Hello Family and Friends!

As always, we pray you are doing well. I’m not sure all of you realize this, but you are a vital part of the ministry we get to do for Saving Grace World Missions. The fact that you read our updates blows us away; we are so grateful! For those of you who give financially, that partnership allows for this ministry to be a part of my full time work, so that missionary care can get more of the attention that it needs! And every time that I hear of someone praying for us, I am reminded that prayer is the engine that keeps our ministry moving and effective. Without your prayers, there is no power behind what we get to do for the Lord. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to say thank you!

On top of my normal duties on the SGWM Board and as Director of Missionary Care, I (Joel) am happy to announce that we are in the middle of arrangements for me to travel to Uganda, Africa in June! Plane tickets have been purchased and other plans for the trip are in motion. The purpose of the trip is to spend time with our three different missionary families in that country and get to see their ministries first hand. Zoom calls and emails are amazing, helpful technology, but they cannot replace the ministry and missionary care that happens when you get your “boots on the ground.” Please pray for all of the plans to fall in place smoothly for this trip, and that the Lord would take care of the rest of the family while I am away for over two weeks. 

Speaking of the family, everyone is doing well by the grace of God! The boys have just finished up a season of basketball with the YMCA, and I was privileged to coach Harrison’s team! The girls are doing great as well, and as a family we are enjoying all of the fun experiences that all kids go through, like learning to ride bikes, learning to read, school projects (like building California missions!), field trips, learning sports, learning new instruments, losing teeth and fixing teeth with braces, and everything in between!

One special prayer request we have is for financial support. We know that a tough economy is hitting everyone right now, and it has been no easier for us in Southern California on a single-income ministry budget. It is a sacrifice that is well worth it, but we’d ask that you would pray for the Lord’s provision. If you are not already a financial partner, please know that your prayers for us are sufficient, but you are welcomed to prayerfully consider partnering with us financially using the means provided below. 

We would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:

Email Updates

You can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886. 

Greetings from Mexico. At the end of January, I was blessed to take a missions trip to our church plant in Loreto (South Baja) and in this update, I wanted to tell you all about this fruitful trip! 

Elmer and Crystal Cardenas arrived at our church many years ago with broken lives and a broken marriage. They both quickly professed faith, were born again, and God lit a holy fire in them. They both quickly went “All in” in their new found faith, and began serving together in the church.

 Elmer eventually approached me and asked to join our church planting program! Together, they joined our class and began their training. After Elmer completed his 2^nd year, he assisted his good friend Eddie Mijares plant his church in the Tijuana dump in a community called Homex. After Elmer completed his third year, we sent him out with a mission’s team to plant a bilingual church in Loreto!

Fast forward to four years later, I got to lead an 11 person mission’s team to Loreto to host a conference for the churches in the city! The conference was fantastic with over 100 local pastors and leaders in attendance including leaders from eight different denominations.

But for me, the Sunday service was even more amazing as this growing church had about 150 in attendance. I also got to spend time with nine of my friends from Calvary Rosarito who had moved down to be part of this church plant use their gifts to serve, and that filled my heart with joy.

A special highlight for me was chatting with three of Elmer’s future church planters that have completed their church planting program. Each one of these men are praying and preparing to be sent out to one of the local communities around Loreto!  Please pray for these men as they prepare to take this step of faith to plant their first church!

At the end of our trip, Elmer and his team took us over to a new piece of land that his church is purchasing to build their own permanent church building. I remember when Elmer told me they were going to purchase this land even though they had very little money. Although to be honest, I lacked faith that it would ever happen, his church family stepped out in faith, gave generously, and God has abundantly provided. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness to our church in Loreto and to all of our church plants.

As I am writing this update, I am preparing to go to prison in Tijuana tomorrow! PLEASE DON’T PANIC!!! I’m not being thrown into prison, but am happily going with a  good friend of mine named Jesse Garcia along with our church planting board to take a church planting vision tour.

