Greetings from Los Angeles! The Summer of 2016 began on May 22nd with the City of Angels International Christian Church (CAICC) Send-off Service for the heroic Lagos Mission Team, as well as for the incredible Supplemental Mission Teams for Chicago, Hilo and New York City! Also, at the end of May was the daring Spying Out The Land Trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates! Therefore, our 2016 Global Leadership Conference (GLC) at the end of July is so appropriately entitled, REVOLUTION as all the main speeches come from the Book of Acts! From this study, we will learn that Jesus’ vision to take the gospel “to the ends of the earth” becomes a reality in the first century! It is thrilling now in the twenty-first century to once again see Jesus’ REVOLUTION being accomplished by His Spirit working through His SoldOut Movement! And to God be all the glory!
The Lagos Mission Team led by their fearless
leaders – Andrew & Patrique Smellie – were
sent out at the CAICC All Congregational
Park Service on May 22nd!
This historic service began with a thrilling
performance by an African Drum and
Dance Troupe honoring the sending
out of Lagos – the Tenth Crown
of Thorns Mission Team!
The singing was awe-inspiring with over 1,000
voices united in praise to God!
Andrew Smellie joyfully and in tears
preached his farewell sermon!
Also preaching was Cory Blackwell – the dynamic
leader of the Chicago Supplemental
Mission Team which was sent
out that same day!
On a very hot day, nine including Alfred of the East
Region were plunged into the refreshing
waters of baptism!
Luke Speckman and his precious daughter Landyn!
The New York City and Hilo Supplemental Mission
Teams led by the Speckmans and Garridos
(above) respectively were also sent out!
The Movement Shepherds – Tony Untalan and
Nick Bordieri (above) – prayed for the Spirit
to send out all four mission teams!
BREAKING NEWS
Andrew Smellie – Lead Evangelist of Lagos: “Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.” (Romans 16:5) Greetings from Nigeria! Since the arrival of our 11 member Mission Team just 10 days ago, the Lord has blessed us with our first Campus baptism – Tope Fadairo, a Business Administration major at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU)! The power of God’s new movement was made evident through this miracle, as Tope is the cousin of our dear brother Joseph Abiodun, a disciple in the London Church! Both Joseph and Tope grew up together in Nigeria and were immersed in the sinful lifestyle of immorality and alcoholism.
Iggy delivers a warm welcome at the Mission
Team’s second Sunday Service with
50 in attendance!
The Akinfenwas – a former Evangelist and Women’s
Ministry Leader Couple in the ICOC – powerfully
preside over communion!
Andrew is living the dream preaching the
Word in the heart of Africa!
After Joseph had moved to London and became a true disciple, he began to be discipled by Yomi Bello! Joseph’s mother in Nigeria heard about his radical repentance and wanted the same positive change for her nephew Tope. After Yomi arrived in Lagos from London to strengthen the Remnant Group; she challenged Tope to contact Yomi. In turn, Yomi invited Tope to the church and after studying with Yomi and the brothers on the Mission Team, Tope is now your brother!
The historic first baptism of Tope Fadairo of
OOU is recorded on camera!
Tope is raised to a new life!
The unity of God’s new movement continues to have a great impact, as a Nigerian named Akin attended a worship service in Washington DC and was moved to study the Bible and join God’s church in Lagos! Despite returning to Lagos from Washington DC on Saturday night – a five hour time difference – Akin drove over an hour in the morning from his home to join us for service today with his wife, two young children and sister-in-law! Truly, God is building a great church in Lagos by “strengthening those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)
The Lagos Campus Ministry is multiplying!
Please continue to pray for the Lagos International Christian Church as we presently have 25 ongoing studies! All of this with 19 disciples – 11 on the Mission Team from LA and 8 in the Remnant Group – had an attendance of 50 at our worship service today! Lastly, pray for our Second African Missions Conference! To attend this historic event, please register at www.amc.iccchurchevents.org. All of the conference will be held at the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, where you can make reservations for your accommodations! (www.fourpointslagos.com)
Pray for the Second African Missions Conference –
A GREAT LIGHT HAS DAWNED!
RD Baker – Dubai Mission Team Leader: Greetings! Our “Spying Out The Land Trip” to Dubai was amazingly fruitful in making the dream of planting a church a reality in this incredible city! Cory & Jee Blackwell – the Middle East World Sector Leaders, our sister Dao Henderson, and April & I traveled the 8,600 mile / 11 time zone journey to this important hub of the Persian / Arabian Gulf! At our Monday morning devo, Cory inspired us with a lesson from the Book of Joshua to be “strong and very courageous” – thus setting the spiritual tone for our trip’s goals!
Cory & Jee Blackwell (left), Dao Henderson and
RD & April Baker pray over the great
metropolis of Dubai…
…then set their feet on that spot
claiming it for the Lord!
Incredibly, God immediately blessed our efforts as Dao nailed her interviews that day and was offered a job teaching English to young children! (Our policy in both the old and new movements is for all missionaries to have secular jobs, making our stay in Muslim countries much more “under the radar.” When Dao shared that another of our mission team members, Anna Aviles, also was a certified teacher, her new employers immediately arranged for Anna to fly to Dubai for interviews this Friday for what looks like a certain job offer! Working together and able to share an apartment will be an ideal situation for our sisters! We are hoping to use this household to welcome our dear sister Gina Dela Pena of Manila as well!
Al Faroog Mosque in Dubai holds 2,000 worshipers!
Lord willing, June Picardo – a dear sister from the Chennai Church – arrives in Dubai on June 16th to join the work!
June Picardo with her son Aaron, who is also
a disciple in the Chennai Church!
When flying from Los Angeles to Dubai, it is usually
necessary to stop in Europe to catch a connection.
The Blackwells and the Bakers preached
in London and visited our sick sister
Prisca in Paris!
I had 13 interviews in just 4 1/2 days with various hotels and a real estate company! Several went very well. The most promising one was at a hotel chain where I met with the Director of Business Development for an hour; then had lunch with the GM for over two hours! He ended our time by saying, “You’re someone I want on my team!” He then invited April & me to come spend our last night in Dubai at this upscale hotel… which we gladly accepted!
Pray for RD to secure a job at one of Dubai’s hotels
such as the world famous Burj Al Arab Hotel!
