smooth sailing

By God's grace another semester of seminary is over and another eighth of my brain is rendered inept. So hopefully as the raging sea in my frail psyche (ooh how psycho-babblish sounding) come to a calm my posts will be increasingly frequent and possibly more coherent.

but no deep thoughts for today. Instead here is a brief update on what's been going on in LA for the last few months since my last update.

Wendnesday Mornings: About two months ago Tito came to me and expressed some specific sin he was struggling with and wanted to talk about and turn from. So Tito, Brad, and I started meeting Wednesday mornings from 6-7. We have very loosely been studying I Peter but most of the time we go on "inspired" rabbit trails and spend our time seeking God's wisdom on particular issues and then giving those things to the Lord in prayer. These times have been consistent and encouraging both to Brad and I as well as Tito. What a blessing it has been to see him grow in his faith. Please pray that Tito will continue to mature in his faith and that Brad and I will grow in our discipleship skills.

3xm : this last week we had our May Mid-month madness (I guess it should have been 4xm) and we had around 30 youth from the neighbor hood. There was a big group of guys playing football in the street so I just asked if I could play with them, scored a couple touchdowns for them (its amazing how even a dumb street game can reveal the pride in my heart), and then told them we had drinks and snacks in the church and presto! we had a captive audience. While no one came to Christ many said they would return next week. Please pray that these unchurched (and more importantly unsaved) youth would return to hear the gospel and that God would be working in their hard hearts to respond to His call of mercy and grace. Pray that I and the youth staff will excel in our ability to communicate the Gospel in a faithful, relevant, and clear way.

Staff end of the year dinner: Last weekend I took out the youth group staff and student leaders for dinner. We had a wonderful time recounting the work of God in our lives as individuals and as a group over the last year. Most encouraging of all was the growth of character and Biblical understanding and application witnessed in the lives of the student leaders. I think the comment that brought the most joy to my heart was, " I say God in a much bigger way than i ever have this year!" What power our God has that He shows HImself to filthy sinners and then uses them to help others see Him in His glory. Please pray for the staff and student leaders (Miriam, Isabel, Brad, David, and Elizabeth) as some scatter (Isabel is going on a missions trip to Equador), some deal with family loss (Brad's Grandmother died last week) and others keep faithfuly serving in the youth ministry.

Well that should keep you prayer soliders busy for a while, Thank you so much for your support.

by His grace,
for His glory,
jrf