Joseph has been partnering and serving with Pastor Marco for the past 3-4 years.  They meet regularly to pray, talk, and connect and we have been so encouraged to watch the Lord use him and his church to reach the city of Covina through his outreaches, such as Night With God (which we have shared about over the years). Recently Pastor Marco and his church have begun a weekly Food Drive with Tacos for his community. We have had such the blessing of serving alongside him to bring the love of Jesus to the community through providing food to those in need, having spiritual conversations, praying for each    person that comes and inviting them to church.

Please pray for these times every Thursday in the community.  Pray for those who come—that they would feel cared for by the love of Jesus and for conversations about the Lord and prayers. Pray many would come to the Easter service this week as well.  Pray for Joseph and Pastor Marco as they are also planning and praying about their next Night With God Outreach in April on the topic of Life After Death. 

“I prayed that prayer for the first time tonight. Now what?”

Our vision is that every man, woman and child know the gospel and experience the love of Jesus! Given the current missional reality in the U.S., that means the gospel must be shared and demonstrated to 160 million people who identify as non-Christian. We must partner with other leaders to reach this scope. Last month, the national team Joseph serves on with Cru Church movements partnered with the Jesus Film Project and a Cru Campus ministry to host Story of the Soul — a virtual coffeehouse where we discover stories the soul is telling through art, film, poetry, music and classic literature. Together we  explored this theme: I think I matter. Sometimes I’m not sure. I’m here, do you see me? Can you take me as I am, whoever I am? 

 80 students and staff attended from 12 campuses and six cities. 4 students indicated that they placed their trust in Christ, and another 12 want to talk further about Jesus and their spiritual journey!

Here is what some of the students said immediately after the event:

· “I have never experienced an event that moved me as much as this one in a time of need.”

· “I am trying to get god.”

· “This was a comfortable, safe space to be vulnerable in community.”

·  “It really made me think about my feelings & relationship with God.”

·  “Sometime, I’d like to share about my spiritual journey., I’m curious about Jesus. I’d be open to talking about this more.”

· “This was not at all what I was expecting to do tonight but I really enjoyed the conversation!” 

· “I prayed that prayer for the first time tonight. Now what?”

Family Update:

Happy Resurrection Day!  We pray each one of you are experiencing the presence of the Lord in 2021 and especially as we reflect and rejoice in how He has carried us through 2020 and we now celebrate Easter. 

Thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and support to us over the years!

Joseph has been meeting regularly with the staff of a local church to discuss how to help the church grow, increase the quality and quantity of leaders within the church and to see more people reached with the gospel.

Joseph has been helping the staff create a discipleship and leadership development process over the past year. Last month the church kicked off a sermon series called “ReImagining Church.” This shared the vision of decentralizing the leadership of the church and multiplying leaders and disciples within the church.  This will develop leaders who will    direct multiple locations of the church (micro-sites) that will foster the components of Worship, Mission and Community.  This will be done in 3 phases: Discernment, Development and Deployment.

We are now finishing up the first phase and are starting the development of the micro-sites and the leadership teams, who will direct each location.  This is a super exciting process and post-Covid we envision sending out more teams into locations that need the Gospel.  We would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and God’s continued leading in phase 2.

Why Church Movements?

Similar to when we were in Campus Ministry and our heart’s desire was to start movements where college students would regularly share their faith; our desire now is to help churches create movements where  members would regularly share their faith. This is why we are now part of Cru Church Movements in the U.S.

Joseph is part of the Cru Church Movements National Leadership Team  and they meet regularly to help give vision, direction and shepherd the 90 staff within 35 cities around the United States. Last month the leadership team met again for an extended time together.

In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9

Unlike in August when the leadership team met to set goals for the year, these meetings were more about praying, reflecting and evaluating. As humans we can plan and make goals but sometimes a mid-course  correction is helpful to align ourselves to God and allow Him to establish our steps. Please continue to pray for God’s leading and wisdom for this leadership team as they lead the staff nationally and work with national partners to see more missional movements within churches reach people with the Gospel.

Family Update:

As February comes to a close we continue to marvel how time moves by so quickly.  The beginning of 2021 has brought us many ups and downs.    Jessica recently joined the worship team at our local church and is loving being able to use her passions to help others enter into worship.  Daniel continues to amaze us with his hard work as a Freshman in college (persevering virtually) and working almost full-time at Chick-fil-A as he takes classes.  Luke continue to heal—the diagnosis so far is at least 6 weeks of no pressure on his foot and 3-4 months before he can try to turn his ankle. He is becoming very mobile on his crutches and knee scooter.  And Aleeya continue to grow by leaps and bounds in her schooling, speech and height!

Thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and support to us over the years.  We know all the praises we have are because of the prayers of so many!

This past Christmas we partnered with Fuente para las Naciones, a church in South LA that Joseph has been helping develop processes and training to plant 10 bilingual Spanish speaking churches.  We joined with them to help provide a Christmas toy drive for their community.

The church desired to pass out gifts as a way to not only care for the families within the church, but also as an outreach.  Each child received a gift for themselves and also a gift for a friend as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them as well.  We were able to help Pastor Chad and his wife raise the funds, through our local church, to provide these gifts.

It went wonderful as the leaders of Fuente para las Naciones were also able to talk with the children within their church and their families about sharing their faith and the meaning of Christmas with others in need.  They were able to bless and talk with several families after the service that were walking down the street in front of the church. 

New Staff Training for Cru Church Movements!

We recently welcomed 15 new people into the Church Movements ministry and Joseph was able to be a part of their initial training.  Joseph is on the national team of Church Movements with 10 other men/women who set the direction of the ministry.  They also oversee 85 staff—in their development and care.

For the New Staff Training they talked about the mission and vision of church movements, understanding the roles and the teams they are a part of, the tools and processes of church movements and the structure.  The 4 main objectives are: Connecting to Jesus, Developing Missional Leaders, Multiplying the Church, and Partnering to Serve. Joseph led the time on multiplying the church.

Please pray for them as they partner with local churches in one of the 35 cities nationally we have ministry in.  Pray for them as they develop community and gain connections with their teams so they feel supported as they do ministry.  And please pray they would be effective as they partner with churches to help churches share the Gospel and see many more come to believe in Christ.

Family Update:

As we reflected on 2020 and began 2021 we are thankful for so much the Lord has been doing.  Even though 2020 was hard in so many ways the Lord has always been faithful to draw us closer to Him and we saw  many blessings throughout 2020 within our family.  Slowing down, having all 4 kids home again, family games & laughter, talking with our neighbors more, appreciating the little things, our health, deeper friendships, and processing life in 2020 as a family have been highlights. 2021 has now begun and Luke has moved back into his college apartment finishing up his Junior year.  Daniel is home for virtual college and we are continuing to be virtual in most of our life (schooling, small groups at church, meetings, therapies, etc..) but we are hopeful for change!

We would like to ask for prayer also for our oldest, Luke.  About 2 weeks ago we were hiking in the   Malibu area as a family and he jumped off a rock and landed in a random position on his foot that caused tremendous damage.  He tore ligaments badly, bruised bones deeply, and a small bone with ligaments attached to it broke off.  He is unable to move anything at all and is in a lot of pain.  After x-rays, MRIs, CT-Scans and talking to a specialist and surgeon it was decided he will have surgery in a week to reattach the bone.  He has a long road of recovery ahead of him.  Please pray for him as he loves his sports and is so active with working out and hiking and sports. Pray for his healing and his spirits during this time.  We know God has him and has a plan through all of this.  Thank you for praying and loving our family. 

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are so thankful for all your prayers, encouragement and support to us this year. We know 2020 has been a hard year for so many people and we pray that Christ may be near to you during this time.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Joseph, Michelle, Luke, Daniel, Jessica and Aleeya Butlig

This month we wanted to share an update and praise from our partnership with Mercy Nepal! We have been working closely with Pastor Krishna here in America for the past 2 years to    develop sewing centers throughout Nepal.  Pastor Krishna has a ministry within Nepal called “Mercy Nepal” and Joseph has been helping him plan, resource, pray and form sewing centers. 5000-6000 Women and Children are trafficked every year from the Nepal border into New Delhi, India.  Because of extreme poverty in these areas women and children are very  vulnerable to traffickers promising them a better life in India –which in reality is bondage into the sex trafficking industry. 

These sewing centers empower the local women to begin micro-enterprises to support their families and prevent the women and children from being trafficked from Nepal into India.  This past month a new  sewing center was established to be self-sustaining in the city of Bardiya. We rejoice in this sewing center that is teaching women valuable sewing skills to begin their own businesses and provide for themselves and their children. And we rejoice that through this sewing center 18 people have come to know the Lord recently and were baptized! Please continue to pray for this center, the new believers, the women learning a new skill, and for our desire and plans to establish 1 new center every year throughout the country of Nepal.

