles with a renewed vision to see our dear Island of Haiti and our city, Port-au-prince, won to Christ in our generation! After much prayer and fasting to be fruitful beyond measure, today after church seven were baptized into Christ!

We are amazed to see how far the Lord has taken us! I was baptized at the 2013 GLC just 15 months ago as a sold-out disciple, and today, we are now 118 disciples in four churches in Haiti! Please keep us in your prayers as we pour out ourselves out “to win as many as possible” Haitian lost souls!

Amadou Sountoura of Abidjan: “‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.’” (Mark 11:22-23) A brother named Kipre fled to avoid the civil war in the Ivory Coast and took his family with him to live in Korezouzoua, a town five hours away from Abidjan! He did not stop sharing his faith and believed God could use him to start a new church in that area! Two years later with the help of the disciples of the Abidjan Church, we now have 65 sold-out disciples in that locality from the faith of one disciple!

With the increasing number of disciples came the challenge of finding a place of worship! They took the matter in their hands and decided to build a venue! After much prayer and fasting, the chief of the area was invited to church and – moved by the Holy Spirit – he offered the church a piece of land where the disciples have been putting stone on stone with hard work and sacrifice. Today a 200-seat building is almost completed after five months!

Not only are the disciples building “physically,” but in the past two weeks, six more souls have been added to their number as they continue to build God’s “spiritual temple” – His church! To God be the glory!

Lola Lof of Kinshasa: “Then He said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’” (Luke 9:23) Greetings from the Democratic Republic of Congo! In spite of my poor health condition (complications from diabetes), we organized our BYND in just my region and the Lord blessed 62 disciples with 127 in attendance last Sunday! After the service, Jean-Pierre and Andrew were baptized into Christ!

Thank you so much for your prayers for my health and the financial support that is helping me to have access to medical care! I so appreciate being a small part of a dynamically growing worldwide movement of God!

HEADLINE NEWS – RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH

Eugene Sobolev: Privet from the Moscow Remnants! God has blessed the over 40 sold-out disciples here with an amazing harvest while LA was preparing the Moscow Mission Team send-off – which some of us watched on Livestream!

A very encouraging true story: Jenia was trying to find “true Christians” via the Internet. (Yes, Google can help to seek God too!) She simply typed “true Christians” and at the top of the page she found our website moscowicc.org! Then she came to church that Sunday. Jenia was seeking God so zealously that she got baptized the next Sunday – November 16th!

And more – after her baptism Jenia had been planning to take a vacation in Turkey, but instead immediately bought a ticket to LA to witness the Moscow Mission Team Send-off! And right now she is in LA enjoying the fellowship with many other “baby Christians!”

Then on November 19th on Women’s Midweek, our sisters shared in the restoration of Yulia – an 18 year old campus student! She fell away about an year ago, and so sad, her parents were divorced a few months ago. This event moved her so much that she could not even wait for Sunday to be restored and so was restored at Midweek!

Then on November 23rd, we witnessed the birth of spiritual twins – Sergey and Olga! Sergey – Armenian by nationality and a professional singer – was invited to the church by his cousin Ada, who was restored a few months ago! Sergey came to Moscow to find a “better life,” and we can confirm that his purpose is fulfilled!

As well, Olga – a single mom of two kids – was trying to find a “true church” for about 20 years! She even traveled to Ukraine as a missionary! When Olga first came to church and saw the love of the disciples, she said, “This is what I was looking for 20 years!”

At this moment all of us are looking forward to the Mission Team’s arrival! And not only us – but two more people are at the stage of “cost counting” and wanting to be baptized, and there’s another who’s anxious to meet the Mission Team who wants to be restored! Oleg, please come!

HEADLINE NEWS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA

Raul Moreno: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21:5) Greetings from São Paulo my dear Brothers and Sisters! We are looking forward to this coming new year, yet 2014 was a great year of growth for the church and in particular in the Campus Ministry! We now have exactly 30 disciples just at USP University – tied for the number one rated university in Central & South America! Of note, the last two weeks at USP were the baptisms of Vaitsa (Oceanography) and Flávio (Applied Mathematics)!

Also baptized during this time were Maria Jose, Natalia and Tulio! And Tulio’s mother Luisa was restored to Christ!

And last but not least, my dear fellow missionary Joey Underhill is finally dating a great sister named Ana, which is a miracle of considerable proportion! Feliz Natal!

Jared McGee: Season’s greetings from the saints in Mexico City! The most encouraging news of the past few weeks is definitely the restoration of our dear brother Harody Montoya! Harody was baptized in 1998 at fifteen years of age and served at a high capacity in several Teen and Campus Ministries throughout the years. After falling away from the Lord four years ago, Harody was restored to the Lord and His church this month!

