Garcia Family Blog

Hey Friends and Family!

The time is finally almost here! For about the last 4-5 years, we have made plans and then had to scratch those plans for Joel to travel to Uganda, Africa. Last year, we went so far as to purchase tickets even, just to have the Lord change our plans yet again!

SGWM has three amazing families serving in Uganda: The Anikus, the Harrises, and the Kanyikes. Joel will be traveling with Isaac Douglass (who assists him with missionary care) with the goal of visiting these families, seeing their ministries first-hand, and to just be a blessing to them. This makes a HUGE difference in the lives of missionaries, to have their “senders” from back home visit them and see what their lives and ministries look like.

Our trip will begin in Kampala with the Kanyike family; then we’ll move up to Gulu to visit the Harris family; and then finally up to Midigo (near Arua on the map) to see the Aniku family.

Please pray that Joel and Isaac would have smooth travels to, in, and from Uganda. Pray that we would be a total blessing to the families there. Please pray for protection, especially from sickness! And please pray for our families with young children back at home, that the Lord would sustain them in our two week absence.

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. Thank you to those of you who already responded to this request from our last update; it is a greater blessing than you know!

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. 

Love in Christ,

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

I love January! I’m always looking for a fresh start, a blank slate. It excites me to think about all of the things the Lord may have for us in the year ahead!

It’s been a great holiday season. October through December is a busy time for our church, with Halloween Front Yard Party Outreaches, our annual Thanksgiving Potluck, and Christmas services (which means dusting off the old Christmas songs for the worship teams I lead!). But it was so great to celebrate all of these things with our church and family.

And there is the added bonus of receiving back some missionaries over these last couple of months who are back from the field, visiting on furlough, or here to have a baby, from places like the Middle East, North Africa, and Peru! And speaking of Peru, we are sending out a new missionary, Joshua Vanrenterghem, to be a missionary in Peru just next week! On top of that, we are sending a young couple from our Missions Training School, Geoff & Lydia Hamano, on a 3-month vision tour to Japan this month as well, so they can get a better feel of what it will be like to live in this country that they feel called to. Click their images below to check out more about their ministry!

It is always hard to send out some of our best co-laborers in Christ, but we know that the need is so great in other unreached parts of the world, and they need these amazing servants of God!

This new year is a blank slate as far as travel plans. I will need to do my traveling in the first half of the year this year, so would you pray for us in that? We would ask two things:

1. That the Lord would guide us as to where Joel should travel. None of these trips are arbitrary or randomly chosen; there are so many good options in front of us for which locations need missionary care, but we can only choose one or two a year to travel to and make an impact, so we want the decision to be the Lord’s
2. That the Lord would provide the necessary funding for Joel to travel where the Lord leads him this year

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

Hello Friends & Family!

One of the reasons I do what I do is that I LOVE missionaries. God has not called me to be a missionary (not yet at least!), but I know He has called me to send them, care for them, and love them well. This last trip I went on for 21 days in September was such a great opportunity to do just that: loving and caring for our missionaries well by having time with them face to face, worshiping with them and talking with them and sharing experiences with them.

This trip was not easy! I realized that 21 days is the longest that Amy and I have been apart since before we were engaged, and so this was also the longest I have ever been away from my kids. And my 13 year anniversary fell during my trip as well! Amy and I still need to plan some kind of make up getaway for that!

But even though it is hard going, I know that the sacrifices our missionaries have made are so much greater, and that these trips to love them and care for them and learn from them and speak into their lives are so necessary. I discover this in fresh ways every time I travel.

JAPAN

The first leg of my trip was to Osaka, Japan. I took a team of three young people with me who are in various stages of either praying about, or committed to, moving there long-term as missionaries. I also was able to spend extensive time with our missionaries Jeff and Alishia Root there. It was critical for me to experience their mission field to better understand how I can specifically love and care for them better. And I will say, I LOVED Japan! The culture, the people, the food… everything was amazing! And while Japan is one of the most difficult places for the gospel to penetrate, we heard from multiple missionaries there that it seems like God is beginning a great work in Japan!

From Japan, we traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand for the CCA Asia Conference. The conference was great, and it was really awesome meeting with old friends and making new ones.

But the highlight came afterward: We had about 45 people from SGWM there, most of them missionaries from South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Japan! This was a truly incredible experience, to worship with them and hear updates from them and have strategic ministry meetings with them and just have fun together as well! The fellowship was powerful and a gift from the Lord to strengthen our ministry. I wish I could share the many photos I have of me with my friends there, but due to the nature of where they are serving, I can’t show their faces here.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over this trip. I’m happy to be home now with my family and church for the rest of the year, and please be praying over what the Lord may have for us in 2025.

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

Hey Friends and Family!

I pray you are all doing well and enjoying these last days of Summer! Joel had an amazing time in Mexico teaching a workshop on raising up and leading a worship team, leading a night of worship and prayer for our School of Missions students, and then teaching a class for them on the theology of worship.

We are looking forward to a BIG month starting this week; here are some of the things going on that we would ask you to be in prayer for us over:

• This weekend, Joel is teaching at a Missions Conference at Calvary Chapel Westgrove
• On Sunday, we are hosting a Dessert Gathering update at the church for SGWM missionaries the Kanyike Family from Uganda
• The following Sunday, the whole family will be participating in a Walk-A-Thon to raise money for missions (more on that later)
• In two weeks, Joel will be leaving for three weeks to Japan and Thailand. In Japan, Joel will lead a small team who is praying about moving there, check up on our missionaries the Root Family there, and teach at Calvary Chapel Abide in Osaka
• In Thailand, Joel will attend the CCA Missions Conference in Chiang Mai, and then spend an extended time helping lead a separate conference for many of our SGWM missionaries and nationals who will be joining us there

Please pray for a fruitful trip for Joel, and that the Lord would protect and provide for the rest of the family during the trip, as it will be the longest Joel has ever taken!

Now, about the Walk-A-Thon… Our church is putting on a Labor Day picnic that will include a mile walk in Yorba Linda to raise money for missions! All six of us Garcias will be participating, and we would love your help! Would you consider sponsoring us by donating toward the cause we are walking for? It would be a huge blessing! We are raising money to help put our new batch of missionaries in the Middle East through language school, as it is an expensive investment that will be absolutely crucial for their effectiveness on the field there!

To donate, please click the link below, select One-Time, or Recurring if you would like this to be a recurring donation, and select MIDDLE EAST GENERAL as the Fund you are donating to, along with the dollar amount of your choice. Any amount helps!

Click here to sponsor us for the Walk-A-Thon!

Here are some pics of us participating in last year’s Walk-A-Thon:

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

While my (Joel’s) travels typically take me internationally, every once in a while I get to travel to a new state. Back in May, our whole family went on a road trip to Pagosa Springs, CO, where we hiked to waterfalls and along rivers, saw historic little towns, and spent time swimming at the beautiful resort we were blessed with a free seven night stay at! On the way back, we also got to visit the “Four Corners,” where you can stand in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico all at once. A novelty for sure, but the kids loved it.

This month, I got to head to Alabama for the first time! While I ate some good food (much of it deep-fried and not friendly to my diet!) and got to spend time with some dear family, this wasn’t for a vacation. The purpose of our trip was for a Crisis Management Training seminar in Auburn, where my friend and fellow SGWM pastor Tim, his wife Jenn, and Rob Douglass and Elaine Sedillos of Ends of the Earth Ministries, met up to invest in the stewardship of our dear missionaries and ministries around the world.

Missions is never entirely safe; there is always risk involved. The purpose of this training was to equip us to: assess risk for each area of the world we have workers and ministries in; come up with and write policies and contingency plans for each of those regions; and create teams to help manage any potential crisis that may arise. We hope to NEVER have to implement a single one of those plans, but we need to be equipped in case anything happens to our precious missionaries. Our job as a home office is to steward them well.

In a couple of weeks, my international travels will continue as I will head down to Rosarito, Mexico to teach workshop at CC Rosarito’s annual church-planting conference (my workshop will be “Building a Worship Team”) and then give my testimony, lead a night of worship, and then teach a half-day class at our Calvary School of Missions on “Worship & Missions.”

Then in September, I will be taking one of my longest trips ever, as I lead a team to Japan to visit our missionaries Jeff & Alishia Root as well as to expose the team to Japanese culture as they pray about their future in missions. From there, I’ll go straight to Thailand (where I took my first overseas missions trip almost 20 years ago!) for the CCA missions conference and then a special retreat/conference for many of our SGWM missionaries in Asia. I ask that you keep my family and I in prayer as we prepare for these big things coming up.

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

Most of you may know that I’ve been the Young Adults Pastor at my church for about 8 years now. The Lord has done amazing things in this group over the past year. We are currently going through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and one of the recurring themes in those books is God’s good hand being upon the work that these great men of God did (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Nehemiah 2:8, 18). As I think about our ministry, and in particular about what’s to come this Summer, I see God’s good hands all over it!

REST

This coming week, our family is taking an overdue vacation, a road trip to Colorado, where we will stay for a week and get some much needed rest before a busy Summer. Our family has been doing great! Our two youngest (Jude & Clara) just celebrated their 7th & 5th birthdays, respectively, over the past month. Maggie, our oldest, was baptized last year in a moment that made us so proud as parents, and now Harrison, our second oldest, got baptized this month!

CONVERGENCE

One reason Summer is so busy for me as the Director of Missionary Care at SGWM is that so many missionaries come home on furlough. This is such a blessing for us! I got to meet with one national worker who is visiting this week from South Asia. Next week, we will have a couple we recently sent out to Japan here. With more missionaries coming in, that means that next week we will have one couple in from Japan, two couples in from the Middle East, one family in from North Africa, and one South Asian national here all at the same time (hence my sub-heading convergence above)! Another gal will be in from the Middle East for some of the Summer as well. This kind of stuff blesses my heart so much!

