Treasure

There is something very special about the Christmas season.  Just the mention of the word can bring back memories of joy, as well as anticipation of what the upcoming Christmas will bring.  Why is that, I wonder?  I believe joy is not found in just the act of giving and receiving, but the purpose and result of giving and receiving.

Peru (South America): 

GI team treated almost 500 patients, fed hundreds, 

and reached people with the Gospel in the Andes mountains

We give because giving has a purpose.  It makes life better, in some way, for another person.  The result is that a need has been met, and that brings joy.  We receive for the same reason, there is a purpose.  We have a need, and someone else fulfills that need.  The result:  joy.

The Bible says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Guatemala (Central America): 

In 2014 GI team fed 250+ families a 1-month supply of food, saw salvations, 

and reached out to hundreds more in the remote areas of the country

The world is in need of a Savior.  More and more each year, the West tries to remove Christ from Christmas.  That is saddening, but also motivating.  It is one reason why Global Infusion sends out team after team, to saturate the world with the life-giving love, power and salvation of Jesus Christ.  We give of ourselves because there is a purpose.  There are too many people who have not heard of Jesus, and they need to hear.  We give away food, medicine and medical care, provide clothes, shoes, Bibles, build churches, and much more.  These are the needs, and we do our best to meet them.  Ultimately, people need Jesus, and if we can lead them to Him through these tangible means, then it is all worth it.

Philippines (Asia): 

GI team saw almost 100 people saved, fed 300+, 

handed out backpacks and school supplies to 300+ kids

Souls are lost, so we must reach them.  This is our purpose.  Souls are won on earth, but the result is eternal life in heaven.  This Christmas, realize in all the giving and receiving, the only thing you will ever see in heaven, are the souls that have been won for Jesus.  That, is true treasure.

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Islamic Nation (Middle East): 

GI team reached out to 200+ widows, fed them, lived in the Sahara and 

ministered to Bedouins, as well as Sudanese refugees, 

and impoverished people living in a trash city

Tangible

A few weeks ago, Global Infusion's first team to the country of Peru landed back in the United States.  By the grace and favor of God, we had a phenomenal trip.  Our contacts work deep in the Andes Mountains, ministering in unreached villages, and to impoverished people.  At Global Infusion, we strive to reach the unreached.  Very rarely do we stay in the capital cities.  Most of the time, you will find GI teams in the mountains, deserts, jungles and remote areas of the countries we are working in, and Peru was no exception.  PERU VIDEO

After flying through Lima, and on into the Andes, our team ventured out to 5 remote sites.  Since we had medical professionals on the team, we were able to facilitate clinics at every site, and saw almost 500 patients.  We prayed for each of them, we fed hundreds, we held both planned and impromptu services, and saw people receive Jesus for the first time.

Altimeter shows this village at 12,981 feet

  

The world is too big, and there are too many lost people for us to go where people are saturated with the Gospel.  One village we were in was at more that 12,000 feet, and some people walked up to 6 hours to see one of our nurses.  They have no government help, no regular access to medicine or doctors, no church, no Pastor, no Gospel.  Most of them have to grow whatever they need to eat, which sounds fine, until there are no crops and they find themselves hours from the closest city and no money to buy anything.  We also worked in a village that is rampant with abuse, where women and children are beaten almost daily.

In these seemingly hopeless situations, I can gladly report that we saw change.  Additionally, our contacts have more than a “follow-up” plan, they have a strategic vision to reach these areas regularly, plant churches, build long-term relationships, and bring in as many GI teams as they can so that their area of Peru is transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.  We can send our prayers across the seas, but there is something completely different about the tangible presence of people showing up in a destitute village proclaiming the hope of a Savior.  We thank Jesus for His faithfulness.  More souls are now in the Kingdom and we believe the spiritual atmosphere has been changed by the love and power of God. 

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Stumbling Block

“He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”       

 Isaiah 8:14

Over the past few weeks, I led a Global Infusion medical and evangelistic mission team to our newest country site, Peru.  We lived and trekked in the Andes mountains as we worked to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Since this was our first GI trip into this nation, I did not have all the information I would normally have about our mission.  I did know one thing, that wherever we went, Jesus was at the center of all we do.  To us, He is our Sanctuary—in Him we find refuge and strength, so we willingly place Him at the forefront of every ministry outreach.  To the unreached people that we encountered, He is equally at the center of every conversation because to them, He is a stumbling block.  They either had never heard of Him, or they have voluntarily refused to accept Him as their Savior. 

Why is Jesus such a stumbling block to lost people?  Does He represent a set of spiritual and moral rules that one must follow in order to be one of His followers?  Or is it something far deeper?  From my experience, it is because we are in a spiritual war.  There is a battle for the souls of humanity, and while the end result might be obstinate rejection of Jesus, the root is the fact that a real enemy exists.  The devil has duped billions, yes billions, of people.  They believe they will get to eternity by worshiping a Hindu or Buddhist god, or by following the sayings of Muhammad.  To believe that one can pray to accept Jesus Christ and call Him ‘Lord,’ and achieve eternity with God is simply unbelievable to most people.  Unless you have physically traveled overseas into countries where a certain religion is dominating the people and culture, it is hard to visualize what I am talking about.  People literally worship idols.  They sacrifice their last dollar to appease a god.  At their core, none of them actually tolerate Christianity, even if they say so with their own mouth.  They want to go to Heaven, but they want to do it their way.  They do not realize it, but they are like Thomas—desperately crying out for truth.

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.         