Finally, God opened the doors with a great remnant couple living in Dubai that has been waiting for our team to arrive! Praveen & Angel Bisht began reading Kip’s Good News Emails many months ago and began hearing about the Dubai Mission Team. Praveen contacted me and we met for several hours on Tuesday night; then our wives joined us for an incredible meal and conversation the next night! The Bishts are excited to be part of the planting and will no doubt prove incredibly valuable in our efforts to transition there!
Excitingly, an awesome remnant couple living in
Dubai – Priveen & Angel Bisht (front) –
have decided to join the Dubai
Mission Team!
It is so faith-building to watch God work out all the details while encouraging the saints that this is the right time and the right place to build the pillar church for His movement in the Middle East!
Carlos Mejia – Lead Evangelist of Mexico City: Greetings from Quito, Ecuador and the newly formed Quito ICC Remnant Group! It has been an awesome time as the Lord continues to bring remnant groups from Latin America into the New Movement! For the past five months, we have been working with Romel Proaño & Gaby Mejia, an amazing married couple whom Hector & Adriana Gomez knew from their days of leading the church in Quito in the late 90’s. Gaby was baptized as a teen. She is the youngest of 10 siblings in a family where the majority of the members were once faithful disciples of Jesus. Sadly, after the demise of our former fellowship, all except Gaby fell away or drifted away. In time, Gaby & Romel themselves fell away for a couple of years, but were restored after attending church faithfully for over one year.
Ecuador is located on the northwest
coast of South America!
Romel & Gaby – the enthusiastic Quito
Remnant Group Leaders!
Last January, Gaby, who is very dear to Adriana, contacted her through Facebook and started seeing and hearing about the miracles that God was doing in the New Movement! She immediately shared with her husband Romel, who was also stirred in his heart to know more! Since that time, the Gómezes have faithfully been “in there” with the Proaños having weekly phone d-times.
Hector (left) had weekly D-Times with Romel where
they studied out the distinguishing core
convictions of the SoldOut Movement!
On Wednesday, May 25th, Hector, Lucy and I, took a missionary trip to Quito and studied the Bible face-to-face and counted the cost with the Proaños. It was so encouraging to meet this incredibly dynamic couple, as Romel is easily one of the most joyful disciples that I have ever met and Gaby, well, she is just a fired-up sister! After much time together of study, prayer, confession and many tears of joy and restored hope, they confirmed their decision to step out of the former ICOC Church where they attended and were family group leaders to join what they are convinced is God’s New Movement!
The Quito Remnant Group gives the hope of
salvation to the 3 million lost souls of this
grand capital city of Ecuador!
That Friday, in their home, they hosted their first Bible Talk! Hector and I were the guest speakers and many from the former fellowship came to hear a lesson and the good news about the newly formed Quito Remnant Group! On Sunday, we had the first service with an attendance of 25! Since then, six more have been added to their number as Hector Gomez graciously stayed behind for a few more days and continued to help Romel & Gaby, study and count the cost with these newly added members! Please pray for Romel & Gaby as they have bravely taken a stand against the lukewarm practices of our former fellowship and decided to be totally committed, sold-out disciples of Jesus! Pray also that they can be granted visas to attend the upcoming GLC and have their faith encouraged by God’s global movement!
Carlos Mejia preaches for the first
meeting of the Quito ICC!
While all of this was happening in Ecuador, the Spirit continued to move in Mexico City! Starting the year with exactly 50 Disciples, during these past five months God has added to our number 56 – 30 baptisms, 11 restorations and 15 place memberships most directly from our former fellowship seeking revival! We’ve had tremendous retention as we now have 101 sold-out disciples! “Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you!” (2 Thessalonians 3:1)
Abelardo & Elida Flores – the Mexico City
Shepherding Couple – working hard
but having fun!
Tim Kernan – Director of the 2016 Global Leadership Conference: Jesus’ radical vision for the first century church was for it to spread “to the ends of the earth” in the lifetime of the Apostles! Therefore, the stirring theme for the 2016 GLC is REVOLUTION! The date for this momentous occasion is Sunday, July 31st through Tuesday, August 2nd!
Over 2,000 attended the 2015 GLC!
On Friday, July 29th will be the exciting Church Builders Workshop and the inspirational International Campus Devotional! On Saturday will be CyberCon, The MERCYWORLDWIDE Summit, The International Teen Devo and the fun-filled Talent Show and PURE Dance! The 2016 GLC registration this year is $185. You may register and secure housing by going to the City of Angels International Christian Church Webpage at CAICC.net. Let’s be praying for Jesus’ REVOLUTION to extend “to the ends of the earth” in this generation!
Join the REVOLUTION and register
today for the 2016 GLC!
With a little less than two months till the opening session of the GLC, a total of 417 have registered – 238 from the USA Churches, 42 from our International Churches, and 137 from LA! Our financial break even goal is 1,600 registrations! Pray for us to smash this godly objective!
Nick Bordieri – World Sector Leader of MERCY: “The worship that God wants is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence. This is the kind of worship that God accepts as pure and good.” (James 1:27 ERV) The Seventh Annual International Day of MERCY is quickly approaching on June 18th, preceded by our Day of Prayer and Fasting by the entire movement on Friday, June 17th!
Mark your calendar as the Day of MERCY
is this coming June 18th!
Projects will be held in all our branches (churches) around the globe, which include projects with orphans in Phoenix, Sao Paulo and Manila! MERCY London and Moscow plan to work with children hospitals, while NYC will hold multiple projects, as will Los Angeles including a partnership for Fire Prevention with the Red Cross and a Human Trafficking Community Awareness Day! Mark your calendars and let’s plan on making this year’s International Day of MERCY the most impactful to date!
All around the globe, SoldOut Movement Disciples –
each of whom is a MERCY Ambassador – are
fired-up about the Day of MERCY!
Maika Carbonell – World Sector Administrator for the Pac Rim: “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) Mabuhay from Metro Manila! The past few weeks have been exciting for the church, as we really feel the Holy Spirit shaking things up! A few weeks ago, the church gave a lovely presentation celebrating the anniversary of the Mission Team’s arrival from LA! Little did we know, however, that this would also conclude the stay of RJ Castro, one of the beloved missionaries! Just last week, he was blown back by the Holy Spirit to Los Angeles to lead the San Bernardino Sector of the IE Region!
RJ Castro and Krystal Legarda are the new
San Bernardino Sector Leaders!
