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With The Help of Our God
11/3/2003
...
I went out... examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken
down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. -- Nehemiah
2:13
So the wall was
completed... in fifty-two days, when all our enemies heard about this, all
the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence,
because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our
God. -- Nehemiah 6:15-16
When the Holy Spirit sent
Elena and I to Portland in mid-July, we had spent the previous three weeks
getting to know ("examining") as many brothers and sisters as
possible.
We met with each ministry, each house church and had many one-on-one
conversations. To "rebuild the wall" here in Portland, the Bible
Talk Leaders, Elena and I determined that to initiate this effort, first
we had to call everyone back to God. Secondly, we needed to reaffirm with
Bible teaching God's principles of discipling and small groups. Thirdly,
since many in church had never been taught and trained in the
"elementary truth of God's Word," and considering all the chaos
and confusion in our sister churches, we all felt strongly that First
Principles needed to be taught to the entire congregation. These three key
elements of "rebuilding the wall" are now accomplished.
In early September, the
leadership began to focus on fulfilling the promises and dreams the
Portland Church had never realized. Therefore the congregation began to
earnestly pray for:
- Chemical Recovery
Ministry
- Latin Ministry
- Eugene Church Planting
- Deacons
Our prayers are being
answered. This past week Russ and Lana Preston from San Diego called to
say they have a job in Portland and will move here in January to being the
"CR" ministry. As for the Latin Ministry, two of our last three
baptisms are Latin and totally fluent in Spanish. Excitingly, this week we
are announcing that Jeremy and Amy Ciaramella will lead the Eugene
planting. They along with others in our congregation will be moving to
Eugene in December joining the disciples that are already there. We will
officially begin in January. And finally today is the appointment of the
first deacons in the history of the Portland Church!
Each of our new deacons
have formed a tight bond with all the ministry leaders -- Kian Nikzi,
Michael Williamson, Paul Grover, Jeremy and myself. Each deacon reminds me
of a great man of faith: Bob Bertalot - Barnabas for his encouragement;
Nick Bordieri - Peter for his zeal; Ed Damien - Simeon for his faith in
the future; Rich Hackett - Caleb for his toughness; Jay Hernandez -
Nehemiah for stepping-up to strengthen overlooked ministries; Alan Hess -
Gideon for how much he has grown in his faith; Matt Kennedy - David for
his love of singing to God; Paul Reddy - Solomon for his wisdom; and Tony
Untalan - Abraham for his love of God and his family. Let us be praying
for all these families to be strengthened by God, His Spirit and His
angels for the momentous days ahead.
Truly it is obvious that in
a short approximately one-hundred days time, that this work of rebuilding
the Portland Church has done "with the help of our God."
Kip McKean
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