S6.E13 Cross-Cultural Missions

[00:00:05] Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to the Leadership Lessons Podcast. I'm your host Daniel Williams

[00:00:10] and excited to begin to good content with you once again this episode. We're talking about

[00:00:17] cross-cultural missions. That's where my friends is not just a buzzword, but people talk about

[00:00:22] cross-cultural missions. It's doing mission work, being sent by God to a different culture. You

[00:00:29] cultures. It could be from one state to another state, one country to another country,

[00:00:34] but the whole idea is as God sends us out to reach the nations, there are different people groups

[00:00:40] and cultures that you must cross to be able to communicate and spread the gospel. I know it's

[00:00:46] technical, but it's so important because we have to understand that the way that cultures are

[00:00:52] a certain behaviors and what to do and not to do is totally normal for most people. It's what

[00:00:57] it's like a fish, swimming in water. However, we need to make sure that we understand as we get

[00:01:05] sent to a different culture, their assumptions, their behaviors are not like us and our God job is not

[00:01:10] to bash the culture. Not even as it changed the culture is to preach the gospel to that culture. So they

[00:01:17] understand clearly who Jesus is and his good news. And so I'm excited today to do some training.

[00:01:24] You know, this podcast is all about equipping and encouraging. And I feel like this podcast will

[00:01:30] give us some insight into some training as we have some great speakers. This episode, we have Jeremy

[00:01:37] Bautajona. We have a missionary from Brazil, a missionary from Berlin. We're not Berlin, but Belgium.

[00:01:44] We're trying to give you at least I try to give you different perspectives of even leaders around

[00:01:49] the globe so we can get cross-cultural information, information from other brothers and sisters that

[00:01:55] are doing great things for an award and have a different perspective than maybe we, even as the

[00:02:00] Western American church, may have. And so our first leadership lesson and guest speaker is going to be

[00:02:08] Jeremy Bautajona. Now Jeremy Bautajona is a church planner missionary from planting a church here in

[00:02:15] South Florida. He moved from Chicago after marrying his wife in Jelica, came back to the homeland,

[00:02:21] the beloved South Florida where I met and is planting in downtown West Palm Beach in a certain

[00:02:26] quarter called the Latin Quarter. This guy literally speaks one line of English and then translate

[00:02:33] it to Spanish because it is a community full of Hispanic people and people of a certain language.

[00:02:40] And so he's knocking, pounding on the streets, doing a whole bunch of things, knocking on doors,

[00:02:46] preaching the gospel and trying to contextualize the gospel to the people that got us called him to.

[00:02:52] And so I've done an interview. He's done the past it. It's on my Patreon page, the full hour

[00:02:57] interview. I've also shared snippets on episodes of this season but I wanted him to share a leadership lesson

[00:03:03] specifically on this topic of cross-cultural missions or contextualization. And he's going to share

[00:03:13] five principles before you plant or do outreach of what you should be looking for to get to

[00:03:19] note a people to walk the streets, to understand the history, to really try to understand culture

[00:03:24] so you could best preach the gospel to them. There's a word going around in our evangelical

[00:03:30] world mission list. Ed Statser is a mission, mission list. It's one that is a professor or

[00:03:38] one that's professional in exegeting the culture and trying to give them the gospel. And I think

[00:03:44] whether you have that title or not, we are all on mission because our God is a missional god.

[00:03:49] The Father loved us so much he sent his son to a different culture from heaven to earth

[00:03:53] to dwell with us and to seek and save the loss and contextualize when we see Jesus now,

[00:03:58] we see the Father. And Jesus said, just as I'm the latter of the world now, I send you and you

[00:04:04] are the latter of the world. And so we can know these buzzwords of cross-cultural missions or

[00:04:10] missionalists or however you want to say it or whatever is the popular word at the time but these

[00:04:16] are just biblical truths to preach the gospel into all the nations every creature. And so

[00:04:21] it's important for us to be as church leaders trained on what does that look like? If I'm

[00:04:28] planning a church in a different culture, maybe I'm not from there or a different country or city,

[00:04:33] what does that mean? What are the idols of the land? Where can I have open doors of opportunity

[00:04:39] to share the gospel? And I think part of mission training is just understanding culture and how to

[00:04:45] translate that and then best communicate the gospel because that's what we want. The gospel

[00:04:50] is the power to save and like last episode, episode 12 we talked about caring for souls.

[00:04:55] It's the best way we can care for souls to speak truth in love and we want to do this in a loving

[00:05:00] grand way to be able to reach people for Jesus. And so in this episode we're talking cross-cultural

[00:05:06] missionaries. I got Jeremy Bautajona Church planter. I got Kakah who's a church planter in

[00:05:11] missionary in Brazil. I also have Gretchen from Belgium and we are going to just explore this topic

[00:05:17] together. I hope it's encouraging. I hope it blesses you and I hope from this these practitioners

[00:05:22] you can get a lot of great wisdom and insight on how to reach people for Jesus no matter what

[00:05:28] culture or cultural context that you are in. So here's Jeremy's leadership lesson.