As the leader of Warrior Nation, the most fruitful ministry in Manila this year, it was difficult for each of us to send RJ off. However, he made sure to leave Manila with the best gift – future leaders in God’s movement! Last year, he baptized Lee, his half-brother that he had just met! Lee, a civil engineer, became part of the Singles Ministry led by Jason Alejandro and Gina Dela Pena. It is very apparent to anyone that RJ and Lee are different in upbringing, personality and experiences… But when it comes to their faith and convictions, there’s no denying that RJ and Lee are true physical and spiritual brothers! Lee has now become a Bible Talk Leader and baptized an awesome brother named Relly last week!
Two mighty men of God – RJ (left)
and his brother Lee!
Lee – a new Bible Talk Leader – baptized
another awesome brother named
Relly last week!
Gina Dela Pena, the leader of the Single Women’s Ministry, has also been called by the Holy Spirit to be part of the Dubai Mission Team! Gina is very dear to the Manila Church, as it was her bold stand for God that led to the start of the Manila Remnant Group with the McKeans’ first visit in 2012! Because of her vision for God’s true church, God has grown the MMICC to over 170 disciples! As we send her off in August, we know that her faith will allow God to use her to do greater things in the Middle East!
A Women’s Ministry Leader – in both the old and
new movements, Gina dela Pena formed a
“one woman remnant group” in
Manila in 2012!
So praise God that since our Inaugural Service on June 7, 2015, God has blessed us with 166 additions – 132 baptisms, 25 restorations and 9 place memberships directly from our former fellowship!
Elena embracing the original Manila Interns –
Johnny, Rose, RJ, Ariel and Zach!
In their first year, God blessed the Manila Mission
Team with 166 additions – 132 baptisms, 25
restorations and 9 place memberships
from our former fellowship that
were seeking revival!
Please keep praying for the Manila Church, as our Austral Pacific Rim Conference entitled HEROES OF THE FAITH is coming up this June 16-19! To register, please visit http://heroesofthefaith.eventbrite.com!
A long-awaited dream for the Manila Disciples is to
host the First Austral Pacific Rim Missions
Conference on June 16-19, 2016!
Joe Willis – Evangelist for the Sydney Church: This past weekend was definitely one to remember as we welcomed Michael, Michele, Michael Adrian and Mia Williamson of London to Australia! It was a homecoming of sorts for Michele as she spent most of her youth being raised in Perth! Later she modeled in Sydney! Michele was able to see several family members during this visit!
The Williamson Family receives a warm SoldOut
Movement Welcome from the remarkable
Sydney Disciples!
We began this glorious weekend by having our Annual Women’s Day entitled, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS! This was an incredibly memorable time as our 21 Women Christians had 53 in attendance! We were privileged to experience three amazing and diverse testimonies, an inspiring performance, and our guest speaker, Michele Williamson, shared powerfully about her pursuit to find true happiness, which only came when she came into God’s Kingdom!
The phenomenal Sydney Women’s Day!
The phenomenal speakers for the
Sydney Women’s Day!
Following an incredibly successful Women’s Day, this past Sunday we decided the men needed “a time to shine” as well, so we held a “Men’s Day” with the theme, MAN VS. FOOD! We were so grateful to have the Williamson Family come visit the church here in Sydney, and not only hear Michele share for Women’s Day, but for communion as well, followed by a powerful and convicting sermon preached by Michael entitled, Taste And See That The Lord Is Good! This remarkable sermon not only touched the hearts of everyone, but prepared everyone for the Chili Cook-Off at the end of the service as well! 30 visitors and 38 disciples stuck around for amazing fellowship and a wide array of unique chili dishes, each one incorporating the diversity of nations in our international church! We can’t wait to see all God is going to do after this successful weekend!
Michael preaches Taste And See That
The Lord Is Good!
Michael enjoys all of the international chilis
at the Cook-Off!
Anthony Eckels – Lead Evangelist of Houston: We were blessed this past Sunday to have our Tampa Bay Mission Team Send-off Service! Together with Matt & Helen Sullivan, World Sector Leaders for the Eastern United States, I preached my farewell sermon to the Houston ICC! We had 74 in attendance, which is our highest on a non-push Sunday! With many tears, a few good laughs, and some encouragement to continue the mission God has placed on our hearts, we said our farewells and are headed to Tampa!
The future Tampa Bay ICC Leaders and the planters
of the Houston Church – Anthony &
Elizabeth Eckels!
We are excited to see all that OJ & Jalisa Nduka of Orlando will do in leading our dearly loved Houston Family, as we continue to advance the Kingdom in Florida!
The new leaders of the Houston Church Family –
OJ & Jalisa Nduka – at the Latin American
Conference in Mexico earlier this year!
Pray for us as we will be joined in Tampa by some awesome disciples from the Eastern United States Sector including two from Orlando, one from DC, and two from Gainesville! A very special thank you to the Sullivans, the McDonnells and the Pattersons respectively for sending these awesome workers to help build the Tampa Bay ICC!
Jeremy Ciaramella – Lead Evangelist of Phoenix: Greetings from the Valley of “the Son!” We are very grateful to God for our newest brother in the Singles Fellowship, Larry Henderson! He was a long-time friend of our Chandler/Gilbert House Church Leader Alphonso Davis! Once Larry came out to church, he loved the fellowship, loved the Biblical teaching, and humbled himself to the Word of God and was quickly baptized! Larry is a tremendous servant of the church and he demonstrated this at our car wash manning the donation collection station in the sun the whole time. He also has a great heart for the lost in his neighborhood as he’s planning on door-knocking this week! What makes this so encouraging is that Larry is in his late 60’s and walks with a cane!
Larry (second from the left) with Doug, Alphonso
and Jeremy – the brothers who were used
by God to help Larry become a
true disciple of Jesus!
Truly “your old men will dream dreams!” (Acts 2:17) Thanks to our Father in Heaven for such an amazing addition to our family in Phoenix!
Chenelle Patterson – Women’s Ministry Leader of Boston: The winds of change have been blowing here in the Northeastern portion of the United States! As difficult as it was to tear ourselves away from our Gainesville Family, Mike & I are elated for the opportunity to lead the charge here in the mighty city of Boston! This city is not only beautiful, not only filled with historical landmarks on every corner, but is also home to some of the most elite universities in the entire world – Harvard and MIT!
Coltin leads We Love You With The Love Of The
Lord to welcome the Pattersons and the
Supplemental Mission Team to Boston!
