There’s an expression that we use when looking back and learning from the past, we say, “hindsight is 20/20.” It’s a great time at the start of every year for reevaluation and what needs to improve going into the next year. There has been so much that we have learned from the Lord in 2019 and in hindsight, we can see clearer on exactly what He was teaching us.
God Always Has A Plan
This past year, we felt like a pinball in a pinball machine. We’ve never traveled this much in our lives and didn’t expect to do as much as we did throughout South Asia and Nepal. We are not travel thrilled people that use the hashtag #travel on social media postings, yet this year was filled with going and going all around.
We took trains, local buses, planes, cars, drove bumpy dirt roads, motorcycled around, rode elephants, and hiked through mountains all to reach our beloved church planters, pastors and leaders. When circumstances arose in South Asia we were led to travel more, which meant living out of a suitcase in multiple places for months. What seemed chaotic for us at the time, we soon realized that God wanted to teach us more dependence on Him and cause stronger relationships with the pastor in each location.
We also learned that this was the heart of Paul in the book of Acts, he led 3 missionary journeys and traveled from place to place spending years on the road. Paul was always trying to maintain a relationship with those precious churches that were planted. He gladly spent and was spent for the sake of their souls. We have never been so inspired for the work of God, transforming lives and revolutionizing communities through the Word of God. No longer do we have to picture in our minds what it would look like but now we understand what is going on in the churches lives. In what potentially could have been tiring, we can say we have never been more committed to reach the world for Christ.
Conferences Are Good!
We’ve always done conferences for pastors and leaders, yet sometimes we wondered how were we able to inspire long-term the next group of church planters / gospel preachers and how much have we done in the endeavor to preserve the purity of teaching the word of God. In the beginning it was easy to be impressed by pulling a big crowd of men together, no doubt it was always an encouraging time to gather and bless the men who attended our conferences but what was and still is important for us is making a lasting investment in their lives.
In years past there wasn’t as many like-minded Calvary Chapel ministers in Nepal. But over time, through the churches that have been planted and through meeting other Calvary workers in Nepal we were able to host the first official CCA Nepal Calvary Chapel Conference and it was a much different conference! Gathered together for a few days were pastors and leaders we’ve trained, sent out and called back to encourage. The conference taught through 1 Timothy, and had much time to discuss the relevant issues that are being faced in our Nepali churches today. Aaron taught a workshop class on sermon preparation, and he was amazed to see the humility and hunger for Gods word among all of the pastors.
We called together all of the men we have relationships with and it was amazing to fellowship and stand side by side the pioneers of the gospel in unreached Nepal. The guys were so excited to spend time and encourage one another as they all face the same challenges and were able to propel each other onward to continue in their calling. We look forward to being part of the churches collective effort toward advancing God’s kingdom more and more this year.
Time In The States
We have been very thankful to reunite with our family in the States during the Christmas season! After a very eventful year overseas, we were ready for the eventful time we were about to have stateside. We are grateful for the opportunities we were given to fellowship & personally update the partnering churches about the CC Pastor’s Training Center & School of Ministry, as well as the churches and Bible Colleges throughout South Asia. There is always an excitement to share about the people we love so much with groups of faithful prayer warriors.
The Vision Is The Same For 2020
The vision never changes: we want to keep serving the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. The church for the past 2000 years has had the same vision to carry out Jesus’ commission to us: to be witnesses to the world and make disciples of all nations. What becomes clearer to us every day is that we need God to help us and we need your prayers.
Please pray that we would continue to love and reach lives for Christ, train them up and send out Bible teaching church planters. The future is bright, and we are excited more than ever to keep planting churches in Asia.
We thank each of you, and we are tremendously grateful to partner together with you in the Gospel. May you abound in the work of the Lord this year and know that the work you do for Christ is never done in vain.
In Christ,
Aaron & Jena Garcia
aaronjenagarcia@gmail.com
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray that God would sustain all the bible colleges and church plants, and that He would make us into efficient, productive senders into every corner of Asia.
- Pray that the gospel would spread even more this year despite the opposition of the government or villages turning hostile, but that the church would be bold and faithful to preach the gospel.
- Pray for those who are already serving in the Lords harvest field, for them to not lose heart and that they would be encouraged.
- Pray that we would love each other in our homes, in the churches and on the field.
- That God would provide financially for us and for the ministry in Nepal & South Asia
- For those divine appointments to share the Gospel with people
- Endurance to be faithful in the work of the ministry