Joseph was recently a part of a virtual GACX (Global Alliance for Church Multiplication) conference consisting of 3800 people from 130 different countries, with translations in 8 different languages! GACX is a global coalition of 91 church networks and mission agencies working to saturate the world with multiplying disciples, leaders, and churches.  Area leaders from each country came together for multiple days to have conversations on disciple making, digital evangelism, city collaboration and to be a part of 14 different types of workshops.  Since Cru Church Movements is the U.S expression of  Cru Global Church Movements, Joseph is one of the area leaders for the U.S.  It was such an encouragement to share, pray and encourage one another from all around the world. 

To read more about it check it out here: https://gacx.io/news/online-gacx-forum-connects-co-laborers-from-130-countries

Announcing a new President for Cru—leadership recently transitioned within Cru. Steve Douglass followed Bill Bright as Cru’s president many years ago.  Unfortunately within the past 2 years Dr. Douglass’ health has declined.  In light of this Cru, recently celebrated the transition of appointing Steve Sellers as the new Cru President. Please pray for this transition of leadership.

Thank you for continuing to pray for our family and the ministry here in Los Angeles.  We are continuing to do virtual school and adjust to this new normal of living.  We are looking forward to Daniel returning home from college for the holidays and having a full house again! Thank you for your constant prayers, support and encouragement to us.  Please email or call us and let us know if we can be praying for you in anyway as well. 

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14             

Even when things may feel hopeless, chaotic, confusing—God is ALWAYS moving!  This has been a month of joy as we celebrated new baptisms in the Epiphany Church family!  One of the   churches Joseph works closely with (Epiphany Church in South LA) recently took to the beach to celebrate 5 children who have given their hearts to Jesus and wanted to be baptized. After going through a process within the church of hearing and understanding the gospel of Jesus, these children wanted to publicly declare their love for Jesus.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3) The faith of a child is so  powerful and we rejoice with these 5 children who have decided to follow Jesus and be baptized!!

Please pray for these children to grow closer to  Jesus.  Pray for wisdom for their parents as they seek to continue to teach their children how to love and follow Jesus all of their lives.

PARTNERING TO MAKE JESUS KNOWN, MULTIPLY THE CHURCH AND SERVE THE CITY

Joseph is part of the national leadership with Cru Church Movements.  As well as serving locally here in Los Angeles, he helps lead the National Church Movements division of Cru with these other 11 men and women.  They oversee the 83 staff in 37 different cities through the U.S.  This September this leadership team met (virtually) for multiple days and hours to plan for the coming year. http://www.churchmovements.com How can we best communicate and demonstrate the gospel to every person, so that every man, woman and child would know the gospel and experience the love of Jesus Christ? In the United States there are:

160,000,000 people are unchurched

2,500,000 leave the church every year

360 unreached people groups reside in the U.S

Please pray for Joseph and the National Team as they encourage, train, lead, and oversee the staff around the country to reach those who do not know Jesus.  It has been tricky and tiring to plan and meet all virtually these past 6 months—but please pray that the Lord would continue to lead and guide them with wisdom. 

Our Prayers and Vision for 2020-2021 is to:

Train 3,750 people in

1,250 people in Disciple Making

Partner to help start 500 new Churches or Missional Communities

Thank you for continuing to pray for our family and the ministry here in Los Angeles.  This has definitely been a strange 2020—but we are so thankful God is always working and with us now matter what we are facing.  Please pray for the wildfires that continue to burn here—the air has been quite smoky and ash is everywhere, but recently we have been seeing more blue skies once again.  Thank you for your constant prayers, support an encouragement.  Please email or call us and let us know if we can be praying for you in anyway as well. 

EXCITING NEW PARTNERSHIPS

Planning, praying and partnering together to help end sex trafficking. Joseph has been friends with these 2 for years and it is such a blessing to now bring them together in partnership to fight against sex trafficking.

Jason and Joseph have been friends for over 2 decades. Jason was a student at Moorpark College when we began ministry and Joseph helped him start ministries at Moorpark College and Cal-State Northridge. Jason is now the community engagement director for SoCal with Thrivent Financial.  Thrivent is a Christian financial organization that provides financial advice, investments, insurance and generosity programs for others. https://www.thrivent.com/                                                 

Joseph has known Katelyn for the last 5 years serving together on the leadership for FIAT (Faith Initiative to Abolish Trafficking) in Los Angeles. She is now the national director for church mobilization for IJM (International Justice Mission).

