May 3, 2018

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Dear Friend,
Greetings from San Francisco, Hilo, Manila, Hong Kong, Chennai, Paris and Los Angeles! In the almost two months since the last Good News Email, the Spirit has done so much around the world! In March, Elena & I had the pleasure of being with the San Francisco Church for their Women's Day entitled BEAUTIFUL where 91 disciples had 230 in attendance! In late March, we flew to Hilo to help our dear son in the faith Kyle Bartholomew be restored to the Lord! We then flew to Manila for the exciting Pacific Rim Missions Conference where three were restored and one was baptized on Sunday! Then Elena & I flew to Hong Kong where we were able to study with and baptize Ria – an actress, model and singer! Following those memorable days, Elena flew home to LA and I traveled on to Chennai for the South Asia Missions Conference (SAMC)! At the Sunday Worship Service, nine were baptized and the Spirit sent out the historic 38 disciple New Delhi Mission Team led by Raja & Debs Rajan! Then before coming home, I flew to Paris to preach to the church and spend time with my beloved grandson and granddaughter in the faith – Anthony & Cassidy Olmos!

 
Amazingly, this month, we celebrate the 11th Anniversary of God's SoldOut Movement as the Spirit has multiplied the 42 Portland Disciples that planted the City of Angels International Christian Church on May 6, 2007 to now 6,000 disciples in 91 churches in 36 nations on all 6 populated continents of the world! Truly, this is not a mere movement of men, it is the very Movement of God! And to God be all the glory!
 
HEADLINE NEWS
Raja Rajan – Lead Evangelist of New Delhi: After a 28 hour train ride from Chennai to New Delhi, the 38 on the New Delhi Mission Team received a very warm and noisy welcome when we arrived at the Hazrath Nizamuddin Station on Saturday, April 28th! All of us received flower garlands and were invited to dance and rejoice with the 18 disciples in the New Delhi Remnant Group, as the SoldOut Movement of God had officially come to the capital of India!

 
Sunday was a real blow out service as we had an attendance of 205! The singing was electric! Luke Speckman's Communion was very touching, and I preached the whole sermon in Hindi with full conviction! Many of our old friends from the ICOC came seeking revival and said this was just like old times! Some had informed their leaders and said good bye to them with the explanation that they were "joining the Kingdom of God!"

 
We are now busy with studying the Bible with 30 visitors! God is truly moving in a powerful way! All glory to God!
 
Tim Kernan – Director of the 2018 Global Leadership Conference (GLC): Out of hundreds of suggested themes for the 2018 GLC, we would like to congratulate Victor Gonzalez Sr. for his entry of EMPOWERED!

And yes, Victor will now receive a free registration for this momentous event! So many Scriptures on God's power come to mind: "The Kingdom of God [has] come with power." (Mark 9:1) "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order [to experience]… His incomparably great power for us who believe!" (Ephesians 1:18-19)

 
The 2018 GLC will be held on Thursday, August 16th through Sunday, August 19th, 2018 at the Anaheim Convention Center, 800 West Katella Avenue, Anaheim, California! Accommodations will be at the Sheraton Park Hotel – a five minute walk from the Convention Center! (It is also just a 10 minute walk to Disneyland!)

 
GLC highlights will include amazing preaching, extraordinary singing, glorious fellowship, the Sixth Commencement of the International College of Christian Ministries, and the Spirit sending out two OPERATION EAGLE Mission Teams: Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin! We will also be hosting the "Kingdom's Got Talent Show!" This year is the fifth such occasion! If you are interested in performing, please send a video of your act to the Director of KGT5 – Jay Causey – by June 1st! A full program will be sent out in the coming weeks!

 
The registration fee is $200 for a regular ticket; $180 for a current ICCM student; and $100 for a teen registration! Our Prayer Goals are for 1,800 American Disciples and 200 International Disciples to participate in the 2018 GLC as this will allow us to financially break even! Register now! (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-global-leadership-conference-empowered-tickets-42924191412)
 

We are encouraging every Church Leader Couple, every Shepherding Couple and every CAICC Region Leader Couple to stay at the Sheraton Park Hotel. The cost of a room is $139/night plus tax. The group rate is available until July 16th, so book now! (https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/events/start.action?id=1801311047&key=E24CAE4)

 
REMEMBER: There will not be a Global Leadership Conference next year to financially allow particularly American Disciples to attend Geographic Missions Conferences outside of the United States! Thus, this makes the 2018 GLC all the more important to attend!
 
Andrew Smellie – Lead Evangelist of Lagos: Greetings from Nigeria, now known as "The Giant of Africa!" With a population of approximately 195 million souls, Nigeria has become the seventh most populous country in the world! In the city of Lagos, God has blessed our efforts in the church as we have seen eight precious souls come to the Lord in the month of April! We are begging God for every disciple to be fruitful before our Second Anniversary on June 24th as we are currently at almost 90 disciples!  

 
On Easter Sunday, April 1st, we witnessed an incredible miracle as three souls came to be baptized – Lolade and Enoch (Students at the University of Lagos majoring in Chemical and Systems Engineering respectively), and Rotimi, my dear friend and neighbor! Rotimi is the Head of Market Development for Africa at the Siemens Corporation! 

 
On April 8th, we witnessed another two glorious baptisms as two more campus students came to the Lord – Dorcas and Jibola! Jibola is the younger brother of Deji Aregbesola, a brother who placed membership from London earlier this year!

On the 15th of April, Queenest Aregbesola, the younger sister of our brother Deji, was baptized! After his sister's baptism, Deji shared with me that he is eager to win all of Nigeria for the Lord by pursuing the full-time ministry! He is now a Campus Ministry Intern!

On April 22nd, we saw two more incredible baptisms: Fega from the Campus Ministry and Frank from the Singles Ministry!

In the month of April, we also witnessed the birth of our first "Kingdom baby" in the church as Lordwilson & Faith Simon had a baby boy on April 4th named Nathan!

 
In Nigerian tradition, babies are not named immediately, but instead the family has a "Naming Ceremony" on the 8th day of birth where family members come together to offer different names of meaning to the baby! Nathan's full name is now Nathan Ojo-Arome Akumabi Simon! Akumabi means, "a fortress that cannot be shaken!"

 
As the Evangelist of the church, I was given the privilege to "officially" bless and pray for the new baby! My Nigerian brothers affectionately gave me my own "Naming Ceremony" as I was called "Oluwaranmi" ("God sent me") and "Ayanfeoluwa" ("The Chosen of the Lord")! It was encouraging!

 
In addition to all the amazing miracles this month, I have been deeply moved and inspired by the faith of my brother Tolani Abiodun, who has handed in his resignation from a prominent IT position and has answered the call of God to pursue the full-time ministry! Tolani counted the cost to be part of the Remnant Group in Lagos before the Lagos Church planting in June 2016! He was baptized in London while finishing his graduate studies at UCL in March 2015! Please pray for our dear brother as both he and Deji join our Staff Team on May 1st! It is so encouraging to see the impact of the Nigerian Homecoming Project (NHP) – where we encourage Nigerian nationals that are converted in other countries to return to Nigeria! The NHP has not only reaped a harvest of many souls, but is raising up the leadership that is dreaming to win all of Africa for the Lord!

 
The 2018 African Missions Conference will be held in Lagos on June 21-24, 2018! Do not miss this incredible time of inspiration and fellowship with African leaders from around the continent! There will be a plethora of activities from viewing Nigerian art and culture, enjoying incredible food, and serving orphans in the community! You can register at the following Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-african-missions-conference-fear-none-except-god-tickets-44210489765.

