Celebrating Our First Anniversary!
Glorifying God For 101 Baptisms And 60 Restorations!
Guest Editorial: Cathi Martinez (Women’s Ministry Leader for the East Region of the City of Angels Church)
“Thank you Lord that today marks the one year anniversary of our first day at the City of Angels Church! And what a difference a year has made! I remember last year showing up at The Quiet Cannon with red, puffy eyes because I had been crying all night. I remember the fight I had with my husband that left me feeling desperate, alone and even hopeless. I remember wondering who to talk to. I even remember not wanting to go to the same church I had been attending for the past 18 years, because there was no one there who could help me. I remember calling my parents to let them know we’d be visiting ‘Kip’s Church’ (for me, a term of affection and appreciation) for my birthday and I remember them jumping at the chance to visit also.”
This is an excerpt from my journal. Wow! It is truly amazing to compare my birthday weekend this year to last year’s. Last year I was sad, confused, and faithless – and so was my husband. This year, we went to church on my birthday weekend praying all the way and praising God for all our blessings!
Three Questions
On Saturday evening April 26, 2008, the 215 disciples of the City of Angels International Christian Church gathered for a congregational devotional. With our first anniversary service on May 4th, needed was a family time to gain perspective about our first year and to fully embrace the dreams God has placed on our hearts for our second year. The first half of the devotional was filled with good news! Lance Underhill read Acts 16, the Macedonian call. Lance paralleled God stretching Paul’s vision to God stretching Lance’s vision to initiate a weekly Sunday evening Worship Service in San Diego on May 18th! Then, Elena thanked Rachel Bond and Michaela Foley for serving in the Teen Ministry and introduced Shay Vloet as our new Teen Leader for the women. Next, the “Sisters of Encouragement” shared about God gathering a remnant and welcomed into our fellowship five awesome disciples: David Jackson, Mike-el Jackson, Josh Webb, and Michael and Sherly Waterman. Then Matt and Helen Sullivan, standing with their three children and Melina Zepeda of Santiago, thanked the City of Angels Church for being an upward call to our sister congregation in Phoenix. Also of great encouragement, the Sullivans spoke of their belief that God was sending them to lead the Santiago International Christian Church in June. Now Matt and Helen share Raul Moreno’s dream to make Santiago the pillar church for the evangelization of all South America (Acts 19:8-10). Immediately following, Kyle and Joan Bartholomew, with the Honolulu Mission Team surrounding them, inspired us about the 15 member remnant group waiting in Honolulu. The Honolulu planting will become the pillar church for not only the Hawaiian Islands, but the entire Pacific Rim. After a very enthusiastic applause, DJ and Kacie Comisford and the New York Mission Team came to the podium. They shared the Gideon-like odds of a 20 member mission team going to a city of 20 million. With these million-to-one odds, this international city holds the seeds of the gospel for the nations of the world. Finally to close out the first half, a track star at CSUN confessed “Jesus is Lord” and was baptized! Thomas was the 95th baptism since our planting. Lord willing, with eight days remaining till our one year anniversary at the writing of this article, the Lord will bless us with 100 baptisms in our first year!
Report: New York City Mission Team Retreat
Guest Editorial: DJ Comisford
continue to be poured out for our sister Sharman,
who is recovering from a broken back.
“When I first came into the city, I was overwhelmed. I thought, I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I WANT to do this. Then during my quiet time I realized, that if one wants to go fishing, one seeks to fish the pond with the most fish.” These are the words of the one year old disciple and New York City Mission Team member, Wes Hardin. On the weekend of April 11-13, 2008, 14 disciples from Los Angeles and two disciples from Portland met in Times Square for the Mission Team Retreat for the Empire City International Christian Church. We were joined by George and Sharman Grima, who have already courageously moved to Manhattan from Florida to prepare the way for the team. Also Joel Rivera, a former ministry leader in Puerto Rico and Staten Island, joined us along with his two daughters. Kip and Elena also flew in to encourage us. Many of the disciples on the team, like Wes, were in the “City That Never Sleeps” for the first time and were awestruck!
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