Since the moment we left Gainesville, Florida with our Supplemental Mission Team, we have been so loved and provided for by our movement of churches. Thank you to the Hamiltons and the Charlotte, North Carolina Remnant Group that housed us and our disciples, as well as the McDonnells and the Campus Ministry in Washington DC for taking the time to show us around our nation’s Capital. Since our arrival in Boston, we have been showered with continual love and support from this incredible congregation! Thank you so much to Coltin & Mandee Rohn for building such an amazing family here in Boston!
The very effective Campus Ministry Couple and
the new Lead Evangelist & Women’s Ministry
Leader for the Boston Church – Mike
& Chenelle Patterson!
Though we’ve only been here for one week, it’s been action-packed! This Sunday with so many visiting from around the movement, my husband preached an “all-world” sermon on GLOBAL IMPACT that brought down the house! To top it all off we closed out our Send-off Service with the baptism of a young man into the Singles Ministry, who was reached out to by Mark & April Shanks, Mandee’s parents who were recently baptized and are also being sent out as missionaries to Orange County! So much good news to share, but continue to pray for us as we ignite a New England Spiritual Revolution!
In 1775, Paul Revere set out from the Old
North Church announcing the onset of
the American Revolution! In 2016, Mike
Patterson is being carried by the Spirit
preaching Spiritual Revolution
on the Boston campuses!
Jay Shelbrack – Interim Leader of the New York City Church: “My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your savings acts all day long – though I know not how to relate to them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone!” (Psalm 71:15-16) “Mighty acts [of our] Sovereign Lord” have happened this past month in the great metropolis of New York City (NYC)! After an encouraging visit from the McKeans and the Speckmans in mid-April, the church was inspired to take our walk higher! The McKeans challenged the church to imitate the faith of our sister church in Mexico City and to go after 10 additions a month! The church courageously accepted this charge with great faith and joy! We are pleased to announce that for the month of May there have been 7 additions – 2 baptisms, 3 place memberships and 2 restorations with many more baptisms on the brink! Also today, we had our first place membership from the 10 member LA Supplemental Team led by Luke & Brandyn Speckman, as Kiana Lindsey joined us and then another brother (Michael) was added through baptism!
Myron sharing with deep conviction
during his restoration!
Of special note was our 23X Missions Contribution: With a church goal of $160,000, the disciples rallied together and turned in a whopping $197,700 and God keeps more money pouring in! It has been marvelous to see the hearts of the disciples and the collective effort to blow it out! Two weeks before missions, Nick Enfantino and Tracy Shelbrack planned an 11 Mile Walk-A-Thon spanning across the borough of Manhattan where disciples asked peers, co-workers and strangers for donation to support their walk. Our sisters Jody Boothe, Julie Stevenson and Tyler Hudson raised money from their corporations along with our brother Jonathan Pedican! Jody in particular was so fired-up to hear about the Walk-A-Thon that she immediately set up a bucket at work with a sign (and with prayers and much faith) and raised $1,020! Two non-Christians also supported the run in a special way by not only running with us, but also by joining us in fundraising! Julie’s dad was one of the visitors that fundraised and he brought in $300! The Walk-A-Thon raised $5,547 for the Missions Contribution!
The Interim Church Leaders – Jay & Barb Shelbrack –
have led the NYC Church to unprecedented
heights even before the LA Supplemental
Mission Team arrives in late June!
It has been amazing to see God working here in NYC! Please be praying for us as we excitedly await the arrival of the Speckmans and the Team from LA at the end of the month!
HEADLINE NEWS: The Singles Ministry
Jose Otero – Lead Evangelist of Bogotá: “‘At that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.’” (Jeremiah 31:1) Greetings from the Iglesia Cristiana Internacional de Bogotá! It is always exciting and encouraging when the Lord restores families to Him as well as to each other! Today our sister Esperanza Méndez – who was restored from our former fellowship during the Latin American Missions Conference in Mexico – was overjoyed to see her daughter Diana restored to the Kingdom! Diana Muñoz is the middle child of three daughters who was a disciple for eight years before falling away!
Esperanza Mendez (left) restores her dear daughter
Diana (center) to the Lord!
So to date our Singles Ministry has doubled from 6 to 12 since we arrived! Therefore, God has increased our numbers from 5 on the Mission Team from Mexico City and 26 in the Remnant Group to 43 sold-out disciples in less than two months! God is truly “the God of all families!” And to Him be all glory! Amen!
Tia Turner – Woman Leader of Gainesville: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” (Luke 10:2) Marcel & I are so honored to have the opportunity to serve such a sacrificial church! In just over two weeks, the Gainesville ICC has sent out 11 disciples both here in the USA and overseas – with seven of them being the fruit from the mighty Singles Ministry! Andre Carrero, Mara Eagan, Joe Mack, Skyla Eastman and Amelia Gomez were sent to Boston with some of our best friends in the faith, Mike & Chenelle Patterson! In the fall, Christina – a recent UF graduate who received a full ride to Harvard – will be joining the team!
Marcel & Tia Turner are loving being the newly
appointed Gainesville Church Leaders!
Paula Harpole and Cherlyne Cherenfant were sent to Orlando, Attalee Dixon to Lagos, and just today we were able to witness the send-off of our very own Kerryann Kanch and Alexis Quintero to Tampa! The tears shed for these two women were a testament to the impact they’ve had here in Gainesville, and we look forward to hearing about the miracles God performs through them in our sister city in Florida – Tampa!
Kerryann (left) and Alexis are joyfully
obeying the Spirit’s call for them
to preach the Word in Tampa!
Even with so many send-outs, God has been moving here in “the Swamp!” We’ve met with almost every Bible Talk in the church to inspire them to be close to God and dream for His Kingdom! The Singles Ministry has been particularly exciting, as we have created a new identity: Soul Purpose Singles Ministry, with the “soul” purpose of bringing many to God! Lastly, please pray for us to have our first addition into the Singles Ministry this Sunday as Chris Yates, our former brother drove cross country from California to Gainesville to get restored! Since Marcel’s restoration a couple years ago, Chris had followed his life through Facebook. Seeing the miraculous changes God made in Marcel’s life, he decided it was time to let nothing stop him from getting right with God again! Despite his truck breaking down in the middle of West Texas, his tires failing, and many other roadblocks of Satan, he finally made it to our place safely tonight and will start restoration studies tomorrow! To God be the glory!
Erin Fruithoff – Intern in Las Vegas: Greetings! Sunday we had an incredible service with the welcome done by our brother Anthony Jacobs, a former Minnesota Viking (NFL) player and an incredible member of our very dynamic Singles Ministry! The Las Vegas Singles Ministry is 51% of the membership of the church! A special conversion in Las Vegas from our Singles Ministry is our sister Jaleesa! Invited by Anthony, she was a flight attendant searching for the truth about God.
