New Vision, Same Calling

I wanted to let you know what the Lord has been doing and the doors that He is opening. Like Paul said, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” 1 Cor 16:9

It’s been just over a year since the Lord has brought us back to the states. This last year our family has been going through a time of breaking, of really pressing in and seeking the Lord for His heart, and a time of drawing close to Him like never before. It has intensified somewhat in the last three to five months. As you know, when the Lord takes you through these times with Him, it can be overwhelming. There’s been a lot of tears, a lot of tears, but also times of rejoicing and praise, with much needed comfort mixed in. 

The Lord has answered our prayers to be part of a living, healthy, loving church. We have been driving the hour drive, one way, every week to attend Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, our sending church. After 15 years on the mission field, the fellowship and teaching is so needed to refresh our hearts and souls. 

Pastor Trent, who pastors Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, has asked us to take a bigger role in Saving Grace World MIssions. He has asked us to take part in a two fold ministry, and we’re really excited about it. 

1) Saving Grace World Missions wants us to focus on and start Pastors Colleges that will train and raise up pastors in areas that would be normally closed to western missionaries.

You may already know, I have been teaching, via Skype, through the Book of John at a Saving Grace World Missions Pastor’s College in south Asia. I could never actually go to this area of the world, but through contacts on the ground and current technologies, I and five other pastors are discipling a group of guys. We are raising them up and in a short time sending them out to start churches to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to an unreached people group. Through this ministry, 20 churches have already been planted. After sending these guys out we continue to have contact with them to help them through the ins and outs of ministry. In other words, we continue in life long discipleship and partnership in the work of the ministry. 

The Lord is opening doors for us to also start a Pastor’s College in the Middle East. This would require me to travel there for months at a time to get it established and to teach there. It is also a potentially dangerous area and things have to be done discreetly, but the result of this work will also be discipling and raising up pastors who will take the message of the cross to a people who have never heard of the love, forgiveness of sins and eternal life offered by our Savior. We could never go to these people and share that message with them, so we’ll raise up those who can.

We also have requests by people in other areas of the the 10/40 widow to came and start Pastor’s Colleges there too.

Pastor Trent has asked us to come alongside Pastor Mike, the SGWM director, and help him with discipling a new generation of missionaries here in the states and send them out. He wants Tina and I to be part of pouring into and discipling these young men and women who have a heart to serve God on foreign mission fields and pass on to them what we have learned in 15 years of living abroad as missionaries.

He has also asked us to help with providing missionary care for approximately 65 missionaries and missionary families that are with SGWM. So many missionaries today feel forgotten. We know first hand the struggle missionaries go through and hope to comfort and strengthen missionaries in the field. It’s a much needed work.
 
2) Pastor Trent has also asked me to begin networking with other churches to help them develop a missions mindset. To come alongside those pastors who have thought they were too small of a church to take part in foreign missions and show them how they can do it. I will also be taking pastors on vision tours to the areas we can travel to and get them engaged in discipling and raising up national pastors who will take the Gospel to areas we can’t. 
 
This is really exciting. The idea of helping other churches fulfill the great commission, introducing other pastors to the guys on the front lines, connecting them with young pastors they can disciple and see bear fruit for the Kingdom in areas we could never go. It’s amazingly cool
 
You might have noticed repeated words and phrases like unreached people and places we could never go. And that’s because that is what it is all about, getting the Gospel of Jesus Christ out to those who have never heard it. It may seem like it is too big of a work, but we serve a big God and His heart is for everyone everywhere to hear about His Son, to hear about the work of the cross and the free gift or eternal life.

Like many churches today, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace and Saving Grace World Missions can not afford to give us a salary, we have to raise support. It seems like we are at a critical time. I would like to be completely transparent with you. There are job opportunities for us that will provide for our needs financially, but effectively close the doors on this ministry opportunity, and maybe ministry in general.

I’m sharing this with you, to ask you to prayerfully consider joining us in the ministry through your prayers and financial support. 

Like the prophet Isiah recorded in Is 6:8, “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then said I, “Here am I, send me.” That’s my heart, I want to go! Lord send me! I want to see God raise up men and women to take the Gospel places we could never go. It’s something we can do together to fulfill the Great Commission.

Through out the Bible there are stories of those who go to the front lines and fight and those who are behind them in support, Exodus 17:8-13, for example. We see Joshua fighting while Moses, Aaron and Hur are praying and supporting in the rear.

Also Romans 10:13-15, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How shall the call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall the believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

The Bible paints the picture of those who go and those who serve as senders, and they both share in the fruit. 1 Samuel 30:24, “…But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.”

If the Lord leads you and puts it on your heart to team up with us in raising up pastors who will go places and share the love of Christ with people who are unreached, literally unreached, you can go to our web page, www.sgwm.com/barrow and click the button that says “Become a Financial Partner.” 

We understand that you may not be in a position to contribute to the ministry financially at this time, but would you stand with us and commit to praying and asking the Lord to lead, guide and provide? That He would make a way for us. He is the Way Maker!

If you have any questions about what our plans are, feel free to drop us a note.

