Sharing the Love of Christ in the Amazon

     We have arrived!  We landed down in Iquitos, Peru on March 17th.  It has been a wild 3 week ride for us here serving in the Amazon basin.  We are very excited to see what the Lord has in store as He has already given us great opportunities to minister in Iquitos and on the Amazon river.

     Two days after we arrived in Iquitos, a Calvary Chapel from Colorado held a conference for over 200 pastors from the river communities.  Some of these pastors spent days on small boats to get to the conference, it was amazing.  The conference was a great encouragement for the pastors and we were able to share briefly about the “Rios de Refugio” ministry the Lord has given us for the river communities.  We had over 150 pastors sign up from 40 different regions, asking us to come and teach the inductive Bible study method, identity in Christ and teach through 1 Timothy.  Very overwhelming and we know to temper expectations, but praise God, it’s a start.

     During the conference week we went to a local store to do some shopping.  We ran into an American missionary who started sharing with us about his ministry and the 9 years he has been serving in Iquitos.  His ministry is feeding kids from the local river communities.  After talking with him, we were invited to go with a group of Peruvian missionaries to Colombia and Brazil to teach the word in some indigenous areas.  It would be a ten day trip and their pastor was sick with dengue fever, so they needed someone to teach.  On the spot we committed and the next day at the end of the conference we were on our way with a group of strangers to some foreign countries to share God’s word, exciting!

     On our way up river on an 18 hour ferry ride, we met Cam Anderson whose parents had recently finished translating the Ticuna Bible after 70 years. He shared it with us and we were able to share with the pastors we ministered to in the river communities. It was a great blessing because the pastors only had the complete New Testament. Talk about God’s providence. We also met a tourist from France who was atheist and Ryan was able to share the gospel with him. Praise God for opportunities to share the love of Christ! 

     Our first stop was in Brazil where we took a small boat, a “peke peke”, about an hour down a small tributary to a village that was called “Tierra de Paz”. It was a small village of indigenous people who are called the Ticunas. They have their own tribal language but some spoke Portuguese as well. After spending 2 days in that area we went to another place called Philadelphia, this was another small town of Ticunas as well. We had a conference, were able to teach on multiple occasions, and did some programs for the kids. It was probably the toughest 10 days of our lives, everything in the jungle wants to eat you.  

We returned to Iquitos and have made many great contacts.  Pastor Manaces and Pastor Julio have been a great blessing.  We are currently scheduled to start the inductive Bible study training with 2 separate groups of 15 pastors and leaders.  We are starting on May 5th and are hoping by then we will have more pastors scheduled as well.  We are going to be teaching at a couple churches this week and sharing on a local radio station. I don’t know how the Lord does it, but He does. We have started a website called “Rios de Refugio”, “Rivers of Refuge”.  You can check out some of the pictures and stories we will be posting in the future. It is new, so there is not much there yet, but it will be a place you can stay updated throughout the month.  

Please pray for:

1. Future purchase of property. We would like to purchase a small piece of ground to start a base for a school of ministry and for missionaries who would come down to minister.
2. A vehicle for ministry.  A ministry truck will probably be in our future, as well as a boat.
3. Missionaries who would like to come down and help in the labor.
4. For the Lord to magnify himself through the ministry and teaching of His word.

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Hey friends and family in Christ, we wanted to share a quick update about our whereabouts and goings on.  As you know we are waiting to leave from the states to Peru on March 16th.  So in the meantime we have been visiting different churches and our family as well.  

      We were blessed to be able to share at Calvary Chapel Rosedale in Bakersfield and got to catch up with my good friend Pastor Gil Garcia.  What a sweet fellowship and neat work the Lord is doing there.  Jaime Jimenez and his family always house us and definitely have the gift of hospitality.  From Bakersfield we flew up to our home church in Idaho, Calvary Chapel Hagerman.  Pastor Dion Douville and His wife Cindy have been such a great support for us over the years as well as many of our friends who are in fellowship there.  We love our church family and it was a great time to catch up.  

     We are currently in Folsom, California, visiting my brother and his family.  This Sunday we will be in L.A at Calvary Chapel Burbank sharing about our vision for ministry in Peru, as well as on the Amazon river as we prepare to disciple pastors and leaders.  We are so excited for this next step we are taking and we know the Lord has gone before us and is preparing the way.  Deut 1:29-31

Thank you so much for praying with us and supporting us through this venture of faith!

