October 2018
(view this email update in browser to view pictures HERE)
Training and Encouraging Majority World Immigrant Church Leaders
Thank you for praying for our first Women of Ministry Retreat! We welcomed 25 leadership women, mostly immigrants, to a retreat center,
where I (Caryn) taught sessions entitled Sabbath Rest: The Sacred Art of Ceasing and Receiving. In cultures that are struggling just to survive, Christian leaders can feel often guilty taking time to rest. They have so many needs and obligations pressing in on
them that they often fail to meet their own spiritual needs. Many are therefore at their limits of discouragement and fatigue. Some operate under a view of the gospel that believes the more they do for God, the more God is pleased with them. It was my desire to help them to understand that they are already fully loved by God, regardless of their performance or failures. Therefore, they can be free to rest and receive
from God.
I was moved by the story of one South American immigrant pastor’s wife who attended. She is brilliant, holding several academic degrees in her home country. She left all that behind because God called her and her husband to plant a church in New York. Since her degrees are not recognized here, she now works at a grocery store. Through tears she shared with me the discouragement and loss she was feeling. In her home country, their church was growing, and the lives of many people were transformed. Here in NY, however, they have had the opposite experience. As a result, she feels abandoned and lonely. As she received encouragement through the retreat she told me, again through tears, that God had met her powerfully and that I am a “special lady.” I told her that I am not special, I just helped her to receive and enter into God’s rest.
In order to really help these women receive from God and others, we set up a “spa” in an unused room. We decorated it with plants, candles and aromatherapy diffusers. We had face, hand and foot masks, along with various massagers. Then, rather than have staff who performed services, we ministered to each other through physical touch. For many, this was the first time they were asked to do nothing but rest and receive from God and each other. There are so many stories I can tell about how God used special time this to transform lives. One that was especially significant was a pastor’s wife who shared with the group how uncomfortable she felt receiving a facial from another. Then, she began to weep because she realized that it was because she had felt unworthy to receive, and that through this experience God was showing her how
loved she truly is. Another woman who had been experiencing isolation in her new country shared through tears how God brought her a new friend who massaged her feet with lotion. I was amazed at how powerfully God used this aspect of the retreat!
Thank you for your partnership that has resulted in many hard-working women leaders to experience refreshment from the Lord. Please pray for them as they go back to their ministries that they will carry these experiences with them as a tangible reminder of God’s love for them personally as they pour out to others.
Missional Church Planting That Transforms Post-Christian Places
I (John) have recently been meeting regularly with several new church planters to help them develop their plans to reach this post-Christian culture with the gospel, but one appointment stands out to me as especially divine! I recently attended a gathering of pastors, and randomly sat next to a gentleman named Bill who I had never met. He asked me where I was from, and I said “Well, I grew up in a lovely town on the south shore called North Babylon.” He looked at me in utter amazement and said, “Are you kidding me?! We are just getting ready to launch a church in North Babylon, and need help getting to know the culture and developing a strategy!” I was so excited for this “coincidence,” especially since Caryn and I have often prayed for God to raise up a life-giving church there!
North Babylon (N.B.) is a typical New York area post-Christian place, with a very high percentage of “nones” (mostly younger people with no religious belief or affiliation) and former Catholics. It is full of resilient,
hard-working, family-oriented people, many of whom commute to the city. We mourned eleven 9/11 deaths, including four firemen and one NYPD. Sports is a very big deal here; The San Antonio Spur’s Danny Green is a hometown hero! Even though it is a populous town, there are no Evangelical churches.
The following week, Bill and I met at the local N.B. pizza establishment. As we enjoyed our slices, he asked me many questions about the culture there. Suddenly, a very aggressive verbal altercation broke out at a neighboring table. As the curses and threats flew across the room, I looked at Bill, smiled, and said “Welcome to North Babylon!” Unphased, Bill replied, “These are the people God has called me to serve.” After we finished our lunch, we spent the next few hours driving around town, discussing the history, the populations in each neighborhood, the challenges to reaching a skeptical place, and the opportunities to see the gospel transform my beloved home town!