 
Thank you American Disciples for your incredible sacrifice that allows us to be used by God who continues to do great miracles here in Lagos and throughout the African Continent! We love you!
 
Blady Perez – Lead Evangelist of Phnom Penh: Greetings from Cambodia! It was at the 2017 GLC in Manila, when my wife & I together with our son Bryce decided to place membership in the International Christian Churches! We immediately returned to Cambodia to start the church. We had our Inaugural Service last October 29, 2017 with a total of 69 in attendance! God has grown the church from 3 disciples to now 13 disciples in the last 6 months!

 
It is by God's grace and vision that He moved in the heart of two former full-times of the ICOC in Phnom Penh to join us and build the Kingdom of God! Rasmey & Chan Mona Seng are former staff and the admin couple of our former movement in Phnom Penh! Pheakday & Socheat Kim are missionaries and were full-time in the ICOC when they decided to place membership with us!

Just last month their son Mathuselah Kim was baptized!

 
We also had our first Women's Day this month and with only 5 sisters we had 27 in attendance and Ani was baptized on the same day! We are very grateful for Joe & Kerry Willis for their discipling of us and the Phnom Penh Church! We are especially appreciative for all of their help in our first Women's Day!

As well, we are learning from and imitating the fired up Sydney Campus Ministry to convert university students here! To God be the glory!

Joe Willis – Lead Evangelist of Sydney: Greetings from Australia in what we are claiming to be "The Best Year of our Lives!" The Sydney Church has grown this year from 47 to 61 disciples and now has 21 different nationalities represented! So encouraging to see in this one minute "Thank You Video" for everyone's continual financial support through the raising of Special Missions Contribution! (https://youtu.be/cdkOeSbieM4)

 
Other highlights this year included the baptism of our first Aboriginal Disciple, Paula! She is a first year Law Student at University of New South Wales!

 
Equally exciting is the baptism of Uka, who was Naomi Radnaabazar's co-leader in her old denominational church in Mongolia! Their dream is to now plant a true church of sold-out disciples in their home country! We have found a pocket of other Mongolians here in Sydney that are coming to church and studying the Bible! Pray for us to reach all nations!

 
Jason Dimitry – Lead Evangelist of San Francisco: "On this rock I will build my church…" (Matthew 16:18) Greetings from the Saints in the Bay Area! What an incredible last couple of months it has been! Where do we start… hmmm.. Women's Day! This epic annual event entitled BEAUTIFUL took place March 10th and for the very first time was held in Downtown San Francisco!

 
God blessed us with Elena McKean as our guest speaker and our 91 sisters had a phenomenal 230 in attendance! 

 
If that was not enough, we had three incredible baptisms at the Women's Day in a BEAUTIFUL baptistry with red and white rose petals floating on the water!

 
Another highlight had to be the This Is Me Performance which came from the movie The Greatest Showman! The sisters absolutely "brought down the house!" Here is a link if you would like to check it out: https://youtu.be/gsIK6THc4Aw.

 
The following day on Sunday, we had the privilege to hear Kip preach to a combined service of the San Francisco and Sacramento Churches! That day 2 more were baptized and another soul was restored!

 
Other incredible feats of God this year have been the 34 baptisms and 3 restorations we have had so far! Of note, it has been so inspiring to see how God has worked in the Spanish-speaking Ministry! Since last year when Fernando & Jackie Chavez heroically uprooted their family and moved to the Bay for ministry training, God has blessed their Spanish-speaking Bible Talk with 7 incredible baptisms including 2 married couples! Very excitingly is that come June they will assume the leadership of the South Bay Region centered in San Jose! 
 

 
Luke Speckman – Lead Evangelist of New York City: This was an outstanding month for us! Particularly energizing was the final week of our Basketball League!

As the number 1 seed, New Jersey had a bye and Manhattan played Queens in the semi-final. Manhattan rallied from a 10 point deficit to claim the victory over Queens! Jordan Swann won the 3 point competition which was held between the semi-final and final game! Then Manhattan beat New Jersey by 10 points to become the champions!

 
On Easter Sunday, we had a congregational service! It was a joyous celebration as we had not had a congregation service since our Winter Workshop the first weekend in January! There were outstanding dance, musical, singing and spoken word performances done by the disciples as well as a Chemical Recovery (CR) Graduation which was very powerful! Also, we had over $105,000 turned in for Missions that day!

 
The highlights of the day were the 5 additions – 1 restoration and 4 baptisms! Kiana Davis, who is a daughter to my wife Brandyn & me, had fallen away late last year. Yesterday, she was joyfully restored by Jill Swann and Brandyn!

 
The Manhattan Campus Men had 2 baptisms: 1 from CCNY and 1 from the Ivy League College – Columbia University! Of special note, Malcolm completed his Bachelor's Degree at Columbia and currently works on campus. He is preparing to begin his Master's at Columbia as well. Malcolm played football at Columbia for 4 years and is helping to connect me with the coaching staff and other football players. Since I now have a position in the Chaplain's Office, my goal is to be the Chaplain of the Columbia Football Team beginning this fall! On Friday, I received keys to my office and a conference room that I have access to. Nick Enfantino and I did 3 Bible Studies there that day!

 
As well, just two weeks later another Columbia Student was baptized and on Monday another Columbia Student became a disciple! So with the baptisms of Jerome and Sally, we now have 5 men and 5 women in our Columbia Ministry! 14 months ago, we had only 1 man!
 
RD Baker – Lead Evangelist of Dubai: Greeting from the United Arab Emirates! We have had an exciting last two months here in this key city in the Persian Gulf! To celebrate our Year And-a-half Anniversary, we had a special Desert Safari Service in the Arabian Desert! Incredibly, we had 71 in attendance! This is our second highest total yet!

 
We have had 4 baptisms in the last month: Mesraq Kizito, Ivan Giliwango, Paul Moni and Angela Rapiz! The 3 young men were from Uganda, and Angela is from the Philippines. This brings us to 7 baptisms this year and 38 since January 2017! Mesraq from Kampala, Uganda was raised as a Muslim. However, when he was 18 years old his family gave him the option to choose to continue in the Islamic faith or pursue another path. As God's Spirit directed, his friend Paul who had been studying the Bible invited Mesraq to come witness the church that was having such a great effect on his life! Mesraq saw the truth in the Scriptures and made Jesus his Lord and was baptized! Paul quickly followed suit and was baptized shortly after! 

 
We are also excited by the two incredible additions of Evangelist Miguel Mendez and Woman's Ministry Leader Megan Mathews! The church has enjoyed "welcoming" them to the family, and acclimating them to our wonderful city! Both have already made a huge impact on our church! It will be announced on Friday, May 4th that April & I are heading back to the States and Miguel and Megan will become the new Dubai Church Leaders! I believe the church is in great hands!

 
Finally, we have enjoyed hosting many brothers and sisters from around the world who have encouraged the church greatly: Tamara Kusto from Stockholm, Michael & Sharon Kirchner of LA, Jay & Barb Shelbrack of soon-to-be Milwaukee, and Ernest & Shannon Baker of New York City! Also, Dao Henderson (an original Dubai Mission Team Member) and her boyfriend Nick Enfantino also visited and encouraged the disciples!

