Matthew 17:20: Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Reaching the Cities with the Gospel. Our heart’s desire is to partner with churches in evangelism and discipleship to reach the city with the gospel. Recently Cru sent a videographer to Los Angeles to film Joseph on how the Lord is using him as a Partnering Church Planter and they created a couple videos to share at our Cru staff conferences. One video is about our partnership with Pastor Marco. Joseph connected with Pastor Marco from Christ First Espanol in Covina and they began to work together to share the love of Jesus with the Covina area. They began hosting Night With God outreaches together and over the years have done evenings focused on substance abuse, trafficking, religions, depression/suicide, physical abuse and many more topics. Over 20 people came to Christ through the Suicide Night With God and since then 3 support groups have been formed focusing on anxiety and depression. Another life changed is the life of Martha. Martha shared her testimony at our most recent Night With God and we praise God for her story and how the Lord is moving in her and her families life. Martha was involved in a very abusive relationship where she feared for her life. After escaping a near death experience, a friend recommended Pastor Marco’s church to her. She needed community service hours and went to the church for help. Pastor Marco offered to help and asked her if she had a relationship with the Lord. She began to cry and asked if she could begin a relationship with the Lord. Her and her whole family came to Christ and were baptized and their lives are changed dramatically.
Please watch the story Cru created on our partnership and Martha’s life changed here:
We rejoice in seeing lives truly change with the love of Jesus! Seeing deep healing happen in hearts and families transformed. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray for Martha and her husband and children as they grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Partnering Together—Business as Mission
By God’s grace we have been able to help establish the first self-sustaining sewing center in Bardia, Nepal through our partnership with Pastor Krishna here in LA! About 5,000-6,000 women and children every year are trafficked from Nepal to India. These sewing centers are allowing women to start their own business and rise above poverty to avoid being trafficked.
At this Bardia Sewing Center 18 people have come to Christ and 7 women became entrepreneurs and began their own garment making businesses and 20 additional women were fully trained and are able to be employed by a tailoring company to earn income. When they graduate the program they are either given a sewing machine to start their own business or immediately employed at a tailoring company.
Our next desire is to establish another sewing center in Chitwan, Nepal. Our prayer is that we are able to help establish a new sewing center every year within various cities of Nepal. We recently partnered with a good friend, Mindy, to make this a reality. Mindy was a former student when we were serving in campus ministry at USC. She now works as a business consultant and has a huge heart for missions and using Business as a mission. She has been using her expertise and passion to help another non-profit empower women in Ghana and we were thankful she desired to partner with us as well to serve the women of Nepal.
· Please Pray for the women of Nepal. Pray for the trainers within these training centers as they train new women.
· Pray for the sewing centers to gain traction in the communities as a business and to become self-sustaining.
· Pray for many people to come to Christ as they become part of the sewing center.
· Pray the Lord would use this business to prevent traffickers from luring victims because of poverty.
· Please pray for Covid in this area. Pastor Krishna had to cancel his trip in May to Nepal and many people are sick and dying within Nepal.
Here is the other video Cru created highlighting our partnership in Claremont as well.
Thank you for your prayers, support & encouragement to us! We hope you are having a wonderful summer thus far.
Cru City Los Angeles 