Employing Herody’s 10 years of experience in working with HOPE Mexico, he has wasted no time in putting his hand to the plow in helping with our MERCY Toy Drive! Just yesterday, the two of us were on the radio promoting our event which will take place next Sunday! We are so grateful that God has continued to call out the remnant and to put the appropriate pieces into place so that Mexico and all of Latin America can be evangelized in our generation!

Carlos Mejia:  Greetings from the Chilean disciples in the Santiago ICC! Incredibly, in the last nine weeks, God has blessed the church with 25 additions in the six zones that compose our congregation! Of note, the Spirit has been moving powerfully in the Campus Ministry as we have had five baptisms of which four are from the Catholic University, which is tied for number one school in Latin America!

This Sunday was very special as we were able to celebrate our Annual Christmas Day of MERCY. As a church we have served a children’s home through our partnership with ECAM, a foundation working with abused and abandoned children.

This year we were allowed the privilege to have our Christmas Service on their grounds and invite the children and the staff to participate. There were Christmas songs, special theater and song performances by disciples and stockings for the kids at ECAM full of goodies! There was a very special gift from the church: a projector for the kids to watch their favorite movies! Finally, we were able to enjoy a delicious Chilean meal complete with empanadas and a barbecue! Without a doubt and in the words of our Lord… “It is better to give than to receive!”

Happy holidays and to God be all the glory!

HEADLINE NEWS – PACIFIC RIM & AUSTRAL-CHINA

Joe Willis: Greetings from Sydney! What an amazing year in 2014! And what a weekend! We had our First Annual Christmas Banquet, Awards and Talent Show last night, and this morning said an emotional farewell to nine missionaries that came with us a year ago to start the Sydney International Christian Church! They have gone home to LA for Christmas to apply for their student visas and to return as soon as possible!

To finish off our weekend, at 11PM we baptized Andrew, a Sydney University student, that the Lord graciously allowed me to meet six months ago!

In the past few weeks, we had Yamin Leyton Godoy and his “Mum” Eugenia move-in from the Santiago (Chile) Church, and an end of year retreat on Cockatoo Island of the middle of Sydney Harbor!

Then Zolt, another great Australian college student, was baptized just three days ago, who was met by Pete Wade on the basketball court!

So after a 10 ½ months since our Inaugural Service, God has grown the church from the original 12 missionaries to exactly 30 disciples – through 22 additions! Praise God that we now have a significant Student Ministry on three campuses, a Sports Ministry, a Music Ministry and a Business Ministry!

Everyone is very excited about our theme for next year – “Extreme 2015!” Lord willing, we will be having an extreme Sports Ministry with sky diving, bungee jumping, surfing and deep sea fishing! We have hired a weekly studio for our musicians to start an band! We are going on Extreme Retreats throughout the year: Extreme Luxury for the Marrieds and Extreme (Climbing) Heights for the Singles, as well as a Father and Son Retreat and a Mother and Daughter Retreat!

Please pray for us, as we are holding our First Chinese Service on Chinese New Year in February 2015 with our young prophet Dean “The Machine” Lam preaching his first full sermon – switching between Mandarin, Cantonese and English!

Merry Christmas to all from the Sydney Saints!

Lou Jack Martinez of Honolulu: Despite the many and varied challenges of 2014, it was a BAD YEAR FOR THE DEVIL in the Islands of Hawaii​! Some of the highlights include: 1) We had a RECORD Bring Your Neighbor Day with 185 in January; 2) We had THREE (3) amazing Women’s Days in Honolulu, Hilo and Manila; 3) We collected Special Contributions in excess of 31X in June and November; 4) We sent David & Beth Kelly to lead our new Kona House Church; 5) We sent Scott & Terra Utter to lead our Hilo Church; 6) We married off Josh & Kristin (Fukuda) Aguirre, as well as Ka’ihe & Christle (Iaea) Tahara, and Chaz Schmidt & Frances Babauta ​were engaged; 7) We sent out a total of 16 disciples to the mission fields of Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando, Hilo, Kona, and even ​Sydney, Australia; and 8) We sent more disciples to the GLC from the Hawaiian Islands and Guam than ever before – 49!

Lastly, we baptized 24, with the latest being our new brothers, Garrison Carter at UH-Manoa and Daniel Dias in our fledgling West Region, and our new sister Chi Otto in the East Region!

Rich Tabizon: This year the Metro Manila International Christian Church (MMICC) with the help of MERCYworldwide served the people of Quezon City’s Payatas Landfill – commonly referred to as “The Dumpsite!” We selected this location with the help of our Intern – Rosas “Rose” Sobrino – and Kuya Ronnie Gonzalez. Recently written, “Payatas is Manila’s main waste dump with garbage piled as high as seven stories in some places.”

