[{"content":"Hello Family \u0026amp; Friends!\nI bring back greetings from the churches in Uganda to all of you! I can\u0026rsquo;t thank all of you enough for your support and prayers that helped send me to Uganda a few weeks ago. I never realize how fruitful one of my missionary trips is until I arrive and see how blessed our missionaries are to be visited and loved by our presence there.\nAfter a few long flights, Isaac and I arrived near Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where we stayed a few days with the Kanyike family. Jill was one of the first missionaries sent out of our home church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace. Her husband, Brian, a Ugandan national, pastors an amazing church called Arise Christian Fellowship there in Kampala. We got to hold a men\u0026rsquo;s conference, go to the slums, visit the marketplace where Brian started the church, and I even got to teach the Sunday service! But on top of seeing their amazing ministry, the best part was just spending time with their family.\nFrom Kampala, we traveled north to Gulu with the Harris family. Their ministry is special as well. We met many new friends along the way there, and the Harrises showed us the amazing operation of Terebinth ministries, a training school for pastors. There isn\u0026rsquo;t much good biblical training in Uganda, so Terebinth is a blessing, and a huge operation that includes incredible sustainable farming! Matt and his wife designed the Bible School campus and had a hand in building it themselves. They gave us a tour and it is awesome! And, we visited friends of theirs and had some truly amazing experiences with local music, food, and fellowship.\nFinally, Vincent and Melissa Aniku picked us up from Gulu. Before we headed to see their home and ministry in the village of Midigo, in the far north close to the border of Sudan, we stopped to go on a safari with them. What an adventure and once in a lifetime experience for us!\nFinally, we ended the trip in Midigo. The Aniku family has a flourishing church, a school that educates over 900 children (housing and feeding many of them), a hospital program, and even a Football (soccer) club that has become a powerful tool for the gospel in Uganda! We were so blessed to participate in all of these things, but once again, the sweetest time we had was just spending time fellowshipping with the family.\nOver all, while I am always happy to be back home, I left a little bit of my heart in Africa, and I cannot express how proud I am of our missionaries there in Uganda, how they are submitted to the Lord and raising godly families even in difficult places. Thank you all again for sending me!\nIf you are not already a financial partner, please know that your prayers for us are sufficient, but you are welcomed to prayerfully consider partnering with us financially using the means provided below.\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, \u0026amp; Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2025/06/27/uganda-hear-about-this-garcia-june-2025-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family \u0026amp; Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI bring back greetings from the churches in Uganda to all of you! I can\u0026rsquo;t thank all of you enough for your support and prayers that helped send me to Uganda a few weeks ago. I never realize how fruitful one of my missionary trips is until I arrive and see how blessed our missionaries are to be visited and loved by our presence there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a few long flights, Isaac and I arrived near Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where we stayed a few days with the Kanyike family. Jill was one of the first missionaries sent out of our home church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace. Her husband, Brian, a Ugandan national, pastors an amazing church called Arise Christian Fellowship there in Kampala. We got to hold a men\u0026rsquo;s conference, go to the slums, visit the marketplace where Brian started the church, and I even got to teach the Sunday service! But on top of seeing their amazing ministry, the best part was just spending time with their family.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Uganda Hear About This! - Garcia June 2025 Update"},{"content":"Hey Friends and Family!\nThe time is finally almost here! For about the last 4-5 years, we have made plans and then had to scratch those plans for Joel to travel to Uganda, Africa. Last year, we went so far as to purchase tickets even, just to have the Lord change our plans yet again!\nSGWM has three amazing families serving in Uganda: The Anikus, the Harrises, and the Kanyikes. Joel will be traveling with Isaac Douglass (who assists him with missionary care) with the goal of visiting these families, seeing their ministries first-hand, and to just be a blessing to them. This makes a HUGE difference in the lives of missionaries, to have their \u0026ldquo;senders\u0026rdquo; from back home visit them and see what their lives and ministries look like.\nOur trip will begin in Kampala with the Kanyike family; then we\u0026rsquo;ll move up to Gulu to visit the Harris family; and then finally up to Midigo (near Arua on the map) to see the Aniku family.\nPlease pray that Joel and Isaac would have smooth travels to, in, and from Uganda. Pray that we would be a total blessing to the families there. Please pray for protection, especially from sickness! And please pray for our families with young children back at home, that the Lord would sustain them in our two week absence.\nOne special prayer request we have is for financial support. We know that a tough economy is hitting everyone right now, and it has been no easier for us in Southern California on a single-income ministry budget. It is a sacrifice that is well worth it, but we\u0026rsquo;d ask that you would pray for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s provision. Thank you to those of you who already responded to this request from our last update; it is a greater blessing than you know!\nIf you are not already a financial partner, please know that your prayers for us are sufficient, but you are welcomed to prayerfully consider partnering with us financially using the means provided below.\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2025/05/28/uganda-finally-garcia-family-update-may-2025/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe time is finally almost here! For about the last 4-5 years, we have made plans and then had to scratch those plans for Joel to travel to Uganda, Africa. Last year, we went so far as to purchase tickets even, just to have the Lord change our plans yet again!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSGWM has three amazing families serving in Uganda: The Anikus, the Harrises, and the Kanyikes. Joel will be traveling with Isaac Douglass (who assists him with missionary care) with the goal of visiting these families, seeing their ministries first-hand, and to just be a blessing to them. This makes a HUGE difference in the lives of missionaries, to have their \u0026ldquo;senders\u0026rdquo; from back home visit them and see what their lives and ministries look like.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Uganda, Finally! - Garcia Family Update May 2025"},{"content":"Hello Family and Friends!\nAs always, we pray you are doing well. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure all of you realize this, but you are a vital part of the ministry we get to do for Saving Grace World Missions. The fact that you read our updates blows us away; we are so grateful! For those of you who give financially, that partnership allows for this ministry to be a part of my full time work, so that missionary care can get more of the attention that it needs! And every time that I hear of someone praying for us, I am reminded that prayer is the engine that keeps our ministry moving and effective. Without your prayers, there is no power behind what we get to do for the Lord. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to say thank you!\nOn top of my normal duties on the SGWM Board and as Director of Missionary Care, I (Joel) am happy to announce that we are in the middle of arrangements for me to travel to Uganda, Africa in June! Plane tickets have been purchased and other plans for the trip are in motion. The purpose of the trip is to spend time with our three different missionary families in that country and get to see their ministries first hand. Zoom calls and emails are amazing, helpful technology, but they cannot replace the ministry and missionary care that happens when you get your \u0026ldquo;boots on the ground.\u0026rdquo; Please pray for all of the plans to fall in place smoothly for this trip, and that the Lord would take care of the rest of the family while I am away for over two weeks.\nSpeaking of the family, everyone is doing well by the grace of God! The boys have just finished up a season of basketball with the YMCA, and I was privileged to coach Harrison\u0026rsquo;s team! The girls are doing great as well, and as a family we are enjoying all of the fun experiences that all kids go through, like learning to ride bikes, learning to read, school projects (like building California missions!), field trips, learning sports, learning new instruments, losing teeth and fixing teeth with braces, and everything in between!\nOne special prayer request we have is for financial support. We know that a tough economy is hitting everyone right now, and it has been no easier for us in Southern California on a single-income ministry budget. It is a sacrifice that is well worth it, but we\u0026rsquo;d ask that you would pray for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s provision. If you are not already a financial partner, please know that your prayers for us are sufficient, but you are welcomed to prayerfully consider partnering with us financially using the means provided below.\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2025/03/21/garcia-family-update-march-2025/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family and Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs always, we pray you are doing well. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure all of you realize this, but you are a vital part of the ministry we get to do for Saving Grace World Missions. The fact that you read our updates blows us away; we are so grateful! For those of you who give financially, that partnership allows for this ministry to be a part of my full time work, so that missionary care can get more of the attention that it needs! And every time that I hear of someone praying for us, I am reminded that prayer is the engine that keeps our ministry moving and effective. Without your prayers, there is no power behind what we get to do for the Lord. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to say thank you!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Garcia Family Update March 2025"},{"content":"I love January! I\u0026rsquo;m always looking for a fresh start, a blank slate. It excites me to think about all of the things the Lord may have for us in the year ahead!\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a great holiday season. October through December is a busy time for our church, with Halloween Front Yard Party Outreaches, our annual Thanksgiving Potluck, and Christmas services (which means dusting off the old Christmas songs for the worship teams I lead!). But it was so great to celebrate all of these things with our church and family.\nAnd there is the added bonus of receiving back some missionaries over these last couple of months who are back from the field, visiting on furlough, or here to have a baby, from places like the Middle East, North Africa, and Peru! And speaking of Peru, we are sending out a new missionary, Joshua Vanrenterghem, to be a missionary in Peru just next week! On top of that, we are sending a young couple from our Missions Training School, Geoff \u0026amp; Lydia Hamano, on a 3-month vision tour to Japan this month as well, so they can get a better feel of what it will be like to live in this country that they feel called to. Click their images below to check out more about their ministry!\nIt is always hard to send out some of our best co-laborers in Christ, but we know that the need is so great in other unreached parts of the world, and they need these amazing servants of God!\nThis new year is a blank slate as far as travel plans. I will need to do my traveling in the first half of the year this year, so would you pray for us in that? We would ask two things:\nThat the Lord would guide us as to where Joel should travel. None of these trips are arbitrary or randomly chosen; there are so many good options in front of us for which locations need missionary care, but we can only choose one or two a year to travel to and make an impact, so we want the decision to be the Lord\u0026rsquo;s That the Lord would provide the necessary funding for Joel to travel where the Lord leads him this year We would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2025/01/08/will-you-pray-with-us-garcia-family-update-january-2025/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI love January! I\u0026rsquo;m always looking for a fresh start, a blank slate. It excites me to think about all of the things the Lord may have for us in the year ahead!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been a great holiday season. October through December is a busy time for our church, with Halloween Front Yard Party Outreaches, our annual Thanksgiving Potluck, and Christmas services (which means dusting off the old Christmas songs for the worship teams I lead!). But it was so great to celebrate all of these things with our church and family.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Will You Pray With Us? - Garcia Family Update January 2025"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\nOne of the reasons I do what I do is that I LOVE missionaries. God has not called me to be a missionary (not yet at least!), but I know He has called me to send them, care for them, and love them well. This last trip I went on for 21 days in September was such a great opportunity to do just that: loving and caring for our missionaries well by having time with them face to face, worshiping with them and talking with them and sharing experiences with them.\nThis trip was not easy! I realized that 21 days is the longest that Amy and I have been apart since before we were engaged, and so this was also the longest I have ever been away from my kids. And my 13 year anniversary fell during my trip as well! Amy and I still need to plan some kind of make up getaway for that!\nBut even though it is hard going, I know that the sacrifices our missionaries have made are so much greater, and that these trips to love them and care for them and learn from them and speak into their lives are so necessary. I discover this in fresh ways every time I travel.\nJAPAN\nThe first leg of my trip was to Osaka, Japan. I took a team of three young people with me who are in various stages of either praying about, or committed to, moving there long-term as missionaries. I also was able to spend extensive time with our missionaries Jeff and Alishia Root there. It was critical for me to experience their mission field to better understand how I can specifically love and care for them better. And I will say, I LOVED Japan! The culture, the people, the food\u0026hellip; everything was amazing! And while Japan is one of the most difficult places for the gospel to penetrate, we heard from multiple missionaries there that it seems like God is beginning a great work in Japan!\nFrom Japan, we traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand for the CCA Asia Conference. The conference was great, and it was really awesome meeting with old friends and making new ones.\nBut the highlight came afterward: We had about 45 people from SGWM there, most of them missionaries from South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Japan! This was a truly incredible experience, to worship with them and hear updates from them and have strategic ministry meetings with them and just have fun together as well! The fellowship was powerful and a gift from the Lord to strengthen our ministry. I wish I could share the many photos I have of me with my friends there, but due to the nature of where they are serving, I can\u0026rsquo;t show their faces here.\nThank you all so much for your prayers and support over this trip. I\u0026rsquo;m happy to be home now with my family and church for the rest of the year, and please be praying over what the Lord may have for us in 2025.\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/10/18/what-a-trip-garcia-family-update-october-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the reasons I do what I do is that I LOVE missionaries. God has not called me to be a missionary (not yet at least!), but I know He has called me to send them, care for them, and love them well. This last trip I went on for 21 days in September was such a great opportunity to do just that: loving and caring for our missionaries well by having time with them face to face, worshiping with them and talking with them and sharing experiences with them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What A Trip! - Garcia Family Update October 2024"},{"content":"Hey Friends and Family!\nI pray you are all doing well and enjoying these last days of Summer! Joel had an amazing time in Mexico teaching a workshop on raising up and leading a worship team, leading a night of worship and prayer for our School of Missions students, and then teaching a class for them on the theology of worship.\nWe are looking forward to a BIG month starting this week; here are some of the things going on that we would ask you to be in prayer for us over:\nThis weekend, Joel is teaching at a Missions Conference at Calvary Chapel Westgrove On Sunday, we are hosting a Dessert Gathering update at the church for SGWM missionaries the Kanyike Family from Uganda The following Sunday, the whole family will be participating in a Walk-A-Thon to raise money for missions (more on that later) In two weeks, Joel will be leaving for three weeks to Japan and Thailand. In Japan, Joel will lead a small team who is praying about moving there, check up on our missionaries the Root Family there, and teach at Calvary Chapel Abide in Osaka In Thailand, Joel will attend the CCA Missions Conference in Chiang Mai, and then spend an extended time helping lead a separate conference for many of our SGWM missionaries and nationals who will be joining us there Please pray for a fruitful trip for Joel, and that the Lord would protect and provide for the rest of the family during the trip, as it will be the longest Joel has ever taken!\nNow, about the Walk-A-Thon\u0026hellip; Our church is putting on a Labor Day picnic that will include a mile walk in Yorba Linda to raise money for missions! All six of us Garcias will be participating, and we would love your help! Would you consider sponsoring us by donating toward the cause we are walking for? It would be a huge blessing! We are raising money to help put our new batch of missionaries in the Middle East through language school, as it is an expensive investment that will be absolutely crucial for their effectiveness on the field there!\nTo donate, please click the link below, select One-Time, or Recurring if you would like this to be a recurring donation, and select MIDDLE EAST GENERAL as the Fund you are donating to, along with the dollar amount of your choice. Any amount helps!\nClick here to sponsor us for the Walk-A-Thon!\nHere are some pics of us participating in last year\u0026rsquo;s Walk-A-Thon:\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/08/21/walking-for-the-nations-how-you-can-get-involved-garcia-family-update-august-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray you are all doing well and enjoying these last days of Summer! Joel had an amazing time in Mexico teaching a workshop on raising up and leading a worship team, leading a night of worship and prayer for our School of Missions students, and then teaching a class for them on the theology of worship.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2024/08/b5e0d9d4-efae-427e-a2fe-9d64c71c6250.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe are looking forward to a BIG month starting this week; here are some of the things going on that we would ask you to be in prayer for us over:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Walking for the Nations! How YOU Can Get Involved! - Garcia Family Update August 2024"},{"content":"While my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) travels typically take me internationally, every once in a while I get to travel to a new state. Back in May, our whole family went on a road trip to Pagosa Springs, CO, where we hiked to waterfalls and along rivers, saw historic little towns, and spent time swimming at the beautiful resort we were blessed with a free seven night stay at! On the way back, we also got to visit the \u0026ldquo;Four Corners,\u0026rdquo; where you can stand in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico all at once. A novelty for sure, but the kids loved it.\nThis month, I got to head to Alabama for the first time! While I ate some good food (much of it deep-fried and not friendly to my diet!) and got to spend time with some dear family, this wasn\u0026rsquo;t for a vacation. The purpose of our trip was for a Crisis Management Training seminar in Auburn, where my friend and fellow SGWM pastor Tim, his wife Jenn, and Rob Douglass and Elaine Sedillos of Ends of the Earth Ministries, met up to invest in the stewardship of our dear missionaries and ministries around the world.\nMissions is never entirely safe; there is always risk involved. The purpose of this training was to equip us to: assess risk for each area of the world we have workers and ministries in; come up with and write policies and contingency plans for each of those regions; and create teams to help manage any potential crisis that may arise. We hope to NEVER have to implement a single one of those plans, but we need to be equipped in case anything happens to our precious missionaries. Our job as a home office is to steward them well.\nIn a couple of weeks, my international travels will continue as I will head down to Rosarito, Mexico to teach workshop at CC Rosarito\u0026rsquo;s annual church-planting conference (my workshop will be \u0026ldquo;Building a Worship Team\u0026rdquo;) and then give my testimony, lead a night of worship, and then teach a half-day class at our Calvary School of Missions on \u0026ldquo;Worship \u0026amp; Missions.\u0026rdquo;\nThen in September, I will be taking one of my longest trips ever, as I lead a team to Japan to visit our missionaries Jeff \u0026amp; Alishia Root as well as to expose the team to Japanese culture as they pray about their future in missions. From there, I\u0026rsquo;ll go straight to Thailand (where I took my first overseas missions trip almost 20 years ago!) for the CCA missions conference and then a special retreat/conference for many of our SGWM missionaries in Asia. I ask that you keep my family and I in prayer as we prepare for these big things coming up.\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/07/23/new-states-new-countries-garcia-family-update-july-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhile my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) travels typically take me internationally, every once in a while I get to travel to a new state. Back in May, our whole family went on a road trip to Pagosa Springs, CO, where we hiked to waterfalls and along rivers, saw historic little towns, and spent time swimming at the beautiful resort we were blessed with a free seven night stay at! On the way back, we also got to visit the \u0026ldquo;Four Corners,\u0026rdquo; where you can stand in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico all at once. A novelty for sure, but the kids loved it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New States \u0026 New Countries - Garcia Family Update July 2024"},{"content":"Most of you may know that I\u0026rsquo;ve been the Young Adults Pastor at my church for about 8 years now. The Lord has done amazing things in this group over the past year. We are currently going through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and one of the recurring themes in those books is God\u0026rsquo;s good hand being upon the work that these great men of God did (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Nehemiah 2:8, 18). As I think about our ministry, and in particular about what\u0026rsquo;s to come this Summer, I see God\u0026rsquo;s good hands all over it!\nREST\nThis coming week, our family is taking an overdue vacation, a road trip to Colorado, where we will stay for a week and get some much needed rest before a busy Summer. Our family has been doing great! Our two youngest (Jude \u0026amp; Clara) just celebrated their 7th \u0026amp; 5th birthdays, respectively, over the past month. Maggie, our oldest, was baptized last year in a moment that made us so proud as parents, and now Harrison, our second oldest, got baptized this month!\nCONVERGENCE\nOne reason Summer is so busy for me as the Director of Missionary Care at SGWM is that so many missionaries come home on furlough. This is such a blessing for us! I got to meet with one national worker who is visiting this week from South Asia. Next week, we will have a couple we recently sent out to Japan here. With more missionaries coming in, that means that next week we will have one couple in from Japan, two couples in from the Middle East, one family in from North Africa, and one South Asian national here all at the same time (hence my sub-heading convergence above)! Another gal will be in from the Middle East for some of the Summer as well. This kind of stuff blesses my heart so much!\nCHANGE\nOne thing that was both a blessing and a disappointment is that the trip to Uganda we had scheduled for June has been canceled. This is disappointing because I\u0026rsquo;ve been trying to make it to Uganda to visit our three missionary families there for a few years now. But, it is also a blessing because the reason we had to cancel the trip is that both families will be in the states during June receiving US citizenship, one for their children, and one for the father/husband who is an African national! I am so excited for this step for them!\nWORK\nSummer, as usual, is busy for other reasons as well. Much of our staff, including our senior pastor, spend 6 weeks in Mexico for our annual Calvary School of Missions, where we give people with a heart for missions a crash-course in all things missions, from theology to practice. To help support that, I will spend much of the summer leading the staff and home base here in Southern California, including teaching a summer Wednesday night series through the book of Proverbs for our church. On top of that, the cancelation of our Uganda trip will allow me to spend a little more time traveling to Mexico occasionally this Summer to visit and at teach at our school there, and also to teach a workshop on building a worship team at the Church-Planting Conference at our own church plant, Calvary Chapel Rosarito.\nI\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to an amazing Summer full of great things and covered by God\u0026rsquo;s good hand. We ask you to keep us in your prayers and in your hearts, and please let us know how we can be praying for you as well!\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/05/17/gods-good-hand-garcia-family-update-may-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMost of you may know that I\u0026rsquo;ve been the Young Adults Pastor at my church for about 8 years now. The Lord has done amazing things in this group over the past year. We are currently going through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and one of the recurring themes in those books is God\u0026rsquo;s good hand being upon the work that these great men of God did (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Nehemiah 2:8, 18). As I think about our ministry, and in particular about what\u0026rsquo;s to come this Summer, I see God\u0026rsquo;s good hands all over it!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"God's Good Hand - Garcia Family Update May 2024"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI pray you are all doing well! The last couple of months have been so exciting for SGWM, and especially for me as the Director of Missionary Care. We have sent out FIVE new missionaries straight to the field for me to care for: one couple to Japan, and one couple and a single gal to the Middle East. It is so exciting to be a part of loving and shepherding these teams as they develop. I get to lead the team who does a lot behind the scenes to support these missionaries well by processing their finances, sending their updates out to their supporters, and providing pastoral care. I can\u0026rsquo;t think of anything else I\u0026rsquo;d rather be doing than SENDING these amazing men and women of God!\nThe Lord has also opened the door for me (Joel) to go to Uganda in June to visit our missionaries there. It will be my first time in that part of Africa, so I am very excited, and we have three missionary families there who we hope to spend time with. Pray that the Lord perfectly arranges all of the details of that trip.\nOn a personal note, we want to sincerely thank all of you who prayed for our housing situation from our previous update. The Lord has provided for us to stay at our current house for at least another year! Praise God for His grace in that!\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/02/15/praise-god-for-answered-prayers-garcia-family-update-february-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray you are all doing well! The last couple of months have been so exciting for SGWM, and especially for me as the Director of Missionary Care. We have sent out FIVE new missionaries straight to the field for me to care for: one couple to Japan, and one couple and a single gal to the Middle East. It is so exciting to be a part of loving and shepherding these teams as they develop. I get to lead the team who does a lot behind the scenes to support these missionaries well by processing their finances, sending their updates out to their supporters, and providing pastoral care. I can\u0026rsquo;t think of anything else I\u0026rsquo;d rather be doing than SENDING these amazing men and women of God!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Praise God for Answered Prayers! - Garcia Family Update February 2024"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nAs we near the end of the first month of 2024, we look back on last year with gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and for your faithful partnership in prayer and support; and we also look forward to what the Lord has for our family and ministry through the rest of 2024 ahead of us. Please see below for an important prayer request as we begin this year!\nAmy and I are now the proud parents of a kid in \u0026ldquo;double digits,\u0026rdquo; as our precious Maggie turned 10 this month! Time is truly flying by, and we are soaking in all that we can with the kids. They are all doing well and flourishing.