Special Message

All right, good morning. Good to see everybody. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with us, we'll pray and we'll get started. Lord, we just thank you for the day. God, I just thank you for an opportunity to be here, to serve you, to worship you, Lord. I swear and I pray that you'd help us to lift a joyful noise to you, God. Set everything else aside and just lavish praise

upon you. Lord, I just thank you for this time. Thank you for just allowing us to be here and just thank you for the word that goes out today, Lord. We ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. We'll continue on.

Lord, God, we just thank you for the new life and the freedom we have in you, Lord. God, thank you.

My day, God, I just thank you. Just teach us to abide in you, not stray away. Bring to your word assurance. Jesus is time after time washed in his mercy. Lord, just help us to trust in you.

Each and every hour, God, we just thank you for who you are. We thank you for your faithfulness and your goodness. Thank you for how kind and awesome you are, Lord God. Thank you for how powerful you are in my Lord this morning as Brother Jeff comes. I just pray that you'd speak mightily through him, Lord God. Let your Holy Spirit move mightily in this place and in our

hearts and we praise you and we thank you. Let's have some fellowship. If you could begin the process of locating your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to get started. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us on the very first Sunday of 2024. If you would grab your bulletin, let's take a look at a few announcements. Over on the left-hand side, as always, are the things that are going

on throughout the week. And now that we're into the new year, everything is happening this week. Again, if you are looking to really grow, not only in the Lord this new year, but also grow within the body here, get to know more people in the body, encourage you to locate one of those studies to get involved in. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, a reminder that we have our monthly intercessory prayer time tonight at six o'clock down at the other end of the hallway. So you're invited to come join us for that as we pray for

not only the needs within our body and the community, but also throughout the world. And then ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up this Saturday at eight o'clock at Daisy Mays. And then one last thing in your bulletin, is it on the back flap again, is the this week's reading plan. So take note of that. A couple of things about that. First of all, if you're watching online and are not able to be here,

our video team is putting that up on our Facebook page. So that will be available also for those of you that forget your bulletins. Not that any of you do, but if you do forget your bulletin here, then that will be on the Facebook page as well. And if you find yourself getting bogged down with the reading, it's a lot of reading. I do know that. Then I'll be happy to help you out.

I would encourage you to do one of about two or three things. Number one, you can decide you're either going to go through the Old Testament or just the New Testament, and that's fine. The goal is just for you to be in the word. If you don't make it all the way through the Bible this year, that's okay. Slow down. Just take a chapter a day. That's okay too. Also, I've talked

to some folks that say we read the New Testament in the morning, and then we lay down at night and we listen to the Old Testament reading at night, because lots of the Bible is in the New Testament. So if you're listening to the Old Testament reading at night, you're going to be able to do that. Bible apps have it to where you can listen to the Bible. That's another option as well. Again,

there's no condemnation, no legalism here. The goal is just for you to be in the word. So however that works for you, do it. Okay? So that being said, our responsive reading this morning is going to be in Psalm 67. Psalm 67. We'll be looking at the New American Standard for this just so that we sound the same. And if you need a copy, it should be one around you of the New

American Standard. And as you are turning to Psalm 67, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 67. For the choir director, with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah.

That your way may be known on the earth, your salvation, among all nations. Let all the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its produce. God, our God, blesses us. And read verse 7 with me.

God blesses us that all the ends of the earth, may fear him. And Father, we do praise you for who you are. And Lord, the bountiful ways with which you bless us, Lord, and that they are a testimony to the world around us of the reality of the power of the God that we serve. And so, Lord, be with us this morning as we spend some time in your word and spend some time hearing about what you're doing in other parts of the world. We praise you and thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

Amen. Now, this morning is going to be just a little bit, different. I have a guest speaker here this morning. So, about a year and a half-ish ago, Taylor Cushenberry approached me and said, hey, there's a group that I go on a mission trip with down to Guatemala. It's a group called God Said Go Ministries. They are looking for some other churches in the area to partner with. Is that something that we'd be interested in here? I said,

yeah, I do think that we'd be interested in that. And so, it took us a little while to get together, but at Christmas, just, a couple days after Christmas 2022, we were in Kansas City for Christmas, and that's where Jeff and Esther are based out of. And so, we got together for a cup of coffee, and they shared with me not only the ministry that they do, but their heart for ministry and their heart for the people. I was very impressed with everything that they had to share, in particular, their heart just to work with people and to see God's word be the ultimate thing that changes someone's life.

And so, I said, hey, we've got to partner with these folks. And so, we came back and talked to Ross and Jana, and I said, hey, we want to make a mission trip with God. And so, we came back with this group, and so we've put together a mission trip in May, which I think there's five spots left, three spots left, three spots left if you want to go and work with these guys. But Jeff and Esther were in town, and they said, hey, we'd love to come speak at your church. I

said, that's a great idea. So, Jeff is going to come share with us about the work of God Said Go Ministries and about he and Esther's testimony. So, if you would help me welcome Jeff McLaren. Thank you, Pastor. And good morning, Calvary Chapel. That was a few people. Let's try that again. Good morning, Calvary Chapel. There's the coffee speaking. All right. It's great to be here, and thank you so

much for having us. Thank you, Pastor, for having us. I want to also thank Taylor. Taylor has been helping us, come alongside us, and really helping us get some things together here so that we get to spend a week in your lovely, town, and it started off with today. And so, we're just grateful for being here. And I will tell you that I'm not really used to being up here, especially in front of so many people.

