Garcia Family Blog – Page 5 – Domestic-based Missionaries for Saving Grace World Missions

South America Pt. 1: Cajamarca, Peru

Greetings Friends!

As many of you know, I (Joel) just returned a few days ago from an 18-day trip to South America. Two countries, eight airplanes, over 24 hours’ worth of boat rides, dozens of new friends, three new languages, weird foods (cow heart, anyone?), weird animals (pink dolphins, anyone?), rain, hail, heatwave, and real RAIN… Joy, lots of laughing, lots of tears, lots of worship, lots of prayer, lots of Bible, lots of missing my family, lots of physical ailments, lots of sights and sounds and tastes and… This was a PACKED 18 days. Our bodies, minds, and souls went through a lot, more than I’m used to, and while it was hard, my calling to be a part of this movement of God amongst the nations was only confirmed all the more.

And so, because this trip, which really felt like 4 totally different missions experiences rolled into a three-week period, was such a massive undertaking, I’ve decided to roll out my update in three installments over the next month or so (which is probably about the time it will take for me to somewhat process all of it anyway!). I pray you’re encouraged along the way 🙂

With such a big trip, there were multiple purposes for myself and three other SGWM pastors to head to South America and see our five missionary families there. For this installment, I’ll focus on our time at the Calvary Chapel Bible College located in the Andes Mountains in Cajamarca, Peru.

*Left to right: myself, Pastor Mike, Pastor Tim, and Pastor Trent*

*View from the Library at the beautiful CCBC in Peru*

We really had one goal in Cajamarca: to bless our four missionary families in Peru with a prayer retreat. I discovered firsthand the fact that missionaries do not get the fellowship and community with other believers that we often take for granted here in the U.S. They are called to lead, to teach, and to pastor, and while they love the nationals of the countries in which they serve with all their hearts, it is so refreshing for them to get to share their joys and struggles with people from their own culture and language. We got to hear about the triumphs and trials of our missionaries’ lives and families and ministries, and perhaps the sweetest time was when each family took their turn having hands laid upon their shoulders and prayers spoken over them on their behalf.

*Group shot with our Peru missionary families! Roughly left to right: The Kilgus family, the Buescher family, the Tippie family, and not pictured, the Gunderson family*

I was extremely blessed to be able to use my gift of leading worship to lead these sweet saints in singing to Jesus. Live English worship is a rarity for them, so it was a huge joy for me to be able to serve them in this way, and a privilege to worship with these men and women I look up to greatly. On top of this, we were able to teach some short devotions through the armor of God in Ephesians 6, to pray over them, and to pastor them in ways that simply don’t happen over the phone or Skype. Our hearts are now connected in a deeper way to those we serve in Peru, and we feel that our ministry alongside them will be all the sweeter and more effective as a result.

*Leading worship for our missionaries in Peru*

As is typical, while God used me and His gifts through me to bless our missionary families, I feel that I received more than I was able to give, that I was more blessed and challenged through this experience than I could have imagined, and that my calling to be a missionary serving long-term missionaries was all the more deeply confirmed. Praise God for His grace!

*Peruvian food is a new favorite of mine! Lots of french fries and… Beef heart (pictured with the fork in it)? Not bad!*

Culturally and mentally, this was the “easiest” portion of the trip, as we were surrounded by other Americans and I wasn’t missing my family too badly this early in the trip. It was with bittersweet sorrow that we left three of our missionary families in Peru to head to Huacho with the Tippies, but we are praying for and will continue to fellowship and serve with the Kilgus family as they seek God’s will for them with Venezuelan refugees, the Bueschers as they teach and disciple young students at the Bible College, and the Gundersons as John pastors a local church and they open their home and hearts to the people of Cajamarca. Look out for the next two installments of the trip with adventures in Huacho, Peru; Manaus, Brazil; and the deep Amazon jungle!

If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the “Become A Financial Partner” button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.

We also 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 button below:

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

On Location! (First 2019 Garcia Family Update)

Hello Friends and Family!

