Church Planting Legend ‘Loved Everyone No Matter What’

Don approached Joseph about 2 years ago and asked him to help lead a church planting organization called LARLA (Los Angeles Reaching Los Angeles).  Little did we know that through our partnership with LARLA our ministry would be so blessed and our lives so touched by the founder, Don Overstreet.  Don quickly became a friend and mentor to Joseph as a man who loved Jesus deeply and had given his entire life to serve Him in Los Angeles and around the world.  He was a part of launching more than 500 churches worldwide in his 50 years of ministry and his heart’s cry was to love everyone no matter what.  To share the love of Jesus with all.  Don passed away in December and we were blessed to share in his Celebration of Life and saw hundreds of lives he had touched right here in LA. Please pray for, LARLA, that Don had founded.  It is continuing with our leadership team and we are praying the Lord would continue to use it to saturate Los Angeles with the love of Jesus through the churches. What God has done in a little over 2 years is incredible and God is still moving powerfully ! We wanted to share some amazing praises of what the Lord has done through LARLA these past 2 years and through our leadership team (pictured below) pouring into the lives of pastors throughout LA.

We are currently working with 115 new churches! 62 in LA County and 50 all over the world. We have helped start indigenous churches all over LA.

• 20 Spanish Speaking Churches
• 7 Iranian-Armenian Churches
• 2 Nepali Churches
• 1 Nigerian Church
• 1 Kenyan Church
• 31 Multi-Cultural Churches
• And around the world in: Nepal, Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Tanzania, Cameroon, Kenya, Northern India, and Thailand.
• We have  Provided 35 Jesus Film backpacks, 4 sets of puppets (to India and Cameroon) and a motor scooter for a church planter in the Philippines.

Gospel Changes Lives from Slavery to Hope

I praise you, for I am fearfully and  wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. –  Psalm 139:14

Michelle has had the blessing of being able to be a  spiritual mentor to women in a trafficking ministry (Redeeming Love) that we are partnered with.  Redeeming Love has a safe house where women are rescued from trafficking and find peace, trauma therapy, education or job skills training, healing and experience the love of Jesus.  Each week she is part of a Bible Study with these women for exploring the faith and she also meets weekly with the ladies for spiritual mentorship.  *M and *S are 2 women in the program who recently gave their lives over to Jesus and were baptized!  God is so good! Please pray for their love for Jesus and desire to follow Him.  Please pray for these ladies as they heal from so much intense trauma, finish their high school diploma, gain job skills and begin college, and allow the Lord to heal the deep pains in their lives.  Please pray for Michelle as she loves on them and helps them seek the Lord with their questions, process life and help them to continue to grow in their relationships with the Lord.

As we do believe that every past can be redeemed, repurposed and made new.

Family Update…

Luke is awaiting college news and continuing to pray about his next steps.  Daniel is now doing track at the High School as well as recently competed in a Skills USA competition in videotech. He did a great job scoring 14th out of 65.  Aleeya has begun a jazz dance class and loves it and Jess continues to love her dance classes.  Life is full! Thank you for your encouragement, prayers and support to us and the ministry here in Los Angeles!

Human Trafficking Awareness Month

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.  Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery—a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 20.9 million people around the world. And no matter where you live, chances are it’s happening nearby. From the girl forced into prostitution at a truck stop, to the man discovered in a restaurant kitchen, stripped of his passport and held against his will. All trafficking victims share one essential experience: the loss of freedom. (PolarisProject.org)

Did you know there are:

• 20-30 Million people trafficked Worldwide
• 80% female, 50% children
• 1.5 million in the US alone

It breaks our hearts that  trafficking is all around us now.  California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the  nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.  Part of our focus in ministry is partnering with ministries and churches that are fighting sex trafficking within Los Angeles to help prevent children from the lure of traffickers as well as bring hope and the gospel to survivors rescued from trafficking.  A couple months back we were a part of an outreach to the community with a survivor named Emily, who shared her story.  Emily now works to help other women escape from trafficking and find healing.  Through Emily a young girl named *R was rescued by the police out of sex trafficking near us.  Emily connected her to a ministry, Redeeming Love, whom we partner with.  Redeeming Love provides a safe house for sex trafficking survivors and brings them job training, trauma therapy and the love of Jesus.  *R has now been in the program for 2 months working through school and trauma therapy.  Michelle is now connecting with her weekly as a spiritual mentor.  Please pray for *R as she has faced a great deal of spiritual  persecution.  Pray for her as she seeks to know “Who is God and Jesus?” and struggles in her self worth and the path ahead of her in emotional freedom and caring for  herself.  Pray she would come to know Jesus deeply and allow Him to satisfy those painful places of hurt within her. 