I'm used to being back there. I'm a sound guy at my church, but so I don't get a lot of chances to speak, and I might fumble around. And I heard that you're used to it, but I'm not really used to it. I'm kind of an emotional guy, and I know guys aren't supposed to cry. I'm not supposed to cry. I'm not supposed to cry. I'm not supposed to cry. I'm not supposed to cry. I don't cry. I get choked up. But I might, because I'm so passionate about our

work, as I share it, I apologize. I might get choked up. And so, if you're not used to it, then I, but I heard you are. So, I thought today, instead of just coming up and just telling you about all the great things that's happening in Guatemala, I wanted to share a little bit about my testimony, too, and how we actually got where we are today. And so, I'm going to share a little bit about where we are, because there might be, it might, I just hope that

the Lord uses it to speak to you guys, because we're all in this together. It's amazing to me, since Esther and I started this journey, we come back to the States. Luckily, Guatemala's not so far away from the United States, so we're able to come back home, because my mom, she asked me, she asked me to try my hardest, that I would come home every Christmas to be with her. That's her favorite holiday. And so, we do our best to come home for Christmas. But it's amazing to me, since

we've left the States and live in Guatemala, when we come back, we come to places, and we're treated a little different now, you know, like we're some holy people, or that we have to be called Jesus Christian lovers to be able to leave our home in the States and go to Guatemala. And I want to tell you, that is not the truth. We are ordinary people. We have our ups and downs, and we definitely have, my wife will tell you, we have our faults. At least I do. She doesn't have any

faults. But at least she thinks she doesn't have any faults. No, I'm joking. But, you know, we're

just living in these times. We actually do. I don't want to argue with her, because by my experience, I've just had to live things the way they are. But that's what it is, if you go to the world. You're going to get an open mind to the truth that God is living. You're going to believe in God. And you're going to believe that God is a true man. You're going to believe in that God.

And that's why we feed the fish. That's the reason we eat bread. We feed the fish. We feed our food. We feed the I got saved when I was 12 years old at a ministry called Youth of Christ in Kansas City. That's where I'm from. When I was 14, I felt called to full-time ministry, specifically to foreign missions. And that's where I met my wife. I'll get into that in a little bit.

But I served in a church for many, many years. In fact, I helped plan a church. But I came to this one time, this crisis of faith, and I started noticing in my life that I wasn't doing things right. And I had a friend tell me one time that this Bible is not a buffet. You can't pick and choose what you like out of it. You've got to follow the whole thing, whether it's hard or not.

You've got to follow the whole thing. I started reading verses in there. I've noticed that I wasn't following a lot. And then I would run into a verse in John. I've got it on the board, I think. But John 14, it says, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And I'm like, wow, there's a lot of stuff I'm not keeping. Do I love Jesus?

I had to really have to ask myself that. Did I love Jesus? I actually read this book. I don't know if you've ever, David Platt. Have anybody ever heard of him? He's got a book called Follow Me. And if you haven't read it, read it. It's an amazing book. But it really made me question, actually, my faith. Do I really love Jesus? And if so, why am I not following this word?

And so I decided right then that I was not going to be, that I did love Jesus as my Savior. I did love him. And I was not going to be one of those people that are just playing the Christian game. And warming a pew on Sunday. And that was about all I was going to do for God. And so I decided I'm going to go all in. And that's when things started to change for us.

I'm still a work in progress. I'm not anywhere near where I need to be. But I heard a good pastor say the three things that we need is we need to be disciplined, determined, and devoted. I've got the devotion. I'm devoted. I'm pretty devoted. I'm pretty determined. I've got some work to do on the discipline part. You know, I've got to lose this extra tire. And then I'll be disciplined.

That's why. But that was supposed to be a joke. That failed pretty bad.

Whew. Okay. We'll go past that one. But anyway, when I was 14, I was called to foreign missions. I went, I grew, I went through, and I was going to make it. And I actually went on my first mission trip. And Esther is my souvenir. From that first mission trip to Hong Kong. That's why I call her my souvenir. And we've been married 33 years now. 27 of those years were in the state.

And we have two great kids. Our daughter is 30, and she's, we're proud to be able to say Dr. Nikki now. Because she's a professor at Arizona State University and got her doctorate. And then I have, you know, the kid that loves school. Nikki will never leave school. She'll always be a student. And then Alex, he can't stand it. Every day he'd wake up, you know, I gotta go to school.

It's so stupid. Every day from kindergarten until senior high. Oh, drove me nuts. Anyway, but he is a videographer. He's living his dream life in Austin, Texas. As a videographer for some YouTube conglomerate. I don't know who they are. I don't know. I think he's worked with Mr. Beast before. You know, he's worked with some pretty big YouTubers. And you know what?

Any parent, we're proud of them. And we're just glad that they're able to live the life they love. You know, they love what they're doing. And that's what any parent wants. But anyway, we were going to, you know, I was a missionary to Hong Kong. And I felt that that's what a missionary was. A missionary was someone that left his home. And went somewhere else.

And ministered to people that have never heard the name of Jesus before. And that's my feeling. But as I started digging into the word more. And as we started to surrender our lives more to Christ. We realized that's not what it is. It's a missionary is every one of us. If you're a Christian, or I like to say, if you're a follower of Jesus. Then you should be a missionary.

A missionary. The Webster's Dictionary states that missionary is a person set on mission. Especially on a religious mission. Well, that sounds like every one of me and you, right? If you're a Christian, you've got a mission. 2 Corinthians 15, 18 through 21. I was going to read it here, but I've realized I've got a different version up here. So I better read it up there.