 
Oleg Sirotkin – Lead Evangelist of Moscow: After Aliona & I were convicted by attending the South American Missions Conference in Brazil, we began to pray for the list for people who had left the Moscow Church for a year or more. First, Angelica called us and she was restored a week later! Then a campus girl named Milana called and was restored at the Women's Conference! Then Ludmila and Yuriy called disciples and were restored in the Lord last Sunday! A few weeks ago, Olga called with a humble question, "What do I need to do to be in family of God again?" So, this Sunday, we received back our fifth sister! All these people were on the prayer list which further united the Moscow Church through prayer! Glory to our Lord that He does not want anyone to perish, but to live!

 
Not only has God given us many restorations, but He has blessed us with even more baptisms! To mention a few, God blessed us by baptism with a beautiful campus girl Julia! She was invited to Bible Talk by our young sister Lola. At the Bible Talk, Julia shared that she was a member of a Pentecostal church, but after studying the Bible with true disciples, she understood that she had never become a disciple and was baptized in a week!

Also in March, God blessed us with an awesome young campus guy, perhaps a diplomat in the future, Kyril! He was invited a few months ago by Oleg Sirotkin (me 😊) in the gym where we were both working out! Despite his high social level as he is the heir of Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, the well-known author of War And Peace, Kyril had a very soft heart and was baptized in the Lord with strong conviction!

 
Lastly, Heo Kyu is an awesome teen boy from Moscow! Since his father is from South Korea, Heo speaks fluent Russian, English and Korean! He was baptized Sunday, April 29th! Our Teen Ministry Family is growing spiritually and in many fruits! Heo's teacher said that he was the main troublemaker in school, and he even persecuted Lydia because of her conviction on salvation. A month ago at a basketball tournament in their Academy, Sophia and Lydia decided to invite Heo to the Campus and Teen Devo. Afterward, Heo started to study the Bible! At the counting of the cost, Lydia told him that she is ready to go on a mission team even to North Korea! Then she asked Heo, "What about you?" He quickly answered, "Yes!" He went on to say that this is an answer from God, as there is a new start of relations for the first time in 65 years between South and North Korea! The parents of Heo were at the baptism and testified about the huge changes in their son and gave glory to God with all of us! God is a faithful Father and full of grace!

 
Michael Williamson – Lead Evangelist of London: Greetings from England! We had an incredible celebration this weekend as we saw three campus students baptized, and the beautiful wedding of Denzel Keyede (from Ghana) & Thu Lé (from Vietnam)!

 
All three baptisms were amazing, but let me share about a very intelligent and gifted young woman Victrix! She is a first year physics major at UCL, who received a scholarship to attend there as she received "ten A stars," a grade that made her eligible to attend either Oxford or Cambridge University! I am so proud of Jenia (Jurij Zykov's new girlfriend), Josie and my lovely wife Michele for meeting and converting this incredible young gentle woman who is a direct fruit from our Women's Day!

 
Also terrifically exciting, we had an incredible CR Graduation where six more graduates received their certificates, and then we sent off our faithful Kiwi warrior Chris Singers to Sydney, Australia to train for the New Zealand Mission Team!

 
Raul Moreno – Lead Evangelist of São Paulo: Greetings Brothers and Sisters! The saints are fired up in Brazil as God has allowed the São Paulo Church to grow from exactly 200 disciples at the beginning of the year to 221 as of now!

 
One of the innovative endeavors that we started was to host a weekly English Service. This creates a platform to bring visitors that are "opinion leaders!" One of those visitors was an amazing USP Campus Student named Lucas that was baptized last Sunday!

 
Also last week, the 28 disciples of our valiant and very loved Rio de Janeiro Church had an amazing 4 baptisms to the glory of God! I guess they are fired up as their church leaders, Caio & Carol, were joyfully married just 2 weeks prior!

 
Love seems to be in air in this part of the world, as our very own São Paulo Sector Leaders, Tulio & Vaitsa, were happily married this week as well!

We also have three more weddings looming on the horizon! God is always good! (Psalm 106:1)
 
Chi Leong – Lead Evangelist of Hong Kong: Greetings from China! I was so encouraged that the City of Angels Church in Los Angeles sent one of their best interns – Alicia Winthein – to co-lead the Hong Kong Church with me! She has made an incredible difference with the sisters!

 
In the past month, the Lord has been working powerfully in Hong Kong by blessing us with 4 baptisms! Their names are Matthew, Daisy, Ria and Harry! These young men and women are from the University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University! We look forward to all the great things that God will do through these zealous disciples!

 
Also, we had our first Women's Day where the Lord brought out 47 women in attendance as the sisters shared their hearts to inspire the crowd!

 
In addition, we had our record Sunday church attendance of 37 when Kip came and preached the Word powerfully to the crowd!

 
Please continue to pray for us as now there are a total of 13 disciples in the Hong Kong International Christian Church! To God be all the glory!
 
Cory Blackwell – Lead Evangelist of Chicago: God is amazing and He is doing great things in the Windy City! After a long spell with no baptisms, the church fasted and prayed for God to open His floodgates of fruit! Prayer really works! We have had additions the last 6 weeks in a row!

 
I will share about only one of these amazing miracles! Luis Avila was born in Venezuela. Today his country is in great political turmoil. Like many from third world countries, he had the American dream. He received a full baseball scholarship, but unfortunately like many young athletes without guidance, he made poor choices that cost him his baseball scholarship! When Luis was met on the UIC Campus, he was faced with deportation! Something told him to listen to the brothers that reached out to him. Luis persevered through all the hardships. Then he made the best decision of his life – making Jesus Lord! Immediately after Luis' baptism, he was no longer faced with deportation and he has been asked to play baseball for a new college, where he longs to help build the Kingdom!

 
Blaise Feumba – Overseeing Evangelist of Haiti: "So the Word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests [PREACHERS] became obedient to the faith." (Acts 6:7) At the beginning of the month of April, the Lord blessed the International Christian Churches of the nation of Haiti with the forming of a ninth church! Alexis Turgeau, Jean Bonard Colin and 13 other leaders of our Haitian Congregations in Port-au-prince, Saint-Marc, Mirebalais and Jacmel answered the call of a desperate denominational church in the city of Seau-d'Eau, an hour-and-a-half away from Port-au-prince! Our team landed there to teach the First Principles Series to over 100 people! After 5 days of intense Bible studies, the Lord blessed their efforts with 21 baptisms, 6 of them were preachers!

 
Alexis and another group of leaders are planning to go back next week from May 3rd to May 6th to strengthen these new disciples and to study the Bible with many more!

 
It is amazing to see what the Lord has done with Alexis – a Mainline Church of Christ Preacher – who reached out to Kip! Kip invited him to attend the 2013 GLC! After studying with several of the French-speaking Evangelists, Alexis was baptized the day after the GLC ended! So, from one sold-out former Church of Christ Preacher, we now have 367 disciples in 9 churches in Haiti!

Amazingly, 25 of these disciples are former preachers with 16 of them coming directly from the Mainline Churches of Christ!
 
MCKEANS' MISSIONARY TRIP
Elena & I flew to Hilo, Hawaii on Tuesday, March 27th where we were warmly greeted by Kyle Bartholomew, as well as Dennis & Corinna Sloan who are the Hilo Church Leaders! Over the next few days, we were able to spend quality time with the Sloans!

However, the main purpose for our going was to study with Kyle to be restored on Easter Sunday! A highlight for us was on Friday night when Elena & I had dinner with Kyle and his three children – Brett, Connor and Bree!