Please pray for Bill, and the many other church planters with whom we work, to be effective in planting life giving churches that effectively contextualize the gospel in this post-Christian place!
Thank you for your partnership with us in our work with Global Training Network! Together, we are
working to develop healthy and effective churches and leaders in an increasingly ethnically diverse and post-
Christian America. There are literally hundreds of people whose lives are changed forever because our
partnership. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
In His Love,
John and Caryn
249 Wilson Ave. • Westbury, NY 11590 • (516) 424-7506
www.globaltrainingnetwork.org/who/john-and-caryn-amandola
October 2018
(view this email update in browser to view pictures HERE)
Training and Encouraging Majority World Immigrant Church Leaders
Thank you for praying for our first Women of Ministry Retreat! We welcomed 25 leadership women, mostly immigrants, to a retreat center,
where I (Caryn) taught sessions entitled Sabbath Rest: The Sacred Art of Ceasing and Receiving. In cultures that are struggling just to survive, Christian leaders can feel often guilty taking time to rest. They have so many needs and obligations pressing in on
them that they often fail to meet their own spiritual needs. Many are therefore at their limits of discouragement and fatigue. Some operate under a view of the gospel that believes the more they do for God, the more God is pleased with them. It was my desire to help them to understand that they are already fully loved by God, regardless of their performance or failures. Therefore, they can be free to rest and receive
from God.
I was moved by the story of one South American immigrant pastor’s wife who attended. She is brilliant, holding several academic degrees in her home country. She left all that behind because God called her and her husband to plant a church in New York. Since her degrees are not recognized here, she now works at a grocery store. Through tears she shared with me the discouragement and loss she was feeling. In her home country, their church was growing, and the lives of many people were transformed. Here in NY, however, they have had the opposite experience. As a result, she feels abandoned and lonely. As she received encouragement through the retreat she told me, again through tears, that God had met her powerfully and that I am a “special lady.” I told her that I am not special, I just helped her to receive and enter into God’s rest.
In order to really help these women receive from God and others, we set up a “spa” in an unused room. We decorated it with plants, candles and aromatherapy diffusers. We had face, hand and foot masks, along with various massagers. Then, rather than have staff who performed services, we ministered to each other through physical touch. For many, this was the first time they were asked to do nothing but rest and receive from God and each other. There are so many stories I can tell about how God used special time this to transform lives. One that was especially significant was a pastor’s wife who shared with the group how uncomfortable she felt receiving a facial from another. Then, she began to weep because she realized that it was because she had felt unworthy to receive, and that through this experience God was showing her how
loved she truly is. Another woman who had been experiencing isolation in her new country shared through tears how God brought her a new friend who massaged her feet with lotion. I was amazed at how powerfully God used this aspect of the retreat!
Thank you for your partnership that has resulted in many hard-working women leaders to experience refreshment from the Lord. Please pray for them as they go back to their ministries that they will carry these experiences with them as a tangible reminder of God’s love for them personally as they pour out to others.
Missional Church Planting That Transforms Post-Christian Places
I (John) have recently been meeting regularly with several new church planters to help them develop their plans to reach this post-Christian culture with the gospel, but one appointment stands out to me as especially divine! I recently attended a gathering of pastors, and randomly sat next to a gentleman named Bill who I had never met. He asked me where I was from, and I said “Well, I grew up in a lovely town on the south shore called North Babylon.” He looked at me in utter amazement and said, “Are you kidding me?! We are just getting ready to launch a church in North Babylon, and need help getting to know the culture and developing a strategy!” I was so excited for this “coincidence,” especially since Caryn and I have often prayed for God to raise up a life-giving church there!
