By Carl Nichols

Recently, a General Baptist team including Clint Cook, Gene Koker, and I traveled to the great state of California to meet with and encourage our churches there.  I had the opportunity to meet some very dear friends and partners in the gospel.  We started out in Modesto and spent a day discussing church planting with Jim Julian.  Jim’s heart for God and people is incredible, and I cannot wait to see what happens as a result of our time together.

We managed to squeeze in a bit of site seeing on the great Pacific Coast Highway as we traveled south to Los Angeles.  It was only 11 hours later that we arrived in L.A. for a series of meetings the following day.  Did I mention it was ELEVEN HOURS?

Upon arrival in Los Angeles, we spent the day with Bruce Conran and Rene Rodriguez, along with nearly a dozen Hispanic, Filipino, and Korean pastors from south L.A.  I must admit that there are some cool things happening there and I wanted to share a few of them with you:

• El Instituto Biblio de Asociacion Sheffield (The Sheffield Association Bible Institute), led by Rene Rodriguez, is training individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary for ministry
• Seven churches have started out of the Bible Institute in the past few years
• Hundreds of lives are being changed in our churches there, and nearly all of them are led by part-time or volunteer pastors
• The next generation of leaders from these families point to a great future

When I began leading National Mission as part of the advisory team, we made it a priority to have a better understanding of what is happening in California.  Now we are making a commitment to ensure that the pastors who put in countless hours a week for the gospel know that they have our full support and prayers.  I would also appreciate YOUR prayers for our brothers and sisters in the gospel in California, and for the work they are doing for the kingdom.