Author: Joel Garcia

Preach. Disciple. Send. Repeat.

Posted on by Joel Garcia

Attending a church service at Calvary Chapel Rosarito is a dynamic experience from the very beginning. As you walk into the courtyard, you’re immediately faced with the fact that this church genuinely wants you here. They want you to feel at home. They want you to feel like a part of their family. They want you to eat with them and talk with them and laugh and cry and sing with them. Their friendly greetings and hearty handshakes and warm smiles are a message from God through His people. What they’re really saying is, “You matter to us, because you matter to Him.”

And that’s not where things stop for Pastor Mike Vincent’s church in Rosarito, Mexico. If you’re a newcomer (or if you’ve brought a newcomer along with you) you’re given a gift of a book or music. But what really hooks people is the fact that this church is alive. After all of the warm greetings, you’re seated in a pew and the celebration begins. The church’s bilingual worship time is a thing of beauty, a small taste of the believer’s future singing praises with people from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) as Gospel-centered lyrics swing back and forth between Spanish and English in an upbeat, celebratory style. And this is functional as well, with a fair share of the church’s congregation being English speakers; Pastor Mike preaches in English through a Spanish translator as well. And with each message comes a clear presentation of the Gospel with an opportunity given for the lost to respond.

People are getting saved at Calvary Chapel Rosarito in such numbers that, about a year ago, Pastor Mike implemented a new believers’ class during their first service on Sunday mornings. Those who put their faith in Christ at CCR are encouraged to skip the sermons for a month and head to a four week class where they learn the basics of the Christian faith, culminating in publicly declaring their commitment to Christ by being baptized at the church’s monthly baptism. In fact, at a recent church baptism, 11 out of the 16 believers baptized had been saved for under 2 months!

Completing the new believers’ class at CCR culminates in baptism with the church body

So Pastor Mike’s vision for CCR is to gain converts to Christ and disciple them; but his big-picture goal is not to fill his church. In fact, he’s seeking to send them out! Pastor Mike is a church-planter at heart, because that’s what he sees in scripture, and that was what was modeled in his own life as a believer. “I was sent out myself, and it was a really exciting time for me,” he says. “I kept seeing it happen around me [at his home church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace in Southern California], and from the very beginning I had it in my mind to start doing it myself.”

The Vincent family was sent out by a church passionate about church-planting, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, over a decade ago

It took awhile to get the process going, getting his own church established in Rosarito and raising up leaders being the first steps. After the first two church plants to come out of CCR didn’t end up panning out, Pastor Mike became more proactive in training, implementing a church-planting class to train people in the skills it takes and the hardships involved in the process that he knows so intimately. The class is an extensive 2 year program, with weekly 3-4 hour classes led by CCR’s pastors. In addition, prospective church-planters need to be actively involved in ministry as pastors and, where possible, staff members. They need to lead at least one ministry at the church as well as a home group. It may seem like a long process, but this type of training is invaluable according to Pastor Mike. And the fruit of this work speaks for itself; out of 19 church planting teams that have been sent out of CCR (15 in Mexico and four in the United States), 16 are still presently meeting. Those are amazing numbers!

And so the process continues for Pastor Mike Vincent and his team at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. They preach the gospel, sinners come to Christ, new converts are discipled, and church-planters are sent out to new locations, where they repeat the process all over again. Preach, disciple, send, repeat; this is the heartbeat and rhythm that drives this booming church in Rosarito, Mexico.

Sharing the Good News About the Really Good News

Posted on by Joel Garcia

Hello friends and family! Here’s a quick update on how things have been going in my now 3-month old position as a full-time SGWM missionary. In summary, things are fantastic, and I feel more settled into my role than ever before. I still fulfill a hodgepodge of tasks for our ministry as we all work together, but my official role is Director of Communications. What does that mean? In the business world, we’d probably refer to it as “Marketing,” but I don’t think that quite fits the bill of what I do for SGWM. We’re in the work of facilitating the spread of the Gospel through our missionaries and endeavors; my job with SGWM is to let the world know about what we and our missionaries are doing. In a nutshell, I’m spreading the good news about how our missionaries are spreading the really Good News!