But all of this is from God. Who reconciled us to himself. Through Christ. And gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Not counting people's sins against them. Praise Jesus. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So that in him we might become righteousness of God. We are to be ambassadors for Christ or for God. And to show people how to reconcile towards God. Where we are today, Esther and I. People need to know how to be reconciled to God. Because they believe it's praying to Mary.

I'm sorry, Mary's not going to do it. You've got to know Jesus. Says your Savior. But all of our job is in our calling. In our mission field is to reconcile people towards God. Says it right here. In Acts 1.8 is the last commandment. The last statement that Jesus told us. And it says. Excuse me. But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit. Comes upon you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. And in all Judea and Samaria. And to the ends of the earth. Again, we are to be his witnesses.

Jerusalem. What I get out of this verse is. We are to be witnesses in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is this church. Is your church. Is your hometown. Is where you work. Where you live. That's your Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria are other parts of our country. You might be called to serve in Wichita. Or serve in Oklahoma. Or wherever you go. You might be served there. Or.

And then it says. Till the ends of the earth. And it's like us. Serving outside of your home. Your home country. But we're all called to be witnesses. All of us.

God calls us differently. But we're all called. So we were living this. And I was starting to see this. And basically what was happening. Was God was saying. You need to come back. You need to come back. Because I had strayed. I was in that crisis of faith. I had strayed. I was not walking the way I should walk. And he was basically showing me. That hey you need to come back.

And you need to serve me again. So I did. We started this faith walk. Both Esther and I kind of made the decision together. To go all in. To surrender our lives. There's a song. I think it's from Hillsong. If you don't like Hillsong. Sorry. But it was called Surrender All. And then there's also the old version. The hymnal. I Surrender All. But I surrender. That's what the name was.

I surrender. I get down on my knees. And I give you everything. And it was just an amazing song. That I would sing every morning. Because it really. I just wanted to surrender everything to God. And as we did. I noticed that. Believe it or not. I used to be a really insecure bashful kind of guy. I could not. Getting up here like this would make me puke. I mean it would make me really sick.

In the past. Thank God. He could heal. But Esther now. She's never had that problem. She's a pianist. So she's always been in front of crowds. Ever since she was 12. And she's got this gift of evangelism. She can get on. She can go on the corner. And she's one of those persons. Who hold the sign and say. Repent or you'll go to hell. You know. And she's one of those persons.

Me. I would pass out. I mean there is no way. I told the group this morning. Or this morning that. When I was in Hong Kong. Have you ever heard of this group called YWAM? Yeah. Youth with a Mission. They're the largest missionary sending organization in the world. They have any. At any one time. They have over 30,000 missionaries in the world. They're an amazing organization.

And they're all about street ministry. Well I didn't know that. And they said. Hey let's go minister with YWAM. And so as a 19 year old kid. I went out. And I found out they're doing street ministry. Oh my gosh. They want me to go and talk to a stranger. And tell them how Jesus loves them. And they should. Oh man. I tell you what. This is hard. It's hard. Anybody get me?

It's hard to do. Not all of us have. The gift of evangelism. But that doesn't mean we're not called to do it. Right? And when the Holy Spirit leads. Give in. Because it's the most amazing thing. That when you let him speak through you. It's amazing. Even for me. Bashfulness. But I'm getting off on a rabbit trail. But. So. We started. So we start. We started right where we are.

If you feel like. You know what. What. God. What's. You know Jeff. You're talking about this call. What. I don't know. I'm searching. God. What do you want me to do? Start here. We started serving in our church. In our Jerusalem. And I was just a parking attendant. You know. I went to a little bigger church. So we. We have this golf cart. That drives people to the front door.

And I was one of those guys. You know. You know. That was my job. I was supposed to make them feel. Feel. Welcome. You know. But. But I loved it. You know. It was great. And. And. But that's how we started. You know. I tell you what. And this is something. That's just coming off the cuff again. One of the most important jobs in this church. Can you guess what it is?

Sorry pastor. It's not you. It's your greeters. One of the most important positions in this church. Is those people welcoming visitors in the front door. Because those are the first impression. And those. I'll tell you what. Nine times out of ten. The people that are greeting. Are the reason why they come back. Because they felt welcome. They felt at home. And then of course it's the pastor.

And it's the worship. And it's the Holy Spirit. But greeting is so important. That's just a tidbit. And let's thank the greeters. I don't know who you are. But thank you. Greeting is important. I don't know where I went there either. But anyway.

So we started doing the church. And then during that time. I started developing a really burden. And a heart for the poor. The unprivileged. And we had a friend. He had a ministry. That ministered to the homeless. There in Kansas City. And we started helping with that. And we had. In our town. We had a hotel. That there was a lot of homeless people. Living in this hotel.

So we'd go there on Sunday mornings. After church. And we'd serve a lunch. And minister to them. And I found out. The word has a lot to say about the poor. God really loves the poor too. So I knew that this was something. He was really brewing up inside me. And I started feeling a calling back. To the mission field. To the foreign mission field. And I thought it was Thailand.

But as we started this step. Remember. Start small. I mean you don't start small. Start where you are. And then you see where that takes you. God takes you. So we started in our church. And we're doing the parking. And Esther's a big smile at the door. She's greeting. And that's where we started. And we just saw where God takes us. And I felt called to. That maybe I was supposed to go to Thailand.

And work with the Burmese minority groups. I won't get into that. But it was basically a civil war happening in Myanmar. And we were going to help. The people. The children caught in the conflict. That had no hope. And no future. And so I went to Thailand. For a month. And learned about relief and development there. And I found that our journey started to be little steps.