As always, we are so thankful for you, for your friendship, prayers, love. We pray God blesses you and meets you in a special way, and that He would reveal the depth of His love for you.

Thanks again for standing with us.

God bless,

Gary and Tina

“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” Mat 9:37-38

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS, Below are a few pictures of one of the Pastor’s Colleges that is being established in south Asia and some of the new construction that is under way. This is a restricted area, completely off limits for any of us to travel to, and yet God’d word is not chained by restrictions of evil men. Praise the LORD!


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Moved in & almost settled

Thank you all for your prayers. God has blessed us with a really nice house. It was very difficult to find a house to rent when we got here and the options were very limited, yet The Lord blessed us with a home that is over and above what we could have wished for. We live on the out skirts of Victorville in a quiet neighborhood. Since we live in the desert, there is no grass to mow. That’s a blessing in and of itself in my eyes.

We took procession of the keys February 1st. We bought some air mattresses, some paper plates and plastic utensils, a cooler and a couple of pans and waited for our things to arrive from Germany.

After a month in a hotel and three weeks in our new house, all of our things arrived at our door step. The movers quickly unloaded, and our larger pieces of furniture were set them in place. Then we were left to the unpacking.

God has been so good to us. We left empty and returned full. When we left the states and moved to Hungary, we sold almost everything we owned and left with almost nothing because the Bible College supplied a fully furnished apartment for us. 15 years later God has blessed us with so much. As we have been unpacking we have been reminded by each item how God has blessed us, how He faithfully met our needs, and just gave us little things because it blessed Him to bless us.

It goes to show that we will never give up anything to serve The Lord that He won’t give back even more. I’m not talking about material things necessarily either. Our time in Europe, our experiences, the ministries the Lord has allowed us to be part of, the places He allowed us to go and share His love, has been more valuable to us than material things. The changes we witnessed in lives He touched, you couldn’t put a price on that. He has made us so very rich.

Driving Home The Other Day

As I was driving home the other day The Lord reminded me how often I have said I have felt “so overwhelmed” since I have been back. It’s a feeling that I haven’t been able to describe.

As I was thinking about this I realized the core of that feeling of being overwhelmed is because I feel like I am out of the fight. We are currently living in “The Land of Plenty.” We are renting a nice house, I have an descent job and we’re living fairly comfortable. Nothing extravagant by any means, but comfortable. All the while people all over the world are dying without ever hearing about Jesus. It eats at me.

I know The Lord has moved us back to the states for His purposes. I know that there is something here He wants to do in our lives. I know, just as one of our supporters and prayer partners reminded me, how we need a sabbatical, a time of rest, to recharge before getting back into the fight. I also know that California, and Victorville in particular, are huge missions fields; people here need Jesus.

Well, as I was driving and thinking about this, The Lord reminded me of what He said Acts 1:8 and comforted my heart. Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”

The Lord reminded me that Victorville was our new home, our Jerusalem if you will. There are people here He wants to reach, and as we are faithful to reach out to them in His name, He will broaden our spheres of influence again and allow us to be part of what He is doing in ever widening circles. He reminded me that was exactly what He did for us when we moved from California to Corvallis Oregon. How Corvallis became our Jerusalem, and as we served Him He took us to the ends of the earth.

How that word lifted a weight off my heart. How it encouraged me to know that He still desires to use us. We’re not out of the fight, we’re just in a different fight.

How sweet it is to know and understand, we serve a loving God who knows our heart, hears our prayers and desires to comfort His children and to use them for His glory.

Prayer Requests

Please pray with me:

  • That The Lord will open doors for us to reach out to our neighbors in His name. Maybe even start a Bible study in our neighborhood.
  • That Jesus would be seen in us and that He would express His life through ours, seen by the people I work with, people we meet in grocery stores and on the streets during our days.
  • That The Lord would plant us and establish us in a new church and open doors for us to serve, to be a blessing to the body.
  • It’s in my heart to connect with a School of Ministry or Bible College in our area, or the Southern California area, and have a chance to share and teach what we have learned in 20 years of ministry and 15 years on the mission field. To have an opportunity pour into, to stir and disciple, to be an encouragement to a group of young believers eager to see Christ glorified in thier lives and in this world.
  • I’d like to see The Lord open doors for me to go to Nepal, India or Jerusalem this year and connect with the Bible Colleges there and be an encouragement to the missionaries there.

These are things that are on my heart. I know they may just be my desires, but I believe The Lord has placed them there. Pray with me please, that The Lord would give me a fresh vision and direction for the way He would have us go. We desire to see Him exalted and glorified in the lives of people who are currently living in darkness.

Thanks for all your prayers, friendship, love and support. If you ever happen to be in the Victorville area, please let us know. We’d love to have you over for a visit.

God Bless,

Gary and Tina

 

P.S. Tina is currently in Washington visiting Ashley and Elijah for Ashley’s birthday. It seems like yesterday that Ashley was born. It’s just another reminder of how great our God is. She is a beautiful woman, full of grace and love. God has gifted her with tremendous abilities and a great husband. I’m so happy that Tina was able to be with her for her birthday. Happy Birthday Ashley! Thank you Lord for her.