 
Another highlight was Saturday night as we enjoyed reconnecting with the Hilo Shepherding Couples – Chris & Mahe Directo and Robbie & Linda Robinson! All four were part of the 12 Hilo Disciples – led by Kyle Bartholomew – that took a stand for discipling, central leadership and world evangelism in September 2006, thus sparking the New SoldOut Movement into existence!

 
Of course, the ultimate highlight was Easter Sunday and Kyle's tearful restoration! At his restoration, Kyle shared Micah 7:8-9, "Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against Him, I will bear the Lord's wrath, until He pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see His righteousness." Kyle wholeheartedly apologized to the Lord, to the churches in Hawaii and the Philippines, and to his physical family. He wept as he expressed how disappointed the Lord was in him and how his falling away had a devastating impact on so many peoples' faith.

 
Interestingly, after singing to Kyle, We Love You With The Love Of The Lord, and taking a fellowship break to welcome him back to the family, Kyle's father Jay – who is not a disciple – came up to me asking if he could address the church for five to ten minutes. After a quick "Nehemiah Prayer," I said, "Sure!" So after a song to gather everybody back, I introduced Jay to the church. Jay began by saying, "I want to share with you a true story, something that I witnessed about a month ago, but in fact, it is a parable. As I was walking I heard the squawking of a large flock of mynah birds in a tree. All of a sudden, one of them flew off alone and then a huge hawk pounced on him, grabbing the mynah bird with his sharp talons! Then all of the mynah birds in the tree squawked all the louder as they witnessed the hawk clutching one of their own! You may ask yourself why did the mynah bird fly off on its own? Well… Maybe it was arrogance? (Kyle shared during his restoration that the core sin that took him out was arrogance!) Maybe it was stupidity? Or maybe the mynah bird was just seeking a thrill?

 
Almost immediately after all the birds were screeching, four of the mynah birds came out of the tree and hit the hawk in rapid succession! Now you may be thinking, 'Why didn't more mynah birds come to the rescue?' Well… Maybe they thought that the bird that flew out on its own was getting what he deserved? Or perhaps they were just cowardly? Anyway, after the four birds hit the hawk, the hawk dropped the one mynah bird and the mynah bird flew to safety back with the flock in the tree. I believe the church is a family and for me, I can never give up on family. Let me just say, Kyle is not the only one who has struggled and went away on his own. Don't look down on your brothers and sisters that stray like the one mynah bird, but with love and courage – no matter the price – go after them. Be true family! That's all I've got to say!" Then Jay went back into the audience and sat down.

 
After this amazing parable, I was supposed to preach and I did! That said, I believe the most memorable sermon that day was the Mynah Bird Parable delivered so eloquently by Jay Bartholomew! Since the Easter Church Service was held in an outdoor facility, it was relatively easy to have a picnic feast and an Easter Egg Hunt! Most of us left after a few hours so encouraged and with a bit of a sunburn!

 
On Tuesday night, April 3rd, Elena & I were given a SoldOut Movement Greeting by the Manila Disciples!

 
On Wednesday, we had lunch with the dynamic new leaders of the Metro Manila International Christian Church (MMICC) – Richie & Elizabeth McDonnell! Over lunch, we discussed the incredible healing that had taken place in the MMICC over the three months that the McDonnells had led the church. We also overviewed the program for the 2018 Pacific Rim Missions Conference (PRMC) entitled STRONG AND COURAGEOUS! All of the titles for the sermons and lessons came from the Book of Joshua!  

 
That evening at 7:00PM, was the opening of the Prayer War Room and the Speakers Dinner! At the dinner, all of us who attended from outside of the Philippines were very impressed with all of the Filipino Leaders!

 
On Thursday morning was the Leadership Workshop from 9:00AM – 11:30AM! All the way from LA, Tim & Lianne Kernan – the World Sector Leaders for the Pac Rim – delivered a stirring Welcome and Ronnie Gonzalez – one of the MMICC Shepherds – gave a moving Prayer!

 
Jason Dimitry – the Lead Evangelist of the San Francisco Bay Church – gave an amazing speech entitled, GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN! In Jason's opening remarks, he shared that he lived in Daly City, which is called in San Francisco because so many Filipinos live there – "Little Manila!" So Jason said that he felt quite at home in "Big Manila!" As Jason preached about Caleb having the vigor to take the mountain in his old age, Jason recalled his father's words to him, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

 
Following came the COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP SERMONETTES: Courageous Preaching by Princeton & Joy George of Las Vegas, Courageous Hard Work by Ricky & Coleen Challinor of LA, Courageous Discipling by the newly engaged couple Sean O'Connor & Krystal Legarda of LA, Courage For Nationals To Save Their People by Marc & Maika Carbonell of Manila, Courage On Campus by Zach & Ariel Shields of Manila, Courageous Marriages by John & Emma Causey of LA, Courageous Prayer Life by Joel Parlour of Seattle, and Courage In Finances by Tim Kernan!

 
Thursday evening was the First General Session of the PRMC! After incredible singing, Richie & Elizabeth gave the Welcome and EJ Duldulao opened with a Prayer!

Then came the glorious Flag Ceremony where all the flags of the Pacific Rim Countries were represented!

Then Elena & I shared GOOD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!

Following was a Special Dance Presentation!

 
The main speech for the evening was enthusiastically delivered by John Causey on the theme, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD! In John's speech, he shared about ceramic bowls that cracked in Japan. The cracked bowls are far more valuable than ones that are not! Why? Because the Japanese glue together the cracked bowls with gold! He went on to share that all of us have "cracks" in our lives and through the gold of discipling, we can become everything God wants us to be!
 

 
On Friday morning, the Challinors gave a rousing Welcome for the Second General Session!

The main speech was powerfully preached by Richie and entitled, GET THESE PEOPLE READY! Richie's amazing lesson had three simple points: 1) Ready To Do Anything, 2) Ready To Go Anywhere, and 3) Ready To Give Up Everything! He had us in tears when he read a poem by his beloved wife Elizabeth that encapsulated these points!

 
In the afternoon, from 2:00PM – 4:30PM were the Men's and Women's Programs emceed respectively by Ronnie Gonzalez and Elena!
 

The initial sermon of each program was entitled EVERY PLACE YOU SET YOUR FOOT! They were delivered respectively by Ricky Challinor and Elizabeth McDonnell!

Thrilling short charges followed the opening main speeches: Setting Your Foot In Integrity, Setting Your Foot In Purity, Setting Your Foot In Life-Skills, and Setting Your Foot In The Light!

The second major speech was given by John Malnegro and Lianne Kernan on THE WALLS OF JERICHO!
 

After the main speeches, short charges were given on Marching By Faith, Marching By Conviction, Marching By Leading, and Marching By Loving!
 

 
That evening was the Third General Session – The Kingdom Banquet! Nimrod & Vis Malnegro – a Shepherding Couple for the MMICC – presented the Welcome and Oliver Lapeña gave the Prayer! Following was an incredible Dance Presentation!
 

 
I had the privilege to deliver the message of the hour, HAVE I NOT COMMANDED YOU?

Although we were a bit tired, all of us went to our rooms with great expectations for Saturday's MERCY Day!

 
All of the International Delegates for the PRMC were taken from the Hotel Jen to the Don Bosco School, while the Filipino Delegates easily found their way to the MERCY Day site!