Missions training in Pakistan via Skype with Pastor Mike

Why is that important? I think that, above all else, we want to inspire people to get involved. To pray, to support financially or otherwise, or to go out themselves. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a concept far too prevalent when it comes to missions; my job is to keep SGWM’s work and missionaries in sight and in the minds and hearts of people everywhere through some of our culture’s most powerful mediums like email and social media. One of my biggest projects in this area is SGWM’s new monthly newsletter updates, which I put together each month to let people know about all the amazing ways God is using SGWM and our missionaries! If you’d like to see the work I’ve put into our inaugural edition, check it out here!

Of course, I still get to do a lot of other amazing things for SGWM. I’m still teaching on occasion for our Pastors’ School in South Asia via Skype (sometimes with these amazing young men from the young adults group Amy and I lead for our church!). That is always an incredible honor!

Teaching our South Asia Pastors’ School via Skype. Sometimes our young adults group joins us!

We also recently held a Missions Sunday at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, to talk about all of the work that goes into facilitating missions through our home office. People don’t typically think of people working from beautiful Yorba Linda, CA as missionaries, but the fact is that we at the home office have dedicated our lives to making sure international missionaries have all the tools they need to fulfill their part in the Great Commission.

Missions Sunday at CCSG. I participated in a panel discussion, and we had a great info table set up in the courtyard

We ask you to continually pray for us during our first year in this role! Pray for constant vision and that we’d continue toward raising all of the monthly support we need. We love what we’re doing and would like to continue in this work for a long time as the Lord sees fit. If you’re not already signed up, feel free to sign up for our monthly newsletter here!

If you’d like to become a financial parter with us, the best way to do that is by signing up here to become monthly supporter. Or, you can send a check directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886 with “Garcia Family” in the memo line.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Love in Christ,

Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, & Jude

Home Is Where The Mission Is

Posted on by Joel Garcia

Just a quick look-over of Bond and Heather Gaona’s travel schedule is an exhausting experience. If you’ve ever travelled internationally, you know that even one long international flight can be tiring. Jet lag alone tends to throw off your body’s schedule for a few days. I remember my own Missions Pastor telling me about the sensation of feeling so tired that it hurts; after returning from my last trip to South Asia with him, I vividly understood what he was talking about.

Pastor Bond Gaona, his wife Heather, and their two-year-old daughter Breanna, however, are pros at this by now. Breanna has been doing this her whole life, and her parents say she’s a better traveler than they are! This was abundantly evident to me a few weeks ago as I sat across from all three of them at a taco restaurant; they had just returned from Nepal barely 24 hours earlier and I knew they were exhausted, but they handled themselves with ease. Almost every time they land across the ocean or in the States, they hit the ground running. The Gaona family has responded to a specific call from Christ on their life that doesn’t really allow them to plant firm roots anywhere. As missionaries for SGWM, they split their time each year between three different continents. They’ll leave their home base here in the United States to spend a few months in South Asia and then head to Nepal, or to spend a good chunk of time in African countries like Uganda, and then return to the United States for a couple of months, only to go out on the field all over again. It’s a whirlwind experience that they wouldn’t trade for anything. In 2008, God stirred their hearts to start reaching the nations with the Gospel in a greater capacity. So now, they submit to a travel schedule that is, to most people, a bit dizzying. The Gaonas never seem to settle down, because for them, home is wherever God is using them to advance His kingdom.

“There was no specific goal in mind when we started,” Pastor Bond says. “We just didn’t like the idea of staying in one place forever.” In those early days, as the Lord was beginning to give Bond a broader vision for the nations, his wife helped ground his outlook in the Bible by reminding him that this was exactly what Paul did. The great Apostle to the Gentiles has become somewhat of a model for their own missionary work.

The Gaona’s game plan is to go to the unreached and preach the Gospel to them, disciple those who come to Christ, and raise up leadership among that group to take over the work there for them. Then, they do their best to return there every year or so to see how they’re doing and help with any of their practical and spiritual needs. Sound familiar? It looks like a modern day layout for exactly what Paul did all through the book of Acts. While many missionaries are called to go out and plant roots in a new country to establish churches and disciple people, the Gaonas feel called to have a further reach. Raising up nationals to continue the works they begin allows them more time and freedom to reach other unreached people groups. Another upside, says Heather, is that “the people don’t become as dependent on you; they’re forced to step up and take leadership.” And this leads to fruit that lasts and multiplies itself in the areas the Gaonas evangelize in.

