Merry Christmas Young Seven One

Christmas and New Year's Blessings Friends:

It has been a joy and great privilege sharing the ministry of Young Seven One with you this past year. As of December 18th, Sister Martha and I have detached from the Salinas Section of the Northern Pacific Latin American District of the Assemblies of God to assume a new calling as missionaries to young adults. We were commissioned on Tuesday, December 20th church appointed missionaries of Christian Life Center of the Assemblies of God in Douglas Arizona. We will serve in this capacity while in the military and from our new ministry base at a rough place on earth known as Hawai'i.

As the year draws to a close, we say many thanks to God and to you our ministry partners for making dreams and the impossible come true. Thanks to your prayers and support in just 11 months we have been able to accomplish what we hoped to fulfill in 3 years. From our February Refrigerio/Revival Brochure:

“We plan to accomplish the vision by sponsoring evangelistic out-reaches, in-reaches, short term missions trips, ministry networking, campus ministries, as well as intense discipleship workshops. Our ministry will, therefore, be extremely evangelistic and discipleship oriented. We desire to leave youth forever changed and more equipped to fulfill the Great Commission.”

Over the past year, the youth of the Salinas Section sponsored, covered or participated in the following events:

Multimedia Uth Booth and Fundraiser (Salinas Section Revival Services)

Young Seven One Outreach Website (www.uthministries.blogspot.com)

Teambuilding Rally and Discipleship Workshops (Faith, Hope, and Love Center in Hollister)

Morgan Hill Outreach (Mount Madonna Park in Morgan Hill)

Navigators Workshop for Spirit West Coast Outreach (Sanctuary Bible Church in Carmel Valley)

Spirit West Coast Prayer Tent Outreach (Laguna Seca in Monterey Bay)

We Build People Young Adult Discipleship Course (Monterey Assembly of God)

Club Alpha Omega Young Adult Outreach (Seaside Assembly of God reaching the campus and young adult population of the Monterey Bay)

The Alpha Course Discipleship Course for Young Adults (at Club Alpha Omega)

Planet Young Seven One – A Web Portal Resource for Evangelism, Discipleship, Missions,Ministry Networking and More (www.lighthefire.com/dailyplanet)

Friend’s Day at the Beach In-reach (Window on the Bay Monterey)

Campus Days at Bethany University (Scotts Valley, California)

Section Connection Tours (Gilroy, Greenfield, Soledad, and Salinas)

Streets of Salinas Prayer Mini-workshop and Outreach (Templo Rosa de Saron and over 300 homes surrounding TRS)

Salinas Section Youth Christmas Banquet (Bay Park Hotel in Monterey)

Move the Nations Young Adult Conference with Pastor Roger Ovalle and the School of Urban Missions (Seaside Assembly of God)

LA Dream Center Short Term Missions Trip (Discipleship on the road and Christmas outreach at the Angelus Temple in downtown Los Angeles)

All Holy Revolution NPLAD Youth District Events (www.npladyouth.com)

What a whirlwind tour it has been! Although our deepest prayer was to leave the youth forever changed and more equipped, we have found that we have been the ones so transformed that we barely recognize ourselves.

Even though we leave ministry to youth indefinitely, we will continue to pray for and support youth ministry until we meet the Lord. We have dedicated both the Web Outreach and Planet Young Seven One to the Lord and to you the youth and friends of the Salinas Section. We will continue to support these web ministries to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and to win, build, and send youth. Please feel free to drop us a line and check up on us at these sites. Young Seven One will live until Jesus returns on sites that are tied to tens of thousands of web blogs with potentially millions of visitors from all over the world!

We leave you with the Christmas Message we preached at our commissioning service:

There is a child of promise who was promised the nations from before the womb. There is a child of promise whose birth was celebrated by the angels. There is a child of promise who would grow to achieve the great and impossible things of God. There is a child of promise and that child of promise is you!

