Hello Friends and Family! With 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. ...

Hello Family and Friends! We are so honored that you’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. Maggie at school Jude (pre-haircut!) Harrison and Clara Our 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’s! She finally seems to be really close to sleeping through the night as well, much to our delight! ...

Hello Family and Friends! We pray you are doing well, and as always, we are so thankful that you’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! After a lot of traveling the first half of this year, I’m holding off on any more traveling until 2020 (but there are exciting trips in the works!). That means I’m settling down for work at the home office for the rest of this year. But that doesn’t mean things aren’t exciting! ...

Hello Friends! We 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’s 4-day youth camp in August to teach, lead worship, and minister to our church’s youth, including many who were on the Peru trip, and the children of one our SGWM missionary families. ...

Hello Friends! Thank 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! I (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’s ministry there in preparation for this recent trip. We took almost 40 teenagers, young adults, and their parents to bless Pastor Craig Tippie’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: “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” 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’t able to get it uploaded with spotty internet connection in Peru, but here it is! ...

Hello All! Just 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! ...

Hello Friends and Family! Well, it’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 :) After my trip to South America, I expected that maybe my return to the SGWM home office would be a bit of a downer. Don’t get me wrong, I was more than ready to return home! But when you’re out on the field amongst all of the “action” 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’ve been up to via pictures :) ...

Hello Friends! Who 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. While 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. ...

Greetings Friends! As 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’ 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… 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… This was a PACKED 18 days. Our bodies, minds, and souls went through a lot, more than I’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. ...

Hello Friends and Family! I thought I’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! https://youtu.be/r3PKzPCt84o \\\*************************************************** 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 “Become A Financial Partner” 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. ...