You know. God would lead us in little steps. So I went to Thailand. There's a step. And then I was like. Ezra we're going to Thailand. Wait on the Lord people. Don't take it under control. Don't take it under control yourself. I do. I'm one of those go-getters. Like go, go, go. And so I told. I told Ezra. We're going to Thailand. Oh this is my wife Ezra by the way.

I forgot to. Stand up. This is my wife Ezra. Best part of my life. Anyway. I'm going to Thailand. And she goes. I don't know about that. You know. I don't know about that. I figured. You're two hours away from Hong Kong. How could you not want to go to Thailand. You know. We're going to Thailand. And so we sold everything. We sold everything. We sold our house.

We sold our possessions. And then we moved into my mom's basement. I told my mom. We're going to be here for three months. Okay mom. We need to let Alex finish high. I mean school. And we'll be here for three months. Three and a half years later. We're still in that basement. For six years I tried to go to Thailand. And it just would not happen. The door kept closing.

And then one day. A friend of mine. His name was Stan Nelson. He was starting a ministry in Guatemala called Roxanna's Hope. And it was a transition home for orphaned girls. And I asked him if I could help. Because I was just biting at the bullet to do something. And so I helped him create this ministry. Here in the state. Create a website and all this stuff.

Well at the end of our time. He's getting ready to go to Guatemala. And he said. Hey you know. If Thailand doesn't work out. What do you think about coming to Guatemala? And I'm like. I want to go to Thailand. But I knew Guatemala. I knew immediately when he asked. In fact I went home. And Esther said. Oh I can see us going to Guatemala. Isn't that in Africa?

Do I need to bring a case full of toilet paper? We didn't know where it was. We didn't know where it was. It was below. So you know. It's right below Mexico. So it's not that bad. But we said yes. So we said yes to Guatemala. There was another step. And then we went to Guatemala. It only took. You know. I'm trying to go. To Thailand for six years. I say yes to Guatemala.

Six months later we're moving. That's how God works. When you finally. When God says. Okay here's where it is. Boom. You go. But it's taking those steps. One at a time. To find out. And God will show you. As you. As you walk. The calling in your life. And you stay obedient to him. He'll show you the steps. To take. Because. I can tell you right now. We are nowhere.

Where we thought we were going to be. We thought we were going to go to now. We're going to go to Guatemala. And we're going to be lifetime. Missionaries. For Roxanna's Hope. And work for this orphanage. That was a step. We go to Guatemala. We have some hardships. Those are more steps. We get a. An amazing house parents. For our home. Guatemalan couple. That works at Roxanna's Hope.

And you know. Every missionary's job is to. Train up. National. To take over his position. And. He figured it out in a year. And in one year. I'm twiddling my thumbs. Okay. This isn't a lifetime gig. There's no way. I'm bored to death. And then God. He comes up again.

We take the next step. A nurse. A friend of ours. The ministry she was working with. Wasn't using her. And she's going back to Hong Kong. I mean going back to the States. Because. She said. I'm not here to be retired. I'm here to work. And as we started talking. Her vision was my vision in Thailand. And suddenly the Lord showed me. The reason I. Took you to Thailand.

Is because I want to. What you learned in Thailand. I want you to bring to Guatemala. Or Latin America. Because kids. Caught in conflict and oppression. In Thailand. Or Myanmar. And kids caught in extreme generational poverty. In Latin America. There's no difference. They both have terrible nutrition. They both have terrible water. They both have. Bad health care.

Or no health care. No education. And no hope. It's the same. And he showed me that. And so. In 2020. In 2020. He. God expanded our ministry. We still work alongside Roxanna's Hope. On a part time basis. But they don't need us full time anymore. And so we started working. A medical ministry. With our nurse. And a couple other ministry missionaries. And that was another step.

And then guess what happened two months later. COVID. We exploded. I mean a lot of. Because the government. Guatemala government decided. We're not going to let COVID spread. So we're going to close all the clinics down. Oh. Are you kidding me? So we show up to a village. And we'd have 300 people. Lined up outside. Waiting for us to get there. Because they had no resources.

Or no way to get medicine anymore. Because they closed the clinics down. And so we'd have 300 people waiting to see our two nurses. And we did this. Five to six days a week. It was crazy. And God grew us. To the point where now. It feels like a jog. We're not stepping anymore. We're moving really fast. And it's awesome to see. I mean.

You know when you start to. Love something. It turns into your passion. And I thank God every day. That I can work every day in my passion. And that's to help these people. And so. Let me see where I'm at. So we're God said go. Our. Our mission is that. God said go to the poor. And feed them. God said go to the sick. And heal them. God said go to the widows and orphans.

Like Roxanna's hope. And that we care for them. God said go to the nations. And share my good news. The news of hope. That is our mission. That God said go. And our key verse. Or our mission verse. Is Matthew 25 40. Which states. Let me. I want to. Matthew 25 40. Sorry. If you want to turn there you can. Because I love this. This is one of my favorite parables.

Jesus told. But basically at the end of the parable. He says. And the king will answer. Truly I say to you. As you did. To one of the least of these. My brothers and sisters. I got a different verse again. My little ones. My true brothers and sisters. You demonstrated love for me. So basically. That's our goal. As we demonstrate love. To those that are less fortunate.

Who we minister to. And just like you. As you go through your calling. Serving here. Or serving outside the church. But as you demonstrate. Your love. The love of Christ to them. Through acts of compassion. Then. You are actually loving Jesus. And so. That this is my. This is my key verse. Actually my life verse. And that's what keeps me going every day. A little history about us.

