Cession Community

Cession Community is a church plant located in East Auckland
This is where my local church ministry will take place.
I'll be playing the role of Community Life Pastor -
my role will be in creating the welcoming environment on Sundays, working with a team of
'undercover greeters' (Kiwis like to sneak into church) and helping new
people to make connections with the regulars. I'll then be coordinating the
followup of these new people helping them to make a stronger connection with
the church - really wherever they can find a fit - but particularly with the
church's cell groups which I'll be responsible for resourcing and
multiplying through the training and coaching of leaders
Brett Jones(below) is the head pastor. He has a servant leadership team and volunteers that work along side of him.
Cession Community originated as a young adults group that developed into its own church plant over time. For the first few years this has meant a more hands on emergent evening service.
Over the past four months they took a big step in adding a morning service.

The Sunday Schedule now is:
10.20am - Coffee & Bagels
10.30am - cession|connect AM

5pm - cession|chow - free dinner
5.45pm - cession|connect PM
(kids programming for both services)

Brett Jones has commented that
"Its been a big step, but our teams have been amazing! Lots of people involved in new areas as well which is great to see. The evening continues to grow. We are seeing core families cement a new home in the morning and fringe families/people beginning to put down some tentative roots."

This church has a very exciting and resourceful congregation and the leaders there are very gifted, artistic, and deep.
As i might have already mentioned. They put on an easter egg hunt this last Spring and had an attendance of 300! Although the church plant has been between 50-100, the contact and "touches" that this church has with the community are limitless.
INTERESTING FACT: The empty plastic eggs are not sold in New Zealand and are relatively unknown, Cession had to have them sent from the US.

I am excited to return soon to serve and give my heart and time to this church. I appreciate your prayers for me and for Cession Community.

I believe these next two years are going to bring forth some exciting stories.

Glory Stories

"Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up"

Galatians 6:9

Missionaries love to see God's glory revealed and there are times when God does do amazing things in our presence. At those times, it's easy to write home and tell everybody about what God is doing and how ministry is growing the Kingdom. We love to see our friends come to know Christ and we are honored and humbled as God uses us to proclaim and live out His Gospel. God's 'glory stories' are no doubt encouraging and uplifting. They are useful in building up the body, so we tell them joyfully!

But our days overseas are not always filled with conversions and "holy glamour." We pack up our lives and move to where God wants to use us. When missionaries move overseas, they go and live life in a way the point others to Christ. This is the same living that many of our family and friends do everyday at 'home.' We have been lead and called to do it somewhere else, likely in a place where Christ is less known. Parts of living overseas are the same mundane tasks that you face living anywhere e.g. cost of living, where to live, learning how to get around town, where to buy groceries, doing laundry...etc. God provides for our every need as we serve Him, but we still have to learn how to live in a new place.

New Zealand is an amazing place to be serving God, it's true. God is at work here and God is growing His kingdom. Praise the Lord for the work He is doing, pray for us and pray that we do not become weary in doing good. Pray that as we live lives that point others to Christ, God's grace is upon us. Pray for Spiritual and physical protection. Pray for God's glory to be revealed in amazing ways and in everyday life. Look below to a post about how to pray for missionaries, it will be very helpful if your still unsure of how to pray. May God bless you as you serve Him in the place He is using you.

Sara Dekker- graduate from IWU, teaching music and serving in Auckland, New Zealand

Pushing for New Zealand

God has been preparing me and it has been a good time being with family and friends and sharing my passion for New Zealand in the US, but the transition towards leaving is definitely coming in to play.

My mom asked me the other day, "You are ready to go, aren't you?"

It wasn't a sad or guilt driven comment, it was just a mother's intuition noticing the change and season in my life.

Prayers are huge right now as i have about 2-3 weeks of focused calls and then i will talk with Jeff Fussner and Brett Jones to be setting final dates and details.

The connections in California

Thank you so much for the prayers and support so far.
At this moment, i am going through my last big push for New Zealand. I am catching up with churches, encouraging all my friends to give on some level, knowing that God will provide. The target date has been to leave May 26, but if not then due to finances or visa approvement, then the sooner the better from the cession's point of view overseas. I am really pushing to leave for sure by July or August if not sooner, so if you have considered giving or even know someone else who may be interested in being involved, please feel free to let me know at obrent@gmail.com

I visited El Cajon Wesleyan(above) and Grace Point Community Church(below) on the weekends and caught up with friends and supporters throughout the week. it was very encouraging to see a lot of generated interest in how God is at work in New Zealand, but only the next few weeks will show the response and commitment of others to God's calling on my life.
I thank God for this time of trust, growth, and sharing.

"You are one dollar closer..."

Money stresses me out.

I have always been generous with my money
but now I am learning how to manage and spend it more frugally.

