Pacific Southwest District of The Wesleyan Church

Pastoral Newsletter for

January 2012 Pastoral Newsletter

Follow – Wesleyan Youth Conference

The December 29-30, 2011 Follow Conference was a tremendous success.  Four hundred sixty-seven young people gathered at Skyline Wesleyan Church to hear tremendous preaching and great worship.  Here are the results:

            Salvation – 74

            Rededication -67

            Call to ministry – 72

            Call to serve – 89

            Commitment to deny oneself and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24) – 197

This was a life-changing event for so many.  If your church did not participate, I hope you will encourage your young people to attend the International Wesleyan Youth Conference in Louisville, KY in December 2012.  Help them organize some fundraisers.  They will be our leaders in the coming years.

February Ministers and Mates Retreat

Our annual Ministers and Mates Retreat will be held at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, California.  Please save the dates of February 21-23, 2012.  The speaker will be Dr. Wayne Schmidt, the head of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University.  Dr. Schmidt previously was the pastor of Kentwood Community Church in Michigan which became one of the largest churches in The Wesleyan Church under his leadership. 

Christmas offering for Church Planting

Thank you for participating in the Christmas offering for church planting.  Our district continues to expand with new churches being planted and some existing churches joining our district.  The offering will be used to further expand our district.

Our Mission Statement for starting new churches:

“It is the mission of the Pacific Southwest District to create an environment that encourages and empowers local churches of the district to plant churches that plant churches through:

Calling pastors and congregations to prayer and fasting

Training of church planters and pastors of church-planting churches

Assisting financially

Developing strategies for regional church planting

PRAYER REQUESTS

Be in prayer for our pastors and ministries on the district.  This month please be in special prayer for the following:

Les Blank (retired pastor) has multiple health issues including memory loss.  Please pray for him.

Luciano Cariaga (pastor of Hope Christian Fellowship in Vista, CA) is continuing to recover from a stroke which he had in February.  He has paralysis on his left side, but is able to think clearly and to speak.  He continues to undergo rehabilitation at home, but the progress is very slow.  Please be in prayer for his complete recovery.

Marvin Dennis (pastor of Good Shepherd Wesleyan in Carson City, NV) continues to deal with multiple health issues, including the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Carol Garlow (on staff at Skyline Wesleyan Church where her husband, Jim, is the senior pastor) Over the past four years, you have prayed for Carol’s complete healing.  They are continuing to give her chemo but she misses some weeks due to complications. Her symptoms keep changing and this is a concern.  She needs your prayer support.  For further updates please go to http://www.skylinechurch.org.

Ben Yazzie (pastor of Dineh Wesleyan Church in Keams Canyon, AZ) continues to have dialysis three times a week. Please continue to pray for Ben.

Mileage rate for 2012

If you are reimbursed by your church on a mileage basis, the Internal Revenue Service has determined that the mileage reimbursement for work related driving will be 55.5 cents per mile beginning January 1, 2012.

CAMP DATES

Northern Zone - Youth Camp

June 17-22, 2012 Sky Mountain Christian Camp

Contact: Pastor Jeff Jennings:  jjennings@faithlegacychurch.com

            916.284.5550

Contact:  Brennan McCurdy:   bmccurdy@faithlegacychurch.com

            916.893.7310

Eastern Zone - Youth Camp

June 11-16, 2012  Fuge Camp, Glorieta, NM

Contact: Chris Hendrickson  chendrckson@asarco.com

La Mesa – Skyline Wesleyan Church

Combined High School and Middle School

July 23-27, 2012 Oakbridge Conference Center, Ramona, CA

Contact:  Polly Bild:   pbild@skylinechurch.org

                        619.660.5000 x5433

Oklahoma Wesleyan University Visit 

Now is the time to begin thinking about how your church can promote and support our area university – Oklahoma Wesleyan University.  Please get a group together and visit the campus. 

The Pacific Southwest District has a travel scholarship available to assist a prospective student with expenses in visiting the campus.  The scholarship is $200.00 for the first visit to the campus.  The student must be in high school to receive the scholarship. 

FLAME Classes

There are a number of courses being offered this year in other districts of The Wesleyan Church.  You are encouraged to attend these classes.  For details and registration information go to www.wesleyan.org/flame.

The Pacific Southwest District will be offering a scholarship for individuals who desire to attend a FLAME course outside of our district boundaries.  The scholarship is $200.00 for the first course in a week and $100.00 if you take a second course in the same week.  Please call or email the district office to receive this scholarship.

