Momentary Light Afflictions
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My recent trip to the 10/40 window was met with the loss of hearing in my left ear, which continued for 3 weeks. Then, upon its resolution, I promptly broke a tooth. The trip was topped off with a 22 hour delay of my final flight on my way home. It made for a return trip that consisted of 25 hours of flight time and a total 34 hours of layovers. But it was all worth it!
There were a number of administrative things that needed to be accomplished on this trip, which God took care of for me, and then the joy began.

I started my trip in the southern portion of the country where we have our newest school. Prior to leaving the states, I had been teaching through the Book of Acts with these students via Zoom. It was such a blessing to interact with these students face to face. I can honestly say, this group of students has been the best class I’ve taught in the 8 years I’ve been involved in teaching in the different schools there.
Then I was able to travel to a state that none of us at SGWM has been able to visit before. I went there to scout out the possibility of beginning a new school in that area. There are so many hungry youths there that want to learn the Word of God and to be equipped to take the Gospel to their countrymen who haven’t yet heard of Jesus.
After spending a month in the south, I flew to our school in the central portion of the country. When planning the trip, I had asked the director of that school what he’d like me to teach while I was there. He said, “Ezekiel.” My response was, “You want me to teach the ENTIRE Book of Ezekiel?” He simply said, “Yes, that’s right.”

So I taught the entire Book of Ezekiel in 5 days. And God really blessed. We were able to go into surprising depth and detail. I couldn’t have imagined how blessed that time of teaching would be, explaining the Book to a group of 13-15 hungry students. And that’s not to mention the fellowship time we enjoyed, where we just spoke about the Bible, had Q & A sessions, and just getting to know the students. Just a wonderful time!
After leaving there, I traveled to another region where I was the first foreigner to set foot in. I was able to share Christ in villages that literally are the most radical and hostile to the Gospel in the entire country. Much of our time there was “cloak and dagger” in nature, due to the persecution directed towards Christians. I’m never concerned about my safety on these trips, I trust that God’s got me in His hands, but I’m always concerned for the safety of those I’m with and the safety of the work. My presence can actually put them in danger
One of the ladies that I met, who traveled with us and introduced us to many of the villagers, had her house destroyed in the village. And the meeting place she built, to serve as a church, had been torn down twice. She had been attacked and threatened with physical harm, yet none of those things moved her to even consider stopping to sharing the Gospel with others in the area who don’t know Jesus as their Savior.
During the week that I was in this area, I had the chance to teach more that 40 times. It was such a blessing to be with people who want to drink in every word and promise of the Bible. I also was able to pray with, literally, 100’s of people, and to encourage them to believe that the God who asks us to pray, is the God who hears and answers prayers.
I left this area and traveled north. I ultimately found myself within 40 miles of the boarder of China, in the foothills of the Himalayas. We went there in order to met and encourage one widow women.
Seven years ago, when her husband was on his death bed, he told her to continue to follow Christ, not to forsake Him. She heeded his advice and has been a witness in an area where there are no other Christians. She’s the only one. Her witness for Christ has caused every one in the area to shun her. No one will speak to her, no one will help her in her need, and no one speaks a kind word about her. But she is staying true to the Lord.
We drove a day and a half on rough mountain roads just to get to her village. While I was there, I was overwhelmed by her story, not to mention that she worked all day in her fields and then came to serve us. The whole time I was there, I prayed, “Lord, what would You have me share with this woman in order to encourage her?” And He placed on my heart Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
These verses were so heavy on my heart, I knew this was the Word of the Lord to this saint. I can’t tell you what a privilege it was just to meet her. Thank you Jesus.
There were so many highlights from my trip, I couldn’t begin to share them all. God had divine appointments for me. I met many pastors who wanted to be instructed in basic doctrines of the Bible, they wanted to learn more about verse by verse teaching through the Bible, and even asked if I would teach them via zoom 1-2 times a month.
In total, I was away for 2 months. Time just seemed to just fly by. The fruit from this trip was so great, God showed Himself so strong on my behalf. I had never experienced anything like it on any of my many mission trips in the past.

Lord willing, I will be returning in the October/November time frame. Please begin to pray for my time in country.
- Pray for even greater fruit
- Divine appointments
- For my time spent discipling our leaders and students there
- And pray for more opportunities to preach Christ in remote villages where the Gospel hasn’t yet gone
I also invite you to pray that God would provide the funds for the trip. It’s just a something we can’t get away from, missions cost money.
If you’re feeling led to contribute to the work and partner with us in the ministry, you can do so by going to https://sgwm.com/barrow/give/ or by clicking the “Become a Financial Partner” button below.
If you’d like to send me your prayer requests and updates to us, we always enjoy hearing from you.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Uncategorized by Gary Barrow with comments disabled.
1 Year anniversary and a New Start
It has been just over a year now since we left Southern California and have moved to Verdi NV. We moved into our rental 4/13/20.

I officially took over the leadership responsibilities of Calvary Chapel Truckee on 4/1/20. God has done so much and has shown Himself strong every step of the way.

Taking over the church during the pandemic was something new. Not being able to meet people in the church for the first 4-5 months was a challenge. We were forced to record and post all our teachings because we were unable to meet.
The Lord, however, opened a door for us to start meeting in the park. It was wonderful. Tina and I were able to start meeting and fellowshipping, with some social distancing, people in the church. We quickly fell in love with the body. Calvary Chapel Truckee had been through some hard times prior to us coming up and the splitting up of the body due to the pandemic wasn’t helping. Meeting in the park was a breath of fresh air and the church began to grow.
In October, because the wether begins getting cold, the park closed their facilities and we made the decision to start meeting indoors. We met in person, not in protest of the government not allowing churches to meet, not as a political statement, but we met out of obedience and the need to provide church for people. God brought people to fellowship with us who were longing to gather corporately and worship our Savior. Soon our little space was filled.