Anthony, a former Minnesota Viking (NFL player),
reached out to our now sister Jaleesa!
After a month of attending Bible Talks and Sunday services she decided it was time to study the Bible! Since she was a flight attendant she was able to visit multiple churches on her layovers to her next shift. Studying in Dallas, as well as building relationships with disciples in Houston and San Francisco, she fell in love with the Kingdom and knew God had answered her prayers, putting a church at every layover she had! After studying the Bible back in Las Vegas for two straight weeks, she was baptized into Christ and has been an incredible addition to our Singles Ministry! Now – because flying is free for her – she is getting ready to attend the 2016 AFRICAN MISSIONS CONFERENCE because for Jaleesa, A GREAT LIGHT HAS DAWNED!
Though just recently baptized, Jaleesa will be flying
free to participate in the African
Missions Conference!
Raul Moreno – Lead Evangelist for São Paulo: “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits!” (Psalm 103:1-2) Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil! Here, we are not “[forgetting] the Lord’s benefits” as the Spirit has blessed the church in the month of May with 10 baptisms and 1 restoration! About the baptisms, one of our young fired-up USP Campus Students Gaby, just baptized her younger brother Henrique who studies Administration at UNIFESP!
Gabi is so fired-up about her younger
brother Henrique’s baptism!
Two of the other baptisms were an incredible unmarried (Singles) couple named Athaide & Cibele! As part of their repentance, they broke up at the beginning of the month to become disciples! Then this last Friday, Athaide asked Cibele to become his girlfriend… Cibele gracefully said yes! Now, they are in a totally pure relationship for God’s glory! We have a lot of faith and vision for this amazing and talented couple to make a huge impact here in São Paulo! We love you with the love of the Lord!
God gives Athaide & Cibele the desires of
their hearts as they are once again
a dating couple!
Arni Sicam – Amsterdam Mission Team Leader training in London: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Psalm 126:1-3) Greetings from the London International Christian Church! Friday afternoon, 58 very excited Singles travelled by bus, car, scooter and train to the Downe Scout Activity Centre for our 2016 Annual Singles Retreat entitled, DARE TO DREAM! Incredibly, the Singles Ministry has grown so much over the last year that we needed to rent twice as many cabins as we had last year! And most everyone was registered before our incredible 15X Missions Contribution two weeks ago! In fact, the London Disciples exceeded our goal by giving an extra £5,000! ($8,000 USD Dollars!)
For the SoldOut Movement, London – the
“Jerusalem” for all of Europe – is
shining ever so bright!
I was honored to kick-off the retreat on Friday night, with a message entitled, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE! The Saturday Morning Session was blow away! Of special note was the joint message of Brandon Davis (our newest intern) and Dr. Jen Watkins when they spoke on the need for an OUTBREAK OF EVANGELISM! These messages hit the hearts of everyone in attendance and among the responses were some who felt the retreat was like a conference because of the quality of the preaching!!!
Arni delivered the Friday night message IT’S A
WONDERFUL LIFE while overseeing
the entire Singles Retreat!
Stephanie Okpala and other disciples dare
the “Leap of Faith!”
Other disciples try to climb “Jacob’s Ladder!”
After a restaurant-quality dinner, everyone gathered around the campfire to hear Anthony “Instant Impact” Olmos preach on, THE RIGHT STUFF, sharing many accounts of when he was a Single Professional Disciple in LA!
Anthony Olmos brings the spiritual fire
at the Singles Devotional!
Sunday morning, we had a church service of 58 (48 disciples and 10 guests) where we heard the keynote message, DARE TO DREAM! We also prayed for the sending-out of the new Birmingham House Church – comprised of sold-out Singles! One of their members, Annadoyin Adebayo, is the first to move, leaving that same night to start a new job with an online marketing company on Monday morning! The other members, Sean “the Baptist” Hurditt and his girlfriend, Mary Jane (MJ) Amaegbe, Christine Alamu and Lynette Kebirungi, will leave, God willing, in July to start work in Birmingham, the second-largest city in England!
The distance from London to Birmingham
is only 101 miles (163 KM)!
One of the highlights for me was to hear Lynette, a member of the new Birmingham House Church, share her testimony for communion! She is a recent graduate of the prestigious Imperial College (ranked eighth in the World University Rankings, ahead of any other London University)! She has a Master’s in Aeronautical Engineering – the second woman from Uganda to ever receive that degree! While searching for jobs after graduation, she came up against the challenge of the end of her student visa. Knowing that we do not yet have a church in Uganda, she made the decision to put the Kingdom first and stay in London! God blessed her decision first by moving her father’s heart to pay for a visa extension for her to stay in London and later by giving to her a “dream job” at Rolls Royce Company, which she will start in September!
At Royal Albert Hall, Lynette graduates from
the prestigious Imperial College!
Please be praying for the fruit that will come from this retreat! In the words of one of our guests, who came all the way from Oxford, “This retreat was just what I needed and came at just the right time!”
Mike Underhill – the new LA Central Region Leader: Greetings from a bright yellow moving truck heading from Chicago to Los Angeles! It’s been such an honor to serve the Chicago Church as their Evangelist! Today’s hand-off to the Blackwells has to be described as “epic!” Cory & Jeraldine bring so many incredible qualities to Chicago that it’s clear God has destined for them and their amazing 14 member Supplemental Mission Team – 12 of them hailing from LA’s Southland Region – to take the church to new heights!
Cory is joined by Keywante, Abraham and Miguel for
the Supplemental Mission Team’s first
Sunday in Chicago!
Chicago’s Bread of Life Bible Talk is “ready to roll”
under the new leadership of Cory
& Jee Blackwell!
The icing on the cake is the powerful shepherding duo of Roger & Kama Parlour of Boston and Pat & Pam Boea who both helped to plant and to build the Chicago Church and now have returned as steely prayer warriors! It’s truly awesome what God is doing!
Cory welcomes the esteemed Roger & Kama
Parlour back to Chicago as one of their
Shepherding Couples!
The beloved Pat & Pam Boea have moved to
Chicago to serve as the “Dynamic Duo”
alongside Roger & Kama as the
other Shepherding Couple!
As Brittany & I drive into the sunset in Iowa, we are thrilled to serve our dear family in the Central Region and are greatly honored to be named the LA Campus Ministry Leaders!
