Christmas for Immigrants and Refugees

Two weeks ago, GI completed our 24th mission trip of the year.  We were in what is now our newest country site: Costa Rica.  While Costa Rica might be known as being on the higher end of the economic scale in Central America, our contacts brought us to a banana plantation where conditions are far from ideal.

While we were there, we learned that 80-90% of the workers are immigrants from Nicaragua looking for work.  The rest are Costa Rican, and all of them are living in poverty.  Most kids barely make it past elementary school.  When we showed up to do a kids outreach, the candy, stuffed animals, crayons and coloring sheets may be all they will get for Christmas.  For their families, food is a higher priority than presents.   

Yet in the midst of poverty, we saw more than a dozen children give their lives to Jesus.

GI also works in partnership with one of our contacts who is helping Syrian refugees.  These refugees are just on the other side of their home country’s border—they flee Syria, and live in Lebanon.  They are in need of food, shelter, medical supplies, and much more.  Thanks to the amazing work our long-time Middle-Eastern contact, we have been able to help many families as they are about to brave a harsh winter—living in refugee camps, wishing they could just go home.

It is not new to bring up the fact that those of us in the first-world probably had a very different Christmas than most immigrants and refugees.   The baby’s birth whom we celebrated this month grew to be a man and said, “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’” (Matthew 25:35-36).  Know that when you support Global Infusion, we are doing exactly that.  Thank you, to all who have given in 2015.

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The Cost of Missions

As President and Founder of Global Infusion, one of my passions since Day 1 has been to diligently seek the Lord to have Him lead us to our Kingdom assignments around the world.  While there are millions of people doing amazing things for God in many countries, I have learned that there is a big difference between a good idea, and a God idea. 

It is a good idea to evangelize, help the poor, pray for the sick, and be a light in the darkness.  However, when we do so in the time and place that God specifically ordained for us, both the immediate and long-term impact is far more effective.

The cost of missions is high.  I find that it is easy to misinterpret the famous “count the cost” verse in Luke 14:28 as considering the call to missions as optional.  It is not optional.  It is mandated.  We may not have all the resources at our disposal to reach the world, but that should not inhibit us from going.  The longer I’m engaged in missions, the more I meet people of God, indigenous and cross-cultural, who just find a way to make it all happen. They operate in faith.  They have nothing.  Yet they do everything they can to reach the lost, sick, and hopeless.

Money is always one of the first reasons I hear as to why traveling and doing either short or long term missions is not viable.  Distance from home, being away from life, work, school and family are other reasons I have received for not going.

As I write this, my dad has suffered a heart attack while in India on a GI mission trip.  He is in a hospital after having surgery, and I am on my way to be with him and bring him home.  I myself have had more than one IV in a remote village.  Every missionary can tell you war stories, but that is not the point.  The point is that we know the risk.  We know it’s not easy.  We know the funds are not always there.  While these things may be true, the bigger picture is this:  there are lost people in this world who will die in their sin and live eternally separate from God unless someone tells them about Jesus.  That is why we go. 

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UPDATE:  I am now back from India.  My father had to have 2 heart operations, and we were able to travel home.  We thank God for several miracles that kept him alive.  Please pray for a full recovery.

 

God’s Faithfulness (A Story)

I have just returned from leading a GI mission team to the country of Ghana, West Africa.  Global Infusion has been working in Ghana for over 10 years.  We have seen God grow the ministry from one small city church, and a few possible village church plants, to a large city church and fifteen village churches.  To say God is faithful is an understatement.  Let’s go back in time.

Pastor Daniel was born one of 24 children in a remote African village.  He was miraculously saved, educated, and became a high level executive at a rubber company (one of Ghana’s main exports).  At the pinnacle of success, Pastor Daniel heard the voice of God to leave his job and reach the villages of Ghana with the Gospel.  So he did, and God was faithful.

The villages of Africa are poor, extremely poor.  Some do not even use money—they barter with each other.  To reach these areas requires nothing short of a calling from God and His anointing, anything less, and a person will fail.  Daniel prayed, and strategized.  He felt the best way to reach the villages, was to plant a city church and use the resources they could generate there to evangelize the remote regions.  His plan worked, and God was faithful.

