To our dearest Prayer Warriors,
Somebody’s been Praying:
D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of the 1800’s, found himself once in need of a sabbatical. He decided to go away from ministry for a season to Scotland. There he visited a pastor friend of his who asked him to preach at his church. That Sunday something amazing happened… As Moody preached the Spirit of God moved and hundreds, in brokenness, came to receive Christ as Lord. Seeing what was happening, Moody’s friend asked him to stay longer to keep preaching, but Moody couldn’t since he had other engagements in other parts of the country, so he left.
Amazingly, even after Moody was gone, people kept on coming to the church to give their lives to Christ and be saved. Throngs of people kept coming even at night when the church was closed—this went on for a couple of days!
Weeks later Moody came back to town and his friend informed him of what had happened even after he left. Wisely, Moody immediately said to his friend: “Somebody’s been praying! We need to find out who it is…” So they started inquiring around town and, sure enough, they found out about an old, bedridden, woman who couldn’t get out of her house. She considered the church of Moody’s friend her church, though she had never been physically there, just because it was the same denomination that she used to attend in her healthier days. The woman had several years earlier read an article in the paper about Moody and his ministry and she decided to cut the article and stick it in the wall of her praying closet to remind herself to pray for Moody every day, and she did so.
Oh, the faithfulness of the woman who by prayer brought about revival in the lives of so many and the wisdom and humility of Moody to recognized where the power really is—in the Spirit of God moved by the prayers of His saints.
I share this story to encourage you to continue to pray for us and our ministry. We, the missionaries that go, can accomplish very little in the field without the prayer support of missionaries like you who stay behind turning the wheels of the spiritual world through faithful work of intersession..!
Developments:
* On August 5th we had a very Spirit led meeting with Lysa McMillan in regard to becoming official missionaries of Calvary Ft. Lauderdale—Lysa is Pastor Chet’s assistant with all the Missions Ministry activity at Calvary Ft. Lauderdale. She was going to update Pastor Chet and get back to us. Three weeks later we checked with her and she said “I updated Pastor Chet on our meeting and he has several thoughts and ideas to convey, but I have no specific details as of yet...” We are all trusting this is part of God’s plan.
* We received our first two pledges of monthly financial support that account for 6% of our budget—praise the Lord!
* We gathered all the necessary paperwork and went to the Peruvian Consulate in Miami. Karla, being a Peruvian born citizen, is sponsoring me to become a Peruvian resident and our kids to become Peruvian citizens. This should be ready by the end of the year.
* We set up a booth and officially presented our missions ministry during all services at our home church, Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale-Plantation Campus. We are scheduled to do the same at the Hollywood Campus on September 13th.
* We went to Calvary Chapel Inverness to share our calling with the congregation back on August 30th. This was such a blessing for which we are so grateful. The congregation at Inverness and their leaders were extremely loving and generous with us. They gave us an infusion of encouragement of unspeakable value and are praying about supporting us financially. Thank you Calvary Chapel Inverness..!
Prayer Needs:
* For God’s will to be done in our lives.
* That the life of Christ and His divine humility be revealed in power deep within us to expel the poison of pride from our hearts.
* That we may grow in our ability to cast our cares upon the Lord and trust Him with abandon in all areas of our lives.
* For protection against discouragement.
* Pray for all the items mentioned above in the Developments area, especially for Pastor Chet to hear God’s heart in regard to CC Ft. Lauderdale’s involvement with our ministry.
* For one-time donations toward our moving expenses.
* For monthly financial support for our ministry.
Let Us Know:
As a way of encouragement, please let us know what the Lord’s been stirring in your hearts in regard to your commitment to our ministry. Let us know if you sense a divine calling to pray for our ministry and if you are planning to support us financially, even if you don’t know the amount yet. Don’t assume we already know; you are a tremendous blessing to our hearts when you share these things with us… Remember, with your commitment to support our mission work, whether by prayer or by prayer and financially, you become a part of our missionary team and the exploits of our ministry are also added to your heavenly account..!
May the Lord richly bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think..!