Just recently when i was catching up with a Sunday school class i was explaining my financial situation and expressing my trust in God and his Body to make the journey happen in his timing.

At the close i had one man stand up in front of the class and confidently say, "Well you are one dollar closer!" I took the money he shook into my hand and put it in my pocket, just assuming it was more that i would look at later.

No, sure enough it was one dollar!

yet it was one of the most comforting dollars ever.

i was worried about thousands of dollars, yet this man gave me such comfort in his confidence of the one dollar and the Lord's providence. it will obviously take more, but this man just gave me a renewed confidence!

God is making it happen.

The Security of Prayer

I just realized something a few days ago. The road back to New Zealand has been an encouraging process, but it has also been a long and hard process. During those times it has been so easy to be tempted to think, "What if i mess this whole thing up?!? I know i am weak."

But i can't. I have too many people praying for me and i trust the Lord and i trust their prayers! it is one thing to believe you could fail because you are alone. But by the consistent reaffirmation of friends mentioning specifically praying for me, there is no way for me to believe i am alone.

God has called me. I am humbly on his side. I am being supported through prayer. Although there is room for me to mess up, there is really NO WAY for me to FAIL with God and the Body as my strength.

It is like for the first time, i really understanding and TRUSTING what the Bible means when it says
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

How to Pray for Missionaries

I was thinking about how people could pray for me as a missionary and decided to check out what others have said. I put in my two cents below and then I found two posts specifically talking about how to pray for missionaries, summarized their thoughts, and attached the rest if you felt like reading the rest below.
Colossians 3 IN SHORT says:
1. Give thanks for missionaries
2. Pray for:

• God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

• in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
• bearing fruit in every good work,
• growing in the knowledge of God,
• being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have
• great endurance
• patience
• and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light..
  

In Short the posts below say:
• Pray that they might be delivered from unbelievers. (Rom 15:30-33)
• Pray that our service will be accepted by the church
• Pray that we may return with joy.
• Pray that the Gospel of Christ may spread
• Pray that the Word may run its course
• Pray that the Word may be Glorified
• Pray that the Gospel may go forth unhindered

These are the verses that made me start praying for missionaries as a teenager was Colossians 1:3-6, 9-12

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. 9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light..

How To Pray For Missionaries
http://waynecooke.wordpress.com/category/missions/
The Apostle Paul felt the need to have people pray for him. If Paul felt he needed people to pray for him, just think how much more important it is for each of us to pray for others.

” Ye also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.” II Corinthians 1:11

As we can see from the above verse, Paul was not asking lightly for prayer. He felt that the prayers of God’s people definitely “helped.” He felt that they became an actual part of his ministry. Your prayers do make a difference. When you come before God seeking aid for a missionary’s specific needs you make yourself a co-laborer with him in his ministry.

” Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.” Isaiah 45:11

In this verse we see that God invites us to out him into motion. There is so much that God wants to do that He will not do because we are not spending time in diligent prater for our missionaries. He has not only invited us to pray, but has commanded us to tell Him what to do. We can not actually tell God what to do if it is not already His will, but He does often times limit Himself due to our lack of prayer and faith.

” Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” James 4:2

Why are the needs of missionaries not being met? Why aren’t they seeing the results of their labors? I am convinced that the reason so many missionaries are struggling to produce fruits in their ministry is that we have failed to ask God.
1. Pray that they might be delivered from unbelievers. (Rom 15:30-33)
We know that our war is not against flesh and blood, (Eph. 6:12) but against Satan and his forces. Paul is going forth into areas totally dominated by Satanic forces. He realized that he would be under attack. He literally begs the church to pray that he be delivered, protected, and rescued from these ungodly forces. Every day we watch as other men of God fall into sin. Often times we are quick to criticize, but slow to pray. When a man goes forth to war he is taking a chance. He is risking his life against a roaring lion that hates God and all that He stands for. If the Devil can stop the man of God, then the work of God will not go forward. He will use persecution, discouragement, sex sin, pride, money problems, and a thousand other things to destroy the effectiveness of the man of God. Will you pray for your missionary by name, asking God to protect him and deliver him from Satan and unbelievers?

2. Pray that his service will be accepted by the saints.
Paul did not want to offend the brethren, he just wanted to be a blessing. He wanted to do what God had called him to do, but he knew that God would need to open the doors for him and prepare the way. As your missionary travels, he needs the saints to accept him and his ministry. What is the key to raising support as a missionary? Simply stated, saints accepting his service. That is exactly what we need to pray for. Often times, the missionary is on deputation longer than necessary and we wonder why. I would like to beseech you to strive together with him in prayer that wherever he goes the saints will accept his service. How many times do men of God prepare good Bible messages that the church members need to hear, but do not accept? Let us pray that after the missionary has sought the face of God that his message will be accepted and taken to heart by the members of the church.

