Thousand Rainbows Ministries - Initial Programs

           Thousand Rainbows Ministries has launched and we are excited to work towards getting our initial programs started. Our existence is designed to build bridges between the Church and the LGBTQ Community so that a multitude of Christian leaders rise, leaders who are primarily motivated by their identity in Christ, surrendered to the LORD, and living vibrant lives with the Trinity. In hitting the ground, we are starting off with several initial programs and are excited to tell you about them. Our first programs will be the Volunteer program, our Christian Identity Biblical Counseling program, and our Missional Church Consulting program.

The volunteer program will look to empower the Church to serve the Community by partnering with local partner organizations to accomplish their goals. We have already confirmed one Community-based partner and are beginning in discussions with another. In this program we are hoping to work with a variety of subcultures within the LGBTQ community ranging from activists to the down and out. We will seek to vet out quality volunteers for our partner organizations and see divisive cultural issues spanned through humble, sacrificial, and righteous service from the Church. The volunteer program is designed to look to the needs of the Community with no strings attached. Our partnership interests expand from HIV/AIDS work, homeless youth, and even areas of overlap with the activist oriented sector. If they never believe as we do, we are ok with this as we are looking to build honest and respectful relationships between two, often very adversarial groups. This conviction stems from a hope that they will see Jesus in us and understand why we believe as we do through our lives.

The Christian Identity Biblical Counseling is where the root of our vision of what biblically-based Christian spirituality is founded and it in a sense is the life of our other programs. Though not a program run under any pretense by board certified and licensed therapists, we look to combine and partner with such professionals. We will balance individualized biblical anthropology with a variety of helping skills, and complement this with ongoing development. We look to help LGBTQ background individuals journey with Jesus and discover life in Christ, deeply connected and thriving in relationship with the Trinity. Our ultimate aim is to help a variety of levels of LGBTQ background Christian individuals, from new believer to mature believer, from LGBTQ background Christians themselves to their families. Our ultimate aim is not changing one’s sexual orientation, though we do believe this can occur and we seek to support individuals whom God desires to bring into traditional marital relationships. We have a lot to learn, but we believe a lot to give also.

The Missional Church Consulting is a dynamic program where we look to help the Church with the incorporation of LGBTQ peoples into their churches and the Kingdom. We look to focus on culturally sensitive outreach, leadership development, and apologetics; seeing LGBTQ background leaders be the greatest argument for abundant life in Christ, leaving all manners of the sin nature including homosexuality. Our hope is to be catalytic in the Holy Spirit’s outreach to this people group and the general onlookers within our culture.

Baby Z, a Rainbow Journey

Hi guys! 

Thank you so much for walking with us in this transition of turning the ministry into a non-profit, TRM (Thousand Rainbows Ministries)! 

In some ways we jokingly say that we are having two “babies” with this non-profit and having an actual baby boy. Our journey with pregnancy has definitely had hard moments with miscarriage and loss but God has been so faithful every step of the way, speaking to us and singing over us. He gave us his signs of love in different ways and recently after we found out we were blessed with a baby he showed us the rainbow again. A “rainbow baby” is considered a baby conceived shortly after miscarriage. We are so thankful that this rainbow not only represents love for our LGBTQ friends, a sign after the rain, a way of celebrating a baby after loss and most of all, God’s faithful love for us as he also showed Noah in Genesis.

Until He Returns,

Esther Zaccaria

             Above and Below: 2 recent photos celebrating what God is doing 

                     in our family. Photos taken are exactly where we said our vows several years ago

HRC FaithOutreach Connect Event, October 2016

What do a Buddhist Leader, MCC Pastor, a Unitarian Universalist Intern, and Same Sex Attracted AOG Pastor Have in Common? They took part of a panel discussion for the LGBTQ community, put on by Human Rights Campaign at a local Bar in Hillcrest. The audience: a mixture of people who responded to an HRC invitation for the LGBTQ community to discover or rediscover spirituality. The topics: why spirituality is important, how their particular belief structure is meaningful,  and how they work towards diversity and inclusion. A result: interesting dialogue and discussion where an attempt at preaching the Gospel was made by our friend, Pastor Ron who was also a panel member. See below for the photo gallery.

 The HRC Faith Outreach Team

The Panel (Pastor Ron 2nd from left)

There weren't any conversions and the Gospel presentation was wanting but people were impressed by the invite of "such a conservative pastor" and his sharing. I was able to speak with 2 guys who were interested in talking about Christian spirituality and faith.