\nAs far as ministry goes, the church and running Missionary Care at SGWM keeps me busy. Our young adults group is growing both in numbers and spiritual depth, and we can\u0026rsquo;t believe what God is doing there! On the missionary care side, there were a lot of missionaries in town over the holidays, so I did a lot of planning for that and spending time with them. And this month, we have the privilege of sending our five new missionaries to unreached countries straight from our church. All glory to God!\nAs far as travel for this year, my hope and prayer is to make it to Uganda, my first time in Africa, in June; then deeper Mexico and Japan in the Fall, all for missionary care for established works and works just in their infancy. Of course, all of this is subject to change and in the Lord\u0026rsquo;s hands.\nWe do have a personal prayer request for you all: We are in the middle of figuring out what to do next as far as housing. The housing market is not friendly right now for a single-income family of six on a ministry salary! We are not sure whether the Lord wants to provide for us to stay where we are right now, or whether He wants to provide to move to a new house, as our current lease is up at the end of February. We are waiting on Him and trusting Him, as Amy and I received a very specific prophetic word for us during this month\u0026rsquo;s week of prayer and fasting with our church: Provision. We know He will provide, but we want His wisdom and to know His heart for us. Will you please pray with us to know and walk in however He wants to provide for us?\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2024/01/22/a-prayer-request-garcia-family-update-january-2024/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs we near the end of the first month of 2024, we look back on last year with gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and for your faithful partnership in prayer and support; and we also look forward to what the Lord has for our family and ministry through the rest of 2024 ahead of us. Please see below for an important prayer request as we begin this year!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Prayer Request - Garcia Family Update January 2024"},{"content":"It is great to be back from an extremely fruitful trip to the Middle East and North Africa! I wanted to extend my thanks to you all for praying for Isaac and I. Our families were loved and taken care of while we were away, and our time in the two countries we went to was much needed.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll be honest, I really don\u0026rsquo;t like traveling. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting to see our missionaries on the field, but this trip included 8 airplanes, with flight lengths ranging from 1 hour to 11 hours; we barely made our final connecting flight home (unlike our luggage, which had to be shipped to us the next day!); and, as is typical, I got a stomach sickness in the middle of our trip that hindered some of the ministry we planned on. But when I think of what our missionaries go through and what they have given up to get the gospel to the unreached, those things all become minor inconveniences.\nBecause it is illegal to be missionaries in the countries we went to, we can\u0026rsquo;t say where we were or show pics of our workers\u0026rsquo; faces (so below, you\u0026rsquo;ll get a few food pics, one of my favorite parts of traveling!). But the time spent with them was so valuable, sharing their struggles and spiritual burdens with them, helping them develop vision and plans for their ministry moving forward, and just giving them a little taste of home that was refreshing to their souls. Thank you so much for your prayers and sending me!\nWe would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2023/11/17/were-back-garcia-family-update-november-2023/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt is great to be back from an extremely fruitful trip to the Middle East and North Africa! I wanted to extend my thanks to you all for praying for Isaac and I. Our families were loved and taken care of while we were away, and our time in the two countries we went to was much needed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll be honest, I really don\u0026rsquo;t like traveling. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I absolutely love getting to see our missionaries on the field, but this trip included 8 airplanes, with flight lengths ranging from 1 hour to 11 hours; we barely made our final connecting flight home (unlike our luggage, which had to be shipped to us the next day!); and, as is typical, I got a stomach sickness in the middle of our trip that hindered some of the ministry we planned on. But when I think of what our missionaries go through and what they have given up to get the gospel to the unreached, those things all become minor inconveniences.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"We're Back! Garcia Family Update November 2023"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nI pray you are all doing well! I wanted to use this update as a time to both ask for prayer, and to extend my gratitude! Next week, I am traveling with my friend Isaac (who is a pastoral intern at our church) to two countries that will remain unnamed, as they are \u0026ldquo;sensitive countries\u0026rdquo; (countries that are not open to the gospel). Our goal there is to visit with our SGWM workers in those countries, get a good firsthand look at the works there, and minister to them in love. This is what we call a \u0026ldquo;missionary care\u0026rdquo; visit, and something I love to do as the Director of Missionary Care with SGWM!\nI am so thankful because it is the partnership and prayer of people like YOU that allows me to be able to go on these trips and minister to our workers! It means so much to them, and is so important over all, for them to be visited by their pastor, especially as I was heavily involved in raising some of these workers up in discipleship. Without your prayers and support, that wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be possible!\nFinally, would you pray with us for a few things?\nFor safety, health, and most of all, fruitfulness for Isaac and I on this trip. We want to be huge blessings to our workers in these countries during this trip For our families back at home. Isaac and I both have young children, so please keep our wives in prayer as they manage the household without us for a couple of weeks, and that our families are loved and cared for while we are gone For the Lord\u0026rsquo;s financial provision for us. A large portion of my salary consists of support from generous financial partners (some people call them \u0026ldquo;donors\u0026rdquo;), just like our international missionaries around the world. The continually rising costs of things like rent and food make it tough for large families like ours! The Lord is always EXTREMELY faithful to provide! So pray for His continued provision for our family. If you would like to be a part of our work as senders with SGWM by becoming a financial partner with us, you can do so following the instructions below We would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2023/10/18/thank-you-for-sending-me-garcia-family-update-october-2023/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray you are all doing well! I wanted to use this update as a time to both ask for prayer, and to extend my gratitude! Next week, I am traveling with my friend Isaac (who is a pastoral intern at our church) to two countries that will remain unnamed, as they are \u0026ldquo;sensitive countries\u0026rdquo; (countries that are not open to the gospel). Our goal there is to visit with our SGWM workers in those countries, get a good firsthand look at the works there, and minister to them in love. This is what we call a \u0026ldquo;missionary care\u0026rdquo; visit, and something I love to do as the Director of Missionary Care with SGWM!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Thank You For Sending Me! - Garcia Family Update October 2023"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nIt has been a busy summer for us! On top of holding the fort running the SGWM and CCSG home office and staff in the absence of many of our leaders during the summer School of Missions, the focus for Joel has been teaching and preaching. Since returning from Israel, which was the focus of our last newsletter, Joel\u0026rsquo;s teaching schedule has consisted of:\nCo-teaching a class in June with Pastor Trent through 1 Timothy Young Adults group every Thursday night through the book of Romans Teaching the church through 1 Peter every Wednesday night during this July and August A monthly Bible study for our church\u0026rsquo;s husbands and fathers through the book of Proverbs Teaching a couple of our internship classes Filling in on a Sunday morning for our pastor who became sick on Saturday night Teaching a session at our church\u0026rsquo;s youth camp in July Teaching for the young adults group and then three Sunday morning services the following weekend at Calvary Chapel The Rock in Santa Rosa, CA at the end of July In the midst of this, Joel and Amy got to help with our church\u0026rsquo;s VBS in July, which was a major success!\nThis summer has also been filled with lots of missionary care, meeting with missionaries who are in town on furlough, and doing zoom calls with missionaries in need of pastoral care and wisdom.\nIn all of this, the center is God\u0026rsquo;s word. Every teaching, every interaction, every missionary care meeting, every counseling session, all of the homeschooling that Amy faithfully plugs away at with the kids, is founded not on our own wisdom, but on God\u0026rsquo;s word. What a privilege to serve Him in this way!\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2023/08/02/called-to-preach-garcia-family-august-2023-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has been a busy summer for us! On top of holding the fort running the SGWM and CCSG home office and staff in the absence of many of our leaders during the summer School of Missions, the focus for Joel has been teaching and preaching. Since returning from Israel, which was the focus of our last newsletter, Joel\u0026rsquo;s teaching schedule has consisted of:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCo-teaching a class in June with Pastor Trent through 1 Timothy\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYoung Adults group every Thursday night through the book of Romans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTeaching the church through 1 Peter every Wednesday night during this July and August\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA monthly Bible study for our church\u0026rsquo;s husbands and fathers through the book of Proverbs\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTeaching a couple of our internship classes\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFilling in on a Sunday morning for our pastor who became sick on Saturday night\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTeaching a session at our church\u0026rsquo;s youth camp in July\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTeaching for the young adults group and then three Sunday morning services the following weekend at Calvary Chapel The Rock in Santa Rosa, CA at the end of July\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2023/08/IMG%5F3003.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2023/08/IMG%5F6077.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2023/08/IMG%5F6073.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the midst of this, Joel and Amy got to help with our church\u0026rsquo;s VBS in July, which was a major success!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Called to Preach - Garcia Family August 2023 Update"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nWe pray you are all doing well. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our updates, pray for, and support us! It means the world to us.\nI (Joel) returned from a fruitful trip to Israel a couple of weeks ago. It was great to learn from our trusted guide and my pastor, Trent, getting a better grounding on the locations where the Bible took place. There is new significance to every story we covered as we receive greater context for the stories of Scripture. I also had the privilege of leading a LOT of worship at various locations, as well as doing some teachings.\nThe best part of this trip, however, was doing missionary care. I got to room with a worker we sent to the Middle East about a year ago and we shared great fellowship and prayer together talking through how the past year has been for him. In addition, we were also joined by two couples who we had just sent to serve alongside of him about a week prior to the trip. I got to talk through a lot of things with them as well and offer them pastoral care.\nOn the family side, things are going well. We are all mourning the loss of Amy\u0026rsquo;s sweet, godly grandmother Jean, who is with the Lord now, free of pain, and having left a legacy of righteousness with all of us here. In the midst of that, we had reason for joy as well as we celebrated Jude and Clara\u0026rsquo;s birthdays, which are about a week apart. Maggie is in the initial stages of getting braces, so please pray for provision for that and for the Lord to be her strength, as that process can be intimidating for a kid. The kids have been enjoying art classes and swimming lessons, and the boys will be doing baseball through the city again soon.\nWe also continue to lead our Young Adults Ministry. Amy also helps lead and teach a monthly group for moms at our church called Inspired Motherhood. And Joel has taken up a volunteer position on the board for the kids\u0026rsquo; charter school. Please pray for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s strength in all of these endeavors, that we would do all things well, for His glory, and only in the power of His Spirit! Thank you all for your prayers.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2023/05/16/what-a-trip-garcia-family-update-may-2023/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe pray you are all doing well. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our updates, pray for, and support us! It means the world to us.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI (Joel) returned from a fruitful trip to Israel a couple of weeks ago. It was great to learn from our trusted guide and my pastor, Trent, getting a better grounding on the locations where the Bible took place. There is new significance to every story we covered as we receive greater context for the stories of Scripture. I also had the privilege of leading a LOT of worship at various locations, as well as doing some teachings.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What A Trip! - Garcia Family Update May 2023"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\nThese last few months have been a sweet time of ministry. The Lord has really been confirming what I believe to be His main calling on my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) life: to teach the Word of God! This specific calling plays into every role He has me in, from leading worship to being Director of Missionary Care here at SGWM.\nThe opportunities for me to teach have been plentiful. Right now, I am teaching our young adults group weekly through Romans. I was privileged to preach for three Sunday mornings at our church through the book of Jude recently. I am co-teaching a class at my church with our Senior Pastor through the prison epistles right now. In a couple of weeks, Amy and I will join a young adults group in northern California as I teach all of the sessions at their retreat; this group is led by Bond and Heather Gaona, who is a fellow SGWM board member with me! I will get to teach a session at my church\u0026rsquo;s youth camp in a few weeks, and I will also get to teach a Sunday morning at the church of a friend I met on my recent Nepal trip in just about a month. Notice that some of these teaching opportunities have come through missions connections! This has all taken a lot of hard work studying, but it is so awesome to walk in what God has called me to.\nI\u0026rsquo;m so thankful to God for all of these opportunities, but for me, teaching goes so far beyond local church ministry. My role as Director of Missionary Care means that I get to meet often with our missionaries, and in that role God has called me to continually give them encouragement from His Word to help guide them and to help them persevere on the field. I also get to spend a lot of time teaching some of our missions interns who are heading to the field soon, to help prepare them for decades of ministry ahead of them!\nAn exciting new development for me has been that I get to go to Israel at the end of April with our church! The purpose of this trip is threefold:\n1. I will help lead the team as my pastor is traveling separately, and I will help share the load of teaching at different sites there with him, as well as leading worship\n2. This trip will serve to further educate me as a Bible teacher. I went to Israel on a short trip a couple of years ago (we actually got back to the U.S. from that trip just days before the COVID shutdown). That trip was kind of a \u0026ldquo;mini\u0026rdquo; trip tacked onto a Middle East vision tour, so this next trip I go on will be a deeper dive in the area of the world I spend so much time teaching about!\n3. Finally, a number of our missions interns will be on this trip who are heading directly from there to establish their roots in the 10/40 window! That means this trip will serve as a sort of \u0026ldquo;send off\u0026rdquo; for them. I\u0026rsquo;ve grown really close to some of these young men and women, and actually was on the Israel trip with them back in 2020! So this feels really \u0026ldquo;full-circle\u0026rdquo; for our friendship. I am so excited that I get to send them off no longer as a leader in their internship, but now as their pastor and Director of Missionary Care for them! I wish I could post pictures from our last trip of them and tell you their names, but for security purposes and the sensitive nature of where they will be serving, I will have to refrain. Here\u0026rsquo;s a picture of me from Caesarea from 2020 instead :)\nOur family is doing great. Our three oldest just finished their first \u0026ldquo;season\u0026rdquo; of basketball, which was awesome and made me so proud! Amy is also doing amazing home-schooling the kids and doing ministry, including co-leading a group for moms at our church called \u0026ldquo;Inspired Motherhood.\u0026rdquo; I\u0026rsquo;ve also taken on a role as a board member for the charter school my kids are enrolled in, so please be in prayer for all of those things!\nThank you all so much for your prayers! It means the world to us.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2023/02/21/preach-the-word-garcia-family-update-february-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese last few months have been a sweet time of ministry. The Lord has really been confirming what I believe to be His main calling on my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) life: to teach the Word of God! This specific calling plays into every role He has me in, from leading worship to being Director of Missionary Care here at SGWM.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe opportunities for me to teach have been plentiful. Right now, I am teaching our young adults group weekly through Romans. I was privileged to preach for three Sunday mornings at our church through the book of Jude recently. I am co-teaching a class at my church with our Senior Pastor through the prison epistles right now. In a couple of weeks, Amy and I will join a young adults group in northern California as I teach all of the sessions at their retreat; this group is led by Bond and Heather Gaona, who is a fellow SGWM board member with me! I will get to teach a session at my church\u0026rsquo;s youth camp in a few weeks, and I will also get to teach a Sunday morning at the church of a friend I met on my recent Nepal trip in just about a month. Notice that some of these teaching opportunities have come through missions connections! This has all taken a lot of hard work studying, but it is so awesome to walk in what God has called me to.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Preach The Word! - Garcia Family Update February 2023"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/give/","summary":"","title":"Give"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\nIt is hard to explain how amazing the experience I had in Nepal last month was. I met the men I know and pray for constantly who are my modern-day heroes of the faith. They serve the Lord is South Asia and the Middle East, I read their stories, I pray with them on Zoom, I talk about them all the time, and I finally got to meet with them in person, many of them for the very first time. It was an incredible feat for my friends Bond and Heather to get all of these men to Nepal for a conference, but it was one of the most amazing things I\u0026rsquo;ve ever gotten to be a part of.\nOur 7-day trip was filled! I got to teach six times, saw beautiful views of the Himalayas, rode on a motorbike (a whole different experience in Nepal!), ate amazing food, and most importantly, got to fellowship with and encourage my South Asian and Middle Eastern brothers in Christ. This was missionary care at its finest. Here are some pictures for you all! I wish I could show you more, but for security purposes I have tried to keep our national workers out of the pictures as much as possible.\nThank you all so much for your prayers! It means the world to us.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2022/11/15/fruit-in-nepal-garcia-family-update-november-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is hard to explain how amazing the experience I had in Nepal last month was. I met the men I know and pray for constantly who are my modern-day heroes of the faith. They serve the Lord is South Asia and the Middle East, I read their stories, I pray with them on Zoom, I talk about them all the time, and I finally got to meet with them in person, many of them for the very first time. It was an incredible feat for my friends Bond and Heather to get all of these men to Nepal for a conference, but it was one of the most amazing things I\u0026rsquo;ve ever gotten to be a part of.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fruit in Nepal - Garcia Family Update November 2022"},{"content":"Hey Friends!\nThank you for taking the time to read this update! It has been awhile since I have sent out an update, and the Lord has been doing a lot in our lives and ministry, so below is a short video as well as some bullet points for you all to pray over. Thank you so much for your Gospel partnership!\nhttps://youtu.be/kTymHJTyW6Y\nPraise God that He has given me new roles and increased responsibilities and opportunities to serve Him! I have taken on the role of Ministry Pastor here at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace. Please pray for wisdom and vision as I oversee the ministries of our church! Praise God that He is giving me opportunities to teach! On top of teaching our Young Adults group weekly, I have the opportunity to teach at our upcoming Men\u0026rsquo;s Retreat, multiple times during an upcoming trip to Nepal, and a couple of Sunday mornings at the church after that filling the pulpit for our Senior Pastor while he is away on a trip to Peru. Pray for the anointing of the Spirit for those times and for the time and diligence to study. Praise God that He is opening doors to travel again! Along with one of our SGWM board members, Heather Gaona and her husband Bond, SGWM missionaries Aaron and Jena Garcia, and my friend and church\u0026rsquo;s Youth Director Isaac Douglass, I am traveling to Nepal in mid-October to represent SGWM, meet ALL of our national workers from South Asia and the Middle East, and put on a conference for all of them to encourage them in their ministries! Pray for strength, guidance, and the Spirit\u0026rsquo;s filling to represent Him and His Word well on that trip, and for Amy and the kids as they will be home without me for 10 days. We also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2022/09/29/garcia-family-update-september-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you for taking the time to read this update! It has been awhile since I have sent out an update, and the Lord has been doing a lot in our lives and ministry, so below is a short video as well as some bullet points for you all to pray over. Thank you so much for your Gospel partnership!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/kTymHJTyW6Y\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/kTymHJTyW6Y\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePraise God that He has given me new roles and increased responsibilities and opportunities to serve Him! I have taken on the role of Ministry Pastor here at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace. Please pray for wisdom and vision as I oversee the ministries of our church!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePraise God that He is giving me opportunities to teach! On top of teaching our Young Adults group weekly, I have the opportunity to teach at our upcoming Men\u0026rsquo;s Retreat, multiple times during an upcoming trip to Nepal, and a couple of Sunday mornings at the church after that filling the pulpit for our Senior Pastor while he is away on a trip to Peru. Pray for the anointing of the Spirit for those times and for the time and diligence to study.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePraise God that He is opening doors to travel again! Along with one of our SGWM board members, Heather Gaona and her husband Bond, SGWM missionaries Aaron and Jena Garcia, and my friend and church\u0026rsquo;s Youth Director Isaac Douglass, I am traveling to Nepal in mid-October to represent SGWM, meet ALL of our national workers from South Asia and the Middle East, and put on a conference for all of them to encourage them in their ministries! Pray for strength, guidance, and the Spirit\u0026rsquo;s filling to represent Him and His Word well on that trip, and for Amy and the kids as they will be home without me for 10 days.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the link below:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Garcia Family Update - September 2022"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nWe have been provoked lately regarding the power of prayer in our lives and the lives of others. Prayer is so powerful, the most powerful weapon we have as believers. As various trials have popped up in the lives of loved ones, we have been reminded of this reality.\nA few weeks ago, Amy\u0026rsquo;s dad was in a skiing accident that left him in critical condition. Through the prayers of many, he is on the road to recovery. Though things are coming along much more slowly than we\u0026rsquo;d like, we are so thankful the Lord saved him from an accident that could have been so much worse!\nJust this past week, we also learned that missionary friends of ours in Turkey were in a terrible car accident that left their three-year-old son in critical condition with a fractured skull. Through the power of prayer, he is blowing the doctors away in that what they estimated to be 3 months\u0026rsquo; worth of progress for him happened in only 3 days! Not only that, but our friends have been provided for radically and have been sharing the gospel with the doctors.\nFinally, it has been amazing to see what the Lord is doing through the efforts of believers, and in our context, Calvary Chapels, in the Ukraine. Friends of SGWM are heavily involved on the ground there helping evacuate people and save lives. Praise God for how he moves in the worst of situations!\nOn the ministry side, Joel has helped hold the fort at SGWM headquarters in Yorba Linda while a large group was in central Mexico for two weeks. This past weekend, he had the privilege of both leading worship and preaching on one Sunday! It was busy, but a blessing to be used by the Lord in this way.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2022/03/15/the-power-of-prayer-garcia-family-update-march-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe have been provoked lately regarding the power of prayer in our lives and the lives of others. Prayer is so powerful, the most powerful weapon we have as believers. As various trials have popped up in the lives of loved ones, we have been reminded of this reality.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few weeks ago, Amy\u0026rsquo;s dad was in a skiing accident that left him in critical condition. Through the prayers of many, he is on the road to recovery. Though things are coming along much more slowly than we\u0026rsquo;d like, we are so thankful the Lord saved him from an accident that could have been so much worse!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Power of Prayer - Garcia Family Update March 2022"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI put together a short video for this month\u0026rsquo;s update to re-introduce our ministry. A lot of people aren\u0026rsquo;t fully aware of my role as Director of Missionary Care with SGWM and what that entails, so this video gives a short glimpse of what that means and why it\u0026rsquo;s so important!\nhttps://youtu.be/1MLS54brcVo\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2022/02/17/let-me-re-introduce-myself-garcia-family-update-february-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI put together a short video for this month\u0026rsquo;s update to re-introduce our ministry. A lot of people aren\u0026rsquo;t fully aware of my role as Director of Missionary Care with SGWM and what that entails, so this video gives a short glimpse of what that means and why it\u0026rsquo;s so important!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/1MLS54brcVo\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/1MLS54brcVo\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Let Me Re-Introduce Myself! - Garcia Family Update February 2022"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\nSick-mas\nI pray you are all doing well! As many of you know, for many this holiday season was a little different with Omicron sweeping through many communities, including our church community. This is the second year in a row that we didn\u0026rsquo;t get to see any extended family on Christmas due to COVID; I came down with COVID 3 days before Christmas! It was rough on the family as it spread through the house and kept us cooped up over holiday break, but fortunately symptoms were mild and everyone recovered quickly.\nBack to Work!\nComing back to \u0026ldquo;the office\u0026rdquo; after being sick was difficult, but the Lord really renewed my strength and blessed a week of prayer and fasting that we had for our church. The first couple of weeks of the year are busy for missionary care, so I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing lots of meetings with missionaries and emails with missionaries and working with the new Financial Director the Lord has provided SGWM. There is SO MUCH administration behind giving missionaries all the tools they need to be successful, so pray that the Lord would continue to strengthen me and our amazing team for this task!