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April 15, 2012
Good News Email
Dear <<First Name>>,
Greetings from Los Angeles! This past weekend, the Lord has sent out
His workers into His harvest fields! (Matthew 9:38) Tim & Lianne Kernan
preached the Word in DC; Chris & Theresa Broom ministered to the
Chicago Church; and DJ & Kacie Comisford, Ricky & Coleen Challinor, and
Joel & Courtney Parlour led 163 college students in the LA Campus
Ministries to participate in the Phoenix Desert Campus Conference! Here
in the City of Angels Church, the Lord continued to add to our number
as three were baptized – Marcos & Karla (Central Region) and William
(AMS Region), as well as one prodigal son returned home – Albert (AMS
Region)!
However, the highlight for those of us that remained in LA, was the
greeting at the LAX Airport of Joe, Kerry, Luke & Alex Willis, who have
moved to LA from Brisbane, Australia to train to lead the Sydney
Mission Team! I will never forget the 70 of us singing to them as they
came through customs, but Joe being so excited that he left their
suitcases and jumped up on the railing to hug all of us! Truly, just as
we sang to this awesome family, We Love [Them] With The Love Of The
Lord!
Lou Jack Martinez – our Antelope Valley Sector Leader of the Central
Region adds: “ANOTHER BAD DAY FOR THE DEVIL” IN THE ANTELOPE VALLEY!
God has been forcefully advancing His kingdom in the Antelope Valley as
– after our first 20 additions in a mere four weeks through remnant
disciples joining us by placing membership and restoration from our
former fellowship – WE JUST HAD OUR FIRST TWO BAPTISMS: MARCOS & CARLA
GONZALEZ!
Particularly touching was the fact that Carla is the adopted sister of
our sister LONA AGUIRRE, who hadn’t see her for 11 years – having been
separated by child services for over a decade – before they were
reunited just three years ago! And for the past three years, “Big Ed” &
Lona Aguirre have been reaching out to Carla and her husband Marcos!
Well, now that the movement of God has returned to the Antelope Valley,
both Marcos & Carla studied urgently to get right with God, AND TODAY
THEY WERE BORN AGAIN! Additionally, our First Principles Class in “the
AV” is busting at the seams, as we’ve been averaging 55 people per
class, including 15 teens in the home of Clay & Rashima Erickson! OUR
GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD! As we are reminded in John 4:35, “Open your eyes
and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!”
And here’s more good news from around the globe…
Mike Underhill of Chicago: The Lord added three to our number this
week, but first some good news from our Women’s Day! Saturday, April
14th, was our Women’s Day entitled, The Promise. We had a full house
and set a Chicago record with 252 women in attendance! That’s 177
visitors that came along with our 85 sisters in the church! Our UIC
Campus Ministry of five women had 23 visitors alone, and one sister,
Dara, shared today at our leaders meeting about how God blessed her
with ten visitors! The Spirit worked powerfully through the program,
the vulnerable testimonies, and the powerful preaching of the Word by
Theresa Broom. One woman, Mahogany, who had been met a year-and-a-half
ago and was “stuck” in her Bible studies and un-surrendered to God,
totally repented and counted the cost after Women’s Day and was
baptized at our Sunday Service! I am so proud of and grateful to my
wife Brittany, who worked tirelessly to make our Women’s Day such an
incredible event!
We’re also so grateful to the entire Broom family. Today, Chris
preached a powerful lesson preparing the church for the heart and
mentality of being at peace through transition. It was an inspiring
five point lesson on Philippians 4 ending with “I can do all things
through Him who gives me strength.” Chicago will be sending out 21
disciples to four cities this summer: 14 to San Francisco, four to
Boston, two to South Central LA, and one to Paris! So Chris’ lesson met
many needs!