Joseph, Jason and Katelyn are partnering together to help churches be involved in ending sex trafficking. Thrivent members are given $250 twice a year to form a team of friends (Action Teams) to reach out and live generously. We are partnering together to help these action teams start Freedom    Sunday campaigns through IJM.  https://www.ijm.org/freedom-sunday  A Freedom Sunday campaign is a a Sunday committed to providing an opportunity for a church to deepen it’s understanding of God’s heart for justice, discover the realities of modern slavery and join the fight to end it.

This summer Joseph finished his 11th seminary class required for Institute of Biblical Studies as a Cru staff and to be a licensed minister with Cru. 

Joseph absolutely loved his class this summer. It was focused on the Doctrine of Humanity, Doctrine of Sin, Doctrine of Christ, Doctrine of the Work of Christ and the Doctrine of Salvation.  These truths have continued to humble him, bring him such joy and peace, convict him, cause him to repent, treat humanity with more dignity and led him to worship the Lord even greater! In the midst of Covid, it was an online class taught by a professor from Western Seminary in Oregon.

Praying over our Children Daily…

Joshua 1:9 – Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Philippians 1:6 – For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Matthew 22:37-39 – And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Micah 6:8 – He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Welcome to the Fall…

We never would have imagined life looking the way it does right now, but God is faithful. We have  begun online college at Cal Poly Pomona for Luke, online high school for Jessica, homeschooling 3rd grade for Aleeya and moved Daniel  into the dorms for his Freshman year of College at CBU.  Change is so hard but we know the Lord has us in the palms of His hands. In the midst of so much change we are committing to cling to His promises and truths and pray for our children daily—because the greatest thing in this life is to know God, love Him deeply and follow Him daily.

            We have been deeply grieved by the pain all around us in our country right now. With Covid19, job losses, stress of quarantining, sicknesses, churches unable to meet, the death of George Floyd bringing the pain and injustice towards people of color to the light, high emotions and pain all around us  – 2020 has been a HARD year.  But we have hope for our future. There have been many eyes opened to the pain and injustice around us and we have been praying, listening, learning and engaging in many conversations.

Part of the Statement from Cru:

We believe every human being is made in the image of God and we affirm the God-given worth, dignity and equality of men and women from every tribe, language, people and    nation. As followers of Jesus we are instructed to pursue righteousness and justice, personally and throughout our  culture. The Bible calls us to love one another (Matthew 22:39), bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2) and to consider not only our needs but the needs of others (Philippians 2:4). We are commanded to act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). To read the entire statement: https://www.cru.org/us/en/about/response-death-george-floyd.html

Joseph was also a part of a Racial IQ Zoom time with Epiphany, a local church we helped plant in South LA.  These conversations were to help the leadership learn how to speak, think, have  conversations with multiple ethnic communities in a multi-ethnic church, about racism, justice and reconciliation. It is so important for us as believers and the church to speak in a way that’s Christ centered and gospel centered. If we don’t, unbelievers will continue to see the church as irrelevant.  We are helping the church to have winsome spiritual conversations and equip them for discipleship in the area of justice.

We recently were so happy to be able to participate in a drive-by baby shower for this sweet girl, *Tamara (not her real name).  A ministry we work with often, EveryOne Free in Pomona, organized a drive by baby shower to bless *Tamara with much needed  supplies.  She was in great need for supplies for her unborn baby and we were able to help gather some friends and many others from Purpose Church to decorate our cars and show love in a tangible way.  *Tamara was freed from Trafficking and is now choosing life for her unborn baby.  Please continue to pray for *Tamara as she  adjusts to being a new mom and continues in her own healing from the past.

First there’s a few, then there’s some, then there’s many, then there’s many more.

Online Sent 6:7 and Changing Face of Evangelism Training

We recently hosted 310 pastors, church planters and mission leaders at four online training events – in both Sent 6:7 and Changing Face of Evangelism curricula.  Joseph was one of  6 trainers during the 3 days of training. People attended from four continents – from Mongolia, Finland, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo – and from over 40 US cities. 
 
Sent 6:7 is a disciple-making process to equip people to initiate, build, and multiply faith communities (churches & discipleship groups), so that every follower of Jesus has a place for connection, growth and training for mission.  The Changing Face of Evangelism and the Well-being of the City  focuses on motivation, theology, tools and training for conversational and comprehensive evangelism. 

Look at What God is doing!