\nDiscipleship\nThrough our School of Missions and internship program, the Lord has provided some amazing opportunities for Amy and I to disciple young people who feel called to vocational ministry, specifically toward the unreached. One of those young men is Bryan Reyes. Not only have I been able to disciple him, but he has become a great friend and ministry partner. I got to watch him walk for his Bible College graduation last month, he runs our sound ministry alongside me for our worship ministry, he leads worship for our young adults group and teaches them once a month, and I also get to be the best man in his wedding at the end of this month. Would you consider supporting him and his soon to be wife Andrea as they prepare to be sent to the Middle East as SGWM missionaries?\nh ttps://sgwm.com/blog/missionaries/bryan-reyes/\nPrayer Requests\nPlease pray for strength and wisdom for Amy and I in homeschooling our four kids.\nPlease pray for when and where the Lord would have Joel to travel next; it has been a long time, and the process is more complicated now, but Joel really has a heart to go visit our missionaries on the ground to minister to them.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with “Joel Garcia” in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2022/01/19/this-christmas-was-different-garcia-family-update-january-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSick-mas\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray you are all doing well! As many of you know, for many this holiday season was a little different with Omicron sweeping through many communities, including our church community. This is the second year in a row that we didn\u0026rsquo;t get to see any extended family on Christmas due to COVID; I came down with COVID 3 days before Christmas! It was rough on the family as it spread through the house and kept us cooped up over holiday break, but fortunately symptoms were mild and everyone recovered quickly.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"This Christmas Was... Different - Garcia Family Update January 2022"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI pray that you are all doing well as we enter into one of my family\u0026rsquo;s favorite seasons: Fall!\nThese last few weeks, I\u0026rsquo;ve been reminded that the Lord is even in the \u0026ldquo;boring\u0026rdquo; stuff that I do as Director of Missionary Care for SGWM. Administrative duties are not always fun and exciting. As COVID has changed our ability to travel, and I have been very slow and careful in trying to decide when and where I should travel next for missionary care, our focus has been on trying to make sure our home base operations run really well. That means I\u0026rsquo;ve been on the phone and Zoom checking up on missionaries to pray for them, and helping with their practical needs.\nTake today, for instance. I\u0026rsquo;m writing this update on a day that I\u0026rsquo;ve spent most of my time updating procedures and instructions for our purchase order system. Sounds thrilling, right? But when I think about it, it is SO vital that our missionaries are able to access the funds their supporters give to them to use for their ministry! Without an easy-to-use and functioning financial system, the work of our missionaries to reach people in their field would be greatly slowed and hindered.\nSo, even though I\u0026rsquo;ve spent all day in front of a computer and on the phone, I\u0026rsquo;m reminded that these small, mundane tasks are of the utmost importance for our missionaries. And for that I\u0026rsquo;m thankful to be a part of that process!\nZechariah 4:10 - \u0026ldquo;For who has despised the day of small things?\u0026rdquo; I won\u0026rsquo;t despise the small things, Lord!\nIn Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, \u0026amp; Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/11/17/hes-even-in-the-boring-stuff-garcia-family-update-november-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that you are all doing well as we enter into one of my family\u0026rsquo;s favorite seasons: Fall!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2021/11/IMG%5F3427.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese last few weeks, I\u0026rsquo;ve been reminded that the Lord is even in the \u0026ldquo;boring\u0026rdquo; stuff that I do as Director of Missionary Care for SGWM. Administrative duties are not always fun and exciting. As COVID has changed our ability to travel, and I have been very slow and careful in trying to decide when and where I should travel next for missionary care, our focus has been on trying to make sure our home base operations run really well. That means I\u0026rsquo;ve been on the phone and Zoom checking up on missionaries to pray for them, and helping with their practical needs.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"He's Even in the \"Boring\" Stuff - Garcia Family Update November 2021"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nOne of the amazing parts of my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) ministry with SGWM is seeing missionaries sent out. We refer to them as the tip of the spear, and we and the local church are the shaft by which these amazing missionaries are thrust into the midst of the unreached to bring the light of the Gospel to them. There is nothing in life more exciting than being a part of that process!\nIn that light, it is so exciting to see our first Calvary School of Missions graduate to be sent out finally start to get on the field! Jorden Skiles is going for 3 months to an undisclosed, sensitive country to be discipled by a missionary family there, before returning for a brief visit to the states and then on to the Middle East. He will be an integral part of a vision the Lord gave our church long ago to start a work in that area.\nI actually got to go with Jorden on his initial \u0026ldquo;vision tour\u0026rdquo; to see that country in person for the first time, a trip on which the Lord confirmed his calling to move there.\nI can\u0026rsquo;t wait to move from being someone who was a part of Jorden\u0026rsquo;s journey to being sent, to now being the person primarily in charge of making sure he\u0026rsquo;s well cared for on the field. This is the kind of thing I live for!\nPlease pray that the Lord would raise up a team to serve alongside Jorden in the Middle East. Right now, Bryan and Andrea, who were on that vision tour as well, are preparing for their upcoming marriage and then seeking the Lord\u0026rsquo;s timing on when He would have them move to the Middle East as a part of that team. The wheels are turning on this amazing new work from the Lord! Pray for Bryan and Andrea, that the Lord would lead them during this time of preparation.\nPlease continue to pray that the Lord would open up a traveling opportunity for Joel to minister to missionaries on the field. It seems that some doors keep closing for that. But, right now the plan is for Joel to be part of a rotation of pastors to spend time with Jorden in intervals over his first year in the Middle East since he has no other team on the ground. Pray that the Lord would provide great wisdom and guidance in that.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with \u0026ldquo;Joel Garcia\u0026rdquo; in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/10/13/send-them-out-garcia-family-update-october-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the amazing parts of my (Joel\u0026rsquo;s) ministry with SGWM is seeing missionaries sent out. We refer to them as the tip of the spear, and we and the local church are the shaft by which these amazing missionaries are thrust into the midst of the unreached to bring the light of the Gospel to them. There is nothing in life more exciting than being a part of that process!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Send Them Out! - Garcia Family Update October 2021"},{"content":"Hello Family and Friends!\nWe pray that you are all doing well. I\u0026rsquo;d love for you to take a few minutes to watch our latest video update on our family and ministry!\nhttps://youtu.be/1oYFXZ9LM9g\nPlease continue to pray that the Lord would open up doors and give direction on where He would like me to travel next. I take traveling seriously, as it costs money and precious time from my family, so I want to make sure that when I do travel, it is exactly where the Lord would have me to go to minister to missionaries. So far, I have not sensed open doors from Him to any specific area.\nPlease also pray for our new batch of interns, that the Lord would direct their paths and help us leaders at SGWM to disciple them well.\nI love you all and thank you for your support and prayers!\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nYou can also become a one-time or ongoing financial partner with us by clicking the button below, or by mailing a check made out to SGWM with \u0026ldquo;Joel Garcia\u0026rdquo; in the memo line to 17451 Bastanchury Rd, Ste 203, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/09/15/full-schedules-and-full-hearts-garcia-family-update-september-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family and Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe pray that you are all doing well. I\u0026rsquo;d love for you to take a few minutes to watch our latest video update on our family and ministry!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/1oYFXZ9LM9g\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/1oYFXZ9LM9g\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease continue to pray that the Lord would open up doors and give direction on where He would like me to travel next. I take traveling seriously, as it costs money and precious time from my family, so I want to make sure that when I do travel, it is exactly where the Lord would have me to go to minister to missionaries. So far, I have not sensed open doors from Him to any specific area.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Full Schedules and Full Hearts - Garcia Family Update September 2021"},{"content":"Hello Family and Friends!\nI hope that you\u0026rsquo;ve had a wonderful Summer! The days are still hot here in Southern California, but Fall will be here before we know it. Our kids have already officially started school up again (though school never really stops for homeschoolers, does it?).\nThis Summer reminds me of the importance of the crew it takes to send and care for missionaries. As Director of Missionary Care at SGWM, I help lead an army of people to support our missionaries. This includes our administrative staff and interns, but outside of our offices, there is a grouped that our own heroes, missionaries, look up to as their heroes: Missionary Care Teams.\nJust this Summer, teams of believers from our church have supported a family on furlough from North Africa; a family who left just a few weeks ago to establish themselves in Rosarito, Mexico; and will help support a family in just a few weeks on furlough from South Asia. We\u0026rsquo;re also watching support teams from other churches care for our affiliate missionaries (missionaries who are not directly from our church), like a woman who is on furlough from Spain. Would you prayerfully consider becoming part of a Missionary Care Team? Please reach out to me for more information on what that looks like!\nFinally, while it will probably be a while before I am able to commit to teaching more Skype classes to South Asia students, I was super blessed to be a part of the Zoom graduation for the last class I taught through the book of Hebrews a couple of weeks ago.\nPlease continue to pray that the Lord would open up doors and give direction on where He would like me to travel next. I take traveling seriously, as it costs money and precious time from my family, so I want to make sure that when I do travel, it is exactly where the Lord would have me to go to minister to missionaries. So far, I have not sensed open doors from Him to any specific area.\nPlease also pray for our CSOM students, as there has been some spiritual warfare that has led to changes in their plans that they did not anticipate.\nI love you all and thank you for your support and prayers!\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/08/16/it-takes-an-army-garcia-family-update-august-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family and Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope that you\u0026rsquo;ve had a wonderful Summer! The days are still hot here in Southern California, but Fall will be here before we know it. Our kids have already officially started school up again (though school never really stops for homeschoolers, does it?).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2021/08/IMG%5F3159.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis Summer reminds me of the importance of the crew it takes to send and care for missionaries. As Director of Missionary Care at SGWM, I help lead an army of people to support our missionaries. This includes our administrative staff and interns, but outside of our offices, there is a grouped that our own heroes, missionaries, look up to as \u003cem\u003etheir\u003c/em\u003e heroes: Missionary Care Teams.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It Takes An Army - Garcia Family Update August 2021"},{"content":"Hello Family \u0026amp; Friends!\nWe wanted to send you just a quick update in the middle of a busy Summer. Our family is doing great, and the kids are having a blast swimming, meeting friends, and learning new things this Summer.\nAs many of you know, we hold an annual six-week Calvary School of Missions in Rosarito, Mexico every Summer. This program provides a primer for training young people in the theology and practicality of international missions and reaching the unreached. The theme is always a surrender of their lives and plans to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This year, Joel got to go for the first week of the school to meet the students, minister to them as they grapple with missions and theology through a whirlwind first week. This has been a huge blessing, as he has never gotten to go for the first week and establish relationship with the students like this! In particular, it is really awesome for him to use his gift of leading worship to create an environment of surrender, intimacy with the Lord, and fervent prayer for the students. Please pray that the Lord would give guidance and wisdom to the students over the remaining fives weeks, and that He would strengthen them through the spiritual warfare they will experience.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/07/15/equipping-the-next-generation-of-missionaries-garcia-family-update-july-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family \u0026amp; Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe wanted to send you just a quick update in the middle of a busy Summer. Our family is doing great, and the kids are having a blast swimming, meeting friends, and learning new things this Summer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs many of you know, we hold an annual six-week Calvary School of Missions in Rosarito, Mexico every Summer. This program provides a primer for training young people in the theology and practicality of international missions and reaching the unreached. The theme is always a surrender of their lives and plans to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This year, Joel got to go for the first week of the school to meet the students, minister to them as they grapple with missions and theology through a whirlwind first week. This has been a huge blessing, as he has never gotten to go for the first week and establish relationship with the students like this! In particular, it is really awesome for him to use his gift of leading worship to create an environment of surrender, intimacy with the Lord, and fervent prayer for the students. Please pray that the Lord would give guidance and wisdom to the students over the remaining fives weeks, and that He would strengthen them through the spiritual warfare they will experience.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Equipping the Next Generation of Missionaries - Garcia Family Update July 2021"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nCheck out this video of some of the things going on in our life and ministry this Summer:\nhttps://youtu.be/_jHYhK1vTxM\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/06/15/boasting-in-him-garcia-family-update-june-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCheck out this video of some of the things going on in our life and ministry this Summer:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/\u003c/a\u003e_jHYhK1vTxM\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Boasting In Him - Garcia Family Update June 2021"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nSome people don\u0026rsquo;t realize that in a family in vocational ministry like us, the kids are as big a part of the calling as the parents! On this lovely Saturday morning as I write this, I\u0026rsquo;m sitting in the living room while my two oldest, Maggie (7) \u0026amp; Harrison (5) build a Magnet Tile house. I decided to take the opportunity to interview them for this update; hope you enjoy!\nWhat is your favorite part about mom and dad doing ministry?\nMaggie: I like inviting people over and telling them more about Jesus.\nHarrison: I like having the young adults group over at our house every Friday night and hanging out with them!\nWhy do you think dad goes on trips to other countries sometimes?\nM: So that he can help other people learn about Jesus. And he visits missionaries that we help support\nH: So that he can talk to people, be with people, and share with people about Jesus\nWhat is the hardest part for you when dad goes on a trip?\nM: I don\u0026rsquo;t like it because you aren\u0026rsquo;t with us, but it\u0026rsquo;s worth it because when you come home I get to see all the pictures you take.\nH: I don\u0026rsquo;t like missing you, but if you didn\u0026rsquo;t go, then less people will hear about Jesus and go to be with Him in Heaven.\n[Note: Missing my family is also my least favorite part of trips! But Amy and I have taught the kids how important it is for dad to go visit missionaries because it\u0026rsquo;s part of the gospel going to the nations!]\nHow do you serve Jesus right now, and how do you want to serve Him when you\u0026rsquo;re older?\nM: I am working on writing books to sell and raise money for missionaries. When I\u0026rsquo;m older, I want to be an artist and draw pictures from stories of the Bible and write what the story is about.\nH: I serve Jesus by giving money to missionaries [note: last year Harrison decided to give some of his birthday money to a missionary we support] and I pray for people. When I\u0026rsquo;m older, I want to serve Jesus by being a missionary in Australia and Arizona [note: this was news to me this morning!].\nI pray you all enjoyed this update, and I hope you remember to pray for our kids when you pray for our family\u0026rsquo;s ministry!\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/05/15/an-update-from-maggie-harrison-garcia-family-update-may-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome people don\u0026rsquo;t realize that in a family in vocational ministry like us, the kids are as big a part of the calling as the parents! On this lovely Saturday morning as I write this, I\u0026rsquo;m sitting in the living room while my two oldest, Maggie (7) \u0026amp; Harrison (5) build a Magnet Tile house. I decided to take the opportunity to interview them for this update; hope you enjoy!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Update From Maggie \u0026 Harrison - Garcia Family Update May 2021"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\nThank you so much for taking the time to check out our latest ministry \u0026amp; family update. Check out the video below to learn the latest from us :)\nhttps://youtu.be/_GmLNhCHaS8\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/04/15/grateful-to-serve-garcia-family-update-april-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you so much for taking the time to check out our latest ministry \u0026amp; family update. Check out the video below to learn the latest from us :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/\u003c/a\u003e_GmLNhCHaS8\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grateful to Serve - Garcia Family Update April 2021"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nThis past month has been filled with some amazing ministry opportunities for us. I (Joel) was able to help lead a team of youth and young adults on a Mexico trip, where our church\u0026rsquo;s heart is to get the students stirred up for the cause of reaching the nations with the gospel. Joel\u0026rsquo;s main goal there was to help lead and disciple the students through that process, as well as taking a few opportunities to step out of his comfort zone and lead some worship in Spanish (a language he doesn\u0026rsquo;t speak!).\nAmy had the opportunity to teach for a women\u0026rsquo;s event at our church. She spoke to a group of moms about establishing a biblical vision for routines, rhythms, and rest in our homes. Opportunities for this can be hard to come by for a busy mom of four, so it was a blessing for me (Joel) to see that she did such an amazing job pouring into other busy moms.\nThank you all for supporting us in our ministry! Please be in prayer for Joel, that more opportunities to take trips to help strengthen our SGWM missionaries arrive as vaccines open up more doors. Also pray as he helps lead the vision of missionary sending and care from the home office.\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is shiney-button-financial-partner.jpg\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/03/16/life-in-motion-garcia-family-update-march-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis past month has been filled with some amazing ministry opportunities for us. I (Joel) was able to help lead a team of youth and young adults on a Mexico trip, where our church\u0026rsquo;s heart is to get the students stirred up for the cause of reaching the nations with the gospel. Joel\u0026rsquo;s main goal there was to help lead and disciple the students through that process, as well as taking a few opportunities to step out of his comfort zone and lead some worship in Spanish (a language he doesn\u0026rsquo;t speak!).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Life In Motion - Garcia Family Update March 2021"},{"content":"Hey everyone! Here is a short video update on our family and ministry. I encourage you all to meditate on Romans 15:30-33 and its implications for all of us as missionary SENDERS! We are so blessed by all of your support and prayers!\nhttps://youtu.be/jYZpTQhzjH4\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/02/16/strive-in-prayer-garcia-family-update-february-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey everyone! Here is a short video update on our family and ministry. I encourage you all to meditate on Romans 15:30-33 and its implications for all of us as missionary SENDERS! We are so blessed by all of your support and prayers!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/jYZpTQhzjH4\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/jYZpTQhzjH4\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Strive in Prayer - Garcia Family Update February 2021"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure we were all ready for a fresh start in 2021. For our church, we started off the year with a week of prayer and fasting together, which was such an eye-opening time of denying our flesh and pressing into Jesus together. There\u0026rsquo;s no better way for us to start our year!\nOn the SGWM front, it has been so refreshing for me moving forward in our vision for missionary care, which I am privileged to lead. This has involved me meeting with multiple SGWM missionaries each week to get to know them better, wrap my head around their ministries and their needs, and simply let them know that SGWM is here for them. It\u0026rsquo;s like linking arms with missionaries all over the globe, and it\u0026rsquo;s exciting to have that kind of direction to sink my teeth into and do what I was made to do: simply play a part in the Great Commission! And I want to tell you, wherever you are and whatever vocation you are in, that you are called to play a role as well. In fact, those of you who support and pray for our family are playing a role in that way, and I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you how much I praise God for that!\nOur family is doing well. Thank God we have all been able to stay healthy. Maggie just celebrated her 7th birthday! It is a fun, loud, and busy season with the four kids running around, but we wouldn\u0026rsquo;t trade it for anything. Amy and I continue to lead our young adults ministry, where we\u0026rsquo;ve just begun going through the book of Galatians. And Amy is helping out a few other ladies in our church with a ministry for moms to receive encouragement and discipleship. I get so much joy out of seeing the Lord use her in ways like this!\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2021/01/22/made-for-this-garcia-family-update-january-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure we were all ready for a fresh start in 2021. For our church, we started off the year with a week of prayer and fasting together, which was such an eye-opening time of denying our flesh and pressing into Jesus together. There\u0026rsquo;s no better way for us to start our year!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2021/01/image001.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the SGWM front, it has been so refreshing for me moving forward in our vision for missionary care, which I am privileged to lead. This has involved me meeting with multiple SGWM missionaries each week to get to know them better, wrap my head around their ministries and their needs, and simply let them know that SGWM is here for them. It\u0026rsquo;s like linking arms with missionaries all over the globe, and it\u0026rsquo;s exciting to have that kind of direction to sink my teeth into and do what I was made to do: simply play a part in the Great Commission! And I want to tell you, wherever you are and whatever vocation you are in, that you are called to play a role as well. In fact, those of you who support and pray for our family are playing a role in that way, and I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you how much I praise God for that!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Made For This - Garcia Family Update January 2021"},{"content":"This year has had its ups and downs. Well, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, for many of us, it feels like this year in particular has been chock full of downs. But as I (Joel) was in a staff Christmas gathering this morning, we talked about all of the good things God has done this year through our ministry, and the amazing teams He has placed around us to make it happen. And that got me to thinking about the amazing team my family has: all of you who read these updates, pray for us, and support us financially. Seriously, it blows us away that you guys support us and stand behind all that the Lord does in and through us for the sake of the gospel going to our neighbors and the nations. We are so incredibly thankful for each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts.\nSo while turning the calendar on 2020 doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that everything will magically change and the woes of this year will end, it also doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that God will stop moving; He won\u0026rsquo;t! Thank you for being used by Him. Your faithfulness is not just a blessing to us, but a way that you are actively involved in the kingdom from wherever you are. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t do it without you, and we wouldn\u0026rsquo;t want to.\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/12/16/what-we-are-thankful-for-garcia-family-december-2020-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis year has had its ups and downs. Well, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, for many of us, it feels like this year in particular has been chock full of downs. But as I (Joel) was in a staff Christmas gathering this morning, we talked about all of the good things God has done this year through our ministry, and the amazing teams He has placed around us to make it happen. And that got me to thinking about the amazing team my family has: all of you who read these updates, pray for us, and support us financially. Seriously, it blows us away that you guys support us and stand behind all that the Lord does in and through us for the sake of the gospel going to our neighbors and the nations. We are so incredibly thankful for each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What We Are Thankful For - Garcia Family December 2020 Update"},{"content":"Hello Friends \u0026amp; Family! We bring you this month\u0026rsquo;s Garcia Family Update in the form of a video :) Check it out, and be encouraged to keep trusting, keep moving, and keep perspective in the midst of these tumultuous times!\nhttps://youtu.be/4KbzLW-hpC4\nPlease pray for us:\n1. That the Lord would continue to give us energy and wisdom for raising our wonderful kids!\n2. That the Lord would sustain Joel\u0026rsquo;s voice, as he has a nagging cough that comes with the high usage of his voice in teaching and leading worship.\n3. That the Lord would provide all that we need financially through this coming holiday season and into the new year when our rental lease renews.\n4. For our amazing missionaries around the world whose ministries are affected in various ways due to COVID.\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/11/18/keep-trusting-keep-moving-keep-perspective-garcia-family-update-november-2020/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends \u0026amp; Family! We bring you this month\u0026rsquo;s Garcia Family Update in the form of a video :) Check it out, and be encouraged to keep trusting, keep moving, and keep perspective in the midst of these tumultuous times!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/4KbzLW-hpC4\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/4KbzLW-hpC4\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease pray for us:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. That the Lord would continue to give us energy and wisdom for raising our wonderful kids!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. That the Lord would sustain Joel\u0026rsquo;s voice, as he has a nagging cough that comes with the high usage of his voice in teaching and leading worship.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Keep Trusting, Keep Moving, Keep Perspective - Garcia Family Update November 2020"},{"content":"Hello All!\nJust a quick update from the Garcia Family as we enter my favorite time of year: the Fall and Winter seasons. It has certainly been a strange season for everyone in the world this year, and our family and church has been no exception. We thank God for the ways He has drawn us closer to Him and challenged us as we do both local and worldwide ministry and raise young kids during a worldwide pandemic and social and political unrest in our country. All in all, our kids and family have done amazing and flourished during this time. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t be more proud of our kids and thankful for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s work in their lives. But COVID has changed a lot of things, from the way we grocery shop to the way we visit grandparents\nOne really cool thing that COVID prompted SGWM to do was to set up a monthly Zoom prayer meeting with all of our missionaries. It is such a sweet time the first Thursday of every month, and I had the privilege of leading it this month!\nAnd speaking of new seasons, it was bittersweet this month to officially send off our intern Jorden Skiles to his other home church in Northern California, where he will begin official preparations to head off to the Middle East next year! It is so cool to see our first intern whom the Lord has fully prepared to send out on the field, and I am excited for him to move under my leadership in the missionary sending ministry of SGWM.\nThank you all for all of your prayers and support! We could not do what the Lord has called us to do without all of you.\nWe would ask that you pray for the Lord to meet our financial needs and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/10/21/new-seasons-garcia-family-update-october-2020/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello All!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust a quick update from the Garcia Family as we enter my favorite time of year: the Fall and Winter seasons. It has certainly been a strange season for everyone in the world this year, and our family and church has been no exception. We thank God for the ways He has drawn us closer to Him and challenged us as we do both local and worldwide ministry and raise young kids during a worldwide pandemic and social and political unrest in our country. All in all, our kids and family have done amazing and flourished during this time. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t be more proud of our kids and thankful for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s work in their lives. But COVID has changed a lot of things, from the way we grocery shop to the way we visit grandparents\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Seasons - Garcia Family Update October 2020"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nI\u0026rsquo;m excited to bring you all part two of my South America trip update. Our time with the Tippie family in Huacho, Peru, was the shortest of the trip, only covering a couple of days. But boy, were they packed days!\nUpon arriving back in Lima via a short flight out of Cajamarca with the Tippies, we took a three hour drive that got us into Huacho (pronounced \u0026ldquo;Watch-Oh\u0026rdquo;) near 11pm. I observed that Peruvians seem to be night-owls, and they eat late! We were tired, but Pastor Craig didn\u0026rsquo;t want to send us to bed with empty bellies. I was glad for that after a delicious meal of roasted chicken, aji sauce (think Chick-Fil-A sauce with a little south-of-the-border kick), and french fries. Peru LOVES their french fries, with their almost 4,000 varieties of potatoes that grow there! I could definitely have gotten used to that.\nThe four of us stayed at a hotel in the city just a couple of blocks from Pastor Craig\u0026rsquo;s house. Accommodations were so cheap that we each got our own room and bathroom! This should have made for some good sleep, but Huacho was where I experienced some of my greatest spiritual warfare of the trip, including some spiritually dark dreams and a pretty bad stomach bug that plagued me the entire time there. Huacho is the witchcraft capitol of Peru, and we were there to do some work for God\u0026rsquo;s kingdom, so these kinds of things are to be expected, especially after our focus on the armor of God at our prayer retreat in Cajamarca!\nOur first morning in Huacho consisted of a four-hour meeting planning our upcoming youth group trip to Huacho in June, on which Pastor Mike, Pastor Tim, and myself will return to Huacho with 40 people for various outreaches including a surf camp, VBS, music, soccer, and more! It was eye-opening to see the necessity of traveling so far for such planning, as all that we accomplished could never have been done over phone or Skype. I gained valuable experience for planning future trips as Pastor Mike led the way with his expertise in this area.\nThat night, I was radically blessed with the opportunity to preach the gospel to a few dozen youth at a youth outreach at Pastor Craig\u0026rsquo;s church! I taught on the woman at the well from John 4, and showed them that Christ is the only one who can fulfill our longing for joy and satisfaction in life.\nThe next morning I had another amazing opportunity to lead a little \u0026ldquo;Gringo Worship\u0026rdquo; (as Pastor Craig calls it) for his church\u0026rsquo;s Sunday morning service! (You can check out video of that here on Facebook) One of my favorite parts of international travel is to worship with people of other cultures and languages. English worship was cool for them, but I really love the fun, lively, community-driven worship of the Peruvian people!\nIn the midst of all this activity, we also had the opportunity to check out a beach similar to the one we\u0026rsquo;ll run our surf camp at in June, as well as tour around and work through some other logistics for the trip in Pastor Craig\u0026rsquo;s super cool bright orange VW Bus! The trip ended with a sweet get-together at the Tippies\u0026rsquo; house, a surprise party for Pastor Craig where seemingly the whole community came out to celebrate the life of this man who\u0026rsquo;s done so much for the Gospel in Huacho.\nHuacho may have not been the hardest part of our trip, but between the spiritual warfare and my stomach illness, I really wanted to give up and go home, especially when I considered the possibility of carrying my stomach illness into the jungle. But the Lord was really teaching me a lesson on endurance, and the fact that missionaries endure this kind of spiritual warfare on a regular basis. Part of being a missionary is learning to endure through that and fight the good fight of bringing the Gospel to the nations. The Lord was teaching me what our missionaries go through, and was preparing me for a deeper level of that on the next leg of our journey in Brazil\u0026hellip;\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/02/27/south-america-pt-2-huacho-peru/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m excited to bring you all part two of my South America trip update. Our time with the Tippie family in Huacho, Peru, was the shortest of the trip, only covering a couple of days. But boy, were they packed days!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/02/fullsizeoutput%5F1415-1024x576.jpeg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUpon arriving back in Lima via a short flight out of Cajamarca with the Tippies, we took a three hour drive that got us into Huacho (pronounced \u0026ldquo;Watch-Oh\u0026rdquo;) near 11pm. I observed that Peruvians seem to be night-owls, and they eat late! We were tired, but Pastor Craig didn\u0026rsquo;t want to send us to bed with empty bellies. I was glad for that after a delicious meal of roasted chicken, aji sauce (think Chick-Fil-A sauce with a little south-of-the-border kick), and french fries. Peru LOVES their french fries, with their almost 4,000 varieties of potatoes that grow there! I could definitely have gotten used to that.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"South America Pt. 2: Huacho, Peru"},{"content":"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?\n- The Apostle Paul, Romans 10:14, 15\nIn my last update, I talked about how the Lord has used me in two of the three major ministries of SGWM: equipping future missionaries through our School of Missions and internship, and church planting in the 10/40 window as I help teach classes via Skype to one of our South Asia schools and discipling some young men here in the states to do the same. But I also alluded to the fact that I have taken on the role of Director of Missionary Sending for SGWM. I want to talk a little bit about that in this update.\nIn this role, my job will be to provide oversight over the ministry of taking care of American missionaries on the foreign mission field. SGWM provides a lot of administrative help in sending missionaries all over the world! We provide an avenue for missionaries to receive funds in a hassle-free way; we provide pastoral care where needed; we post and send out missionaries\u0026rsquo; updates to their supporters; and so much more! I am excited to take on this role, to say the least! I have a passion for missions, so to be able to focus my efforts more to this role will be really helpful for me. Pray that the Lord continually provides fresh wisdom and vision for me in this role!\nThings on the family front continue to go well. Maggie and Harrison are excelling in their schooling, and Jude and Clara are happy, healthy, and bring so much joy and fun to our home! Amy and I continue to lead our growing young adults group for CCSG, and we are excited to teach a family discipleship class at the church this winter. Pray for me and the other pastors at our church for wisdom and vision concerning moving forward as a church from the ways that COVID affected us.\nWe would ask that you pray for our finances and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/09/15/unless-they-are-sent-pt-2-september-2020-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHow then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? \u003cstrong\u003eAnd how will they preach unless they are sent?\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n- The Apostle Paul, Romans 10:14, 15\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn my last update, I talked about how the Lord has used me in two of the three major ministries of SGWM: equipping future missionaries through our School of Missions and internship, and church planting in the 10/40 window as I help teach classes via Skype to one of our South Asia schools and discipling some young men here in the states to do the same. But I also alluded to the fact that I have taken on the role of Director of Missionary Sending for SGWM. I want to talk a little bit about that in this update.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Unless They Are Sent Pt. 2 - September 2020 Update"},{"content":"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?\n- The Apostle Paul, Romans 10:14, 15\nSGWM is all about planting churches among those who have never heard the good news of Jesus, especially those who previously have never had access to that good news. We do this in three ways: 1) by being a missionary sending ministry, where we send missionaries from the U.S. into the foreign mission field and help care for them, 2) by working with nationals in other countries who plant churches and Bible schools to train other nationals to go do the same, with a current focus in South Asia, and 3) by equipping young people passionate about foreign missions at our yearly Calvary School of Missions and through our internship program. These three ministries of SGWM are our response to Paul\u0026rsquo;s questions in Romans 10.\nAs I alluded to in my last update, I\u0026rsquo;ve taken on a new role with SGWM leading the first ministry mentioned above as Director of Missionary Sending. I\u0026rsquo;ll talk about that more in my next update, but for this update, I want to mention how I\u0026rsquo;ve been involved with the other two aspects of SGWM over this last month. First of all, I have been teaching a class through the book of Hebrews via Skype for one of our South Asia Bible Schools. The goal of these schools is to train nationals in these countries in order to reach the unreached in their own culture with the Gospel. I pray that there are students in this class I am teaching who will plant churches among the unreached!\nAs I mentioned last time, I am also using this opportunity to train two of our interns in cross-cultural Bible teaching. Jorden has been doing an amazing job as we\u0026rsquo;ve switched off teaching the past few weeks, and I will be training Bryan, who just returned home from helping lead our School of Missions in Mexico, over the next three weeks. At that time, I will fully pass the baton over to them for this class. This experience will be invaluable for these two young men who want to start a Bible School in the Middle East!\nSpeaking of our School of Missions, I was so blessed to be able to visit it twice over this last month! Of course, both times I led worship for our students and leaders. The first time, I taught a class to the students on how the Bible defines worship, and how that relates to our heart for missions and practical matters of worship cross-culturally. The second time, I mostly just connected with the students to see how their experience was going and how the Lord was speaking to them, and I also had the opportunity to connect with 3 of our missionary families in Mexico, including our newest SGWM missionary who pastors Calvary Chapel Acapulco and was teaching a class at CSOM. I\u0026rsquo;m so thankful to the Lord for setting up these opportunities for me! And I\u0026rsquo;m also thankful for authentic Mexican tacos; no others can compare!\nOur family is doing great! Maggie (age 6) just started 1st grade, and Harrison (who just turned 5!) just started Kindergarten. Pray for Amy as she primarily homeschools them during the day while caring for and training Jude (3) and Clara (1). We certainly have our hands full! I also continue to lead the worship ministry and Life Group ministry at CCSG, and Amy and I lead our young adults group with my sister Jenn. It is an interesting time to be a pastor for a local church, but I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t trade this calling for anything.\nWe would ask that you pray for our finances and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/08/19/unless-they-are-sent-pt-1-august-2020-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHow then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? \u003cstrong\u003eAnd how will they preach unless they are sent?\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n- The Apostle Paul, Romans 10:14, 15\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSGWM is all about planting churches among those who have never heard the good news of Jesus, especially those who previously have never had access to that good news. We do this in three ways: 1) by being a missionary sending ministry, where we send missionaries from the U.S. into the foreign mission field and help care for them, 2) by working with nationals in other countries who plant churches and Bible schools to train other nationals to go do the same, with a current focus in South Asia, and 3) by equipping young people passionate about foreign missions at our yearly Calvary School of Missions and through our internship program. These three ministries of SGWM are our response to Paul\u0026rsquo;s questions in Romans 10.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Unless They Are Sent Pt. 1 - August 2020 Update"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nThank you so much for taking the time to look at our update. It means so much to us that you would care about what is going on in our lives and pray for us. Lately, the Lord has been moving me toward being more devoted as an individual and as a family as we move forward in our calling for His work. He has done this by bringing me to passages in my daily reading like:\n\u0026ldquo;Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.\u0026rdquo; Colossians 4:2\n\u0026ldquo;Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise, therefore, and build\u0026hellip;\u0026rdquo; 1 Chronicles 22:19\n\u0026ldquo;No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.\u0026rdquo; Luke 9:62\nWe all have a tremendous calling on our lives to devote ourselves, heart, mind, soul, and body, to the work of reaching the nations for Christ!\nFamily\nThe family is doing great! Clara is walking now, which we are (hesitantly) excited about, and Harrison is doing great reading and will begin \u0026ldquo;official\u0026rdquo; schooling soon! Please pray for us, as we have been hit with an unusual amount of spiritual warfare lately, from nightmares to sleeplessness to anxiety. It is good to be reminded that we are in a spiritual battle.\nCSOM\nThe SGWM Calvary School of Missions is underway! The new batch of students are doing great in Mexico, and Pastor Mike and myself are leading the SGWM home office team as well as the weekly church administration while many of our leaders are down there with the school. I am thankful that I will get to go down to the school twice for a couple of days to get to know the students better and lead them with some devotions and worship. We are praying that some of these new students will become interns over the course of this next year with SGWM and CCSG!\nSpeaking of interns\u0026hellip; some of you may know that some new and intense persecution has risen in one of the South Asian countries we work with, meaning that much of our ministry is changing in that location. Thankfully, this has not effected our ability to teach a Bible school class via Skype for one campus in that country. This has provided me the opportunity to teach a Thursday evening class through the book of Hebrews to that group. This time, however, I am using the opportunity to train two of our interns, Jorden and Bryan, who feel a call to pastoral ministry on the foreign mission field, on how to teach the Bible cross-culturally through a translator, so they are co-teaching the class with me. Super exciting stuff! I encourage you to click on their names above to find out more about them and their ministry, and consider partnering with them! I plan to do this with each new batch of interns who feel a pastoral calling on their lives.\nBryan and I in Israel at the Temple Mount\nJorden and I in Israel at En Gedi\nLooking Forward\nSomething exciting that will be happening for us in ministry is that I (Joel) will be taking on a new role with SGWM as Director of Missionary Sending. This is a big job that includes leadership over accepting, sending, and caring for all SGWM missionaries outside of South Asia and CSOM/Interns (which are two other departments of SGWM). I will give more details in the coming months, but please pray that the Lord would guide us with vision for this aspect of SGWM and the ability to manage my time well and do the job with excellence.\nWe would ask that you pray for our finances and consider partnering with our ministry financially as the Lord leads. If you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/07/16/devoted-july-2020-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you so much for taking the time to look at our update. It means so much to us that you would care about what is going on in our lives and pray for us. Lately, the Lord has been moving me toward being more devoted as an individual and as a family as we move forward in our calling for His work. He has done this by bringing me to passages in my daily reading like:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Devoted - July 2020 Update"},{"content":"Hey Family \u0026amp; Friends!\nHere is a quick video update including how we are handling the world\u0026rsquo;s present circumstances in our family and ministry:\nhttps://youtu.be/EW8k3kXs-m0\nIf you would like to donate to the SGWM COVID-19 Relief Fund, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.\nPlease pray for our financial needs as we live largely off of financial support just like our international missionaries, and we are praying for the Lord to provide more financially to cover some increased costs of living. Please pray that the Lord may provide for us in His will, whatever amount of support He deems sufficient (Proverbs 30:7-9). If you feel led to partner with us financially, instructions are below.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/05/13/family-ministry-video-update-may-2020/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Family \u0026amp; Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is a quick video update including how we are handling the world\u0026rsquo;s present circumstances in our family and ministry:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/EW8k3kXs-m0\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/EW8k3kXs-m0\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you would like to donate to the SGWM COVID-19 Relief Fund, you can do so by \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://secure.egsnetwork.com/donate/FEE91098D9354D1\"\u003eCLICKING HERE.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease pray for our financial needs as we live largely off of financial support just like our international missionaries, and we are praying for the Lord to provide more financially to cover some increased costs of living. Please pray that the Lord may provide for us in His will, whatever amount of support He deems sufficient (Proverbs 30:7-9). If you feel led to partner with us financially, instructions are below.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Family \u0026 Ministry Video Update - May 2020"},{"content":"Hey Friends!\nAfter my last update, Amy and I received a ton of remarks from people concerning my comment about praying for God\u0026rsquo;s will whether He would have us move to Jordan or not. I mentioned it casually, as we are ALWAYS trying to remain open to what God has for us, but I realize that I should have been more clear that we have received no direction from the Lord about leaving the states full-time. I just know that God moves hearts on short-term trips, especially ones where we are praying specifically about a new work God is doing, so I wanted to make sure I didn\u0026rsquo;t bring any presuppositions into Jordan that would have kept me from clearly hearing God\u0026rsquo;s voice. But, for now at least, God still has us here ministering to His church in SoCal and supporting ministry all over the world through my work with SGWM.\nWe had an amazing time in Israel! It was a very fast-paced trip, but because of the small size of our group there, we got just about as much done in 6 days as most groups do in 10+. I\u0026rsquo;m still digesting everything I saw and learned there, but I\u0026rsquo;m already noticing how it has affected the way I read, study, and teach Scripture.\nOur time in Jordan required a huge mindset switch, as our group grew in size and the pace slowed significantly. While we did do some ministry (leading worship, refugee visits, and I got to teach at a church-planting conference we put on), our real mission was to slow down and listen to what God would speak to us about the ministry He\u0026rsquo;s laid on our hearts for that country, and who He may be calling to go live there.\nThe Jordan leg of the trip took on a unique flavor, as Pastor Trent and I were given the opportunity to give our young team a taste of what it\u0026rsquo;s like to minister in a culture so foreign to our own. We could tell that there was a big adjustment for some of our team there realizing that we cannot simply bring American discipleship tactics to that area of the world; we must contextualize our methods to reach people with the Gospel in a way that they can digest it. So our \u0026ldquo;vision tour\u0026rdquo; doubled as an on-the-ground training. The Lord had amazing things in mind that we never would have imagined, and I was honored to be a part of leading it.\nThank you all so much for your prayers over me and my family during this trip, and for all of you who brought meals and supported Amy and the kids in my absence! Please keep us in prayer as we continue day-to-day life and ministry, and as I have an upcoming trip leading youth to Nepal this Summer, and prayerfully a trip to Africa to minister to our missionaries there in the Fall.\nPlease pray for our financial needs as we live largely off of financial support just like our international missionaries, and we are praying for the Lord to provide more financially to cover some increased costs of living. Please pray that the Lord may provide for us in His will, whatever amount of support He deems sufficient (Proverbs 30:7-9). If you feel led to partner with us financially, instructions are below.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/03/05/im-back/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter my last update, Amy and I received a ton of remarks from people concerning my comment about praying for God\u0026rsquo;s will whether He would have us move to Jordan or not. I mentioned it casually, as we are ALWAYS trying to remain open to what God has for us, but I realize that I should have been more clear that we have received no direction from the Lord about leaving the states full-time. I just know that God moves hearts on short-term trips, especially ones where we are praying specifically about a new work God is doing, so I wanted to make sure I didn\u0026rsquo;t bring any presuppositions into Jordan that would have kept me from clearly hearing God\u0026rsquo;s voice. But, for now at least, God still has us here ministering to His church in SoCal and supporting ministry all over the world through my work with SGWM.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Back!"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nWith a new year, I always find it helpful to think through where God has us and what He has us doing. I am more convinced than ever of His role for me in world missions using the pastoral gifts He’s given me of leadership, encouraging, teaching, and administration. I have been stirred early this year to “go” more; to go where our international ministries are and strengthen the disciples there (Acts 13:43; 14:21-23). And, in the case of my upcoming trip to Jordan, help establish new ones while making my life a blank check written out to Christ, open to where He may send me short-term or long-term.\nBefore I leave for Israel (to bolster my biblical education) and Jordan (to pray and seek vision over a potential new SGWM ministry there), I wanted to present our latest prayer needs to you all.\n1. Pray that the Lord would use me in Jordan to help guide a few of our interns and others who are praying about moving there long-term. I’ll be praying with them, seeking vision on what God wants for that part of the world through us, leading times of worship for them, teaching some of the national leadership on the ground, and doing some ministry among refugees there.\n2. Pray that the Lord would give me vision for my own family. I will specifically be praying for our team there, my own ministry with our local church, and whether the Lord wants us to continue serving from our home in California or to move to Jordan or elsewhere. My prayer is that my life would be all the more surrendered to him after these two weeks.\n3. Pray for Amy and the kids while I am gone, as it is difficult for them when I go on long trips. The kids are already having experiences that we equate with demonic spiritual warfare. Pray for their protection and Amy’s strength. Jordan is relatively safe, but it is still a spiritually dark part of the world and the enemy will oppose me going.\n4. Finally, please pray for our financial needs as we live largely off of financial support just like our international missionaries. Our rent has just been raised a significant amount, and with 4 kids who are growing rapidly, the cost of groceries and other household consumables is rising as well. We trust the Lord always to sustain us, but we are hoping to raise an additional $350-$400 more per month. Please pray that the Lord may provide for us in His will, whatever amount of support He deems sufficient (Proverbs 30:7-9). If you feel led to partner with us financially, instructions are below.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2020/01/23/renewed-vision-needed-prayers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a new year, I always find it helpful to think through where God has us and what He has us doing. I am more convinced than ever of His role for me in world missions using the pastoral gifts He’s given me of leadership, encouraging, teaching, and administration. I have been stirred early this year to “go” more; to go where our international ministries are and strengthen the disciples there (Acts 13:43; 14:21-23). And, in the case of my upcoming trip to Jordan, help establish new ones while making my life a blank check written out to Christ, open to where He may send me short-term or long-term.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Renewed Vision, Needed Prayers"},{"content":"Hello Family and Friends!\nWe are so honored that you\u0026rsquo;ve taken the time to check out our latest update. The Lord has been doing lots of exciting things in our lives, and we are so thankful for those who partner with us financially, in the work of the ministry, and in prayer.\nMaggie at school\nJude (pre-haircut!)\nHarrison and Clara\nOur family is doing great! Maggie is doing a fantastic job in school, especially in her weekly literature class. Jude is taking leaps in his learning, especially after potty-training. Harrison is a ball of energy, and loves to play basketball with Joel after Joel gets home from work. And Clara has energy to match Harrison\u0026rsquo;s! She finally seems to be really close to sleeping through the night as well, much to our delight!\nThe Ephesians class Joel was teaching has come to an end. It was a challenging and enriching experience for him, and he is looking forward to teaching more Bible classes next year.\nAmy is doing a terrific job as a mom and manager of the household, making it a welcoming environment as we host young adults, Life Groups, and plenty of other guests regularly.\nFinally, Joel is ready for his next international adventure! In late January/early February, he will be headed off for a couple weeks to Israel and Jordan. Israel will be a great experience; he won\u0026rsquo;t be there for too long, but it will be amazing for him to get a feel for the location of where the majority of the Biblical narrative takes place, and will hopefully just be a precursor for a longer trip at some other point. He\u0026rsquo;s also looking forward to his time in Jordan, where he will be with a team scoping out what kind of ministry SGWM may be able to plant there, as well as doing some Bible teaching.\nPlease keep us in prayer with all that is going on! A trip like the one Joel is taking to the Middle East obviously comes at a cost. If the Lord so leads you, we would be so thankful if you\u0026rsquo;d like to make a financial contribution. This can be a one-time partnership, which certainly helps towards trips like that. Or, you can become a monthly financial partner, which goes a long way towards helping us maintain our ministry with SGWM and establish a budget. We appreciate your support and prayers!\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/11/07/ready-to-go/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family and Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are so honored that you\u0026rsquo;ve taken the time to check out our latest update. The Lord has been doing lots of exciting things in our lives, and we are so thankful for those who partner with us financially, in the work of the ministry, and in prayer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/11/IMG%5F0949-2-1-768x1024.jpg\"\n         alt=\"Maggie at school\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            \u003cp\u003eMaggie at school\u003c/p\u003e\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/11/IMG%5F0978-2-768x1024.jpg\"\n         alt=\"Jude (pre-haircut!)