Dear Praying Friends,

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for us in Fresno. By the grace of God we are finding strength to continue the work here, and finding joy in serving Jesus. No doubt this is a gift given in answer to your prayers.

Here’s the scoop:
• We have been in our storefront building for about 7 months now and this has been a great move in giving us a face in the community. The city has chosen not to pursue us in obtaining a costly permit. God has blessed us in this location and we have experienced a lot of growth in this new place. We have consistently had 40-50 people attending and at this rate we will probably outgrow our building. We will be free from our lease in another 3-4 months. Please pray for a new place for us.
• We have had 2 baptisms in the last couple of months and this has been a huge source of happiness for us. We are arranging another baptism at present! Many of the people that are part of the work here are new to us and that is an answer to prayer that has also presented some challenges as we work to get them involved and instructed in what Jesus tells us in the Great Commission, “….teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Please pray for growth in our new disciples and continued fruit.
• A few weeks ago we began our third small group (we call them “discipleship groups”) and we are really encouraged to see people wanting to get involved with building relationships and working out what it means to live as the family of God in the world. We also just completed special training for our small group leaders and some of these men will be joining me for ongoing leadership training. Please pray that the Lord of the harvest would make these men (and others) into workers for his harvest.
• We have had a number of visiting overseas missionaries join us to share their reports and preach. This has been a huge encouragement for us. Jake Knotts from the Ukraine preached and one of our men who is a public school teacher recently told me—choking back tears—that he was inspired to view his class as his “Ukraine,” his mission field. It has been great to see that the same things men and their families are doing overseas are within our reach right here.
• Our connection with the ministry to the homeless continues, and we are looking for ways to get others involved. We recently became aware of a new halfway house that is being built for women coming out of prison, prostitution and drug addiction to live with their children. Some of our ladies will be taking a tour of this facility this week to see if we can “adopt” and furnish a room for them and find an open door to minister there. Please pray for wisdom and a sacrificial spirit.

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!

Pastor Matt Troupe
metroupe@gmail.com