God said go. We actually. God said go started in 2013. As a blog. When I was going to Thailand. Trying to tell people our. Non-existent missionary journey. But we kept it around. And then in 2020. We created our 5-1-C-3. And became a non-profit. And then we thought it was just going to be for us. But then we grew. And we had a nurse join us. And then we had another nurse join us.

And then another person. To the point that today. We are at 12 missionaries. Now. There's myself. And my. And Esther. Oh sorry 13. Yeah sorry 13. Man see we're growing even more. But this is my Esther. Myself. We're actually pointing to Guatemala. So if you want to know where Guatemala is. It's right at the end of Mexico. It's the first country. In the chain of Central American countries.

I am the executive director. Of the ministry. And Esther is my helper. Along with the chief communicator. If you hear anything about us. On social media. Or her wonderful text. Or her calls or whatever. It's all her. Because she's the talker. I'm not. I don't usually. I'm. She's the talker. Let's put it that way. And then we have Mark and Ramona. Mark and Ramona have been serving in Guatemala.

For 15 years. And they decided to join us. A couple years ago. Mark is our. The director of Guatemala. Because we started in Guatemala. But our vision. With God's Single Ministry. Is to be all throughout Latin America. In fact. We're praying right now. About expanding into Honduras. So we're kind of excited about that. And waiting for God's leading. But we actually have the opportunity.

To be in Honduras El Salvador. And Southern Belize right now. We're just waiting for the resources. And for God to say yes go. But we have the contacts. And the people wanting us to go there. So he's the director of Guatemala. And he's basically my right-hand man. And he runs the day-to-day operations. In fact. The cool thing about having a team. Is while Esther and I are here in the States.

Ministry is still going back on. Back in Guatemala. Because he's doing. They're doing it. So that's Mark and Ramona. We have Charlene. Which is our first nurse. And our head nurse. She's the one that made us expand. But she will not look at a camera. So that's the best I can do. And she. Before she joined us. She was a part-time nurse. Jungle nurse. So she.

She was. She's tough man. She. She does that jungle stuff. But. And then. Joining her. Is nurse Nancy. Or no. Nurse Becky. Nurse Becky. Joined us in. Two years ago. At the ripe. Young age. Of 75. And she's still going strong. And so. She's the one I point to. If you think you're too old to serve God. Remember Becky. She moved. From Texas. And she's still going strong.

And so. She's the one I point to. If you think you're too old to serve God. Remember Becky. She moved. From Florida. To Guatemala. At 75. Then we have Julio. And Rachel. Rachel has been serving in Guatemala. For 28 years. But she's originally from Scotland. And Julio is her husband. Julio. Is our. Driver. Handy man. Do it. Whatever we need. Guy to guy. And he is the biggest.

The best. Awesome. Most. Awesome prayer warrior. With the people in the villages. And then Rachel. She is designed. And tailored. To serve God. And so. She. She. Designed. And teaches. And leads. Um. Our youth program. And our kids clubs. And then. We have. Uh. Our newest members. Sean. And Julie. Sean. And Julie. Went to. Full time school. Last year. Spanish school.

They've graduated. And so. They're joining us. Full time. This year. And they're going to head up. Our pastors. And women's. Discipleship programs. And then we have Rocio. Rocio. She used to teach. Nursing. And work. With us. On a contractual basis. Um. And last year. She decided to join us. Full time. Because she just loved. What we do. And she loved serving the people.

And so. She quit. The teaching. And came to work with us. Full time. And now. This year. We're glad to say. She's going. Back to school. Part time. To become a doctor. So. Um. She's going to be our doctor. And then we have. Evelyn. And. Um. Hey. Sua. Is. Um. The oldest son there. They work. Part time. For us. And. Um. In our medical clinics. And so. That's kind of the team.

We also partner. With an organization. Called. I don't know. If anybody's ever. Called. Heard of. Feed. My starving. Children. Sorry. I gotta take a drink. Um. They create. What's called. A healthy. Food. In rural Kansas City. But. Basically. Um. They get about. 60,000 pounds. Of food. A month. That they. Distribute. And we're. We're partnered. With them. So.

As we do. Our Village Ministry. They come in. And provide. Nutritious meals. So. It's kind of a cool. Program. Partnership. So. That's Eric. And then. That's kind of. A little bit about. is what do we drew God said go we're called to the hardest reached areas of Guatemala some of you have been on a mission trip with us and you can tell you they know where we go we go four by four all day long every day who loves to

four by four anybody yeah do it every day let me tell then tell me if you love it or not I thought I'd love for my morning oh no I don't like it anymore but unfortunately that's the way where we're called we're called to the hardest areas we and we we reach out to the extreme poverty most of the people that we work with our day laborers they make less than two dollars a day and in a video little video you'll be able to see the kind of standards that they live in a little video you'll be able to see the kind of standards that they live in a little video you'll be able to see the kind of standards that they live in in a little bit but we have the poor kids that suffer from malnourishment if

you look at a lot of our kids they look nourished because all they eat is corn tortillas a lot of times when the parents don't have enough money for food that you can get a dozen tortillas for 25 cents they'll take a corn tortilla they'll sprinkle salt on it the the corn tortilla fills the stomach the salt makes it taste good it actually really tastes good but there's no nutritional value whatsoever in that meal um and so they'll we got all of our kids are fat like me but they have no nutrition they're they're sometimes their hair is a reddish color a blonde color that means they don't even have enough nutrition to color their hair the pigments aren't able to be produced so

