God is good, even when we don't get it

I am so amazed at the grace and love that God through The Spirit displays to me and through me. Last week we had two families in our first bible study and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the turn out. We had verbal commitments from about 20 people and only 7 others showed up. However, as this week has gone by, the Lord Jesus has shown me that He is growing something bigger than I can grow and that He is putting together a team of people that are for His purposes and not just to have a religious institution they can lean on when in trouble. I am so pumped about this week, whether we shrink or grow because of what I see God doing around us. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach to my friend's church "The Gathering" (James Shiroma). I preached about the importance of Fatherhood and Biblical Manhood using Ephesians 5:25 as the essence of our example in Christ. As I was preaching, I was begging God to bring grace through this message and not condemnation or judgment. He answered incredible and allowed me to minister to a few people after the service. I am realizing that I was sent here to bring hope and love through Jesus and that it is His Kindness that brings us to repentance.

I am learning many lessons right now. One of them is that in a shame culture people will tell you anything in public and many times will not keep their commitment. It is very apparent that a yes is not really a yes, but when you have a relationship with people their yes becomes closer to being a true yes. We have a few people say they are going to try out our bible study this week. We will see if they follow through, but we will not give up on them.

Another lesson I am learning is that Jesus wants a biblically sound church to begin. I am finding many Christians here have no real love for the scriptures. They love Jesus but not His word, which at first would seem to contradict loving Jesus, but what I am finding is many Christians are biblically illiterate. This is a failure of the men of God who pastor their churches. We are not to be ear pleasers but Christ exalters and the main way to exalt Christ is through His word. Worship must be founded on truthful worship of Christ. If we are adding or taking away something to his character we are not worshipping the true Christ and miss John chapter 4. Many are worshipping Christ for what they need Him to do and not for who He is. My heart is heavy for those who love Christ but do not use His word to know Him. In a simple and laid back culture, we cannot become spiritually lazy in our intimacy with Christ. Many have become lazy. Many are capable of going deeper and many don't realize that when they deepen their knowledge of Him, the will love Him more and that will result in more and better obedience.

Thanks for praying for us and we ask you to continue to pursue Christ for us. I have two more things to ask of you before we close this writing:
1. We need someone to join us that will teach children while we teach the adults at our bible study. We want families going home discussing what God is teaching us.

2. We have lost about $215 a month in funding. Some of our partners had life changes and are not able to continue their funding (please pray for all of them as they draw closer to Christ). We need this amount and use it not only to pay off debt but to make relationships with people through sports, home cookouts and other events. Please pray that others would rise up and fill this gap in funding.

We love and miss all of you!

Shawn