God has blessed my life with a beautiful family, and of course, my wife is my greatest treasure. After years of studying with Tozer Seminar, my beloved wife and three other Hispanic women from the Central Pacific District have obtained their CPD license. Now Teresa Barrera, Lilia Ramirez, Cathy Sanchez and Nubia Castro are accredited to work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Women and Children Ministries.

I vividly remember as a kid when school let out that it meant just one thing to me, summer camp was just around the corner. Remember the energy you received from the group experience? The attention you received from a caring counselor? The adventures, achievements and activities you still reflect back on today? In my late teens I became a camp counselor and eventually ended up serving full-time in Christian Camping. Now after forty summers of camp, would you like to know why I am still motivated to do what I do?

About 25 years ago when I was planting a church in St. George, UT, Wayne Hoag came through on something called "The Great American Race." I was facing a discouraging point in ministry there, and he took me to breakfast, spoke words of life and prayed for me.

I have never forgotten that moment and how much it meant to me. Wayne has gone on to touch countless lives with his presence, and also with a book, "The One Another Project." He continues to serve our church in Truckee, although not as Lead Pastor, having made an excellent transition to Jesse Richardson who now serves in that role. 
- Ray Van Gilst

If you’re not a prayer meeting type of person, let me encourage you—neither was I and neither were the apostles. Jesus’ disciples were no more capable of praying for 10 days than they were to fly to the moon. The night prior to His execution, Jesus urged His disciples to pray with Him for an hour—a mere sixty minutes—but they couldn’t do it. They kept dozing off. They failed miserably. Rather than joining Jesus in His upper room of prayer, they each rolled over, grabbed their pillows, and fell back asleep. Now, only a month later, they can pray like champions. So, what happened?

Over the summer, I was so excited to send you an update about one of our Alliance ministries in an Asian country that must be kept unnamed at this point. Here is yet another story from this same ministry. God is growing our efforts there and I hope you enjoy this latest update!

When a song is super good, it's always worth re-singing, and I have been fired-up afresh by President John Stumbo's latest video blog.

I'm not sure how many of our family members in the CPD actually get his video blog, so I'm sending it out for all of our CPD family to enjoy. As you already know, my heart beats for the folks around planet earth that have little or no access to the Gospel. I know this is the heartbeat of the Alliance as well.

So please join me in re-singing the song of bringing the name of Jesus to those who have never heard. It's both a pleasure and a privilege to be teamed with you for the glory of God and the reaching of the nations!

Tim Agnello

I think we may be at a point in our history where God wants to develop in us as a district a “culture of prayer?” We’re going to go on that journey for a season. Over the coming weeks, I want to focus on what God wants to do in the Central Pacific District through prayer. 

Hi everyone! I would like to share a few things with you about our Hispanic Churches and the Hispanic Retreat as well. Enjoy the video of our Hispanic Retreat in July.

Hispanic Church Planting Training

In February of this year, we started a Hispanic Church Planting Training, provided by the Bible League International. This training will be completed on November 3rd and already we are seeing very good results for the Central Pacific District.

Since we start this training total of 9 new leaders are working in 9 different cities with groups of people which are growing every day. We are praying that these 9 new home groups will become 9 new church plants for the Glory of God!

I want to personally invite you to this year’s PREACHERS, School of Story, Voice & Culture. In my own preaching journey, I’ve realized how helpful and healthy it’s been to surround myself with other preachers. Preaching can be lonely and the truth is, we are much stronger together. So we decided to host a gathering to bring strength, friendship and courage to a family of PREACHERS. We’ve invited some of our friends and world class communicators to help us make this happen. If you’re ready to grow your preaching gift and strengthen your preaching voice, join us this November! Thirty students, three days, on purpose. 

Let’s go!

Nathan Edwardson

At Council this year, I purchased A.B.: The Unlikely Founder of a Global Movement, by David Jones. I started reading it by the pool in Orlando and had almost finished it by the time the plane landed back in Sacramento. It is worth reading for those of us in the CM&A family.