we got a lot of poverty um we have the bad water uh here's a picture of them holding up our this is our filtered water this is the water they drink um and they so we have a water problem or they have toxic water um and then they have poor education they're in the villages that we work with there's little to no health care um and really there's no hope they just they just live to survive you know i didn't mention this before but i wanted to mention this that i can't think maybe we'll bring it to home you know how in america we have the saying i live paycheck to paycheck you know and some of you might think that's me i live paycheck to paycheck that means we live at least two weeks to a month out here they live meal to meal

now that you take that in effect and they if you live paycheck to paycheck you are 14 to a month out right that's how much time you've got to make a living and that's how you're going to live and that's how you're going to make something happen these guys they've got four hours am i going to eat the next meal and it really opened my eyes to what it was like you know wow four hours in fact we have a feeding program it took us a month to train the ladies how to think a month and ahead they had never done it in their lives we came to them to say okay your village is too hard to get to to come to every week we're coming here once a month we're going to bring you all the food you need for a daily feeding program and they like you know

they knew they didn't know what to say because they had never thought that far in advance it was really eye-opening to me i was how hard is it to think how much food you need well they never thought that far in advance um so uh what we do is our mission is to work alongside the church every every village that we work in we work in the church our our programs are in the church the feeding programs outside the church the children we're in the church we don't work with the government we work with the church because we want to use the church to transform the village out of poverty not the government because the government it's proven look at every it doesn't work but the church it works we have proof that when you

transform through the church using the word of god it works and so that's what we do um we have oh actually this is one of our churches um it's getting better though they hit him the pastor pastor danny and his wife have worked hard selling tamales throughout all the other villages that they've saved enough money for the block so now they're starting to build walls on their church but for a year and a half we've been serving in this structure and uh but this is one of our churches we work alongside the church to show the love of christ to the people of the church through acts of kindness to the village we basically help the church plant seeds through the community our clinics and our activities bring the community into the church so then the

church can minister to them while we're at working so we're kind of we're we're there to assist the church by holding free clinics um we we provide health care education and free medication to the people um through our partnership with uh speed my starving children we we cook uh nutritious soups the churches cook these soups three times a week to provide for the people in their village um and then we also have uh my next one is my favorite cook the problem with this picture is it's over an open fire in 100 degree weather inside that metal house and she almost killed herself with a heat stroke remember that but anyway um we have a daily feeding program as well we have a pro we at one of our villages is our poorest

village we learned about them because it was reported the kids were eating paper they were eating paper because the paper was filling their stomachs which would cause the hunger pains to go away and so now we had a group in florida i hear this story and said hey we don't want that to have anymore they provided the resources we now we provide a daily feeding program for the kids in these villages we have over 45 kids that we feed them and they're going to be able to eat their food on a daily basis and um the government heard about it and they say oh we can't let them win so now they get a breakfast as well as provided by the government which is very unusual but we're

praising god for it because now those kids get at least two nutritious meals and i think is it the next one the kids oh well we we hold during the the the village ministries we also hold education programs on hygiene um on uh uh let me get back to my notes and then i'll i won't but basically hygiene uh we have a lot of diabetes high blood pressure and um stuff like that so we hold education classes and then we have the next one we pray with our villages um we always have a prayer team especially at our clinics that pray uh actually julio is the one that leads our prayer group but we pray for our people with the pastors next this is our kids program um where we hold a kids program where we will bring in 40 to 150 kids at

these kids programs because they are fun and they're loud we got a big old speaker and we the whole village knows that we're there because we blast the music and they all come from all corners um and then next this is a school in ldk now ldk is where we have the feeding program these kids get i have the feeding program when we started here the school had 10 and i don't know how many students we through a sponsorship program we sponsored the school and we were able to provide the school with free textbooks because the teacher had nothing no resources whatsoever and so we got her some textbooks that she wanted and then each kid is provided a backpack with a year's full of school

supplies and a pair of tennis shoes every year the next year they went from 10 to 45 students just because they didn't have the resources needed to go to school once we provided them the school is blown and the teachers like oh my gosh what did you do but we're it's so exciting to see all these kids and then they come run into the church every day after school to have their lunches it's really cool we get to see at least one subway month so we and then we have our youth program Oh school we work with the pastors and their team we work with the pastors and their team we work with the pastors and their team this is one of our meetings we're having with the pastors and and their

leadership of the team to go over you know just we we found that we needed to right now we're starting with pastors because the pastors they know how to get up here and preach but they don't have leadership abilities they don't know how to we were I was amazed at we go to a clinic and the pastor would be sitting in the corner just I mean why aren't you praying with the people why aren't you getting involved they didn't know how and so we're having to kind of take a step back and actually teach our pastors some leadership and and things to do so that's kind of what this is that's what I'm Shawn is going to lead up for us this year and then and that's just us getting started we're just

getting started we're only four years old and it's really young for our ministry but we God has done so much and so what I thought I would do is I got this short little video it kind of shows an ordinary day for us in Guatemala that's a little rocky that's basically what a village ministry kind of looks like we hold four of those a week and then we have an office day and and a lot a lot of ministry I'm kind of you know I could teach you some statistics like last year we went to over a hundred villages and we we treated over six thousand patients last year and I can tell you all those statistics but what I really like to tell you is the that God has created God has done and and so um the first we decided I wanted