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In A Word…

Since we announced we were returning to the states, it has been nothing but a whirlwind for us. It has been all we could do just to hang on. So many people have emailed us to ask us how we are doing and how they could pray for us, but honestly, we have been so overwhelmed with things that need to be done, we just haven’t had the time to respond. So, I want to let you know, in a word, we’re doing…”fine.”

The week the packers came to pack up our house, I had to go away and do some training in Garmisch. That meant Tina and the boys had to organize and oversee the packers. When everything was gone we moved into a hotel on post, and then 4 days later we left Germany. On one hand it broke our hearts to leave, to say good bye to dear friends, yet on the other hand we were looking forward with a certain degree of excitement to see what God was going to do for us as we started a new chapter in life.

We flew out of Frankfurt with two dogs, one cat and a whole lot of baggage. We were scheduled to fly out at 10:15 AM but our flight was delayed. We ended up taking of at 11:30 Am. The flight was very comfortable. We flew in an Airbus 380-800. It is a gigantic double decker aircraft. It was very nice and it made the 10 hour flight really enjoyable. We landed in San Francisco just a few minutes behind our original scheduled landing time. Since the Army was paying for our flight they wanted to fly us into Las Vegas, the nearest airport to Fort Irwin. Since we were not sure that the animals could get on the connecting flight with us from San Francisco to Las Vegas, we chose to just fly to San Francisco and get a rental car and drive to Southern California

My sister and brother-in-law live in Orange County California. They went to Oregon to have Christmas with my mom and they offered their house to us to stay in while they were gone.

In a word, Christmas for us was….”Wonderful.” Kids make Christmas fun because of their excitement. Gunter had the hardest time waiting for Christmas. We caught him often trying to find the presents with his name on them. Ashley and Elijah were able to drive down from Washington and spend Christmas with us. It was the first time we were all together for Christmas in 3 years. It’s so much fun when Ashley and the boys get together. There is a lot of laughing and fooling around. It’s nothing but fun. We also got a chance to have one of Tina’s brothers over for Christmas eve dinner. It was very nice to see Mark again. Christmas day we went to Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, our sending church. What a blessing it was to hear Pastor Trent lay out a vision for 2017 and encourage the body to live for Jesus like never before.

After Christmas, I moved into a hotel in Victorville while Tina and the boys stayed back to enjoy Ashley and Elijah as much as they could before they had to take off and head back to Washington.

A really good friend of ours loaned me a car so I could save some money on a rental car. In a word, it has been a…”Blessing.” I started my new job on December 27. I now work at the Weed Community Army Hospital in Fort Irwin. Fort Irwin is the Army’s National Training center. It’s the size of Rhode Island. For the first two weeks I have been in processing, going form office to office to get my badge, security clearance, to give them account numbers to get paid, do some training, meet the commanders of the hospital and just get to know how the new physical therapy clinic runs.

Fort Irwin is in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It has been pretty cold and rainy the last few days. It’s crazy because there are Coyotes and wild Donkeys roaming around. This guy had lunch with me the other day. He sat about 3 meters in front of my car and just waited for a handout. I shared with him some of my Speckulose Christmas cookies we brought from Germany. He gobbled them down and waited for more. Every time I feed a wild animal, a stray dog, or put out bird seed for the birds in our back yard, I think about Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” I love to think that God can to use me to feed His creation, and it reminds me that we are more valuable to Him then we could ever know.

This last weekend, Tina, the boys and I, took some time and went to Calico Ghost Town. When I was a kid our family used to go there and camp, ride motorcycles and just explore the area. It was, well in a word…”Over developed.” (I know that’s two words, but if you say it really fast it sounds like it’s just one.) When I was there as a kid there was nothing there. Now it’s a California State Park and you have to pay to go there. More than half the buildings weren’t there when I was a kid, and the street wasn’t paved. I think it’s a metaphor for Southern California. There are so many people here. It’s just over developed. The traffic on the freeway is incredible. I think I was safer driving on a two lane autobahn traveling 125 MPH than I am on a six lane freeway traveling at 25 MPH here in California.

It’s a different place were living in now. Tina and I were in a grocery store yesterday and were surprised when we turned down an isle and saw a 100 foot long isle of just potato chips. It’s going to take some getting used too.

The biggest challenge we’re facing right now is just finding a place to live. Please pray that the Lord would bless us with a house soon. The Army is paying for our hotel now, but we will be at the end of that allowance soon. We would like to get a place in Apple Valley close to the college so the boys could get there easily since we only have one car.

Thank you for your prayers. We are looking forward to what the Lord has for us, at work, in our new neighborhood and our new church. We’re looking forward to a time of healing, refreshing, renewing and revival. Please pray that the Lord would draw us close and show us His heart for the people we will be meeting here. We would very much be a reflection of Him.

That’s it for now. If you have written, forgive me for not writing back. I’m sure we’ll be getting back to normal soon. Until then, don’t stop emailing. We’re also on Whatsapp and Voxer. It might be a fast way to communicate with us now.

God bless,

Gary and Tina

 

 

 


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