• • Average Age Children Enter Trafficking:

Girls: 12-14 yearsold
Boys: 11-13 years old

•  86% were from social services or foster care when they ran away and were lured into trafficking.
  

This is why there is such a need to help these young children know the signs of sex trafficking and how to prevent it from happening to them.  The Lord has opened up so many opportunities for Joseph and 2 interns from a ministry we partner with (EveryOne Free) to speak at JH and HS public schools.  One Christian health teacher of  a JH school in a high risk area has asked us to come every quarter and share with all 800  7th graders in her health classes.

• 76% of sex trafficking incidents begins on the internet or through social media— Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Kik

When we share in the schools we ask a show of hands of how many of them have been approached online through one of these apps by a trafficker.  It saddens us each time to see the many hands raised and then to hear personal stories of many of them who have been approached.

Please continue to pray that the Lord would lead us to the schools He desires to us to share at and  for His protection over the children that traffickers are targeting.

Family Update… 

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We enjoyed a relaxing time at home, exploring LA, finding “fake” snow 🙂 and seeing family.  Thank you for your encouragement, prayers and support to us and the ministry here in Los Angeles!

We hope you have a Wonderful Christmas Celebration and a Happy New Year!  Thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and support to us and the ministry here in Los Angeles.  We are so thankful for each one of you.  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We can’t believe another year is coming to an end and 2018 is almost here!  We hope you are doing wonderful and enjoyed Thanksgiving with family and friends. 

God is so good!  We are so humbled when we think back upon this year and see how the Lord has been moving, changing hearts, bringing people to Him and allowing us to be a part of His purposes.  We love seeing lives changed by the love of Jesus and it is a true joy to be used by Him to reach the city around us! Whether through partnering with others to fight sex trafficking, equipping churches to reach Los Angeles or adoption/foster-care ministry—the need is so great.

A young 16 year old girl, Estelle, near us in Covina impacted our lives recently.  Estelle was living with her mom, who is addicted to drugs, and shared how her mom was faced with a decision.  Use the money they had to care for Estelle or use the money for drugs.  Estelle’s mom chose the drugs.  Estelle’s heart broke—she felt worthless and not cared for, she felt that the drugs meant more to her mom then she did—so she decided to commit suicide.  Estelle  swallowed a bottle of pills and closed her eyes.  Praise God her father ended up coming to the home soon after and found her.  He rushed her to the hospital and the doctors were able to save her.

Soon after, Estelle heard about an event we were helping with called “A Night With God” at a local church.  She came, heard the gospel and accepted the Lord into her life!  Estelle has hope now, was baptized and is going to church.  Estelle has a purpose for living and is experiencing the Lord’s presence and love within her.  Seeing lives changed for the Gospel is our greatest passion and we rejoice in Estelle coming to know Jesus this year ! Thank you for being a part of changing Estelle’s life… bringing her hope and peace and a purpose in her life to live for Jesus! Feel free to click on the link to hear Estelle share her testimony briefly.

 
https://youtu.be/aaQE0lZd6-o

We greatly appreciate the sacrifices you are making on our behalf through your prayers and financial gifts. We can not be a part of seeing lives change here in Los Angeles without you.  THANK YOU!

This year our financial support has fallen because all giving is voluntary and we understand when circumstances change and people are no longer able to give.  We recently have been receiving short paychecks and working hard in raising additional monthly support. If you are able and would prefer to make a contribution online please go to our secure Cru giving page at     https://give.cru.org/0487483 and follow the simple instructions.

We consider it a great privilege to share our prayer needs as well!  We are grateful and take comfort in knowing you are standing with us for the gospel and for lives like Estelle. Thank you!

Because we consider it a special privilege to seek the Lord on your behalf please respond to this email and let us know how we can be praying for you as well during this holiday season.  Thank you for considering and may you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas celebrating our Lord! 

In Christ’s Love,

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

Una Noche Con Dios –  A Night with God

 In the beginning of October we had the opportunity to partner with a church in West Covina that was having an outreach to the community.

Joseph was part of the planning with Pastor Marco and it was exciting to see how the Lord moved through that evening.Joseph was part of a panel speaking about sex trafficking right here in Southern California and helping parents to know the signs of how to prevent trafficking from happening.

We were able to have a sex trafficking survivor we know come and share her story of her bravery, escaping from sex trafficking and how her life has been transformed by Jesus.  She now devotes her life to helping other women escape from trafficking.

