The "Oasis" church which our AGWM personnel, Steve and Christina Walent are ministering with has been hosting a weekly Kids Club.  Besides the activities with the kids, an important aspect of the ministry is building relationships with the parents of these children at the same time when the club meeting is taking place.  They sit down with the parents, drink coffee and share together.  In fact, the Walents invited one family to have Christmas dinner with them last December.

But God had even more plans for reaching these parents.  Unbeknownst to each other, both Steve and Christina had been feeling a growing desire to start a cell group for the parents as well as for other new people who are coming to the "Oasis" church.  And starting in January 2009, that is exactly what happened. 

The group meets every Wednesday evening.  The Walents answer questions, of which there are many, read the Gospel of Luke together with them, enjoy each others fellowship, and pray for the needs they present.  They have named the new cell group the "Discovery Group" because they want to discover more about following Jesus together.  Most of those coming have not yet made a commitment to following Jesus, but they are searching.

The Walents comment regarding this group, "We have noticed how many things that we take for granted are totally new to them.  So we are learning to make the message 'user friendly' by using words that are not so 'churchy'.  We gave each of the group the same Bible and so when we refer to a passage, we give them the page number in the Bible instead of the name of the book and chapter.  Some of the participants have a huge learning curve when it comes to punctuality and reliability because of the background they come from, so everybody doesn't always show up, or they may come late.  But we see progress and that is encouraging.  It is so much fun to work with these new, open, and curious people.  Some of them are very close to accepting the Lord.  In fact, one young lady already has.  Another young man senses that the Lord is what he is searching for but he finds himself in a complicated life situation."  The Walents are praying that each one discovers Jesus as their Savior and friend.