\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            \u003cp\u003eJude (pre-haircut!)\u003c/p\u003e\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/11/IMG%5F2439-1-768x1024.jpg\"\n         alt=\"Harrison and Clara\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            \u003cp\u003eHarrison and Clara\u003c/p\u003e\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur family is doing great! Maggie is doing a fantastic job in school, especially in her weekly literature class. Jude is taking leaps in his learning, especially after potty-training. Harrison is a ball of energy, and loves to play basketball with Joel after Joel gets home from work. And Clara has energy to match Harrison\u0026rsquo;s! She finally seems to be really close to sleeping through the night as well, much to our delight!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ready To Go!"},{"content":"Hello Family and Friends!\nWe pray you are doing well, and as always, we are so thankful that you\u0026rsquo;ve taken the time to read this update and see what the Lord is doing in and through our lives. We are so grateful for each and every one of you!\nAfter a lot of traveling the first half of this year, I\u0026rsquo;m holding off on any more traveling until 2020 (but there are exciting trips in the works!). That means I\u0026rsquo;m settling down for work at the home office for the rest of this year. But that doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean things aren\u0026rsquo;t exciting!\nFive of the students from SGWM\u0026rsquo;s Summer School of Missions have opted to join us at Saving Grace as interns, as well as three other missions-minded individuals. They\u0026rsquo;ve made a year-long commitment to serve in the office and at our church, while working to raise support, so that they can see all that goes on behind the scenes of the church. During this year, they will learn most of the basics of what it may look like for them to plant a church in another country, and each of them will be going on at least one international trip as a \u0026ldquo;vision tour\u0026rdquo; to see if it may be a country that the Lord is leading them to move to.\nThis intern program has really breathed some fresh life into the home office and our church, and it is exciting for me that I get to be a part of discipling these young potential church-planters and missionaries! One of my roles over the next couple of months is to teach some Bible courses for them to give them some additional Biblical training (and we\u0026rsquo;ve also opened up these classes to the rest of our church, which is a huge blessing!)\nThe family is doing great as well, and little Clara (5 months) is coming along just fine. Maggie (5) is doing a great job in school and a new venture for her, a literature class she goes to weekly that she loves! Harrison (4) is passionate about food, singing, basketball, and life in general. And Jude (2) is now potty-trained! As you can see in the pic above, we also had a fun little family camping trip this Summer.\nThank you all for your prayers and support! Please continue to pray for Joel as he works with Saving Grace\u0026rsquo;s new interns to train them for ministry and missions, as well as his accounting responsibilities with SGWM and his pastoral role with CCSG. And pray for Amy as she manages the family and household in the thick of life with little ones.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/09/25/new-life-fresh-vision/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Family and Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe pray you are doing well, and as always, we are so thankful that you\u0026rsquo;ve taken the time to read this update and see what the Lord is doing in and through our lives. We are so grateful for each and every one of you!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/09/VPXBq41nRegWhUEprD6Kg-1024x768.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a lot of traveling the first half of this year, I\u0026rsquo;m holding off on any more traveling until 2020 (but there are exciting trips in the works!). That means I\u0026rsquo;m settling down for work at the home office for the rest of this year. But that doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean things aren\u0026rsquo;t exciting!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Life \u0026 Fresh Vision"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nWe are here in the middle of Summer, and this year has seen a lot of travel for Joel. On top of the 18-day trip to Peru and Brazil back in January/February, Joel got to go back to Peru in June/July with a bunch of youth and young adults from CCSG, and he also had the opportunity to go to CCSG\u0026rsquo;s 4-day youth camp in August to teach, lead worship, and minister to our church\u0026rsquo;s youth, including many who were on the Peru trip, and the children of one our SGWM missionary families.\nThat means that Joel by and large won\u0026rsquo;t be traveling for the rest of the year, but is looking forward and starting to already think ahead to getting out on the field next year. For now, he\u0026rsquo;s gotten to help support SGWM\u0026rsquo;s Calvary School of Missions in Mexico (a six-week program of intensive training for students for cross-cultural missions) by holding the fort at the home base in Yorba Linda. That means continuing his duties with the financial department, preaching periodically for Pastor Trent while he is on the field, and helping support trips like the School of Missions and a long trip to South Asia that a few of SGWM\u0026rsquo;s staff and interns will be taking in a few months.\nOne really cool thing Joel got to do this Summer was bless one of our affiliate missionaries, the Record Family, by representing SGWM at their home church for an update they were giving on their ministry. The Records have a focus on cross-cultural apologetics. It was great to meet them in person for the first time, and to help pass along our vision for sending missionaries well to their amazing home church.\nKeep our family in prayer as we prep for Maggie\u0026rsquo;s kindergarten year of homeschooling while raising our other three little ones. It is a challenge, but we are so blessed by our children and want to give our all in raising them in the ways of the Lord!\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/08/15/a-quick-summer-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are here in the middle of Summer, and this year has seen a lot of travel for Joel. On top of the 18-day trip to Peru and Brazil back in January/February, Joel got to go back to Peru in June/July with a bunch of youth and young adults from CCSG, and he also had the opportunity to go to CCSG\u0026rsquo;s 4-day youth camp in August to teach, lead worship, and minister to our church\u0026rsquo;s youth, including many who were on the Peru trip, and the children of one our SGWM missionary families.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Quick Summer Update"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nThank you all for opening up this update so you can see what is going on in our ministry and keep us in your prayers. It really means the world to us to have people supporting us as home-base missionaries supporting international missions and missionaries. You are all an answer to our prayers!\nI (Joel) just returned home from Huacho, Peru. Some of you remember that I went there a few months ago with some other pastors to scope out SGWM\u0026rsquo;s ministry there in preparation for this recent trip. We took almost 40 teenagers, young adults, and their parents to bless Pastor Craig Tippie\u0026rsquo;s church, Calvary Chapel Huacho. It was a fantastic trip full of twists and turns. Our entire team was amazing, holding to our mantra for short-term missions: \u0026ldquo;Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.\u0026rdquo; Here is a short video update that I recorded in the middle of the trip explaining why I love short-term trips like these with young people. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t able to get it uploaded with spotty internet connection in Peru, but here it is!\nAmy did great back at home with the four kids, especially with the help of our family and some of our awesome supporters. But, it was great for me to get back home, and great for the family to have me back. Keep us in prayer as I will be representing SGWM for one of our affiliate missionaries this week, and in a few weeks I\u0026rsquo;ll be heading to our church\u0026rsquo;s youth retreat with Pastor Mike, where I can hopefully use that time to follow up with our youth who were impacted by their trip to Huacho.\nHere are some pics from the trip. Thank you all again for your prayers and support!\nCalvary Chapel Huacho\nI was a ref for our volleyball tournament outreach\nMe and my friend Carlos\nMe and my friend Stalin\nGroup pic from our beach camping trip\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/07/07/video-update-back-to-peru/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you all for opening up this update so you can see what is going on in our ministry and keep us in your prayers. It really means the world to us to have people supporting us as home-base missionaries supporting international missions and missionaries. You are all an answer to our prayers!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI (Joel) just returned home from Huacho, Peru. Some of you remember that I went there a few months ago with some other pastors to scope out SGWM\u0026rsquo;s ministry there in preparation for this recent trip. We took almost 40 teenagers, young adults, and their parents to bless Pastor Craig Tippie\u0026rsquo;s church, Calvary Chapel Huacho. It was a fantastic trip full of twists and turns. Our entire team was amazing, holding to our mantra for short-term missions: \u0026ldquo;Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.\u0026rdquo; Here is a short video update that I recorded in the middle of the trip explaining why I love short-term trips like these with young people. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t able to get it uploaded with spotty internet connection in Peru, but here it is!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Video Update: Back to Peru!"},{"content":"Hello All!\nJust wanted to give you all a quick update to let you know that Garcia Baby #4 has arrived! Clara Jennifer Garcia came rushing into this world (I mean really, she was born within 25 minutes of us arriving at the hospital) early Tuesday morning, April 23. She is beautiful, healthy, and has quite the set of lungs! Amy is doing great as well. I am taking a week off of going into the office in order to take care of Maggie, Harrison, and Jude while Amy gets adjusted to caring for Clara and giving her a smooth transition into our home. Thank you all for your prayers and support, it means the world to us!\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/04/27/introducing-clara-jennifer-garcia/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello All!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust wanted to give you all a quick update to let you know that Garcia Baby #4 has arrived! Clara Jennifer Garcia came rushing into this world (I mean really, she was born within 25 minutes of us arriving at the hospital) early Tuesday morning, April 23. She is beautiful, healthy, and has quite the set of lungs! Amy is doing great as well. I am taking a week off of going into the office in order to take care of Maggie, Harrison, and Jude while Amy gets adjusted to caring for Clara and giving her a smooth transition into our home. Thank you all for your prayers and support, it means the world to us!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Introducing: Clara Jennifer Garcia!"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nWell, it\u0026rsquo;s springtime now, almost Easter, and that is the due date for our fourth little one, Clara, to make her appearance! So, I thought I would give you guys an update before we enter the busy season of bringing a new infant into the family :)\nAfter my trip to South America, I expected that maybe my return to the SGWM home office would be a bit of a downer. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I was more than ready to return home! But when you\u0026rsquo;re out on the field amongst all of the \u0026ldquo;action\u0026rdquo; of missions, it can make the things we do as senders back in Yorba Linda seem a bit mundane. Praise God I was wrong! When I see these families on the field doing the work of the ministry, it inspires me and excites me even more to put my hand to the plow back at the home base. Not only that, but life has been as busy as ever since my feet hit home turf again; the adventures have simply continued here in Southern California. Here is a quick rundown of what we\u0026rsquo;ve been up to via pictures :)\nNear the end of March, I took a day trip to Mexico with Pastor Tim, his fiancé Jenn, and our friend Denise. We visited the special needs orphanage that we work with in Tecate, Mexico. Denise will be spending her summer there serving at the orphanage, which takes care of both young people and adults who are unable to care for themselves due to mental and physical handicaps, so we wanted to scope things out with her. We were also there for Pastor Tim and I to interview Miguel Romero, who manages the orphanage, to officially partner with us as SGWM missionaries. We are blessed to be in the process of bringing them on board with us!\nFinally, Pastor Tim and I have been holding the fort here at the SGWM home office as well as the church, as Pastor Trent and Pastor Mike are in the middle east. We\u0026rsquo;ve had the privilege of interviewing Nepali national missionaries via Skype, teaching through the Psalms on Sunday mornings with our congregation, teaching our Thursday night School of Discipleship and Ministry, and generally helping things to continue running smoothly while a few of our team members are away.\nPlease continue to pray for us in this busy season, especially for Amy\u0026rsquo;s health (and sanity!) as she gets through these final days of pregnancy. Also, would you pray about becoming a financial partner with us as we serve SGWM missionaries around the globe? We love you all and thank you for your prayers, support, and for taking the time to read about what the Lord is doing in and through us!\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/04/11/the-adventures-continue/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, it\u0026rsquo;s springtime now, almost Easter, and that is the due date for our fourth little one, Clara, to make her appearance! So, I thought I would give you guys an update before we enter the busy season of bringing a new infant into the family :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter my trip to South America, I expected that maybe my return to the SGWM home office would be a bit of a downer. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I was more than ready to return home! But when you\u0026rsquo;re out on the field amongst all of the \u0026ldquo;action\u0026rdquo; of missions, it can make the things we do as senders back in Yorba Linda seem a bit mundane. Praise God I was wrong! When I see these families on the field doing the work of the ministry, it inspires me and excites me even more to put my hand to the plow back at the home base. Not only that, but life has been as busy as ever since my feet hit home turf again; the adventures have simply continued here in Southern California. Here is a quick rundown of what we\u0026rsquo;ve been up to via pictures :)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Adventures Continue"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nWho knew that one missions trip would require three updates for me to scratch the surface of everything God did with our team in South America! But alas, here we are at update #3 to talk about my time in Brazil, the final leg of our South America trip.\nWhile some of my greatest spiritual warfare happened in Peru, Brazil was the toughest portion of the trip for me both physically and emotionally, despite the fact that (praise God!) my sickness did not follow me into the Amazon jungle. Physically, the pounding heat and humidity of the jungle wore on me over the first two days there, and emotionally, due to the length of the trip, I was really missing my family the most in Brazil, especially in the jungle where I had zero contact with them.\nBut we\u0026rsquo;ll start with the good\u0026hellip; the Miller family, our missionaries in Brazil, are amazing! The four of us pastors quickly bonded with their kids, and good thing, because we would all be in close quarters for our five days in the jungle! The Millers were super hospitable upon our arrival in their home city of Manaus, which is a sort of hub for missionaries who serve in the Amazon jungle of Brazil. We spent a day in Manaus just getting to know the Millers, and doing some shopping with Brad Miller in the city in preparation for our trip, which was an adventure in itself.\nThe next day, we took a 2 hour drive to Manacapuru (say that 10 times fast\u0026hellip;), the port city where we boarded our speedboat. That little speedboat would take the nine of us to the Apurina people, the tribe that the Millers minister to, in 11 hours down the Amazon river. The view was beautiful, but between that and the return trip, I\u0026rsquo;m not looking to board any more boats any time soon\u0026hellip;\nThe Apurina people are amazing, and the Lord is doing great things among them through the Miller family. Brad typically stays there in the village for three weeks at a time, sometimes alone and sometimes with his whole family, before going back to Manaus for a few weeks, and then doing it all over again. While there, he does a church service every evening on top of Sunday mornings, as well as Bible classes for a few of the men every morning, and a children\u0026rsquo;s ministry program on Saturdays. But perhaps the coolest thing is that some of the leaders Brad is raising up, who take over services for him while he is not in the jungle, are now preparing to go to other tribes to be missionaries there. It was amazing to watch God\u0026rsquo;s plans for unreached people groups unfolding before our eyes!\nThe brutal jungle environment did wear on me physically and mentally. Praise God He sent lots of rain while we were there, which did have the effect of cooling things down slightly, though the humidity was still overwhelming. One night, as I lay in the pitch black in my hammock, missing my family as all of the jungle noises made their best effort to lull me to sleep, the words of Martin Luther\u0026rsquo;s hymn played on repeat through my mind\u0026hellip;\nLet goods and kindred go\nThis mortal life also\nThe body they may kill\nGod\u0026rsquo;s truth will triumph still\nHis kingdom is forever\nWhile I certainly wasn\u0026rsquo;t facing death, I realized in a deeper way than ever all of the comforts of home and family and friends and hot water and A/C and the English language, etc., that missionaries give up, because they count lost souls as worth that sacrifice. They care so much about God\u0026rsquo;s glory, about the eternal state of the souls of the lost and unreached, that they are willing to leave everything familiar to them. And believe me, in the jungle, there is very little that is familiar to us! I praise God for this insight, and that night in my hammock, He began the process of dealing with some of the idols in my own heart.\nAs seems to be typical in foreign countries, the locals love English worship, so I played plenty of songs for them. I also had the privilege of teaching their children\u0026rsquo;s program Saturday afternoon, as well as teaching their Sunday morning service! I will always treasure those special blessings.\nWhen our time in the jungle was over, we went back to Manaus, where Pastor Trent got to share some ministry vision with Brad, and we got to bless the kids with some fun times, including a trip to see pink dolphins!\nAll in all, this whole trip was an amazing experience. I was so happy to go home to be with my family again, but I also came home a changed person, with the many things the Lord taught me and ways He showed me I need to grow. Most of all, I saw the importance of trips like these. SGWM is committed to not just making decisions from a desk in Yorba Linda about what is going on in the nations, but actually being willing to get our hands dirty, so to speak, and actually connect with the work the Lord is doing through our missionaries. That way, our partnership with them is more informed, our fellowship with them is all the sweeter, and we can carry back the great news of how the Lord is using them in order to stir up the church in America for missions. And that was more than worth it for a few days of me letting goods and kindred go.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/03/13/south-america-pt-3-brazil/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWho knew that one missions trip would require three updates for me to scratch the surface of everything God did with our team in South America! But alas, here we are at update #3 to talk about my time in Brazil, the final leg of our South America trip.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2019/03/gQTTpSmoQVemQcoiUIyElQ-1-1024x768.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile some of my greatest spiritual warfare happened in Peru, Brazil was the toughest portion of the trip for me both physically and emotionally, despite the fact that (praise God!) my sickness did not follow me into the Amazon jungle. Physically, the pounding heat and humidity of the jungle wore on me over the first two days there, and emotionally, due to the length of the trip, I was really missing my family the most in Brazil, especially in the jungle where I had zero contact with them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"South America Pt. 3: Brazil"},{"content":"Greetings Friends!\nAs many of you know, I (Joel) just returned a few days ago from an 18-day trip to South America. Two countries, eight airplanes, over 24 hours\u0026rsquo; worth of boat rides, dozens of new friends, three new languages, weird foods (cow heart, anyone?), weird animals (pink dolphins, anyone?), rain, hail, heatwave, and real RAIN\u0026hellip; Joy, lots of laughing, lots of tears, lots of worship, lots of prayer, lots of Bible, lots of missing my family, lots of physical ailments, lots of sights and sounds and tastes and\u0026hellip; This was a PACKED 18 days. Our bodies, minds, and souls went through a lot, more than I\u0026rsquo;m used to, and while it was hard, my calling to be a part of this movement of God amongst the nations was only confirmed all the more.\nAnd so, because this trip, which really felt like 4 totally different missions experiences rolled into a three-week period, was such a massive undertaking, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to roll out my update in three installments over the next month or so (which is probably about the time it will take for me to somewhat process all of it anyway!). I pray you\u0026rsquo;re encouraged along the way :)\nWith such a big trip, there were multiple purposes for myself and three other SGWM pastors to head to South America and see our five missionary families there. For this installment, I\u0026rsquo;ll focus on our time at the Calvary Chapel Bible College located in the Andes Mountains in Cajamarca, Peru.\nWe really had one goal in Cajamarca: to bless our four missionary families in Peru with a prayer retreat. I discovered firsthand the fact that missionaries do not get the fellowship and community with other believers that we often take for granted here in the U.S. They are called to lead, to teach, and to pastor, and while they love the nationals of the countries in which they serve with all their hearts, it is so refreshing for them to get to share their joys and struggles with people from their own culture and language. We got to hear about the triumphs and trials of our missionaries\u0026rsquo; lives and families and ministries, and perhaps the sweetest time was when each family took their turn having hands laid upon their shoulders and prayers spoken over them on their behalf.\nI was extremely blessed to be able to use my gift of leading worship to lead these sweet saints in singing to Jesus. Live English worship is a rarity for them, so it was a huge joy for me to be able to serve them in this way, and a privilege to worship with these men and women I look up to greatly. On top of this, we were able to teach some short devotions through the armor of God in Ephesians 6, to pray over them, and to pastor them in ways that simply don\u0026rsquo;t happen over the phone or Skype. Our hearts are now connected in a deeper way to those we serve in Peru, and we feel that our ministry alongside them will be all the sweeter and more effective as a result.\nAs is typical, while God used me and His gifts through me to bless our missionary families, I feel that I received more than I was able to give, that I was more blessed and challenged through this experience than I could have imagined, and that my calling to be a missionary serving long-term missionaries was all the more deeply confirmed. Praise God for His grace!\nCulturally and mentally, this was the \u0026ldquo;easiest\u0026rdquo; portion of the trip, as we were surrounded by other Americans and I wasn\u0026rsquo;t missing my family too badly this early in the trip. It was with bittersweet sorrow that we left three of our missionary families in Peru to head to Huacho with the Tippies, but we are praying for and will continue to fellowship and serve with the Kilgus family as they seek God\u0026rsquo;s will for them with Venezuelan refugees, the Bueschers as they teach and disciple young students at the Bible College, and the Gundersons as John pastors a local church and they open their home and hearts to the people of Cajamarca. Look out for the next two installments of the trip with adventures in Huacho, Peru; Manaus, Brazil; and the deep Amazon jungle!\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara Garcia\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/02/20/south-america-pt-1-cajamarca-peru/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eGreetings Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs many of you know, I (Joel) just returned a few days ago from an 18-day trip to South America. Two countries, eight airplanes, over 24 hours\u0026rsquo; worth of boat rides, dozens of new friends, three new languages, weird foods (cow heart, anyone?), weird animals (pink dolphins, anyone?), rain, hail, heatwave, and \u003cem\u003ereal\u003c/em\u003e RAIN\u0026hellip; Joy, lots of laughing, lots of tears, lots of worship, lots of prayer, lots of Bible, lots of missing my family, lots of physical ailments, lots of sights and sounds and tastes and\u0026hellip; This was a PACKED 18 days. Our bodies, minds, and souls went through a lot, more than I\u0026rsquo;m used to, and while it was hard, my calling to be a part of this movement of God amongst the nations was only confirmed all the more.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"South America Pt. 1: Cajamarca, Peru"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI thought I\u0026rsquo;d do something a little different for our first update for 2019. Hope you enjoy this short video packed with the tons of things going on in our life, live from the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta, CA! Just click below!\nhttps://youtu.be/r3PKzPCt84o\n\\\\\\***************************************************\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2019/01/08/on-location-first-2019-garcia-family-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI thought I\u0026rsquo;d do something a little different for our first update for 2019. Hope you enjoy this short video packed with the tons of things going on in our life, live from the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta, CA! Just click below!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/r3PKzPCt84o\"\u003ehttps://youtu.be/r3PKzPCt84o\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\\\u003cem\u003e\\\u003c/em\u003e\\***************************************************\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"On Location! (First 2019 Garcia Family Update)"},{"content":"Hello everyone, and happy almost New Year! I promise we\u0026rsquo;ll have a proper family/ministry update soon, but each year, I typically post a list of the books I\u0026rsquo;ve read over the past 12 months. This is partially because people have asked in the past for recommendations, and partly because it helps me to look back and think about some of the written data I\u0026rsquo;ve consumed over the year. I\u0026rsquo;m only posting books I\u0026rsquo;ve read cover to cover in 2018. I\u0026rsquo;ll make some comments here and there, and as a side note, I certainly don\u0026rsquo;t endorse every book or author as holding to my own particular beliefs (especially because the vast majority of my reading is related to Christianity). I\u0026rsquo;ve separated the books loosely by category, mostly fairly specific, with an added catch-all Theology/Christianity/Other category at the end. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to ask questions, make comments, and let me know what you\u0026rsquo;ve been reading yourself :)\nFiction:\nThe Chronicles of Narnia: A Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis\nThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician\u0026rsquo;s Nephew - C.S. Lewis\nThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis - It was a joy to finish up reading my favorite childhood books to Maggie, our oldest, fairly early this year. I regularly came close to tearing up. Lewis is a master.\nOut of The Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis\nPerelandra - C.S. Lewis - Wow! Lewis\u0026rsquo; versatility is amazing. I look forward to finishing up the space trilogy this year, and every time I read a new book from him, he is solidified as my favorite author.\nAlice in Wonderland/Through The Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll\nSpiritual Disciplines: I taught a series on spiritual disciplines, or \u0026ldquo;Rhythms\u0026rdquo; as I called the series, for our church\u0026rsquo;s young adults group this year. Most of these books were immensely helpful! I\u0026rsquo;ve organized them here by category (prayer, fasting, etc.)\nA Long Obedience In The Same Direction - Eugene Peterson\nThe Spirit of the Disciplines - Dallas Willard\nRenovations of the Heart in Daily Practice - Dallas Willard \u0026amp; Jan Johnson\nCelebration of Discipline - Richard Foster\nHabits of Grace - David Mathis\nPower Through Prayer - E.M. Bounds\nPraying - J.I. Packer \u0026amp; Carolyn Nystrom\nLetters to Malcolm (Chiefly on Prayer) - C.S. Lewis\nPrayer: Conversing with God - Rosalind Rinker\nA Hunger For God - John Piper - This is the book I would recommend to anybody for fasting!