One of the key characteristics and core to our DNA as a church is to be externally focused. That means that while we care for and disciple our own folks who regularly attend, we also make sure that we are engaged in serving our city and beyond. We will never lose sight of reaching those who are not connected to Jesus or a church, one at a time. We’ll keep looking for ways to serve our city. Here are some updates from Pastor Michael, who leads our Outreach Team.
Compassion International, Santa Rosa, Ecuador
We have received an update from Compassion International about the church and Compassion Center we are helping build in Santa Rosa, Ecuador, with last year’s Christmas Eve offering. In their update, we learned that this church is actively engaged in evangelism, and they recently saw 300 people come to Jesus within 60 days! A revival is breaking out! This news blows us away, and we’re excited to be partnered with a group of people so committed to Jesus and the community they are called to serve.
You can read all about this update and see some pictures by [CLICKING HERE].
We’ll start sponsoring the kids at this church on August 29th. Start praying now about being a sponsor to a child in Santa Rosa, Ecuador.
J. B. Wright Elementary, Amphi Middle School, and Craycroft Elementary
For the past year, we partnered with J.B. Wright Elementary in a variety of ways. We helped clean their campus, assisted families and children during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and did a large shoe and school shirt donation drive at the beginning of this year. They were so grateful. Pantano delivered in a huge way! Thank you! This was possible because our Mighty Mentor team, led by Faye Chandler, and Deanna Campos, the school principal, opened the doors wide to us.
Deanna is now the principal at Amphi Middle School and has asked the Mighty Mentors and Pantano to follow her there. We go where the doors are open! We have already started our partnership by providing over 250 backpacks for this school.
J. B. Wright Elementary has not been abandoned. Elements City Church will continue to support J. B. Wright, so they will continue to be blessed!
We also delivered 150 backpacks to Craycroft Elementary school for their students.
Serve Our City – Sunday, November 14
Mark your calendars as our next Serve Our City is coming this November. Over a dozen other churches are joining us as we make a difference in Tucson.
Thank you Pantano for continually Loving People to Jesus – both in Tucson and around the world!
Glen ElliottSubscribe: https://pantano.church/blogsubscription
David Thoresen has served as our Outreach Pastor for the last 12 years. Recently we made the very difficult decision to transition David out of that role. He has done a fantastic job of setting the strategic foundation of the Outreach Ministry and developing a terrific group of international partners. We have some of the very best global partners you could wish for – check them out here. However, we also believe we need to advance our global outreach in ways that don’t play to David’s strengths. Any change is hard. David did not want this change as he loves this ministry. This change is particularly hard because we deeply love and respect him.
When I say we respect David, that needs to be unpacked more. David has the deep respect of myself, our Elders and staff, as well as from many, many people here at Pantano, Tucson and around the world. Here’s why; David is a godly man who authentically follows Jesus well. He’s a man of prayer. He has impeccable integrity and character. He is a terrific husband and father. He has served our church and global partners well.
There’s a part that only a few know about him; David has struggled with constant headache pain. At times the pain is so great that he can’t control his reaction. Yet, I’ve never heard him complain. He does the best he can to manage it and do his job well, including international travel. We all marvel at David’s resilience. He’s learned the very rare but undeniable skill of suffering well. No one wants to suffer, but David has modeled for us how to live out the way of Jesus in and through his suffering. I’m in awe of how David handles his pain and is able to do what he does.
Here’s what David has done to set our global outreach on a terrific foundation for an even greater future. I already mentioned that he’s helped develop a terrific group of global partners. In order for that to happen, David, with his team, has developed an incredible model to determine who we partner with and support. He’s created a priority grid taking into account the things we value as a church like church planting, reaching unreached ethnic groups especially among oral peoples, working with national indigenous leaders, community development using healthy principles that are sustainable and respectful of the culture and so much more. He’s put together a system to help manage all of that.
Thank you, David, for continuing to grow and develop our global outreach ministry to a greater and better level than what you inherited some twelve years ago.
Finally, God has already blessed David and his family by providing a very good job in international finance. David will also be able to serve and lead in the very global outreach program he designed here at Pantano. We are looking now at how we want to restructure our outreach and for the next person who will serve in that ministry. Please keep the Thoresen family, our global partners and our search in your prayers. Thank you.
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