Two hours before we arrived, 173 children of squatters were treated by doctors and dentists sponsored by MERCY!
 

Co-directing this event with Manila's MERCY Director Ronnie Gonzalez was Sister Helen, who is the leader of the Laura Vicuña Foundation.

 
The program was filled with games, singing, dancing and lots of fun!
 

 
The Sunday Worship Service and Final General Session was incredible with 346 in attendance!

JC Jose and Rosas Sobrino – the East Region Leaders of the MMICC – were given the honor to share for Communion!

Nimrod & Vis Malnegro gave a convicting message on Contribution where they shared on the Scripture, "Get your provisions ready!" They told "their story" about moving from the Davao Remnant Group to Manila! Although it was difficult, in doing this both of their sons Michael and Lance became disciples!

 
Then, Dr. Tim Kernan gave perhaps his best message to date entitled, BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS! Tim was hilarious as he told us about the movie The Dark Tower! In the movie, the last gunslinger defeats the man in black. The gunslinger played by Idris Elba makes the statement, "I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart." Tim admonished us to always "remember the face of our Father!"

 
To close the service were 3 moving restorations – Lorenz, Rachel and Janien – and 1 baptism, Estella the mother of Alba Guitierrez!

 
We closed out the service arm-in-arm singing at the top of our voices my favorite Kingdom song, Great Among The Nations! Incredibly, since January 14th when the MMICC had their first 2 baptisms of the year and 187 disciples in their membership, God has blessed this amazing church with 59 additions – 38 baptisms, 10 restorations and 11 place memberships! They now have 235 sold-out disciples! And to God be the glory!

 
On Thursday, April 12th, Elena & I flew to Hong Kong! However, our plane was quite late and so we arrived after midnight! Nonetheless, all but one of the then 11 member church was there greeting us with big smiles and singing, We Love You With The Love Of The Lord!
 

 
Friday night, Elena & I met with the Hong Kong Church Leaders – Chi Leong and Alicia Winthein! It was a tremendous time of sharing about their efforts at Hong Kong University and the Polytechnic University!

 
On Saturday, we had lunch with the brothers – Dean, Cain, Aaron and Matthew!

Following this marvelous time, Chi and Alicia asked Elena & me to study with a young Chinese woman who had wrestled with witchcraft and sorcery. Only 24 years old, Victoria "Ria" Li was very vulnerable and humble despite being a beautiful actress, model and singer! After several hours of Bible Study, Ria decided to be baptized the next day on Sunday!

 
On Saturday evening, Elena & I had dinner with the sisters – Shaineh, Jess, Themis, Kandice and Daisy! All of them were so fired up that Ria was getting baptized the next day!

 
On Sunday morning, we woke up to rain! Even at noontime when Chi picked us up in a taxi to go to the baptism, it was still raining!

However, when all the disciples had gathered at Kowloon Park (essentially Hong Kong Central Park), Ria appeared and the rain stopped! We gathered in a circle and all of us shared something encouraging about Ria's conversion! I will never forget when our brother Cain shared. He cried while he said that he did not believe that most of his friends in his homeland of Taiwan would ever become Christians, because they were involved in witchcraft. Then he added, "Ria, your conversion has given me hope for all of them!"

 
Since we had a little bit of time before the worship service, Elena wanted to stay awake and so we headed to Starbucks!

Church in Hong Kong is at 4:00PM and amazingly, with 12 disciples in the church and Elena & me, God blessed us with 37 in attendance! Truly the "fields are ripe for harvest!" (John 4:35)

 
On Tuesday morning, April 17th, Elena flew home to Los Angeles as her doctors have urged her not to travel as much as me because travel increases stress and stress can cause her health problems to return. Also that morning, I flew on to Chennai, India for the 2018 South Asia Missions Conference (SAMC)! Because of a long layover in Singapore, I did not arrive into Chennai until after 10:00PM! Amazingly, when I came out of the terminal, over 100 Indian Disciples sang, We Love You With The Love Of The Lord and they greeted me with hugs for about an hour!

 
On Wednesday morning, I gathered with Raja & Debs Rajan – the former Chennai Church Leaders and the New Delhi Mission Team Leaders, Luke & Brandyn Speckman – the New York City Church Leaders and the Overseeing Ministry Couple for South Asia, and Matt & Helen Sullivan – the Miami Church Leaders and the SAGES World Sector Leaders, to go over the SAMC Program!

 
At noontime was the Shepherd's Luncheon where we were able to meet several of the stronger and more mature couples in the Chennai, Bangalore and soon-to-be New Delhi Churches!

 
After an afternoon of fellowship, we celebrated the Speakers Dinner!

 
On Thursday morning, we got ready to go on the Historical Tour where we visited the Monuments of Mahabalipuram, which are located about 60 km (37 miles) south of Chennai.

Fascinatingly, all of these Hindu Monuments were hewed out of giant rocks! This sculptural legacy was left behind by King Mahendravarman I (580 – 630 AD) and his son King Narasimhavarman I (630 – 668 AD).

That evening at 7:30PM, we gathered for the Bible Talk Leaders Workshop! After a warm Welcome by Raja & Debs, I was honored to present GOOD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!  
 

 
After this was a Special Dance Performance by Yassa Green! She performed the extremely difficult Bharatnatyam Dance, which is the State Dance of Tamil Nadu where Chennai is located!

 
Then Luke delivered an amazing sermon, KEEP ON SPEAKING AND NOT BE SILENT!

 
On Friday morning, April 20th, all of us were ready at 6:30AM to go to the MERCY Event, which was held at Chengalpet Leprosy Colony! After two short charges by Nick Bordieri – the World Sector Leader for MERCY – and myself, the International Delegates were broken into 6 groups.

Each group had an Indian couple in charge with other Indian Disciples to help us out with translation. As well, we had several packets of clothes to distribute to each one of the lepers. Amazingly, leprosy can be completely cured with a series of shots that have a total cost of only $150 USD! In visiting one leper who is a 48 year old woman and had been in the Leprosy Colony for 6 years, she shared with my group, "I prayed today would be a great day." I responded, "God has answered your prayers!" Our visit with the lepers lifted their spirits and changed our lives!

 
After spending 2 hours at the Leprosy Colony, we came back to shower and then went for a South Indian Lunch at Hotel Saravana Bhavan, where we ate on banana leaf plates only using our fingers!

Then we were off to St. Thomas Mount to see where the Apostle Thomas was martyred in 72 AD. We ended our "St. Thomas Tour" where he humbly lived in a cave!

 
On Saturday, the First General Session began at 9:00AM! The singing was off the charts! Luke & Brandyn gave a great Welcome and Prayer! Nick gave a short charge about MERCY Projects around the world!

Then we witnessed a Special Indian States Dance! 6 of the 29 States of India were represented: the Bollywood Dance of Maharashtra, the Fisherman's Dance of Goa, the Sampalpuri Dance of Bihar, the Mohini Attam Dance of Kerala, the Kashmiri Dance of Jammu, and the Garba Dance of Gujarat!

 
At 9:45AM, Raja spoke on BY WHAT POWER AND WHAT NAME? He shared in his message about his Hindu background where over time he became an atheist. After a life of partying and immorality, Raja called his life "a total mess." One Saturday night after a party, he was so distraught that he hit his bedroom wall several times crying out in tears, "God are you there?" A short time later, he was met by disciples and was baptized! After his baptism, Raja's father beat him and threw him out of his house along with his clothes. God has raised up a great prophet for India from this miraculous conversion!