We have been able to have a variety of missionaries come and share. We’ve had a Christmas tea for the ladies and a Valentine’s dinner for couples. We have a weekly prayer meetings and 4-5 Bible studies during the week. It’s been a great season of encouragement and growth.
Our church has been meeting upstairs at the Rock, in Truckee. Then we found out that meeting upstairs was a code violation, so we started to look for another place to meet. Truckee is a very expensive town to live in. Because of the pandemic, many people in the San Fransisco area who were working from home began to flee the city and move to Truckee. If you’re working from home, why not live in a much less congested area and an area that is much more beautiful? As a result, there has been a real estate boom. Space is at a premium.
Our hopes were that we would be able to find another meeting space before our landlord gave us notice to vacate. Well, on March 1st, I received an email with a 30 day notice. At the time we had not been able to locate another location to meet. They were either too expensive or didn’t have enough parking or large enough restroom facilities for us to meet as a church. What are we going to do? We are going to pray and trust the Lord.
Long story short, the Lord arranged a “chance meeting,” AKA a divine appointment, with one of the largest commercial property owners in Truckee. In casual conversation, we told him we were looking for a place to meet and he said he had a space for us. He showed us a larger space than the space we had at the Rock, for just a little bit more a month. We signed a lease and will take procession of the space May 15th. There is some construction that still needs to be done before we can occupy the space, but it looks like May 15 we can start moving in.
In the meantime, we’re back meeting in the park. Please pray for good weather and God’s continued blessing.

I am happy to report that our work in the 10/40 window has continued. We were able to continue teaching at one of our colleges through much of the lockdown. We just started another semester at that college and are working to get the others going soon, Lord willing.
I was thinking this morning how the enemy is using this pandemic to halt the spread of evangelism. Praise the Lord that our God is greater than any pandemic or schemes of the enemy.
I was invited to go to Bahrain and see the work the Lord is doing there. I’ve also been invited to go to Cambodia. My heart is burning to be part of works abroad while being a base at home. My prayer is that Calvary Chapel Truckee would be stirred for missions in an even greater way and that the Lord would allow me to take people and pastors abroad and give them a vision for world missions.

On a personal note, Tina and I were able to go to Washington in March for Noah’s 3rd birthday. Our family, Tina and I, Ashley, Elijah, Noah and Flo, along with Bryan and Austin and healthy. The Lord has been so very good to us. Noah and Flo are growing like weeds and they are such a source of joy in our hearts. We thank the Lord daily for our family.
That’s it for now, we thank you for your continued prayers and would love to have you visit if you’re in the area.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Uncategorized by Gary Barrow with comments disabled.
Calvary Chapel Truckee

As you know, we moved to Northern California to take the senior (only) pastor position at Calvary Chapel Truckee.
We actually moved to Verdi Nevada. as close as you can get to Truckee and not be in California. It’s about a 20 minute drive along the Truckee river, on I 80, to get to the church.
So I wanted to give you a quick update and share some really exciting news with you.
You may have heard me say this before, but it is true, this is the first time I have taken over the leadership position of a church during a world wide pandemic. So that means there have been a lot of challenges, things I have never faced before. But we’re meeting the challenges head on and getting through them one by one.
GOD IS SO GOOD!
He is able to do, and has been doing, exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we could think or ask for.
When we took over the church, April 1 officially, I was unable to meet anyone in the church for over 3 months due to the pandemic.
After much prayer, about 3 months ago, the Parks and Recreation Department agreed to allow us to meet in one of the parks. We started out with maybe 40 people, yet by the end of September we were averaging roughly 70 people on a Sunday.
The Parks and Rec Department warned us that the last weekend of September the they would be closing the restroom facilities to prepare for the winter. That means there would be no restrooms for us to use. So we had to make a decision.
Again, after very much prayer, we decided to start meeting in our little facility. I had talked to other pastors who had been meeting in person, listened to what Jack Hibbs and John MacAurther were doing, and announced that we would move indoors. We didn’t want to do anything irresponsible or foolish, but felt strongly we needed to provide church and fellowship for our body.

Out little facility, at The Rock, allows for 30-35 people to be fairly socially distant with another 20 people spread out a little more in an over flow room. With roughly 50 people, who feel comfortable to meet together on Sunday, we still have 50 people tuning in watching our livestream on YouTube.
Finally, and this is really exciting to me, we have just launched our new website, http://www.cctruckee.com. We launched the site to get it out there, while at the same time we are continuing to add content. I hope you’ll take a look at it and let us know what you think.
So things are moving along. We’re very blessed to be part of this body and are looking forward, with great anticipation, to see what God is going to do.
BTW — Tina will be leaving for Washington soon as Ashley, our daughter, is due to deliver our second grandson. Florian August Knepper.

We’re super excited to see Flo and see him grow in his relationship with Jesus. It’s really cute to see how excited Noah is to meet his little brother and share his toys with him.
Please keep us in your prayers. We thank God that we have friends and family who are willing to stand with us in prayer, for the ministry the Lord has entrusted to us.
**Please pray for the church, that God would give us wisdom and protection as we have begun to meet in person. **Pray that God would bless the teaching of His word and people would be growing in Christ. **Pray God would bring people who need to hear the gospel and be saved. **Pray for an uneventful birth of our grandson too. We welcome and thank you for all your pryers.
As always, we desire to hear from you, how you are doing and how we can be praying for you? Please pray about visiting. We’d love to see you when you’re up in this area.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Uncategorized by Gary Barrow with comments disabled.