Every GI team we have sent to Ghana has been a part of evangelizing in unreached villages, as well as facilitating church services to reach the lost.  He has since started a Christian school, which both city kids and village kids can receive a Christ-centered education.  We have sent education teams repeatedly to help him and his staff.  The school has grown, and God has been faithful.

There is no explanation, other than the goodness and faithfulness of God, as to how an impoverished village boy becomes a Pastor and overseer of 15 churches.  If you prayed for my team and I, thank you.  We saw over 100+ people saved, baptized 15 in the Atlantic Ocean, shared the Gospel on a radio broadcast that reaches over 1 million people, and spent many hours teaching impoverished children in our contact's school.  God is Faithful!

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Short Term

During my GI missions training sessions with our teams, I typically start with one concept that provides the framework for our trips:  short-term strengthens the long-term.  Our friends, family, and contacts on the ground in the foreign mission field that are there for the long term have a vision from God.  They have a plan for reaching their nation for Christ, but they cannot do it alone.  As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:14, “the body is not one member, but many.”

I believe that when we as Christians realize that we truly are on the same team, only then do we not worry about anyone getting the glory except Jesus.  How do we see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven?  If Heaven is populated by every nation, tribe and tongue, then we must mirror that here on earth—we work together in unity, by the power of the Holy Spirit to see transformation in the lives of people.

It is exciting to watch a mission team arrive in one of our countries where we work, and begin to minister.  They bring energy, joy, and encouragement to the men and women (and their families) that live there long-term.  You can almost see the weariness of a lifetime of ministry begin to fade on the faces of our contacts as they watch a group of people embrace their vision and serve alongside them.

All of life’s problems cannot be solved in a week, or two, or even a month—especially in the areas we work around the world where the living circumstances are dire for those we are ministering to.  However, when GI teams continually show up year after year, and we serve in a godly partnership with those who are serving long-term, we see results.  The lost are reached.  The hungry are fed. The sick are prayed for, receive medical treatment, and recover.

Pray for Global Infusion.  Pray for our staff, volunteers, interns, missionaries stationed overseas and our teams.  Each year we grow and we are sending more laborers out into the harvest field.  Your prayers and financial support allows us to reach those who need Jesus.

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#bus2africa

After a powerful summer of sending mission teams and missionaries around the world to preach the Gospel, I am excited to announce that Global Infusion is about to send a bus to Ghana, West Africa.

Why a bus?  Because the only way children who live in the villages where our Ghanaian Pastor (Daniel) ministers  can go to school, is if someone picks them up.  They cannot afford to travel to the cities, and most villages do not have a school.

If we can get the children to school, they will:

1) Receive an education, which greatly lowers their risk of living in poverty

2) Hear about Jesus

3) Live a healthier life (there is more access to water and food in the city & school)

Thankfully, Pastor Daniel and his wife, Elizabeth, have started a school in their church—they also have planted churches in more than a dozen villages.  He already has the school, the teachers and the relationship with the families in the villages. 

All he needs now, is a school bus.

Well, we have one!  Now, Global Infusion just needs to ship it to him. 

The total cost to get this bus to Africa will be $8,500.

Prayerfully consider donating toward our bus.  I will be leading a Global Infusion mission team to Ghana in October, and we want to see our bus on African soil when we arrive!  #bus2africa

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Select "GHANA: #bus2africa" under "Designate my donation"

Building the Wall

I often find in 1st-world countries that we have a tendency to strive for self-sufficiency.  We say we rely on God, but we also rely on lawyers for legal needs, doctors and hospitals for physical needs, banks for loans, financial planners for retirement, psychiatrists and psychologists for mental or emotional needs, and government services for everything else.  Of course none of these people, professions or institutions are inherently bad, but they collectively provide a solid insulation for us against anything that could harm us our impede our own personal wants and desires. 

This is not the case for the majority of the world.  Who do you turn to when there is no doctor or hospital, no lawyer to defend you, you make $1-$2 per day, and you live under a corrupt government that does absolutely nothing for you?

