The Clarion

Clarion Page 2

Claudio Medina

Bruce Hitchcock

Director of Missions Deryl Lackey

We have just completed our second Sunday School Leadership Training Program. Every quarter we will continue to provide this training on various topics. This class is provided in English and Spanish.

We had a wonderful time with other pastors as we had a chance to get away for three days on a retreat.

Praise the Lord! We had three more church starts this month. It is amazing what the Lord is doing. We continue to have a monthly breakfast for our Hispanic pastors as we pray and fellowship together. They are held on the last Saturday of every month at various church locations. For more Information please call the office. Our Equip Biblical Institute (EBI) Seminary is in full swing. We are now receiving sign-ups for our upcoming May class. Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

Let us continue walking in the Lord together.

Greetings to all! “Mobilization” is the word Kevin Ezell used as our new North American Board President. He also

talked about the strengths of churches, in the same area, that cooperate together, what we call an Association. There is

no question, when we as the family of God mobilize, amazing things happen. One of the areas that we are going to

strive to improve upon as an Associational staff is in this area of Mobilization. So we would like to ask you to help us

in the following ways:

1. Pray for us and the North American Mission Board in this area.

2. Let us know if your church would be available to go on one day mission trips that will bless other ministries that operate within our association or neighboring associations in Southern California.

3. If you have a ministry that needs some help, please let us know and we are going to do our best to not only find a church to “mobilize” with you, but of greater importance develop this ministry within our association.

As always we thank you for your prayers and support in so many ways, we are seeing God’s blessing and it is amazing, we praise Him

and thank you for allowing us to be a part of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your church or mission!

When believers hear the word “stewardship” they generally associate it with giving money. However stewardship does not apply solely to monetary gifts. Stewardship is more involved than just giving your tithes and offerings. It involves your time and talents also. In difficult financial circumstances, time and talent can be as important as money. Using the time and talents as believers within the church can be a replacement for a downturn in giving due to loss of income to the church. Using volunteer leadership is like increasing income to the church during difficult financial times. Chuck Swindoll says in an article, “The Joys of Generosity,”

Insights (May 2007) pp. 2-3; When we realize the vastness of our divine resources, when we acknowledge that the eternal richness of Heaven is His gift to us, we won’t be miserly with the things we have. On the contrary, we’ll be eager and free to share. In short, we will know the joy of generosity. A generosity rooted in Godly contentment also has some priceless benefits

Associate Director of Missions

Church Growth Strategist

Por separado: Bolsa de globos Qualatex con 100 pzas. $9.50

Bomba de aire Qualatex $7.50 Manual y recursos extras $5.00

Puedes traer tus propios globos y bomba, solo compra el manual.

Clarion Page 3

Martin Leach Church Growth Consultant

Nuevas para Niños Te invita a

Taller para hacer Figuras con globos

¿Trabajas en el ministerio infantil?

¿Te gustaría hacer tu clase más atractiva? o solo deseas aprender para tu uso personal?...

Por lo que quieras, ¡Este taller es para ti!

Enseñando Verdades Bíblicas Por medio de Globos

Llámanos y Aparta tu lugar, (909) 809 7715 con Lety y (951) 261 1334 con Benjamín

Lo sentimos, NO Niños.

Missionary available to speak. Tim Kunkel and his wife, Iracema are here on furlough from Paraguay. They will be with us through June. If you would like to have them in your church you can contact them at: tikunkel@gmail.com.

EQUIPPED FOR EXCELLENCE For those who like to wait until the last minute to do things, it is now the last minute, so you can begin to enlist people to come to Equipped for Excellence on April 9th. Remember you can register on line (at www.equippedforexcellence.org) or on site. On site registration is located behind and to the left of the registration tables. Let me suggest that if you have workers or members who are a little discouraged, Equipped for Excellence is a great place to get revived. Many

people are inspired and motivated as a result of coming to Equipped for Excellence. Every year hundreds of people hear a word from the Lord while at E for E. Sign up a large group from you church, I know they will be thrilled at how God speaks to them and they will come back home with a renewed enthusiasm for the Lord.

Desert Area Bible Study Workshop Once again, we are happy to welcome Dr. Jeff Iorg, President of Golden Gate Seminary, to our association. He will be leading the third annual Desert Are Bible Study Workshop at Palms Baptist Church in Twenty-nine Palms on Sunday, May 1st. His topic will be, Experiencing God’s Power in Your Life. A free dinner will be provided at 4:00 p.m. and the workshop will begin at 5:30 p.m. Childcare will be provided for children through the third grade.

Pastor’s and Sunday School Director’s Planning Workshop The annual Pastor’s and Sunday School Director’s Planning Workshop will be on Saturday, July 9 th at the Palm Baptist Church in Riverside. It will begin with a continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m., the conference will begin at 9:00 a.m. and conclude at 12:00 noon. This event will give you some ideas about how to plan for the fall. This event is always very helpful and those who attend have a great time.

Sunday School Director’s Meeting The next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 3rd. We will meet at the associational office from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. We will finish the discussion we started at our last meeting on How to Start a Sunday School Class. The class will also be offered in Spanish. At the last meeting Claudio had over 30 Hispanics in his group.

El taller incluye enseñanzas Bíblicas, figuras para

premios, regalos, y mucho mas.

