PRIDE 2018, Miracles in the Park

The outreach was almost not going to happen this year as the team was not forming up at all for this year and I was having a terrible week. I have to personally admit the status of my own heart was in dark clouds from disappointment, rejection, and a sense of doubt over my personal calling. It was a hard week and not just for me but each of those who eventually made it to the outreach and also the prayer team leader (my Wife).

On the night of the mandatory training event I was uncertain whether anyone would show up, but Roy did, just as he said he would. We talked about the basic plan and made some tactical decisions together for how we were going to engage parade goers. It was great to have Roy follow through and show up, and even offer his resources to the outreach efforts. Then, we went out to hit the streets of Hillcrest so we could practice the miracle question tool. We talked with several people and only prayed for one of them. No crazy miracles or fate changing decisions that we could see, but lessons and encouragement started to take up residence in my teammate and I.

On the night before the Pride Parade Outreach I found out another person could join us after all, she had gotten food poisoning that week (more war fare).. It was an exciting moment no doubt, as Sandra (pseudonym) is a lady who hears and obeys God and really seems to carry God’s heart.

The morning of the outreach came and the streets were being filled with the early arrivals of parade goers, the beginnings of what would reach up to 250,000 participants. Roy, Sandra, and I gathered together and wrestled with the reality that we had to maneuver through the urban jungle and figure out where the site of our pop up outreach tent would be placed. We were navigating closed roads, traffic, and stress--but we made it to a location where we would be. We were in Balboa park, up 6th ave from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, adjacent to some ultimate frisbee enthusiasts field, and south of Upas. We set up our pop up tent, we prayed, and jumped in.

Our location

Before describing several of the cool events that went down, I would like to highlight the intended mission. We were going to give out a bunch of waters to parade attendees, no strings attached. Also, we were going to practice the miracle question. For those who are not familiar with this, we ask people the following line of questioning IF THEY ARE WILLING: Can I ask you a question? 2) If God could do one miracle in your life today what would that be? 3) Can I share the greatest miracle with you? If they want to stop interacting with us at any point, we completely bless that by communicating our thanks for their time and our desire for them to have a good day.

So, we start the outreach and it took off, slow, but beautifully, building through the morning.

We handed out bottles of water to those who were interested. Some asked: “I’ll take one, how much?” We gladly told them free, gave them one, and let them go on their way to the parade. We handed out more to those we asked and wanted them. To challenge our team to the next level, I asked Roy and Sandra to share with the next people who accepted our water why we were giving out water. We handed out more water and sometimes said, we were trying to demonstrate small acts of love toward LGBTQ peoples and their allies.

During this time, i started to try the miracle question and was met with a lot of people who just kept walking and the ones who said yes I could ask them a question, didn’t want prayer. But, regardless of closed people, we kept going. We kept trying. Then, I felt led to ask the team to try the miracle question. After i finished praying for a lady’s paralysis, 2 different times to no avail, I went back to the group to find they too had tried the miracle question and a person’s back was healed. I was amazed but kept engaging the outreach.

Roy’s faith was growing greatly because of Sandra’s influence, directly and indirectly. At one point, he was in the miracle question protocol with a lady who had told him, “my body is falling apart”. She and her spouse were totally up for prayer. Roy then told the lady that he was going to have his friend come pray for her. Sandra comes by and immediately heard the word adrenal glands in her mind. She told the lady and the lady was amazed that she knew the exact health issue she was suffering under. They prayed and Sandra led the lady through some prayers focused on forgiveness. We still don’t know what happened with the lady’s adrenal gland or belief in Jesus for that matter, but we were marked and we believe they were marked.

I encouraged Sandra to interpret the moment for the lady next time she had an amazing encounter like this, so that she would know God told Sandra what the ailment was and that she should have her adrenal function tested. I also asked Sandra if she shared the greatest miracle, but found out she hadn’t. We were all learning a lot. We still believe God would do something way beyond us and so we took it as a lesson and moved on.

The interesting and amazing moments kept coming as Roy’s back was hurting. Realizing that Roy’s legs might be different lengths and be affecting his back, I asked if he would sit and I can check the length of his legs. Sure enough, his left leg was about half an inch shorter than the right. We prayed a simple prayer and Roy said he felt his back being pulled and his pain was gone. We were thrilled.

Roy having a good day with Jesus and Family

By this time, our outreach was almost over. Most of our waters were gone but our sense of God moving miraculously was abundant. Our faith was very high and we were very euphoric. Upon our debriefing, we realized we wanted to take it to the next level when we did this type of evangelism again. Meaning, we wanted to try to interpret spiritual moments for lost people, and give them a chance to receive a righteousness not their own. Both Roy and Sandra enjoyed the experience so much they asked, “can we do this more often”? This is such an encouragement to me, and countered a lot of my funk in calling and next steps.

The lessons we took from here are sure to bring the Kingdom to a greater measure. We thank God for intervening in this day and age and we thank Him above all that our names are written in the Book of Life because of Jesus.

A big thanks to you, our prayer team and financial supporters, friends and family, for enduring the long road of our obedience to this calling to build bridges between the Church and the LGBTQ Community so a multitude of Christian leaders rise.

Valentine's Day Fun

Thanks to one of our generous supporters, who wanted to do a Valentine's Day blessing to some of our friends in the community, we were able to oblige one of our partner organization's request of 14 $15 gift cards for the homeless youth who took shelter with Urban Street Angel's on exactly Valentine's Night celebration they had. We get to do these cool projects because of our supporters and actually build relationships, the important aspect of this Kingdom venture.

 Building Block 1

Building Block #2

 Another Bridge Being Built

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