The service was so heart-moving especially to hear the young Austin
Broom (15 years old) leading the church in communion and contribution,
KC sharing about his baptism this past Wednesday, and then with
Gabriela and Mahogany finally being baptized at the end of service! To
add to all the miracles, Anthony Franklin asked his girlfriend, Maria
Cortez, to marry him! And she said, “Yes!” To God be all the glory!
Guillaume Bellamy: Greetings from Paris! The Holy Spirit is doing great
things even before the arrival of the so awaited mission team!
Saturday, Philippe – our talent full and creativesong leader –
organized an evening of worship with the goal of gathering
relationships from our former fellowship that wasn’t confident yet to
come to church. Excitingly, 15 people gathered around this event, and
by the end of the meeting all of the members of our remnant group had
deep talks with the majority of them and try to persuade them to come
to church on Sunday.
This Sunday, we were 14 at our service and it was one of our best
services! The most interesting fact is that we are preaching and
calling people to come back to “wholeheartedly” following God Sunday
after Sunday, and instead of being scared and not returning, people are
coming back! I received an e-mail from Leila, a very close friend of
Prisca this past week, and she wrote the following, “After nine years
of being in a spiritual desert, you have been a spiritual oasis, and I
can feel the love of God through the love of your group.” Those kinds
of comments strengthen our hearts and encourage us to persevere.
Lastly, our dear sister Patricia – she is the “Esther” of the group –
began to study the Bible with one of her friend’s, Nadia. The sisters
of our remnant group are fired-up to open the Bible with non-Christians
once again in order to help people to discover our Savior. Please pray
for Nadia and for additions to our group in the weeks to come!
Carlos Mejia: Greetings from DC! This weekend has been filled with many
joyous events! We started Friday night with our Going Away Party for
Jared & Rachel McGee, as they leave this week to become missionaries in
Santiago, Chile! The impact they have had in DC was evident in the
heartfelt and tear-filled sharing of all the disciples! They are our
first missionaries to leave DC, as we will be sending a total of three
to Orlando and nine to Santiago! Please pray for Jared & Rachel as they
are about to be immersed in Spanish to learn, as Victor Senior would
say, “God’s language!”
Our Saturday continued with more joy as the disciples witnessed Rafi &
Nyah be married as sold-out disciples! This “love story” has encouraged
so many disciples, as last week we were able to hear Nyah’s testimony
at her restoration, and also, we were privileged to witness the baptism
of Rafi who comes from a Muslim background. God fulfilled Nyah’s dream
to marry a sold-out disciple as this wedding had been planned for
months. She was willing to give-up everything for Christ (Luke 14:33)
and put her relationship with Rafi on the line and put-off the wedding,
but God prevailed and this love story began with Rafi & Nyah getting
“married to God” first.
Our Sunday service was amazing as Tim & Lianne Kernan, our fellow
“Crown of Thorns Leaders” for the Paris Mission Team and the present
leaders of the South Region in the City of Angels ICC, were here to
preach and inspire the disciples and talk about Special Missions!
Lianne shared her life and how so many of her family members became
disciples due to “missions money” from other churches. We are all
inspired and convicted as Tim preached a sermon entitled, Heroes
Needed! He shared about Nehemiah and his heart to be a hero for God and
how we also need to be willing to be heroes for God! Tim’s preaching
was awesome! We were so convicted about Tim’s heart to “go anywhere, do
anything, give up everything” to ensure the gospel is spread to every
nation. Thank you to the South Region and the City of Angels ICC for
allowing Tim & Lianne to be away for a few days!
The day ended as we witnessed yet another Howard University student get
baptized! Our new sister in Christ, Kalan, made Jesus Lord of her life!
Our hearts are full! “The Lord has done great things for us, we are
filled with joy.” (Psalm 126:3)
Ron Harding of Portland: Greetings from the birthplace of our movement!