\nGod\u0026rsquo;s Chosen Fast - Arthur Wallis\nThe Lord\u0026rsquo;s Supper as a Means of Grace - Richard Barcellos\nThe Sabbath - Abraham Joshua Heschel\nThe Practice of the Presence of God (and Spiritual Maxims) - Brother Lawrence\nLent for Everyone: Matthew, Year A - N.T. Wright\nFamily Worship - Don Whitney\nCommentaries:\nDaniel (NIVAC) - Tremper Longman III\nDaniel (Reformed Expository Commentary) - Iain Duguid\nA Theology of James: Wisdom for God\u0026rsquo;s People - Christopher Morgan\nThe Letter of James (PNTC) - Douglas Moo\nThe Spirit, The Church, \u0026amp; The World - John Stott - An excellent commentary on the book of Acts that I read for fun and as a supplement as I study through Acts in a School of Ministry class I\u0026rsquo;m taking.\nGod\u0026rsquo;s Wisdom For Navigating Life - Tim Keller - Not a strict commentary per se, but this was my choice of devotional this year, and Keller gave great insights on through the book of Proverbs\nBible Study:\nHow To Read The Bible Book By Book - Gordon Fee \u0026amp; Douglass Stuart\nLiving By the Book - Howard \u0026amp; William Hendricks\nThe Bible from 30,000 Feet - Skip Heitzig\nHomosexuality: A specific category to be sure, but I taught on the subject for our church\u0026rsquo;s high school group earlier in the year, and figured three books was enough to warrant its own category\nWhat Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? - Kevin DeYoung\nGod and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships - Matthew Vines - I wanted to read one book from an opposing view that allows for Christians to be practicing homosexuals. As expected, the logic was full of unwarranted presuppositions and based on flawed and lazy biblical interpretation.\nIs God Anti-Gay? - Sam Allberry\nChurch:\nBecoming A Welcoming Church - Thom Rainer\nCalvary Chapel Distinctives - Chuck Smith\nGather God\u0026rsquo;s People: Understand, Plan, and Lead Worship in Your Local Church - Brian Croft \u0026amp; Jason Adkins\nEschatology:\nFour Views on the Book of Revelation - Kenneth Gentry, Sam Hamstra, Marvin Pate, \u0026amp; Robert Thomas\nThe Last Days According to Jesus - R.C. Sproul - I have the utmost respect for the brilliant, late R.C. Sproul, and agree with him on many things. His preterist position is not one of them.\nMissions:\nCross-Cultural Connections - Duane Elmer\nServing As Senders Today - Neal Pirolo\nSundar Singh: Footprints Over the Mountains - Janet \u0026amp; Geoff Benge - I was surprised and a bit shamed to realize I only read one biography this year! Considering, I just put this one under missions. But this one was amazing and challenging to my Christianity.\nTheology/Christianity/Other:\nThe Explicit Gospel - Matt Chandler - I loved Chandler\u0026rsquo;s overview of the Gospel in the air and on the ground, an extremely helpful way of explaining Christianity, especially to young adults\nSimply Christian - N.T. Wright\nThe Whole Christ - Sinclair Ferguson\nKnowing God - J.I. Packer\nIn His Image - Jen Wilkin\nGarden City - John Mark Comer\nEvery Good Endeavor - Tim Keller\nJust Do Something - Kevin DeYoung\nDon\u0026rsquo;t Waste Your Life - John Piper\nDesiring God - John Piper - Both of these books by Piper are amazing. I\u0026rsquo;ve had a good grasp of his Christian Hedonism concept through listening to his sermons, but specifically the last two chapters of Desiring God ignited a renewed passion in me for dying to self for the sake of God\u0026rsquo;s glory.\nAndrew Murray on the Holy Spirit - Andrew Murray\nAbsolute Surrender - Andrew Murray\nHumility - Andrew Murray\nThat Incredible Christian - A.W. Tozer\nThe Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer\nWords to Winners of Souls - Horatius Bonar\nThe Skeletons in God\u0026rsquo;s Closet - Joshua Ryan Butler\nShepherding A Child\u0026rsquo;s Heart - Tedd Tripp\nCome Let Us Adore Him - Paul Tripp\nMan\u0026rsquo;s Search For Meaning - Viktor Frankl - One of only a couple of non-Christianianity-based books on my list, but very informative and helpful. There was a lot of truth here that had me thinking deeply.\n\\\\\\***************************************************\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/12/31/what-i-read-in-2018/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello everyone, and happy almost New Year! I promise we\u0026rsquo;ll have a proper family/ministry update soon, but each year, I typically post a list of the books I\u0026rsquo;ve read over the past 12 months. This is partially because people have asked in the past for recommendations, and partly because it helps me to look back and think about some of the written data I\u0026rsquo;ve consumed over the year. I\u0026rsquo;m only posting books I\u0026rsquo;ve read cover to cover in 2018. I\u0026rsquo;ll make some comments here and there, and as a side note, I certainly don\u0026rsquo;t endorse every book or author as holding to my own particular beliefs (especially because the vast majority of my reading is related to Christianity). I\u0026rsquo;ve separated the books \u003cem\u003eloosely\u003c/em\u003e by category, mostly fairly specific, with an added catch-all \u003cem\u003eTheology/Christianity/Other\u003c/em\u003e category at the end. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to ask questions, make comments, and let me know what you\u0026rsquo;ve been reading yourself :)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What I Read in 2018"},{"content":"\nHello Friends and Family!\nI pray you are all doing well, and as always, I\u0026rsquo;d like to thank you for taking the time to open and read this short update from my family and I. It is such a blessing to know there are people who love us and care about what is going on with our ministry!\nOur Step of Faith\nLast month marked the one year anniversary of my family taking the step of faith to come on staff with SGWM. And while we had prayed for years for the opportunity to take a \u0026ldquo;full-time\u0026rdquo; ministry role with Saving Grace, it was a step of faith indeed. Because I work in part for Calvary Chapel Saving Grace\u0026rsquo;s Yorba Linda ministry, the church pays a portion of my salary. But because the other half of my work here is for Saving Grace World Missions, the other portion of my salary comes from us raising financial support. It\u0026rsquo;s been an amazing season of doing work so closely associated with with the heart of the Great Commission (you can read more about all of those things in our blog updates), but it has been a great step of faith to rethink the way God provides for us financially.\nWhy Financial Supporters?\nBecause I have such an active role in the \u0026ldquo;home\u0026rdquo; ministries of Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, many people don\u0026rsquo;t know that much of my work is actually for SGWM, and so I raise financial support like any other SGWM missionary. That may seem strange for someone who does not actually live abroad as a missionary! But this is the norm for our SGWM Home Office staff for a number of reasons. Our work here in Yorba Linda for SGWM is crucial for the success of our international ministries and missionaries, and therefore we know that we are just as much involved in the work of missions as they are. Living off of financial support also gives us a greater identification with our missionaries on the field, as this aspect of being a missionary is by far one of the most difficult and uncomfortable. And above all, by raising support from financial donors who want to support our ministries, we can keep the actual costs to SGWM and administrative fees to affiliate missionaries lower and we can use SGWM financial resources for other needs connected to our mission of reaching the nations for Christ.\nCan I Be Honest?\nIn all honesty, I struggled greatly with the idea of writing this update, as support raising is one of the hardest things for missionaries to do. As our family grows we have realized that we are in need of more monthly financial supporters. We have been praying fervently for the Lord to provide all that we need. But, as we at SGWM encourage all of our missionaries to do, we also know that we need to present our needs to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We sincerely ask that you would pray for us in this area, and, if you are so led by the Spirit, we\u0026rsquo;d ask you to pray about whether the Lord would have you join our ministry through financial support. We would absolutely LOVE to spend some time talking with you about our ministry if you want to hear more! Please feel free to call, text, or email me and I\u0026rsquo;d be delighted to set up a time with you over coffee or in the office to talk about my family\u0026rsquo;s role with SGWM! I\u0026rsquo;ve included my contact info at the very bottom of this update.\nIf you would like to support us financially either on an ongoing basis or through a one-time donation, you can do so by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Become A Financial Partner\u0026rdquo; button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873.\nWe also would love to keep you updated on our ministry via our newsletter email updates if you are interested. You can sign up for those by clicking the button below:\nEmail Updates\nFor Email Marketing you can trust.\nThank you so much for your prayers, support, and consideration in this. To all of our current financial supporters, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts as well for joining in our ministry in this way. I can\u0026rsquo;t wait to see what the next year has in store for us!\nIn Christ, Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Baby #4 Garcia 562-322-4718 joel@sgwm.com\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/11/08/an-update-and-an-invitation/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2018/11/IMG_4061-e1541624607931-225x300.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray you are all doing well, and as always, I\u0026rsquo;d like to thank you for taking the time to open and read this short update from my family and I. It is such a blessing to know there are people who love us and care about what is going on with our ministry!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eOur Step of Faith\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast month marked the one year anniversary of my family taking the step of faith to come on staff with SGWM. And while we had prayed for years for the opportunity to take a \u0026ldquo;full-time\u0026rdquo; ministry role with Saving Grace, it was a step of faith indeed. Because I work in part for Calvary Chapel Saving Grace\u0026rsquo;s Yorba Linda ministry, the church pays a portion of my salary. But because the other half of my work here is for Saving Grace World Missions, the other portion of my salary comes from us raising financial support. It\u0026rsquo;s been an amazing season of doing work so closely associated with with the heart of the Great Commission (you can read more about all of those things in our blog updates), but it has been a great step of faith to rethink the way God provides for us financially.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Update and An Invitation"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nWe pray you are all doing well, and thank you for taking a moment to read our latest update! I (Joel) have been reflecting lately on what in the past has been, quite frankly, my least favorite portion of scripture: Joshua\u0026rsquo;s dividing up of the land to Israel after they entered the Promised Land. The list of boundary lines and cities is not a thrilling read, but I was assigned to teach this to our Bible College students in South Asia (via Skype) through the book of Joshua as I finished up my portion of this semester\u0026rsquo;s teachings. As I approached this text, I noticed that the future of Israel\u0026rsquo;s rich history was represented in what was, at that time, cities and lands full of potential. This potential for them was the choice between honoring God with the land and seeing His blessings in it (with places like Shiloh and Jerusalem), or offending God with idol worship and receiving the curse of disobedience (as with Ben-Himmon or Dan). As we move forward in our lives of following Christ, the same pregnant potential lies in front of us at all times. Will we reach out and receive His promises in faith and obedience, or end up heaping trouble on our lives with sin, laziness, or cowardice? Praise God that for us, above all of this, stands His great and faithful grace!\nThis last month has been a great one! I (Joel) got to lead worship for the church\u0026rsquo;s men\u0026rsquo;s retreat, which was an amazing experience to be a part of. It is such a privilege to have a front-row seat to seeing the men of our church lifting holy hands in prayer and worship.\nI\u0026rsquo;m also looking forward to traveling next year. Sadly, I will not be able to go to Jordan and Israel as I anticipated due to the proximity of those dates to Amy\u0026rsquo;s due date. However, that gives me a little more flexibility regarding another potential trip at the beginning of the year. I have learned to on hold loosely to plans for short terms missions, since I\u0026rsquo;ve discovered those plans can change in an instant! But once things are more firm for this particular trip, I\u0026rsquo;ll give you all some more details. I am excited about the prospect!\nOn the home front, the kids are doing great! Maggie is flourishing with homeschooling and loves to learn. Jude is starting to walk all over the place more and more. And Harrison is jumping in and learning lots of things alongside Maggie. It\u0026rsquo;s always an adventure with those three, and we can\u0026rsquo;t wait to add one more!\nSpeaking of #4, please continue to keep Amy in your prayers through this pregnancy. She\u0026rsquo;s doing great, but experiencing all of the fatigue that comes along with pregnancy and being the amazing, active mom that she is.\nWe also ask that you continue to keep us in prayer to find a larger home that fits our limited budget, as well as the additional funds needed for a move. We\u0026rsquo;d love to have a three or four bedroom house to have more space for the kids to run around, room for the new baby, and to be able to practice more hospitality and host more church gatherings.\nFinally, please pray as I enter a busy season of running two of our church\u0026rsquo;s biggest events: our Halloween Front-Yard Outreach Parties and our all-church Thanksgiving Potluck. These are a lot of work, but are super rich and fruitful events, and we have an amazing group of servants at the church who step up to lend their giftings.\nLove you all, and please feel free to let us know what is going on in your lives and how we can pray for you!\nAll The Best For His Glory, Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Baby #4\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/10/19/a-land-full-of-potential/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe pray you are all doing well, and thank you for taking a moment to read our latest update! I (Joel) have been reflecting lately on what in the past has been, quite frankly, my least favorite portion of scripture: Joshua\u0026rsquo;s dividing up of the land to Israel after they entered the Promised Land. The list of boundary lines and cities is not a thrilling read, but I was assigned to teach this to our Bible College students in South Asia (via Skype) through the book of Joshua as I finished up my portion of this semester\u0026rsquo;s teachings. As I approached this text, I noticed that the future of Israel\u0026rsquo;s rich history was represented in what was, at that time, cities and lands full of potential. This potential for them was the choice between honoring God with the land and seeing His blessings in it (with places like Shiloh and Jerusalem), or offending God with idol worship and receiving the curse of disobedience (as with Ben-Himmon or Dan). As we move forward in our lives of following Christ, the same pregnant potential lies in front of us at all times. Will we reach out and receive His promises in faith and obedience, or end up heaping trouble on our lives with sin, laziness, or cowardice? Praise God that for us, above all of this, stands His great and faithful grace!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Land Full of Potential"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI pray that you are all doing well, and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to read this quick update and join us in prayer!\nFirst of all, we\u0026rsquo;re excited to present our big news to you all: Amy is pregnant with our 4th child! We\u0026rsquo;ll be introducing our newest little one into the world in Spring of 2019. We are blessed that the Lord has allowed us to have a \u0026ldquo;full quiver\u0026rdquo; of children so close in age so that they can grow and learn and be friends together. Amy and I celebrated our 7th anniversary of marriage this past month and are blown away by God\u0026rsquo;s faithfulness to us!\nWith this big news also comes a busy season in our lives. Joel has been teaching a weekly Wednesday night class through the book of Joshua to some of SGWM\u0026rsquo;s Bible College students in South Asia. It is such an honor for him to play a role in training up future leaders for Christ in a country where biblical resources are scarce and the need for the Gospel is great.\nIn addition, Joel is going to be attending our church\u0026rsquo;s School of Ministry every Thursday night for 3 1/2 hours for the next 8 months. This is a great opportunity for him, as he has never had any \u0026ldquo;official\u0026rdquo; ministry training. He will also be acting as a pastoral mentor for others taking the class in the ins and outs of ministry. Needless to say, between those two things, family, leading Life Groups and Worship Ministry, teaching Young Adults every Friday night, and running two big upcoming church events, our plates are quite full!\nOn the home front, Maggie is beginning her homeschool/charter program, and is totally nailing it! We couldn\u0026rsquo;t be more proud of her, and of course Harrison can\u0026rsquo;t help but join in on the learning action occasionally. Amy continues to be an amazing mom and excels in the role of teacher for all of our kids. And finally, we know many of you were praying for us in past months for Jude (1) to sleep better through the night. His sleep schedule has been great for many weeks now, so thank you for your prayers; God answered them!\nWe ask that you keep the following in prayer:\nFor a safe and healthy pregnancy for both the new baby and for Amy, as she juggles the difficulties of pregnancy with raising our three others while I\u0026rsquo;m at work during the days. For continued financial support. We are praying that the Lord provides the resources and opportunity for larger housing for us (specifically, we\u0026rsquo;d love a house with a yard for the kids to play in). This seems impossible in Southern California, but we trust God will provide us with it if He sees fit for us to have that for His glory. For increased energy and balance with all of the ministry on our plates. We want to do not just many things for the Lord, but we want to do many things well for His glory while maintaining a healthy family life. Please pray for Maggie (as well as Harrison and Jude) to continue to develop a love for learning, and for Amy and I to receive an ever-increasing vision and plan from God for educating our children and making them disciples of Christ Please pray for the many upcoming opportunities for Joel to travel for SGWM. He is planning on, Lord-willing, three fairly big trips in 2019, so we need wisdom on what opportunities he should take and for additional financial support to go on the trips the Lord would have him go on. (Hopefully more details to come on those opportunities in future updates!) Thank you all again for your continued prayers and support, it means the world to us! And I know we usually end our updates with this, but we sincerely ask that you would respond to us with any prayer requests of your own. We love you all and are delighted to partner in prayer with you, not just your prayers for us, but our prayers together for the Gospel.\nAll the Best for His Glory! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/09/21/big-news-full-plates/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that you are all doing well, and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to read this quick update and join us in prayer!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst of all, we\u0026rsquo;re excited to present our big news to you all: Amy is pregnant with our 4th child! We\u0026rsquo;ll be introducing our newest little one into the world in Spring of 2019. We are blessed that the Lord has allowed us to have a \u0026ldquo;full quiver\u0026rdquo; of children so close in age so that they can grow and learn and be friends together. Amy and I celebrated our 7th anniversary of marriage this past month and are blown away by God\u0026rsquo;s faithfulness to us!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Big News \u0026 Full Plates"},{"content":"Hey Friends \u0026amp; Family! Here\u0026rsquo;s another quick Summer update along with some prayer requests for those of you who are following our ministry. Thank you all so much for your prayer and for faithfully partnering with us!\nLast week, I (Joel) got to go on my first youth retreat in a couple of years. It took some mental preparation to get back into \u0026ldquo;Youth Leader Mode,\u0026rdquo; as it\u0026rsquo;s been over 2 years now since I stepped away from being the church\u0026rsquo;s Jr. High Leader to being our Young Adults Leader. I was honored to lead worship for the majority of the trip and give a couple of teachings, one on God\u0026rsquo;s holiness and one on God\u0026rsquo;s mercy. What a blessing to see these students worshiping God with their whole hearts! One of my biggest takeaways was the effect that past retreats have had on these students. Youth retreats like this produce lasting fruit that many of them will look back on as spiritually defining moments in their lives, and that was what I was hearing from them on this retreat.\nOf course, all of this awesome ministry I got to partake in comes along with other youth ministry shenanigans, like having them drench you with (thankfully, waterproof) paint! But I have to say that at the end of the day, I kind of miss that sort of thing, messy and exhausting as the games and running and chaos can be.\nAs I write this, tonight will be my first night of teaching via Skype in South Asia for nine straight weeks through the book of Joshua. I am really excited to jump back into this ministry! This is, however, a busy season for me since I also teach our Young Adults weekly (currently through the book of James), as well as leading a Life Group (our church\u0026rsquo;s home groups) and helping facilitate our September New Believers\u0026rsquo; Class, on top of worship ministry. My plate is full, but I can always ask the Lord for a bigger one, and he\u0026rsquo;s faithful to do so :)\nI am also planning on going to Israel in the Spring of next year with our church to further my education as a Bible teacher, as well as to scope out some potential ministry in an adjacent middle-eastern country. I\u0026rsquo;m glad my travel schedule is finally starting to shape up for 2019 after some previous plans fell through, and I\u0026rsquo;m planning to help lead a Peru trip for our youth and young adults next Summer as well!\nOn the home front, the family is doing great. Jude is happy as a clam as always (though we\u0026rsquo;re still working on getting the kid to walk!), Harrison just turned three and is doing great learning how to be more responsible in helping around the house (he loves the working vacuum cleaner we got him for his birthday!), and we are in the process of getting Maggie enrolled in a charter program to begin her \u0026ldquo;TK\u0026rdquo; schooling. Amy, as always, is an amazing mom, and somehow squeezes in the time to meet with some of our young adult girls to disciple them on occasion. I\u0026rsquo;m certainly a blessed man to have such a wonderful family!\nHere are some prayer needs of ours:\nPlease pray for our finances. Even with young kids, food for a family of five has been a big expense and we have been stretched. We are trusting God, and praying that He will somehow, even though it seems impossible to us, provide us with a house to rent so both our kids and our young adults group, who meet at our place, have some more wiggle room. Please pray for wisdom and strength for us as parents, especially for Amy who takes the brunt of things while I am working during the days and often have other ministry at nights. She is a fantastic mother and can use prayer to continue to be so! Please pray for the additional finances we will need for me to go on the Israel/Jordan trip (over $4,000) in Spring. Please pray for wisdom in managing my busy schedule, as I am teaching and leading groups quite a bit, and this also requires lots of study time for me on top of other responsibilities. Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers, and please let us know if there is any way we can pray for you!\nAll the Best for His Glory! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/08/22/summer-update-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey Friends \u0026amp; Family! Here\u0026rsquo;s another quick Summer update along with some prayer requests for those of you who are following our ministry. Thank you all so much for your prayer and for faithfully partnering with us!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast week, I (Joel) got to go on my first youth retreat in a couple of years. It took some mental preparation to get back into \u0026ldquo;Youth Leader Mode,\u0026rdquo; as it\u0026rsquo;s been over 2 years now since I stepped away from being the church\u0026rsquo;s Jr. High Leader to being our Young Adults Leader. I was honored to lead worship for the majority of the trip and give a couple of teachings, one on God\u0026rsquo;s holiness and one on God\u0026rsquo;s mercy. What a blessing to see these students worshiping God with their whole hearts! One of my biggest takeaways was the effect that past retreats have had on these students. Youth retreats like this produce lasting fruit that many of them will look back on as spiritually defining moments in their lives, and that was what I was hearing from them on this retreat.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Summer Update #2!"},{"content":"One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries to get the word out about what SGWM\u0026rsquo;s missionaries are up to. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote awhile back about the Record Family, who have the unique role of doing Christian Apologetics ministry in Cambodia. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\n---\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\n“When I first heard about Christian Apologetics,” says Darryl Record, SGWM missionary in Cambodia, “my initial reaction was, ‘I’m not going to apologize for being a Christian!’ I had no idea what it meant.” I doubt that Darryl is alone in this experience, as we’ve been trained to view the word “apology” in a very specific light. But Darryl soon learned the true definition of apologetics, and he was hooked on the concept. Bruce Shelley, in his book Church History in Plain Language, says, “the word comes from Greek and means defense, such as a lawyer gives at a trial.” Darryl decided to commit the focus of his life to this defense of the faith, a journey that took him from not even knowing what the word meant to eventually receiving his MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University.\nBut Darryl wasn’t content to remain in the states for his apologetics work, where information and resources already abound. Before receiving his degree from Biola, he had a breakthrough in his relationship with God in which he simply surrendered his all to Christ. He promised not to say “No” to whatever God may ask Him to do. So, God said, in effect, “Go to Cambodia.” After a short-term stint, Darryl returned home to finish his education, during which time he met his future wife Kayo, a first-generation Christian from Japan, who also felt a calling to missions. They married in 2004, went out back out on the field in 2007, and haven’t looked back since putting their hand to the plow.\nDarryl noticed that while there were plenty of gospel resources in Cambodia, there was not much material regarding creationism or evidence for the truth of the Bible. But surely the Cambodian people struggled with the same existential questions that had plagued Darryl earlier in his own life, right? For Darryl personally, he says that at one point in his life there was a “gradual flow of evolution and Biblical criticism that was seeping into my worldview from my public school teachers and later university professors. Little by little my faith was eroded.” These problems are not exclusive to western culture. According to Darryl, the Theravada Buddhists of Cambodia “believe that everything came into existence by water, wind, earth, fire, time, and chance.” And evolution is pushed hard in schools there, just as it is in the U.S. So Darryl’s heart is to not only present the Gospel, but also to gently and respectfully help remove intellectual obstacles in the hearts of the unbelievers there.\nTypically when westerners think of apologetics, we conjure up images of men in suites with lots of letters attached to their names trying to win an argument. But Darryl knows that apologetics is not about winning debates. Especially in the Asian culture he lives in, the focus needs to be on relationship and community, so that is how he approaches his broad range of work in his field in Cambodia. Primarily, he teaches Christian apologetics at a Bible school there, but he has also authored and co-authored two bilingual Christian apologetics books, written scripts for Christian radio programs, and is currently working on an exciting project of producing short evangelistic/apologetics videos in Cambodian. In this wide array of activity, he has mastered how to defend the faith with the gentleness of Christ in the way the Cambodian culture receives it best.\nDarryl clearly has his hands full, but he also has a laser-like focus. When asked to sum up his ministry in one sentence, he simply quotes Ephesians 4:12 - “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Or, when put in his own terms, “We seek to equip local Christians to reach their own families and neighbors with confidence in the truth of God’s Word.” This is a vision that fits right in with SGWM’s: training nationals to reach their own people with the gospel in ways a westerner never could. And once he’s equipped nationals with the proper tools, they will be ready to, like Darryl, “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have…. with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)\n---\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/08/01/missionary-spotlight-article-for-the-record-family-defending-the-faith-in-a-foreign-land/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries to get the word out about what SGWM\u0026rsquo;s missionaries are up to. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote awhile back about the Record Family, who have the unique role of doing Christian Apologetics ministry in Cambodia. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missionary Spotlight Article for the Record Family: Defending the Faith in a Foreign Land"},{"content":"Hello Friends!\nI pray that this Summer has been treating you well, and if it\u0026rsquo;s as hot (or hotter!) where you are as it is here in SoCal, I hope you\u0026rsquo;ve been able to keep cool!