to introduce you to Raph Raph oh I'm I'm getting close on time again sorry pastor Raph Raffi is what we call him Raphael we started to do a clinic in this village the very first day the clinic opened we learned about Raphael Raffi and he had fallen off a tree and he had a two-story cliff and you can see he's pretty beat up there and well you can't see because he's covering it up and this kid was tough he's five years old he's got a completely broken leg and he's not crying a bit but so that night the the what they call it their bone doctor but what it is it's really a witch doctor and he comes out you know and then put some dirty rags around his arm and says okay he's gonna be good or leg and then he's gonna be good and

so we went there to check him out the next morning over like no he's not good I mean clearly you could see right about where his hand is his word it's broken but we can clearly tell it was broken and it was by the grace of God his parents Rafa had never been out of this village but his parents let us take him down to the city about 40 minutes away and we did an x-ray on him and we could clearly see his femur was completely shattered And not only was it broken above the knee, but the growth plate, it was broken through the growth plate. So if his leg wasn't set, he was going to be crippled for the rest of his life. And so through some hard talking to the mom and showing her the x-ray, you know, you can't miss that break.

They actually allowed us to take him an additional two hours away to have his leg set, put in the cast. And he was in it for six weeks. He liked it because we got him this big, huge wheeled cart, and he sat in, and everybody rolled him around. You know, he felt like the king, but he hated that cast, of course. But now he's running around like it never happened.

And it was really a God thing because normal parents would never let you take their boy out of the village. The bone doctor was good enough, you know. But... God moved in the family and allowed them to trust us with their boy to get him taken care of. And then we have Jose. Jose was 16 years old when he came into the ministry. And he had severe pain around here and all the way into his gut.

And to the point that he couldn't play soccer with his buddies. You know, he was always in pain. And it was like this for two years. And we thought, hey, you know, something might be wrong with his kidneys or liver. You need to get him to the hospital, get checked out. And the mom hung her head and she was like, even if I could afford the taxes right down to the city, I could never afford the medicine.

So what good is it to take him there? So this kid suffered for this for two years. He's like, well, we can. That's why we're here. So we took him to the lab. Did some lab work. Found out he has a condition called H. pylori. Is there any medical people in here? I don't know the scientific name for H. pylori. But really what it is, it's a parasite, a worm or something in their gut.

And it's a pretty hardy one. But with a cocktail of three antibiotics and two weeks of dosing, he was completely cured. And so praise God he's able to be a kid again. But it's just sad. This is. This is a picture of the health care they have. He's up that village suffering for two years with a condition that could have been taken care of with three antibiotics and two weeks of dosing.

And so that's kind of a picture of the health care that they have there. And again, we have Miss Anna. Now, Miss Anna is in the town of El Dique, which is the town that we have the feeding program in and the student sponsorship. And she's actually one of our cooks. She cooks for our students every day of the week. And she came at the beginning of the year and her blood sugars were over 500.

I don't know if you have any diabetics in here, but 500 is crazy. Like you should be dead, you know, type the meter read high. Her blood sugar was so high it couldn't even read it. And so we're but we're happy now you can see a smile on her face because through medication and education over this last year, she's been doing great. She's down way down to manageable levels and her life is drastically changed.

Now, she has energy to actually do what she's doing and she doesn't feel sick all the time. And then we have this. This is one of my now these might choke me up because like this one here, I don't show her face, but Rocio there is our nurse. She's dealing with this young woman. She came into our clinic back in July and she said that she hoped we could help her because nobody else has been able to help her because her husband.

Has been trying to have a baby for eight years and they just couldn't have it. And after talking with Rocio for some time and being completely honest and open with Rocio, Rocio gave her some medicine to treat a feminine infection. And and three months later, we're happy to say this woman came into our clinic with this nice little round plump and so happy to say that they're expecting her first child. And.

It was just because of the medicine, you know, that the thing about it is it's easy to say we pass out free medicine, but what we don't realize a lot of times it's life changing. A lot of times we don't realize it because we have such great medical care. But when you have no medical care and you give someone a pill, it's life changing for them in that and to the point that they're able to now have a family. Now, this is something we don't get to see much.

Because we're a seed planters, we don't usually get to see the harvest. But this day, the spirit boomed. Excuse me. This guy came into the clinic. Julie was taking his blood pressure and his blood sugars, and he was just so down. I mean, you just could see his confidence. He's looking down. He is so that she says, man, this guy needs prayer. So she went and got Sean and Sean brought a couple of the pastors that were helping us that day.

And they just said. That and poured into this guy for over 30 minutes. And at the end of this, the guy came to know Christ right in the clinic. And then you saw the video. There was a picture of it in the little video we had. Then they they they start to walk out. And what had happened was there was four women in the waiting area waiting to be seen by the nurse that had listened to the whole thing.

And as as as Sean and the pastors were walking out, they said, hey, hey, wait a minute. We want that. We want. We want that Jesus. And so they prayed over these four women and all four women came to know Christ in the waiting room. And then they went outside and they met this this family and the little boy was sick. So they took some time and prayed over this little boy, talked to the parents.

The parents came to know Christ. We had eight salvations that day. And for a medical clinic, that is unheard of because, you know, that that usually happens at an evangelistic, you know, conference, not at some medical clinic. So. So, you know, it's just it's amazing when the Holy Spirit, when he moves, great things happen. And then the other thing, the last thing I want to show you, because I'm going over my time, is we Rachel's created a program for the children and we were going to use it for our kids clubs.

But then she started training the churches to use it themselves. And we and we give it to them. We give them the banners, all the materials they need. And then they can they start doing this. So children's program. Pastor really is one of our pastors. He started it in his main church. They went from in six months. They went from 10 kids to over 150 kids a week.