 “Thank you very much! It was great, Glory to the Lord! God strengthen you and bless your heart for Him!” – Simon, Congo 

“I will introduce Sent 6:7 to all the leaders in our country. Can you join us as a coach?” – Vili, Finland

 “I trained 20 church leaders to use our launch strategy in each of their small groups.”– Mark, Kansas City

“I coach 9-10 church planters, and will introduce this process to them!” – John, Minnesota 

Some of our Favorite Stories:

“We’ve been trying to fish without the manual for how to fish. This (training) helps us teach others how to fish without just telling them to go fish.” – Wisconsin

“I personally have been a Christian for almost 40 years and the Changing Face of Evangelism was truly revolutionary to me. The week after the training I used the “Sometime” strategy, which helped me figure out how to move from meaningful conversation to spiritual conversation with a friend from the gym.  We have gotten together many times for coffee since then, and I was able to share the gospel recently and introduce her to the idea of having a personal relationship with God.” – Missouri

“I started two Launch Groups for Pastors/Christian workers in my area (each group has three participants) just before Covid-19 forced us into isolation. My pastor friends have enthusiastically embraced doing Launch online. In fact, my pastor (who is among the trainees) has asked me to join his discipleship group to walk the four young guys he is discipling through Launch. We are also exploring/planning avenues for offering more Launch Groups or Launch trainings this summer or next fall at our church.” – Atlanta Metro 

“The Sent 6:7 training renewed my hope. My hope that God will make new creations through evangelism, He will make new Christ-centered communities through equipping the church and raise up new laborers through discipleship. I believe Sent 6:7 is a path that God is using to achieve that hope.” – Texas

This month we celebrate Daniel’s High School Graduation!  It has definitely been a Senior Year he didn’t expect.  We feel his sadness about missing out on all the Senior activities such as Prom, GradNight, Senior Sunsets and even an in-person Graduation to walk across the stage. He is especially missing just being with friends before they all go off to different colleges. He continues to work hard and finish his year virtually in the midst of it all, as well as working many hours at Chick-fil-A to save for a car for college.  

We are so very proud of him and know the Lord has great plans for his future!  We thought it would be fun to bless Daniel with words of encouragement from others—and ask, if you would desire to, please feel free to send him a card or letter at our address below.  We know he would feel so loved and celebrated by knowing others care and are praying for him—as we are unable to truly celebrate him with a large gathering during COVID19.  Thanks so much!! 

Please also email us if we can be praying for you specifically during this difficult time as well. 

“How do you have peace in the middle of a pandemic? How do you have faith over fear and an unknown future? Here is how- you trust Jesus with your life.”  David Platt

Our lives and ministry has been turned upside down during this time, as we are sure yours has as well.  Zoom is a new member of our family as we speak to Zoom multiple times a day! Our children are home from school—everything is virtual, Aleeya’s therapies are virtual, dance classes (which are quite a sight to watch!), art classes, our weekly small group, youth group, doctor appts, seeing friends, game nights, and ALL ministry is virtual now.  We miss the face-to-face, are mourning Daniel’s High School senior year and  graduation that has been cut short and made virtual. We are trying to be creative in connecting with others around us, supporting friends and reaching out to neighbors. We pray you are all doing well also—and please reach out if we can pray or help you in anyway, or even just to talk!

During this time with the coronavirus, fear is gripping the hearts of people around the world. There is a mountain of anxiety and alarm, and it is still building. It is as real as the virus itself—but it is treatable. There are people in need that we can reach out to help. Like a fireman runs to the fire, the church needs to respond to crises around us. We who are the church need to stand up and be the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.”   Franklin Graham

Joseph recently had the privilege to help install a new pastor at a church plant in Claremont. Solid Rock Church (which Joseph helped plant 2 years ago) has now planted a new church (First Love) that is currently reaching out to the Claremont Colleges.  Joseph helped them walk through the qualifications for an elder/pastor, pray and install Pastor Michael.  We are excited for Michael and his wife, Lani, as they minister to the city around them and we love seeing churches plant new churches to reach Los Angeles!

Michael & Lani at their new baby reveal and Joseph and Michael (before social distancing!) Joseph and the elders from Solid Rock discussing qualifications for pastor/elder (Zoom style)

Ministry has also been about changing all trainings and conferences to virtual—this was/is a busy Spring as we had multiple trainings for staff and church leaders planned.  Now we are attempting to make them virtual with virtual teaching, breakout rooms and application) 

Our family has been trying to be a source of hope and encouragement to those around us.  Giving out free fruit, creating fun mazes for kids on the sidewalk, window paint for Easter and trying to meet others on our daily walks.

Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement and support to us during this time. Please let us now how we can be praying for you as well.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.” Jeremiah 17:7