\nThe Summer months have been productive and fun for our family. Our SGWM team returned from South Asia a couple of weeks ago and brought back with them a boatload of vision for how God is going to move in that country in the coming months! One cool way that I get to participate is to bring my experience working in the financial department of SGWM to help our board see what kind of financial support is coming in and what funds are further needed to accomplish what God wants to do in that country. Crunching numbers and finances are not the most exciting part of missions, but it is incredibly vital and I\u0026rsquo;m so glad to play a role in this important aspect of SGWM.\nWhile the team was gone last month, I got to finally launch our SGWM Prayer E-Book, which you can download in PDF for your Kindle or iBooks app here! Here at SGWM, we value prayer for our ministry and missionaries over all other forms of support, so this tool is a huge deal for us and we ask that if you have a heart for SGWM that you would download this and make it a part of your prayer life. What an honor that I got to be a part of its release! Here\u0026rsquo;s just a sample of what one of the pages looks like:\nAnother aspect of my job is representing SGWM outside of our church, and I was blessed to be able to do that with SGWM missionary Rebecca Alaniz a couple of weeks ago at Calvary Chapel Downey\u0026rsquo;s Missions Conference. It was so great getting to talk to people about who SGWM is and what we do!\nPlease continue to pray for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit for our ministry. With so much happening in so many countries for SGWM, different trips are getting added and moved around, so I am praying about which trips I should go on to teach overseas, scope out terrain for new ministry, and encourage our missionaries in places like South Asia, Uganda, and Peru. Please pray for additional financial support to come in to help us pay for these trips.\nI will also start Skype teachings for South Asia again next month, teaching through the book of Joshua for one of our Bible schools over there, so I am excited about that!\nOn the personal and church ministry front, things have been really fruitful as well. Our church is going through a 4-week Wednesday night series and I got to teach the first session on the subject of worship, which was a weighty responsibility and huge blessing! In about 3 weeks, I\u0026rsquo;ll also get to go lead worship and teach a few sessions for our church\u0026rsquo;s youth retreat, which I am honored I get to participate in.\nFinally, our family got to do another camping trip with some friends of ours, which was a ton of work, but produced some great memories, fun for the kids, and some crazy cute pictures! And, I got to officiate my first wedding, which was a great blessing, and Amy and I cleaned up rather nicely for the occasion :)\nPlease continue to pray for us as life gets busy with three kids and so much ministry; we need lots of wisdom! We\u0026rsquo;d also ask that you pray for our financial support, as the cost of living is rising as our kids grow and we\u0026rsquo;d love to eventually be able to afford a larger living space for them to have room for more play and for us to be able to practice hospitality in ways we aren\u0026rsquo;t necessarily able to at the moment.\nThank you so much for your continued support and prayers, and please let us know if there is any way we can pray for you!\nAll the Best for His Glory! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/07/19/summer-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that this Summer has been treating you well, and if it\u0026rsquo;s as hot (or hotter!) where you are as it is here in SoCal, I hope you\u0026rsquo;ve been able to keep cool!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Summer months have been productive and fun for our family. Our SGWM team returned from South Asia a couple of weeks ago and brought back with them a boatload of vision for how God is going to move in that country in the coming months! One cool way that I get to participate is to bring my experience working in the financial department of SGWM to help our board see what kind of financial support is coming in and what funds are further needed to accomplish what God wants to do in that country. Crunching numbers and finances are not the most exciting part of missions, but it is incredibly vital and I\u0026rsquo;m so glad to play a role in this important aspect of SGWM.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Summer Update!"},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nFirst of all, I want to thank you all for reading this. It is such an honor to know that we have people supporting us in prayer who want to know how to pray for us and what the Lord is doing in and through our lives!\nAs some of you know, about half of our SGWM staff has been on an almost 3-week (including travel time) trip to South Asia. With Pastor Mike\u0026rsquo;s wife gone there as well, leaving him to fill the role of mom and dad, that has left most of the day-to-day responsibilities for SGWM to land on myself and our awesome intern missionary (who is raising support to become a missionary in Croatia) Rebecca Alaniz. She has been such an amazing asset to our team and has helped make these three weeks a breeze! By God\u0026rsquo;s grace, we survived the team\u0026rsquo;s absence, but we\u0026rsquo;re looking forward to their return! I\u0026rsquo;ve already seen some of the amazing work they\u0026rsquo;ve been able to do over there, and I can\u0026rsquo;t wait to hear all about how the Lord used them! While I\u0026rsquo;m a bit jealous not to have gone, I\u0026rsquo;m honored that I get to stay behind and support them by holding the fort here at the SGWM office to free them up to be used by God there. Here\u0026rsquo;s a pic of our team there:\nIn the meantime, we are just about ready to go live with a project that has been in the pipeline for quite awhile, our SGWM prayer book! This will be an amazing resource that will showcase all of our missionaries and their basic prayer requests for their ministries. What a wonderful way to keep our missionaries and their needs in front of \u0026ldquo;senders\u0026rdquo; here at home! I\u0026rsquo;ll be getting the book live in PDF format this week so that people can download it for Kindle, iBooks, or just as a PDF. Be on the lookout for this!\nWith our senior pastor, Trent Douglass, gone on the South Asia trip, I had the opportunity to preach at my church last week, which was a huge blessing. I taught on one of my favorite passages, Paul\u0026rsquo;s prayer at the end of Ephesians 3. I loved studying and being reminded myself of my need for strength in the inner man, to be rooted and grounded in Christ\u0026rsquo;s love, and to be filled with the fullness of God! If you\u0026rsquo;d like, you can listen to it here :)\nThings have been fun with the family as well. Maggie (4) and Harrison (2) are doing their first swimming lessons this week, and are already doing an amazing job! I\u0026rsquo;m proud watching them be brave out in the water. We also got to go on our first family camping trip with some friends in June! It was just a one-night test run, but it was super fun (even with all the hard work!) and we\u0026rsquo;ll be going again with our Life Group in July.\nAlso, Amy had the opportunity to lead a workshop on the subject of Biblical community at our church\u0026rsquo;s women\u0026rsquo;s retreat in May. I got to listen in on it, and she did an amazing job! With all of her responsibilities as a mom, there are certain gifts she doesn\u0026rsquo;t get to utilize as much as we\u0026rsquo;d like her to. But I was able to take care of all three kids while she was gone, and it was great to hear her use her gift of exhortation and put her exegetical skills to use! I\u0026rsquo;m super blessed to have a wife who loves the Lord and can lead other women to look to Him.\nPlease be in prayer for my upcoming trip to Uganda in October. We\u0026rsquo;re still ironing out some of the details, but I\u0026rsquo;m really looking forward to going there to sit with and encourage our missionaries, and to bring home a vision for all that the Lord is doing there. I\u0026rsquo;m praying about some other possible trips over the next couple of years, so please pray for direction for us on that.\nLove you all! Thank you for praying for us, and please feel free to respond to this email letting us know what is going on in your lives and how we can pray for you!\nAll the Best for His Glory! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us as Joel continues to work as a missionary with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s home office, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/06/19/holding-the-fort/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst of all, I want to thank you all for reading this. It is such an honor to know that we have people supporting us in prayer who want to know how to pray for us and what the Lord is doing in and through our lives!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs some of you know, about half of our SGWM staff has been on an almost 3-week (including travel time) trip to South Asia. With Pastor Mike\u0026rsquo;s wife gone there as well, leaving him to fill the role of mom and dad, that has left most of the day-to-day responsibilities for SGWM to land on myself and our awesome intern missionary (who is raising support to become a missionary in Croatia) \u003ca href=\"/alaniz/\"\u003eRebecca Alaniz\u003c/a\u003e. She has been such an amazing asset to our team and has helped make these three weeks a breeze! By God\u0026rsquo;s grace, we survived the team\u0026rsquo;s absence, but we\u0026rsquo;re looking forward to their return! I\u0026rsquo;ve already seen some of the amazing work they\u0026rsquo;ve been able to do over there, and I can\u0026rsquo;t wait to hear all about how the Lord used them! While I\u0026rsquo;m a bit jealous not to have gone, I\u0026rsquo;m honored that I get to stay behind and support them by holding the fort here at the SGWM office to free them up to be used by God there. Here\u0026rsquo;s a pic of our team there:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Holding The Fort"},{"content":"A couple of months ago I was in the book of the prophet Isaiah in my Bible reading plan. I was down in a small room at our church with couches, an isolated little spot where I spend time with Jesus an hour or two before work during the week. This amazing poem in the book (chapter 25, verses 6 though 9) leapt off the page:\nThe Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, Refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”\nIt was a moment of clarity and vision: This is why I do what I do with SGWM! I found my heart longing for this moment that awaits us, and the Lord renewed in my heart my goal of seeing people from every nation gathered with me on that mountain as my family in Christ. I\u0026rsquo;m going to get to feast with brothers and sisters from every continent, from every people group, and our job as Christians is to start inviting everybody we know to join us by spreading the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. Those little reminders from Him are so precious to push me to continue to do what I do!\nThings in the ministry have been great! A couple of months back, I got the opportunity to go to an organization that supports me, Evangelical Christian Credit Union, where I used to work, and share in their staff meeting a little bit about what I do with SGWM as a US-based missionary. It was so sweet to share and see all my old friends there!\nA couple of weeks ago was incredibly busy, but come Saturday night May 5th, all of the work we\u0026rsquo;ve done over the last few months paid off at our SGWM Missions Banquet! It was a roaring success, as all of the pieces came together perfectly. Our administrative staff and some amazing volunteers helped us put on a fruitful night of spreading our vision of what it means to disciple the nations as a missionary-sending and church-planting ministry. I got to lead bi-lingual worship with one of our church-planters from Mexico as well as interview one of our missionaries (and my friend), Rebecca Alaniz, who is preparing to head to Croatia, about what it means to have a strong sending ministry. It was such a blessing to be a part of this night!\nTwo days after the banquet, Pastor Mike Thiemann (SGWM\u0026rsquo;s Director) and I got to head up to Sacramento for a couple of days at a conference with Church United, an organization that helps church leaders get involved in what is going on politically. It was really informative, especially regarding some troubling bills in the pipeline for California. We had a sweet time worshiping in the center of our state\u0026rsquo;s capitol building and got to meet with some of our assemblymen. The enemy is at work in the political realm, and it is time the church got on our knees to pray for our government and leaders!\nFinally, looking toward the future, I will not be able to go on the trip to the orphanage in Mexico in July after all, as I will be officiating a wedding here. I am, however, still planning on going to Uganda in October. Please pray as I will need to raise some additional support for that trip. I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to visiting and blessing some of our missionaries there and getting a better vision for our involvement in Africa!\nOn the family front, things are going really well! The Lord has been good to our family. Maggie is growing so fast in her learning and maturity in being a helper around the house, Harrison is potty-trained and doing amazing, and Jude just turned one this month (and has plenty of dance moves to show for it!).\nLove you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and support as we seek to be a family focused on inviting the nations to that future \u0026ldquo;feast on the mountain.\u0026rdquo;\nIn Christ, Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude Garcia\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/05/11/come-to-the-feast/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA couple of months ago I was in the book of the prophet Isaiah in my Bible reading plan. I was down in a small room at our church with couches, an isolated little spot where I spend time with Jesus an hour or two before work during the week. This amazing poem in the book (chapter 25, verses 6 though 9) leapt off the page:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eA banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eRefined, aged wine.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eAnd on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eEven the veil which is stretched over all nations.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eHe will swallow up death for all time,\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eAnd the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eAnd He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eFor the Lord has spoken.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eAnd it will be said in that day,\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003e“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eThis is the Lord for whom we have waited;\u003c/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eLet us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Come To The Feast!"},{"content":"One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries to get the word out about what SGWM\u0026rsquo;s missionaries are up to. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about Rebecca Alaniz and Brenna Kulla, who are both preparing to go serve Jesus in Eastern Europe. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\n---\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026ndash;\n“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34, 35)\n“He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38)\nThe experience of the Christian life is the experience of death; that is, dying to ourselves, dying to our desires and passions apart from Christ, so that new desires and passions in Him may be the driving forces of our lives. For most of followers of Christ, this typically means setting aside selfish desires for either sin or just plain comfort, putting aside our tendency to make ourselves comfortable and secure, and instead stepping out of our proverbial “comfort zones” for the sake of the Gospel. If you pressed a lot of Christians in the United States, you’d likely find that the ultimate “dying to self” experience for most would be picking up and moving to a foreign country.\nThat was not, however, the impression that I got as I sat in my office flanked by SGWM missionaries Rebecca Alaniz and (via Skype on my laptop) Brenna Kulla. Both of these young ladies are currently in a preparation period, gaining training and support before heading out to Eastern Europe, not far from each other in fact. Rebecca feels a call to head to Zagreb, Croatia, and Brenna plans on heading to Pecs (pronounced paych), Hungary. In Zagreb, Rebecca’s heart goes out to those in the Gypsy villages near that area, extending the love of Christ to those she says are looked at as “the despised, thieves, and unworthy of love” by many. Brenna sees a unique opportunity in Pecs, a university town that has become a center of diversity (a “borderless city” as she has heard it described) where she can work with other believers to offer the true gospel to foreign students and send them back to their home countries with the message of Christ.\nFor both of these young missionaries, they felt called to the mission field from a fairly early age, but the Lord gave them more specifics during their time at Calvary Chapel Bible College (Rebecca in Murrieta, California after a trip to Croatia, and Brenna in Hungary). They both heard of Saving Grace World Missions, and that brings us to the place they are in life now, the period of waiting to go. It’s a period that Brenna describes as death. While leaving the American dream behind to bring the gospel to the nations is an act of “death to self” that many Christians are so afraid of making, Brenna and Rebecca feel that staying in the comfort of home is the ultimate act of dying to all that they want. They want to go. But God is asking them to wait. How long? Neither of them is sure, though they hope it isn’t much longer. But the irony is that, through this waiting, God has increased their trust in Him and His timing, so that even if it is longer than they hope, their trust in Him is unwavering.\nPart of what makes this season so difficult is that as they seek to raise financial support, many are only willing to partner with a missionary who is actually on “the field.” The problem is, missionaries in the waiting season like Rebecca and Brenna need willing financial partners before they are able to head out. A good sending organization wouldn’t send out a couple of single gals without the financial stability they need to be safe and fulfill their calling, but if it were up to these girls, they’d leave in a second with barely enough to scrape by. Part of the blessing of waiting for Rebecca is that she is not only learning to raise financial support, but gaining a team of spiritual supporters behind her. She is being discipled, trained on cross-cultural issues, and learning the gravity of leaving. “Once you’re sent out,” she says, “you’re gone, so I’m learning to enjoy the time I’m here with family and friends.” Plus, she’s realized that the more she shares her story with people in the states, people here are learning about Gypsy culture and their need for Christ who wouldn’t have otherwise been informed. She’s actually providing her target culture with more prayer warriors on their behalf by her staying!\nBrenna feels much the same way. For her, “This season is an opportunity to invite people here to see the need and feel the calling as well.” It’s also taught her a lot about herself and God. “The walking and the waiting,” as she calls it, sometimes feels like a mountain in front of her, too big to scale. But as she realizes her own frailty, weakness, and inability, she is seeing God’s faithfulness do the work. Now she knows that when she finally makes it to Pecs full-time, it will only be because God has done the work, and she will have a greater confidence that he will get her through any challenges waiting for her there. For both Brenna and Rebecca, God has been redeeming the time of their waiting period. So while the preparation period may feel like death, they are finding abundant life in Christ in unexpected ways; abundant life that they can’t wait to see God use to turn Eastern Europe upside down for the Gospel.\n---\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;\u0026ndash;\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below, OR you can mail a check written out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Joel Garcia support” in the memo section to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/04/11/missionary-spotlight-article-for-rebecca-and-brenna-life-death-and-waiting/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries to get the word out about what SGWM\u0026rsquo;s missionaries are up to. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about Rebecca Alaniz and Brenna Kulla, who are both preparing to go serve Jesus in Eastern Europe. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missionary Spotlight Article for Rebecca and Brenna: Life, Death, and Waiting"},{"content":"One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Vincent family in Rosarito, Mexico. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\nPreach. Disciple. Send. Repeat. by Joel Garcia\nAttending a church service at Calvary Chapel Rosarito is a dynamic experience from the very beginning. As you walk into the courtyard, you’re immediately faced with the fact that this church genuinely wants you here. They want you to feel at home. They want you to feel like a part of their family. They want you to eat with them and talk with them and laugh and cry and sing with them. Their friendly greetings and hearty handshakes and warm smiles are a message from God through His people. What they’re really saying is, “You matter to us, because you matter to Him.”\nAnd that’s not where things stop for Pastor Mike Vincent’s church in Rosarito, Mexico. If you’re a newcomer (or if you’ve brought a newcomer along with you) you’re given a gift of a book or music. But what really hooks people is the fact that this church is alive. After all of the warm greetings, you’re seated in a pew and the celebration begins. The church’s bilingual worship time is a thing of beauty, a small taste of the believer’s future singing praises with people from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) as Gospel-centered lyrics swing back and forth between Spanish and English in an upbeat, celebratory style. And this is functional as well, with a fair share of the church’s congregation being English speakers; Pastor Mike preaches in English through a Spanish translator as well. And with each message comes a clear presentation of the Gospel with an opportunity given for the lost to respond.\nPeople are getting saved at Calvary Chapel Rosarito in such numbers that, about a year ago, Pastor Mike implemented a new believers’ class during their first service on Sunday mornings. Those who put their faith in Christ at CCR are encouraged to skip the sermons for a month and head to a four week class where they learn the basics of the Christian faith, culminating in publicly declaring their commitment to Christ by being baptized at the church’s monthly baptism. In fact, at a recent church baptism, 11 out of the 16 believers baptized had been saved for under 2 months!\nSo Pastor Mike’s vision for CCR is to gain converts to Christ and disciple them; but his big-picture goal is not to fill his church. In fact, he’s seeking to send them out! Pastor Mike is a church-planter at heart, because that’s what he sees in scripture, and that was what was modeled in his own life as a believer. “I was sent out myself, and it was a really exciting time for me,” he says. “I kept seeing it happen around me [at his home church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace in Southern California], and from the very beginning I had it in my mind to start doing it myself.”\nIt took awhile to get the process going, getting his own church established in Rosarito and raising up leaders being the first steps. After the first two church plants to come out of CCR didn’t end up panning out, Pastor Mike became more proactive in training, implementing a church-planting class to train people in the skills it takes and the hardships involved in the process that he knows so intimately. The class is an extensive 2 year program, with weekly 3-4 hour classes led by CCR’s pastors. In addition, prospective church-planters need to be actively involved in ministry as pastors and, where possible, staff members. They need to lead at least one ministry at the church as well as a home group. It may seem like a long process, but this type of training is invaluable according to Pastor Mike. And the fruit of this work speaks for itself; out of 19 church planting teams that have been sent out of CCR (15 in Mexico and four in the United States), 16 are still presently meeting. Those are amazing numbers!\nAnd so the process continues for Pastor Mike Vincent and his team at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. They preach the gospel, sinners come to Christ, new converts are discipled, and church-planters are sent out to new locations, where they repeat the process all over again. Preach, disciple, send, repeat; this is the heartbeat and rhythm that drives this booming church in Rosarito, Mexico.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/03/07/missionary-spotlight-article-for-vincent-family-preach-disciple-send-repeat/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Vincent family in Rosarito, Mexico. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missionary Spotlight Article for Vincent Family: Preach. Disciple. Send. Repeat."},{"content":"Hello Friends and Family!\nI hope you\u0026rsquo;re all doing well! Thank you for taking the time to read this update; I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you how much it blesses missionaries when you read our updates and take interest in the things God is doing in our lives. Things are continuing to go well with the ministry here. If you\u0026rsquo;re not familiar with my specific role in missions, the short of it is that I am on staff with Saving Grace World Missions as Director of Communications. I\u0026rsquo;m part of a staff that makes sure our missionaries are cared for spiritually and practically. My main role, on top of assisting with financial management for our missionaries, is to get the word out about what SGWM is and what we and our missionaries are doing. Please be in prayer as I lead up the promotion of our upcoming banquet May 5th, which is a great opportunity to garner support for the organization to help us send and support missionaries in an even greater capacity! Most people don\u0026rsquo;t realize the need to support not just missionaries on the field, but the organizations that send them and support them. The work of a missionary is not nearly as effective without a great sending organization!\nI am hoping to finally get to go out on the field this year! My goal is to go to Africa in May or June with SGWM\u0026rsquo;s director, Pastor Mike Thiemann, to do some teaching and simply spend some time with our missionaries on the field there. Below are some pics of some of the missionaries we hope to visit there, and here is an article Pastor Mike wrote about why going out to see them is such an important aspect of our ministry. (On a side note, another cool aspect of my job is that I get to edit these great articles Pastor Mike writes for his missions training website).\nPastor Mike and I are also planning a trip in July to take our church\u0026rsquo;s high schoolers and young adults (ministries that Pastor Mike and I lead, respectively) to a special needs orphanage in Mexico that one of our missionary families runs.\nFinally, we are heavily praying about an opportunity to go to Cuba to do some missions training. We\u0026rsquo;ve had a couple of meetings so far, and as this would be a new area and work for SGWM, we are moving forward prayerfully. But, I\u0026rsquo;m excited about the work and my hope is that we can head out to scope the landscape and do some missions training with a passionate church body in Cuba!\nI ask that you would keep all of these trips in prayer. I do need to raise additional funds for these trips, and I am continuing to work on raising monthly support to continue to fill my role with SGWM long-term and have the flexibility to go on more trips like the ones I hope to head out on this year. If you would like to make a one-time donation online or become a monthly supporter, please click the button below:\nOr, you can send a check directly to made out to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886 with \u0026ldquo;Garcia Family\u0026rdquo; in the memo line.\nAnd finally, if you\u0026rsquo;re not signed up already, feel free to sign up for our monthly newsletter here! Love you all and thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!\nLove, Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/03/02/time-to-go/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends and Family!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope you\u0026rsquo;re all doing well! Thank you for taking the time to read this update; I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you how much it blesses missionaries when you read our updates and take interest in the things God is doing in our lives. Things are continuing to go well with the ministry here. If you\u0026rsquo;re not familiar with my specific role in missions, the short of it is that I am on staff with Saving Grace World Missions as Director of Communications. I\u0026rsquo;m part of a staff that makes sure our missionaries are cared for spiritually and practically. My main role, on top of assisting with financial management for our missionaries, is to get the word out about what SGWM is and what we and our missionaries are doing. \u003cstrong\u003ePlease be in prayer as I lead up the promotion of our upcoming banquet May 5th,\u003c/strong\u003e which is a great opportunity to garner support for the organization to help us send and support missionaries in an even greater capacity! Most people don\u0026rsquo;t realize the need to support not just missionaries on the field, but the organizations that send them and support them. The work of a missionary is not nearly as effective without a great sending organization!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Time To Go!"},{"content":"One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Miller family. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a Jungle Out There! by Joel Garcia\nFor many Americans, just the sight of a “Daddy Long Legs” spider showing up in the corner of the tub for our morning shower is enough to send us running down the street ready to burn down our whole house to get rid of the thing. I had this experience just a couple of nights ago with a giant silverfish bug at the entrance to my apartment. It took me a good five minutes to build up the courage to crush it with a shoe. Not my proudest moment.