Volunteers Needed

James Place, Elmbrook, New Beginnings, Hope Center, La Vina del Senor, and other churches and agencies are hosting a huge community picnic for the downtown Waukesha/Hispanic community in order to display the love of Christ; and we as Clay Pots are helping as well! We need volunteers! So would you be willing to volunteer? Bring food? Or just come, mingle, and smile?

Details:
When: Sunday July 18th 12:30-4pm (Come any time!)

Where: Frame Park in Waukesha.

Food: Bring cookies, bars, or watermelon to share. Bring your own chairs & blankets.

What: There will be Children's activities, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, playground, music & more!

How: Volunteers are needed to help with activities, set up, tear down, and Spanish speakers.

If you would like to volunteer to help, you can sign up at www.elmbrook.org/events/concerts.asp. Look for the Community Picnic and click the 'Volunteer' tab. You will see a list of who is needed yet.

See you there!
Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots ~ Three + One

Have you ever moved to a new city or state? Wow, what a transition time. You feel alone, out of sorts, a bit lost, you don't know where everything is or where the good stores and the good deals are. You feel that you waste time and money, and sometimes you sit and wonder if you will ever fit in in this new place. And yet you speak the language and know the culture for the most part. What if you had to move to another country where you knew very little of the language and had few or no friends there to greet you?

I have had the privilege to begin building relationships with three Hispanic ministers here in Waukesha. Each of them arrived from their home countries to the Waukesha area in the past 3 years and each are here to minister to the Hispanic community. As a foursome, we have been meeting together once a week for prayer and fellowship. God has knit our hearts together in a wonderful way through prayer. We pray for our families, for our community, for the gospel to go forth, for area churches, and for the growth of the Hispanic church here in Waukesha. Without fail, every time we get done, these men thank each other for coming and say to one another how much of an encouragement this is to them. They have testified to the fact that they felt alone in this town, but how this meeting has encouraged them greatly to continue on because others are here for the same purpose.

I, personally, do not think that it is coincidence that three men from three different countries arrived in the last three years to head up a Hispanic ministry for three different churches in the city of Waukesha. God is doing something here and we are praying that he uses us to encourage and empower these men to see his kingdom expand. Thank you for making this possible for us.

Pray:
That God would bind our hearts together in love and unity to serve his purposes.
That God would continue to open doors to new relationships with unbelievers.
That God would stir the hearts of the unsaved community with a desire to hear His word.
That I would continue to learn Spanish quickly.

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, and Malachi Knapp

Clay Pots ~ Sojourner

Malachi's first fish. "I will make you fishers of men."

When Jason came to me about making Clay Pots into a ministry to reach the sojourner and 'stranger' in the United States I actually had hoped that something would change his mind. I was pretty sure we had put in our time as church planters and we were entitled to a normal and average life. As far as I was concerned it was time to "play it safe". Little did I know that God was about to change my mind!

Unless you haven't gone to a store, restaurant, or outside your own back yard in a while, it is pretty hard to ignore the fact that you don't just hear "English" being spoken everywhere you go. In fact, there are many places I go to that I feel that I am the outsider. It got me thinking. Both our ancestors came from Germany and Ireland. At one time, Jason's ancestors spoke only German and they came to the States for a better life for their family. As I thought about this, I couldn't help but sympathize with them and what they went through as they moved and adjusted to a strange and unknown land which was so unlike their own. I know what it's like, I've done it myself.

I wonder who the people were that reached out to them? Who surrounded them with acceptance, love, and help? I assume that there were people who did. I know that as their descendant I am considered an "all American" but they were not and they went through much heartache and struggle in leaving their country and being strangers and sojourners in a foreign land so I, their descendant, could have all of this. I do know there were German/English speaking churches for them to attend where they could feel safe and grow in their faith. This is a key element since Jason's heritage contains Christians as far back as he can figure; they handed it down to their children praying that their children would do the same. So, I think we know what we are meant to do with our freedom as Christians and as Americans: we are to be the ones reaching out and sharing the gospel to immigrants, strangers, and foreigners because someone did it for our families first.

If you are questioning whether to support the Clay Pots ministry I would encourage you to seek out your past, your history, and your heritage. Ask yourself who reached out to your family when they came to this country? Was there a church that spoke their language so that they could attend and feel safe and loved as strangers in a foreign land? This is the job of the church and our cities need that again. They need churches speaking their heart language and Christians reaching out and helping them settle. I ask that you support Clay Pots so that we can encourage and empower churches to reach out to Hispanics in our own town... and then, and because our God is a very big God, we wont stop there but keep on going to more nationalities. Send people to our webpage. Pray for us. Reach out to your cities.