But this lifestyle has not come without some personal cost to the Gaonas; the call of Christ is never easy. There are, of course, the cultural issues that all missionaries face. It takes a lot of work to learn a culture well enough to overcome issues of language and, even amongst those who speak your own language, the interpretation of what you are trying to say (Pastor Bond calls this the “box of confusion” phenomenon). And the Gaonas are juggling this issue in multiple countries!

Another difficulty fairly specific to Bond and Heather is that they aren’t able to create a real “home” for themselves anywhere. This can be particularly hard on Heather as a mom and wife. But Heather is intentional about doing the best with what she is given, and understands that even with this unique issue, other missionaries who plant themselves in a specific country face problems that she doesn’t have to. The Gaonas do a fantastic job with taking things in stride and with a proper perspective.

Bond and Heather have greatly valued the relationship they have with Saving Grace World Missions. The number one thing they appreciate about their sending organization is pastoral care and guidance. Bond cites Proverbs 15:22, stating that “There’s just more wisdom and counsel available to us with different pastors and leaders on the board.” They have a team to run big decisions and vision by. Heather has really appreciated guidance and counsel from SGWM pastoral leadership, particularly when both her parents were facing health issues and eventually passed away. She was advised to give herself time to stay home and grieve her loss, and  received counsel through that difficult time. The compassion and freedom she was granted during that season was a huge encouragement to her that she’ll always hold onto.

Life on the field (or, for the Gaonas, on multiple fields) is never a breeze. But, as Pastor Bond says, “When you’re called, nothing seems too hard to handle. It’s when you’re not called that you start running into issues that are beyond your grasp.” The Gaonas know that they are called to what they are doing, and their unwavering faith in Christ through it is strong evidence to that fact.

Prayer Request for Dave Zavala – CCA Pastor’s Conference Uganda

Posted on by Joel Garcia

(Editor’s Note: The following is a prayer request from Twinkle Zavala. The Zavalas serve with SGWM in Africa)

Please pray for Pastor Dave Zavala and the other pastors as they attend the CCA Pastors conference in Uganda this week.

Please pray for me (Twinkle), and our daughters Bianca and Sophie in Nairobi. Please pray for God’s protection over us and for Dave as he drives for 13 hours from Mukono, Uganda back home to Nairobi on Saturday.

Thank you so much for your prayers

Pastor Dave and twinkle’s Missionary blog: sgwm.com/zavala

 

(Photos) East African Pastors Conference 2018 in Mukono, UGANDA over 300 in Attendance

SGWM at the Calvary Chapel 2018 Global Missions Conference

Posted on by Joel Garcia

(Editor’s Note: Tim Rich (deacon and leader of Missionary Care Teams at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace) and his wife Mary Ann helped man SGWM’s table at the Calvary Chapel 2018 Global Missions Conference. Below is Tim’s assessment of SGWM’s reach from his experience at the conference.)

Picture yourself sitting at the SGWM table at the four-day Calvary Chapel Global Missions Conference in Murrieta this past week when a small group of young women approach.

One says to another, “Oh look, there’s the SGWM table.” Another says, “There’s your picture and prayer card” among a dozen others in a display in front of you. Suddenly, you realize you are meeting one of “your” missionaries and looking into the face of what Saving Grace World Missions has become—a sending organization for missionaries not just from Calvary Chapel Saving Grace  but from churches—some in faraway places—which don’t have the wherewithal to provide administrative and other support for missionaries headed to the field.

In the past few years, SGWM has attracted a significant number of Christians from around the country and beyond who are being led by the Lord to the mission field. They have the desire to serve and the leading of God to go but no practical way to make it happen. Enter SGWM which has been established to assist them in receiving donor contributions and providing tax receipts for those donors, payroll, budgeting, e-mailable newsletters, updates and prayer requests, medical benefits, missionary specific tax services, pastoral support and counseling, and a myriad of other functions.

Originally established as the missionary arm of Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, SGWM today serves three times as many missionaries and missionary families from other churches than from CCSG. Some are the product of CCSG outreaches, most notably the pastor-training schools of ministry this church established in South Asia.  Some are from other Calvary Chapels which need assistance in answering the call of reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mathew 28:19-20).

It was apparent at the four-day missions conference that SGWM is gaining a reputation as a first-class sending organization. The conference attracts missionaries and mission-minded Christians from around the world. Many who visited the SGWM table had already heard of the good work SGWM is doing and were interested in hearing more. But one such group of visitors—those depicted in the second paragraph of this article—already knew the benefits of this organization. Rebecca Alaniz, who came to SGWM from another Calvary Chapel, visited the table with her friends and had nothing but high praise for the support she receives from SGWM staff, most whom she mentioned by name. Rebecca is currently home raising support to return to Zagreb, Croatia, where she ministers to children in the Roma (gypsy) community. More information about her and others serving in the world is available here at SGWM.com.

Gaona Family Update: Christmas Comes To The Leper Colony

Posted on by Joel Garcia

About a year ago, an opportunity opened up to visit a leper colony in Nepal and they welcomed us gladly since visitors to the compound are very few. The first bumpy bus ride to the outskirts of town was filled with thoughts that raced through our minds like “would we touch the lepers” and “how would we respond if someone wanted to shake hands”. But, knowing that these people are outcast from society and in desperate need of love….we didn’t want to miss what the Lord would have because it was outside of our comfort zone. We knew the stories in the bible where Jesus spent time with lepers, but we never thought that our lives would include hanging out at a leper colony.

Wow – are we glad that we said YES that day! As the bus door opened and we entered the courtyard at the Leprosy Colony a woman by the name of Ritu threw her arms around us and hugged tightly saying “thank you, thank you, thank you for coming”. We had over thought every aspect of what it would be like, what we would do and how we would respond. We almost missed out on the countless blessings, friendships, miracles and life altering moments that have filled this past year as we have spent time with these precious people.

Since that first day, we have visited the Leprosy Colony over a dozen times bringing hygiene kits, distributing food and cooking items, serving meals and sharing the love of Jesus Christ. So much of the physical blessings have been provided through visitors that we have been able to take with us. There have been concerts, dance parties, testimonies, and messages from the Word that have rung out in that place this past year to encourage the 200 families that call the Leprosy Colony home.

This past month, our friends from Believers World Outreach sent a team to serve and they asked if an optical clinic would be needed. We responded with a resounding YES PLEASE! Bond and the team spent the first week in the village doing an optical clinic at a new church planted by one of our CCBC Nepal graduates. Hundreds lined up in the early morning to see Dr. Dennis (eye doctor) who brought a $15,000 machine to properly evaluate each patient and get them the exact prescription from the 3,000 pairs of eye glasses that were provided and brought by BWO. People walked for miles, waited for hours, were given glasses to see again, hundreds were prayed for and invited to come back to church as services in the new building that will begin soon. The team worked tirelessly to serve each and every person that came in the village.

When the team returned from the village in early December, we were extremely excited to learn that the Leprosy Colony gave permission to hold an optical outreach on-site. The eye team set-up in the director’s office, the eye charts were hung in the courtyard, the construction team was working on building walkways and leper after leper lined up. What a gift to be able to share about Jesus who invaded history and is the reason we celebrate Christmas with each person living in the leprosy colony! Imagine never hearing who Jesus was or why we celebrate his birth (Christmas) and in one day you get to see both physically and now you see your need for a Savior! As Heather helped one of the ladies in the leprosy colony choose glasses and put them on, she exclaimed “I Can See”. What an incredible Christmas gift that lepers were receiving sight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is because of your prayers, financial support and endless love that we were able to bring Christmas to a Leper Colony this month in Nepal and share the love of Jesus with these precious people throughout the year! Thank you for letting us be your hands and feet this past year to those who may not otherwise be reached with the love of God.