In His love,
Andres and Karla, Sebastian, Daniel, and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
PS: Make sure to check out the new pictures of our recent activities to your left...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
NEWS LETTER: AUGUST 2009
To our dearest Prayer Warriors,
A Vision is Given:
When I first went to Peru, as the plane flew over Lima, it struck me to see how little vegetation there was in the area. The fact is that it never rains in the coasts of Peru, hence, the landscape around Lima is brown—the fields are brown, the mountains are brown, there are hardly any trees around. I remember saying to myself, ‘I wouldn’t want to live here; this place is barren…’
As my trip progressed I noticed that the food in Lima is extraordinarily tasty. Their fruits and vegetables are extremely rich in flavor and their agriculture in general is very prolific. I couldn’t understand. How could a land so dry deliver such palatable produces?! It wasn’t until I flew out of Lima when I noticed that although the general landscape around the city is brown, if you look carefully, you could see narrow strings of lush vegetation coming down from the Andes Mountains, over the east, running into the Pacific Ocean, over the west. I came to realize that, as the snow melts in the mountains, creeks and streams are formed into small rivers that cross through the brown soil of the coastal Peruvian landscape with lush vegetation developing in the banks of these small rivers. Then I understood how the seemingly dead, dry, and parched soil of Lima becomes a thriving fertile ground: by simply bringing water to it… You see, although the soil around Lima looks dry and dead, when you bring life-giving, life-sustaining water, you realize it is very fertile indeed!
A couple of years later after coming home from my most recent trip to Peru, I was communing with the Lord, seeking His will for my family’s missionary calling, asking Him… ‘Lord, I sense You are calling us to serve You as missionaries in Peru but what exactly do You want us to do there in Lima..?’ It was then that He whispered gently in the depths of my heart:
‘Andres, I have given you grace to prepare your heart to seek My Law, to do it, and to teach it (Ezra 7:10). Now I’m going to use you and your family, among a few others, to bring the life-giving, life-sustaining water of My Word (Eph 5:17) to the dry and parched soil of the hearts of My people that are bound by deceit in the urban culture of Lima and all across Peru. I am preparing the soil of their hearts to receive My Word to yield a crop that is thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold… (Mat 13:8) To exalt the name of My Son, Jesus, (Phi 2:9) and to send Him (Acts 3:20) and form Him (Gal 4:19) in the life of those I have appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48) in the land of the Incas. That they would “give glory to the LORD, and declare His praise in the coastlands” […of Peru] (Isa 42:12).’
And this is how I knew that my mission in Peru is to, as Pastor Chuck Smith puts it, ‘simply teach the Word of God simply…’ To bring the life-giving, life-sustaining water of God’s Word to a people whose heart condition is being prepared by the hand of God to bear much fruit, fruit that remains; all to the glory of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Developments:
* We have a meeting on Wednesday August 5th with Lysa McMillan to work out the details to become official missionaries of Calvary Ft. Lauderdale. Lysa is Pastor Chet’s assistant with all the Missions Ministry activity at Calvary Ft. Lauderdale.
* As of last weekend we have all the items needed to set up a booth and present our missions ministry to the body of Christ—we are officially ready to start raising support!
* 60+ letters presenting our ministry went out last week to mostly Calvary Chapel churches in the South Florida area and beyond.
* We are already schedule to be at Calvary Chapel Plantation on August 22nd, 23rd, and 26th, and at Calvary Chapel Inverness on August 30th.
Prayer Needs:
* Simply lift up our names before the throne of God that His will be done in our lives.
* Wisdom and protection against the works of the evil one on our family, especially on our marriage. He’s been working overtime on us lately.
* Pray for all items mentioned above in the Developments area.
* To raise one-time funds for our moving expenses.
* To raise monthly financial support for our ministry.
Special Note:
There have been questions raised regarding Shepherd Staff about what they are and what they do. They are a ministry established to facilitate missions by helping local churches and their missionaries with, among other things, the administration of the funds that come in for the missionaries. They do not provide funds for missionaries; they simply remove the burden from the local church and their missionaries of the administration of funds and the financial legal aspects of doing missions. For more information visit them in the web at www.shepsstaff.org.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.