I thought I’d do something a little different for our first update for 2019. Hope you enjoy this short video packed with the tons of things going on in our life, live from the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta, CA! Just click below!

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We also 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 button below:

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What I Read in 2018

Hello everyone, and happy almost New Year! I promise we’ll have a proper family/ministry update soon, but each year, I typically post a list of the books I’ve read over the past 12 months. This is partially because people have asked in the past for recommendations, and partly because it helps me to look back and think about some of the written data I’ve consumed over the year. I’m only posting books I’ve read cover to cover in 2018. I’ll make some comments here and there, and as a side note, I certainly don’t endorse every book or author as holding to my own particular beliefs (especially because the vast majority of my reading is related to Christianity). I’ve separated the books loosely by category, mostly fairly specific, with an added catch-all Theology/Christianity/Other category at the end. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to ask questions, make comments, and let me know what you’ve been reading yourself 🙂

Fiction:
The Chronicles of Narnia: A Horse and His Boy – C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle – C.S. Lewis – It was a joy to finish up reading my favorite childhood books to Maggie, our oldest, fairly early this year. I regularly came close to tearing up. Lewis is a master.
Out of The Silent Planet – C.S. Lewis
Perelandra – C.S. Lewis – Wow! Lewis’ versatility is amazing. I look forward to finishing up the space trilogy this year, and every time I read a new book from him, he is solidified as my favorite author.
Alice in Wonderland/Through The Looking-Glass – Lewis Carroll

Spiritual Disciplines: I taught a series on spiritual disciplines, or “Rhythms” as I called the series, for our church’s young adults group this year. Most of these books were immensely helpful! I’ve organized them here by category (prayer, fasting, etc.)
A Long Obedience In The Same Direction – Eugene Peterson
The Spirit of the Disciplines – Dallas Willard
Renovations of the Heart in Daily Practice – Dallas Willard & Jan Johnson
Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster
Habits of Grace – David Mathis
Power Through Prayer – E.M. Bounds
Praying – J.I. Packer & Carolyn Nystrom
Letters to Malcolm (Chiefly on Prayer) – C.S. Lewis
Prayer: Conversing with God – Rosalind Rinker
A Hunger For God – John Piper – This is the book I would recommend to anybody for fasting!
God’s Chosen Fast – Arthur Wallis
The Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace – Richard Barcellos
The Sabbath – Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Practice of the Presence of God (and Spiritual Maxims) – Brother Lawrence
Lent for Everyone: Matthew, Year A – N.T. Wright
Family Worship – Don Whitney

Commentaries:
Daniel (NIVAC) – Tremper Longman III
Daniel (Reformed Expository Commentary) – Iain Duguid
A Theology of James: Wisdom for God’s People – Christopher Morgan
The Letter of James (PNTC) – Douglas Moo
The Spirit, The Church, & The World – John Stott – An excellent commentary on the book of Acts that I read for fun and as a supplement as I study through Acts in a School of Ministry class I’m taking.
God’s Wisdom For Navigating Life – Tim Keller – Not a strict commentary per se, but this was my choice of devotional this year, and Keller gave great insights on through the book of Proverbs

Bible Study:
How To Read The Bible Book By Book – Gordon Fee & Douglass Stuart
Living By the Book – Howard & William Hendricks
The Bible from 30,000 Feet – Skip Heitzig

Homosexuality: A specific category to be sure, but I taught on the subject for our church’s high school group earlier in the year, and figured three books was enough to warrant its own category
What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? – Kevin DeYoung
God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships – Matthew Vines – I wanted to read one book from an opposing view that allows for Christians to be practicing homosexuals. As expected, the logic was full of unwarranted presuppositions and based on flawed and lazy biblical interpretation.
Is God Anti-Gay? – Sam Allberry

Church:
Becoming A Welcoming Church – Thom Rainer
Calvary Chapel Distinctives – Chuck Smith
Gather God’s People: Understand, Plan, and Lead Worship in Your Local Church – Brian Croft & Jason Adkins

Eschatology:
Four Views on the Book of Revelation – Kenneth Gentry, Sam Hamstra, Marvin Pate, & Robert Thomas
The Last Days According to Jesus – R.C. Sproul – I have the utmost respect for the brilliant, late R.C. Sproul, and agree with him on many things. His preterist position is not one of them.