Ryan and Karen Gause

Hola familia, hope this update finds you well and seeking the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Our family has been blessed to be serving here in Mexico for the last 11 years.  The last 8 of those years we have enjoyed fellowship with our brothers and sisters here at Calvary Chapel Playas de Tijuana.  We have been blessed to see people come to Christ, transformed by Grace and walking in the Spirit. 

With all of that said, it breaks my heart, and warms my soul, to inform you that we have been called to go and train up pastors and leaders in Peru.  We are heading to the Amazon Basin.

Yes you heard that right, on March 16th we will be moving to Iquitos, Peru.   We have had Iquitos on our radar for about 2 years now and after going to visit, we realized why.  There is a great need for discipleship and training in the city and throughout the tributaries of the Amazon river. The city of Iquitos has a population of 500,000 people and it is the largest city in the world that cant be accessed by road.  It is also a point of access to a vast system of rivers on the mighty Amazon. This is where great opportunities await.

During our trip to Iquitos we were blessed to connect with a couple of pastors from Iquitos, Pastor Julio and Pastor Manaces.  As we spent time with them we began to share our vision for discipleship and training, of course this is their heart for the people as well.  One of the pastors said he had been praying for over 30 years for missionaries to come and disciple the tribal communities along the river. There has been a lot of evangelism along the river communities but it is difficult for people to stay and disciple the new believers. It is our heart to start a “School of Ministry” to train up local pastors and leaders so they can go back to their communities and disciple the people in their communities. During our time in the Peruvian Amazon we were able to meet local pastors and find out the needs of the people. The Lord has some wonderful servants doing the work of ministry!

Please pray for us as we will have the opportunity to share at a Calvary Conference in Iquitos.  The conference will be March 20-22.  We will be sharing about the School of Ministry and the classes that we will be giving.  We are hoping that God will open the hearts of the locals to be trained and strengthened in their faith. 

We are so thankful for your prayers and support. You are a blessing to us and to so many people. If you would like to partner with us financially click the link https://sgwm.com/gause/give/, or mail a check made out to SGWM with “Ryan Gause” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.

We have been very blessed over the years to serve our Savior here in Mexico. It is you who support us to whom much of the gratitude goes for the opportunities God has afforded us here in this great country we call our home.  As world events continue to darken the horizon, we know that our King is coming and His bride is waiting for the ultimate redemption. These things do not shake us, so we continue forward to the finish line. With these things in mind, we want to give you a quick update on ministry in Mexico and some things you can be praying for. 

     Our school of ministry, “Exodus”, has been progressing slowly.  In the last year we have had 3 men complete the program. Our hope is that we would have up to 12 men living at the school and working through the discipleship program.  We offer room and board, 3 college level bible studies during the week and an opportunity to learn a trade.  We have a missionary family that is currently teaching the men how to become mechanics, through their ministry, Manos 1855. They are also leading our marriage group for Calvary Playas. Our desire is to train the men spiritually and then give them a trade that might free them up to have a better income while increasing their freedom to serve the Lord or go plant a church.  Please pray for more students!

     Our fellowship at Calvary Playas continues to grow and we have been praying for a new building. Our children’s ministry has grown to the point where we have our youth outside on Sundays and need to build a divider in a classroom to accommodate the kids and their ages. The area we are living in has become expensive so we are praying for His provision as we possibly take a big step of faith in the coming year to relocate the church. Please pray for a location.

     We have a youth outreach March 25th, we will have about 50-70 kids coming and we are praying for these kids to commit their lives to Christ. From April 17-21st our fellowship will be heading out to Hermosillo on a mission trip to minister to the community and to the body of believers there as well. We have a women’s retreat coming up and a youth retreat. Please also keep church plant, Calvary Esperanza in prayer, as they just celebrated their first year anniversary. We are excited to see our brothers and sisters serve the Lord faithfully and by the power of His grace. Thank you for your love and continued support.

Hello friends and family in Christ, hope you are well as we close in on the finish of another year of serving our Savior. What a blessed year it has been watching the Lord grow His bride and participating in her sanctification. We would like to share a recap on the things the Lord has been doing in our midst and some of the things we are looking forward to in the future.  