And then he planted a second church in a village that had no church. And we were for for a year. We were on dirt and these poles holding up this metal roof. And that was it. And there wasn't even a bathroom. And. But we ministered in this community and he actually had church outside. But he's really discouraged because you only have two to four people. Well, last week he sent us this video to show us.

A service they had in that church, and I just wanted to share it with you guys. To receive those little things that the pastors, they just they send us just basically showing gratitude, you know, and that. So I'd like to. But those are just some of the things that God has done through us. So as for night, like I said, we thought we were just going to be two little missionaries helping this little home and doing nothing.

And it's all God is doing. It is. I just want to encourage you that as you're pursuing your calling, like I said, we all have a calling. And as you pursue your calling. Taking one step at a time and letting God guide you. No telling where you're going to end up. No telling where you're going. And what what God's going to do through your lives as well. And I'll leave.

Go to slide 47. I'm going to skip my. I will tell you that if you if you want to know if this made you kind of excited, you want to get involved. Come talk to us. We'd love to involve you as an ambassador or a partner or volunteer. But my prayer, though, is that as you walk your calling out. That you'll. Join me. Following the best. Greatest missionary of all time, which is Paul.

And that at the end of our journey, we'll be able to say the same thing he said in the second Timothy four seven. And is that I fought the good fight. I finished the race and I have kept the faith. And as we see our savior. Well, he'll Matthew 25, 23 will become true to us in that. He. We're the master reply. Well done. Good and faithful servant. Come and share your master's happiness.

I so want to. To live a life that when I come to see Jesus, he's going to say, well done. And I hope that you'll join me in doing that as well. For our God. And I'll end. With saying that I again, I thank you for having us. I'm sorry. I went over. A little bit, but. If you want to know more about us, you can grab us at the back. We have. And we also have. If you'd like to give a little support, we have some sweatshirts and stuff.

Got to do the selfish plug sweatshirts back there. If you want to keep up on us and you want to give us your email, we'll give you a free pen. But then to end today's service for those that sometimes we can under the burden of financial pressure, under the burden of not having enough time or our age. Sometimes we feel like we can be insignificant. Why try to live God's calling on our life?

Because it won't do any good. I'm just too small. I'm too insignificant. Well, with that, I say, if you think you're too small to be effective, then you have never been in bed with a mosquito. Thank you very much. God bless you all.

Well, this morning is communion Sunday. So bring the kids on in.

He would. Keep an eye out for your kid as they come in so that they can locate you in the sanctuary.

All right. Well, as I said, this morning is communion Sunday. And if I could invite the worship team to come on up as we celebrate communion, we are reminded that that gift of salvation that we saw those people accept on that video, which, by the way, what an amazing story that God's Holy Spirit moves in the way it does. Amen. The same blood of Jesus Christ that has saved me.

The same blood of Jesus Christ. That has saved you is the same blood of Jesus Christ that saves believers in Guatemala or in Thailand, because we are all unified as the body of Christ by one thing. And that's the sacrifice of Jesus. It's what allows us to be one with him because his blood is enough to cover our sins. But it also makes us a family, family that extends through generations and all over the world.

And so as we come together this morning to partake in communion, we are reminded that what we do when we partake in communion is we, we declare the death of Jesus. Paul tells us that that's exactly what we do every time that we partake of this meal together, is it is a declaration to the world that the thing that gives us hope is the death of Jesus Christ. And so inside of each of these is a couple of elements. There's some juice and there's a cracker.

And in and of themselves, they're nothing significant. But what they symbolize is the most significant truth that holds us together as the body of Christ, because what they symbolize is his body that was broken and his blood that was shed. For us, and so we're told that we're to partake in a worthy manner, and that means a couple of things. First of all, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, you've never come to that place of saying, hey, I need Jesus as a part of my life.

And the first place you need to start is by putting your faith in him, by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and accepting him as your savior. And then you, too, are a part of this global body of Christ. But if you're here this morning and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, then the best thing that you can do is allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart, to see if there's anything in there that's come between you and the Lord. Well, I don't believe that you can lose your salvation.

We can definitely break fellowship and that fellowship is broken through sin. And the only way to deal with sin is with that same blood of Jesus Christ. And so as the worship team leads us in this last song, I would just ask that you would allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart, to see if there be anything in there that needs confessed to the Lord. I want your heart to be cleaned before him.

The ushers are going to come down and hand out the elements. And as they do so, if you would please stand. And we're going to pray. And we will partake together.

Father, we come to you now. And Lord, I want to praise you. I want to praise you for the sacrifice that you've made. I want to praise you that you made a way for us. Lord, that by your grace, because of your love, you shed your blood for us. And so, Father, we thank you. Thank you for your body that was broken. Your word tells us that by your stripes we are healed.

Father, I praise you for your blood that was shed. But your word tells us that your blood is enough to cover all of our sins. And so, Father, as we partake of this meal, as we partake of this sacrament, Lord, may we truly understand. May we always remember that the blood of Jesus Christ is what has made us brand new. Father, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may partake.

And if you would bow with me one last time. Lord, we come to you and I thank you. I thank you for Jeff and Esther and the ministry. That they have in Guatemala. Lord, I thank you for the lives that are being touched, the seeds that are being planted. And, Lord, I thank you that you have a calling on each of our lives. And so, Lord, may we truly examine ourselves and say, do we love you with all of our actions?

Do we love you with our lives? And, Lord, fulfill that calling that you have for each of us. Father, as we go out from this place, keep your word ever in our hearts and draw us close to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Have a great week. Have a great week.