Service toward other churches is of the strengths and ministry platforms of LCBC. Our leadership has a heart toward strengthening ministries in need, so that people even beyond our own circles and communities can be reached for Christ. In two of these ministries, several of our members have become involved, giving heavily of their time and energy to help them grow and thrive. This month, we wanted to give you an update on Asian Bible Church in Chico and Vietnamese Hope Church in Sacramento and invite you to partner with those serving these churches through prayer.

Asian Bible Church

Soon after officially agreeing to financially assist Asian Bible Church, the sole pastor stepped away for family health reasons. We were left supporting a church with little in the way of leadership, and whose members were rapidly leaving. Unwilling to let this church die and seeing the continued need for an Asian church in the Chico community, Pastor Wes trained and began sending up men to fill the pulpit every week. Since then, he has also started training leaders within the church to help strengthen it from the inside.

At least eight people came to Christ through this ministry in 2009. One of the church leaders, who was part of the church start-up group in 2000, shared with Pastor Wes that the “smaller” church family today is much more committed and spiritually healthy than the “larger” group had been in the earlier years. Slowly, God seems to be rebuilding and strengthening this church for the work of reaching the Asian community in Chico.

Pastor Wes shares that the emphasis in 2010 will be two-fold: discipleship of believers within the church and outreach to the Asian Chico community. There seems to be much outreach potential particularly within the foreign student population at Chico State, one student of which came to Christ at ABC this year within one week of arriving from China. Pray for the development of the people at this church and for their outreach efforts this coming year. Pray also for the LCBC preaching team as they prepare messages and each travel 200 miles each month: Jim Farrell, Terry Chew, Phil Leung, Henry Khoo, and of course Pastor Wes.

Vietnamese Hope Baptist Church

Our relationship with Vietnamese Hope began when we answered a call for help with their youth ministry. Norbert Gee and his family have ministered to this church’s teens and college aged kids for over three years. Norbert has taught them and mentored them, while Jenny and Deanna have led them in worship on Sundays. This year, the Gees also coordinated a multi-church volleyball tournament, a fellowship and outreach event that was very successful.

Many of the youth continue to grow in their faith in Christ and their love for one another, and two were baptized in 2009. Norbert requests that we pray for their continued growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ, particularly in the areas of daily prayer and Scripture reading. Pray also for several youth who have had to relocate to other cities, and for a family of five girls who recently became orphans as their only remaining parent died of cancer. Fortunately, these girls are currently being cared for by Christian families.

Vietnamese Hope is currently facing a major challenge regarding their building plans. They are currently meeting at Fourteenth Avenue Baptist Church, but they are limited at this facility and the youth group is even apparently forced to have their meetings outside. The church is currently seeking the City’s approval of their design plans in order to obtain a building permit. Pray for God’s direction and the church’s unity regarding the building project, and also for God to sustain the youth during this difficult time.

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we are going to continue to update this blog, but it'll be about as often as we release the new church newsletter (every quarter for now). The next one will come out at the end of December, and we will get to hear from Pastor Wes about everything that's happening with the Chico church. This will be good for us to hear about, as he has been spending a lot of time and energy building up those people. Also, in the spring I will be doing an article on the pastoral transition. As you may know, Pastor Wes will soon be changing his title (his new title has yet to be announced), and Pastor Hubert will be our lone Senior Pastor, pending the church's approval. We'll tell you all about what that transition will involve. 

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Jaron

Greetings church family!

I've decided to start running a blog here in addition to distributing a new quarterly newsletter in the church bulletin. The idea is to help keep you informed about what is happening in the world of Laguna Chinese Baptist Church. From a pastoral level, we see many things from a broad perspective that give us joy and deep satisfaction, and other things that grieve us and move us to pray. For much of this, the members of our church don’t get the opportunity to share our joy or to help us with our burdens by joining with us in prayer. We hope that this can be a way for you to further share in the life of our church.

At this point of the year, we’ve once again brought a busy summer to a close. The pace of church life seems to jack up a couple notches around mid-June as we work our way through Vacation Bible School, Basketball Camp, Backyard Missions, sending off the Shandong missions team, and of course youth and family Christian camps. We feel the intensity as a staff as we typically give up on maintaining any kind of regularity in our staff meetings, instead getting together whenever time and vacation schedules allow. This time of year, I seem to gain a new respect for our people involved in our children’s ministries, many of whom work eight hours a day and then, without a complaint, put in another four hours a night at church.

Looking back on the summer, I’ve sensed a great deal of success in everything that we set out to do. Backyard Missions had a different turnout than I had expected, but ended up being a deeply fulfilling experience for those of us involved. I was pleased to see so many of our younger people helping with VBS, and all of them were needed with a turnout of about 150 kids. In hearing from the Shandong missions team, I was especially encouraged by the e-mails and reports of Caleb Poon, who used the time he was there to engage in real discipleship with many of the people. In these things and in others, it seemed to me that the prevalent attitude of willing and humble service by those involved was allowing our ministries to thrive.

Now that the fall has begun, it feels somewhat like it’s back to “real life.” I’m not completely sure that I know what real life is, but I hope it doesn’t include a departure from the faithful service that characterizes our summers. Let’s be sure that our willingness to give of our time and energy toward the ministries that we believe in is not the exception, but the norm. May we be continuously devoted to the work that God has placed before us.

God bless you and have a great fall season!