Our church plant in Kailua, Oahu, Tradewinds Church, has been renting from Faith Baptist Church for the last number of years. Recently, Faith asked if Pastor Sean Palmer, pastor of Tradewinds, would be interested in merging with them and becoming their pastor of the newly merged two churches. On August 2, they voted positively to merge, and now they will join together to be one strong church with a very positive outlook on their impact in the local community.  In the midst of all this, Tradewinds just keeps growing this summer--with over 125 on Sundays (including kids).  With the merge, they'll likely be at two services before too long! 

On May 30, LifePointe Church, formerly called First Baptist Church, held a reunion at their newly remodeled church. They were celebrating 130 years of ministry. They are grateful to all who came to the reunion and to all who helped welcome their guests! With months of preparations, it was a special day with friends and family! Over 300 people jammed into the campus to celebrate their history, changes and impact they have in their community.

On Sunday, August 2, Pastor Perry and Sally White had a tearful send off from their church and community. The White's had been at Sierra Baptist Church in Independence for a total of 27 years. In between times, they moved to Minnesota where they ministered for 10 years before returning to Sierra Baptist and completing 22 more years of service. Many from their small community of 500 expressed sincere thanks and appreciation for their involvement in their town which included the Chamber of Commerce, school board, post office, mountain hiking guide and more.

Sally White with Vicki Smith

Rick Klug, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Bishop, came down for the celebration and farewell as did Rev. Dennis Ahern, WorldVenture missionary and friend. Jim and Vicki Smith came up later on in the afternoon. Perry and Sally are moving to Beaumont to help care for Perry's parents. Perry will be available as a guest speaker and possible interim pastor for Pacific Church Network churches. Well done, Perry and Sally! 

Youth Retreat (Sold Out)
August 28-30 / Mile High Pines / Angelus Oaks, California / Emilio Núñez and Jim Smith
September 18-20 / Murrieta Hot Springs Camp / Murrieta, CA /Ana Maria Granados
Woman's English Retreat
September 25-27 / Pine Summit / Big Bear Lake / Noe'l Robbins and Vicki Smith
Men's English Retreat 
October 2-4 / Pine Summit / Big Bear Lake / Eleven Fantastic Speakers
Men's Spanish Retreat 
October 23-25 / Pine Summit / Big Bear Lake / Juan Carlos "Rabito" Fernández 

More Bible stories are needed. Ed Stetzer found that the United Kingdom Bible Society surveyed British children and found many could not identify common Bible stories. When given a list of stories, almost 1 in 3 didn't choose the Nativity as part of the Bible and 59% didn't know that Jonah being swallowed by the great fish is in the Bible. British parents didn't do much better. Around 30% don't know Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, or the Good Samaritan are in the Bible. Even worse, 27% think Superman is or might be a biblical story. More than 1 in 3 believes the same about Harry Potter. And 54% believe The Hunger Games is or might be a story from the Bible. The lack of biblical literacy results in a lack of biblical doctrine. LifeWay Research found that while 67% of Americans believe heaven is a real place, 45% believe there are many ways to get there, including 1 in 5 evangelicals. 59% of U.S. evangelicals believe the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal being. Ironically 9 out of 10 American homes have at least one Bible. read more

Among the positive effects of this catastrophe: people are coming to faith. Pastor Ananda, one of WorldVenture's partners in Nepal, writes, "I can see real fruits coming out of this, people have accepted the Lord, believers have rededicated their lives to the Lord, and for the first time, many people have tried to understand the Bible in a deeper way."  He mentioned how people in his village are gathering together under an absent roof, late at night, to read the Bible. Even more, Pastor Ananda sees great potential in how the relief efforts will greatly benefit the country as a whole. So far, WorldVenture has raised more than $130,000 for Nepal. Now in the second stage of WorldVenture's strategic plan (rehabilitation), this money is providing the Nepalese with temporary shelters and roofing material as they rebuild their homes-which is the people's greatest need.

A little over 3 years ago, Thien and Kerry Doan started their 3rd church plant. Partnering with Pacific Church Network, Citylights OC reaches out to the Vietnamese Americans in the Little Saigon area of Orange County. Now, over half of their church is made up of formerly unchurched people, mostly converts from Buddhism. They now have two worship services on Sundays.

     Thien writes, "One of the biggest changes in our lives has been with our family, specifically about my mother. I have never had a good relationship with her.... I have been praying for my mom to come to a saving relationship with Jesus ever since I became a believer 27 years ago. My mom had a stroke over a year ago, and after many difficult conversations, she finally agreed to come to live with us...I want you to rejoice with me and the angels in heaven because my mom prayed to receive Christ yesterday (Tuesday, July 21, 2015)! ...Honestly, I'm pretty shocked. Even though I have been praying for her salvation for 27 years, I often doubted if God could break through to her heart. God is amazing! I am so filled with gratitude and awe at what God can do. I wanted to share this news with you to have some people to rejoice with me."

     "Secondly, we (Citylights) are facing a budget deficit and so I decided to take $3,500 out of our personal account to float the payroll. It may not have been the smartest decision, but I felt that I needed to do everything I could to make sure our staff gets paid. ...If you feel led to help us with a one-time financial donation, that would be a huge blessing to us."

 

If you would like to give, you can do so online at http://citylightsoc.com/#/donate. Make sure you pick "Support for Thien Doan" on the pull down menu. You could also mail a check made out to "Citylights Church." The address is 17925 Elm St, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. 

Sam Ticas, pastor of Soma, our PCN church plant in Santa Clarita, writes "The church plant is growing by God's grace. We have more people with us now than we did at the end of last year. We've grown numerically through people who live in the neighborhood we gather in and through people that are coming to faith in Jesus. Earlier this year we had some challenging situations involving unrepentant sin in the lives of some of our members. It was difficult emotionally and spiritually for us and also for some of the leaders God is raising up. But all in all, this year has been a pretty steady season of ministry thus far.  We are looking forward to more spiritual and numerical growth the rest of this year.

 

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

-Pray that God would grant us favor with non-Christians that leads them to Christ.

-Pray that God would continue to provide for all of our financial needs as a family and as a church family.

-Pray that God would bless a leadership training group I'm starting at the end of the summer.

 

Here are some things you can specifically give toward:

-The sound board that was given to us by another church broke down. We need approximately $3,000 to replace it.

-We are in need of a Mac computer to do projection on Sunday mornings. $1750.

-Our health insurance funds run out soon. We need $2,500 to make up the difference. 

 

You can give online at our giving site: http://bit.ly/XKhLW5 or you can send a check to

Soma Santa Clarita Church

PO BOX 803245

Santa Clarita, CA 91380

 

Thank you!

Pacific Church Network is one of eight regions in the USA working together to expand the gospel of Jesus through their churches known as CBAmerica. We also support CBAmerica's Chaplaincy ministry. This summer, our Regional Directors gathered together to affirm the unity and support we have for each other. CBAmerica exists to "champion great commission fulfillment through it's regional networks." Our vision is that we establish, equip and encourage churches to be "gospel-centered congregations transforming every community." All regions value congregational health, multiplication and leadership development. Besides our eight regions, we are affiliated with Western Seminary and internationally with CBGlobal. We work closely with mission organizations WorldVenture and Missions Door. Our regions can be found here.

Earlier this summer, Seminary of the Americas held their graduation ceremony for several of their students. Seminary to the Americas was started in 1971 to help leaders in Spanish-speaking churches receive certification in doctrinal and practical classes at an affordable price. The Seminary holds classes in 5 locations in SoCal and 2 in the Phoenix area.