PRIDE 2016

Ever since June 1969, the parade by which the LGBTQ community has required space and a voice, has been expanding from Greenwich, NY all across the world. When Christianity became associated with the Roman Empire as its state religion, Judeo-Christian beliefs have become extremely widespread. The modern euphemism of being “in the closet” has been explicitly given as a life that occurred as a result of legal and social ramifications that bring a blend of fear and shame for the one attracted to the same sex or not identifying with their own gender. From the discrete and dark space of a closet, to the stage of major streets all across the US and the world, one can see the changes that are shifting around this people group. Their society calls them out with the promise of their support and protection. Here we are trying to reach out to a people once marginalized, but mainstream today. This blog is not a moral declaration of what is right or wrong here, but a visual display of how we seek to fish for people for that is what our King has invited us too (Mk. 1:17). This post is mainly a visual of the San Diego Pride Parade of 2016, a bit of the festivities, a bit of our outreach efforts, and a bit of the aftermath.

Photo Gallery

An Empty Sanctuary, where an Assemblies of God college group engages in worshipping their King. The music from the outside, battled with the worship music on the inside. It was a sense of the battle at hand.

 I ran into one of my friends. The great part about this is the vulgar portion of the hat he is wearing is doesn't show up. 

Interesting art piece, symbolic?

A Parade float 

Embraced by the flag or embracing it perhaps 

The Parade

 A couple hundred of the 100,000 people expected to attend the Parade and festivities.

Our fishing rod






 Baja Betty's - the next day

Jesus, King of My Sexuality

What does it mean to be a eunuch? Dan (pseudonym) and I had already done the Who is Jesus? Study together and it had been a while sense we had continued learning about Jesus, following Him together as the text unfolded before us. It was one day where he asked me the question about being a eunuch. After unpacking this a bit with my friend Dan, I mentioned the Ethiopian Eunuch that Phillip was Spirit-led to reap (Acts 8:26-40) and how we need help along the way to understand Scripture. Then he asked me about a passage he heard someone used in his past as they discussed homosexuality and the life of a eunuch during a sermon. So, we began to read in Matthew 19:1-12 where Jesus shares about eunuchs. We saw that he had mentioned that not only were some born eunuchs, but some actually chose to be “eunuchs for the kingdom of God”. I didn’t press hard on the issue then, as I had felt the Lord challenge me to be a bit cautious with my friend, a guy who had once contemplated suicide and battled severe depression. I was concerned for his mental well being and we continued meeting up, but it came to a point months later where I invited him to deeper relationship with God, but first there was a moment of honesty about homosexuality as sin.

I had never told Dan that I believed that homosexuality was sin and he had never confessed to me previously that he was unwilling to give up having sex with men. But there was a day where we became more honest with one another. We shared, and after a moment of pending rejection during our sharing, but instead of rejection, we sighed after realizing that we still wanted to be friends. I remember our exchange where we asked if we would still be one another’s friend? We both said of course and thus were relieved. Life went on together, until one monumental call was put on Dan in desperation that he needed more of God in his mental health and needed to know unconditional love as demonstrated on the Cross. It was a day where I preached the Gospel to him, the same day where he would make Jesus the King of his sexuality.

On this day Dan was at another low in his life, limping along in positive mindedness (he has grown through therapy and such), but still not living a vibrant life. We met to continue our study in Mark’s Gospel and it was that day where I shared the Gospel and challenged him to receive God’s love as a rebel sinner, the true mark of just how unconditional loving God is. I invited him to surrender his life to Jesus and he started to. We prayed and he felt God’s presence come upon him, he enjoyed the beauty of God’s touch, something he had felt before. I sensed God whisper to me that I should challenge him to surrender his sexuality and so, I did. I asked him, “do you want to make Jesus the King of your sexuality?” He pondered, he probed what that meant, and he pondered some more as we sat at a bench in Balboa Park. He looked and saw a bunch of balloons stuck in the tree. He told me he felt stuck and I assume that God was showing him something about his life in that moment. He sat, he pondered and he eventually said yes to surrendering to his sexuality to Jesus’ lordship.

What an amazing call to follow Jesus, this guy heard and chose. I don’t think that most people would realize the call and difficulty of this attempt at following Jesus. Culture, largely doesn’t support honest recognition of one’s sexuality, while choosing it’s denial. Heterosexual followers of Jesus, longing to get married, would struggle to make Jesus King of their sexuality. It is such a tough thing, but the ways of Jesus are better. Life with Jesus is better. On May 10^th, 2016 my friend chose to walk out this difficult path, with hope, headed for a better life with Jesus.