Missions:
Cross-Cultural Connections – Duane Elmer
Serving As Senders Today – Neal Pirolo
Sundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains – Janet & Geoff Benge – I was surprised and a bit shamed to realize I only read one biography this year! Considering, I just put this one under missions. But this one was amazing and challenging to my Christianity.

Theology/Christianity/Other:
The Explicit Gospel – Matt Chandler – I loved Chandler’s overview of the Gospel in the air and on the ground, an extremely helpful way of explaining Christianity, especially to young adults
Simply Christian – N.T. Wright
The Whole Christ – Sinclair Ferguson
Knowing God – J.I. Packer
In His Image – Jen Wilkin
Garden City – John Mark Comer
Every Good Endeavor – Tim Keller
Just Do Something – Kevin DeYoung
Don’t Waste Your Life – John Piper
Desiring God – John Piper – Both of these books by Piper are amazing. I’ve had a good grasp of his Christian Hedonism concept through listening to his sermons, but specifically the last two chapters of Desiring God ignited a renewed passion in me for dying to self for the sake of God’s glory.
Andrew Murray on the Holy Spirit – Andrew Murray
Absolute Surrender – Andrew Murray
Humility – Andrew Murray
That Incredible Christian – A.W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer
Words to Winners of Souls – Horatius Bonar
The Skeletons in God’s Closet – Joshua Ryan Butler
Shepherding A Child’s Heart – Tedd Tripp
Come Let Us Adore Him – Paul Tripp
Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl – One of only a couple of non-Christianianity-based books on my list, but very informative and helpful. There was a lot of truth here that had me thinking deeply.

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We also 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 button below:

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An Update and An Invitation

Hello Friends and Family!

I pray you are all doing well, and as always, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to open and read this short update from my family and I. It is such a blessing to know there are people who love us and care about what is going on with our ministry!

Our Step of Faith

Last month marked the one year anniversary of my family taking the step of faith to come on staff with SGWM. And while we had prayed for years for the opportunity to take a “full-time” ministry role with Saving Grace, it was a step of faith indeed. Because I work in part for Calvary Chapel Saving Grace’s Yorba Linda ministry, the church pays a portion of my salary. But because the other half of my work here is for Saving Grace World Missions, the other portion of my salary comes from us raising financial support. It’s been an amazing season of doing work so closely associated with with the heart of the Great Commission (you can read more about all of those things in our blog updates), but it has been a great step of faith to rethink the way God provides for us financially.

Why Financial Supporters?

Because I have such an active role in the “home” ministries of Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, many people don’t know that much of my work is actually for SGWM, and so I raise financial support like any other SGWM missionary. That may seem strange for someone who does not actually live abroad as a missionary! But this is the norm for our SGWM Home Office staff for a number of reasons. Our work here in Yorba Linda for SGWM is crucial for the success of our international ministries and missionaries, and therefore we know that we are just as much involved in the work of missions as they are. Living off of financial support also gives us a greater identification with our missionaries on the field, as this aspect of being a missionary is by far one of the most difficult and uncomfortable. And above all, by raising support from financial donors who want to support our ministries, we can keep the actual costs to SGWM and administrative fees to affiliate missionaries lower and we can use SGWM financial resources for other needs connected to our mission of reaching the nations for Christ.

Can I Be Honest?