May the Lord richly bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think..!
In His love,
Andres and Karla, Sebastian, Daniel, and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
A Vision is Given:
When I first went to Peru, as the plane flew over Lima, it struck me to see how little vegetation there was in the area. The fact is that it never rains in the coasts of Peru, hence, the landscape around Lima is brown—the fields are brown, the mountains are brown, there are hardly any trees around. I remember saying to myself, ‘I wouldn’t want to live here; this place is barren…’
As my trip progressed I noticed that the food in Lima is extraordinarily tasty. Their fruits and vegetables are extremely rich in flavor and their agriculture in general is very prolific. I couldn’t understand. How could a land so dry deliver such palatable produces?! It wasn’t until I flew out of Lima when I noticed that although the general landscape around the city is brown, if you look carefully, you could see narrow strings of lush vegetation coming down from the Andes Mountains, over the east, running into the Pacific Ocean, over the west. I came to realize that, as the snow melts in the mountains, creeks and streams are formed into small rivers that cross through the brown soil of the coastal Peruvian landscape with lush vegetation developing in the banks of these small rivers. Then I understood how the seemingly dead, dry, and parched soil of Lima becomes a thriving fertile ground: by simply bringing water to it… You see, although the soil around Lima looks dry and dead, when you bring life-giving, life-sustaining water, you realize it is very fertile indeed!
A couple of years later after coming home from my most recent trip to Peru, I was communing with the Lord, seeking His will for my family’s missionary calling, asking Him… ‘Lord, I sense You are calling us to serve You as missionaries in Peru but what exactly do You want us to do there in Lima..?’ It was then that He whispered gently in the depths of my heart:
‘Andres, I have given you grace to prepare your heart to seek My Law, to do it, and to teach it (Ezra 7:10). Now I’m going to use you and your family, among a few others, to bring the life-giving, life-sustaining water of My Word (Eph 5:17) to the dry and parched soil of the hearts of My people that are bound by deceit in the urban culture of Lima and all across Peru. I am preparing the soil of their hearts to receive My Word to yield a crop that is thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold… (Mat 13:8) To exalt the name of My Son, Jesus, (Phi 2:9) and to send Him (Acts 3:20) and form Him (Gal 4:19) in the life of those I have appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48) in the land of the Incas. That they would “give glory to the LORD, and declare His praise in the coastlands” […of Peru] (Isa 42:12).’
And this is how I knew that my mission in Peru is to, as Pastor Chuck Smith puts it, ‘simply teach the Word of God simply…’ To bring the life-giving, life-sustaining water of God’s Word to a people whose heart condition is being prepared by the hand of God to bear much fruit, fruit that remains; all to the glory of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Developments:
* We have a meeting on Wednesday August 5th with Lysa McMillan to work out the details to become official missionaries of Calvary Ft. Lauderdale. Lysa is Pastor Chet’s assistant with all the Missions Ministry activity at Calvary Ft. Lauderdale.
* As of last weekend we have all the items needed to set up a booth and present our missions ministry to the body of Christ—we are officially ready to start raising support!
* 60+ letters presenting our ministry went out last week to mostly Calvary Chapel churches in the South Florida area and beyond.
* We are already schedule to be at Calvary Chapel Plantation on August 22nd, 23rd, and 26th, and at Calvary Chapel Inverness on August 30th.
Prayer Needs:
* Simply lift up our names before the throne of God that His will be done in our lives.
* Wisdom and protection against the works of the evil one on our family, especially on our marriage. He’s been working overtime on us lately.
* Pray for all items mentioned above in the Developments area.
* To raise one-time funds for our moving expenses.
* To raise monthly financial support for our ministry.
Special Note:
There have been questions raised regarding Shepherd Staff about what they are and what they do. They are a ministry established to facilitate missions by helping local churches and their missionaries with, among other things, the administration of the funds that come in for the missionaries. They do not provide funds for missionaries; they simply remove the burden from the local church and their missionaries of the administration of funds and the financial legal aspects of doing missions. For more information visit them in the web at www.shepsstaff.org.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.
