Devotional Thought From TRM CEO and President - Dec. 2020

 

Zaccaria Summer of Fun, God's Grace Found

 Like most of us, life has changed under the plethora of society and world shaking events. Whether the pandemic, racial injustice, climate crisis, political chaos, or societal humbling, or familial and personal pressures --- we each are under pressure that is calling us to a new sort of life. Though this is the backdrop for our little family too, we have been able to find a new normal which we would like to share a bit with you. For, we know after-all, that you care not only deeply for LGBTQ peoples but those seeking to lay down their lives for them. 

                                                                        Flying Kites

                

                                                      Making Patrick's Best Paper Air Planes

                                                            Waiting For a Harvest

                                Indoor Gym                                               Our Little Cutie, Shalom

                                                                         Driver's Ed 1

                                                                 A Responsible Little Helper                               

                                                                Curious Little Learners

The previous picture gallery is a bit of Esther and I's summer school snap shot. I want to leave those of you who got this far on this post with these last two things. One, we are really appreciative of all you guys and gals who befriended us, supported this Great Commission project, and really just gave your life for this. We are unbelievably blessed to partner with you. Second, I want to leave you with a devotional practice that is bringing me, Patrick, great life as I reflect on God knowing all the days of our lives. It comes from Psalm 139:17-19.

David says there, "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came  to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I awake, I am still with you." David knew YHWH grasped all of his life and thought incessantly about him. His redeemed and anointed, though imperfect as we are, have the same opportunity. I encourage you to look for God's thoughtfulness every day you live. Look for confirmation that He knew this day was in mind for you. Look for the little and BIG communication God wants to give you that day so that you can say they same, "all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts to me...they outnumber the sand on the sea". May your eyes see, your ears hear, your body sense God near and present to you.

                                                                God's Grace Found

                                

Community Gardens

 Jesus used plant imagery and parables of gardening all the time. The people inherently understood implications for parables that He gave, especially because they were part of their every day experience. One of the most amazing things that the plant world has to offer is the opportunity for connectivity. A neighbor (or 4) may invite you into their community garden and you may be able to naturally share life and the good things God has to offer through the harvest He gives. Our journey to build bridges has become all about relationships with ordinary everyday people of Hillcrest, the garden gives opportunity to work together, to serve others, to give generously out of God's blessing. Here are some potential new connections in Hillcrest.

                                                       Mercy Housing Resident's Garden

                                                            Zaccaria Family Garden

                                                                Kabocha Squash Seedlings

In the Parable of the Sower, the receptive soil bore a multiplicative harvest. May our little gardens bring harvests to cultivate friendship, the friendships planted in the soil of trust bring Kingdom opportunities to share the King, and may the Kingdom come 10 times, 40 times, and 100 times in new hearts yielding their throne rooms to Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit. Will you believe this with us?

Another Transition, Lessons From Seminary

My last year of seminary is a year where I am required to do an internship. Coast was in the midst of an intrachurch crisis with the resignation of one of the senior pastors and a personal friend. I share this because it was one reason I didn’t really want to do an internship with the church. But God challenged me to stay put. Through a God-given dream and a series of encouragements by God to do the noble thing, I stayed at Coast and did my internship. As I did it, I found I really enjoyed the internship and getting to develop my speaking skills, teaching gifts, and practice some leadership theory under a strong transformational leader.

I dreamt that I was on a team with Michelle and MaryAnn one night during those times of questioning and the future casting in the dream was fulfilled along the path of being on the Teaching Team. Those are the moments in life with God where a person is liberated in joy because they can say, even if poorly done, they are walking in the will of God. Praise God for leading me.

Prepping With the Teaching Team

Over the course of the internship, speaking opportunities were coming up almost monthly. I spoke in the context of giving three sermons at Coast. I also had 2 opportunities to carry out speaking regarding LGBTQ outreach and Thousand Rainbows Ministries’ (TRM) work. I met every other tuesday night with the Coast teaching team and gleaned from the wisdom and experience and feedback of the team. By my second sermon, I was feeling encouraged and semi-competent. Teaching the Word was something I have dreamt about even when I was a new believer. And here it was, so many years and broken steps, but some of that dream was also being fulfilled. I was teaching the Word, I was preaching the Gospel, and I was sharing some of my intersections with God where I found life in humility. Esther got me the opportunity to speak to regional Christian leaders. It was a night we both felt, God was anchoring the reality of our dream callings more deeply. For those of you who know of walking out perceived, God-given dreams, they can feel very vulnerable at times. And so it was very sweet that God was giving us a moment of anchoring us in His dreams for our lives. Later in the year, I also spoke at the youth group of my old church, one I had largely alienated myself from but who where in the past and continue to be great blessings to me. It was a moment of stepping deeper into the work of TRM as I looked to be reconciled to them and reconcile them to one another and God’s heart for the LGBTQ people.

My seminary work seemed to be part preparation for ministry in the local church and part preparation for the work as a Christian leader in TRM. I learned more about being a transformational leader and I learned more about how to communicate in a way that brings people closer to the heart of God and His work on the earth. I took away that following God is difficult at times but exciting and fulfilling. In this new season of transition, we are gaining focus to try to take hold of what He has taken hold of us for.

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.