The good news is that our next church plant is going to be planted in the largest prison in our state in a place called El Hongo! It has been a dream of mine for many years to plant a church in the local prison system, and it seems like God is making that dream come true. You will hear a lot more about this church plant in the future, but please keep this in your prayers.

Finally, I want to once again thank you for your generous partnership with our family. It is through your prayers that God meet’s our spiritual needs, and it’s through your financial giving that God meet’s our physical needs. We love you and are praying for you!

Con mucho amor de Mexico,  (with much love from Mexico)

Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel

Prayer Requests!

#1- Pray that God will bless our upcoming church plant in the Tijuana prison!  

#2-  Pray that God will bless our new church planting classes, and the 51 students enrolled.(Many of them  first timers)

Praise Reports!

#1- Praise God for a wonderful SoCal church planting conference at the start of January!

#2- Praise God for a blessed visit to our church plant in Loreto South Baja.       

For our personal support, checks should be made out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Vincent support” in the memo section.  For special projects, checks should also be made out to Saving Grace World Missions or SGWM, with the project name in the comments section. Use the enclosed envelope or mail directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873

For your convenience, you may consider giving through electronic funds transfer or direct deposit. Simply click on this link to directly support our family as your missionaries.

https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=DFA990CC09D942B

Or, you can  go to our mission’s website, click on the “become a financial partner” button and fill out the information. Please remember to type in  “Vincent” in the “purpose of gift” section.

It has been almost 6 months since coming home from CSOM, and it has been amazing. Since coming home from Mexico my life has completely changed. I have moved to Yorba Linda California, and have started my first year in Mts (Missions training school). I have been learning a lot since moving here, I am serving in the church multiple days a week learning all the aspects of running a church and it has been a blessing. I am serving in the nursery, lyrics for the sanctuary on Sundays, and even helping doing worship for our life group. The Lord has been teaching me all that it takes to run a church, but most importantly how much each role matters. All roles are equal in the eyes of God. Whether you are in ministry or not no one is greater than another. We all have our roles as a body in the church. We each have our strengths and weaknesses. We each have our gifts the Lord has given us for a reason and we must trust the plan and reason the Lord has given these gifts. 

Every Thursday we do a college outreach in Fullerton going between two different campuses. it has been a growing experience for me. It’s pushing me to get out of my comfort zone and grasp the reality of the world we live in. The colleges are full of a lot of different religious groups including some cults. One Thursday I went out and got to talk to a few people and for some reason this day I felt more scared of walking up to a stranger and asking them questions about Jesus, but I prayed that the Holy Spirit would use me and give me the strength and confidence in Christ. The Lord gave me confidence through him, I didn’t find confidence in myself but through Jesus. I had the realization that some of the people may never have heard of the gospel before, or some may have grown up in a different state or even country. Our mission field starts here right where we live. I have started helping with the social media team, and it allows me to capture the moments of others spreading the good news and others receiving the Gospel.  

Thank you all for taking the time to read this letter, i hope you enjoyed it 

if you would like to support me there are a couple of different ways, you can help support me financially, and most of all prayerfully. if you feel the Lord is guiding you to give there is a link down below, but most of all prayer is a powerful thing. So please keep me in your prayers. I will be having connection cards coming out shortly, please email me and I can send some out to you! 

God bless you 

-Emma 

Prayer Requests:

• The Lord to give me confidence through Him
• To use my time and resources for what the Lord wants with it. 
• Financial support

praise reports:

• The Lord has confirmed missions is where He is leading me
• I am learning more aspects of ministry 
• The Lord is providing in amazing ways

The time has come to return to the 10/40 Window. The statistics are literally staggering. 

For example, as I write this update, there is approximately 8.09 billion people in the world. It’s estimated that 42% of the worlds population, or 3.45 billion people have never heard the name of Jesus. The 10/40 Window is often called “The Resistant Belt” and includes the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists

More than half of the world’s population and people groups live in the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is also infamous for having the greatest population of unreached people and unreached people groups. That means they have no access to the Gospel, that means they have no access to a Bible, there’s no Christian presence, no church or believer who could even share the Gospel with them. I believe Christ died for these people and they have the right to hear the Gospel at least once in their life in order to make a decision for Christ.