 
Another highlight followed Raja's lesson when Prathap & Maggie Stevenson were appointed Evangelist and Women's Ministry Leader in the Kingdom of God! They now lead the mighty Chennai Church!

 
From 11:00AM – 1:00PM were the Men's and Women's Programs! The first message of both sessions was delivered respectively by Jay Shelbrack of New York City and Helen Sullivan titled, SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS CORRUPT GENERATION!

Following were short charges on different characters in the Book of Acts!

The second main message for both programs was entitled, CHANGING THE CUSTOMS! From the buzz in the fellowship, Prathrap and Debs did a terrific job on this topic!

 
The Second General Session was from 3:00PM – 4:30PM! We were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 – Campus and Group 2 – Singles and Marrieds! In the Campus Session, Mike & Chenelle Patterson of Boston taught the class, THE LORD ADDED TO THEIR NUMBER DAILY.

For the Singles and Marrieds Session, Luke & Brandyn had this same topic!
 

 
Sunday was the Final General Session where 347 gathered to worship God!

 
Communion was the goodbye to the Chennai Church from the Rajans and the Gonas, who served nobly as one of the Chennai Shepherding Couples but now were leaving on the New Delhi Mission Team!

 
Contribution was admirably done by Michael & Sharon Kirchner – the World Sector Leader Admin Couple!

During the collection of the Contribution, the New Delhi Remnant Group sang in Hindi, Jesus Comes Into My Heart!

 
Then I was privileged to give the keynote address, UNSTOPPABLE!

 
Following, we had 9 baptisms – Ravi, Cathy, Manjula, Viju, Yokesh, Sylvester, Srinivas, Monica – a Delhi baptism, and Dipshi – a very talented screenwriter of Bollywood!

 
Then came the moment we were all waiting for, The New Delhi Mission Team Send-Off! Amazingly, 38 fired up disciples were on the team and 18 remnant group disciples were waiting for them to come to New Delhi! Encouragingly, 14 of the 18 came to the SAMC!

The entire conference went to our knees as Ted Green – one of two SAGES World Sector Shepherds in Miami – and Thomas Vijayan – one of the Chennai Shepherds – led the prayer to send out the New Delhi Mission Team!

 
Our closing song was Prayer For Boldness! Immediately after Prayer For Boldness which Vignesh led, Vignesh – a former Hindu and intern for Delhi – dropped to his knees and asked Scarlett – a former Muslim named Ussain – and asked her to marry him! She said, "Yes!"

Following, all of the Indian Brothers and Sisters broke out in a jubilant dance! Earnest & Shannon Baker of New York City – former professional dancers – led the International Delegates to follow suit!

 
Following all the celebrations, we enjoyed a scrumptious Indian Lunch!

 
That Sunday night, I boarded a plane to fly to Frankfurt and then on to Paris for the final stop of this missionary journey! I was so looking forward to seeing Anthony & Cassidy Olmos as well as preaching to the Paris Church! I finally arrived late Monday afternoon!

The three of us had a delightful dinner on Tuesday night!

 
During dinner, Cassidy shared about the two Women's Day Events that she has spoken at this year – Stockholm and Paris! Amazingly, in Paris, Cassidy spoke in French for the entire program including her speech! God blessed both churches as both exceeded their attendance goals! In Stockholm, with 8 women disciples, they had an attendance of 22! The Paris Church with 14 women disciples had an incredible attendance of 53!

 
At the Wednesday night Midweek, I was able to encourage the church which has grown from 14 when the 4 person Paris Supplemental Mission Team arrived from London in October to now 26 sold-out disciples!

 
Because of unseen circumstances, I cut my visit short and left on Thursday morning. Praise God, I arrived home to see my beloved wife of 41 years Elena feeling much better! And to God be all the glory!
 
FAMILY NEWS
Boston: Arthur Hughes was able to baptize his younger brother Bobby into Christ on April 9th! Arthur shared with tear-filled eyes from John 1:40-42 where Andrew had brought his brother Simon to meet Jesus! It has been his Kingdom dream to baptize someone in his family!

 
Denver: We are so happy for Adrian Garcia-Zataray & Lidia Barrios who were married on April 21, 2018! Both Adrian & Lidia are truly a son and daughter to Dustin & Amanda Miller, and Dustin was honored to marry them!

 
New York City: Since the last Good News Email, the New York City Church has witnessed a wedding and an engagement! Angel & Jocelyn Santiago were married on March 24th! Jocelyn had been a single mom until the wedding! It is so incredible to see God bring fathers to the fatherless in His Kingdom!

 
Also, after 3 years of dating, Gerald Gayle & Danielle Jamison were finally engaged! We look forward to their wedding! 

 
Alan Moncayo was baptized in Boston a few years ago. He fell away and then was married. So touching was that on the day Alan was restored, he baptized his wife Judy!

 
Paris: At the end of March, we celebrated the first wedding of the year! It was incredibly powerful to see the union of Landry & Christelle Mokwa! They dated in world and had a son, but because they wanted a clear conscience they broke up to put God first! And after one year of pure dating, they became united under God at their wedding! This momentous occasion gave us 150 visitors to hear the Word of God preached!

 
New Delhi: John (the Baptist) & Salma are engaged and now lead the Teen Ministry in the New Delhi International Christian Church!

 
Bangalore: Christy & Maria, the leaders of the Bangalore Church, were blessed with Lydia Brielle Christopher!

 
Portland: God has been working in a powerful way to bring families to ​Christ! After months of prayer, on March 11th, we witnessed our sister Daniela's son Aaron get baptized into Christ!

 
Then on Resurrection Sunday, after receiving much persecution from his physical family, our campus ​brother William was able to baptize his ​mother ​Olga! William's father then joined them in Christ as he was baptized last Sunday where he shared, "I am so glad that my son has now become my father in the faith!"​

​
Lastly, three weeks ago a man told his daughter, "We need to start getting closer to God and go to church once more." She responded, "Dad, I need to do homework, so can we go to Starbucks?" Little did they know that Rich Hardy and the Starbucks Ministry was going to be there having Bible Talk! The daughter, a teen named Vania, was baptized at our Women's Day Event, and on Sunday, her father Javier, who is a pilot, shared in tears that he was finally able to face the challenges of forgiveness after years of holding bitterness! God's grace is abounding in Portland!

 
Mirebalais (Haiti): Congratulations to Emmanuel & Beltude Pierre on their wedding!

 
Moscow: As in every family, a wedding is always a great event and the whole church in Moscow is looking forward to the next one! At the Women's Conference, during the lesson, music played as well as the sound of a helicopter, and Rezo Davitadze came out in black glasses as agent 007 and offered Sasha Korotova, our dear sister, to be his wife, adding that, "Resistance is useless!" Afterward, everyone congratulated Rezo & Sasha! Then Aliona finished her lesson saying that in the church, we build pure dating relationships in Christ and that's the blessing of God for us and the power of Bible teaching! This touched the hearts of all the women guests!

 
Manila: Rey & Nina Hayag gave birth to an 8 lbs. and 15 inch baby boy, Marc Hercules, on April 4th! We are confident that he will live up to the noble heroism of his namesake!

Miami: So exciting for the whole Miami Church are the engagements of two awesome couples: Will Nelson & Tatyana Brutus as well as Zach Shahan & Lauren Hammers!