Mike & Brittany Underhill and their Supplemental
Mission Team are traveling from Chicago to
serve in LA’s Central Region as this
GNE is being published!
Tyler Sears – Lead Evangelist of Dallas-Ft. Worth: Greetings and “Howdy Y’all” from DFW! The last few weeks have been so exciting with an amazing wedding, as well as the baptism of Sean in our Singles Ministry! I know we’re so grateful and proud of Job & Erin Sterling’s Bible Talk as they persevered almost a year to study with Sean until he was ready! What makes his story so incredible is that he is the last of three brothers who were baptized into Christ! Now Darian, Jon and Sean are brothers by blood and in Christ!
The Three Spiritual Musketeers: Darian (left) was
baptized first, then Jon (right) and now Sean!
Jason Dimitry – Lead Evangelist of San Francisco: Greetings from the saints in the beautiful Bay Area! The Lord has been moving powerfully since our last report! I’m so inspired by the San Francisco Disciples hearts to evangelize not just the Bay, but the entire world in this generation! They showed their sold-out commitment by blowing out our Special Missions Goal by 120%!
Kwaku Sarkodie and all the San Fran Disciples
are fired up that they pleased the Lord
by “blowing out Special Missions!”
On top of that in May, we saw our fledgling Teen Ministry go from one to three! Also, in our South Bay Region, even though it is made up of mostly campus disciples, God led to us an incredibly humble and loving mature Single named Serge who was baptized!
“Your young men see visions – Eleam, your old men
will dream dreams – Serge!” (Acts 2:17)
Pray for us as we are fighting to win the race for one hundred additions for our fourth year as a congregation! Can’t wait to see you all at the GLC!
Maria Franklin – Women’s Ministry Leader of Syracuse: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) God has refreshed the hearts of the saints with two amazing brothers added in the last two weeks! On May 28th, early Saturday morning at Jamesville Beach, Mike was baptized into Christ! Mike had been visiting church after our dear sister Sybell invited him out almost a year ago! As a Single Professional, his job requires him to work with those suffering from intellectual disabilities. Mike has always had an incredible heart for the poor. Many times he would bring them to Bible Talk so they too could hear the Word of God. Like Cornelius, God heard his prayer and “remembered his gifts to the poor.” (Acts 10:31) He could not get enough of the fellowship, but had a hard time giving up everything. After many months, Mike decided to make the biggest decision of his life and surrendered all!
Mike solemnly enters the waters of baptism!
On Wednesday, June 1st, Jaquar another Single Professional washed his sins away! Jaquar is our dear brother Roy Sander’s best friend! After coming back from college, Jaquar saw Roy’s faith-filled baptism posts on Facebook. Time after time, Roy would invite him to come to church to “taste and see that the Lord is good!” but he would make excuses. (Psalm 34:8) After nearly giving up, Jaquar eventually called Roy and asked him if he could come to church with him! Throughout the Bible studies, Jaquar was excited and humbled to be taught the Scriptures! At his counting the cost study, he said “Despite going to church all my life, I have never grown as fast as I am growing in this church!” Please welcome these two incredible brothers into the Kingdom!
Jaquar (center) issues the “ancient” IE Challenge,
“You will be next!”
Alfredo Anuch – Lead Evangelist of Santiago: Greetings from Chile! This Sunday, my amazing wife & I celebrated our first year as church leaders of our beautiful country! In this first year, God has encouraged us with 76 additions – 56 baptisms, 14 restorations and 6 placed memberships in our now 145 member church! Our goal by the end of the year is to be 200 fired up, sold-out disciples!
Alfredo & Alejandra Anuch have done an
outstanding job leading the Santiago
Church while raising three
awesome children – Julieta,
Alfredo Jr. and Benjamin!
The Singles Ministry has been the fastest growing group here in Santiago! God has grown the group over the last 12 months from 37 to 63 disciples! So far in the first five months of 2016, God has blessed the Singles Ministry with 16 additions – 14 baptisms and 2 restorations!
One of the Singles’ baptisms was Nicolas, a young journalist! Despite having to leave the city or country every week because of his job, Nicolas has placed his whole heart to search for God and so be able to say in front of the church: “Jesus is my Lord and Savior!”
Nicolás is baptized by Roberto (left),
Juan and Jorge!
Another ministry that has given glory to God has been the Campus Ministry! One of the first things that Kip and Raúl asked us a year ago, was to build this very important ministry here in Santiago! During this first year, God has multiplied the group from 12 to 25 disciples! Right now, 27 students are studying the Bible, so we hope in God that the harvest will come very soon!
Enrique, a medical student, was made into a
sold-out disciple by Alfredo (left)
and Daniel!
To God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” to Him be all the glory!
Keri Garrido of Hilo: Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii! It has been a great couple weeks here on the Big Island since Mark & I have transitioned from the Central Region of LA to now leading the Hilo Church! For those that are unfamiliar with the largest island of the Hawaiian Island chain, on the “Big Island,” Hilo is on the eastern side of the Island and Kona is about two hours away on the western side. On Friday, we had the pleasure of seeing a young 17 year old man Logan Dobbins make Jesus Lord of his life in the beautiful Kona side where we have a dynamic house church! It was very special to me as he is from my home state of Arizona!
Logan (second from the right) is the fruit
of the Kona House Church!
As well this past month, it has been very exciting as we saw Tessa & LeRoy break off there worldly relationship and put God first and become our brother and sister in the gospel! Here is a little story about them. Tessa – from Chuuk/Palau Island – attended her first meeting of the body at Women’s Day! She loved it and came to every meeting of the body since then! She was dating Leroy during the time that she was studying the Bible. When she realized that she needed to break up with him to be right with God, she did so right away! He supported her and even came to church the next Sunday! She was baptized and became our sister and had eight friends and family at her baptism!
Tessa (second from the left) put her relationship
with Leroy on the line to become a
sold-out disciple!
Leroy loved church as well and he too began studying the Bible and was baptized just a week after her! He is from the Island of Ponpei!
Only one week after seeing the godly example of
Tessa, Leroy too becomes a baptized disciple!
It is awesome now to have disciples that are from other islands in the Pacific Rim that do not yet have churches! Indeed the Scripture is once again becoming true, “In His law the Islands will put their hope!” (Isaiah 42:4)
Debs Rajan of Chennai: Greetings from Kollywood! (The Tamil version of Hollywood!) “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) Persecution is simply part of every Christian’s life in India! We have 58 Singles out of 158 members in our amazing congregation! In the month of May, excitingly we had 12 baptisms!