Thousands of impoverished people, many of them children, survive by sorting through the waste and gathering items they can recycle. The average daily income in Payatas is around $4.00 to $6.00 US Dollars!

Our charge was quite simple: Serve the people of Payatas with love and compassion. Members of our congregation served nearly 110 children a simple but hearty “caldo” (soup) and brought smiles to the faces of many children as we handed out toys! The Metro Manila Church through the efforts of Nimrod Malnegro gathered over 180 toys for this event!

News spread quickly that a church was handing-out food and toys to the children of Payatas, and so the children came running from all directions looking to see what was happening in their barangay (community). Fortunately for us, we had toys for the masses and we gave with all of our hearts and then received the gift of joy when we experienced the smiling faces of the children that surrounded us!

Giving to the children of the impoverished barangay was no easy task, but it was the hearts of the members of the Metro Manila Church that made it special. There was sorting and preparing, praying and laughing!

The children of Payatas may never realize that they are disadvantaged or even poor. The smiles on their faces and the joy that exuded from their laughter made this day a tremendous success and made all of our hearts more grateful for all the Lord has given us materially but all the more so spiritually! Merry Christmas!

HEADLINE NEWS – USA NORTH QUADRANT & INDIA

Chris Broom of New York City: Today’s Christmas Service was one of the most moving I have ever been a part of! The “part singing” was angelic, not to mention those that brought the church to our feet with special performances like Dara, Krystal, Ernest, Carl, Wes and Sue! All in all, 197 were in attendance to witness Alex’s tearful restoration to God and Esperanza’s emotional graduation from our Chemical Recovery Ministry!

Of course one of the highlights of the day was our Fourth Annual MERCY Toy Drive where every member of the church joyfully brought a toy to donate to the students of the Dr. Rose B. English School! The Rose B. English School is a transitory school meeting the educational needs of children mostly from the five surrounding homeless shelters. Because of their socioeconomic situation, many of these students have few clothes and very little nutritious food. The thought of Christmas presents would be at best an unrealistic fantasy were it not for the generosity of the New York City disciples!

On top of that, God has blessed us the last couple of weeks with two more baptisms at the City College of New York; Kelvin and Christina!

I am so proud of the New York City Church and their love for missions! The original goal for our Thanksgiving 10X Contribution was $54,548, but after our fall pledge drive where we raised our weekly contribution by over $2,000, the new multiple was $76,870! The total amount of missions that God gave us was $77,877!

Finally, and on a personal note, Theresa & I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary on December 3rd! I am so thankful to God for giving me such an amazing partner in life and in the Gospel! We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a very fruitful New Year!

Maria Franklin of Chicago: “Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:2-3) God is always powerfully at work, and these past few weeks we have been inspired by so many miracles!

First on November 23rd, through the generosity, creativity, hard work and fundraising efforts of the disciples, we were able to raise over $82,500 for our Thanksgiving 11X Missions Contribution blowing away our goal by $4,500! Glory be to God! Two Saturdays ago, the victories continued to resound as the church blew out our MERCYworldwide Christmas Toy Drive and collected over 130 toys for children with disabilities! This was phenomenal as the goal was to collect 100 toys!

Since the last GNE in early November, God saved six precious souls through the saving waters of baptism! Craig, Misheon, Alicia, Fani, Abby and Brenda! Fani was reached out to by Amana, a teen at a local high school. She began to study and her two older sisters – Brenda and Abby – took notice and wanted to study also! The older sisters were both baptized last weekend and Fani was baptized today!

Alicia was initially reached out to by Bob McMurray seven years ago after he was restored. As a professional single working as a sales consultant for a medical clinic, Alicia was able to “indulge” in seeking all the things of the world. Finally after years of being enticed by Satan, she realized that the world had nothing to offer and aggressively sought God with all her heart and was baptized two weeks ago!

Of special note, Iwona Zwijacz placed membership with us from the South Region of the City of Angels ICC. It is great to have her back as she was initially baptized here in 2008! We love you with the love of the Lord!

Ron Harding of Washington DC: Greetings from the capital of the United States! “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) It has been a tremendous year which comes on the heels of supporting the birth of the Denver, Dallas and Houston Churches, while also sending additional disciples to Santiago, Boston, Denver and LA – then losing nine more to Charlotte to establish a new remnant group!

However, the Lord has provided everything we’ve needed along the way to both grow the church here in DC and to be a part of supporting the phenomenal growth of our movement. We prove the Scriptures with our lives that when you work together to have “worldwide equality” (2 Corinthians 8:13-15) in the spreading of the Gospel, the Lord still takes care of those who truly “seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness!” To Him be all the glory!

Joel Parlour: Greetings from snow-covered Syracuse! Today we glorified God at our Annual Christmas Service with 120 in attendance! Rod Carter wrote and directed a phenomenal play, the kids performed a Christmas carol, 78 toys for the MERCY Toy Drive were collected, and the service concluded with two very powerful baptisms – Brad, a married man and father of seven kids, and Catherine, the twenty year old daughter of Henderson & Sofia!