As I write this update, there has been 270,000 people born today, over 20.2 million people born this year. 126,000 deaths today, and over 9.5 million people have died this year. We’re just 2 months into 2025. That’s more than 1.1 million people dying each week, and the overwhelming majority of them don’t know Jesus. Again, nearly half of them have never had a chance to receive Him as their Savior before stepping into eternity to be forever separated from Him. 

As if that’s not bad enough, the statistics don’t stop there. More than 70% of the world’s evangelistic witness is focused on the world’s historically Christian countries. Most of the churches in the west retain over 90% of God’s resources for itself. That means that 90% of all giving in the west is directed towards staff salaries, buildings, and educational materials for people who are already in the Kingdom. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with paid staff, buildings to meet in or preparing a comfortable place for believers. My point is that there are so many people who need to hear about the salvation that is found in Christ alone and still haven’t heard. They are born, live their lives, they die and then go to hell without ever hearing that Christ died for their sins. It’s something that haunts me. And I believe it is something that breaks the Lord’s heart.

The unreached are unreached because they’re hard to reach. It takes time and money, and it’s a long term investment. Great returns aren’t seen instantly. Truth be told a great harvest among the unreached may not even be realized for decades.

I believe that God has given His church a command to go in to all the world to make disciples. It’s not a valid excuse to say, “But Lord, we didn’t go because they’re hard to reach.”

I want to be like David, who was a man after God’s heart, a man that was obedient, who would do all of God’s will. At the end of my life, I want to stand before the Lord and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant…”

These are the things that stir me to do what I do. They are the things that God has placed upon my heart to direct me into His call for my life. 

God has opened an amazing door for me to oversee the teaching at our CBI’s (Calvary Bible Institutes) in the 10/40 Window. And He has given me the opportunity to go for extended periods of time to teach, disciple and encourage our guys on the ground. To encourage them to go where we could never go, to take the Gospel to those who have never ever heard. It’s a great privilege to have the opportunities that I currently have. But we need to make the most of them while we have them.

I have a great deal of travel planned for 2025. I have 4 extended trips planned this year. To start, I’ll be flying out March 3rd for a 2 1/2 month trip. Please keep this trip in your prayers as I will be leading a small team of pastors and faithful servants to the 10/40 window. Pray that God’s Spirit would move mightily on the hearts of the people who will be attending the Bible studies. Pray for our national pastors as we come alongside of them to further equip, encourage and strengthen them for the work ahead.

We will be holding a 2 day youth conference in the north. We will also hold another 3 day conference and graduation at one of our CBI’s, which happens to be in an area that we have not been able to visit in the past 6 years due to heavy persecution. I love doing conferences because the results are always wonderful. It’s a time of equipping our guys for the harvest that’s ahead.

We will be going to an area never visited before by SGWM staff. We’ll be going there to witness the work that’s going on there and to encourage our workers. 

After that, we will be headed to another area where a new work has started about a year ago. It’s a work that God has really been blessing and it’s a great joy for me to go there and spend time with our national worker there. It’s always a fruitful time of fellowship and growth, while seeing all that the Lord is doing.

Then we will be flying on to an area where SGWM has recently completed construction on a new facility that houses one of our CBI’s. We will be teaching block classes through one of the books of the Bible and doing a week long discipleship meeting with former graduates. We will be focusing on what it means to be a pastor.

Finally we will head out for a few weeks to spend time with a newly married couple. They are also engaged in a new-ish work. Our time there will be spent on discipleship, coming alongside them to encourage and strengthen them in the ministry God has called them too. This is a couple I dearly love and I expect it to be a time of great refreshing for all of us.

The over arching theme that God has placed on my heart for this trip is the importance of God’s Word and serving Him faithfully, in the way He would have us serve Him.

