Light the Fire Ministries

Light the Fire Ministries Blogsite: In December 2004, we launched our first blogsite. Its entire design and content was designed with non-Christians in mind. We use it as an evangelistic tool and ministry news site. As a blogger.com site, it is on a domain that is linked to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of secular blogs. On this blogsite, we post testimonies of God's power. We also feature a seeker-friendly version of the AG church directory (off the Light the Fire domain) intended for the blogosphere and to encourage people to visit an AG church. It is our hope and prayer that the Lord will use this site to reach and teach millions for the Lord. To date, we have received several e-mails from all over the world from people who have visited our blog and other sites. It has paid in kingdom impact to have a revival tent located in a high traffic hub, where viewers randomly stumble on your blogfront church!

www.uthministries.blogspot.com

Young Seven One - The Mother Blog: In late January 2005 Martha and I were elected youth representatives for the Salinas Section of the Northern Pacific Latin American District (NPLAD). After discussing the vision of Young Seven One with the presbytery, and while awaiting our induction, we launched another blogsite using the name of the vision that God had given us for the youth of our Section - Young Seven One. The blogsite had the same evangelistic thrust of our Light the Fire blogsite. Although we have since moved on from the Section and full-time youth ministry, we maintain the site to win, build and send youth not only in our former Section, but all over the world. Through the vision of Young Seven One, we launched Planet Young Seven One (below). As a result, we were able to integrate a storefront, an interactive and syndicated guest book, prayer request/praise report board, and a discussion forum all dynamically linked to our Light the Fire blogsite and main website. Through Young Seven One, we were able to post near-real time photos from our sectional and district youth events for the first time (we have since migrated these to our galleria).

www.lighthefire.com/dailyplanet

Planet Young Seven One Webservice: The vision first started with providing an interactive forum for discussion, prayer requests, praise reports, guest book entries, and event coordination for the youth of our Section and the young adults of Club Alpha Omega, but the webservice soon mushroomed into an interactive portal and tool site intended for youth and young adults everywhere. It now has what we call five "cyber-continents": News Feeds, Fish Food, The Colonnade, Planet Music, Planetainment, and Global Weather - all providing fresh content and interactive features too many to mention.

www.clubalphaomega.com

Club Alpha Omega: We formally launched Club Alpha Omega Young Adults International in mid-December 2005. On January 31 2006, we launched the club's official website. Club Alpha Omega provides the local church with an effective, Holy Spirit-empowered approach to win, build, and send young adults. The club combines proven short-term: seeker-friendly courses to win young adults, purpose-driven courses to build young adults, and missions and outreach opportunities to send young adults. The club enhances the experience through food fellowship and worship based in Scripture and in the local culture of young adults. We are in the process of formalizing chartering information, a missions training site, and a national staff. For more on how we started clubbing, visit the club's story page. Are you a young adult? Like to club? Want to change your world? Welcome to the club ...

www.clubalphaomega.com/clublighthouse

The Lighthouse Project: The seeds of this missions giving project was first conceived in 2004. In the process of launching Club Alpha Omega, the Lord reminded me of the idea and led me to incorporate it into the club as its missions giving program. Our hope is that as the club grows so does the Project and its beneficiaries. Although we are still in the dialogue stage, we have already taken a step of faith by adding contribution links to three ministries with whom we desire partnership.

www.clcag.com

Christian Life Center Website: In Summer 2003, we launched a website for our parent's church in Douglas, Arizona - Christian Life Center Assembly of God. We are still developing this site and hope to add more content to it in the near future. Among other dynamic/interactive content, it has a seeker-friendly version of the AG church directory and an online Christian radio tuner integrated into it. About Christian Life Center: CLC is a fully bilingual church with services simultaneously offerred in Spanish and English. This new church plant has a great heart for community and world missions and is strategically located in the city that served as the historic Pentecostal gateway into Latin America and the home of the first international airport in the Americas. CLC now serves as our sponsor church and mission's headquarters.

Light the Fire Ministries is the evangelistic and discipleship ministry co-founded by Danny "dj" and Martha Morales (the Lord founded their ministry in the year 2000). The focus of Light the Fire Ministries is two-fold: 1. God and 2. People, the same two-fold summary of all the Law as stated by Jesus. We desire to put this focus into action by: building the kingdom of God, building up people for God, and building bridges between God and people and between people and people.

Light the Fire began as a youth ministry in the Summer of 2000 at First Assembly of God in Douglas, AZ two hours away from the Tucson home of Danny and Martha. God miraculously called them to minister in Douglas just 2 weeks before Danny was to report to Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Pensacola, FL.

They responded to God's call to Douglas in the face of Danny's impending transfer and immediately made their decision known to the church. Two days before he was to report to OCS, with their apartment packed and one waiting in Florida, the Navy called the couple and informed them that their orders were "unexpectedly" cancelled due to medical reasons.

