Esselstrom August Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Warriors,

“As for you, because of the blood of my covenant, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pits.” Zech. 9:12.

“For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Col. 1:13

Every one of us has to come to the reality that we have been trapped in darkness and seek to drink from waterless pits. Our freedom comes only by the precious blood of Jesus. There is nothing we can do to gain our freedom, it is a gift. For many of the TUMI leaders, they know this gift of freedom both in the spiritual and the physical sense. Many of them were sentenced to life in prison, never to see the outside of prison again, but God made a way for their release from prison. For others, their shorter sentences served as wake-up calls to be done with the waterless pits and the kingdom of darkness. They each left with new vision for how God would use them. We have the awesome privilege of walking alongside these leaders and help empower them to fulfill the call God has on their lives.

Back in June of 2015, our staff asked the Lord for direction and wisdom about church planting in San Diego. We dreamed big with God and felt he was leading us to ask for seven church plant teams to plant 14 churches by 2021. Definitely a God-sized vision, but we asked and trusted in His provision. Maybe those numbers were symbolic of God’s completion and a double portion. We anticipated the Lord to move. As the years progressed, we saw God planting vision in TUMI leaders like Lamont, Eddie and Danny to start ministries. Also during this time, World Impact revamped and repackaged our church planting training curriculum and schools.

This fall, San Diego will host the Evangel School of Urban Church Planting for four church planting teams locally! We are very excited to facilitate this time of prayer, planning and preparation for these teams. Every team member on each of these teams is a current TUMI student or graduate except one.

Please pray for the four teams:

  • Little by Little Ministries led by Lamont and Greg (pictured)
  • Pillar of Fire led by Danny, Kevin and Martin
  • Eddie and Corrine Pollard
  • Puente de Vida led by Cuco Moya

Each team is in different phases of the process, but each are excited about the time and how God will use it to help them implement the vision God has given them. Pray for us and a few staff from LA as we facilitate this process and give space for the Holy Spirit to lead and truly empower these teams as they proclaim and demonstrate the good news of the Kingdom.

Blessed Hope,

Rich and Karin Esselstrom