With an attendance of 184, our Campus Day proved to be one the greatest
services in our three years in the Rose City! It was so exciting to
have at church Brittany Lukins’ childhood friend from the Mainline
Church of Christ – Brandy. Brandy called Brittany two weeks ago saying
that she needed help with her relationship with God. Brittany
challenged Brandy to come and visit for the weekend, so Brandy came
last weekend, spent the day with the disciples on Saturday raising
money for special, then came for Easter Sunday. After two days, Brandy
openly confessed to Brittany that she had never lived the life she was
watching the girls live and that she needed to be baptized as a true
disciple. She did the L&D Study today and wants to be baptized by next
Sunday!
I’m so proud of our PSU Campus Ministry. Not only have they grown from
six to 17 since Dustin & Amanda arrived last fall, but they put on a
powerful service for the entire congregation today! Dan Upshaw, JB
Firman and Chris Green led the congregation to sing powerfully. Erin
Corbin blew everyone away with her vulnerable and moving testimony at
communion. Then, Dustin preached the Word like a seasoned evangelist,
teaching us how to be “great in God’s eyes!”
Then, we saw one of those once in a lifetime moments with the Green
family. The stage was filled with 13 people, who all contributed to
this modern day miracle. Chris Green shared with tears, Mikey Matthis –
who was just restored last week – shared from his heart, then Ted &
Kathy brought everyone to tears as they shared about their son as
Jonathan Green was restored to the Lord! Then immediately following his
restoration, Jonathan and his mother partnered together to bring his
wife into the light as they baptized Patricia into Christ! We are
humbled that God continues to bless us with growth and powerful
miracles! To Him be all the glory and honor!
Jake Ramsier of Honolulu: Aloha from the Islands! This Sunday, there
was joy in the Honolulu Church, as we gave our Special Missions
Contribution! We remembered those who sacrificed for us and were
honored to sacrifice for others. Our offering surpassed our 15X goal
and totaled $39,640! Thanks and praise be to God!
Tim Butakov of Novosibirsk: Greetings from Siberia! Last week, our
brother Slava Kononenko was restored into God’s family, and his wife
Marina was baptized as a sold-out disciple of Christ on the same day!
Slava & Marina have been married for two years and they have a very
convicting story to tell.
Slava was baptized in 1994 in our former fellowship with a dream to
evangelize all nations in our generation. But unfortunately in 2002,
when everything in the church started to change, Slava walked away from
God, because of compromises and sin in his life. In an attempt not to
lose his spiritual experience, Slava began to attend meetings of
different denominational churches believing that he could be a disciple
of Christ anywhere. According to him, he faced there with a number of
false doctrines based primarily on religious traditions, not Scripture.
After many unsuccessful attempts to come back to God in these
circumstances, Slava realized his need to be in a group of fully
committed disciples of Jesus. During this period, Slava also met his
wife, Marina.
According to Marina, she had never been a believing person. Though
Slava was not in the church and not living as a disciple of Christ, he
did not cease to influence Marina for the Lord. He tried to explain the
First Principles of Christianity, which he remembered from his
conversion. When Slava & Marina first came to the meeting of the
Novosibirsk ICC, Marina still did not understand much about God, but
with all her heart wanted to be with Him. Marina immediately showed her
good and serving heart, and started to help our sisters in decorating
the hall. Over the next two weeks, Slava & Marina carefully studied the
Bible together with disciples, paying special attention to change their
lives in accordance with the Biblical challenges they were receiving:
“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if
you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16)
It was amazing to see how Slava & Marina took difficult and radical
decisions to change their hearts for God. As a result, Slava fully
restored his relationship with God, his discipleship, and his desire to
evangelize all the nations. At the Sunday meeting, he shared very
sincerely the story of his baptism, and how subsequently he left the
Lord. He was asking for forgiveness from God and from the disciples and
expressed his thankfulness that they did not leave him, but helped him
to find his way back to Jesus’ church. He said with conviction, “This
is the church I was baptized in!” At this same meeting, Slava’s wife
Marina confessed that “Jesus is Lord” and a few minutes after his
restoration, Slava baptized his wife into Christ! And let all glory be
to God!