North Babylon (N.B.) is a typical New York area post-Christian place, with a very high percentage of “nones” (mostly younger people with no religious belief or affiliation) and former Catholics. It is full of resilient,
hard-working, family-oriented people, many of whom commute to the city. We mourned eleven 9/11 deaths, including four firemen and one NYPD. Sports is a very big deal here; The San Antonio Spur’s Danny Green is a hometown hero! Even though it is a populous town, there are no Evangelical churches.
The following week, Bill and I met at the local N.B. pizza establishment. As we enjoyed our slices, he asked me many questions about the culture there. Suddenly, a very aggressive verbal altercation broke out at a neighboring table. As the curses and threats flew across the room, I looked at Bill, smiled, and said “Welcome to North Babylon!” Unphased, Bill replied, “These are the people God has called me to serve.” After we finished our lunch, we spent the next few hours driving around town, discussing the history, the populations in each neighborhood, the challenges to reaching a skeptical place, and the opportunities to see the gospel transform my beloved home town!
Please pray for Bill, and the many other church planters with whom we work, to be effective in planting life giving churches that effectively contextualize the gospel in this post-Christian place!
Thank you for your partnership with us in our work with Global Training Network! Together, we are
working to develop healthy and effective churches and leaders in an increasingly ethnically diverse and post-
Christian America. There are literally hundreds of people whose lives are changed forever because our
partnership. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
In His Love,
John and Caryn
249 Wilson Ave. • Westbury, NY 11590 • (516) 424-7506
www.globaltrainingnetwork.org/who/john-and-caryn-amandola
ABOUT JOHN AND CARYN AMANDOLA
Married since 1986, and having three great boys, John and Caryn have a long history with GTN’s founders, Paul and Lisa! Caryn and Lisa have been friends since Junior High school, and Lisa and her family played a great role in Caryn coming to faith in Christ as a high school student.
"As a newly married couple, we were challenged by Paul, who was the youth pastor at Northwest Community Church, to take on greater ministry responsibilities while youth leaders there. John later succeeded Paul in that same role, where he learned how to multiply spiritual leaders. John also succeeded Paul as a church planter, Paul planting NCC’s first church plant, John the second. It now seems so natural for us to join with Paul and Lisa on staff with GTN, having the same passion to raise up leaders!"
John is a native New Yorker and Caryn grew up in Arizona. John is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, holds an M.Div. from Phoenix Seminary, and is ordained in the Missionary Church. Caryn is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling. They have much experience in overseas ministry, church planting, mentoring leaders and pastoral ministry.
Consistent with the mission of GTN, Caryn and John have a great passion to raise up Christian leaders all over the world, especially in an area of very great need which is very close to their hearts: The New York Metro area. Their ministry involves several facets:
Married since 1986, and having three great boys, John and Caryn have a long history with GTN’s founders, Paul and Lisa! Caryn and Lisa have been friends since Junior High school, and Lisa and her family played a great role in Caryn coming to faith in Christ as a high school student.
"As a newly married couple, we were challenged by Paul, who was the youth pastor at Northwest Community Church, to take on greater ministry responsibilities while youth leaders there. John later succeeded Paul in that same role, where he learned how to multiply spiritual leaders. John also succeeded Paul as a church planter, Paul planting NCC’s first church plant, John the second. It now seems so natural for us to join with Paul and Lisa on staff with GTN, having the same passion to raise up leaders!"
John is a native New Yorker and Caryn grew up in Arizona. John is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, holds an M.Div. from Phoenix Seminary, and is ordained in the Missionary Church. Caryn is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling. They have much experience in overseas ministry, church planting, mentoring leaders and pastoral ministry.
Consistent with the mission of GTN, Caryn and John have a great passion to raise up Christian leaders all over the world, especially in an area of very great need which is very close to their hearts: The New York Metro area. Their ministry involves several facets:
- Planting innovative, missional churches in the least churched, least reached counties in the USA.
- Training Christian leaders who work and study in the world’s most influential city to be spiritual leaders who multiply.
- Reach international students to eventually return to their countries as missionaries.
- Travel overseas to train Christian Leaders who otherwise have few resources available to them.