The semester and year have been off to a great start! The bible college campuses at CBI Nepal and CBI S. Asia opened in February with a new batch of young adult’s eager to learn and be trained in the Word of God.
Bond has been thrilled to teach weekly into the CBI S. Asia campus as there are 12 men eager to learn and grow and be trained as the next generations of pastors and leaders. These men desire to reach India where there are 1,245 people groups labeled as unreached meaning that there is less than 2% that follow Jesus Christ. Why do we do what we do? Why is it important to invest our time and energy into these young men and women living amongst unreached? God’s love compels us to see the Gospel go forth to every nation, tribe and tongue!
We were also thrilled to gather with 40 young people in the mountains of Lake Tahoe for CC the Rock young adult winter retreat in March. Our friend and co-laborer Pastor Joel Garcia and his wife Amy came to teach and share what a life consecrated to the Lord looks like both in Scripture and practically. It was a powerful weekend cut short by the biggest snow storm to hit the area in 50 years, but thankfully everyone made it out safely!
Planting Churches & Sending Servants
When students graduate, we challenge them to go and start a bible study in their village or hometown. A handful of graduates from last year have done just that and it was time for a visit. We always marvel how God makes it possible to meet the needs in many places at one time.
Heather has been busy coordinating 3 teams with 35 people traveling from 4 cities to minister in 2 countries in Asia in the past two months! Having lived in many countries, it is helpful when assisting in the logistics and to see it all come together is pure joy! We were blessed to help coordinate a team of pastors and leaders in January to spend a week in S. Asia to minister are care for our national pastors and ministry workers with a conference. It was also the wedding of a former student of ours and a former intern who traveled with us from the states who were getting married in S. Asia and it made for a gathering of all the people we love so dearly. In February, we had a medical team from So. Cal visit 4 of the church plants in Nepal (1 is a recent church plant of just one year). The community sees the love of Christ in a practical way when they come to a tent and enter a make shift clinic linked to a local church. Doctors and nurses treat the physical needs and a team of prayer warriors share and pray over each person before they depart. It’s powerful! In March, we had a mountain team that trained for months in advance with hearts to reach the most remote and unreached people in the Himalayas. We always prayed God would send us people to partner with who had hearts to disciple and share the Gospel in the highest places and He did!
Lastly, we were able to send our sweet friend Nina to Uganda and connect her to the school and hospital where we went on our very first overseas missions trip. She had the opportunity to be a part of teaching at a women’s conference two weeks ago at the church where God first stirred our hearts for missions.
The Lord ministered sweetly to us these past two months….you cannot physically be in every place your heart is burdened for but as you remain faithful with all I have entrusted you with, I am using you to multiple the ministry and blessing your efforts to make it possible for the Gospel to be preached and the Word to go forth and hundreds are being impacted for eternity! Those are your rewards that you share in as you pray, support, give and GO! Thank you from our family, from the people in the Himalaya’s, from the students in S. Asia, from the women in Uganda and from the churches that were encouraged and edified so far in 2023 in Asia & Africa!
Heart Surgery
In mid-March our lives were abruptly altered when we heard the words open heart surgery. During a routine physical, Bond mentioned a few incidents of a heart flutter in recent months. Even though he felt great and all of his blood work looked good, the doctor decided to do a scan to be on the safe side. They found an area of concern and shortly after they had a camera inserted checking out his heart. We thought he would be getting a stent and going home the same day. A team of doctors met and decided the location and the seriousness of the issue required open heart surgery and a stent was not possible. They ran all of the tests and two days later, Bond had open heart double bypass surgery. With short notice, we quickly adjusted our life for recovery and postponed parts of our travel schedule (no longer traveling to the middle east this spring) to give more time to recover. We see it as God’s grace that Bond did not have a heart attack and that they found the blocked artery. We are grateful to have insurance and that we were in America at the time all of this happened. The surgery went well and Bond is now home and recovering. He is already walking 1 – 2 miles every day and doctors are really pleased with his progress. We are thrilled he is alive and when we woke up in ICU the first thing he said is “well God must still want to use me since I made it through”. Indeed, we trust the Lord has greater things yet to come! Thank you for your prayers and please pray for Bond’s full recovery and complete healing.
This week as we look to Good Friday and what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross to offer us forgiveness of sins, we are thankful. We rejoice that 3 days later He rose from the dead and is alive. This Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus is Risen! Acts 4:33 says “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.”
Jesus is the true heart surgeon and we will keep proclaiming that here and to the ends of the earth!
Much Love,
Bond, Heather and Breanna Gaona