In all honesty, I struggled greatly with the idea of writing this update, as support raising is one of the hardest things for missionaries to do. As our family grows we have realized that we are in need of more monthly financial supporters. We have been praying fervently for the Lord to provide all that we need. But, as we at SGWM encourage all of our missionaries to do, we also know that we need to present our needs to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We sincerely ask that you would pray for us in this area, and, if you are so led by the Spirit, we’d ask you to pray about whether the Lord would have you join our ministry through financial support. We would absolutely LOVE to spend some time talking with you about our ministry if you want to hear more! Please feel free to call, text, or email me and I’d be delighted to set up a time with you over coffee or in the office to talk about my family’s role with SGWM! I’ve included my contact info at the very bottom of this update.

We also 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 button below:

Email Updates

For Email Marketing you can trust.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and consideration in this. To all of our current financial supporters, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts as well for joining in our ministry in this way. I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for us!

In Christ,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Baby #4 Garcia
562-322-4718
joel@sgwm.com

A Land Full of Potential

Hello Friends!

We pray you are all doing well, and thank you for taking a moment to read our latest update! I (Joel) have been reflecting lately on what in the past has been, quite frankly, my least favorite portion of scripture: Joshua’s dividing up of the land to Israel after they entered the Promised Land. The list of boundary lines and cities is not a thrilling read, but I was assigned to teach this to our Bible College students in South Asia (via Skype) through the book of Joshua as I finished up my portion of this semester’s teachings. As I approached this text, I noticed that the future of Israel’s rich history was represented in what was, at that time, cities and lands full of potential. This potential for them was the choice between honoring God with the land and seeing His blessings in it (with places like Shiloh and Jerusalem), or offending God with idol worship and receiving the curse of disobedience (as with Ben-Himmon or Dan). As we move forward in our lives of following Christ, the same pregnant potential lies in front of us at all times. Will we reach out and receive His promises in faith and obedience, or end up heaping trouble on our lives with sin, laziness, or cowardice? Praise God that for us, above all of this, stands His great and faithful grace!

Joel giving his last teaching of the semester for South Asia Bible College students

This last month has been a great one! I (Joel) got to lead worship for the church’s men’s retreat, which was an amazing experience to be a part of. It is such a privilege to have a front-row seat to seeing the men of our church lifting holy hands in prayer and worship.

Joel leading the worship team for CCSG’s men’s retreat

I’m also looking forward to traveling next year. Sadly, I will not be able to go to Jordan and Israel as I anticipated due to the proximity of those dates to Amy’s due date. However, that gives me a little more flexibility regarding another potential trip at the beginning of the year. I have learned to on hold loosely to plans for short terms missions, since I’ve discovered those plans can change in an instant! But once things are more firm for this particular trip, I’ll give you all some more details. I am excited about the prospect!

On the home front, the kids are doing great! Maggie is flourishing with homeschooling and loves to learn. Jude is starting to walk all over the place more and more. And Harrison is jumping in and learning lots of things alongside Maggie. It’s always an adventure with those three, and we can’t wait to add one more!

Speaking of #4, please continue to keep Amy in your prayers through this pregnancy. She’s doing great, but experiencing all of the fatigue that comes along with pregnancy and being the amazing, active mom that she is.

We also ask that you continue to keep us in prayer to find a larger home that fits our limited budget, as well as the additional funds needed for a move. We’d love to have a three or four bedroom house to have more space for the kids to run around, room for the new baby, and to be able to practice more hospitality and host more church gatherings.

Finally, please pray as I enter a busy season of running two of our church’s biggest events: our Halloween Front-Yard Outreach Parties and our all-church Thanksgiving Potluck. These are a lot of work, but are super rich and fruitful events, and we have an amazing group of servants at the church who step up to lend their giftings.

Love you all, and please feel free to let us know what is going on in your lives and how we can pray for you!

All The Best For His Glory,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Baby #4

If you’d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM’s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Big News & Full Plates

Hello Friends and Family!

I pray that you are all doing well, and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to read this quick update and join us in prayer!