Anthony Eckels of Orlando: God has exposed and purged the sin from our
camp for the last couple weeks! The result has been joy, strengthening
and a forged unity. God blessed us this past weekend, as we had another
successful Special Missions Car Wash, a Walk-a-thon and a Sushi Night
Fundraiser! We were also fired-up to have the Hurey’s visiting from DC,
as we diligently worked to find them a home on the westside to move
here on the Orlando Mission Team! Jessie’s sister, Sendy Clerzeau, who
attended our Women’s Day, was baptized into Christ on Sunday! Jessie’s
five-year-old niece has been attending church with her. She loves
Kingdom Kids so much that she told her mom that she can’t miss church
because she is a “Kingdom Kid!” Now her mom wants to study the Bible
with Jessie as well! Please pray that we can blow out our Special
Missions on May 6th!
Jay Hernandez of Hilo: Greetings from your brothers and sisters here on
the Big Island! God continues to bless us in many ways. We are excited
for our Special Missions Sunday coming up next week. Some have already
given theirs including our lone teen disciple Savannah Directo. Today,
she turned in her Special Missions and gave 50 X, not the 15 X that was
expected. (2 Corinthians 8:1-7) She truly is an inspiration to me, and
the hard work she doing is an example to all here in Hilo. The Directo
family was also honored this week as Chris, one of our Shepherds in the
church, was honored as “The Teacher of the Year” at his school. The
Directo family is truly a great example to all of us as they are a
hard-working and a very dedicated family to God. We love you all! God
bless!
Vic Gonzalez Jr. of Santiago: Greetings in the Lord from way down here
in the Southern Hemisphere! As the Mexico City Mission Team prepares to
come train in Los Angeles, the Lord has blessed one of our mission team
members with a family member being restored to the Lord! Jenny Perez
was restored! Jenny is Peggie Farrell’s little sister. Brandon Ferrel,
Peggie’s husband, was serving as a Mainline Church of Christ missionary
in Guyana when he met Peggie – a Mainline Church of Christ member. They
later were married, and Brandon was met by Steve Ranga in Suriname,
where he recommitted his life to Christ and joined the ICOC.
After moving to Lexington, Kentucky in 2003, he was very disheartened
by the lukewarmness in his own life and his church. Interestingly, as
the evangelist there began to slander our dear brother Kip, the Spirit
prompted Brandon to go online searching for other churches. The Spirit
led him to [2]Upsidedown21.org, where he found refreshment and with the
fear of being “in a traditional Church of Christ environment,” he
planned his move to Portland, Oregon! After being in Oregon, his wife
was asked by my awesome mom to study the Bible. After studying with
incredible women – such as Denise Bordieri, Megan Matthews, Letty
England, and Connie Underhill – she was baptized as a disciple!
Links:
2. http://upsidedown21.org
Sadly, after the leadership of the Portland Church decided to abandon
God’s new movement and be autonomous, Brandon again “fled for his
spiritual life.” The Farrells’ missionary hearts led them back to the
mission field, as they came to Santiago, Chile to help the Sullivans in
September 2009. Brandon is currently our web-deacon here in Santiago.
The Lord has blessed the Farrells’ hearts, as their precious daughter
Amanda (13) will now be a missionary trio with her parents, as they
will be part of the base of sold-out disciples in Mexico City! Pray for
the Santiago Church, as this week, we eagerly await the arrival of the
McKeans, Mejias, McGees and Albert Wagers! ¡Ponte Las Pilas!
Luke Speckman of Phoenix: Greetings from the Valley of the Sun! We were
joined by the Campus Ministry of the CAICC for our Annual Campus
Conference this weekend entitled, Here Am I! It was an incredible,
life-changing event with powerful preaching and awesome fellowship! To
get things going, the AMS Region of LA baptized William after the
Friday evening session! Today’s worship was so inspiring! We had our
largest attendance ever with 360! DJ closed out the conference with a
convicting sermon entitled, Here Am I, Lord Send Me!