     This year Calvary Playas was blessed to plant a church in a local colonia here in Tijuana. Calvary Chapel Esperanza was born in an area called Granjas Familiares. It is an old farming area where families have been farming for decades.  It is very poor and not much of a farming community any more but was very much in need of a bible teaching church. We started out in a local park as Pastor Juan Quiroz organized events with Calvary Chapel Living Water out of Corona California. We started with bible study in the park, which grew into bible study in a local community center. Now they have their own place which is a renovated garage they are using for fellowship, with future plans for expansion. Thank you to Calvary Chapel Hagerman and all of the faithful men and women who have helped with the construction of this church plant. The Lord is so faithful.

     We have some exciting plans starting January 5, 2023.  A missionary family, John and Kimberly Kelley, have moved down to serve the Lord in training our men to do mechanical work on vehicles. The vision is that John will be teaching the men that come through the discipleship home basic skills in vehicle repair and restoration. It will be part of the year long discipleship commitment the men make.  Our hope is to train these men up spiritually as well as giving them a trade that they can use to support their families as they graduate from the program. John has rented a large piece of property and is preparing to build a shop.  We are super excited to see what the Lord is going to do through this wonderful ministry.

     Over the course of the last year Calvary Chapel Playas began a Men’s Discipleship Home in an area called Flores Magon. We began to rent a building with the hope of making it a place where men could come and grow in their faith and realize their calling.  Through much trial and patience, we have six men in the home and things are really starting to take shape. The men have bible studies in the morning, ministry duties during the day and service at night as well as during the week within the various ministries that take place. It is still a work in progress and we look forward to what the Lord will do through this ministry.

In November, Calvary Chapel Playas was blessed to help out with the children’s program for the Awaken Tijuana crusade put on by Awaken Las Vegas and Awaken Discipleship and Training Center in Tijuana. The first day of the event, medical and dental services were offered, clothes and food were handed out, haircuts and manicures were given and a children’s game and ministry center was offered. The second day was a concert and Gospel presentation. Praise God, many people were ministered to and heard the Gospel message.

     This past year our fellowship went on our first week-long mission trip to Calvary Viscaino.  There were 20 people who went on the 12 hour trip south down the Baja Peninsula.  What an incredible bunch of saints.  We were able to minister to the body of believers there at the fellowship. We helped do some construction on the property and were able to minister to 100 kids who were the children of migrant farmers. We played games with them, crafts, and had a gospel presentation. It was so wonderful as the kids loved and appreciated it very much. We were able to bless the women’s ministry with dinner and study, we helped at a feeding kitchen and served the men at a local christian rehabilitation center.  It was a great time to serve others outside the community and a great time to grow in our fellowship with one another.  Looking forward to the next mission trip.    

Thank you so much for your physical and spiritual support.  So much of what we are able to do is credited to your account for your faithfulness in our support on the mission field. We are looking forward to what the Lord is going to do over the course of the next year. Great things on the horizon. If you want to help out financially with the men’s home or want to plan a trip to come down to do ministry, our contact information is below.  Please keep our next outreach on December 3, in prayer, as we make meals to pass out and share the love of Jesus with the lost.  

“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”‭‭(Col. 1:9)‬ ‭

Blessings in His name,

Ryan and Karen

ryanjgause@gmail.com

Click the link to find out how you can partner with us. https://sgwm.com/blog/missionaries/gause-family/

     In the presence of the Lord is the fullness of joy. Serving the saints at Calvary Playas continues to be a wonderful calling. The fellowship is growing in God’s grace, the Word continues to be the focus and the fruit is the faithfulness of the Body of Christ. Sundays we have two services at 9 and 11. The men and women continue to meet on Mondays for prayer as well as a marriage ministry. On Tuesdays a group of people share the gospel at a men’s and women’s rehab. We have a mid week study on Wednesdays. Church planting class on Thursdays and Youth group and Young adult study on Fridays. Once a month the ladies are doing a women’s breakfast and starting in July they will start a new Bible study for women. There are a lot of exciting things the Lord is preparing for the last half of the year.   