We rejoiced in the 5 people who put their faith in Christ that evening after hearing her testimony and Pastor Marco share the gospel!   It was encouraging to see so many come to the event and also hear how Jesus is the God of Miracles!

Please pray for the upcoming Night With God events Joseph is helping Pastor Marco plan.  Pray that many people from Covina and beyond would attend and we would see many more people come to know the Lord!

If you would like to hear a testimony of a girl who came to know Jesus through one of these events check out this link!

https://youtu.be/aaQE0lZd6-o

Reaching the World through Partnerships

Joseph, Pastor Sati Adamu (Nigeria), Pastor Bernard Lobe (Cameroon) with white shirt, and Pastor Davis (Kenya) in blue shirt.

The partnership Joseph is on the leadership team for (LA Reaching LA) is partnering with International   Theological Seminary.  Pastors from overseas come to this seminary to receive theological training. LA Reaching LA is working with Pastor Sati from Nigeria to help him learn more about addiction recovery after Nigerians come to Jesus. Drugs are killing his villages and he needs help to know how to help his people in this way.  We have been taking him to a drug recovery ranch to learn how to implement this ministry back in Nigeria.

Pastor Bernard Lobe desires to start a seminary in Cameroon to train pastors working in church planting within Cameroon.  As he learns in the seminary we are also working with him to help plant Cameroon churches here in Los Angeles and mentoring him in church planting strategies to carry on to his country of Cameroon when he returns.

One of the church planting strategies we are helping these pastors learn is how to use the Jesus Film.  The Jesus Film is a ministry of Cru and shows the story of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke. This can be brought into villages and used as a tool to share the gospel.  We will be giving a Jesus Film Backpack to Pastor Sati,   Pastor Bernard and Pastor Davis to bring back to their countries. Please pray for these pastors.  That their time in seminary and with us would prepare them well to carry the gospel to the countries of Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya and the Lord would do amazing work in and through them!

Family Update… Special Moments!

Luke’s Homecoming Dance as a Senior -growing up too fast! Jessica is loving her voice lessons and dance classes! Daniel has been improving his guitar through the Azusa Conservatory of Music and Aleeya is on her first soccer team and scored a goal last week!  Life is full and we are very thankful.

This summer Michelle and I celebrated 19 years on staff with Cru! 

We recently returned from our biennial U.S Staff Conference in    Colorado.  There were 4,819 staff (and 2,082 kids!) representing 49 countries present! It was a time that broadened our world vision, equipped us more in ministry and encouraged our souls through the various speakers and seminars. The theme of the conference was “With” and there was an emphasis on oneness and unity within Cru as well as the importance of partnerships with other organizations and  churches to help fulfill the Great Commission.

Jimmy McGee III (director of Impact Movement) shared about lamenting in light of recent social justice issues.

Cru President, Steve Douglass and Judy Douglass sharing with Cru staff

Andy Crouch sharing his heart

Experiencing Encouraging, Powerful Worship times together!

Pastor Eugene Cho talks about partnership and collaboration in the Luke 5:17-20 text.

Thank you so much for your continual prayers, encouragement and support to us. We are very thankful for our time in Colorado growing in our relationships with the Lord and becoming more equipped in ministry. We thank the Lord for you.

This summer Michelle and I will be celebrating 19 years on staff with Cru! There is nothing that brings us greater joy than seeing the Lord work in people’s lives and to see people fall in love with Jesus!  This past year we have been so blessed to celebrate many people coming to faith in Christ! 

One of the churches Joseph has been working with recently celebrated 6 new decisions for Christ on Easter Sunday and 12 baptisms!  Through equipping churches in leadership development, prayer and evangelism within Los Angeles we have been blessed to see these churches reaching the communities around them with the gospel of Jesus and lives are being transformed!

As Joseph helps lead a network of 82 churches, God has helped us to reach out into the many ethnic communities within LA.  These churches are reaching people groups from around the world living right here in Los Angeles: Iranians, Mexicans, Nepalese, Filipinos, Armenians, Koreans, Cambodians and Afghans. We have been blessed to see over 120 people come to Christ through these churches this past year, including 15 High School students from Northview High School—where Pastor Marco (Pastor of a Spanish church in Covina) had spoken at and we had the opportunity to do a sex trafficking  prevention presentation at!

It is hard to imagine that we have been serving with Cru for 19 years this summer!  God has so blessed us throughout these years and we truly believe that our best years of ministry are before us!  That’s one reason why we are so excited about our US Staff Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado this summer.