John 14:5-6

Thank you to those who prayed for Global Infusion and my team as we went into yet another new country, to bring the people the Truth, and His Name is Jesus Christ.  We treated 500 patients, reached several unreached villages, fed 450 people, and saw several salvations.  We praise God for this opportunity and the fruit of our trip.

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Team Peru (Medical) 2014

 

Until He Comes

In Matthew 24:6-8, the Bible says, “6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

It is amazing how these verses out of Matthew sound like the evening news report we are hearing on a daily basis.  Why do Christians in Iraq and Iran continue to be slaughtered as a result of their faith?  How can the leaders of some nations starve, torture, and kill their own people as they do in Syria.  Who will be a light to those enslaved to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam?  I have long given up asking God why such heinous, demonically-induced activities are happening in this world.  The truth of the matter is that until the enemy is destroyed, these things will not only continue to happen, but also continue to escalate in frequency and intensity.  Why would anyone in their right mind leave the borders of the United States to go to these kinds of places?  If we’re going to go, at least wait until everything calms down, right?  Unfortunately, things will never “calm down.”  The work of the enemy will never cease to destroy people through false religions, wars, starvation, sickness, poverty, or any other way he can kill them and claim them for eternity.   The devil is real, but so is Jesus. 

GI President, Jonathan Haward in the Philippines

In the above picture, I am standing in a remote village in the Philippines.  Within a day of our outreach there, we saw 75 souls saved.  We go because Jesus commanded us to go.  We go because it is not an equal battle—although we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness, our Savior is not on equal terms with our adversary.  God has already crushed the enemy, and will ultimately crush him for eternity.  We go, because the Holy Spirit has empowered us to go.  To see lives, families, communities, and even nations transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  No single agency can solve all the problems in a country—but God can.  “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).  We go because God’s power is real, lives can be rescued from an eternity in hell, and we will not stop reaching the unreached until He comes.

 

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Life Without Jesus

Whenever I go out on a foreign mission trip with one of our Global Infusion teams and encounter unreached people, I am both excited, yet saddened at the same time.  I am excited because I have the high honor to present the life-changing, transformational Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people standing in front of me.  For most of them, it is either the first time they have heard the Good News, or the first time in a very long time.  They do not have a local Pastor, or church (or churches), and usually they do not have any outside help from the government or NGO’s (non-government organizations). 

Global Infusion in an unreached village last month

When we have brought our contact with us to these outreaches, we know that there will be proper follow-up, and a plan to establish a local body of believers in the region.  This makes it exciting when people receive Jesus because we know their lives will never be the same again.  Yet it makes my heart sad to look into the eyes of people 50, 60, 70 or even 80 years old and realize that they have lived decade upon decade on Earth without knowing and serving Jesus.  They have never known the joy of salvation.  They have not experienced the breaking of sin and bondage on their lives.  They have never prayed to a Savior that loves them, can heal them, can deliver them, and can transform them.  They have struggled through life making their own path, instead of the one He could have guided them through.  Their ways were lower, because His ways are higher.  They walked and grew weary.  They ran and grew faint.  They could not put ten thousand to flight.  They did not have a Comforter or a Counselor.  How sad.

The good news, of course, is that eternity is much longer than the 70, 80, or 90 years we live on this planet.  Their earthly existence will soon be distant memory in light of the infinite years they will enjoy with the One who saved them.

Feeding the families in the unreached village

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, ”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  What a beautiful promise.  That is why we go into all the world, especially the most remote of locations.  We go so that even those finishing their journey here on earth, can experience the love and power of Jesus while they still have breath, then join Him forever in a place He has prepared for them. 

To support Global Infusion, and our outreaches around the world, please click here.  

Your support will help us bring the Gospel to the unreached, food the the hungry, medical treatment and prayer to the sick, training to indigenous leaders, and provide ministry to children so we can win more people into the Kingdom for Jesus.

Miracles Still Happen

I always tell the people on the mission teams I lead that the Bible comes alive on the mission field.  Many Christians have grown up reading about Jesus and the Disciples going town to town, village to village, praying for the sick, feeding the people, preaching the Gospel, living on nothing, feeling the sting of those who are hostile against the teachings of Jesus, and trusting the Father for everything.  The next thing they know, they’re on a Global Infusion mission team, walking through some of the most remote villages in the world, preaching the Gospel, praying for the sick, seeing in person how Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims treat Christians in countries outside the USA, and then trusting God for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual strength.

I recently returned from the Philippines where we went into a remote village to preach, pray for the sick, facilitate a VBS for kids, hand out backpacks full of supplies for the children, give out shoes, and feed 50 people.  We could only get enough chicken to feed 40 people because there is a chicken shortage in the nation.  We spent the day ministering, and without realizing it until the end, we had fed close to 300 people, and yes, there was food left over.  I would like to say that our team labored and toiled in prayer, standing in faith that God would multiple the food, but honestly, we were simply doing our assigned ministry jobs for the day while it was happening.  We were just loving people, praying for them, teaching them the Word of God, giving out basic necessities, and feeding them as they stood in line.

In Ephesians 3:20-21, the Bible says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

God takes care of every situation, especially when we are walking in obedience, and being diligent to follow Him, focusing more on others than ourselves.  He will do more than we could ever imagine, and it is He who gets the glory.  The greatest miracle of all is still salvation, of which we saw close to 100 while in the Philippines.  But every once in a while, God allows us to see, and be a part of His supernatural power and presence. 
Miracles. Still. Happen.  

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