     It was a great blessing to go to Mexicali on a short two day mission trip with our brothers and sisters from Calvary Playas. There were about 20 of us in total and we went to serve at Calvary Oasis, about 4 hours from our home. It was a great time as we celebrated “Day of the Kid” by cooking up some food and inviting families to bring their kids for the festivities. Our group did games with the kids and focused on the Gospel of our great King! We are also looking forward to going down on a mission trip to Calvary Viscaino this October where we will be able to help reach out to the local community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     We are looking forward to the Lord blessing the School of Ministry, Exodus Ministries, as we have been working out some of the details. We currently have 3 guys in the program and are praying for a maximum of 12. This June a family from Idaho will be coming down to join us by starting a mechanic training program and possibly some other job training programs in the future. John and Kimberley Kelley have a heart to disciple and train men and women. The plan is to have the men in the home be discipled through biblical teaching, physical training and spiritual service. Those that live in the school of ministry will have daily study, will serve in the local church plants and be trained with a life skill to earn a wage or possibly own their own business in the future.  

     Please keep Pastor Juan in prayer as he leads Calvary Chapel Esperanza, a local church plant and a growing body of believers. He has been blessed with an awesome building, but he has many needs. Praying for some sound equipment, chairs, and an electric acoustic guitar. The Lord is doing a neat work as they have new believers’ classes, a Calvary Distinctives class and are teaching some of the local children how to read.

As always, thank you for your continued support!  

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” (‬Colossians 4:2-4‬)

With love,

Ryan and Karen Gause 

Even in the midst of chaos in the world, disease that doesn’t seem to want to leave and uncertainty of what the future may bring, the Lord maintains His position on the throne with everything under control.  Knowing that truth, the believer has such confidence that our mission on this planet, to lead people to Christ and train them for the work of ministry, will never change.  That being said, I would like to share some of the things that God is doing in the local body of Christ here at Calvary Chapel Playas de Tijuana.  

The Lord has been doing some exciting things as we have begun the second semester of our church planting course.  This semester we will focus on practical ministry.  Our hope is to prepare our future church planters with the ability to minister in areas of listening, biblical counseling, facilitating marriages and funerals, evangelizing and discipling.  We have 17 people in the class this semester which is an incredible blessing and responsibility. 

Last summer we began to do outreach and evangelizing in a local community called Granjas.  It is an area with a lot of crime, drugs and not much hope.  One week ago we officially opened the doors for Calvary Chapel Esperanza there in Granjas.  It is our first church plant and God has blown our minds.  We have been blessed with a building and children’s ministry area for 100 dollars a month.  Pastor Juan has a great team of brothers and sisters helping him as they minister to the community.  Along with Sunday services, they have an inductive bible study and teach a class on the Calvary Distinctives.

Seven months ago we were blessed to be able to rent a very large building to begin a School of Ministry.  It has been a slow process of renovating the building but we have five men living in the ministry home.  Their daily activities include bible studies in the morning, serving in church planting, teaching at rehab centers and serving in the local community.  It is a great place for men to grow and to understand their calling in ministry.

We want to praise the Lord that he has provided for us to serve Him in Mexico for 9 years now. How time flies!  It has been such a blessing and an incredible adventure.  We could not have done this without your faithful support, both financially and spiritually.  Thank you for your continued support as we serve the Lord in Mexico.

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”, as the infamous quote of Charles Dickens continues to contrast situations we face, within the reality we face them. For the born again saint, we face the darkness with light, we exercise faith in the midst of unbelievable situations. Dickens knew all too well the struggle and strife every believer faces, as he was a brother in Christ.

Although it has been a difficult year for all of us, to say the least, we have all seen the work that our Saviour is doing in our midst. As our family continues to be blessed to serve Jesus at Calvary Chapel Playas, Tijuana, we have seen just that, God at work in our midst. By the grace of God we only shut down having service for about 2 months, which allowed us to begin to post our bible teachings online. In turn, God used that as an opportunity to reach people we never would have reached. When we returned to in person services, we had families come that had been watching online, but we had never met. God is faithful!

We are blessed to have so many brothers and sisters in Christ who have obeyed the calling to faithfully serve. This past month Juanito and Rocio were called to lead the church outreach ministry and Karolina will be leading the children’s ministry.

There are many things you can be praying for as you support the ministry. Our evangelism team is going to begin having outdoor bible fellowship in a local community. Granjas Familiares is the colonia. Our hope is that we will be able to begin a home bible study and that eventually God would raise up a group of believers that will result in us renting a building to hold service. We are hoping to purchase some folding chairs, portable tents and tables. One of our greatest desires is to start a men’s and women’s discipleship home. We have been praying for a building to begin this ministry. We are praying that God will provide our physical and spiritual needs in the areas where He is leading us, as we know He will.

