Isaiah 25:8-9

Thursday, August 21 Sarah and I drove north from Seattle and entered Canada. After spending a few hours in downtown Vancouver we caught a ferry over to Vancouver Island and camped for a few days. Saturday morning Sarah told me that the night before she had had a dream in which she saw Joshua Ortiz walking down the street. Holding his hand was Jesus.* Sarah has vivid dreams almost nightly, so neither of us thought too much of it. On Monday, August 24 as we were driving south through the rain of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, I dug out my phone from glove compartment. Finally being back in cell phone range, I began to check my messages.

"John, I'm calling to tell you that Joshua passed away this Saturday."
I pulled over next a marsh and sat outside and watched the Kingfishers and Herons fish in the rain while I tried to swallow what I had just heard. Josh, 17, who had been in youth group, who had played paintball with us at man camp, who I had tutored in english, math, and history, who I had picked up for youth group every Tuesday, my friend...was dead.
Yet as Sarah and I sat in the rain the same peace that I had experienced in the hospital room in Houston the last day I saw Josh seemed to come over us again. There were no words to be said just a heart of gratitude that Josh, who suffered so much rejection, abandonement, and physical pain in this world is now in arms of my precious Savior Jesus who by dying for, drawing to, preparing an eternal destiny for, and delivering Josh to heaven has loved and is loving Josh more than he could have ever known here on earth.

The last thing I said to Joshua is, "I love you and I will see you later." I still believe that. Joshua trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the deserved penalty for his sins. I made clear to Josh that must not just say these things now that he is sick and near to death without actually submitting his life to Christ as not only his Savior but also His Lord but truly believe and trust and acknowledge Christ's invasion and ownership of his soul, whether he lived another 80 years or 80 hours. I know as well as can be humanly known that Josh wanted more than anything to please his Jesus and that Jesus was pleased with Josh's dependence on Him.

It was an honor to know Josh as he passed through this temporal life and his eternal life will always be a reminder of why God has left me here on this earth for now.

In love with the One who is, did, enable, and is doing pure eternal Love
jrf

Back from NY

First let me apologize for the lack of posts while in NYC. I really only had time to put up pictures. (which can be seen on facebook here)

We returned back safely to LA on Sunday evening. Without going into too much detail, I will say that the trip was an amazing success! God worked in tangible and amazing ways both through our official ministry to the Chinese children and through the other events of the week. Many if not all of our youth had potentially life-changing experiences and tasted the glory and power of God in new ways.

Please join me in
- praising God for His faithfulness!
- lifting up the church in Brooklyn (2nd EV Free) and the children we were able to share the love of Christ with
- praying for our team, that they make the transition to "normal" life in a way that incorporates what they learned and experienced on this trip.

thank you for all your support and care!

New York Night

Last Friday Team New York, our church's first high school short term missions team, put on New York Night 08. The fundraiser included hot dogs, a short presentation about the trip, an art gallery full of student art, a raffle, and a stock exchange where patrons could invest in youth in exchange for having a postcard sent to them from NYC. The night was a smash success and we raised over $1000. Perhaps most exciting is seeing our church transition from being a church that recieves short term missions teams to one that sends them. We pray that this is the first of many.









The New York City trip will be from July 26-August 3. We will be working with the 2nd EV Free Church of Brooklyn. Our primary ministry will be running a VBS for the children of Chinese immigrants. Our group consists of 5 leaders (myself included) and 11 high schoolers. Please keep us in your prayers. If you would like to support us financially please let me know. The trip is $600 per person and so far we have raised about half of that.

by His grace
for His glory

Hope for those controlled by Hatred - A praise update

Last week I had the immense privilege of sharing the Gospel with a youth who had been involved with gangs and to watch God bring him to repentance and salvation. This young man had been trying to break ties with the gang he was in but was jumped by 10 other gang members, resulting in a dislocated shoulder, a few knocked out teeth, and a concussion. Ever since this happened this youth has been filled with thoughts of hatred and revenge. He told me, “If I see these people again and I have a gun, I will shoot them.” He knew it was the wrong thing to do but he felt like he had no other choice, his hatred had taken him over. I spoke to him about the transforming power of Jesus Christ and that Jesus didn’t want to just change or fix some things about him but he wanted to kill him and give him a new life. God wanted to nail his old, sinful, hate-controlled self up on the cross with Christ and give him a new life as a child of God. When I explained these things to him from Scripture, he said that was exactly what he wanted and needed. I told him to just express his heart to God and without any coaching from me, a tear-filled, contrite prayer with sentences like, “I know I need to change but I am helpless to change”, “I have sinned against you and need your forgiveness”, “please kill my old self and give me new life”, and “I trust you with my life now Jesus” poured out of this broken teenager. What a joy to be able to witness this miracle! Please pray that this youth will be protected from the temptations and dangers of his old life and will remain faithful in following Christ.