Salka (above) and Vivek were just two of the
12 disciples baptized in May by the
fiery Chennai Church!
Of special note, Vidhya a Post Graduate in Management was met by Maria Selvi last year! Vidhya, who comes from a total Hindu background, was going through depression. In her mind, she was not successful in her life and career that whole year. Vidhya contacted Maria and expressed her desire to know about this person Jesus Christ. She came to church, loved the fellowship and started studying the Bible! While counting the cost to be a disciple, she had to inform her family that she was going to become a true follower of Christ. She was intensely persecuted, beaten and thrown out of the house. She had no money, no clothes, no job and only after two days did her family take her back in. Her family members were still unwilling to talk to her. God’s love and the encouragement and prayers of the disciples motivated her to hold on to the truth, and Vidhya was finally baptized into Christ!
Maria and Debzy give a thumbs up to Vidhya (center)
for persevering to be baptized!
Now she works as a Human Resources Executive and is a great example to many other Singles to persevere in the Lord! To God be all glory!
FAMILY NEWS
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: This month in Kinshasa, God has provided children to two awesome couples in the Kingdom. First to Robert & Mamie Kanga, fired-up disciples from the old movement! Mamie went eight long years without bearing children. They both believe God heard their prayer – like Hannah – and God gave to them little baby Juvenal!
Mamie – like Hannah – was blessed with a child
after years of being barren!
God also blessed John & Dedane Bantu! In 2014, they had lost their last child who was six years old. This time, when she conceived, Dedane was tempted to be extra fearful as it seemed every woman around her lost their child either before or after giving birth. On the delivery day, the doctor noticed that her child was wrongly positioned in the womb. Dedane very tired, started praying to God while her husband was calling the ambulance for her to be transferred to another hospital. As soon as she had finished praying, she realized the child already had his head out! She delivered without having to be transferred to another hospital and everyone praised God for a very healthy child named Yan – which is the same name as the one they had previously lost!
Baby Yan is honored by bearing
his brother’s name!
The church was reminded of Micah 7:7, “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me!” Our gracious God had surely heard Dedane’s call!
Las Vegas: The engagement of Mo Sargent & Jenny Macias has inspired the entire Las Vegas Church!
Congratulations to Mo & Jenny!
In Transit: The Central Region Supplemental Mission Team on the road from Chicago to LA celebrated a newly engaged couple: Velmont Lewis & Ashley Robinson!
Let’s welcome Velmont & Ashley to LA!
In Transit: Congratulations to our newlyweds Mahleek & Corinne Grant who are on the OC Region Supplemental Mission Team from Boston!
Mahleek has found a wife of “noble character”
in Corinne! (Proverbs 31:10)
Dallas-Ft. Worth: We were able to witness two becoming one with the wedding of Hugo & Paulina Melendez! Hugo was one of the valiant disciples on the original DFW Mission Team!
Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Hugo &
Paulina Melendez!
New York City: We are very excited to have two recent additions to the New York Church! The first is the newborn son of Chip & Ashlee Moody – John-Marc Charles born on March 10, 2016 7:53pm weighing 9lbs 6oz!
Big sister Natalya welcomes little brother
John-Marc Charles to the
Moody Family!
The second addition is the son of Victor & Marlyn Montano – Issac Uriahwho was born May 9, 2016 weighing 8lbs 5oz and 22 inches in length!
Congratulations to the Montanoes!
LOCAL LA NEWS
Tim Kernan – Lead Evangelist of LA: Greetings from beautiful, sunny California! In the City of Angels International Christian Church (CAICC), we have 253 awesome Single Disciples, which is closing in on 30% of the church! We are tremendously excited about the new leadership for CAICC Singles Ministry – Princeton & Joy George, who are our AMS Region Leaders as well! We have seen an obvious revitalization in this ministry with powerful monthly devotionals that are topic and speaker driven! The first devotional of the year was centered in on dating! It was entitled THE FIVE PILLARS OF KINGDOM DATING, which was preached by the Feumbas, Parlours, Challinors, Hardings and Tabizons!
The LA Singles Ministry has been revitalized
through monthly devotionals that are
topic and speaker driven!
The second was entitled LIFE TO THE FULL, and was on career development. Chris Bryant of the Southland Region eloquently preached and taught on this important topic!
Chris Bryant was tremendous as he
addressed career development!
And this past month, the Singles Ministry held a THRIFT STORE FASHION SHOW, where all the disciples walked a “cat walk” showing off their $25-or-under outfits!
The Thrift Store Fashion Show Devo inspired
disciples to not only dress in a trendy
manner, but modestly as well!
The next Singles Devotional is going to be this Saturday, June 11th, and will be called the FITNESS, HEALTH AND WELLNESS DEVOTIONAL! Without a doubt the Georges are very creative in selecting and in overseeing these much needed devotionals that the Spirit will use to grow our amazing Single Disciples!
Remembering the words of Paul to
a sickly Timothy, “Physical
training is of some value!”
(1 Timothy 4:8)
On another note, we are so excited as we come to the end of our “Khyber Pass Plan” to powerfully advance the Kingdom by moving disciples both in and out of LA! Some have asked me about the name of this effort. My dear brother Michael Kirchner wrote the following, “This project is called Operation Khyber Pass in reference to the mountain pass that connects Afghanistan and the rest of South Asia. It was an integral part of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road and is one of the oldest known passes in the world. Conquerors with global aspirations such as Darius I, Alexander the Great and Genghis Kahn have moved huge armies through the Khyber Pass which is the connection between East and West. This ‘gateway’ has become synonymous with major logistical undertakings and the movement of forces and supplies to accomplish great conquests. We must initiate this critical movement of God’s army, in order to put the right leaders in the right places at the right time. We undertake this bold project with much prayer and precision and accuracy in order to advance the gospel worldwide in this generation.”
In Kyhber Pass, the newest Super Region Leaders
are the Challinors (center) – who will be assisted
in overseeing the CAICC Teen Ministry
by Caleb Cohen & Lizbeth Flores!
The battle-tested Preston & Shauna Inkley
are returning to the AV Region as their
new Region Leaders!
