“Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving,  praying at the same time for us also, that God may open for us a door of the message, to speak the mystery of Christ…” (Colossians 4:2-3 LEB) God has called each person in His Church to take part in His Mission. Through Jesus God is “making all things new”, and until the new creation arrives in its fullness God uses his willing people to advance his kingdom. Every follower of Jesus has a part to play, and every one of us needs the community of God’s church to help us walk out obedience to Him. This means that all of us have two simultaneous roles in the Mission of God: obedience to the work God has given us to do, and to support, encourage, and pray for our brothers and sisters as they do the work God has called them to. Working at GoMission has given us an awesome opportunity to see both sides of participation in the work of the Kingdom. In this process we’ve been deeply encouraged by what we see others doing in obedience to Jesus! Here are some examples from the last few weeks that give a little insight into what some of our day to day looks like working for GoMission!    Natalie with Embrace Grace  Our friend Natalie recently took a position with Embrace Grace, as the regional director for Nashville Tennessee! Embrace Grace is a ministry that equips churches to love and support single mothers and mothers to be!  Before she set off, we got to sit down with Natalie and hear the story of how God has been calling her to this ministry. It turns out that God has been preparing her for a while! You can listen to Natalie’s Embrace Grace Story here! As Natalie shared about her desire to gather a community of support, we were able to develop a GoMission page and some printed materials to help the church partner with her through prayer, financial support and the sharing of testimonies!  Check out Natalie’s GoMission Page! It was so fun to work alongside Natalie over the last month before she moved. We got to hear about the different conversations she was having each week, and all the people who were excited to come alongside her! We even had a chance to go to her send off party and join the many people who were there to show their love and support for Natalie!  It is such a blessing to walk with someone who is already a friend, and watch God open doors and fill His church with excitement for what He is doing in His kingdom, through His daughter!    Jeff and Kristy with Gathering Table We also had the opportunity to attend a Gathering Table Dinner a few weeks ago, and see our good friends Jeff and Kristy in action! The Gathering Table has been around for a few years now, exploring creative ways to share the gospel right here in Clovis! Check out Gathering Table’s GoMission Page!  A Gathering Table Pop-Up Dinner brings people from different walks of life, together around one table. Jeff and Kristy do a great job of creating a welcoming environment where everyone has an opportunity to share about their life, in ways they may not normally get to. Towards the end of the meal, they take time to share a word of encouragement and hope around the gospel of Jesus. It’s amazing how much people willingly opened up, with just a few simple questions, making a way for real conversation about Jesus. We are excited about the future of what Jeff and Kristy are doing!  If you’re interested in attending a Pop-Up Dinner click here!     It has been such a gift to be able to walk alongside people who are saying “Yes!” to Jesus. All these opportunities to support others in their work also reminds us of all the people praying for, encouraging, and supporting us. Thank you all so much!  We feel that God is giving us a unique chance to think about this dual work of personal obedience and supporting others, and giving us time to pray and think about new ways to connect with all of you as we get ready to go to Argentina!     How you can be praying for us: As we work towards the future of GoMission, be praying for wisdom and for God to lead us!  We are continuing to pray about our move to Argentina in June and looking at another short term trip before then! Please pray for our transition and the Vineyard Churches in Argentina!  Please be praying for the other work we are a part of right now especially: guys/girls discipleship group, our church family, and outreach to Fresno State.  

