Jeff Gilpin Blog: May 2015

Hello Everyone, Hope you’re all doing well. God has been keeping us extremely busy these last few months. Here is what we’ve been doing…

I had the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic with Awana area director David Bailey in January. Awana Caribbean trained 70 churches last September, so I spent 4 days in Santo Domingo at 4 different follow up trainings helping these Awana leaders fine tune their ministries. Love Serves International, a pastor training network, from Santo Domingo has asked Awana to train 1,800 churches in their church network how to use Awana to reach the children in the DR with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I also spoke at a "4-14 Pastors Conference" in Santiago, DR sponsored by One Child Matters, an international child sponsorship ministry. 60 new clubs were trained a week later.

I met with Jessica Ernster from the Children’s Cabinet in Reno, NV. The Children’s Cabinet is a community organization that provides services to children and families such as runaway and homeless youth services, substance abuse, gang programming and youth work experience counseling. We spoke of using the new Awana “Trek Essentials” Bible Study for the teens who come to the Children’s Cabinet. The Children’s Cabinet has agreed to let us start a Trek club on their site. We have recruited a church and leader to lead this ministry and will start sometime in May. Please be praying as we begin this ministry as the Children’s Cabinet has branches in Reno, Elko and Las Vegas. This could be a great partnership to reach the “At Risk” teens in these towns.

I had the opportunity to meet with Pastors George and Susan Moniz from New Hope Community Church in Tonopah, NV. I then was invited to preach at New Hope on “The Importance of Children’s Ministry” and provide vision for the members of New Hope that God is indeed calling them to reach the children of Tonopah with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastors George and Susan plan to start an Awana club later this year and have begun to recruit leaders to help them with their ministry. Please be praying that the Lord will raise up leaders in Tonopah.

I made a visit on a Sunday morning to First Southern Baptist Church in Hawthorne, NV to meet Pastor Mike Fontaine. I arrived an hour early for the “Coffee and donut fellowship”. A woman from the congregation arrived shortly after I did and asked me “who are you”. When I told her I was an Awana missionary, she replied “I have been praying for you to come here”. Quite startled, I asked her to explain. She said that Hawthorne needs a children’s and youth revival. I asked her if I could bring a team of teenagers from Summit Christian Church in Sparks to help run a 3 day Awana club to provide vision for the community and give the church body at FSBC hope that God wants to use them to reach the children in their community. She replied “That’s what I’ve been praying for”. So I have begun to make plans with Commanders Dan and Karla Harker and Trek and Journey Directors Larry and Kathy Gibbs to bring their teenagers to Hawthorne to do the same kind of missions trip to Hawthorne that we have done in Gabbs and Herlong the last 2 summers, with the ultimate aim of starting an Awana club in the fall.

I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco and meet with some of the staff at San Francisco City Impact. City Impact is an inner city ministry in the “Tenderloin” district of San Francisco. City Impact ministers to the spiritual as well as physical needs of the residents of the Tenderloin through a church, a private school and a rescue mission. Their staff shared with us the tremendous challenges of ministry; dealing the extreme poverty and depravity of the Tenderloin. We spoke to them about partnering with us to use the new Awana “Truthseekers” program to reach the children of the Tenderloin with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I mentioned to them about Pathfinders, another inner city ministry in Reno, NV and suggested they make a trip to Reno to give them a picture of how they can use Truthseekers to reach the children in the Tenderloin. They are sending 3 staff to Reno on April 17th. Please be in prayer for these meetings.

I made a “Discovery” trip to Wells, Elko and Owhyee, NV and made some great contacts with the pastors in these towns. I’ll be following up with these pastors later this spring to see if there are common areas where we can partner together to reach the children in their towns.

I have been working to develop a strategy to partner with the Hispanic churches in Nevada and California to reach more Hispanic children in our area. There are over 4 million Hispanic children in CA and NV; we currently are reaching about 4-5,000 of those children through Hispanic churches. I have been traveling to meet with the pastors of existing Hispanic Awana clubs in CA and NV to listen, understand and connect with these pastors. We’re trying to share a vision that just as they use Awana to reach the children and families of their communities, they can use Awana to expand the influence of their church and reach the children and families of their region. They can do this by hosting a “4-14 Pastors Forum” and inviting the pastors in their region to hear about the importance of children’s ministry and how these churches can use Awana to share the gospel with the children and families in their own communities. We’ll be building and strengthening these Hispanic pastor relationships, then asking them to host these forums sometime later this year, ultimately to train new Awana clubs at the end of 2015/ early 2016. Be praying for this ministry.

I was blessed to travel to the Indian Bible College in Flagstaff, AZ to meet with the staff there and interview a potential Native American intern to serve in Northern Nevada this summer. There is a tremendous need to reach the Native American peoples with the gospel. We’d like to use this intern program to help us reach these Native Americans on the reservations of Nevada as well as raise up a generation of young Native American Christian leaders and help them reach their own people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m very excited about this opportunity!

That’s it for now. Thanks again for your prayers and your encouragement as we continue to chase God where He is working to reach the children of Nevada and California with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.