\nSo imagine a world with giant fly-looking creatures that are seemingly wearing “Iron Man” style armor and are ready to eat you alive; a world with an array of bats, giant flying cockroaches, poisonous snakes, and malaria-carrying mosquitoes; a world where the beady little eyes of crocodiles sometimes poke themselves out of water lurking with piranhas and electric eels where you wash your clothes! For Brad and Melissa Miller and their children, this is just normal life for them in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. And for the Millers, these sometimes unnerving inconveniences are well worth dealing with in order to see the Gospel spread amongst the Apurina people.\nIf the Millers could sum up their specific calling in one mission statement, it would be to bring the Word of God and leadership training to the indigenous Apurina people. The Millers followed the Lord’s leading to Brazil about seven years ago, when they took over for the very first missionaries to ever contact the Apurinas and translate the New Testament into their language. They have been going hard ever since, pastoring a church in one village with a vision to reach many more of the over 100 villages up and down the river. In fact, they were just able to plant another church in a different village this past July, and there are opportunities to plant three more churches in different villages over the next two years. The harvest is plentiful in the Amazon jungle of Brazil, but it hasn’t been without challenges.\nApart from the challenges of large bugs, difficult weather, and lacking the luxuries and commodities we so often take for granted in the United States, there seem to be two main challenges to what the Millers are doing on the field. One of those is simply the ability to communicate the deeper things of the Gospel to the Apurinas after they receive Christ. “By simple faith, we bring the Gospel to them, and they receive it by faith resulting in a changed life,” Melissa says, “but where they have difficulty is in growing via written content.” Abstract Biblical concepts aren’t always easy to teach in certain cultures. Take, for example, Jesus’ teaching that He is the door (John 10:9). Up until about five years ago, the Apurinas didn’t even have doors, and the doors they do know of now are set up to protect electrical equipment and other things, so they are locked and meant for keeping people out. This doesn’t allow for easy application of Jesus’ proclamation that He is the way to salvation by use of the door metaphor! Many times, the Apurinas don’t even necessarily have a category for integral Christian concepts like, for instance, confession. But the Millers have worked hard in this area with the people, tirelessly pouring into them. As Brad puts it, their goal is to “teach them how to read with understanding so that they can go out and reach other people in the same way.”\nAnother challenge the Millers face is that of lacking resources. They have a huge vision for the Gospel in the remote jungle villages of Brazil, but this requires both financial and material resources, and people willing to go out. Brad and Melissa are trying to raise up the nationals to go reach out to their neighboring communities, which would be more efficient with a much smaller cultural gap to hurdle. But the first generation of Christians in these villages had some cultural qualms about evangelizing their neighbors, something that seemed too intrusive to them. However, through the work of the Millers and their supporters, the Holy Spirit is doing what He does best: transforming the hearts and outlooks of the next generations of Apurinas, opening them up more to take the gospel out to their neighboring villages up and down the river.\nAnd that’s a good thing, because part of the danger of preaching the Gospel to a village is that if the missionary isn’t able to stay to disciple the people, other pseudo-Christian groups tend to move in and teach dangerous unbiblical doctrines to them. So the Millers are praying for continued resources to come in and for the Holy Spirit to lead others to go out and provide lasting biblical leadership as they plant churches all around the area.\nThe Lord is doing amazing things through the Miller family, and their response is a humility that is part of the reason they are so effective. “We constantly feel ill-equipped,” they told me, “but we also constantly see God working despite our weaknesses. We are totally dependent on the Holy Spirit.” And I don’t think they, or the Lord, would want it any other way.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial partner with us, so that I can continue to work at promoting the work of SGWM and our missionaries through articles like this one and other means, please click the button below. Thank you all for your support and prayers!\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/02/28/missionary-spotlight-article-for-the-miller-family-its-a-jungle-out-there/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Miller family. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missionary Spotlight Article for the Miller Family: It's a Jungle Out There!"},{"content":"One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Gaona family.\nHome Is Where the Mission Is by Joel Garcia\nJust a quick look-over of Bond and Heather Gaona’s travel schedule is an exhausting experience. If you’ve ever travelled internationally, you know that even one long international flight can be tiring. Jet lag alone tends to throw off your body’s schedule for a few days. I remember my own Missions Pastor telling me about the sensation of feeling so tired that it hurts; after returning from my last trip to South Asia with him, I vividly understood what he was talking about.\nPastor Bond Gaona, his wife Heather, and their two-year-old daughter Breanna, however, are pros at this by now. Breanna has been doing this her whole life, and her parents say she’s a better traveler than they are! This was abundantly evident to me a few weeks ago as I sat across from all three of them at a taco restaurant; they had just returned from Nepal barely 24 hours earlier and I knew they were exhausted, but they handled themselves with ease. Almost every time they land across the ocean or in the States, they hit the ground running. The Gaona family has responded to a specific call from Christ on their life that doesn’t really allow them to plant firm roots anywhere. As missionaries for SGWM, they split their time each year between three different continents. They’ll leave their home base here in the United States to spend a few months in South Asia and then head to Nepal, or to spend a good chunk of time in African countries like Uganda, and then return to the United States for a couple of months, only to go out on the field all over again. It’s a whirlwind experience that they wouldn’t trade for anything. In 2008, God stirred their hearts to start reaching the nations with the Gospel in a greater capacity. So now, they submit to a travel schedule that is, to most people, a bit dizzying. The Gaonas never seem to settle down, because for them, home is wherever God is using them to advance His kingdom.\n“There was no specific goal in mind when we started,” Pastor Bond says. “We just didn’t like the idea of staying in one place forever.” In those early days, as the Lord was beginning to give Bond a broader vision for the nations, his wife helped ground his outlook in the Bible by reminding him that this was exactly what Paul did. The great Apostle to the Gentiles has become somewhat of a model for their own missionary work.\nThe Gaona’s game plan is to go to the unreached and preach the Gospel to them, disciple those who come to Christ, and raise up leadership among that group to take over the work there for them. Then, they do their best to return there every year or so to see how they’re doing and help with any of their practical and spiritual needs. Sound familiar? It looks like a modern day layout for exactly what Paul did all through the book of Acts. While many missionaries are called to go out and plant roots in a new country to establish churches and disciple people, the Gaonas feel called to have a further reach. Raising up nationals to continue the works they begin allows them more time and freedom to reach other unreached people groups. Another upside, says Heather, is that “the people don’t become as dependent on you; they’re forced to step up and take leadership.” And this leads to fruit that lasts and multiplies itself in the areas the Gaonas evangelize in.\nBut this lifestyle has not come without some personal cost to the Gaonas; the call of Christ is never easy. There are, of course, the cultural issues that all missionaries face. It takes a lot of work to learn a culture well enough to overcome issues of language and, even amongst those who speak your own language, the interpretation of what you are trying to say (Pastor Bond calls this the “box of confusion” phenomenon). And the Gaonas are juggling this issue in multiple countries!\nAnother difficulty fairly specific to Bond and Heather is that they aren’t able to create a real “home” for themselves anywhere. This can be particularly hard on Heather as a mom and wife. But Heather is intentional about doing the best with what she is given, and understands that even with this unique issue, other missionaries who plant themselves in a specific country face problems that she doesn’t have to. The Gaonas do a fantastic job with taking things in stride and with a proper perspective.\nBond and Heather have greatly valued the relationship they have with Saving Grace World Missions. The number one thing they appreciate about their sending organization is pastoral care and guidance. Bond cites Proverbs 15:22, stating that “There’s just more wisdom and counsel available to us with different pastors and leaders on the board.” They have a team to run big decisions and vision by. Heather has really appreciated guidance and counsel from SGWM pastoral leadership, particularly when both her parents were facing health issues and eventually passed away. She was advised to give herself time to stay home and grieve her loss, and received counsel through that difficult time. The compassion and freedom she was granted during that season was a huge encouragement to her that she’ll always hold onto.\nLife on the field (or, for the Gaonas, on multiple fields) is never a breeze. But, as Pastor Bond says, “When you’re called, nothing seems too hard to handle. It’s when you’re not called that you start running into issues that are beyond your grasp.” The Gaonas know that they are called to what they are doing, and their unwavering faith in Christ through it is strong evidence to that fact.\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/02/16/missionary-spotlight-article-for-the-gaona-family-home-is-where-the-mission-is/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM\u0026rsquo;s monthly newsletters. I\u0026rsquo;ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here\u0026rsquo;s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Gaona family.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHome Is Where the Mission Is\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eby Joel Garcia\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missionary Spotlight Article for the Gaona Family: Home is Where the Mission Is"},{"content":"Hello friends and family! Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick update on how things have been going in my now 3-month old position as a full-time SGWM missionary. In summary, things are fantastic, and I feel more settled into my role than ever before. I still fulfill a hodgepodge of tasks for our ministry as we all work together, but my official role is Director of Communications. What does that mean? In the business world, we\u0026rsquo;d probably refer to it as \u0026ldquo;Marketing,\u0026rdquo; but I don\u0026rsquo;t think that quite fits the bill of what I do for SGWM. We\u0026rsquo;re in the work of facilitating the spread of the Gospel through our missionaries and endeavors; my job with SGWM is to let the world know about what we and our missionaries are doing. In a nutshell, I\u0026rsquo;m spreading the good news about how our missionaries are spreading the really Good News!\nWhy is that important? I think that, above all else, we want to inspire people to get involved. To pray, to support financially or otherwise, or to go out themselves. \u0026ldquo;Out of sight, out of mind\u0026rdquo; is a concept far to prevalent when it comes to missions; my job is to keep SGWM\u0026rsquo;s work and missionaries in sight and in the minds and hearts of people everywhere through some of our culture\u0026rsquo;s most powerful mediums like email and social media. One of my biggest projects in this area is SGWM\u0026rsquo;s new monthly newsletter updates, which I put together each month to let people know about all the amazing ways God is using SGWM and our missionaries! If you\u0026rsquo;d like to see the work I\u0026rsquo;ve put into our inaugural edition, check it out here!\nOf course, I still get to do a lot of other amazing things for SGWM. I\u0026rsquo;m still teaching on occasion for our Pastors\u0026rsquo; School in South Asia via Skype (sometimes with these amazing young men from the young adults group Amy and I lead for our church!). That is always an incredible honor!\nWe also recently held a Missions Sunday at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, to talk about all of the work that goes into facilitating missions through our home office. People don\u0026rsquo;t typically think of people working from beautiful Yorba Linda, CA as missionaries, but the fact is that we at the home office have dedicated our lives to making sure international missionaries have all the tools they need to fulfill their part in the Great Commission.\nWe ask you to continually pray for us during our first year in this role! Pray for constant vision and that we\u0026rsquo;d continue toward raising all of the monthly support we need. We love what we\u0026rsquo;re doing and would like to continue in this work for a long time as the Lord sees fit. If you\u0026rsquo;re not signed up already, feel free to sign up for our monthly newsletter here!\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to become a financial parter with us, the best way to do that is by signing up here to become monthly supporter. Or, you can send a check directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886 with \u0026ldquo;Garcia Family\u0026rdquo; in the memo line.\nThank you all for your prayers and support!\nLove in Christ,\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, \u0026amp; Jude\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2018/02/03/sharing-the-good-news-about-the-really-good-news/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello friends and family! Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick update on how things have been going in my now 3-month old position as a full-time SGWM missionary. In summary, things are fantastic, and I feel more settled into my role than ever before. I still fulfill a hodgepodge of tasks for our ministry as we all work together, but my official role is Director of Communications. What does that mean? In the business world, we\u0026rsquo;d probably refer to it as \u0026ldquo;Marketing,\u0026rdquo; but I don\u0026rsquo;t think that quite fits the bill of what I do for SGWM. We\u0026rsquo;re in the work of facilitating the spread of the Gospel through our missionaries and endeavors; my job with SGWM is to let the world know about what we and our missionaries are doing. In a nutshell, I\u0026rsquo;m spreading the good news about how our missionaries are spreading the \u003cem\u003ereally\u003c/em\u003e Good News!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sharing the Good News About the Really Good News"},{"content":"The transition into being full-time missionaries with SGWM, becoming intimately connected with facilitating worldwide Gospel work and raising support as missionaries ourselves, has been quite a whirlwind. But there\u0026rsquo;s a peace in the midst of the hurricane, and we\u0026rsquo;re finally settling in to see what this is going to look like for our lives in the long-term after the completion of two successful church events I got to head up: our Halloween Front-Yard Parties and Thanksgiving Potluck. (If you\u0026rsquo;re curious, planning a potluck for 150+ people gives you a taste of both delicious food, mass chaos, and an incredible display of community in your church family). I\u0026rsquo;ve been a bit more freed up now to dive into the missions side of things. In the past month-and-a-half, I\u0026rsquo;ve had a chance to make contact with ministry in Uganda, Pakistan, and South Asia, with no air travel required!\nOne highlight has been spending some time with our brother Brian Kanyike from Uganda while he was here in the States. It was such a blessing hearing how he is doing as a human being, a husband and father, and not \u0026ldquo;just\u0026rdquo; a missionary. On top of that, we were able to help launch a campaign in which our church body came together to purchase some cows for the sake of advancing his ministry back home. What a privilege it was to hang out with this man of God (and help facilitate his very first selfie! Not sure if I should actually be proud of that\u0026hellip;).\nOne of my favorite moments of each week is the missions training class we\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to do with our brother Pastor Nadeem in the Middle East via Skype. These Thursday mornings were designed for us to train him in how to facilitate missions work from his own home base. The result has been that we have all been blessed, encouraged, and built up in the process by each other\u0026rsquo;s fellowship!\nFinally, we have some amazing work going on in South Asia right now. I\u0026rsquo;ve been teaching our Pastor\u0026rsquo;s School in South Asia over Skype every Sunday night. It\u0026rsquo;s been an immense privilege to teach these dear brothers through the book of Ephesians (with some of our young adults from my church joining me on occasion). It\u0026rsquo;s wonderful to be a part of their training to go out and bring the gospel to their own unreached villages. Also, as we get closer to the opening of our Bible school there, we got to interview, via Skype, a graduate from another campus in South Asia to become a SGWM missionary and serve at the new school we\u0026rsquo;re building.\nOn a more personal note, we\u0026rsquo;re loving being a family of five, and it was such a blessing to have Jude dedicated at our church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, last month. All three of our children have been dedicated by Pastor Trent now, and it\u0026rsquo;s always an incredible opportunity to re-establish who we are as part of a larger family in Christ with our church community. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t do any of what we\u0026rsquo;re doing without our church family\u0026rsquo;s love and support!\nPlease continue to pray for the Lord to grow our financial support so that we can continue our work as missionaries with SGWM. Please pray as I step into my main role of helping create the \u0026ldquo;face\u0026rdquo; of SGWM (more on that in our next update!).\nIf you would like to partner with us financially for the spread of the Gospel or sign up to receive our newsletter updates via email, visit our SGWM missionary page\nSoli Deo Gloria! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude joel@sgwm.com\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2017/12/05/around-the-world-no-planes-required/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe transition into being full-time missionaries with SGWM, becoming intimately connected with facilitating worldwide Gospel work and raising support as missionaries ourselves, has been quite a whirlwind. But there\u0026rsquo;s a peace in the midst of the hurricane, and we\u0026rsquo;re finally settling in to see what this is going to look like for our lives in the long-term after the completion of two successful church events I got to head up: our Halloween Front-Yard Parties and Thanksgiving Potluck. (If you\u0026rsquo;re curious, planning a potluck for 150+ people gives you a taste of both delicious food, mass chaos, and an incredible display of community in your church family). I\u0026rsquo;ve been a bit more freed up now to dive into the missions side of things. In the past month-and-a-half, I\u0026rsquo;ve had a chance to make contact with ministry in Uganda, Pakistan, and South Asia, with no air travel required!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Around the World (No Planes Required!)"},{"content":"This is the WPForms preview page. All your form previews will be handled on this page.\nThe page is set to private, so it is not publicly accessible. Please do not delete this page :) .\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/wpforms-preview/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the WPForms preview page. All your form previews will be handled on this page.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe page is set to private, so it is not publicly accessible. Please do not delete this page :) .\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WPForms Preview"},{"content":"Coming into this new venture of what most people call \u0026ldquo;full-time ministry,\u0026rdquo; I knew to expect the unexpected, but I suppose I still didn\u0026rsquo;t necessarily expect what I would stumble upon my first week. As an SGWM missionary, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to experience some really cool things this first week and a half at our headquarters, including the beginning of some training for one of our dear brothers in a sensitive country to direct some of the vision he has for sending missionaries out from his own ministry! I\u0026rsquo;ve been a part of some meetings on how to best bless our missionaries and get their stories in front of the body of Christ. And of course, I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting really excited preparing to teach through the prison epistles to one of our schools of ministry in Asia via Skype starting in a little over a week. How incredible that I get to be a small part of reaching the nations!\nHowever, one of my first jobs here has been the organization of my church\u0026rsquo;s annual Front Yard Parties for Halloween. On a holiday where many unsaved people literally come knocking on our doors, our church had a vision to have different groups around the communities where our church is represented to serve the community with fun, food, and a safe place for kids to play and neighbors to chat over coffee. What a way to open up doors to share the Gospel!\nI love this picture that one of our brothers in Christ captured at my Life Group\u0026rsquo;s Front Yard Party from this week on Halloween. I think it portrays exactly the goal of these parties: to be a beacon of Christ\u0026rsquo;s light in our communities on what can be a very spiritually dark night.\nWith five different parties going on in one night with lots of food, candy, machines, and bounce houses to go out, you can imagine that this event can be a chore administratively. There was a lot of work that went into this and a lot of really helpful hands from amazing people. I was tempted to think that making grocery store runs for hot dogs and calling bounce house vendors is maybe not the most important \u0026ldquo;Kingdom Work.\u0026rdquo; But the Lord has really used this experience, especially as I\u0026rsquo;ve seen how all of these parties have played out, to broaden my vision for missions by narrowing my scope into our own backyards. As I\u0026rsquo;m working with and praying for brothers and sisters overseas in hard-to-reach areas, I can sometimes miss that our communities need the gospel too. And so, as I\u0026rsquo;ve seen all of the fruit coming from this event, all of the Gospel conversations and neighbors feeling the love of Christ from us, I can truly say it\u0026rsquo;s been an honor to play a role in these Front Yard Parties. And no less than some of the other responsibilities I hold with helping to train and equip servants of Jesus worldwide, this first project of mine has very much been a missions project.\nWorking the popcorn machine at my own Life Group\u0026rsquo;s front yard party\nSoli Deo Gloria! Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2017/11/02/broadened-vision-through-a-narrowed-scope/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eComing into this new venture of what most people call \u0026ldquo;full-time ministry,\u0026rdquo; I knew to expect the unexpected, but I suppose I still didn\u0026rsquo;t necessarily expect what I would stumble upon my first week. As an SGWM missionary, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to experience some really cool things this first week and a half at our headquarters, including the beginning of some training for one of our dear brothers in a sensitive country to direct some of the vision he has for sending missionaries out from his own ministry! I\u0026rsquo;ve been a part of some meetings on how to best bless our missionaries and get their stories in front of the body of Christ. And of course, I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting really excited preparing to teach through the prison epistles to one of our schools of ministry in Asia via Skype starting in a little over a week. How incredible that I get to be a small part of reaching the nations!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Broadened Vision through a Narrowed Scope"},{"content":"Hello Friends, Family, and Brothers \u0026amp; Sisters in Christ!\nMy name is Joel Garcia. My family and I are about to embark on the greatest venture of faith we’ve yet to face in our lives, and we’d like to invite you to be a part of it!\nWho We Are\nI am the director of the Worship Ministry at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, and my wife Amy and I, after leading the Jr. High Ministry for six years there, have now been leading the church’s Young Adults Ministry for just over a year. We met at CCSG and have been married for six years now, with three incredible children: Maggie (3), Harrison (2), and Jude (5 months). We certainly have our hands full!\nWhat We Are Doing\nThe Lord has directed both my family and my church’s missions organization, Saving Grace World Missions, into a new season of life for us where I will serve full-time with CCSG and SGWM. I am leaving my current job to serve Jesus as a US-based missionary for SGWM. What does that look like for us?\nOn top of continuing my duties as the leader of both the Young Adults and Worship ministries at CCSG and jumping into a more administrative role, I will work as a servant to SGWM’s missionaries. This will involve going on missions trips to encourage, teach, and equip our missionaries to spread the Gospel, as well as teaching classes for our various schools all over the world via Skype (the benefits of technology!). I will also get to serve our missionaries by assisting with the management of their finances with SGWM’s accounting department, a burden we want to lift from our missionaries’ shoulders as much as possible so that they can flourish in reaching the nations for Christ.\nHow You Can Be a Part of What God is Doing\nWe would like for you to join us in prayer for this new venture in ministry for us. Pray that the Lord would give us wisdom and vision as we follow His lead. Pray that every ounce of work we pour out would be for His glory and produce fruit that lasts. And pray that God would provide for our financial needs, as we will be raising support from those who would like to financially partner with us for the spread of the Gospel to the nations.\nIf you would like to join us in prayer, please sign up for our newsletter by clicking here. If you would like to partner with us financially in this new work God is doing, click here.\nThank you for your prayers and support, and we look forward to sharing our stories with you along the way!\nAll The Best For His Glory!\nJoel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, \u0026amp; Jude\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/2017/10/12/a-new-adventure/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHello Friends, Family, and Brothers \u0026amp; \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2017/10/IMG_2713-300x208.jpg\"\u003eSisters in Christ!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy name is Joel Garcia. My family and I are about to embark on the greatest venture of faith we’ve yet to face in our lives, and we’d like to invite you to be a part of it!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWho We Are\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am the director of the Worship Ministry at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, and my wife Amy and I, after leading the Jr. High Ministry for six years there, have now been leading the church’s Young Adults Ministry for just over a year. We met at CCSG and have been married for six years now, with three incredible children: Maggie (3), Harrison (2), and Jude (5 months). We certainly have our hands full!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A New Adventure"},{"content":"\nThe Garcia Family (Joel, Amy, and their children Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara) serve with SGWM at the home base in Yorba Linda, California. Along with his duties as the Worship Leader and Young Adults Pastor for Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, Joel serves our international missionaries as the Director of Missionary Sending and Care by teaching, training, and encouraging them through planning and going on short-term trips and teaching classes through Skype. His goal is to help relieve the heavy administrative load on them so that they can continue to fulfill their own ministry and spread the Gospel. The Garcia Family\u0026rsquo;s vision is that God would be glorified through their mission of spreading the Gospel to the nations and equipping and encouraging missionaries who are partnering in reaching every people-group for Christ.\nSign up for newsletter Partner Financially\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/garcia/garcia/about/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/garcia/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2023/01/image-300x177.jpeg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Garcia Family (Joel, Amy, and their children Maggie, Harrison, Jude, and Clara) serve with SGWM at the home base in Yorba Linda, California. Along with his duties as the Worship Leader and Young Adults Pastor for Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, Joel serves our international missionaries as the Director of Missionary Sending and Care by teaching, training, and encouraging them through planning and going on short-term trips and teaching classes through Skype. His goal is to help relieve the heavy administrative load on them so that they can continue to fulfill their own ministry and spread the Gospel. The Garcia Family\u0026rsquo;s vision is that God would be glorified through their mission of spreading the Gospel to the nations and equipping and encouraging missionaries who are partnering in reaching every people-group for Christ.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"About"}]