What's Happening at Church?!

Believe it or not, Baja Fellowship has been "up and running" every Sunday for a year and a half now! That time frame blows my mind but even more, I'm amazed at all the God has done and is doing. We have the blessing of welcoming another family to our 'leadership' team! Henry and Aneliz Bruno are an amazing, Jesus loving, devoted to the Lord, zealous for the Word family who we became friends with 6 years ago while living in Kansas City, Missouri. We all met during an internship at the International House of Prayer. Now, they have 3 little girls {yes, just like us!} and are excited to serve Baja Fellowship through teaching, prayer and oversight.

We have a kindred heart and are blessed to have them in our community! Also, in a few weeks Theo, Henry and Steve {who serves as a music/worship leader for us, along with Nic Brouwer} will be heading off to Cartagena, Columbia! They have been asked to come and teach and encourage the believers at a seminar for others interested in house church...and of course teaching the Word.

So please pray for the guys' for safe travels and a fruitful and powerful time in Columbia.

Hey Baja Friends!!

So, we've had an awesome year and i'm sorry I didn't let you know before that we have officially hit our 1 year Anniversary!!! Actually, we're a bit past it now, but that's not a surprise with the way the Lord made this happen. Baja Fellowship was birthed out of a place of love and surrender to the Lord, and He moved and made this thing exist. We were willing and He moved quickly. More than a year later, we have a beautiful group of people who meet together to learn, love Jesus and love others. We are honored and humbled to be part of a fellowship and community of believers who want to go hard after Jesus and serve Him with all their might. I love it! It's a pleasure to serve you all!

We love you!

Hey Friends,

For those of you who have attended Baja Fellowship in the year we've been together, you know how much we love this family that God has given us here. You are an incredible part of our lives and we cherish you! We pray that the Lord would minister to you and teach you His ways when listening to the spoken Word here. Our desire is that you would see Jesus more clearly each week when the Gospel is presented and that  you would be transformed more and more into His own image, reflecting His goodness and Love. Let's be strong witnesses of Christ Jesus no matter where or how we are serving Him.

Lots of Love & Blessings to you all...

Theo & Melissa

Last Kemp Sunday

Hey Friends!

I wanted to let you all know, if you don't already, that THIS Sunday will be the last for the Kemp family for a few months! And the last Sunday for Jacob, altogether! The family will be going to England to help Jacob get settled and ready for worship school and traveling around visiting family.  We will pray for them and send them off back to England with our blessings!   We encourage you to pray and ask the Lord for any words of encouragement or edification, or scripture to share with them on Sunday before they head off!

Prayer Meeting Change

Hey Baja Fellowship!

Just wanting to remind you that we're changing our weekday prayer meeting to Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm.

Bring your heart, ready and open to commune with the Lord and receive His love!

What makes you alive?

I've been noticing alot of christians posting quotes from different people with a platform who say things like, "do what makes you alive" or "go for your dreams" etc... I'm sure you've come across some of those yourself...they're everywhere!  Well, I started thinking about those kinds of exhortations and I realized Jesus never instructed us to do that with our lives. He did say to use the talents He's given us, He said to deny ourselves, and He tells us to have joy. With that, I began to pray and ask the Lord, how do I do that?? Then I began finding so many places in the Word where He says to ask HIM for guidance and HIS leadership over our lives, and He will be faithful to do exactly that. He will tell us when it's time to use a particular gift He's given us... and how and where. And we will feel more than alive doing it His way because nothing compares to being in His will.  It interesting and dangerous to me, to see so many believers not denying themselves at all, doing whatever they feel like doing in life and calling it God's will, and they still don't even feel satisfied or 'alive'....maybe temporarily they do, but not for long.

Letting our lives truly be led by the Creator and Savior of our lives is a powerful and awesome and definitely not boring thing. Are we afraid that we'll miss out on something if we don't "figure out what makes you alive?" I know what makes US alive....it's Jesus Himself. He is/should be what we live for...and our talents should in every way be used to bring Him glory. Those gifts and talents inside of us are for His glory, and He will instruct and guide us on when and how to use them.....if ever. Maybe they are just there to be laid back down at His feet and surrendered to Him?

I write this with a humble position, knowing I'm far from perfect. But I do know God is faithful to finish the work He's begun in me {and you}, and this bit of understanding is just part of that. Let's pray and give every bit of energy, time, talent/gift, and action to God. He's so worthy of it all.

A Cup of Water

 On May 31st, as we were getting set to start our prayer meeting, we noticed some people standing outside our gate. I went out to meet them, thinking it was new people who wanted to come pray with us. It was 3 sisters, age 17, 18 and 19. They came to ask for food. They were hungry. So , I brought them inside. It was amazing to see why my husband felt like making a bit of extra rice while making dinner and why a friend who came to prayer decided to bring tamales just b/c she had them leftover and thought someone there would like them. God saw those sisters...and their need... and had us prepared for them. It was an honor to serve them food and drink. And even more amazing to offer them the incredible joy, peace, love, and security that comes with giving your life to Jesus. I cried as I imagined my own 3 daughters roaming the streets, hungry, but the Word says in Psalms 37:25 "Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread."  Also, Matthew 25:45 says "And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.''  It's a sobering thought.

I also thought how interesting and perfectly planned out that these 3 sisters would show up to a home with 3 daughters. I don't believe in coincidence. It was crazy to introduce them to our 3 daughters and see such a vast difference, but similar in so many ways, too. I realized that God doesn't have favorites, but when we are willing and wanting Him, he says, "But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands." Exodus 20:6.

The Word also says "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent." in 2 Peter 3:9  So, how amazing is that?? He is patiently waiting for all who would repent {which is just to genuinely say you're sorry for all the nasty junk/disobedience to Him} and start following His instructions and live a long and happy life! {How hard is it to see how wonderful and good that is?!}

So needless to say, after we prayed for them and shared who Jesus is and offered them His salvation, they left and the rest of our prayer meeting was with a heavy heart. We prayed for them more and for other things too. I went to bed with them on my mind and woke up to them on my mind. We told them they can come back to our house anytime they need help or would like to give their lives to Jesus. Please pray for them...their names are Adriana, Gabriella and Surje.

And if you are reading this and haven't given your life to the Creator of everything... know that it's the absolutely best thing you could ever do for yourself, your children and your children's children. What we do in life, passes along down through our line of descendants. Give yourself and your children, GOD!