{"id":28428,"date":"2025-07-30T12:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/?p=28428"},"modified":"2025-07-30T12:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:59:18","slug":"ivan-penrose-july-2025-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/news\/ivan-penrose-july-2025-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Penrose | July 2025 Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings from Orange County!<\/p>\n

\"\"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\u2019ve been involved with this month. This certainly won\u2019t 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<\/a>, which are typically added weekly!<\/p>\n

The Huntington Beach Pier is one of the most interesting places I\u2019ve been so far in regard to demographic diversity, and you honestly could engage with anyone while you\u2019re out there! We\u2019ve talked to Catholics, Christians, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, Mormons, Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Buddhists, and many more! We\u2019ve 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\u2019s been just a few of us with a whiteboard, engaging people in spiritual conversations on the Pier. Still, this month, several others came out\u2014some 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\u2019t always comfortable or easy, becoming like Jesus as his disciple was never supposed to be advertised that way.<\/p>\n

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This month, we\u2019ve 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\u2014and ensuring he understood that following Jesus isn\u2019t always easy but is absolutely worth it\u2014Henry expressed his desire to become a disciple of Jesus and asked to make a public testimony of baptism. After explaining what it is<\/em> and isn\u2019t<\/em>, we did this in a nearby fountain and will continue meeting to support him in his discipleship and formation to Jesus.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also continued meeting with *Levi, another student from CSUF. Though he made the decision to follow Jesus earlier this year, this month we\u2019ve seen significant signs of growth. He has taken the initiative to study the life and teachings of Jesus on his own, and we\u2019ve seen an increased desire for scripture as he has referenced Jesus\u2019 words\u2014not just repeating them, but applying them in ways that show he\u2019s genuinely trying to understand them. It\u2019s been exciting to see that kind of maturity and desire beginning to take shape in him!<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019d like to pray with us<\/u><\/em>, here are a few things you can join us in asking God for:<\/p>\n