CHANGE

One thing that was both a blessing and a disappointment is that the trip to Uganda we had scheduled for June has been canceled. This is disappointing because I’ve been trying to make it to Uganda to visit our three missionary families there for a few years now. But, it is also a blessing because the reason we had to cancel the trip is that both families will be in the states during June receiving US citizenship, one for their children, and one for the father/husband who is an African national! I am so excited for this step for them!

WORK

Summer, as usual, is busy for other reasons as well. Much of our staff, including our senior pastor, spend 6 weeks in Mexico for our annual Calvary School of Missions, where we give people with a heart for missions a crash-course in all things missions, from theology to practice. To help support that, I will spend much of the summer leading the staff and home base here in Southern California, including teaching a summer Wednesday night series through the book of Proverbs for our church. On top of that, the cancelation of our Uganda trip will allow me to spend a little more time traveling to Mexico occasionally this Summer to visit and at teach at our school there, and also to teach a workshop on building a worship team at the Church-Planting Conference at our own church plant, Calvary Chapel Rosarito.

I’m looking forward to an amazing Summer full of great things and covered by God’s good hand. We ask you to keep us in your prayers and in your hearts, and please let us know how we can be praying for you as well!

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

Hello Friends and Family!

I pray you are all doing well! The last couple of months have been so exciting for SGWM, and especially for me as the Director of Missionary Care. We have sent out FIVE new missionaries straight to the field for me to care for: one couple to Japan, and one couple and a single gal to the Middle East. It is so exciting to be a part of loving and shepherding these teams as they develop. I get to lead the team who does a lot behind the scenes to support these missionaries well by processing their finances, sending their updates out to their supporters, and providing pastoral care. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing than SENDING these amazing men and women of God!

The Lord has also opened the door for me (Joel) to go to Uganda in June to visit our missionaries there. It will be my first time in that part of Africa, so I am very excited, and we have three missionary families there who we hope to spend time with. Pray that the Lord perfectly arranges all of the details of that trip.

On a personal note, we want to sincerely thank all of you who prayed for our housing situation from our previous update. The Lord has provided for us to stay at our current house for at least another year! Praise God for His grace in that!

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

Hello Friends and Family!

As we near the end of the first month of 2024, we look back on last year with gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and for your faithful partnership in prayer and support; and we also look forward to what the Lord has for our family and ministry through the rest of 2024 ahead of us. Please see below for an important prayer request as we begin this year!

Amy and I are now the proud parents of a kid in “double digits,” as our precious Maggie turned 10 this month! Time is truly flying by, and we are soaking in all that we can with the kids. They are all doing well and flourishing.

As far as ministry goes, the church and running Missionary Care at SGWM keeps me busy. Our young adults group is growing both in numbers and spiritual depth, and we can’t believe what God is doing there! On the missionary care side, there were a lot of missionaries in town over the holidays, so I did a lot of planning for that and spending time with them. And this month, we have the privilege of sending our five new missionaries to unreached countries straight from our church. All glory to God!

As far as travel for this year, my hope and prayer is to make it to Uganda, my first time in Africa, in June; then deeper Mexico and Japan in the Fall, all for missionary care for established works and works just in their infancy. Of course, all of this is subject to change and in the Lord’s hands.

We do have a personal prayer request for you all: We are in the middle of figuring out what to do next as far as housing. The housing market is not friendly right now for a single-income family of six on a ministry salary! We are not sure whether the Lord wants to provide for us to stay where we are right now, or whether He wants to provide to move to a new house, as our current lease is up at the end of February. We are waiting on Him and trusting Him, as Amy and I received a very specific prophetic word for us during this month’s week of prayer and fasting with our church: Provision. We know He will provide, but we want His wisdom and to know His heart for us. Will you please pray with us to know and walk in however He wants to provide for us?

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia

It is great to be back from an extremely fruitful trip to the Middle East and North Africa! I wanted to extend my thanks to you all for praying for Isaac and I. Our families were loved and taken care of while we were away, and our time in the two countries we went to was much needed.

I’ll be honest, I really don’t like traveling. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting to see our missionaries on the field, but this trip included 8 airplanes, with flight lengths ranging from 1 hour to 11 hours; we barely made our final connecting flight home (unlike our luggage, which had to be shipped to us the next day!); and, as is typical, I got a stomach sickness in the middle of our trip that hindered some of the ministry we planned on. But when I think of what our missionaries go through and what they have given up to get the gospel to the unreached, those things all become minor inconveniences.

Because it is illegal to be missionaries in the countries we went to, we can’t say where we were or show pics of our workers’ faces (so below, you’ll get a few food pics, one of my favorite parts of traveling!). But the time spent with them was so valuable, sharing their struggles and spiritual burdens with them, helping them develop vision and plans for their ministry moving forward, and just giving them a little taste of home that was refreshing to their souls. Thank you so much for your prayers and sending me!

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. 

Love in Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia