Greetings from Orange County!
This month flew by so fast! Here are a few highlights from this month, specifically between evangelism at the Huntington Beach Pier and discipleship engagements that we’ve been involved with this month. This certainly won’t do the month justice, but it will hopefully give you some insight and better direction for joining us in prayer! For more frequent updates, feel free to read my blog posts here, which are typically added weekly!
The Huntington Beach Pier is one of the most interesting places I’ve been so far in regard to demographic diversity, and you honestly could engage with anyone while you’re out there! We’ve talked to Catholics, Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Buddhists, and many more! We’ve met people from all over the world and in dramatically different stages of life! Huntington Beach Pier is a peculiar place, but it seems to be a great place for our whiteboard evangelism! This month, we also welcomed more people to join us for evangelism at the Pier. In the past, it’s been just a few of us with a whiteboard, engaging people in spiritual conversations on the Pier. Still, this month, several others came out—some from the disciple-making communities (DMCs) we help facilitate, and others from local churches who were interested in observing and participating in whiteboard evangelism. It was encouraging to see people step into something that might feel uncomfortable at first and be willing to learn through doing so. While evangelistic efforts aren’t always comfortable or easy, becoming like Jesus as his disciple was never supposed to be advertised that way.
This month, we’ve seen a couple of students take clear next steps forward in following Jesus. *Henry, a student we originally met at CSUF during the school year, has been in ongoing conversations with us about the Gospel and what it really means to follow Jesus. After more conversations this month—and ensuring he understood that following Jesus isn’t always easy but is absolutely worth it—Henry expressed his desire to become a disciple of Jesus and asked to make a public testimony of baptism. After explaining what it is and isn’t, we did this in a nearby fountain and will continue meeting to support him in his discipleship and formation to Jesus.
We’ve also continued meeting with *Levi, another student from CSUF. Though he made the decision to follow Jesus earlier this year, this month we’ve seen significant signs of growth. He has taken the initiative to study the life and teachings of Jesus on his own, and we’ve seen an increased desire for scripture as he has referenced Jesus’ words—not just repeating them, but applying them in ways that show he’s genuinely trying to understand them. It’s been exciting to see that kind of maturity and desire beginning to take shape in him!
If you’d like to pray with us, here are a few things you can join us in asking God for:
- That the two DMCs we’re facilitating would continue to grow in their desire to actually apply what Jesus taught us—not just learn it.
- For wisdom and clarity in our ongoing meetings with non-believers who are genuinely seeking but have honest questions and concerns about Christianity.
- For the upcoming Archways conversational evangelism workshop, that it would equip people well to have meaningful, gospel-centered conversations in their everyday lives, and that those attending would walk away more confident and faithful in their witness.
Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support in this ministry!
With love and peace,
Ivan Penrose
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