First of all, we’re excited to present our big news to you all: Amy is pregnant with our 4th child! We’ll be introducing our newest little one into the world in Spring of 2019. We are blessed that the Lord has allowed us to have a “full quiver” of children so close in age so that they can grow and learn and be friends together. Amy and I celebrated our 7th anniversary of marriage this past month and are blown away by God’s faithfulness to us!

Enjoying a coffee/Scrabble date on our anniversary

With this big news also comes a busy season in our lives. Joel has been teaching a weekly Wednesday night class through the book of Joshua to some of SGWM’s Bible College students in South Asia. It is such an honor for him to play a role in training up future leaders for Christ in a country where biblical resources are scarce and the need for the Gospel is great.

Joel teaching an overseas Bible class via Skype

In addition, Joel is going to be attending our church’s School of Ministry every Thursday night for 3 1/2 hours for the next 8 months. This is a great opportunity for him, as he has never had any “official” ministry training. He will also be acting as a pastoral mentor for others taking the class in the ins and outs of ministry. Needless to say, between those two things, family, leading Life Groups and Worship Ministry, teaching Young Adults every Friday night, and running two big upcoming church events, our plates are quite full!

Joel announcing CCSG’s School of Discipleship/Ministry

On the home front, Maggie is beginning her homeschool/charter program, and is totally nailing it! We couldn’t be more proud of her, and of course Harrison can’t help but join in on the learning action occasionally. Amy continues to be an amazing mom and excels in the role of teacher for all of our kids. And finally, we know many of you were praying for us in past months for Jude (1) to sleep better through the night. His sleep schedule has been great for many weeks now, so thank you for your prayers; God answered them!

Cute Jude (who’s started walking a bit more lately!)

Maggie at a recent princess birthday party for a friend

We ask that you keep the following in prayer:

For a safe and healthy pregnancy for both the new baby and for Amy, as she juggles the difficulties of pregnancy with raising our three others while I’m at work during the days.
For continued financial support. We are praying that the Lord provides the resources and opportunity for larger housing for us (specifically, we’d love a house with a yard for the kids to play in). This seems impossible in Southern California, but we trust God will provide us with it if He sees fit for us to have that for His glory.
For increased energy and balance with all of the ministry on our plates. We want to do not just many things for the Lord, but we want to do many things well for His glory while maintaining a healthy family life.
Please pray for Maggie (as well as Harrison and Jude) to continue to develop a love for learning, and for Amy and I to receive an ever-increasing vision and plan from God for educating our children and making them disciples of Christ
Please pray for the many upcoming opportunities for Joel to travel for SGWM. He is planning on, Lord-willing, three fairly big trips in 2019, so we need wisdom on what opportunities he should take and for additional financial support to go on the trips the Lord would have him go on. (Hopefully more details to come on those opportunities in future updates!)

Thank you all again for your continued prayers and support, it means the world to us! And I know we usually end our updates with this, but we sincerely ask that you would respond to us with any prayer requests of your own. We love you all and are delighted to partner in prayer with you, not just your prayers for us, but our prayers together for the Gospel.

All the Best for His Glory!
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude

Summer Update #2!

Hey Friends & Family! Here’s another quick Summer update along with some prayer requests for those of you who are following our ministry. Thank you all so much for your prayer and for faithfully partnering with us!

Last week, I (Joel) got to go on my first youth retreat in a couple of years. It took some mental preparation to get back into “Youth Leader Mode,” as it’s been over 2 years now since I stepped away from being the church’s Jr. High Leader to being our Young Adults Leader. I was honored to lead worship for the majority of the trip and give a couple of teachings, one on God’s holiness and one on God’s mercy. What a blessing to see these students worshiping God with their whole hearts! One of my biggest takeaways was the effect that past retreats have had on these students. Youth retreats like this produce lasting fruit that many of them will look back on as spiritually defining moments in their lives, and that was what I was hearing from them on this retreat.

Of course, all of this awesome ministry I got to partake in comes along with other youth ministry shenanigans, like having them drench you with (thankfully, waterproof) paint! But I have to say that at the end of the day, I kind of miss that sort of thing, messy and exhausting as the games and running and chaos can be.