Merry Christmas With Love,

Bond, Heather and Breanna

Christmas in Pakistan with the Poor and the Outcast

Posted on by Joel Garcia

Last month, Saving Grace World Missions and our missionary in Pakistan, Pastor Nadeem Massey, put together a campaign to raise money for a Christmas party for some of the poor and outcast in Pakistan, a group called the “Brickmakers.” The Lord faithfully provided through His people to fund this, and the Brickmakers, who are essential slave laborers in Pakistan, were blessed with a great time of food and the Gospel from Pastor Nadeem. Thank you to all who faithfully donated and prayed over this event! Below are some pictures and a word from Pastor Nadeem regarding the outreach.

Greetings,
We had Christmas party with brick makers on Dec. 15. It was such a great blessings for us and for all those poor and un-reached people. They live outside of the town, as an isolated community of the brick makers. Churches here are busy with many Christmas programs; they have beautiful decorations and music but while this poor community of our brothers and sisters live out side of town, no one is thinking about them at this time of Christmas as all are so busy with their preparation for Christmas.
We praise God that He has enabled us to reach them on regular basis and they now know that they are part of Calvary Chapel Pakistan. You can notice a little banner behind on the wall, we got that printed last year at the time of New Year, and as they welcomed us they decorated the way to their place for us and put the poster of Calvary Chapel behind on the wall. That was simple way of their expression of love.
Thank you to all our friends and family for praying for us and particularly these precious people, and also for supporting us in order to bless these people with a good lunch, food supplies and some clothes. They are very happy and blessed and send their thanks to you and everyone there!
In Christ Jesus
Pastor Nadeem Massey​

Around The World (No Planes Required)

Posted on by Joel Garcia

The transition into being full-time missionaries with SGWM, becoming intimately connected with facilitating worldwide Gospel work and raising support as missionaries ourselves, has been quite a whirlwind. But there’s a peace in the midst of the hurricane, and we’re finally settling in to see what this is going to look like for our lives in the long-term after the completion of two successful church events I got to head up: our Halloween Front-Yard Parties and Thanksgiving Potluck. (If you’re curious, planning a potluck for 150+ people gives you a taste of both delicious food, mass chaos, and an incredible display of community in your church family). I’ve been a bit more freed up now to dive into the missions side of things. In the past month-and-a-half, I’ve had a chance to make contact with ministry in Uganda, Pakistan, and South Asia, with no air travel required!

One highlight has been spending some time with our brother Brian Kanyike from Uganda while he was here in the States. It was such a blessing hearing how he is doing as a human being, a husband and father, and not “just” a missionary. On top of that, we were able to help launch a campaign in which our church body came together to purchase some cows for the sake of advancing his ministry back home. What a privilege it was to hang out with this man of God (and help facilitate his very first selfie! Not sure if I should actually be proud of that…).

One of my favorite moments of each week is the missions training class we’ve gotten to do with our brother Pastor Nadeem in the Middle East via Skype. These Thursday mornings were designed for us to train him in how to facilitate missions work from his own home base. The result has been that we have all been blessed, encouraged, and built up in the process by each other’s fellowship!

 

 

 

Finally, we have some amazing work going on in South Asia right now. I’ve been teaching our Pastor’s School in South Asia over Skype every Sunday night. It’s been an immense privilege to teach these dear brothers through the book of Ephesians (with some of our young adults from my church joining me on occasion). It’s wonderful to be a part of their training to go out and bring the gospel to their own unreached villages. Also, as we get closer to the opening of our Bible school there, we got to interview, via Skype, a graduate from another campus in South Asia to become a SGWM missionary and serve at the new school we’re building.

On a more personal note, we’re loving being a family of five, and it was such a blessing to have Jude dedicated at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, last month. All three of our children have been dedicated by Pastor Trent now, and it’s always an incredible opportunity to re-establish who we are as part of a larger family in Christ with our church community. We couldn’t do any of what we’re doing without our church family’s love and support!

Please continue to pray for the Lord to grow our financial support so that we can continue our work as missionaries with SGWM. Please pray as I step into my main role of helping create the “face” of SGWM (more on that in our next update!).

If you would like to partner with us financially for the spread of the Gospel or sign up to receive our newsletter updates via email, visit our SGWM missionary page

Soli Deo Gloria!
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude
joel@sgwm.com