Valentine's Banquet

Last Tuesday (Feb. 12) the high school youth group put on a Valentine's Banquet. This was both an outreach to the families of the youth and a fundraiser for a summer missions trip we hope to go on. We were hoping for 20-30 people but got over 130! This was of course a blessing but it definitely added to the craziness of the night and necessitated a couple emergency trips to the store to get more food. Despite the pandemoniom, the night was successful in the things that mattered.
The staff worked as a team, the youth stepped up and owned the night participating in everything from leading prayer and worship to waiting tables to fixing food, we raised over $400 and most importantly the Gospel was preached! My friend from college and seminary preached a short but excellent and potent message on having a cross-centered family that preaches and lives out the Gospel daily and Carlos Pizarro, assistant pastor for the Spanish Congregation, translated. Below are some pictures from the night. Enjoy and join with me in praising God for blessing the night!

Prayer Request

On Tuesday night one of mothers of the student leaders in our youth group was beaten by her drunk boyfriend. Since she does not have health insurance, she spent 16 hours in the waiting room of the LA County Hospital before she was treated for injuries to her face, including a broken nose. This is not the first time this has happened to this woman. Thankfully none of her 3 children were hurt.
Because this has happened before and because the boyfriend is connected with a local gang, the mother wants to get out of the neighborhood. Unfortunately she has no where to go and so is looking to stay at a shelter for battered women. There is also a possibility of the kids going into foster care. Obviously, our church would like to provide other alternatives to these scenarios but most of our church already lives in over crowded apartments that the social services would not allow this family to stay at. It would also be devastating to have to say goodbye to her children, who are a vital part of our youth ministries. So needless to say we need your prayers. Please pray that the mother would come to know Christ and his forgiveness and comfort, that her children (who are believers) will trust, find refuge in, and be protected by their heavenly Father and that our church, Christ's hands and feet in this neighborhood, can make responsible decisions that reflect God's heart for the widow, orphan, and abused.
on a personal note, this family is very close to Sarah and my's hearts and even as I write this my eyes are full of tears and my heart is full of pain and anger and desperation. I meet with the oldest son on a weekly basis and he has become like a little brother to me. To see them go through this pain is overwhelming. Please pray that I would see God's faithfulness even in this and that I would be able to point this family and others to that hope. Also please pray that I will have the ability to love even this boyfriend who I may see around the neighborhood (even in writing this request I feel the fires of anger against this man), yet still stand up for justice.

With hope in the Holy One
jrf

Prayer Request - Youth Group Kick Off!

I want to take a break from the never ending road trip to ask for your prayers as we prepare to kick off another year of youth ministry. We are trying a lot of new things this year, including emphasizing small groups a lot more. We have never really been able to get consistent small groups off the ground but hopefully this is the year. another big change is that we are going to have Junior High and High School together for the worship and teaching time and then split up when we go to small groups. Could get pretty crazy.
the first seven weeks I will be preaching through the topics highlighted in our missions statement:
Our mission is to create a Christ-centered community of passionate worship, unwavering discipleship, personal and corporate holiness, and radical missional ministry

By spending so much time going through the missions statement I hope to create a sense of unity in purpose and mission, so that the Youth and Staff are clear about what we are about and what our goal is as a body of Christ.

So if you would like to join in our mission, you can do so by praying for the following things:
- that the staff would make the priority of their life to know and love Christ deeply , whether or not that translates into "successful" ministry
- that the youth would catch the vision to know Christ deeply themselves and want to share that knowledge with their city
- that we would be excellent in every aspect of ministry
- that logistics would go smoothly
- That we would have a CHrist-reflecting attitude even and especially when things don't go smoothly

thank you for lifting us up,

by His grace
for His glory
jrf

Back from Camp

Sorry for the lack of posting. But I have a good excuse. I spent the last week being a counselor at World Impact's summer camp, the Oaks. This was a new experience for me as I had never been to a summer camp, either as a camper or a counselor. While I would like to record every moment of the week so as not to forget the amazing experience this was, my time and your patience do not allow for a detailed account. Instead I will just list this brief and incomplete list of things that I learned at camp. Many of these things were not new but it was refreshing to be reminded of them in new and different ways.

1. There are few things, if any, that are more powerful and exciting than telling someone that Jesus unconditionally loves them and is willing and able to save them no matter what they, their mom or their dad has done.
2. Few things are more beautiful than watching Christ bring together 150 inner city kids of all ethnicities and backgrounds to worship Him.
3. I like glowsticks
4. The Gospel is both vastly complex and utterly simple. Because I am fascinated by the complexity of the Gospel I often unnecessarily and unfortunately present it in a way that robs it of its power and beauty. A youth entranced by the glitz of the world, a homeless woman selling herself to earn money so she can worship at the altar of cocaine, or a business man chasing after the wind does not need the know the intricacies of predestination, headship or the hypostatic union to find the hope their soul needs. They need to know that they are not lovable, yet God loves them anyways, that the perfect and holy God/Man Jesus Christ is willing and able to save them if they will repent of themselves and give their torn, battered, shame-filled lives to Him!
5. Chorizo, Mountain Dew, and Cottage Cheese is a bad idea.
6. Party like a Christian...ie. Christians should be constantly showing the world that we have more joy than they do. That righteousness and being right with God and enjoying Him is immeasurably more satisfying than the lust of the world.
7. Standing firm in the Lord is both an individual and communal task.
8. I love my wife
9. I want to be a film director (our cabin made the best music video)
10. It is a great privilege to be used by God in someone else's life

Stand Firm
Eph 6:10-18
jrf