As I leave the 10/40 Window, I will stop over in Germany for a short stay. I will be visiting many people who were in our church, Calvary Chapel Ansbach, when we lived in Leutershausen. It will be a blessed time of reconnecting and catching up with them.

I’ve really been looking forward to this trip since I started planning it some 4-5 months ago. 

Again, I’d ask you to be praying for us as we go. Pray for God’s mercy, His grace, as well as His presence to lead and guide as we engage in this great work among the unreached, for His glory.

Please pray that God would bless each and everyday with a greater blessing than He blessed the day before.

As always, I’m incredibly humbled by your willingness to stand with us in this ministry through your prayers. Thank you for your friendship, love, prayers and support. We’re a team. Tina and I happen to be the spearhead and all of you are the shaft. Both are equally important to accomplish its purpose.

Thank you again for your prayers.

God bless,

Gary

BY  MATTHEW AND NOELLE HARRISFEBRUARY 17, 2025UPDATE

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 2 TIMOTHY 2:15

After finishing their study through the book of Revelation in December, the church leaders returned for one last week to recap what they had learned through the Bible. It was a wonderful week of hard work, remembrance, and celebration. Each of the pastors had two final projects: they each had to present the Gospel through a sermon based on a biblical theme as well as prove their knowledge of the timeline of Scripture and the major points of the biblical themes, feasts, and covenants (if you do not understand what that is all about please ask me sometime). It was a blessing to watch them display what they had learned and how far they had come. To their surprise, on Friday morning, they retook the pre-course exam. We could not gain control of the room when the students received the scores they earned at the beginning of the school, along with the scores they had just earned. The commotion was thunderous! On the test covering basic Bible knowledge, men who had been serving as pastors for years and scored as low as 14% on their first day of class were overjoyed with scores of 99-100%! Directly after the excitement, we ushered everyone into the dining hall, where they received a word of encouragement to continue growing in Christ and serving Him.

Unfortunately, the day ended poorly for me as I broke my foot during the sermon that Friday (I had never known I could do that:)). During the sermon, I walked outside to ensure the catering would be done on time, but when I stepped two feet down off of the veranda, my foot landed in a hidden hole and cracked my navicular bone:(. Unfortunately, my right leg was badly mauled by a dog a week later, making it very difficult to walk with crutches. Unfortunately, due to the water scarcity in the dry season, the city water has been cut intermittently, causing Noelle to need to fetch water in cans from the church. Last-unfortunately, our daughter Emma fell backward into a row of large rocks while carrying her sister Charlotte on her back and badly tore a muscle in her upper arm (fortunately, Charlotte was not hurt). In light of all that, it goes without saying that Noelle is tired:).

This month, our family was blessed to receive an intern named Morgan Landrey, who will be staying with us for two months. Morgan is a wonderful young lady from Aurora who simply wants to serve God and experience life on the mission field. During her stay, Morgan will help Noelle homeschool our children, help minister to the widows in our program, teach Sunday School, help write curriculum for the Bible College, serve wherever she can, and most importantly, build relationships with everyone here, including us. By God’s providence, Morgan will also be able to utilize the Business Administration degree she just earned by assisting the ministry accountant and human resource manager in the office. We are excited to witness everything God will do in and through her while she is here.

This month, please pray with us that:

– God would comfort and bless the family of our head pastor, Fred Latim, as they are mourning the loss of Fred’s mother. 

– God will bless the churches represented by the 35 church leaders who have just finished their last week of classes with the pastoral school of discipleship. Pray that their churches will be fruitful in the Lord and abounding with good works that are worthy of the name of our Lord Jesus.

– God will bless Morgan’s time with us that she will learn what God has sent her here to learn and accomplish what He has sent her here to do.

– God would heal my legs and Emma’s arm and give Noelle strength and rest as she takes care of us.

May God bless you as you represent Him this month

In Christ,

Matt & Noelle & Family