UPC HISPANIC CHURCH
Orlando | Pablo Torres
Launched: April 2018
Attendance: 25
We are so thankful to God because on April 8th we will be celebrating our first anniversary of La Viña. God has been very good to us and has allowed us to share His gospel with several Hispanic people who immediately received and welcomed the message. We have had an average of 25 attendees since our first meeting and more than half of them are newly converted. In addition God has allowed us to have a great team with very special gifts, even though some people are very new in their faith, they all are very committed.
The project itself is going very well, although we lost a family who relocated in N.Y. in the fall, since we transition from Lake Nona to the Orlando campus we have gained at least 2 more families, and we also have a couple of families who are attending our Bible studies but have not attended our Sunday meetings yet. We have certainly grown in spiritual maturity and knowledge of the Word of God, which is indispensable as we aim to grow in number, and prepare to receive and guide those who will come in the future. I am currently discipling a young man and his father. This young man has the potential to be a pastor. He devours the Bible, and God has gifted him with special discernment to understand His Word.
Please continue to support us in prayer - that God will open doors for us to provide the remaining budget for this second year. Of the $10,400 per month we need for the Hispanic church plant budget, God has provided commitments of $8,600 per month. So we are still needing to raise the last $1,800 monthly to complete the budget.
Please pray for peace and strength for our family, and also for each person who is now part of the church core group. Pray for their gifts and ministries, and for the example they are to be for those who come after them. In particular pray for Gustavo, the young man whom I hope God will call to serve in full-time ministry very soon.
GREATER HOPE CHURCH
MULBERRY | Stan McMahan
Launched: December 2017
Attendance: 105
God is continuing to work in Mulberry! Our focus this year is on continued outreach in our community and building up leaders in our new congregation. So far in 2019 we’re encouraged by continued opportunities to share the gospel with friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers who don’t yet follow Jesus. We’re also excited about multiplying Community Groups (expanding from 3 groups to 6 groups), our first retreats this Spring (men’s and women’s), and the launch of ministries to students in upper elementary, middle school, and high school. We’re continuing to pray for the growing group that attends on Sunday mornings, at our Community Groups, and in Bible studies—for conversions, discipleship, and a desire to truly belong to the church.
Our biggest prayer request continues to be faithfulness and fruitfulness as we continue our mission. We want to be faithful—to live our lives, love our neighbors, and follow Jesus because He loved us first. We want to be fruitful—to see our neighbors embrace Jesus and find life in Him. We planted Greater Hope for this very reason. Please join us in prayer for more opportunities to tell the good news of Jesus, for more conversions, and for more people who will find a place to belong in His family at Greater Hope Church.
GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH
LAKELAND | Jeremy Kemp
Launched: January 2018
Attendance: 65-80
God has been at work at Good Shepherd Church! Advent was a refreshing time, celebrating our King’s first coming and hopefully awaiting his second. We then hosted our second annual Community Christmas Eve service and had over 80 people in attendance. Just a few weeks after that, on January 13th, we celebrated our first birthday as a church. We heard testimonies from congregants who have grown in their walk with Jesus as a result of joining our plant and it was a very encouraging time. Our theme for this year is our church motto, Shepherded to Shepherd. We hope to see our people being comforted by Jesus and comforting one another well in community so that they will be poised to comfort the broken, needy, and estranged from God in SE Lakeland and beyond (2 Cor 1:3-7, John 17:22-23). Please pray as such that we would enjoy deep friendship and unity internally that would overflow as missional zeal to our city, as I believe he has already begun to do.
GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH
NORTH LAKELAND | Josh Floyd
Launched: September 2018
Attendance: 65
We launched public worship at Grace Community Church on the northside of Lakeland just 5 months ago (September '18) and so far things are going really well! We launched with 30 people out of Trinity Presbyterian in central Lakeland and we are averaging 55 people in attendance on Sunday mornings. We are starting our 3rd community group in a few weeks, multiple new people are joining our serve teams, and we are seeing new faces every week! The majority of our growth has come from people who are either unchurched or de-churched. They have either never attended church regularly or haven't attended in years. The thing we keep hearing is, "I am so glad that the Lord has finally brought me to a church I can call home!"
Please continue to pray for conversions, pray that he would raise up more leaders for our community groups and please pray that the people coming would tithe. As of right now our giving is steady to low from our core people and the giving is almost non-existent from the new people. We are gearing up for our first new members class in a month or so. Please pray that the Lord prepares the hearts of our people to 1.) come to faith in him and realize the generosity shown to us in Christ and 2.) to give generously of their time, talent and treasure to advance the kingdom of God!
WAYPOINT CHURCH
PONTE VEDRA | James Brignac
Launched: SEPTEMBER 2016
Attendance: 80-100
One of the first questions a church planter gets asked are, “how many people are attending” and “is the church experiencing growth?” We are excited to say that we have seen some numerical growth over the past few months and look forward to seeing how God will continue to add to our numbers. We recently added 4 new families following our New Member’s Class and have several new families that have been worshiping with us consistently. We have noticed that the people attending Waypoint have a hunger for growing in the walk with Jesus and that makes it a joy to serve and minister with these people. One of the ways God has been opening doors is through the Nocatee Farmer’s Market.
We are offered a slot every other month and have had 2 families attend after meeting them at the Market. We have a two new ministries that have kicked off recently including our Men’s Ministry and Youth Group. We have been praying for God to open doors and provide leaders in these three ministries and He has been faithful to do that for us at Waypoint. We kicked off our Men’s Ministry with a BBQ night and had 25 men show up and have recently started a bi-weekly Bible study that is averaging 12 men. We are also planning a men’s retreat/campout in the spring that will serve as another opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to participate. Our Youth kicked off recently with several kids from inside and outside of the church and we are excited about the opportunity to serve our community in this way. Our hope is to continue to add ministries that meet the needs of our congregation and community as we move forward and grow. In addition to these new opportunities we continue to see growth in our community groups, women’s ministry, and Journey groups!
One of our consistent goals has been thinking of new and creative ways to reach our specific community. Over the past few months we have had great community participation in our Family Bingo Night, Christmas Nativity Play, and our Christmas Eve Service. Our upcoming community events include a Cupid’s Night Out, a Family Game Night, and our second annual Feed My Starving Children Packing Event. We are also excited about our first short term mission trip to Haiti coming up in February. A couple in our church has a connection to a missionary couple that has served in Haiti for over 30 years and we look forward to forming a relationship that includes future groups as well!
Prayer Requests:
Pray for our new ministries (Men’s and Youth Ministry) and the leaders that will move these ministries forward as we grow.
Pray for the Lord to continue to raise up new leaders at Waypoint to continue to disciple, shepherd, and lead new ministries going forward.
Pray for our outreach opportunities. We continue to see God open doors and we want to be faithful in reaching the lost with the gospel.
CHRIST SATISFIES CHURCH
TAMPA | Jimbo Mullen
Launched: MAY 2018
Attendance: 25
Christ Satisfies Presbyterian Church continues to meet and be a presence in the College Hill neighborhood of Tampa. We are now in our ninth month of meeting weekly for worship services in the community. Each week there is a consistent group of about 25 people who attend our Sunday afternoon (3:24 pm) worship service. Last week, we held our first community meal of 2019. After the CSPC service, we feasted together on a tasty BBQ meal from Holy Hog. An additional 20-30 people from the neighborhood joined us for food. Jimbo continues to evangelize weekly and conduct larger monthly outreaches in the College Hill community. At Christmas, we held a Baskets of Love outreach and distributed 50 baskets of food along with over 75 dozen handmade Christmas cookies to members of the community after the 12/23/18 worship service. In addition to the food baskets, we had approximately 75 wrapped Christmas gifts for children and teens in the community. These new toys and other items were collected and donated by the people of Westminster Presbyterian Church. Darnard Winborn, who has been faithfully attending CSPC along with his wife and six children since mid-summer, has taken an active role in the church service – praying, teaching the children’s sermon, etc. – and is currently attending a leadership class taught by Pastor Wes Holland (WPC) on Wednesday evenings. Takeem, a young man who has also been consistently attending CSPC since the summer, has accompanied Jimbo several times as he evangelizes in the community. We are taking steps to add new members to the church. We are thankful for the brothers & sisters from WPC and other sister churches who support us in this church plant through prayer and attending on Sunday afternoons.
BERAKAH COMMUNITY CHURCH
DAVENPORT | Dony St. Germain
Launched: Fall 2018
Attendance: 230
Thank you very much for coming alongside of us to plant this church among the Haitian Community here. I praise God for the way He is reaching many Haitian for His glory in Central Florida. We have connected with different core groups from the community. It is difficult to find a place to worship on Sunday morning. So we are having weekly meeting on Sunday night from 7:30 – 10:00 PM. During the Christmas seasons and January, we average 280-300 people on Sunday night. However, in the month of February we were averaging 200-230. The reason is because of the late night services. All other meeting are held in homes through small group.
Pray with us as we continue to train leaders in Davenport and downtown Orlando.
We are also working with Junior Francois in downtown Winter Haven as he is establishing another Core group. This work is in partnership with TE Jae Lee from Southeast Korean Presbytery.
Prayers Requests:
Pray that we will be able to find a place to worship on Sunday morning.
Pray for the recruitment and the training of potential small group leaders.
Pray that Wednesday night seminary training, we have five from Davenport, three from Winter Haven, and three from Orlando.