Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Plant a Tree!

There is a great opportunity to serve your school kids on October 27. Hughes Middle School and Longfellow Elementary have been awarded FIFTY trees through a grant from the United Voices Coalition. Hughes will receive 36 (15 gallon) trees and Longfellow will receive 14.
The October date is the date set aside for the planting and volunteers are greatly needed. For more information contact Lisa Nelson, 427-8529, or e-mail her @ lisa_nelson at earthlink.net. (I put her address in this way to avoid her getting spammed.) If you have a club, a scout troupe or a service group or a church group looking for a way to serve - here's your chance!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Citywide Conversation about homeless children

KC wants to get the work out about this great opportunity!

Children and families without homes is a growing challenge in Long Beach and across America. A child’s view of being without a home is quite different from an adult’s. When a family has no home, parents face difficult issues in their efforts to provide a safe environment for their children to thrive. Thus the approach to helping children and families without homes is different than helping homeless individuals. On October 27 we will have a chance to better understand what families must deal with and an opportunity to explore solutions. The Long Beach Area Coalition for the Homeless and the Long Beach Community Action Network invite you to attend this important dialogue.

What: Children and Families without Homes Dialogue.
When: Saturday, October 27, 2007 from 9:30am till 1pm.
Where: Cesar E. Chavez Park, Community Room, 401 Golden Ave., Long Beach, CA

Mayor Bob Foster and Long Beach First Lady Nancy Foster are scheduled to attend. Continental breakfast will be served at 9:30am with the program getting underway at 10am. There will be short multi-media presentation followed by a panel of family members experiencing homelessness and professionals in the field of social services. Then small discussion groups will explore how we can better understand the issues surrounding children and families without homes and what actions can be taken to move towards solutions.
The dialogue is being planned by the Homeless Dialogue Steering Committee, a collaboration of the Long Beach Area Coalition for the Homeless, the Long Beach Community Action Network, the Downtown Long Beach Associates, the California Conference for Equality and Justice, Children Today, Food Finders, City personnel, and private citizens whose purpose is to foster understanding of issues surrounding homelessness and promote change that will improve the quality of life for all residents of Long Beach.

The Committee develops themes and formats for a series of ongoing, community dialogues around critical issues of homelessness. The dialogues endeavor to educate the community, service providers, city departments, as well as those experiencing homelessness in order to increase awareness and foster understanding of various issues surrounding homelessness. These dialogues are intended to lead the way towards identifying objectives and actions that can result in meaningful change. The information is to be presented in a manner that places no blame and implies no shame with regard to the truth of homelessness. The dialogues are expected to empower the community and result in intentional objectives and actions to affect institutional change.

This might be something you want to check out!

To RSVP, or if you have any questions, please call Mary Coburn at 562-485-3133.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Prayer at CSULB

Yesterday at CSULB there was a gathering of some of the Christian clubs on campus to proclaim the Word of God, pray and worship. There were students asking and answering questions, praying, worshipping, preaching and just standing....some of the "standers" were asking questions and some were scoffing. There were quite a few on cell phones telling people about what was going on. Eternity alone will let us know the fullness of the results of what these very passionate young people sowed into. It must have been a "day" on God's calendar for CSULB because 50 feet away there was another ministry preaching also. And it was the day Homeland Security decided to have a drill so there were students everywhere that wouldn't have normally passed that way... There was real passion for Jesus expressed in a very public way in a very public place. It affirms everything I'm learning about how the "post-modern" generation walks out their Christian faith. I'm two generations down the road and am inspired over and over by the young people I'm in contact with in this Kingdom Causes work!!! Way to go!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Local Church Planter family looking for place to live

One of our new church planters here in Long Beach is looking for a place to live. Here is the email that we received.

Anyone have an idea to help them out!? If so, please contact us and we will get you in contact with them.

"Hi everyone:

We are asking for you to pray for our family. We just got word today from our land lady that we need to move out of our home in the next 60 days. Her daughter is getting married and needs a bigger place than were she currently is staying. We’ve loved living here. We’ve hosted so many Bibles studies and entertained a lot of people at this home. It came as a shock, but we know that God has a better plan and place for us.

We have a lot going on in our lives right now with the church plant now meeting weekly. We’d appreciate your prayers and if you know someone who is renting a house (specifically a house) at a very reasonable price in Long Beach, Signal Hill or Lakewood, please let us know.

Thanks for your prayers!

Kreng & Panya"


UPDATE : Friday, Oct 4th
To praying friends & family:

I wanted to give you an update to the recent email I sent out earlier this week. Kreng and I seem to be doing very well with the news that we have to move out of our current place within 60 days. We trust that God will work it all out and provide us even a better place than where we’re currently staying. There is a specific situation you can pray about. I believe we should pray specifically and God will answer specifically. It’s a little complicated so let me explain the details:

There is a 4 bedroom, 3 full baths house about 5 minutes north of us that could be vacant soon. The owner is a Christian and he rents it out to young families in ministry for a very low price (he does it as a ministry). The rent would be the same as what we are paying now, but we would just need to pay the utilities. It has everything and more than what we could want in a house or could ever afford to rent or buy. The current tenants (David & Gina) are a pastor of a church in La Mirada and have been commuting for 16 months. They have been trying to find a house in that area, but cannot afford the home prices. Recently, they found a house in La Mirada that they could afford and that would be ideal for their family (that was a God situation for them). David’s parents are going to help them with the house, but they first need to sell his grandma’s house in Pasadena. With the money that they make selling her house, David’s parents will help pay for the new house in La Mirada. So there are some things pending. Here are specific things to be praying for:

· David grandma’s house needs to go on the market soon (she hasn’t done that yet) and for it to sell quickly
· No complications regarding the financial aspect in order for David and Gina to get the house in La Mirada
· The timing all works out for everyone involved
· My land lord would be gracious to give us more than 60 days if we need it

Also pray for us as we realize that this is spiritual warfare. The enemy is trying to distract us as we are now going weekly in our church services. It has been a bit of distraction, but we are trying to stay focused and trusting God with everything. Even if this situation does not work out, we know God will provide another place.

We’re very exciting how God will work this all out!! Thanks for praying for us and all your encouragement.

Love,
Kreng & Panya

Monday, October 01, 2007

Healing Conferency in Laguna Niguel

For many years I was part of the Vineyard churches in South Orange county and specifically of the Mission Viejo Vineyard which has now merged with Vineyard Community Church in Laguna Niguel. Ed Piorek who is now pastor emeritus at VCC has done a conference called "The Father Loves You" for many years and is doing it again on October 12, 13 and 14 at the Laguna Niguel Vineyard. If you need a touch from the Lord, or some healing of early wounding to enable you to live more fully into your calling as a son or daughter of the Kingdom, I would highly recommend attending. Their website address is www.vccgn.org for more information. I've seen amazing things happen for people at these conferences and to my knowledge Eddie hasn't done one locally in a while, so take advantage of this opportunity.