awake you
who sleep
arise from the
dead and
christ will
give you light

EPHESIANS 5:14

God at work at Awaken

Middle School Students Eager For Jesus

This March our Middle School Ministry experienced something miraculous that showed us how powerful a testimony can be!  A high school girl, named Hallie, shared about her struggles that came from growing up in a church environment but not really having a relationship with Jesus of her own.  When she found herself failing and others failing her, she lost her hope and began living a sinful lifestyle and fell away from the Lord.  But pursuing her own desires left her hopeless and she hit rock bottom.  It was only then, that everything she knew in her head about Jesus pierced her heart.  The Holy Spirit gave her understanding that she needed to repent and receive Jesus as her Lord. She discovered her own personal relationship with Jesus.  

Ray felt led to ask the 28 students in attendance if any of them wanted to repent of their sins and ask Jesus to be their Lord and 24 students raised their hands!  It was such an awesome work of the Holy Spirit. The next week, Ray followed up with a teaching on Baptism and brought in a pool and 6 students were baptized that night and another 4 were baptized on Easter!

Our Middle School Ministry sees about 100 kids weekly and God is definitely moving and students are drawing closer to Him – Praise God!

BEYOND MINISTRY GAVE ME A FAMILY

A faithful voluntees from Beyond, shares her story in her own words: “My family and I began attending Awaken Las Vegas in 2016 as a result of God’s grand design. I quickly knew it was not by accident that we wound up going to this church, as it instantly felt like home to me. However, I made it a point to leave myself as unknown as possible within the congregation, quietly slipping in and out service after service. After a few years of attending many Sunday services, I began to really listen to Pastor Derek when he would speak about serving instead of just tuning out or making up every excuse as to why I couldn’t do it. Even so, itstill took me a few years of wrestling and a few of life’s hardships, before I finally let go and started praying for God to show me ways that He could use me.

He began by using me in little things here and there within Children’s Ministry, and it wasn’t until the end of 2021, that my daughter Rainee and I started serving together at Beyond. I didn’t know exactly why I wanted to join Beyond, I just knew God wanted me to start somewhere. At the initial time of meeting with Tristan to discuss the opportunity, I remember her asking me why I wanted to serve at Beyond. All I could do was smile and tell her ‘I’m at the point in my life where I just want to serve coffee and bring people joy.’ Little did I know how much joy the tiniest of things would bring.  

The more I served, the more I started feeling God beginning His work within me. Beyond not only got me out of my own shell, but allowed me to open up and get more connected with fellow Christians. I began exploring other serving opportunities as a result of what God was doing through Beyond. The simplest of things like serving coffee on Sunday allowed me to begin to dig deeper in my faith and grow closer to our Heavenly Father. I began to understand what the mission of Beyond actually meant and now, I want to live that mission out every day that God allows.

“Beyond Ministry gave me a family that I didn’t know I needed”

Beyond Ministry gave me a family that I didn’t know I needed. The whole team has been such a blessing to me. I cannot explain how grateful I am to have Godly people and influences in not only my life, but in the lives of my family too, as they have also begun to serve in Beyond and other ministries as well.  My family has grown and will continue to grow in our faith thanks to the Beyond Ministry.

I am ever so amazed by all that God can do and this is only the beginning!”

Tiffany Coletta

THE DEEP NEED IN NICARAGUA

17 people including 4 children boarded the airplane at midnight heading to Esteli, Nicaragua.  Maria and her daughter Dani have had a heart for Nicaragua since they began attending Awaken and have been praying for 12 years for the people of Nicaragua.  In fact, they’ve been doing their own ministry there for the past 7 years connecting mostly with women.  Last October, upon her return from one of her trips, it was clear that now was the time for Awaken to engage.  Sonia, another trip member, is from Nicaragua as well and hadn’t been back in 20 years.   The trip they had been praying for was finally happening and everyone was very excited.

The Hostel where they stayed was ran by a retired Doctor, Ninosca.  She greeted each member of the team with a welcome sign and a flower for all the women.  Our team was the only ones staying there so, they had a lot of opportunity to share with her and listen to her story.

One of the main purposes for the trip was evangelism.  Our teams shared the gospel everywhere they went.  There is great spiritual need in Nicaragua as many churches distort the gospel and preach that if they don’t give, something bad will happen to them.  As a result there is a lot of skepticism and cynicism among the people that creates a tremendous barrier to hearing and believing the truth.

Another purpose was to bless the people with practical needs.  During their time, Awaken served over 180 food baskets, which will feed over 700 people, in underserved communities. The gospel was preached in over 10 communities all over Esteli, we served over 130 people at Awaken Aid, and many rededicated their lives to the Lord.

One day, part of the team visited a dump, where people lived in makeshift tents for their permanent homes.  There were so many flies, it was difficult to breathe without ingesting them.  Despite the people living in utter poverty, they were poised as they listened to the gospel and patient as they waited in line for the food baskets.  The mood was particularly somber at the hostel that night as the team shared stories from the day.  What struck them the most was how the people they visited smiled and had joy even though they had almost nothing.  It was a humbling lesson for everyone to realize their own need to be content in all things. 

For lasting impact, the team enlisted retiring Pastor Miguel, to do follow up in the areas that were visited and Awaken is sending 100 Bibles to him to distribute this summer.  We have a strong desire to continue to pray and minister to the people of Nicaragua and are also praying to hopefully return.

HOW WE LEAVE A LEGACY
FOR GOD’S KINGDOM

We want to give those who are awakened in Christ the environment to grow in fertile soil, so we plant churches both near and far, to help disciple them into mature believers, allowing them to gain strength for Christ in their communities, and advance God’s kingdom.