After taking up our Special Missions Contribution last week, today over
$8,400 was given, which is double what our weekly pledge is! We closed
out the service with two incredible baptisms! The first, Tayvon, is a
student at the ASU Polytechnic and the fifth brother to be baptized on
that campus this semester! The second baptism, Christa, was
particularly touching as she is the daughter of one of our Shepherding
Couples, Chad & Rae Lynn. Christa (23) grew up as a “Kingdom kid,” who
left Chad & Rae when she was 14 to live with her biological dad. There
wasn’t a dry eye in the fellowship, as Chad apologized to Christa with
many tears for all his mistakes he made in his parenting. Today, we
witnessed a family reconciled in Christ!!
A huge thank you to the McKeans, Comisfords, and the City of Angels
Church for supporting our conference! And a very special thank you to
all of LA’s Region Leaders and Campus Leaders who either brought or
sent their campus students!! We love you all!
Bill Hamilton of Charlotte: Greetings from the Queen City of the South!
“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the
Lord!” (Proverbs 18:22) Today was a great day in the Charlotte Church,
as we had the chance to witness our first engagement of two beloved
disciples: Christopher Carrothers & Patricia Mendez! It was truly
heart-moving for all in attendance, as Christopher got down on one knee
and proposed to Patricia by the water at the beautiful boardwalk in the
university area of Charlotte! We are so grateful and proud in the Lord
to be part of God’s SoldOut Discipling Movement!
Andrew Smellie of New York City: “So at that time the entire service of
the Lord was carried out for the celebration of the Passover and the
offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah
had ordered. The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at
that time and observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven
days. The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the
days of the prophet Samuel; and none of the kings of Israel had ever
celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites
and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of
Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 35:16-18) Greetings from the saints in New
York City! The Lord was truly glorified today as we witnessed both a
powerful service and the joyful celebration for our 2012 Missions
Contribution!
Immediately following our worship was a PARTY to celebrate the offering
of our 2012 Missions Contribution! After meeting in our school
auditorium, we all moved over to the nearby cafeteria that had been
decorated for our party aptly titled: “LOCAL MISSIONS JUBILEE
CELEBRATION!” I have not been to a party like this in a long time!
After I shared the Good News Email reporting from around the Kingdom
all that our God is doing, we got down to business! We had great food
(coconut rice & jerk chicken); great games (musical chairs); great
prizes (to hold up noteworthy examples in the church of faithful &
creative fundraising); and a DJ (Niko) who was fantastic!!! (He also
came to church and loved it!) From the Cuban Shuffle/Electric Slide to
Salsa to Reggae, the music was on fire! Special thanks to Tia Taylor
and Kwaku Sarkodie for doing a great job to help organize this
outstanding event! I was personally encouraged by the fact that almost
all the visitors who came out to church with us stayed until the party
ended three hours later! Even Danny, the custodian of our building who
has been studying the Bible, joined in our celebration and danced with
us! Who says Christians don’t know how to throw a party? Let’s all
rejoice for what God is doing and will continue to do throughout our
new movement as we all look forward to the Day we shall rejoice with
the Lord! (Isaiah 25:9)
Dearest brothers and sisters, please be praying for Elena and me as we
take-off tomorrow for an 11 day missionary trip to Santiago, Chile and
Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Due to our time away, there will not be a Good News
Email next week, but on April 29th, we will resume again.) Thanks for
your willing hearts so evident in the baptisms and the missions
contributions to “obey the commands of the eternal God, so that all
nations might believe and obey Him – [and] to the only wise God be
glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen!” (Romans 16:26-27)
Much love,
Kip
Copyright © 2012 City Of Angels International Christian Church, All rights reserved.
For more information, please visit the City of Angels International
Christian Church website at [3]CAICC.net
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