Sunday Morning Slides, Inspiring Missionary Stories, Whiteboards, and the Same Old Things! Argentina Partnership Updates We are working on some different ways we can help our church engage with the churches in Argentina, during the seasons when we don't have teams going to visit! Every month, we video call one of the partnering pastors in Argentina. We ask them about what they are celebrating, what they are challenged by, and their biggest prayer needs. Then we compile that into a bullet point prayer list and put it on a slide to share on a Sunday morning. During the Argentina Update portion of our announcements, we invite our church to take 2 minutes to pray with the people around them, for the needs of the pastors and the church there.  People have already made comments to us about how fun it is to hear how each pastor is doing on a more regular basis, which was encouraging! We are hoping that even this simple prayer moment on a Sunday, will keep the mission God has called us to as a body in front of us!    Live the Mission Conference  We had the opportunity to attend Mountain View Church’s Live the Mission Conference a couple weeks ago! We felt so blessed to sit in a room with so many different missionaries from all over, hearing stories of what God has done and is doing in their countries. It got us excited about some ways we can help further develop GoMission.Church but also encouraged us as we continue to prepare to move to Argentina. One major highlight from the conference was from a session led by a pastor from  Eastern Germany, who said that you have to “start before you’re ready” when it comes to missions and church planting. He shared stories about how God gave him just enough to get started but how he had to wait for the provision to get through! We felt encouraged to keep stepping out in faith before we have all the answers, if we feel God is speaking and the people around us are affirming that it’s God speaking! It was such a great time to connect with people doing similar work that we are hoping to do in Argentina and hear testimonies of God drawing people to himself!   Auditing for GoMission.Church One of Jared’s main roles in GoMission.Church is auditing all of our internal documents and processes, helping to organize and unify language, communications, and vision. We have had fun going over the vision for GoMission and strengthening how we communicate this internally as well as with missionaries and pastors! Our meetings lately have looked like rolling out the big white board, Meghan writing out notes or concepts, Pastor Andy and Jared collaborating to ground all that we do in scripture, many ideas written down to save for later, and sometimes tacos! We are really enjoying working as a team along with Pastor Andy to further develop GoMission.Church, to better serve the churches in our city, missionaries, and ultimately God’s kingdom!   Annnnd all the usual things! Along with our work at GoMission, we are still taking time to pray about moving Argentina and for Argentina! Our morning prayer times with our church are still going strong, with a main topic being prayer for open doors for fruitful ministry at Fresno State, for our church to participate in. We have made it into our 10th week of the Guys/Girls “New Life” Groups, and are seeing our young adults press into more of what God has for them. This past Sunday we got to lead worship together for the first time at our church, which was very sweet and made us even more excited to grow in leading worship together!    A snapshot from a Missionary Panel at the Live the Mission Conference!    Behind the scenes look at our GoMission Auditing/Planning Whiteboard sessions! A screenshot from the livestream this past Sunday, when we got to lead worship together! A great meal and time of fellowship at the Girls “New Life” Group Meghan is helping lead!    How you can pray: - Continued discernment as we work on developing GoMission.Church and preparing things for the people after us! - Discernment and wisdom in preparations for moving to Argentina and ideas on how to better connect our church here with the churches there! - For our Guys/Girls “New Life” Groups, that the Lord would continue to draw them deeper and that they would answer His call!  

Being a Bridge   Part of the Summer Internship Program was partnering with a local ministry to serve and bless them. It was also an opportunity for the interns to practice putting together an outreach, casting vision, and inviting others to join them in it! We had the opportunity to partner with University Vineyard Church to help run the Missional Outreach portion of a youth leadership camp called "Project Timothy," which brought together 50 youth from churches all across California. The goal of the outreach portion of the camp was to give the students a chance to help plan an outreach, serve their community, and practice sharing the love of Jesus. Leading up to the camp, the interns spent time praying about what the outreach could look like and came away with three potential outreaches: City Center, Poverello House, and Treasure Hunting (an evangelism activity we learned from our friends at Mountain View Church). These were all ministries or outreaches we had partnered with or participated in earlier during the internship. The interns paired off and created an outline for each outreach. When the camp arrived, each pair presented the outreach opportunities, and the youth got to choose which one they wanted to help plan and execute! The interns then helped guide the planning conversations, prayed with the youth, and led the outreach day.   Interns Presenting the Outreach Options at Project Timothy!   Each Youth student prayed about which outreach they should help with, then took a sticky note with their name and stuck it on the board!   Each pair did an incredible job presenting and shepherding their outreach, leading with confidence and relying on Jesus! The youth came back from their outreaches having had meaningful conversations that led to praying for people, opportunities to bless the community, and new ideas for how they could do something similar in their own local areas. The interns modeled for these youth kids, that they aren’t too young to do the things God has set before them to do!  One of the volunteer leaders for the youth camp, had shared with us that God had already been putting it on her heart, to go and serve at the Poverello House. She was able to go be a part of that outreach day with the youth and since, has gathered a group of other young people in her church to go serve together! The youth camp facilitators also needed help leading a "Girls and Guys Day," where they split the students up to have conversations around God's heart for love, relationships, and sexuality. Because of GoMission.Church's relationship with The Hope Team at Pregnancy Care Center, we were able to connect University Vineyard with The Hope Team so they could come and share on these topics.   Emily and Dorthy from Pregnancy Care Center's Hope Team presenting the "Girls Day" at Project Timothy!   After partnering with University Vineyard for the youth camp, we realized we were being a bridge between this local church and three local ministries! It was amazing to step back and see the Lord using us to engage the people of God at University Vineyard with the mission of God in our local area, for His glory.  We feel really blessed to be getting to serve the local church in this way, and are thankful for those of you who are partnering in prayer and financially. Please continue to pray with us, over the interns… that they would now also get to be a bridge between their local churches and local ministries!      Want to learn more about the three ministries we partnered with? Click the links below! City Center -  https://citycenterfresno.org/ Poverello House - https://poverellohouse.org/ Pregnancy Care Center - https://pregnancycarecenter.com/ The Hope Team at Pregancy Care Center - https://www.instagram.com/hopeforfresno/