Happy Birthday Jesus and Mele Kalikimaka to Children of Promise everywhere,
Danny “DJ” and Martha Morales

Dreams Really Do Come True!

What an awesome missions trip it was!

Our team left the Monterey Bay on Friday afternoon December 16th for the missions field of downtown Los Angeles. There was much fellowship along the way. Upon arriving to Denny's Restaurant in an aptly named way-point called Lost Hills, I pulled out the team from their car and thus began a crash course in leadership development and teambuilding.

I held them in the frigid air to give them an apreciation for all the ministers around the world who at any given second endure cold and nakedness for the cause of Christ. We stayed under a bright street light in the Denny's parking lot in plain view of all the patrons who were walking into and out of the restaurant. We attracted a lot of attention to say the least. This was entirely the point. I wanted the team to realize that the call of minister will take them way out of their comfort zones. We circled up and prayed there in front of everyone, which became a requirement wherever we stopped or before we began a journey. This point was to illustrate the constant prayer that is involved in ministry.

Just before praying, I told our young adults that they had to chose individual team names which began with the title "Minister" to emphasize the point that all Christians are called to ministry and to build team cohesion and uniformity with a touch of creative individualism. Our team was thus composed of:

Minister Diamond
Minister Sonic
Minister Zion
Minister Firefox
and me ... Team Leader Drill Sergeant

As we entered Denny's, the Lord spoke to me and instructed me to teach the missions team a language that they were to assume they knew nothing about. They were to develop this language, they were to find new ways of expressing it, they were to, like all students of a new language, find those who speak this language fluently so that they could practice it with them, they were to even ask God to dream in this new language, they were to consciously attempt to speak this language at all times - the first syllables out of their mouth, and they were to lastly learn how to speak this language even in silence when no one else knew they were speaking it. The language they were to learn from this point on as if they had never known it before was the Language of Love. It is the language of the Promise Land and the Mission Field we had been called to - the language of the Kingdom of God and the Land of God's Heart.

The Missions Team straightwith found creative ways to express themselves in this new language. It was an accelerated language course for new missionaries and they passed the initial tests with flying colors. I constantly reminded them whether they were speaking in the language and I pointed to examples of how they had indeed spoken in this language whether they knew it or not.

As the team finished their dinner, they wrote a note to their server with a blessing on the receipt - in their newfound language of love. After a filling dinner, we headed out to Los Angeles. Along the way, we received a call from our good friend, Pastor Roger Ovalle of Bakersfield's Templo Calvario blessing our trip.

We arrived at our sponsor's home. Like many missionaries, we would stay in the home of pastors for our missions trip. My in-laws, Rev. Fernando and Norma Torres Spanish Pastors at Harbor Christian Center in Wilmington California were our sponsors for the team. They treated the team as royalty, with comfortable furnishings and awesome cooking. The team castigated me a little for not having introduced them earlier to Sister Martha's family.

That Friday night, I kept the team up until 2:00 in the morning. I wanted them to feel the pain of a sleepless night for the ministry. I read to them a devotional from 2 Corinthians 11:23-30. It is a message of the true meaning of taking up the cross for Jesus and what the cost of ministry is all about. It is a message for all those who feel they are really suffering for the ministry, it is a message to all the consumers in the body of Christ who should be producers, it is a message to all those who are afraid of becoming mentors because they feel weak or because they are afraid of failure, and it is a message to all those who make this excuse or that argument for not fulfilling their callings even though so many like the Apostle Paul gave so much for them to do so:

2 Cornthians 11:23-30:
23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? 30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The last thing I shared with the team that night was about how the Lord had first showed me the importance of seeking the gift of love. He did it through a remarkable sign and wonder that involved a supernatural visitation that my father had. The story can be found at our Light the Fire Ministries site: The Radiant Face of My Dad. Before they went to sleep, I told the team that my prayer for them was that they would meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, a Scripture nestled between the Ministry Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that they would dream in the Language of Love.

The next morning, we awoke to a wonderful breakfast made by Pastor Norma. I gave them a ministry topic to meditate on throughout the day.

To Minister Diamond: Excellence and how it relates to Ministry
To Minister Zion: Sacrifice and how it relates to Ministry
To Minister Sonic: Obedience and how it relates to Ministry
To Minister Firefox: Committment and how it relates to Ministry

They are to provide to me a three point sermonette as follow-up and follow-through, two of my favorite "F" words in ministry.

Pastor Fernando Torres also took the time to speak into their lives that morning to encourage the team, for this we are so grateful.

Then we were off to the Dream Center and the historic Angelus Temple! On our way there we sang Praise and Worship songs and invited the Lord into our midst while Bro Izzy navigated the terrors of the mission field highways and byways in Greater Los Angeles.

The Short Term Missions Staff had made room for our team as all the outreaches had been cancelled that weekend to focus all efforts on this year's Dramatic Musical Production - "The Joy of Christmas."

We so thank their Staff for making our dreams come true for this missions trip. Our team was to be the final act in their Christams production! As the cast and crew applauded the exiting inner city children, we would be at the tail end right there with Pastor Matthew Barnett to pass out wrapped Christmas presents to the children. Our team made up the bulk of the Christmas Giveway crew. We were there to make dreams come true to inner city children!

We were so blessed in so many ways by our support to the Dream Center and Angelus Temple. We had the chance to see the Christmas production not once but twice. For anyone who has ever seen a production at Phoenix First Assembly of God where Pastor Matthew Barnett's father pastors, they would know the level of excellence that goes into these productions. We had full backstage passes and had the privilege of telling ushers and crew that we were a part of the production! We learned so much about the Dream Center and Angelus Temple from their awesome staff.

After the production, we bumped into the coolest crew of young adults who are involved in a new ministry amongst actors and movie professionals - Bro David, Bro June and Bro Chris you guys are hillarious. Go Team Turtleneck! We wish you guys all the best and are praying for you...

We drove back to Sister Martha reheating delicious green-chile enchiladas prepared by Pastor Norma. We sang anointed songs of worship into the night using Pastor Fernando's guitar.

The next morning, we attended Harbor Christian Center and were treated to an awesome worship service led by Minister Liz Guiterrez and a powerful message from the Word by Senior Pastor Don Ezell. That morning, he spoke on the Miracle Gift of every created life and a moving story called Two Babies in a Manger.

After service it was back to the Torres home for one last meal and a final farewell to the team. The Lord had put words in my heart for each team member. It was such a blessing as we prayed with them and hugged them goodbye. Sister Martha, the boys, and I left them in the care of our family as we left to start our vacation with a special treat by my nephew and his girlfriend at Chuck-E-Cheese's. It would be a while before we'd see them again as we leave for the mission field as Young Adult Missionaries. What an amazing missions trip it was. Our dreams really did come true!

Salinas Section Youth Christmas Banquet 2005

We were so blessed by a Special Christmas event that had been in the making for over a year. Last night, the friends of Salinas Section Youth Ministries came together to break gourmet bread and feast under the fine dining roof of Monterey's Bay Park Hotel.

We celebrated a year of partaking in the vision of Young Seven One and Holy Revolution (thank you DYD Dan Garza for bringing a Revolution to our District) with a special slideshow. Our guests were then welcomed with the real meaning of Christmas as inspired by "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Pastor David Prado of Hollister's Faith, Hope and Love Center opened in prayer to kick off the nights festivities in anointed order.

We blessed the name of the Lord and sang spontaneous songs of praise and worship unto the "Reason for the Season." After basking in the bounty of the Lord's presence an elegant dinner was served by an outstanding crew from the Bay Park. The portions of Tri-tip, Cornish Game Hen and Halibut were large and the soft drinks flowed. It was almost the picture of the Lord's banqueting table.