As I write this, tonight will be my first night of teaching via Skype in South Asia for nine straight weeks through the book of Joshua. I am really excited to jump back into this ministry! This is, however, a busy season for me since I also teach our Young Adults weekly (currently through the book of James), as well as leading a Life Group (our church’s home groups) and helping facilitate our September New Believers’ Class, on top of worship ministry. My plate is full, but I can always ask the Lord for a bigger one, and he’s faithful to do so 🙂

I am also planning on going to Israel in the Spring of next year with our church to further my education as a Bible teacher, as well as to scope out some potential ministry in an adjacent middle-eastern country. I’m glad my travel schedule is finally starting to shape up for 2019 after some previous plans fell through, and I’m planning to help lead a Peru trip for our youth and young adults next Summer as well!

On the home front, the family is doing great. Jude is happy as a clam as always (though we’re still working on getting the kid to walk!), Harrison just turned three and is doing great learning how to be more responsible in helping around the house (he loves the working vacuum cleaner we got him for his birthday!), and we are in the process of getting Maggie enrolled in a charter program to begin her “TK” schooling. Amy, as always, is an amazing mom, and somehow squeezes in the time to meet with some of our young adult girls to disciple them on occasion. I’m certainly a blessed man to have such a wonderful family!

Here are some prayer needs of ours:

Please pray for our finances. Even with young kids, food for a family of five has been a big expense and we have been stretched. We are trusting God, and praying that He will somehow, even though it seems impossible to us, provide us with a house to rent so both our kids and our young adults group, who meet at our place, have some more wiggle room.
Please pray for wisdom and strength for us as parents, especially for Amy who takes the brunt of things while I am working during the days and often have other ministry at nights. She is a fantastic mother and can use prayer to continue to be so!
Please pray for the additional finances we will need for me to go on the Israel/Jordan trip (over $4,000) in Spring.
Please pray for wisdom in managing my busy schedule, as I am teaching and leading groups quite a bit, and this also requires lots of study time for me on top of other responsibilities.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers, and please let us know if there is any way we can pray for you!

All the Best for His Glory!
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude

Missionary Spotlight Article for the Record Family: Defending the Faith in a Foreign Land

One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries to get the word out about what SGWM’s missionaries are up to. I’ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I’m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here’s an article I wrote awhile back about the Record Family, who have the unique role of doing Christian Apologetics ministry in Cambodia. If you’d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.

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“When I first heard about Christian Apologetics,” says Darryl Record, SGWM missionary in Cambodia, “my initial reaction was, ‘I’m not going to apologize for being a Christian!’ I had no idea what it meant.” I doubt that Darryl is alone in this experience, as we’ve been trained to view the word “apology” in a very specific light. But Darryl soon learned the true definition of apologetics, and he was hooked on the concept. Bruce Shelley, in his book Church History in Plain Language, says, “the word comes from Greek and means defense, such as a lawyer gives at a trial.” Darryl decided to commit the focus of his life to this defense of the faith, a journey that took him from not even knowing what the word meant to eventually receiving his MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University.

The Record Family: Darryl and Kayo with their son Benjamin

But Darryl wasn’t content to remain in the states for his apologetics work, where information and resources already abound. Before receiving his degree from Biola, he had a breakthrough in his relationship with God in which he simply surrendered his all to Christ. He promised not to say “No” to whatever God may ask Him to do. So, God said, in effect, “Go to Cambodia.” After a short-term stint, Darryl returned home to finish his education, during which time he met his future wife Kayo, a first-generation Christian from Japan, who also felt a calling to missions. They married in 2004, went out back out on the field in 2007, and haven’t looked back since putting their hand to the plow.