For the six months that Danny was placed on medical hold, they ministered with the full force of their physical energies and the full power of the Holy Spirit. While in Douglas, they assembled a divinely appointed staff of ten young adults and just as many middle school youth. Together they were able to revitalize and redefine First Assembly's youth ministry. The youth group quickly adopted Light the Fire! as their name for three reasons: because of the staff's favorite worship song, "Light the Fire," the tongues of fire mentioned in Acts, and also because of Danny's recent inpsirational experiences reading the book "In Search of the Mountain of God." The name was well-suited given the consuming God experiences the group was to enter in for the next six months.

During these six months, Light the Fire! was able to:

The youth ministry continued under the annointed leadership of the Rev. Mary Louise Vigil after Danny and Martha were finally transferred to Florida to begin their formal Navy career. They left the youth group, but not Light the Fire! The memories, call to ministry, and the anointing lives on in the hearts of all the original Light the Fire! staff.

The vision that the Lord first gave to Danny and Martha lived on. While stationed in Monterey, California, the ministry couple was able to serve as youth leaders, Sunday School teachers, and board members at El Aposento Alto (Senior Pastor David Bazan). While at Aposento Alto (which means the "Upper Room"), they were also blessed to serve as the Assistant Youth Representative and Youth Secretary for the Salinas Section of the Northern Pacific Latin American District Council (NPLAD). Danny and Martha owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Bazans in giving them a chance in ministry and introducing them to sectional and district ministry.

Two years later in the Fall of 2003, the Lord called them to Faith, Hope, and Love Center in Hollister, California. It was not until December of that same year that they resigned their positions at Aposento Alto and with the Salinas Section. During their month-long transition to Hollister, they began a short-term Bible Study in their home on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (the seeds of Jesus the Baptist). Within a couple weeks, they moved the study to nearby Monterey Assembly of God with the blessings of Senior Pastor David Royer. In return for the free use of the building, Danny and Martha would fill in for Sunday School, worship, and preaching of the word in the pastor's absence. Pastor Royer's vision for reaching the international young adult hub on the Monterey Peninsula would later inspire Danny and Martha to form Club Alpha Omega.

A month later, while continuing their ministry in Monterey, they made the move to Faith, Hope, and Love Center in Hollister (Senior Pastor David Prado II). After several months of attending, they became members and were asked to assume ministry positions. Martha served as the Christian Education Director, Boys and Girls Missionary Crusade (BGMC) Coordinator, and Church Secretary. Danny served as Royal Ranger Commander, Evangelism Director, and part-time Worship Leader. Pastor Prado's vision of We Build People was instrumental in Danny and Martha's development as makers of disciples. We Build People would become the core of their discipleship philosophy. The coupled merged the concepts of We Build People and BGMC to form a weekly children's ministry program - We Build Kids/BGMC. They would eventually incorporate We Build People into Club Alpha Omega as well.

A year after arriving in Hollister, the couple were elected as Youth Representatives for the Salinas Section in January 2005. During their tenure, they brought the evangelistic and missions-focused vision of Young Seven One to the youth of their section. Six months after their election and a week after Pastor Royer's transfer to Oregon, Danny and Martha moved their young adult meetings in June 2005 to Seaside Assembly at the invitation of Senior Pastor David Martin. Pastor Martin's interest in young adults and planned café, as well as the evangelistic vision of Seaside Assembly were confirmational of the club's calling.

As in Douglas, these consuming days of ministry had to come to end with a military transfer. Before transferring though, they were able to lead adult services with their We Build Kids/BGMC graduates, commission three young adult leaders, and lead a short-term youth missions trip. In late December 2005, days before boarding the plane to their new duty station, they were commissioned as church-appointed missionaries to young adults in the city where it all began - Douglas, Arizona. At the ceremony, their new sponsor co-pastor, Rev. Mary Louise Vigil presented them with a golden sash that had been given to her and other youth leaders by the late Rev. Mark McGrath, the Arizona District Youth Director at the time. As youth leaders, Danny, Martha and Rev. Vigil had all served under this great man who had a tremendous heart for youth and vision for missions. One of his dreams has been realized in the new UltimateAim, a follow-on internship program of the Ambassadors in Missions Program that allows youth missionaries to grow as young adults into fully appointed missionaries, all while serving in a foreign country. The significance was not lost to both Rev. Vigil and Danny who had participated in the AIM program in the past (Rev. Vigil was an AIM team leader and Danny received his ministry calling and was baptized in the Holy Spirit on an AIM trip to Puerto Rico).

Now with a fresh calling as missionaries to young adults, Danny and Martha look ahead to new challenges and opportunities to serve and experience God. To God be the glory, and honor, and power forever. Thank you Lord for your salvation and Great Commission! You truly are a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).

As a lasting tribute to our first youth group, we leave the following original description of Light the Fire!:

Light the Fire! is the youth ministry of First Assembly of God in Douglas, Arizona. However, we are not just any ordinary church youth ministry that meets once a week as a youth group. We are a ministry outreach. By this we mean a team of dedicated staff and youth that reach out to their home church, community, and world.