In addition to some of our ongoing ministry responsibilities we will be attending our required biennial U.S. Staff   Conference this summer, July 14-21, in Fort Collins, Colorado. As we gather with over 5,000 fellow U.S. staff and hear from our leadership, we anticipate that God will broaden our perspective for the world, equip us to be more effective in our ministry roles, and enable us to go forth to bear even more fruit.

We appreciate you prayers for our time traveling to and from Colorado, as well as our time there.  Thank you so very much for your continued prayers, encouragement and support to us as we minister to the communities of Los Angeles!

We pray you will have a wonderful summer as well!

Every day 35,000 children live without a stable family in LA County

Former Foster Youth sharing about their foster home experiences

58% of youth in foster care that will graduate from high school.

60-80% of sex-trafficking victims who have a history of foster care

“What made a Difference in Your Life?”   

– Someone took the time to care (former foster youth)

10 Christian foster care ministries have come together to form a coalition to equip churches to reach the foster care system! Joseph is part of an advisory council giving input to the coalition. This month we were part of the “Ambassador” training equipping 50 people from over 20 churches. To date there are a total of 50 churches that have been through the Ambassador Training.

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Reaching the City…by equipping churches to share the gospel

Of 10 Million people in LA County, roughly 8% are involved in an evangelical church.  That means that up to 9.2 million people are not involved in a gospel preaching church.

  Joseph is on the leadership team of  “LA Reaching LA” (LARLA).  LA Reaching LA is a collaboration of of 82 churches reaching out to 88 cities of Los Angeles County.  Many of the churches are reaching ethnic communities including: Iranians, Mexicans, Nepalese, Filipinos, Armenians, Koreans, Cambodians and Afghans.  God has blessed LARLA as well in helping to start 10 churches in Nepal and the 8 churches in the Philippines.

This past month Joseph was part of a training time for the pastors of many of these churches—leading them in evangelism training and how to lead their churches to share the gospel.

Los Angeles has 400 distinct people groups   residing within it’s borders. Over 100 languages spoken – making Los Angeles a strategic city to reach to fulfill the Great Commission. 

FAMILY UPDATE~

We now have a Senior in High School, a Sophmore, a 7th Grader and a Kindergartener!  From Senior to Kindergarten—our lives are full, but so wonderful.  The kids are excited to be in summer mode and relaxing more.  Luke is working throughout the summer and loves his job.  This past month we also had Aleeya  dedicated at church and were so blessed to have her former foster mom(Tori) and her fiancée join us for the dedication!  This summer Aleeya will be the flower girl in their  wedding!!

Thank you for your continual prayers and support to us.  We are so very thankful!

We praise God for the 6 new baptisms through Solid Rock Church in Claremont this Easter!  Joseph has been working with Pastor Ruben at Solid Rock for almost 2 years and it is such a praise to see this church not only growing but reaching their community around them with the gospel of Jesus!  The mission statement of Solid Rock is: We Make Disciples, Train Leaders and Plant Churches in the  Pomona Valley.  When Joseph first began meeting with Ruben to help him do leadership  development in his church there were 4 leaders and 30 members of the church.  Now  there are 40 leaders and about 150 members!  It is exciting to see the Lord moving in and through Solid Rock Church!  This Easter Sunday Pastor Ruben had the privilege of baptizing 6 new believers and saw 16 people who shared they were interested in learning more about  Jesus or rededicating their lives to the Lord!

Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of human trafficking of any city in the US. Churches across LA are coming together to do something about it!

Joseph is part of the leadership of an organization called FIAT.  Faith Initiative to Abolish Trafficking (FIAT) is a gathering of churches who have been called to fight human trafficking in LA. FIAT meets quarterly with members of the Southern CA faith community to host workshops for training, outreach and awareness.  Recently FIAT became part of the Los Angeles Human Trafficking Task Force. The LA Task Force now consists law enforcement, CAST (provides service providers for survivors of trafficking) and FIAT (training/outreach).

Just this past February a sting was done with 474 arrested and 28 sexually exploited children rescued during a statewide human trafficking operation done by the LA Human Trafficking task force.  Please pray for us as Joseph is part of the leadership of FIAT and FIAT is now under the LA Human Trafficking Task Force.  Pray the faith community would come together to serve and share the love of Jesus with those who are being trafficked.

Lead Sheriff for the LA Trafficking Task Force Sharing

Joseph on a panel at our recent FIAT gathering

FAMILY UPDATE~

We just celebrated One Year with Aleeya in our family!  It has gone by so fast and we praise God for the ways she has become a part of us and grown in knowing she is loved deeply by her family and Jesus!

Joseph and I also celebrated our 18 year Anniversary!  We are thankful for the years God has blessed us with and this amazing adventure He has called us to as we serve Him together!