Eugene: Congratulations to Brian & Joaly Carr – the dynamic Eugene Church Leaders – on the birth of Sahalie Rae!

Los Angeles – AMS Region: Congratulations to Adam Zepeda & Lauren Ona – the AMS Region Leaders – on their engagement which was on Lauren's birthday – a very lucky Friday, April 13th!

 
West Region: Congratulations to Marvell Holder & Alexys Hall who were engaged on April 14th! Excitingly, they are on the Milwaukee Mission Team as Milwaukee is Marvell's hometown!

 
Antelope Valley (AV) Region: Leilani Aguilar was added to God's family! She is the daughter of Jason & Monique Aguilar and sister of Conner Aguilar! The Aguilar Family now has 4 of 7 faithful disciples, who are all full of joy! Of note in 2013, at the young age of 10, Leilani was the one to encourage her family to start attending church! Leilani is an incredible addition to our growing Teen Ministry!

 
Sirena Rubio was baptized by Samantha Massman and her physical sister Jasmine Diaz! Sirena is 14 years old, and was so fired up to get right with God, that she spent the entire week of spring break in back to back Bible studies! With her baptism, this spreads the Teen Ministry to high schools in both Lancaster and Palmdale!

 
Ronnie Martinez is an incredible and humble young man! He is a cousin to the Aguirre/Carrillo Family, who now have 8 members who are disciples in the AV Region! But as God would have it, he was actually met and invited out to church by his coworker Matthew Fajardo, a disciple in our Singles Ministry! After showing up to service, realizing that this is the same church so many in his family are a part of, he eagerly desired to study the Bible! After a few weeks, Ronnie became our brother in Christ!

 
Josh Massman is 15 years old and was born and raised in the Kingdom! The fight and perseverance of his physical family (9 of which are disciples, making Josh the 10th), have proven to be influential in his decision to make Jesus Lord! He has overcome so much to become a disciple! Josh calls all of us higher, as since studying the Bible, he has been having consistent 5:00AM quiet times and is on his knees every morning praying to God! He is such a powerful addition to the AV Teen Ministry!

Coachella Valley (CV) Region: At our Women's Day in the CV Region, on March 11th, after 4 long years of prayer, Laura Miranda was baptized! Laura was reached out to by one of the original CV Mission Team members, Monique Carrasco. Laura brought her sister Dasey to the very first church service in the Valley. Dasey went on to become a disciple, while Laura fled. After much prayer and fasting, and to God's glory, Laura was baptized and is now united with her physical sister, Dasey!

 
Orange County (OC) Region: Sarah and Christina have been solid sisters in the Orange County Region for some time. When they were originally reached out to, their little sister Angelica was with them (age 11 at the time). Now after being faithful for 4 years, Sarah and Christina helped start the Teen Ministry in the LIFE Sector of the OC Region and their little sister Angelica started to study the Bible! After transforming her life and being made into a disciple, Angelica was baptized as their sister in Christ on March 3rd! Since then she has already been fruitful and baptized her best friend from high school, Azalea on April 13th!

 
The following is a special note from Shay Sears of Dallas about her mother Debbie Vloet's baptism in the OC Region of LA: "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." (1 Corinthians 3:5-6) I am so grateful to be a part of a worldwide movement because as we "grow," not only are more souls being saved, but the hope for our physical families "grow" as well! 

 
Growing up my mother and I had a saying that we would express daily before she dropped me off at school. I would say, "I love you," and she would say, "How much?" Then I would finish out with "All the way to Heaven!" Eleven years ago, while in college at Cal State Fullerton in Orange County, I was reached out to and asked to study the Bible. After three weeks of studying, Tracy Harding baptized me into Christ! Although I rejoiced in the treasure of having a relationship with God, my heart was tinged with a hint of sadness when I looked at my Mom and knew that I could not at that moment say, "All the way to Heaven." That day a fervent, "impossible prayer" began for my Mom's soul. She was less than "fired up" with my decision as she printed and read every persecution article she could get her hands on, and even had some "spicy talks" with the Hardings and the McKeans!

 
Over the years, I watched my Mom go through some very challenging trials in her life that brought her to her knees and opened her heart to see her need for God. I am beyond grateful for the many women like Lynda Moreno, Sharon Kirchner, Connie Underhill, Loidy Frenzley, Elena McKean and so many more who have "watered" the seed that was planted in her heart. A special thank you to Judy Harding, Therese Untalan and Tracy Harding who studied the Bible with her. Truly it was God who made her love and faith "grow" and just last week, my sister Lori and I were able to fly from Dallas to LA and surprise my Mom by emerging from the Harding's room during the sharing! 

Shortly after the sharing, Lori and I baptized Mom into Christ! I have always admired my Mom's strength, but today what makes her beautiful is her vulnerability and her willingness to show her weaknesses so that God can be her strength!

Now as sisters in Christ, I can say with confidence "Mom, I love you! How much? All the way to Heaven!"
 
LOCAL LA NEWS
Greetings from sunny Los Angeles, California! God is moving powerfully in the City of Angels Church as He has blessed us with 123 baptisms in the first 119 days of 2018, bringing this congregation to its largest membership yet of 976 members! We are praying fervently for "1,000 for the Lord" before the end of July!

 
I'm also excited to share with you what God did with the Women's Days here in Los Angeles: 521 sisters had 1,426 women in attendance, as well as a whopping 12 baptisms at the actual Women's Days! I am so grateful for my lovely wife Lianne, to Megan Matthews and to all the amazing sisters who worked so hard to make this Women's Day an incredible success! 

God is truly "doing a new thing" here in CR! (Isaiah 43:19) We just started 12 Week Sessions of CR in each of the 5 groups here in LA! Lord willing, we will have 40 graduates by July 31, 2018!

 
The congregation here in Los Angeles is working eagerly to raise missions to support our dear brothers and sisters who are planting and building churches around the world and here in the United States! By the grace of God as a church, we are at 59% of our goal! I want to especially commend the faith and hard work of the Central Region led by the inspirational Mike & Brittany Underhill, who have surpassed 100% of their missions goal a month early!

 
Two very creative projects to raise money for missions are Smokey Joe's Café led by Jay Causey, and the Reach Short Film Festival hosted by the AMS Region and inspired by Josiah & Kristin Smith!

 
Please pray for us as we are in step to blow out our Missions Goal by Sunday, May 20th!
 
Not only are we giving money for missions, but from the Ventura Region led by the hard-working Curtis & Morgan Valdez, we sent out one of our best, Alicia Winthein, to Hong Kong, China at the end of March! Interestingly, when you give to God, then God gives back even more, as the Spirit has blessed the Ventura Region recently with 3 Chinese campus baptisms – Craig, Adele, and Jetta! 

Another highlight in the month of March in the awesome Ventura Region was the baptism of Johnathan Franklin! Johnathon was reached out to in 2013 while he was playing football for UCLA where he broke 4 rushing records while playing there! He lost touch with the disciples, but went on to be drafted into the NFL by the Green Bay Packers! He played only 11 games when he had a career ending injury.

Through finding his identity due to career change, Johnathan reached out to Micheal Peterson in the Metro Heights Region. He soon studied the Bible in the Ventura Region due to living in Oxnard, California and came to the knowledge of the truth to become a disciple and get baptized! After baptism, Johnathan was so excited to make disciples that he asked the HR Department of the Los Angeles Rams – where is an Executive Spokesperson – to start a Bible Talk and they said "Yes!"