Día: Sábado 16 de Abril, 2011 Horario: De 4:00 p.m. a 7:00 p.m. Lugar: Iglesia Cristiana CORNERSTONE

Paquete completo $20.00 Dlls Incluye: Bolsa con 100 globos Qualatex, Bomba de aire Qualatex,

Manual y recursos extras Pueden compartir el paquete dos personas

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Page 5 Clarion

We have added a “church update” section to the

Clarion. If you have any updates that you would like to be

included in the Clarion, such as salvations, event details, or

anything of such importance please email or call Angie at the

Association office. email: angie@iesba.org or

office: 951-784-2655

Church Updates: ∙ Imagine Church in San Bernardino had a wonderful Marriage retreat in San Diego, with 16 couples in attendance. Pastor Freddy from The Covering Church and his wife Malinda did a wondering job speaking at the event.

∙ Cross Community Church, a new church plant in Indio, had their first community outreach at Pump it Up. They had 54 kids, more than 80 people altogether, and over 20 salvations!!

∙ One 80 Ministries in Joshua Tree has had 18 salvations since January and baptized 12 on March 6th.

∙ Set Free Skid Row has a new building. The building is between Midnight Mission and Union Rescue Mission. It's a 3 story building, 12,000sq ft on each floor. It is open 24 hours a day to minister to the people in downtown Los Angeles.

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Church in the Spotlight

ZerOed in on Missions

The Way of the Cross

Colton

Food Ministry -Menifee

The Way of the Cross first started in 1989 by a pastor named Liviu Petrila. They started as a mission in San Bernardino, and in 1990 moved to Colton, where they still remain. During the beginning years of the church plant, some members were American and the services were held in English. The ser-vices are now in Romanian and are reaching out to this people group. It was in 2002 that the Way of the Cross elected Daniel Sarlea to be the head pastor. Before coming to this church, Pastor Daniel was in Brasov, Romania, pastoring for 5 years. The church has many strengths, but a few that stand out to Pastor Daniel are their prayer, fellowship, and Biblical sermons.

The Way of the Cross has small groups, prayer and Bible study on Sunday morning. One exciting thing to connect people in the church is going through a Bible reading plan together. Recently, they have started a men’s lunch meeting on every first Saturday of each month. There is also women’s Bible study and prayer

every Wednesday evening. Although many of the members speak Romanian, they have started translating the sermons in English for their youth. They want them to know the Word of God above speaking Romanian.

You can keep The Way of the Cross in prayer as they continue to develop Christ-like followers. Also, pray that they continue to be a good witness to their community, and that their church will stay unified in Christ.

The food ministry at Acts International Christian Fellowship (Acts 1) started over two years ago. Pastor Chuck Jepson was called to be pastor in July of 2010, and brought focus to the food ministry. Every Thursday, families are asked to give a $2.00 donation, and for that donation, get a food box that feeds a family of four. Even if they cannot afford the $2.00 donation they will receive a food box. Acts 1 helps approximately 100 families who are in need each week. The church buys two pallets of food from Western Eagle, a grocery store in Temecula, and is unaware of what will be on the pallets, but use whatever is given. There is always produce, and sometimes dairies and soups. Target has donates some items each week, as well as a friend of Pastor Chuck’s in San Jacinto who donates left over bread from his food ministry. Salvation Army also pays the church to leave a box for donations on campus, which also helps to pay for the food that

is purchased each week. On Thursday mornings, sign in starts at 10:30 but some people get there as early as 6:00. The families register and are given a number, and their box is lined up. The boxes are then sent down a line where volunteers fill them. The food does not arrive until 11:30, and then some has to be sorted out and put into smaller containers. While the volunteers arrange the food, the fami-lies that have come for a box go into the church for a short service. Pastor Chuck leads the service, with the help of a translator, as many of the families are Hispanic. Tony Reza, pastor at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Moreno Valley, has recently been coming to help with the translation. The volunteers at the food ministry help to separate food, load boxes, carry boxes to the cars, talk with people and show them the love of Christ. When families arrive, they are given coffee, water and a small snack and they use it as a time to socialize. The church opens some of their class-rooms where ladies come and crochet. At times, Acts 1 has had things like bread dough donated, which they

take into the kitchen and separate into small containers to give out. Sometimes the items received have to be tried in the church’s kitchen so they can tell the people how to cook the item! For example, frozen pretzels came in as part of the load but were in bulk packaging. They had to cook one to see what temperature they should be cooked at so they could tell the people. Whatever is given, they find a way to use it. Pastor Chuck remembers when they were giving out 5 pound bags of cherry tomatoes in each box, and the only way he knew how to use these tomatoes was in salad. One of the ladies getting a box told him that they take the tomatoes, boil them, and make tomato sauce. Pastor Chuck felt humbled that these ladies use every small item to feed their families, when all he could think of using it for was salad. Pastor Chuck’s wife, Glenda, was really touched this past Christmas when March Air Force base donated 100 toys, and the Marriott hotel donated 1,000 backpacks to their ministry. She took all of the toys and set them up in a classroom. As the families came, she took each child in the room one by one and told them they could pick out any toy that they wanted. The children were so excited, and she was so blessed. God is using this church body of 100 people to show his love to the community of Menifee.

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April 9 Equipped for Excellence

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May 14 VBS Clinic

June 11 Kid’s Day Camp

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Clarion

Inland Empire Association Staff

Deryl Lackey Director of Missions

deryl@iesba.org

Claudio Medina Associate Director of Missions

claudio@iesba.org

Bruce Hitchcock Church Growth Strategist

bruce@iesba.org

Martin Leach Church Growth Consultant

marty@iesba.org

Bobbie Brooks Ministry Assistant

bobbie@iesba.org

Brenda Lackey Office Manager

brenda@iesba.org

Angela Mantzey Graphics Specialist

angie@iesba.org

(951) 784-2655 • Fax (951) 784-2656