It has been a blessing to watch our fellowship minister to the homeless here in Tijuana. We have a great team of about 20 people who go out every Saturday to evangelize to the homeless. As a result, we have been privileged to assist men and women to get off the street and into discipleship homes where they can seek God. Every month, Calvary Chapel Living Water has been coming down to bless our fellowship with a day in the park. In June they came and we had an outreach to the homeless. We set up at a place called “las cuevas”, where many homeless live, and we worshipped the Lord in song, prayer and the Word. We ate and fellowshipped with the homeless as a few of them surrendered their hearts to the Lord

For our family it has been especially difficult to see our kids begin to leave the home and make their own life decisions. We are praying that God will have His way in their lives and lead them according to His will. Please continue to pray for our family as we are going through some very difficult times right now. Love hopes all things, believes all things! We thank you for your continued support and may God cause His light to shine upon you as you seek Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

Hey friends and family, we are very excited for the beginning of this new year.  As we serve the body of Christ at Calvary Chapel Playas de Tijuana, many people come to Christ, growing in the grace of God, day by day.  Sunday through Friday our church offers studies, both online and in person, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our hope and desire for this year is to plant some bible studies in the local communities, expecting Gods word to bring people to faith and to transform lives.  We are currently praying about one location, where a door has been opened to start a Bible study with the belief that God may want to plant a church.  We will be faithful to walk through the doors and see what God is going to do.  

We have had the opportunity to open a food pantry, but things are proceeding slowly.  We believe that it is something the Lord desires, so His timing is perfect.  We are fixing the outside of the building and we are going to need a lot of work done on the inside.  Plumbing, electrical etc, so if you wanna come down and lend a hand, we have a free place for you to stay!

It is crazy how fast time flies by, all of our kids have graduated High School and two are in College.  Jamie and Mackenzie finished their first semester of College, so proud of them.  Brian has moved up to Idaho and is working with his uncle while RJ is working at Chick-fil-A.  They have been faithful employees, very proud of them as well.  Karen is free of homeschool duties, but for the past year she has been teaching two of our friends children how to read.  She has been a great blessing for our girls as well, helping them prepare and succeed in college. 

Please keep our family and the fellowship in prayer, as we head into our eighth year as serving the Lord in Mexico.  We are very excited to see what God is  going to do this year as we walk by faith and patiently wait for His will to be done.  

There is a unique diversity within the city of Playas de Tijuana. There are many Spanish speaking nationals, there are many bilingual also, many who have been deported, and those who are homeless. Playas is unique in that we have at least four alternative cancer clinics which operate in our city. People come from all over the world, Africa, India, China, Canada and the United States, to name a few. We have been blessed to meet many wonderful Christians who have come to seek cancer treatment in an alternative manner. Through the years we have built friendships with some of these families and have been blessed to have them stay with us as they return for treatment. We find ourselves often encouraged by them as they share their hardships and we hear of the great faith and biblical understanding they have that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. They don’t want to go, but they know their hope is not in this world, but in the one to come!  

My good friend Elijah Demeray brought a team from Calvary Chapel Springs in Heyburn, Idaho. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and ministry. It was a quick trip as they went to the Tijuana dump to minister to the homeless, served at our Mexican Independence Day Celebration and they were a blessing as they helped around the church. We were able to pray for and hear an update from our good friend, Jake Emerson who was a missionary at our church and now is a missionary at Calvary Chapel Guanajuato. You can be praying for Elijah, Jake, and I, as we will be heading to Jordan in late January. We are going with a team from Calvary Chapel Saving Grace to encourage the countless refugees that have come in from Syria seeking refuge from war. Many people are coming to the Lord as the Body of Christ reaches out to these people who have lost everything. We are very excited to meet some of these families and let them know that we love them and are praying for them!

The Gause family is crazy! We have 4 kids, between the ages of 16-19 years old. Three of them are working, two of them will graduate from High School this year and life is crazy busy. It is so difficult to maintain spiritual balance in the home, as I am sure many of you have experienced. Sure, we go to church together, we serve together, but the madness of life makes home fellowship difficult. Karen has started a group chat with our family where we read chapters of the Bible day by day and share thoughts about the scripture or simply acknowledge that we read. It has been a great way to stay connected to the kids and God’s word as a family.

Prayer Requests

Men’s Conference on Dec. 7 at Calvary Chapel Playas

New Bible Study Home Groups in January

Ordaining two new Pastors

New Feeding Kitchen in Playas