Lee

From Mexico to Montana! Lee’s Update-

I trust that you had a great time with family and friends over Christmas and the New Year. I’m off to the Pacific Northwest early in the morning, but wanted to say “hola” and give you a brief update on what we’re up to these days.  Since the New Year I have preached at a great church in a poor area of Guadalajara called “Renacimiento”, which means- “New Birth”.  This is a great church that is very passionate in what they are doing.  Last weekend Stacey and I were in Leon, Guanajuato. We were there for an Alpha Marriage orientation course.

This past Sunday I was preaching in Aguascalientes, a church we planted many years ago.  The church is doing quite well, and it is wonderful to see so many friends continuing to do well in the Lord, and others being added to the church.  In the afternoon last Sunday I had the privilege of setting in the first elder in a new church plant 45 minutes north of Aguascalientes-a place called Loreto, Zacatecas. We ate “Pollo con Mole” a very traditional and wonderful Mexican dish for lunch, and then had a great meeting, as well as a time of fellowship!  One of the highlights there, were the people who came from another village called “La Mula”(the mule) where there is a new church being planted.  This is a very small and poor community, but it is exciting to see the enthusiasm of the people there.

Early in the morning I’m off to the Pacific Northwest.  I will be speaking this Sunday in Coeur’de Alene, Idaho.  Monday I’ll be in Portland to have meetings with Warren Stroup from Oregon, and Frank Curry from Alaska, great friends but also board members of my non-profit World Community Outreach which is the tool to we use to have funds available for all that we do here in Mexico and Latin America.  Then on the 25^th-30^th of this month I’ll be in Missoula, Montana  at Clark  Fork City Church!  This should be a great time being with them, and the team there.  A great bunch of people!

While in Missoula I will get the chance to go skiing, and also to see my son Ryan and his daughter, and our granddaughter-Addy!!!!  I would ask you to be praying for me on this trip. Not only for the preaching times, but our World Community Outreach meeting, as well as the time I will be spending with the different leaders and people.

Muchas gracias, and we’ll be in touch.——Lee

Josh

Discipleship through Community (winter/spring groups launch January 22)

Jesus told his leaders to go and make Disciples!  We can’t just be a fan of Jesus but a follower.  To be a follower means to leave our old life and give our new life completely to him.  One of the most important things you can do in church life is to connect with Community.  We have worked really hard at developing a system of community groups and can’t wait to see this ministry explode in our church.  We have grown from only 3-4 community groups to over 20 in just a year.  Discipleship can’t really happen outside of healthy community.  Community Groups are the main way we will be discipling our church.  Your community group is where you are encouraged, equipped, challenged and built up relationally.  I urge you to find a group that fits you and your families needs.  Please visit the link on our home page to view a list of community groups.  We also have many opportunities through serving groups as well.  Email us at info@clarkforkcitychurch.org to find out about serving groups.

Josh

Learn more about our heart for a church plant in Spokane WA

Josh

South of the Border: Don’t miss this Mexico Update

Saludos,

As you might recall we celebrate a wonderful event each year in the month of November; FIESTA!!!

This year we had over 1,100 people in attendance from 5 different nations, celebrating the grace of God in our lives, and what He is doing with us around theAmericas.

We had friends from Mexico, USA, Brazil, Bolivia, Spain, and England with us for three days of worship, word, and great times of fellowship.

This year Leonardo an Otomi from El Bethi preached the opening session, and did a great job.  Terry Virgo preached the other main sessions from the book of Ezra, encouraging us to build God’s house, and to do it with great unity.

One of the highlights this year was our prayer/offering night, when we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together.  What an amazing time as God’s presence was so real and overwhelming, which welled up in huge shouts of joy and song, and total abandonment in worship!  You had to be there!

It was a privilege to pray for 25 church leaders from small villages and the big cities, asking God for His continued favor in their lives and endeavors.

After Fiesta I was in England with a group of leaders from around the world praying, and discussing vision and plans for the future in the coming days for New Frontiers. It’s always so good to be with leaders from other nations, each one contributing with their unique perspective as we come together from around the globe.

We’ll be in Aguascalientes this weekend participating in a wedding, as well as preaching in the church there on Sunday morning.  Sunday afternoon I’ll be up in Zacatecas speaking as well.

Stacey and I will be here in Mexico for Christmas, but hope to meet up with all of our boys in California for the New Years, Lord willing.

Thank you so much for sowing into World Community Outreach, which makes it possible for Stacey and me to be serving here inMexico.  May God richly bless you for your generosity.

You are in our hearts and prayers.

Your amigo south of the border,

Lee

Josh

From a few tutors to teaching! Our public school outreach.

(This is written by one of our outstanding volunteers at Desmet School)

My account of DeSmet:

The semester began with 4 students and the three of us teachers, all trying to figure out exactly where we were, why we were there, and what we were doing. Our mission: undertake an Algebra 1 pilot math program with advanced math students who would be skipping 8th grade math and jumping into Advanced Geometry their freshman year of high school. This will ultimately put them on the fast track AP program, and allow them to take Calculus and potentially receive college credit. While this program exists in other schools in the county, we were the first in the history of DeSmet school. The first day was somewhat solemn as we began to introduce ourselves and set forth a plan that we hadn’t exactly put together. As weeks progressed, the kids broke from their shells and we teachers firmed out our plan and teaching styles. Through emails, meetings, facebook and trial & error we began making huge leaps.

Teaching at DeSmet, for me, is an answer to prayer. I had recently ask God to provide a new opportunity in which I could teach math without actually going to school. Two weeks later, I was standing in front a marker board with 4 students staring at me. Personally, I had never tutored such a small group and didn’t have a unique teaching style of my own fully developed. I found that as the weeks went by, I figured out how to teach more effectively, efficiently and how to reach each individual student. Finally, as we developed more rapport, I began to take on one final (and difficult) task: class room management. To find answers to a few of our most pressing questions, I met with Mike Marcinkowski at Big Sky High School and picked his brain on a wide variety of topics ranging from pacing, group lessons, testing, homework, midterms, etc.

