A Great Light in Darkness
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I know this is a long update, but please read it in it’s entirety. God has done such great things and I want to share some of them with you for His praise and glory.
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I’ve been back for week a now, from my recent trip to Mexico with the Calvary School of Missions. I’ve tried to take the last few days to just gather my thoughts regarding all the amazing things we saw God do. My great fear today is that I will not be able to put into words the wonderful things that has taken place.
For just a bit of background, Calvary School of Missions takes young adults that are feeling a call, or desiring to explore the call, to long term missions. It’s a six week course taught by Calvary Chapel pastors and missionaries from all over the world.
This year we took 16 students and 11 staff members to Rosarito, Mexico. We held daily classes with the first 2 weeks focused on God’s heart in reaching the world with the Gospel, through His church. Then we moved into the discussion of the unreached. Approximately 3.4 billion people in the world today have never even heard the name of Jesus, much less the gospel.
Along with the teaching in the classroom, the students are assigned readings from the Bible, as well as 6 different books to read during their free time. The students attended the annual Church Planting Conference in Rosarito, and we also connected with many Calvary Chapels throughout Mexico to support them in their work. In the last 18 years some 62 Calvary Chapels have been planted stemming from Calvary Chapel Saving Grace’s first church plant in Rosarito.
The students also took part in an outreach or two each week. One of the highlights of the outreaches for me was the trip to the dump. Outside of Rosarito is a very large city dump, where there are quite a few people living. With all of my missionary experience, I had never encountered anything like it. It’s so sad to see people, created in the image of God, living in such conditions, not knowing that there is a God who loves them and has so much more for them.
The out reach was so fruitful. Pastor Eddie, a really godly man who had a radically encounter with our risen Savior, is the only one reaching out to those living in the dump.
The outreached ended with a man who was the leader of a satanic cult there in the dump, express a desire to receive Christ as his Savior. We prayed for him and made sure he was in contact with Pastor Eddie.
After our outreach Pastor Eddie said that he had never seen such a fruitful outreach. He said, “God truly has His hand on this team.” All glory to God. It’s only our God who can reach those lost in unthinkable darkness.
We also did a number of church take overs. If you don’t know what a church take over is, it’s where we go to the church and give everyone a break. We supply the greeters, the children’s ministry staff, the ushers, the worship team and the teaching. This one, at Calvary Chapel Tecolote, was particularly special to me. I was asked to teach and I taught on “The Importance of Faith.”
The culmination of the trip was going to an area of Mexico called “The Circle of Silence.” It is an area where there are 2.4 million people that are unreached. That means that they have never heard the name of Jesus and they have no access to the gospel.
We flew to Culiacan, in the state of Sinaloa, and then drove 10-11 hours through the night to reach the Cora tribe. When we arrived, Pastor Antonio, a Mexican Calvary Chapel Pastor, along with Pastor Tim and I, immediately went into the elders of the tribe to greet them. Pastor Antonio laid out for the elders and the chief, in Spanish, what our desire and intents were. We wanted to be a blessing to them. We brought gifts, soap and medicine, we set a toilet in one of their pit latrines, we painted some of their buildings, and we connected and played with the kids in the tribe.
On Sunday, we invited the entire tribe to a church service. It was overwhelming! No one expected what would result from our 4 days with the tribe. You need to understand, they had no understanding of “love.” Just imagine the need to explain what love meant so that we could let them know of God’s love for them. Well, after interacting with the tribe and showing them the love of Christ, when an invitation was offered to receive Christ, 28-30 people responded.
This lady was so moved by the experience, she recorded the last worship song so that she would have it.
After the service, we gave them blankets. It gets very cold in the winter and they have limited resources. You’re maybe thinking, “What about the phone this lady recorded the worship with?” Truthfully, I don’t know.
What I do know is that many in this tribe die due to malnutrition and a bacteria laden water supply.
In fact, when inviting families to church, I was called upon to do a field evaluation on a sick little boy. The way he was described to me was consistent with severe dysentery and dehydration. Ultimately his parents would not allow me to see him.
They think that illnesses are caused by spirits which have been angered. They believe that if they seek any treatment for their children, it will cause the spirits to be angered even more and they will then turn on them. So they let their kids die. Later that afternoon we went back with some electrolytes, some anti-diarrheal tablets, and instructions regarding the need to boil their drinking water. We told the mother that the child had to see a doctor, if he didn’t improve in the next few days, because he was going to die. The mother, very reluctantly, received the tablets. We then prayed for the little boy and then we left.
Miraculously, the next day the entire family came to the center of the village where we were, and the little boy joined us in playing soccer. A couple of anti-diarrheal tablets and electrolytes have no power over severe dysentery and dehydration, but prayer does. How good is our God?
To close out, I’d like to tell you about one of the elders. After we were there a few days, he came up and sat with me. He greeted me in English and told me, through a translator, that he was interested in learning english, and asked how I would suggest he go about it. I told him we could get him a Spanish/English parallel Bible. He was very excited with that suggestion, saying, “I would really like to read the Bible and learn more about God.” We were then able to talk together for an hour after that about the Lord.
It’s typical for this tribe to carry a bag, something like a purse. They take a month to make and they’re usually decorated with a geometric design or with flowers. If you look closely, the elder that I was talking to, his bag has Jesus on it. He said he lived in the states for a bit, but came back to the tribe because no on was able to care for his house. He heard of Jesus in the states but never knew how to have a relationship with Him, which is what he was desiring. Thank you Lord for allowing me to speak to him about Your saving grace. The picture is of the elder, myself and Pastor Antonio. Pastor Antonio is returning next month with Bibles.
Again, what God did was so unexpected. We prayed that we would be able to lead one person to the Lord, but God had other plans.
I would ask you to pray for the opportunities ahead.
- Bryan, our oldest son, is headed to Japan early September on a vision tour. He has been praying about Japan for nearly 20 years. Japan is less than 2% Christian putting it in the category of “unreached.” Please pray that God would open doors for their team and that He would meet Bryan and the team in a radical way.
- I’m going to be going to Thailand mid September. We are going to be flying our lead workers from the 10/40 window to Thailand to attend a conference there. Afterwards we will be having our own SGWM conference with our workers. We’re meeting in Thailand since we are not able to meet many of them in the countries that they work in. Please pray for a fruitful time of fellowship as we focus on strengthening and encouraging our workers who are serving the Lord in difficult and dangerous areas.
- After the Thailand conference, I’ll be headed to South Asia for an extended visit. I will be there visiting new and established works in the region. It’s very important to stand with our workers and see what they have been doing. It’s a time of discipleship and pastoral care. Please pray for God’s blessing upon the trip from start to finish.
- Please pray for Tina and Austin while Bryan and I are away. It’s always difficult when one member of our family is gone, but now that two of us will be gone it will doubly difficult for Tina and Austin.
- And pray for more opportunities to share in churches about “The Great Commission” and what God is doing among the unreached through Saving Grace World Missions.
As always, we’re so very thankful for your partnership in the work that God has entrusted to us. It’s such a wonderful privilege to work among the unreached of the world. In a very real sense, we would not be able to do what we do without your prayer and financial support. The fruit that comes out of these trips is added to your account also. So thank you again for your friendship, prayers, love and support.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
PLEASE CLICK ON THE BUTTON BELOW TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNREACHED IN THE WORLD.
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