Prince & Gina’s Praise Report from Spain
April – June 2007
Dear Prayer Partners,
Greetings in the lovely name of Jesus! The last three months have been filled with trans-Atlantic flights as we made three scheduled trips to minister in various parts of the USA.
The Benefits of Making Disciples
As you know, the church here is yet in the toddler stage of development. None the less, there are still times that Gina and I have to travel abroad. The only way that we can do this is by developing strong and faithful disciples that can carry the responsibilities of this work (at this stage, temporarily), until we return.
So when Gina and I had to return to the USA for a series of services in March and April we chose six of our twelve to be in charge of the Sunday services and midweek Bible studies. To help them out, I wrote up a series of sermons and Bible studies that they were to give in my absence. They were nervous but eager and ready to step up to the challenge. They actually did a great job!
Ministry in California
Several pastors that support our ministry were very gracious to open their doors for us to share the Word of God with their congregations. Bishop Frank Stewart of “Zoe Christian Fellowship of Los Angeles” invited us to share in all three Sunday services March 25th. April 1st, Pastor Richard Stewart of “New Creation Fellowship” (of Los Angeles) invited us to share in both Sunday morning services.
April 13th we had the marvellous opportunity to minister in a Spanish speaking church, “Zoe Christian Fellowship of Rialto”. The marvel is that this couple is fruit of our ministry from 10 years ago when we were on furlough and serving at “Zoe of Whittier”. April 8th Pastors Hector and Ruth Esquer, of “Iglesia Visión Cristiana” in San Diego hosted us when we shared the Word with that beautiful family of Believers. Hector and Ruth are also long-time disciples of ours. We ended our time in California April 15th in San Francisco at the San Francisco Christian Center pastored by Bishop Donald E. Green.
We want to thank all of these pastors as well as our friend and Pastor, Ed Smith of Zoe of Whittier, for their hospitality and loving support of our ministry and the time that we could spend with them.
Cell Church Conference in Atlanta
We were back home in Spain in our own pulpit for two weeks (not enough time for me to recover fully from my jet lag) when we had to return to the USA; this time to Atlanta, GA. In response to an invitation from Bishop Flynn Johnson, pastor of the Atlanta Metropolitan Cathedral, in Atlanta, GA, to share in a G12 cell church conference that he was holding for that region of the country. It was Gina’s first time sharing in English Internationally and she did a fantastic job sharing on consolidation.
The keynote speakers in the conference were Bishop Johnson, Pastor Bray Sibley of the Harvest World Outreach Ministries, in Hammond, LA, and yours truly. It was a great privilege to share the conference with these great ministers of the Word, but apart from that, the worship in Bishop Johnson’s church is absolutely, outrageously out of the world! I told them that one worship service like that in Europe would transform the continent forever!
The Pentagon and Grandkids
I had just returned from our trip to Atlanta when I received a letter from a general at the Pentagon notifying me that they wanted me to attend a special promotion and honors ceremony to be held for my daughter Jasmine. I wasn’t going to miss that for anything! So I was able to be home for two more weeks and then hop back on a plan to cross the Atlantic for the third time in two and a half months. You’ll just have to forgive me when I say I was puffed up and spread out like a peacock to se my daughter honored by so many high ranking officials as she received her (far-ahead-of-her-time) promotion.
For ministry purposes, Gina didn’t accompany me on this trip; she stayed to preach that Sunday. So I was able to spend about four days with Jasmine and her lovely family. That means that I got my grandkids ALL TO MYSELF!!! Gina usually sweeps them away and it’s all Grandma, Grandma! But this time it was all about, “Grandpa, Grandpa!!!” Ha, ha!
A True Sign of Growth
While at the Pentagon Jasmine shared with me about the four stages of forming a team: (1) Forming: the vision is born and shared. (2) Conforming: the team members struggle to try to assimilate the vision of the leader. (3) Storming: conflicts and difficulties evolve as the team members see challenges and have difficulties digesting the leader’s vision. (4) Norming: conflicts are resolved as the team members begin to sincerely understand and incorporate the vision of the leader and start getting on board with the vision seeing it as a normal way of doing things.
Now I felt really good when I heard that. For if the strategic and logistical heads of the most disciplined military in the world see this and a natural part of team formation, OUR PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN NORMAL! The good thing about it is that now, we are finally coming into the Norming part of our team development and are beginning to see fruit!
Some of the leaders that we have been training have finally begun to open up evangelistic and consolidation “cells” (Life Groups) and are excited about it. They have begun to embrace the same vision that I have been striving to inculcate in them. We are finally beginning to GROW as we should and the church is showing favourable signs of true progress!
Thank You and Please Keep Us In Your Prayers!
Finally, thank you so much for all of your prayers and loving support of our ministry and may God continue to bless you for your generosity! You are a matchless BLESSING to our lives and the lives of countless others that you help us to reach for Christ! We love and deeply appreciate you all!
H.M.S.,
Prince & Gina Parker
Personal Correspondence:
Calle Cueva de Lascaux #1
10004 Cáceres, España
Tel: 34-(927) 24-57-65
Skype phone: (301) 637-5906
Ambassadors Fellowship:
P.O. Box 62309
Colorado Springs, CO
80962 USA
Phone: 719-495-8180 Fax: 719-495-3313
