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Author: Arw27
Hi,
My name is Alan and I have been in ministry, for many years. I started out at Grace Community Church in their sports ministries, in Softball, Basketball and Semi Pro Baseball team, where I coached, led devotions, and shared my testimony on the baseball team with other teams we played. After leaving Grace, My wife Kathy and I were at Simi Valley Community Church, where we were lay pastors, and also got involved in Parenting classes called Growing Kids God's Way. The church ended up splitting and were part of the original people that helped start Cornerstone Community Church with Francis Chan and Ron Wilson. During that time, we continued in parenting classes, couples bible studies, and small groups. I became a non staff Pastor/Elder some years back and did it till I stepped down on December 31st, 2019. Nothing bad, just felt that the Lord was calling me to do something else, after 25 years at Cornerstone. Presently, I joined a band with our Homeless Ministry (PADS) and we just started a group on Friday nights, that ministers to professing believers who are going through some type of recovery. My desire, is that there will be some type of home/small church that I will lead, based on what the Lord seems to be calling me to. It is a really big step of faith, at 65 years old.
A couple other things to note. I was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and left there when I was 20 years old. My passion was baseball, and my desire, was to play professionally. I gave my life to Jesus when I was a young teenager, but lack of a consistent fellowship and some family problems led me away. I also, started letting baseball be my God.
I moved to California when I was 20, and works for an offshore drilling company for about 2 and 1/2 years and then went back to school and Cal State University where I met my wonderful wife in Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU). We were married in 1980 and Lord willing, look forward to celebrating our 40th anniversary in August. We have 3 daughters that all live close by, until my middle daughter just moved to Tennessee.
My Career, had been since I got out of college, with a degree in finance, a combination of IT, consulting, Executive Vice President, RE Broker and Loan Broker, and a short time as a VP Senior Financial Analyst with Bank of America.
Well, I hope that gives you a little glimpse into my life, and where I think the Lord is leading. Please feel free to write.
God Bless
Alan
Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
May God, continue to bless this great country, in spite of all of our differences!

God does not direct us to use ungodly means…
Faith is not the absence of doubt, it’s the means to overcome it.
We are no longer a SLAVES to SIN.
As a follower of Jesus we are sons and daughters of the King. We are adopted sons. We are blessed beyond all measure!
Lord remind us continually, from your word, the precious identity we have, that out of LOVE, we were bought with a price, for our sakes.
“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
Romans 8:14-17 NASB1995
In a dusty village in Nepal near the shadows of Mount Everest, close to 80 percent of the girls are destined to be sold into brothels because they are the lowest subgroup of the lowest caste in the country, the Badi people. Their religion teaches in a past life they must have racked up a serious number of sins for Karma to punish them and send them back to earth in their caste. People do not even help them, because they do not want to prevent Karma from punishing them. As a result, Badi girls are some of the most trafficked people per capita on the planet. The caste they are born into means they are doomed to be treated lower than a dog—used, sold, and abused.
It was here my friend Ryan met Landana, the most beautiful ten-year-old girl. Her father had agreed to sell her to an Indian brothel. Her mother couldn’t bear the thought and tried to prevent her husband from selling her precious girl. But he would not have it. He started beating his wife because she did not want to sell their girl.
When they found this out, they acted quickly with local social workers and law enforcement. They got Landana to a safe house where girls like her are kept safe, warm, fed, and loved. Landana heard the Gospel. She heard how through Jesus we are adopted into God’s family. This is the most powerful part of the Gospel for many in this area of the world.
When sharing the Gospel with another Badi girl, my friend Ryan told her, “The Gospel teaches your last name is no longer Badi. It’s like your name is no longer Jarla Badi; it is Jarla ‘Christ’ because you are in His family, you are in His caste now.” She lit up and looked at him with eyes of possibility and hope. “Can this be true?” she asked. “Yes, it is the truest truth in all the world!”
Taken from Devotion….Chosen: Remind Yourself Of The Gospel Everyday – Day 6 of 7
Landana gladly joined the family of God, leaving behind the shame of her family, her caste, her bloodline. God became her father, and His love is the opposite of a father willing to sell his little girl. It is a God who was willing to sell Himself for thirty pieces of silver to save His little girl.
The modern mind looks at Christianity and wonders, “Why blood? How can you sing about the blood of Jesus?” But those who have been bought with the blood of Christ know that we now share a bond that goes much deeper than our bloodlines here on earth. Jesus is inviting us into a new family and a new destiny. This is why Christians love to think about the blood of Christ.
This Gospel goes beyond purging our past of its sin; it purges our entire ancestry, lineage, extended family of its shame. You are not primarily a part of an earthly family anymore; you have joined a heavenly family. The blood of Jesus marks you as family for all eternity. We have a new family identity, a new family crest, a new estate, new brothers and sisters, a new last name.
Can you find joy, in the midst of tremendous pain and loss?
True outreach is to make an unconditional, tangible difference of hope…
Resurrection Power! Who would we be, without it?