CLASS in Southern California

Methods of Bible Study

Dates:  Four Saturdays (January 28^th, February 4^th, 11^th, and 18^th)

Times:  9:00am till 2:00pm

Location:  Wesleyan Christian Fellowship, 13300 Indian Street, Moreno Valley, CA

Instructor:  Dr. Larry G. Orr

To register, contact Pastor Larry Orr at larwcf@verizon.net, office 951.924.5466, cell 951.809.1852

Cost:  $100.00

Sanctity of Human Life Resources

The National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is held on the Sunday in January that falls closest to the day on which the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973.

In 2012, Sanctity Of Human Life Sunday will take place on January 22nd. In honor of this important day, Care Net and Frontlines Publishing have partnered to create two beautiful, customizable SOHLS brochures that can be purchased and shared with your church or community.

If you are interested in helping promote National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and the work of local pregnancy centers at your church you may order online at www.sohls.org or contact Care Net at 205-979-7909 or Frontlines at (616) 248-4300.

E-zine – Sign up-NOW!

E-zine is the electronic newsletter of The Wesleyan Church. Updated regularly, E-zine will give you the latest news of the General Church, district, and local church events and ministries.  You can sign up on the home page of the headquarters website:  www.wesleyan.org.

The Great Co-op Mission

Update from Nicky Pena

Greetings from Puebla, Mexico and the Instituto Biblico Peregrino! At the Bible school this semester we have the students on campus full time. Having the students on campus has been great and a bit challenging. The responsibilities of all the school administration that goes with this has been quite a new experience for us. So much to do, class prep and teaching, meal planning, shopping and cooking, as well as all the other day-to-day tasks have kept us very busy morning to night, even on weekends. 

Arnulfo is still pastoring our local church and I am teaching a women’s Bible study during the week as well. It has been a totally different experience having the students here all the time. While costly, I am convinced it’s an important part of their preparation for ministry.  For our third year students, this is their first year on campus full-time and both we and they notice what a difference it is. 

There is much to learn Biblically, spiritually, theologically and relationally. I am reminded of the Proverb that says “as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another”. You know how that iron gets sharpened?  Friction!  Abrasion!  There’s a “polishing” and “sandpapering” effect to community life. Thomas de Kempis has a great chapter on that in Imitation of Christ. Arnulfo and I both noted that these third year students seem not as far along in their formation than other generations have, and I think it is precisely that lack of having to deal so intensely with their colleagues on a daily basis. We are constantly telling our students that their ministries are all about people – dealing with people – people at all different stages of their spiritual walk, different levels of spiritual maturity, people who disagree with them about how to “do church.” Nice people, grumpy people.  Tired and overworked people, sinful people and some well-meaning but misguided people.  Some of their own church members are going to be – gasp – hard-to-love people. Yes, they indeed need sound theology, a deep understanding of all of the Bible, good rules of interpretation, and more as they study in class every day. But the Apostle Paul said, in so many words, you can have the best ministry tools in the world, but if you don’t have love, it’s just a bunch of noise. Jesus boiled everything down to, “Love God and love people”. That’s what their ministry is going be all about, showing people God’s love. They actually have learned more about that with their roommates than sitting in my Spiritual Formation class. God is indeed preparing these future ministry leaders for real world ministry work.

One of the projects we worked on for a while was a new water cistern for the student dining area. This may not sound impressive to you, but if you've not had enough water to cook or do dishes and spending extra money on paper plates for months, you would really appreciate it! The students spent quite some time digging the hole for the tank which was recently installed. Then the plumbing was hooked up to the roof tank and the electrical connection made to pump water up to the roof tank. Praise God for running water! Special thanks to Dave Burgess and Joe from Fountain City Wesleyan who were here working on the Bible School this fall. This is Dave's seventh trip! Thank you so much guys!

Thank you all for praying and giving to enable us to be here participating in God’s work to make His changing love known to the Mexican people! We appreciate you all and know that your prayers and finances make this all possible by God’s grace.

Love in Christ, Nicky, Arnulfo, Amanda and Daniela Sofia

Check out the Facebook page of the Instituto Biblico Peregrino for more pictures.  Arnulfo also tends to put pics up more frequently on his Facebook page (Arnulfo Purata Salido) and check out the Bible school’s website at http://www.ibpmexico.com

New mailing address at the Bible School is:
Avenida México-Puebla #104
Cuautlancingo, Puebla  CP 72700
México                                                                         Phone:  011-52- 222- 226 -9806

Our District Mission and Vision is EveryOneSupport1 of our Missionaries from the Pacific Southwest District.

Promoting the support of Missions work locally, nationally and internationally.

Informing you so you can Know Them, Support Them & Send Them.

Matthew 28:19 (NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…

Pastor Joe Martin

858-486-0100  Office              858-722-1444 Cell      pastorjoe@amazingfaith.org