Lessons From a Tomato Vine

Since each Christian has a ministry, each of us have potential to have both victories,  and defeat, successes and failure. I think we should observe both and recognize God's invitation in each, but it sure is much easier to look at the victories and successes than defeat and failure.

In a bit of a season of discouragement in ministry, there was fruit that was hard to see, but with the help of my wife and friends like you, I was able to wait and see the fruit. We harvested some tomato branches and hung them upside down on our patio to wait for the ripening process and have been able to enjoy some great local, organic, cherry tomatoes we helped grow at the local elementary school our church meets at.

                                                                  Picking Tomatoes

Before even getting the tomatoes, Esther had been praying when she saw a picture of me and a plant where there was a lot of fruit beyond my recognition. When she shared that with me, I was still working through doubt and discouragement. The reasons were based in the difficulty in seeing the spoiled fruit. Here are some reasons for discouragement. We lost board members who couldn't agree to our statement of faith, we lost interns who decided to move on, but only after we saw division spring up among themselves. We have sensed a bit of opposition to our mission in the younger generation, whom we know we need in order to reach the community. We lost a friend in the Community, whom we had seen God move in their lives and even after we had went through the Who is Jesus? Study together for around a year and a half. We wondered if we were wasting our collective resources with little to show. These are the withering leaves and spoiled fruits.

But there was much that I wasn't currently seeing and there have been new things coming along. Who would of thought the use of gardening would be so powerful? I guess Jesus did.

The fruitfulness started to become apparent and is vibrant to me now. Here are some examples of this: Esther and I were walking the neighborhood on a Friday and ran into our friend Sonia, whom we've known for 5 years now, and still is a good friend who is basically a pre-Christian; we then saw, a friend named Gil who is our neighbor, that same day. And a couple other neighbors come to mind, all together helping us realize that there are real friendships God has blessed us to have with non-Christian LGBTQ folks; also, just last week, I ran into a homeless youth whom we prayed to receive Jesus into his heart and he was still hungry for Jesus and trying to get more free; then, just on the day of this writing, I was able to lead a transgender homeless person back to Jesus in front of my local coffee shop. He was someone whose back was miraculously healed after praying for it, some 2 years or so ago; Our board at TRM is about to have 2 new board members join us; we have been getting both positive encouragements from LGBT persons regarding what we do as an organization and Christians have been starting to really get plugged in to what we are doing. Even more, I am realizing the blessing of my beautiful little family who is giving their lives along with me for the ministry and I am realizing the great tribe of supporters that we have in you. This is the fruit that is here today and indeed worthy of celebration.

In all this, I realize some things. There is a choice to observe all that is going on, to both see that which is dead and needing to be pruned and that which is ready at this moment. One who is to reap must recognize the difference and who it really is that is in control of the growth. Life moves on and things develop and grow. This is true for the fruitfulness of the ministry or the minister.

I pray you all might find new growth in the vine of your ministries, and our work in building bridges between the Church and the LGBTQ Community, so LGBTQ background Christians arise.

MLK Jr. DOS 2018 - Signs of a Catalyst

Every January, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) partners with local organizations and politicians to put together about 700 goodie bags for homeless youth in San Diego. This was our third year doing this with HRC and we had some great suprises in how we, now as an official non-profit, saw the Church move into caring for the needs of the Community. We had Awakening International, Coast Vineyard, and Well Spring Collective contributing gifts to the event. And we had a couple high potential divine appointments spring from the time. Check out the photo gallery and give a shout out if you think this is a cool thing!

Coast Vineyard and TRM bought socks

 Well Spring Collective bought feminine hygiene products and beanies (a bunch of them)

Jill from Awakening International brought toothbrushes, kleenex packets, combs, and herself (see below)

Well Spring Crew and I too, was able to join in for to pack the bags

And somewhere around 100 other people were there too, including 3 local politicians, and of course the HRC crew

Boy did we make some bags

Through the event, not only did we fulfill needs for homeless LGBTQ youth but we partnered with people and even made some new friends. The several churches and organizations were excited about it and totally blessed this work. Also, we met some new potential volunteers and 2 of us met people whom we plan to build friendship over coffee. One of the HRC steering committee members introduced me to a gal who was wanting to find like minded people who shared her values and also wanted to reconnect with her faith, though she admitted she was angry with the church. Coffee and conversation coming up. God meet her.

A big thanks to all of you who root us on, participate in the Kingdom work we believe we are doing, and challenge us in God's heart and perseverance!!!

Touched by an Angel

We had been learning about prayer and the power of God for healing. We had a guy who surprised us by finally accepting our invite to hang out. A guy who has faith that God can heal. A guy who has faith that Jesus is the good God. But, he is also a guy that I firmly believe God is calling him to grow in healthy, godly community. Aremi gently asks him, can I practice praying for you-for your back to be healed?

Aremi, Tim, and Patrick

To our surprise, Tim asked quizzically after praying for him, "did you touch my lower back?" Something had strongly moved his back and as he moved and twisted around to test his back, he had a big smile on his face. None of us touched that part of his back and surely didn't know where to put the force on it that he felt. He was freed to enjoy some pizza, causing us to hope he will find freedom to be a part of our lil study as we explore Jesus' beautiful life.

     A big crew going out for pizza

Aremi, a humble secretary at the local church for years, was used and we both sought to tell Tim it must have been an angel of the living God who wants more for him. Aremi and I praised Him the next day and she coined this post's title.

                                                 

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