Darryl noticed that while there were plenty of gospel resources in Cambodia, there was not much material regarding creationism or evidence for the truth of the Bible. But surely the Cambodian people struggled with the same existential questions that had plagued Darryl earlier in his own life, right? For Darryl personally, he says that at one point in his life there was a “gradual flow of evolution and Biblical criticism that was seeping into my worldview from my public school teachers and later university professors. Little by little my faith was eroded.” These problems are not exclusive to western culture. According to Darryl, the Theravada Buddhists of Cambodia “believe that everything came into existence by water, wind, earth, fire, time, and chance.” And evolution is pushed hard in schools there, just as it is in the U.S. So Darryl’s heart is to not only present the Gospel, but also to gently and respectfully help remove intellectual obstacles in the hearts of the unbelievers there.

Darryl with his Cambodia Bible Institute Apologetics Class

Typically when westerners think of apologetics, we conjure up images of men in suites with lots of letters attached to their names trying to win an argument. But Darryl knows that apologetics is not about winning debates. Especially in the Asian culture he lives in, the focus needs to be on relationship and community, so that is how he approaches his broad range of work in his field in Cambodia. Primarily, he teaches Christian apologetics at a Bible school there, but he has also authored and co-authored two bilingual Christian apologetics books, written scripts for Christian radio programs, and is currently working on an exciting project of producing short evangelistic/apologetics videos in Cambodian. In this wide array of activity, he has mastered how to defend the faith with the gentleness of Christ in the way the Cambodian culture receives it best.

Darryl clearly has his hands full, but he also has a laser-like focus. When asked to sum up his ministry in one sentence, he simply quotes Ephesians 4:12 – “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Or, when put in his own terms, “We seek to equip local Christians to reach their own families and neighbors with confidence in the truth of God’s Word.” This is a vision that fits right in with SGWM’s: training nationals to reach their own people with the gospel in ways a westerner never could. And once he’s equipped nationals with the proper tools, they will be ready to, like Darryl, “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have…. with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)

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If you’d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Summer Update!

Hello Friends!

I pray that this Summer has been treating you well, and if it’s as hot (or hotter!) where you are as it is here in SoCal, I hope you’ve been able to keep cool!

The Summer months have been productive and fun for our family. Our SGWM team returned from South Asia a couple of weeks ago and brought back with them a boatload of vision for how God is going to move in that country in the coming months! One cool way that I get to participate is to bring my experience working in the financial department of SGWM to help our board see what kind of financial support is coming in and what funds are further needed to accomplish what God wants to do in that country. Crunching numbers and finances are not the most exciting part of missions, but it is incredibly vital and I’m so glad to play a role in this important aspect of SGWM.

While the team was gone last month, I got to finally launch our SGWM Prayer E-Book, which you can download in PDF for your Kindle or iBooks app here! Here at SGWM, we value prayer for our ministry and missionaries over all other forms of support, so this tool is a huge deal for us and we ask that if you have a heart for SGWM that you would download this and make it a part of your prayer life. What an honor that I got to be a part of its release! Here’s just a sample of what one of the pages looks like:

Another aspect of my job is representing SGWM outside of our church, and I was blessed to be able to do that with SGWM missionary Rebecca Alaniz a couple of weeks ago at Calvary Chapel Downey’s Missions Conference. It was so great getting to talk to people about who SGWM is and what we do!

Please continue to pray for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit for our ministry. With so much happening in so many countries for SGWM, different trips are getting added and moved around, so I am praying about which trips I should go on to teach overseas, scope out terrain for new ministry, and encourage our missionaries in places like South Asia, Uganda, and Peru. Please pray for additional financial support to come in to help us pay for these trips.

I will also start Skype teachings for South Asia again next month, teaching through the book of Joshua for one of our Bible schools over there, so I am excited about that!

On the personal and church ministry front, things have been really fruitful as well. Our church is going through a 4-week Wednesday night series and I got to teach the first session on the subject of worship, which was a weighty responsibility and huge blessing! In about 3 weeks, I’ll also get to go lead worship and teach a few sessions for our church’s youth retreat, which I am honored I get to participate in.