Our guests speakers that special night were the Rev. Harry and Shirl Gamotan of New Beginnings Christian Fellowship and Ministry Coordinators for Spirit West Coast at Monterey and Del Mar San Diego. In a short span of time, they spoke volumes of twin powerful testimonies. Some gems gleaned from their stories were that God breathes purpose into every unborn child from the womb, that God is the God of second chances, nothing is impossible for God especially when it comes to unsaved loved ones, and that nothing is hidden from a God who is calling us to honesty in all we do. The banquet guests were deeply moved by Rev. Harry and Sister Shirl who are powerfully anointed speakers of the Word of God. Before they returned to enjoy their dessert, we blessed them with a special prayer covering and a small token of our gratitude.

Pastor Prado assumed the podium thereafter and gave a tearful and moving tribute as Sectional Christian Education Director to Brother Danny and Sister Martha Morales (thank you Pastor David for your kind words and immortal plaque!).

We closed out the night by waking up the guests of the Bay Park with our joyous and bilingual singing of Silent Night/Noche de Paz and Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad/I Wanna Wish You A Merry Christmas. Bro. Ruben Aguilar, Youth Leader of Lirio del Valle Gilroy called for a special prayer over Brother Danny and Sister Martha Morales as they depart the Salinas Section for the mission field. He then dismissed a memorable evening in prayer, fulfilling the dream of our year-end Christmas Banquet.

Many thanks to:

Sister Martha Morales for coordinating the entire event

Mr. James Michael, Ms. Belinda and the staff of the Bay Park Hotel for your fine food & service

Sister Marisela Maldonado of Communidad Cristiana of Salinas for your outstanding interpretation for the entire night!

Brother Izzy Ruiz of Hollister's Faith Hope and Love Center for equipment storage, transportation and setup, as well as for your great guitar and bowstaff skillz

Sisters Shirl and Mellissa of New Beginnings Christian Fellowship of Salinas for blessing us with Rich Mullins' "Awesome God"

Pastor David Prado for opening and your memorable tribute

Sister Vicki of Club Alpha Omega, Borante and Jazzy Amezaga for watching our babies for the night!

Brother Ruben Aguilar of Lirio del Valle Youth Ministries for your anointed part in the evening's closing

The youth crew of Hollister's Faith Hope and Love Center (Bros. Jesus, Noelio, and Jonathan) and Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay's Bro. Abram and Sister Jenni for all your help in breakdown and transportation of equipment - you all got my back!

Mr. John Kopp of Naval Research Laboratory Monterey Marine Division and Bro. Casey Wiley of Seaside Assembly of God for equipment loans

And for all who came and blessed us with your presence that night. Merry Christmas and Happy Holy Days!

Club Alpha Omega's Move The Nations Conference

Click Above for Larger Image

Young Adults and Youth are invited to Club Alpha Omega's Move The Nations Young Adult Conference this coming Tuesday December 13th to Thursday the 14th at 7:00PM. This year for the first time our YA conference will be held at Seaside Assembly home of the first chapter of Club Alpha Omega. Our special speaker will be Pastor and Evangelist Roger Ovalle (NPLAD Honor Bound Director and Senior Pastor of Templo Calvario of Bakersfield).

Pastor Roger Live & Unplugged

Seaside's Holy Grounds Cafe will be open and onsite to serve specialty coffees. Please feel free to forward this invitation to any young adults in the Monterey Bay area who may be interested by pressing the little enevlope icon below. If you are not able to make it, please keep us in prayer as we bring this event never before seen on the Monterey Bay/Salinas Section area.

What to expect:
Club Praise and Worship
Special Baptismal Service
Commissioning Service
Pastor Ovalle (last time I heard him speak I was knocked off my feet! and that's a good thing)
Coffee Fellowship
A powerful and life-changing experience in the Lord
and much more!

For Calendar Event and Mapquest Directions Click Here

God Bless you all in the Lord and Happy Holy Days!
Brother Danny and Sister Martha Morales