"You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9

His Clay Pots,
Kellie for Jason, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

www.claypots.org


You can send checks to:
Clay Pots
S53 W24079 Glendale Rd.
Waukesha, WI. 53189
(You will be sent a tax deductible receipt)

Clay Pots ~ new direction

Mother and Daughter on Mother's Day

Over a decade ago, we chose the name "Clay Pots" when we first started out as missionaries and church planters because we knew that we were simply vessels... inadequate to accomplish anything apart from the grace of God. 13 years later that sense of inadequacy hasn't changed, but we believe that God has asked us, as his vessels, to go in a new direction. This direction is utterly impossible on our own, and yet we know our God is a God of impossibles!

Jason has seen the need for cross cultural church planting here in America. The world is coming to us and there is an amazing opportunity for our local churches to reach the world in our own communities! Our goal is to see individuals from these different ethnic groups become disciples of Jesus Christ here in, what is to them, a foreign land. Our prayer is that they could take this life giving message back to their own countries.

To facilitate this endeavor, we are making the name 'Clay Pots' into a ministry of its own whereby those who are interested can partner together with us to see these communities reached. It will also allow us to be funded to put in more of our time and energies into seeing this goal become a reality.

So where are we starting? With the approx. 16,000 Hispanics of Waukesha, Wisconsin.

What is our goal? To band together with local believers (Hispanic and non) to reach out and build relationships with the unsaved Hispanics in our town. Through relationships, we then hope to lead them to Christ and have in home Bible studies/ cell groups from which a Hispanic congregation could be birthed.

What are you doing now to reach that goal? Learning Spanish, learning culture, being a part of different community outreaches including volunteering at free English speaking sessions, and most importantly building relationships with the Hispanic community by bringing them into our home.

Why are we telling you this? We need you. Just like we couldn't go to PNG and plant a church among the Tobo people without a support group, we can't reach these people within the USA without you and your support. We greatly desire to give this our all in order to reach different ethnic groups (beginning with Hispanics) and disciple them to carry this on in their own ethnic context as they live here and/or travel back and forth. Would you consider partnering together with us in this endeavor?

If we support you, what will the $ be used for? The $ will be used to support our family and for all ministry costs.

What if you don't get enough support? Will you still do this? We want to say, "Yes, God has asked us to do this and we will do it regardless of support." But if Jason must work a full time job, then obviously he won't have the time to devote to this ministry. So the more we are supported the more we can give ourselves to this. At this present time, Jason is working part time for Kellie's dad 3 days of the week with www.ziebarthmasonryandchimneyservice.com while at the same time, moving forward with Clay Pots and making contacts the other 4 days with our current support level. If that level decreases too much, however, he will look for a full time job, and do this in his spare time.

Just Hispanics? No, we dream big because we have a BIG God:-). Our desire is to see all different kinds of ethnic groups reached in the years to come!!!

What about NTM? As of the end of May we will resign from New Tribes Mission as we have seen God direct us out of that ministry and into another. We have been involved with NTM for 15 years and are thankful for the many things God taught us during our time in the mission. We are eternally grateful for the experiences, the people we were able to meet and work with, the lives we were able to be a part of, and the privilege of planting a tribal church by the grace of God. Not a day goes by that we don't pray for our dear Tobo brothers and sisters in Christ. The space they contain in our hearts will never go away. We are resting in God's faithful guidance and sanctification in their lives as they continue to grow in his grace. We are confident that he who began a good work in them will be faithful to bring it to completion. We have come to understand some of Paul's heart and love for the churches he was privileged to plant. It is difficult to be away from them.

Obviously this e-mail cannot contain all the details and if you would like more information on Clay Pots we have a brochure, information, etc that explain this ministry and all of the ins and outs of it (i.e. vision statement, goals, etc) please don't hesitate to contact us or our home church (Waukesha Bible Church).

His Clay Pots,
Jason, Kellie, Micah, Sophia, & Malachi Knapp

Checks can be made out to Clay Pots and you will be sent a quarterly tax deductible receipt:
Our new business address is:
Clay Pots
S53 W24079 Glendale Rd.
Waukesha, WI. 53189

Our Home Address:
1352 Dopp St.
Waukesha, WI. 53188

Phone #'s
Jason 262-501-8487
Kellie 262-501-8206

NEW e-mail address:
jason@claypots.org
kellie@claypots.org