May the Lord richly bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think..!
In His love,
Andres and Karla, Sebastian, Daniel, and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
THE GARCIA'S TO THE MISSION FIELD
Dearest Prayer Warriors,
As you know, after coming from our trip to Peru in April and seeking God’s will for our lives we believe He has spoken. The Lord has given us peace and overwhelming confidence in our hearts that He is calling us to serve Him as missionaries to the urban culture of Miraflores-Lima, Peru through the ministry of Calvary Chapel Vida. After much prayer and consideration we now have a take-a-step-of-faith departure date of January 2010. To that end, we have been busy working out the details of our departure to the mission field by figuring out budgets, moving expenses, visas, residencies, passports, schools, sending agencies, applications—it’s been just like planning a wedding! The purpose of this letter is to keep you informed of the latest developments and prayer needs of our ministry.
Developments:
The latest development is that we just have been approved by Shepherd’s Staff, our mission facilitator agency. We have been assigned the account number 4508; this enables us to start raising support that is tax deductible to our supporters. This is huge since it usually takes months to get this.
Prayer Needs:
* That God’s will be done in our lives.
* That the Lord would continue to feed our hearts with fresh revelation of His glory that we may not lose the fire of our first love and single devotion to Him in the midst of busy work.
* That He would facilitate a meeting with Pastor Chet, the missions Pastor in the main campus. A meeting with him is necessary to make us official missionaries of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale.
* Wisdom to make many practical decisions in regard to our departure to the mission field.
* That He would raise more prayer warriors to keep interceding on our behalf and partner with us in our ministry.
* That He would raise funds for our moving expenses and supporters for our ongoing living and ministry expenses.
* Protection against the works of the wicked one in our family.
* Unity among His true church that we may work in unity for the exaltation of His Son in Lima and all across Peru.
Thank you for your faithful prayers. We truly believe that prayer is the driving engine of the work of God in this world. We’re just the visible tip of the iceberg that labor on top of your faithful work of intercession.
May God bless you with the unspeakable gift of His Holy Presence..!
Love,
Andres, Karla, Sebastian, Daniel and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
As you know, after coming from our trip to Peru in April and seeking God’s will for our lives we believe He has spoken. The Lord has given us peace and overwhelming confidence in our hearts that He is calling us to serve Him as missionaries to the urban culture of Miraflores-Lima, Peru through the ministry of Calvary Chapel Vida. After much prayer and consideration we now have a take-a-step-of-faith departure date of January 2010. To that end, we have been busy working out the details of our departure to the mission field by figuring out budgets, moving expenses, visas, residencies, passports, schools, sending agencies, applications—it’s been just like planning a wedding! The purpose of this letter is to keep you informed of the latest developments and prayer needs of our ministry.
Developments:
The latest development is that we just have been approved by Shepherd’s Staff, our mission facilitator agency. We have been assigned the account number 4508; this enables us to start raising support that is tax deductible to our supporters. This is huge since it usually takes months to get this.
Prayer Needs:
* That God’s will be done in our lives.
* That the Lord would continue to feed our hearts with fresh revelation of His glory that we may not lose the fire of our first love and single devotion to Him in the midst of busy work.
* That He would facilitate a meeting with Pastor Chet, the missions Pastor in the main campus. A meeting with him is necessary to make us official missionaries of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale.
* Wisdom to make many practical decisions in regard to our departure to the mission field.
* That He would raise more prayer warriors to keep interceding on our behalf and partner with us in our ministry.
* That He would raise funds for our moving expenses and supporters for our ongoing living and ministry expenses.
* Protection against the works of the wicked one in our family.
* Unity among His true church that we may work in unity for the exaltation of His Son in Lima and all across Peru.
Thank you for your faithful prayers. We truly believe that prayer is the driving engine of the work of God in this world. We’re just the visible tip of the iceberg that labor on top of your faithful work of intercession.
May God bless you with the unspeakable gift of His Holy Presence..!
Love,
Andres, Karla, Sebastian, Daniel and Samuel—the Garcia’s.
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