This has been a great year for the Syracuse Church! God has given us so much: 25 additions (23 are still faithful); many new Bible Talk Leaders raised up; a surplus of $26,598 for our 2014 Missions Contribution; many wonderful MERCYworldwide events; ten of some of our strongest members sent out to plant or strengthen churches; and amazing spiritual strengthening! We will start the new year off with over 70 sold-out disciples and eagerly expect an even more awesome 2015! Merry Christmas!

Coltin Rohn: Greetings from Boston – the city of many “Havhast” fields! “For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness… knowledge… self-control… perseverance… godliness… brotherly kindness… and love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:3-8)

The year of 2014 has been a great Year of Prayer! For us in Boston, it was the year God trained us to be men and women OF prayer, as God added to our faith “perseverance!” God has grown our faith in every area, and now we are ready to be effective this upcoming year. Though we have gone through hard times, God allowed us to raise over $61,000 for Special Missions; have a record attendance at our Bring Your Neighbor Day; add to our ministry staff; raise-up not one but two Shepherding Couples: the Karonises and the DiFuscoes; and have successful MERCY Events: Day of MERCY, Blood Drive and Toy Drive!

Today, Ted Karonis has not only raised up to be a great Shepherd, but also a great preacher! Ted called us to have a “Spiritual Christmas” and not a “Christ Mess” or a “Christ Missed!” (See the Sermon @ bostonicc.org!) It was a great follow-up to our church-wide Chariot Ride we had Thursday night with 10 people studying the Bible! Please keep us in your prayers as many are counting the cost going into the New Year!

Roger Green: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.” (Psalm 68:5) It was a fantastic Sunday for the disciples of the Chennai International Christian Church, as we had 10 girls visit us from an orphanage. All the disciples sacrificed and raised-up funds for the MERCY Toy Drive! The girls not only received their precious toys but also had fun, games and lunch along with our kids!

At the end of November, a very concerned mom started to pray and fast for her daughter Divya, who was making friendship with the world. The very next day Divya was invited by our sister Hema, who was also praying that very moment to reach out to someone. Divya came to church and started studying the Bible. The next Sunday, her mom and sister Grace were at church. Amidst persecution, both Divya, who is doing her Engineering in Bio Technology, and her sister Grace, who is studying to be a chartered accountant, were baptized!

Divya and Grace (standing second and fourth) are
dearly beloved by all of the Chennai Sisters!

Also Dhanaraj and Abraham, who are doing their Bachelors in Philosophy and Economics respectively from the esteemed Madras Christian College, made a decision to follow the King of Kings! We also had Rajamani who has completed her Masters in Bio Technology and Nalini an X-Ray Technician, make decisions to become disciples!

Since our Inaugural Service on September 21, 2014, God has added a total of 26 souls, and as of today, the Chennai Church reached a 100 sold-out disciples!

Finally, the Chennai Church would like to thank all of the disciples in LA for their love and sacrifice for having Raja & Debs come over for the 2015 Winter Workshop! I am sure they will come back fully equipped to take the church to the next level! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dear Brothers and Sisters: Christmas for most disciples is such a glorious celebration! Perhaps more than any other holiday, Christmas is a time to appreciate our physical families and our spiritual family – God’s church!

Heather Harvin – one of our new ICCM students and Unpaid Interns – is a professional recording artist and an inspirational disciple in the AMS Region of LA! Here is her latest music video – One Last Gift – that captures the “good times” and the “joy of love” during the holidays! http://youtu.be/rsfMo1h2_ko (The couple kissing at the end of the video is Nick and Jackie Iadonisi – two of our newest newlyweds! In fact, everyone in the video is a disciple!)

2014 – The Year of Prayer – has been incredible as the Spirit has sent out mission teams to Gainesville, Florida; Santa Barbara, California; Sydney, Australia; Houston, Texas; Toronto, Canada; Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas; Chennai, India; and Moscow, Russia! Another highlight was the selection of the SoldOut Movement World Sector Leaders! For me personally, the answered prayer for Elena’s complete healing from bone cancer causes me to fall on my knees in thankfulness to God!

Let’s begin to pray that 2015 brings even more glory to our Father in Heaven! Therefore, please “lift up holy hands to God” for The City Of Angels Winter Workshop on January 2-4, 2015 entitled, The Upward Call as all the lessons will come from the book of Philippians! (Philippians 3:14) This “life-changing workshop” will usher in The Year of Maturity!

Let us during the holidays treasure and exemplify the words of the song that angels sang at Jesus’ birth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rest!” (Luke 2:14) Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
We are family… to the end,
Kip