 
The City of Angels Church Family is very excited to host all of you in just 3 and-a-half months at the 2018 Global Leadership Conference – EMPOWERED!
 
EDITORIAL
Divorce And Remarriage In The Philippines
On Sunday, April 8th, at the Pacific Rim Missions Conference, I addressed the Filipino Brothers and Sisters on the issue of Divorce and Remarriage. The following is the transcription of my announcement of our historic decision:

Good morning family! I want to address an issue that for the most part we have been silent on for a few decades. I want to deal with divorce and remarriage. The Philippines at this time is the last of several Catholic nations where divorce is still illegal. Interestingly enough, the first so-called Catholic nation to strike down this law was Italy in 1974. The most recent one was Chile in 2004.
 
Now, it is important for us to understand a couple of definitions. First of all, divorce recognizes that a marriage existed but is now over. Annulment says there never was a marriage. In the Philippines, one can receive an annulment for congenital flaws or mental illness. Therefore, to receive an annulment, in gist, most people would be lying to say there was no marriage, and usually, the stated reason for the annulment is also a lie. As well, the cost can be up to $5,000 USD. Now some Filipinos go outside the Philippines and get a divorce. However, if you are a Filipino citizen and you return to the Philippines, the divorce is deemed illegal. Interestingly enough, the Philippines House of Representatives have been wrestling with this issue over the last few weeks. As a matter of fact, it passed a divorce bill fairly overwhelmingly. However, an article on March 5th stated that it will not pass the Philippines Senate. The Senate Minority Leader, Franklin Drilon, said emphatically "no" to divorce. However, he did add, "Perhaps we can reform our current laws on annulment to make it less tedious and less expensive to attain." But let me just remind you, an annulment takes a lie, and that means totally denying marriage vows that were made before God.
 
So, I have been very conflicted in my conscience. I have been uncomfortable in my conscience as I see the existing law that divorce is illegal to be something that stops people from coming into the Kingdom. If we really apply the Scriptures, and say a person quote, "Is no longer living with their first wife," but quote, "they have a second marriage," then we would have to say that you need to separate because that is immorality. Or we would have to look past it and condone what in actuality is immorality. If we demand a separation in keeping with the Scriptures, it could be a separation not only of husband and wife, but even children. Again, this is quite a conundrum. Therefore, what are we to do as God's holy church? Elena & I have prayed for the last several months and we met with the World Sector Leaders in Brazil at the end of January to consider this question, because we see it as blocking people from coming into the Kingdom of God, as well as making people liars that are in the Kingdom of God. We also had a meeting two days ago, where I met with John & Anna Malnegro, Richie & Elizabeth McDonnell, Tim & Lianne Kernan, John & Emma Causey, and Elena to once again discuss divorce, annulment and remarriage in the Philippines.

 
It is true that Romans 13 states that we must submit to governing authorities, and yet we must also remember Acts 5:29, where Peter and all the Apostles respond, "We must obey God, rather than men." In 1986, the Discipling Movement at that time out of Boston, made a decision, to not obey the laws of the land in South Africa. In South Africa at that time, apartheid – separation between blacks and whites – was the law of the land. We were even told by Mainline Churches of Christ to send a black mission team and a white mission team. I ardently said, "No!" We sent a racially mixed team of brothers and sisters (half-white and half-black) to Johannesburg, South Africa going against the law, because we must obey God rather than men! Even in the New Movement, about a year ago in Russia, they passed a law that said, "You are not allowed to share your faith. You can have any conviction you want, but you are not allowed to share your faith." In the Moscow Church the very next day, we preached that every disciple is commanded to preach the Word and to share their faith! We must obey God, rather than men! Are you with me here?
 
We need to understand that it is true in the book of Malachi that God hates divorce. Even beyond hate, it breaks His heart. And yet, there are two reasons that the Scriptures give for divorce in the New Testament. The first is by Jesus in Matthew 19:8-9, "Jesus replied, 'Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness and marries another woman, commits adultery.'" Jesus says the first reason for divorce is adultery. Now unbeknownst to some disciples, there is a second reason. This one is given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:14-15, "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife. And the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband, otherwise, your children would be unclean. But as it is, they are holy. But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so, a believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances. God has called us to live in peace." So, Jesus teaches quite clearly that adultery is a Biblical reason for divorce. Paul teaches that abandonment is a Biblical reason for divorce. Therefore, with the heart to see as many as possible coming into the Kingdom of God and with the heart to keep our fellowship pure of lying and deceit, going forward, the International Christian Churches in the Philippines will issue a Certificate of Divorce that will be retroactive to the date of the separation of said disciple. It will say on the certificate, that we are granting this divorce in the eyes of God, but it will also state, that in the Republic of the Philippines, it is not legally recognized.
 
Let me address a couple of issues. To be married in the Philippines there must be a Justice of the Peace or Certified Individual to conduct the wedding. We will still abide by the law of the land that Filipinos must be 21 years old in order to be married. Now we did have a situation come up last year where a young couple was married. One was 21 years old and the other was 20. Some have questioned the validity of this particular wedding. Now I want to speak to it. It did indeed break "Filipino law," but it was done in the eyes of God and witnessed by the church, so this couple is married. But in order to do what is right in the eyes of God and the eyes of man so far as we can, this coming week, that couple is getting their civil ceremony done. Amen? I also want to remind you of the mindset that we have in all of our churches around the world. The fact that there is a wedding done by a Justice of the Peace is in most nations. So recently, Elena & I were able to participate in a wedding of two individuals that we love very much and that is now Kolbe & Rebecca Gray. Now in England, the only marriage that is recognized is a Civil Wedding. So, Kolbe & Rebecca went to get married on a Wednesday in a Civil Ceremony. However, they were not married in this case by me, as their chosen presiding minister for their "church wedding" until Sunday. And if they would have touched each other in a sexual way, we would have looked down on that because we recognize that it is God and His church that sanctify the wedding of two disciples. Are you with me right here? Therefore, I do not think it to be unreasonable that the church, being the hands of God, once more says, "Now you are married." So, the church can also say, "Now you are divorced." And so, I pray that you will get your hearts behind this.
 
There may be some of you that can be helped. The church will absolutely recognize an annulment as being legal and there will be no further necessary things to be done. On the other hand, there may be some in the audience that have quote been, "married a second time, sort of, but not really." You need to come to either Richie McDonnell if you are here in Manila, or if you are in Cebu, please see John Malnegro. Talk to them and share about your situation. We will sit down with you and write for you a Certificate of Divorce going back to your separation from your previous spouse. Then of course we'll decide how to move forward in your case. Remember, our goal is for everybody to have a clear and good conscience. We don't want to make the lack of being able to attain a divorce a huge roadblock for people coming into the Kingdom. There are Biblical reasons for breaking up: adultery and abandonment. And once more, as God's church, we must obey the laws of the land, but when they are in contradiction to the Bible and the Bible does teach there are two reasons for divorce – adultery and abandonment – then we must obey God rather than man. Thank you very much.

 
Dearest SoldOut Movement Family,
EMPOWERED is the incredible theme of the 2018 Global Leadership Conference! Indeed, the Spirit working through God's great people will empower us to take the Gospel into all nations in this generation even when human laws defy God's Word! So with The Glory Song ringing in our ears, let us all continue to pray and fast to see "the world evangelized in our day!" And to God be all the glory!
We are family… by God's amazing grace,
Kip