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4. Done! Every time you shop we get a percentage and there is no credit card or work on your end!

Zaccaria Family Update Dec. 2020

WIJ? = The King of Joy

 Esther, Justice, Shalom and I have been looking for what gifts God has given us this season as a family. We have been challenged by working at home, raising a couple Irish twins who have a lot of energy (thank God they are so cute), and engaging with our loved ones. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Zaccarias on Mission

Esther has been given her dream jobs and her dream life situation, without the chronic illness that is. She has a Young Living Essential Oil business where she gets to work with amazing people and share products and the God she loves. Esther has been dealing with chronic illnesses and could still use your prayers. She believes for healing but believes God may be teaching her something through it. 

Justice just turned 3 and is athletic, fun, nurturing, and busy building things. He is such a boy but we have been teaching him about feelings and he has been learning to identify them. He also has been very busy making up events of the day and possibly visualizing demonic activity, he calls robots. We've been trying to meet him in this playful developmental season and begin some spiritual training to rebuke the demonic (just in case he is seeing something). His family is so blessed by him and are learning to guide him along his journey.

Justice Learning Letters and Drawing

Justice Clicking Robots (Battles with Dark warriors)

Shalom just turned 2 and has surprised us by her aptitude for speaking and reading. Both our kiddos have really been blossoming in this regard but she has been especially enthusiastic about her books. We get some great moments with her as she always says to us after a nap, "I wanna hold you?!" She has been singing Twinkle Little Star, the ABC song, and The Blessing. It s so great as she belts out a little chorus of any of these but especially the Blessing "Lord Bless you and keep you..."

    

Early Morning Devotions

Creative in Training (Like her Mom)

Esther and I see the redemption of the living God in our lives, time and time again. We have been so blessed to do what we do and be able to be parents to Justice and Shalom. One of the coolest things to come out of 2020 lockdowns has been our focus on family and our collective devotional life. I am so blessed to have a wife and church that has encouraged me to family devotions.

One Week's Family Devo. Fin

For me, I've been connecting deeper to our local church, All Peoples Church SD. I've been engaged in our School of Transformation (back at school again!) and experiencing more personal spiritual closeness to God. I've been having God challenge me on trust issues and it has been so sweet to be a part of. I'm challenged by the joyful Servant in my perception and grasp of who God is. God's also continuing to work out emotional intelligence in my life, really key for my development as a Christian leader. It's humbling to be a stay at home dad, who has a powerhouse Wife and is called to serve her when she needs to go after God's calling. But, humbled is a great posture before God.

Rainbows at Coronado - Family Field Trip

Stay at Home Dad in Action

Thanks so much for keeping up with us!!

Patrick, Esther, Justice, and Shalom

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.