This past Sunday, Lianne & I had the honor of sending-off Adam Zepeda and Rebecca Rico from the marvelous IE Region! What a spectacular job these two powerful (Single) Region Leaders have done! They have built a joyful, fruitful and noble region, which is now a fountain of leadership and inspiration for the whole church! The Sao Paulo Church and London Church will be truly blessed to receive this Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader respectively! It was a joy to see Adam and Rebecca hand-off the Region to Jared & Rachel McGee, who felt such an honor to lead this astounding region!
The new Lead Evangelist for the City of Angels
Church – Tim Kernan – highly commends
Adam Zepeda for his extraordinary
church building in the IE Region
as he is sent to Sao Paulo!
Lord willing, Kolbe Gray & Rebecca Rico – a very
gifted and hard-working couple – will be heading
for London shortly after the GLC!
Our newest dating couple – Alfredo Lopez & Karen
Maciel – are sent by the Spirit to lead the UCLA
Ministry in the West Region!
Jared, Rachel and little Priscilla feel extremely
honored to be asked to serve as the leaders
of the exceptional IE Region!
This Tuesday, Luke Speckman preaches his last lesson to the LA Staff which (I’m sure) will be a “major tear jerker” for everyone! We are so sad to see them go but so happy for the New York disciples and the movement as a whole! Finally we can’t wait to have the Rohns of Boston and the Underhills of Chicago come into town to complete all the moves!
The Rohns (right) of Boston prepare to step into the
Speckmans’ shoes in leading the
Orange County Region!
The OC Supplemental Mission Team: Coltin, Mandee
and Hailee Rohn (center) and from left to right –
Nancy, Mahleek & Corinne, April & Mark
Shanks holding Trina Rohn,
and Gianni!
Transition can be a tough time yet the mighty Southland Region has demonstrated it can also be a fruitful time! Most are unaware that almost all of the Chicago and Dubai Mission Teams come out of this region! Although the Chicago and Dubai Mission Teams are on route, this amazingly built region by the Blackwells – now led by the Hardings – has had in the eight weeks of transition 25 additions – 19 baptisms, 3 restorations and 3 place memberships from the SoldOut Movement! Of the 19 baptisms, the Singles Ministry had 10 baptisms and 2 restorations!
Ron & Tracy Harding – even during the two month
transition of Khyber Pass – have led the
Southland Region to new heights!
Matt & Marlo Lovacheff hail from the Denver Church
and will not only serve in the Southland Region,
but will be the City of Angels Church
CR Leaders!
Lianne Kernan welcomes the effervescent Mason
& Nathalie Fetelika to the Southland Region!
Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you!
EDITORIAL by Kip McKean
Dearest Brothers and Sisters: On behalf of all of our missionaries and international churches, thank you SoldOut Movement Disciples for your more than generous sacrifice for this Spring’s Mission Contribution! The total collected from our USA Churches was $1,959,534! Of that $1,714,073 was sent to missions! God will be forever praised by all that are baptized, restored and place membership from our former fellowship seeking revival in the coming months because of your generous gifts of grace!
Andrew and Kip turning the last of the globes
upside down that were presented to each
member of the Lagos Mission Team!
Prayerfully these globes will always remind the
Mission Team that they were a part of
“[turning] the world upside down”
for Jesus! (Acts 17:6 RSV)
At the end of last month, God blessed me to celebrate my 62nd Birthday! One well-wisher on Facebook noted that Darius the Mede was 62 years old as well when he “took over the [Babylonian] Kingdom” after Belshazzar – Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson – was slain! Darius was a very wise man, and since he “took over” the Babylonian Kingdom and began the Medo-Persian Empire with Cyrus, Darius had to rebuild the infrastructure of this new empire. So Darius wisely applied God’s principle of focusing on the few to take care of the many. “It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the Kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel.” (Daniel 6:1) As a matter of fact, Daniel so distinguished himself among all the satraps and the other administrators that the king planned to set him over the whole Kingdom! However, Darius was unaware of the growing jealousy and contempt by the satraps and the other administrators toward Daniel. One can only surmise that this surprising naïveté was rooted in sentimentality, a very dangerous sin most often found in older people.
The Lagos Mission Team at the CAICC
Staff Meeting Celebration!
In time, Darius is forced by the satraps and administrators to obey his own edit that anyone that did not pray to him shall be thrown into the lions’ den. (Daniel 6:7-9) Since Daniel was a man of principle he continued to pray to God openly three times a day even after hearing of this new edit. Therefore, Darius – confronted that his edit could not be changed – was compelled by these treacherous leaders to throw Daniel into the lions’ den! God’s Angel protected Daniel that fateful night to Darius’ great delight in the morning! (Daniel 6:23) Then the king ordered that all the men who falsely accused Daniel were to be thrown into the lions’ den with their wives and children and all were killed. (Daniel 6:24) As I look back on my efforts to become a much more merciful leader in God’s new movement than I was in our former fellowship, I see that though I have worked hard to diligently organize the new movement, over time I gave into sentimentality particularly toward remnant disciples. I am so very thankful for Kyle Bartholomew’s sermon at the 2016 Winter Workshop warning against this insidious sin, as well as for Tim Kernan who has dealt decisively but lovingly with contempt throughout the City of Angels Church leadership. Like Darius, God has given me grace and I am very determined to be the decisive and still gentle leader that He needs me to be to bring in the hurting remnant to the new movement, but to also protect the flock from those that would destroy its purity and zeal through contempt!
The Lagos Mission Team Cake follows the custom
of the SoldOut Movement to present a cake
to each Mission Team!
Lastly, I found in my study of Darius that when he released Daniel, he wrote another edit to “all the peoples, nations and men of every language… to fear and reverence the God of Daniel!” Even though Darius was older and had “seen it all,” Darius had an awe like never before of God’s eternal Kingdom, and thus proclaimed through the nations that God “rescues and saves, He performs signs and wonders in Heaven and on the Earth!” This too is my heart! I never want to take all that God is doing around the world for granted! Each baptism is a miracle! Each newly appointed Evangelist, Women’s Ministry Leader, or Shepherding Couple is a miracle! Each church planting is a miracle! And the fact that this summer the Spirit will plant our Tenth and Eleventh Crown of Thorns Churches – Lagos and Dubai – is just flat awe inspiring!
The heroic Dubai Mission Team with the
United Arab Emirates Flag waving
in the background!
I like Darius (and Daniel) want to proclaim till my dying breath throughout “all peoples, nations and men of every language” the good news that Jesus was and still is the Savior of the world, who died and rescues any who turn to Him to become part of His eternal Kingdom! And to our God be all the glory, honor and praise!
We are family… to the end,
Kip