GI team in Guatemala this month giving food to families who earn $2/day picking coffee

In the Old Testament, when Nehemiah was overseeing the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, he and his workers faced an onslaught of ridicule, sabotage and even physical attacks.  They were outnumbered in the natural, but Nehemiah reminded them, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated far from one another on the wall.  Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.” (Nehemiah 4:19-20)

50+ families fed a 1-month supply of food by GI team this month

Our God will fight for us.  What a challenging thought!  Realizing that there is no possible way to overcome the circumstances you are in, so you declare and believe that God is your only hope.  This is the way our Global Infusion contacts around the world live.  They don’t have unlimited resources or access to help—they place all their trust in God, and encourage everyone else to do the same.  When the wall was finally finished, Nehemiah said, “all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.” (Nehemiah 6:16)

Global Infusion has the task of reaching the unreached, ministering to the poorest of the poor, and our challenge is formidable, but God will fight for us.  Prayerfully consider supporting us as we go into all the world to reach the lost and the poor.

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Heart of a Pastor

Global Infusion relief team in Nepal after the Earthquake

It doesn’t take long for the world to forget major events.  Only a few weeks ago, all eyes were focused on the tiny country of Nepal after a devastating earthquake took the lives of almost 9,000 people.  Now, it hasn’t been on the news in days, and the fundraising requests to help the relief and recovery on social media have disappeared.

 

GI Team distributing food to Earthquake victims

Global Infusion had a team there post-earthquake, and the Team Leader volunteered to stay the entire summer.  We sent funds so that the team could distribute hundreds of pounds of food, as well as bedding and mosquito netting for those who survived the earthquake, but have no home.  We also have plans to send more teams this year and next. 

While relief work is needed, and appreciated, what is needed the most is a Pastor.  Someone who will love the people beyond handing out food.  Someone who cares for their eternal soul.  Someone who’s heart is broken because the people are worshipping false gods.  Someone who will dedicate their life to reaching the lost and care for their families.

Pictured: Bishwa (GI Contact) facilitating food distribution

Meet Bishwa.  Our Nepal contact.  He and his wife, Ramila, are both highly educated, yet have made the decision to reach, love, and care for the people of Nepal.  They are determined to see the people turn from their delusional worship of Buddha and the gods of Hinduism, and worship the One, true God.  Immediately following the earthquake, they did not run from harm’s way, rather, they ran into it—locating survivors and doing everything they could to help.  But while the world will forget the people of Nepal, Bishwa and Ramila will not.  Why?  Because they have the heart of a Pastor.  Pastoring doesn’t require a building, or preaching once a week on a Sunday morning.  Pastoring means loving people because God loves them.  It means reaching out to them in spite of their unbelief.  It means long after the relief workers leave, the long, arduous task of rebuilding begins, and you are right in the center of it.  Not only rebuilding communities, but rebuilding lives by leading them to Jesus Christ. 

These are the type of men and women with whom Global Infusion works with year after year.  Pray for them.  Pray for Nepal.  Support Global Infusion.

Earthquake

In less than 2 minutes almost 10,000 people lost their lives.  Many of you have heard and seen the news on the earthquakes in Nepal.  Saturday, April 25 started out like any other day for the people in Nepal, but thousands were about to face eternity.

Whenever I hear of major tragedies and disasters like this, I ask myself whose population just increased by 10,000?  Heaven or hell?   Our contact and close friend in Nepal says that close to 97% of his country is either Hindu or Buddhist, so I think I know the answer to my own question.

Then I think, what if we had sent more missionaries and teams into this tiny country?  What if more people said “yes” to the call of missions?  What if the indigenous Christians were fully resourced and covered in prayer?  Would 97% of those who died be in hell right now?

  

In Luke 21:8-11, Jesus says “8 Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” 10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

Jesus said these things would happen, but more importantly, He said do not be deceived.  Up until a few weeks ago, most of the country of Nepal was devoted to Satan, who masks himself as Hindu and Buddhist gods.  Let’s pray and work together to reach this country for Jesus, so the people are no longer deceived.

Global Infusion currently has a relief team in Nepal, and we have plans to send more teams this year and next.  If you would like to support the relief effort in Nepal, we will make sure that 100% of your donation goes directly to the mission field.  This also opens up the doors of ministry for our contact, his ministry team, and GI teams.

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 Under "Designate my Donation" select 

"NEPAL: Earthquake Relief"