Finally, our family got to do another camping trip with some friends of ours, which was a ton of work, but produced some great memories, fun for the kids, and some crazy cute pictures! And, I got to officiate my first wedding, which was a great blessing, and Amy and I cleaned up rather nicely for the occasion 🙂

Last minute pic of Amy and I right after getting ready for the wedding at my in-law’s place 🙂

Please continue to pray for us as life gets busy with three kids and so much ministry; we need lots of wisdom! We’d also ask that you pray for our financial support, as the cost of living is rising as our kids grow and we’d love to eventually be able to afford a larger living space for them to have room for more play and for us to be able to practice hospitality in ways we aren’t necessarily able to at the moment.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers, and please let us know if there is any way we can pray for you!

All the Best for His Glory!
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude

Holding The Fort

Hello Friends and Family!

First of all, I want to thank you all for reading this. It is such an honor to know that we have people supporting us in prayer who want to know how to pray for us and what the Lord is doing in and through our lives!

As some of you know, about half of our SGWM staff has been on an almost 3-week (including travel time) trip to South Asia. With Pastor Mike’s wife gone there as well, leaving him to fill the role of mom and dad, that has left most of the day-to-day responsibilities for SGWM to land on myself and our awesome intern missionary (who is raising support to become a missionary in Croatia) Rebecca Alaniz. She has been such an amazing asset to our team and has helped make these three weeks a breeze! By God’s grace, we survived the team’s absence, but we’re looking forward to their return! I’ve already seen some of the amazing work they’ve been able to do over there, and I can’t wait to hear all about how the Lord used them! While I’m a bit jealous not to have gone, I’m honored that I get to stay behind and support them by holding the fort here at the SGWM office to free them up to be used by God there. Here’s a pic of our team there:

In the meantime, we are just about ready to go live with a project that has been in the pipeline for quite awhile, our SGWM prayer book! This will be an amazing resource that will showcase all of our missionaries and their basic prayer requests for their ministries. What a wonderful way to keep our missionaries and their needs in front of “senders” here at home! I’ll be getting the book live in PDF format this week so that people can download it for Kindle, iBooks, or just as a PDF. Be on the lookout for this!

With our senior pastor, Trent Douglass, gone on the South Asia trip, I had the opportunity to preach at my church last week, which was a huge blessing. I taught on one of my favorite passages, Paul’s prayer at the end of Ephesians 3. I loved studying and being reminded myself of my need for strength in the inner man, to be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, and to be filled with the fullness of God! If you’d like, you can listen to it here 🙂

Things have been fun with the family as well. Maggie (4) and Harrison (2) are doing their first swimming lessons this week, and are already doing an amazing job! I’m proud watching them be brave out in the water. We also got to go on our first family camping trip with some friends in June! It was just a one-night test run, but it was super fun (even with all the hard work!) and we’ll be going again with our Life Group in July.

Maggie in the floral swimsuit, and Harrison on the far right leaning over the water

Jude kickin’ back while brother and sister swim

Also, Amy had the opportunity to lead a workshop on the subject of Biblical community at our church’s women’s retreat in May. I got to listen in on it, and she did an amazing job! With all of her responsibilities as a mom, there are certain gifts she doesn’t get to utilize as much as we’d like her to. But I was able to take care of all three kids while she was gone, and it was great to hear her use her gift of exhortation and put her exegetical skills to use! I’m super blessed to have a wife who loves the Lord and can lead other women to look to Him.

Amy teaching a workshop at the CCSG Women’s Retreat

Please be in prayer for my upcoming trip to Uganda in October. We’re still ironing out some of the details, but I’m really looking forward to going there to sit with and encourage our missionaries, and to bring home a vision for all that the Lord is doing there. I’m praying about some other possible trips over the next couple of years, so please pray for direction for us on that.

Love you all! Thank you for praying for us, and please feel free to respond to this email letting us know what is going on in your lives and how we can pray for you!

All the Best for His Glory!
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude