Kelly and Connie’s Place

A week ago we wrapped up our 2^nd (for the year), Candidate Orientation Program with 27 new individuals going through training and receiving an appointment to serve overseas.

These are the statistics from those 27 people 6 couples and 15 singles (3 were male & 12 females) from 14 states

Their anticipated destination of service: 2 to S. America/ 2 to Africa/ 5 to Middle East/ 2 to Europe/ 4 to Asian countries/ 1 to China /and 5 who are undecided.

WINTER WONDERLAND FOR A DAY- IN DENVER

Then last week we went to our Denver office. We arrived on Tuesday and it got up to 80 degrees. On Wednesday a cold front went through and by noon, huge snow flakes were coming down in sheets. It was beautiful, like a winter wonderland. We got 5 inches of snow.

The snow caked on the trees and grass but never stuck to the streets or sidewalks, making it the perfect snow fall (not requiring any snow removal). We woke up Thursday morning with the sun glistening off the clean white snow. By noon it had all melted away and we were walking around in short sleeves. Now that’s the way a snow fall should be. Twenty-four hours of blissful white snow, and then, GONE! SWEET!!!

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We’d like to introduce you to our ACMC Team. These are our Regional Directors and they were in Orlando the first week of April to meet with us for their quarterly team meeting.

Back Row - Left to Right: Frank (Alaska), Joe & Tom (Pennsylvania), Ken & Larry (California), Lee (Indiana) Connie (Orlando) Front Row - Left to Right: Paul (South Carolina), Blake (Texas) Kelly (Orlando)

ACMC stands for “Advancing Church Missions Commitment” and their mission statement reads: “ACMC helps churches mobilize their resources for effective involvement in world evangelization.” Link to ACMC Website They are a great group of guys and we are excited about what God is doing through their ministries.

We celebrated my birthday that week and here is a photo of the birthday cake Kelly bought to share with our entire Orlando team. It was gone in no time. (The picture on the cake is of a person sitting at their desk with piles of paper work stacked around them…)

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Answer: Attend our Church Partner Forum (CPF)

The week after Easter, our Church Partnerships team hosted this event on our Orlando campus. We were at maximum capacity with 40 participants. We had churches represented from 13 different states (TX, MN, NY, IN, NH, CO, AR, IL, FL, CA, KS, CT, & SC).

We hold this event twice a year to strengthen the relationship between sending churches and our agency. Our intent is to help mission-minded church leaders explore how partnership and networking can help them sharpen their missions focus, mobilize members for missions ministry, and maximize their mission impact. (Link to our webpage.)

Our guest speaker was Dr. Tom A. Steffen, Director of Missiology and professor of Intercultural Studies at Biola University. (He is Kelly’s D.Mis.advisor.) He spoke on the hot topic; Business as Missions…is it a fad or something unique God is doing and how will your church respond?

Great discussions and interaction take place during the sessions.

These discussions continue over lunch.

The banquet is a time for good fellowship.

There’s always down time in-between activities for networking.

Next month (May 15^th) we are holding our first ever, “off-site” forum in Albuquerque, NM. Stay tuned for a report on how it goes.

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Easter Sunday, Pine Castle United Methodist Church moved into our new worship center which has been named, “The Master’s House.” After a brief time of worship and the partaking of communion in the old sanctuary, the congregation proceeded to parade to the new sanctuary located across the street. This was our “Crossing Over” to the other side.

Pastor Blake Lorenz instructs the congregation on how we will all march to the new sanctuary.

The Pastor leaves first, and three men carrying a cross will follow behind him.

The choir follows the cross and the congregation falls in behind the choir.

We find our chairs and the choir is in their seats ready to begin.

Our new facility will seat 1200.

Pastor Blake welcomes all to “The Master’s House” and “A New Beginning” for PCUM.

Pastor Blake & Beverly Lorenz in front of the choir with our new logo on the screen

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While most young people were heading to warmer climates to frolic in the sun for their Spring Break, this Youth Group chose a different form of ‘recreation’. These 31 Jr. and Sr. High Schoolers, from Fellowship Bible Church of NW Arkansas, spent their week of ‘Spring Break Vacation’ serving and learning at our Pioneers campus in Orlando.

A year ago, Finley Robinson, their Youth Pastor, attended the Church Partner Forum that is hosted by the team that Kelly & I lead. The idea to bring his youth group to our campus was birthed at that time. His church has around 6000 youth attending their weekly services. Pastor Finley said this group was Fellowship’s “cream of the crop”, and it was encouraging for Kelly & I to see their passion for God lived out day by day.

This energetic group rented a bus, drove from Arkansas to Orlando and did various work projects on our campus. (They cleared land, pulled shrubs & old fence posts, stuffed envelopes and etc.) In return, our Pioneers people not only housed and fed them, but helped open their eyes to the world of ‘missions service’ by sharing with them various aspects of our work in Orlando and overseas.

Their evaluation of their week in Orlando reveals that their lives were greatly impacted and touched by God. Here is one example of a true transformation:

One of the young ladies in this group is from Viet Nam, and has been attending Fellowship Church and their youth group for the past 9 months. During her stay at Pioneers , she accepted the Lord as her Savior. PTL!

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