As a new teacher, working with (now) 5 brilliant and hard working students is a privilege and blessing. Its amazing to be able to work through the lessons and chapters together and give individualized attention to each student. Although we don’t talk about spiritual issues, we do share other parts of our lives including hunting trips, recent movie outings, griz games, etc.

We recently completed Chapter 4 and the lowest score on the test was a B+, with 3 of the 5 receiving A’s! The midterm grades were all A’s and B’s. As we press on, the classroom continues to become more dynamic and I am very excited to be a part of these kids lives.

ejk

Josh

Picture Perfect // New Series

Picture perfect: We all have seen that perfect family. Unfortunately at some point we all have set false expectations of what we want OUR family life to look like. This can be skewed if it is not based on Gods unchanging Word and principles. Often that “Perfect” family we esteem to be is a just a mask- much like a holiday picture. If we were all honest we could all say there are times where we put on a happy face and act as if all is A-OK.

Joshua 24:15 says- But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

What a mission statement!  We are going to spend the next 8 weeks digging into the issues of family, marriage, forgiveness, and leading a godly family. Don’t miss this engaging and critical series at Clark Fork City Church, and make a point to invite friends and those who need to hear God’s truth on these critical issues. 

Josh

Andrew

Virgo’s Visit Recap

Hey everyone, I just wanted to take a brief minute and tell you what a great weekend we had a church last weekend!  I kept meaning to do this earlier in the week, but kept getting sideswiped.  Plus on top of being a bit buys, my family and I have been moving into a new house.

Last weekend we had the awesome opportunity to host Terry and Wendy Virgo from England.  Terry and Wendy founded the Newfrontiers International movement and have a huge heart for us here in Missoula.  They have visited often which has always been a blessing, and they always leave a rich deposit for us spiritually.  This last visit was definitely more of the same.  I wanted to highlight a few of the things I walked away with following the weekend.

I got a chance to hear personally from Terry about his global travels and about churches in Dubai, Paris, Kingston England, South Africa and many many more.  What I love about Newfrontiers is its global reach.   When Terry comes it provides us with a great snapshot of the encouraging things happening around the globe all in the name of Jesus.  In Missoula, and any local church for that matter  it is easy to get self-focused and lose sight of the “big picture”–we are part of a church much larger than ourselves.  God has a Global church and its ranks are on the rise!  God will build His church and I love to hear around that glob that is happening!

On Sunday morning Terry shared at our morning gathering and brought an excellent and timely message.  A few quotes that I remember from the morning are “God has chosen us specifically,” “Put to death other rulers in your life,” “If you’re a Christian you should have a sense of destiny,” “Don’t just have a go, you’ve got to have a dream,” “Maturity comes from taking up responsibility,” and lastly “Finish the work God has appointed before you.”  I don’t know about you but I love being spurred on in the work God has for us, and following last weekend I am anxious to get to work!

Sunday afternoon we hosted an additional time for Terry to speak to the church, with a time of prayer and worship following.  It is fairly incredible to listen to Terry he speak—he has such a “conversational” method of communicating while making complex ideas come alive.  He could preach for hours and maintain an audiences interest.  I know I speak for many when I say that is a rare gifting!  Sunday afternoon Terry took the opportunity to speak from 2 Timothy 1-14.  He really expressed the fact that here was Paul writing to his protege Timothy who was timid, sick, afraid, and young—isn’t it amazing how God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise!  If God chose Timothy as a leader than we certainly could be a leader as well.  I know I find myself discounting my qualifications to serve the Lord.  In fact just this week I was helping in my son’s kindergarten class and one of his classmates walked right up to me and said “my dad is WAY taller than you!”  Ouch, of course my pride was injured!  But, God throughout history has chosen the least likely in order that HIS name will be made great.  Following Terry’s message I felt encouraged in walking out who God called me to be.  I know prophetically I have received that very same message several times.

Wrapping up his time of teaching Terry touched on walking in our giftings, and the spiritual gifts being fanned into flame in us.  He shared personally how even he has struggled to walk boldly in the area of praying for the sick—he wrapped up his teaching by inviting up people who had back pain and praying for legs to grow, backs to be straightened and muscles to be strong.  At least 20 people came up and Terry prayed for them—many of whom you could visibly see one leg had been shorter.  After pray most of the peoples legs grew even, pain left, etc….many people felt warmth or heat in effected areas!  It was incredible to watch the expectant people and see God move.  We also had people filled with the Spiri, and many encouraged in prayer.  It stirred in me a desire for a new season of God on the move.  Oh how I long to see God move, people healed, set free, and caught up on God’s mission.  We are a people who have access to the Spirit, and are a spirit-filled community.  I know that I am more personally expecting these kinds of things TO BE HAPPENING MORE!

Sorry for the long post, but we had a great time in God last weekend.  I pray that as a church we would desire these things to be happening more throughout the week in our homes, jobs, schools and wherever we go, and I also am praying that our expectations would rise for God to move EVERY time we gather as His people.  Please join me in praying for those things—hope to see you soon!

You can also listen to Terry’s Sunday morning message by going to our website and clicking on our podcast link , or by clicking here

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/clark-fork-city-church/id390001111

Andrew Squires

Josh

Mexico anyone?

We have an oppurtunity to send a few people with a collabritive team to Mexico from February 10-25th.  Here is a video of the team last year to give you a taste of what amazing work is happening south of the border with Lee and Stacey and the NF churches there.  Contact our offices for more information.