3. Pray that he may return with joy.
How important this prayer is to the missionary. When the missionary leaves to go out on deputation, many obstacles are planted in his path. Will he be able to return with joy? Will he be successful? If he goes out and preaches ten meetings with small love offerings and no support it will be hard to have joy. If he goes to the field and spends a term and sees no real results, it will not be easy to return with joy. We must pray for him, and ask God to give him success in the work he has been called to. Have you ever gone soul winning? You know what it means to come back with joy and you know what it means to come home sad and defeated. Let’s pray that God opens doors for him, that souls will be saved, and that he can come back with joy, excited about what God is doing. Do you want to see him excited about what God is doing in his life? If so, then you must pray and help him.
How and Why
To Pray For Missionaries
"And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap…" Ezk. 22:30

PRAYER IS THE TOOL THAT MOVES
THE HAND OF GOD!
Over and over again you’ve heard missionaries say, "Our greatest need is for prayer support." This is certainly the truth. Even though we stay on the mission field by faith, usually with no salary, trusting God for the supply of all our needs – our greatest need will always remain the same: "We need prayer above all else."
No believer knew the value and power of prayer more than the Apostle Paul. The Scriptures record a number of his prayers, and their powerful results. But did the greatest of missionaries (besides the Lord Jesus) ever ask prayer for himself? Yes, he did. Paul’s request for prayer in 11 Thessalonians 3:1-2 helps us pray for missionaries in our day. So what did Paul ask that we pray for here?
Above all, Paul was concerned with the message he was commissioned to preach. He felt that although he, the messenger, was expendable, the message MUST go forth. Without it, there can be no salvation (Romans 10:13-17). Paul asked us to pray several things for the Word or message of God.

Pray that it may spread
Paul wrote in verse 1: "Pray that the word of the Lord may have free course." Another translation tells us to pray "that the Word may spread rapidly." What a timely prayer in the light of the world’s growing population.

Pray the Word may run its course
The Amplified Bible says "pray that the Word of the Lord may run its course." Isaiah 55:11 reminds us that God’s Word will accomplish its purpose and bear fruit, but Paul's request shows we still have a responsibility to pray to that end as we send it forth.
Countless times each day, the needs of listeners are met in a timely and personal way through a taped radio message or Christian TV. In the same way, the Word of God on the printed page may pass through dozens of hands, blessing each person who reads it.
As we send forth His Word, we must realize that there are hungry, needy souls in the world who will grasp it as a drowning man will lunge for a life-line. Pray that those souls will hear, that the Word will find them and be received, and meet their needs.

Pray that the Word be glorified
There is another part to Paul’s prayer in 11 Thessalonians 3. It is that the Word be glorified. The Williams translation says to pray that the Word "may prove its glorious power."
There is glorious power in the Gospel to change and transform hearts, lives, homes and nations! There is power to heal the incurable, do the impossible and to break the prison walls of sin and set its prisoners free (Romans 1:16; Isaiah 61:1-3).
There is an awesome power in this simple message. All its requires is to be proclaimed!
As you pray for missionaries, pray for the message we preach. Pray that it may run, spread rapidly, go forward unhindered and reach multitudes of hungry and dying souls everywhere.

Pray that it may go forward unhindered
The Phillips translation of verse one says "Pray that the Word of the Lord go forward unhindered." What are some of the things that hinder the Gospel’s progress?
FOUR HINDRANCES TO THE GOSPEL
1. Lack of laborers
2. Lack of funds
3. Lack of vision
4. Lack of strength
A lack of laborers hinders the progress of the Gospel. Jesus commanded us to pray for more laborers in Matthew 9:38. Are you obedient to pray this prayer? Are you listening as you pray? What if He chooses to answer this prayer by calling you to the harvest?
A lack of funds hinders the progress of the Gospel. Every missionary could do more, reach more people, plant more churches, and train more national leaders simply by having more funds available! More Christians need to realize the importance of making an eternal investment in the Great Commission through the perishable commodity we call money. We can’t take it with us, but we Can send it on ahead.
Lack of vision hinders the progress of the Gospel. We all need to pray for the completion of God’s vision at home and on the mission field. Our vision must take in the greatness of the task, the power of the Gospel, the hopelessness of those without Christ, the seriousness of our Commission, the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice for sinners, and our responsibility to let every lost sinner know that "God so loved the world…"
Lack of physical strength can hinder the Gospel’s progress. Please pray for the health and physical well-being of our missionaries. Many live in lands where the hygiene and sanitary conditions are far below those of the United States. Added to that, the enormity of the task often drives missionaries beyond their physical endurance levels.

Purpose in your heart to remember to pray for missionaries
as they share the Gospel around the world.