[00:05:36] It was of this is Jeremy Bautajona with the leadership lessons podcast with the big home

[00:05:43] the Mackeyly Daniel Williams your church planter favorite church planters favorite church planter

[00:05:51] man really grateful to be on this podcast today and be able to do a leadership lesson

[00:05:58] based on what God has done in my life and the way that God has wired me and where God has

[00:06:04] called me to. I'm a church planter in West Palm Beach Florida on the south end of the city in this

[00:06:11] area called the Latin Quarter it's a Latino community my wife and now we moved two years ago

[00:06:17] from Chicago to plant this church we actually parachuted in. I knew about this community because

[00:06:24] I actually grew up in in South Florida and I always knew that that neighborhood was the Latino

[00:06:30] hub and we really felt called to reach our own people and when I thought about what location

[00:06:38] really captured that calling I thought about the Latin Quarter and after years of praying

[00:06:45] the serning talking to different leaders it was clear that God called us there and as I was

[00:06:51] thinking about the leadership lesson one of the things that I thought about is what what are the

[00:06:55] different themes that have been consistent in my life in God's sovereignty and one of those themes

[00:07:04] is contextualization and today I want to talk to you about five principles five principles

[00:07:10] before planting or doing outreach and really this is just going to be some principles centered

[00:07:16] around contextualization so I just want to jump right into it principle number one first and foremost

[00:07:23] understand what contextualization is. I'm going to define it for you contextualization

[00:07:29] is the application of the gospel and the Bible to a specific social location and situation.

[00:07:38] That's what contextualization is and when I think about that that that that term and what it means

[00:07:44] I think about Jesus Jesus model contextualization when he entered the world and John chapter one

[00:07:51] verse 14 John says this the word became flesh and made his dwelling or tabernacle among us.

[00:08:01] I love that because it's a picture of contextualization first to inform us it tells us that Jesus

[00:08:07] became flesh he became a human Jesus being God he wrapped himself in skin he lived among people

[00:08:18] and he actually the Greek actually says he tabernacled he tabernacled among us. He came from heaven

[00:08:27] earth and he dwelt and that can't be understood unless you rightly understand the Jewish context

[00:08:35] around the tabernacle dwelling with God's people in the wilderness that's a picture of contextualization

[00:08:42] furthermore Jesus was a Jewish Messiah and this book called Evangelical Convictions

[00:08:49] on that I read it says this is Jesus's life in ministry cannot be understood rightly apart from the

[00:08:57] Old Testament story and particularly the promises of God to his people Israel. So we serve a Jewish

[00:09:07] Messiah so modeling our ministry practice after Jesus means that we should

[00:09:14] understand the meaning of God's word first that we should understand God's word rightly.

[00:09:21] This also takes understanding the context you're trying to reach so that you can apply the Bible

[00:09:27] so that you could apply the gospel in a way that makes sense to the people you're trying to reach.

[00:09:34] What I love about contextualization is that contextualization demonstrates the relevancy of

[00:09:40] the gospel and the Bible see it's not that the gospel or the Bible is not relevant.

[00:09:47] It's a matter of whether or not our communities know how the Bible and the gospel is relevant

[00:09:53] and this is why it's important that we know what contextualization is and that we do that hard work

[00:09:59] when we're doing it outreach when we're looking to to plant the church. So that's our first

[00:10:05] principle the second principle I like to give you before planting it or doing it outreach is

[00:10:11] that it's important to define who you're called to reach in the community. You have to know

[00:10:17] who your target audience is and the way that you do this is by praying in the serning who God has

[00:10:24] called you to reach. It's a matter of where God has placed you maybe or maybe a specific

[00:10:31] passion that you have for a particular kind of people and when I think about this concept of who

[00:10:37] your call to reach I think about in the new testament in Galatians chapter two verse seven it's clear

[00:10:44] that Peter was primarily called to be in a Passover sent one to the Jewish people and Paul was

[00:10:51] primarily called to be in a Passover to the Gentile world they had a specific calling to particular

[00:10:58] kinds of people in God's mission. Different aspects different assignments same mission and you

[00:11:07] if you're listening to this and you feel called to do outreach or you're looking to plant the church

[00:11:12] God is calling you to reach a particular kind of people you need to pray you need to discern

[00:11:19] who that is. My father told me this one time he said, Jeremy if you're not shooting a target

[00:11:28] you're shooting at anything and that best this could be super frustrating and that worst this

[00:11:34] could actually be very very detrimental right many of the reasons why we don't see the fruit

[00:11:41] of the work of contextualization is because we actually don't have a focus we don't have a target

[00:11:47] for who God has called us to reach the third principle is that you need to understand the history

[00:11:55] of your target group or your community. Understand that what came before you affects the present

[00:12:04] and the future of the people group you're seeking to reach or the place in which you find yourself.

[00:12:10] History contains even a sort of spirituality that can be used for gospel proclamation and when I

[00:12:17] thought about this I thought about Acts chapter seven and Acts chapter seven Stephen

[00:12:22] before he's murdered Stephen he walks his listeners through Jewish history

[00:12:29] and points them to how that history points to Jesus Christ. And what I love about

[00:12:35] that chapter is that first and foremost he knew Jewish history. He knew what was up. He knew the

[00:12:43] promises of God. He knew who were the four fathers were the patriarchs right. He knew their

[00:12:49] spiritual history and then what I love about that chapter is that he made theological applications

[00:12:54] to that history particularly as it pertain to Jesus and then lastly he challenged them

[00:13:01] in light of what he said about Jesus. He challenged them. In the same way it's important for us to

[00:13:08] know the history of the people we're trying to reach and the communities in which we're trying

[00:13:12] to reach and the social locations in which we find ourselves. For instance what I think about my

[00:13:17] community, my community is a largely immigrant community largely immigrants from Cuba and Guatemala

[00:13:26] or Central America other countries in Central America. It's important for me to know

[00:13:31] when I'm looking through the history to know why historically these people groups from

[00:13:37] these countries have come to my community that tells me a lot about who the Lord has called me to

[00:13:43] reach. It tells me a lot about their spirituality and how they're navigating their spirituality

[00:13:48] in this present moment and how they might even interact with Jesus going forward. So you

[00:13:55] know your people group or your communities history. The fourth principle is walk the community

[00:14:01] and make observations. These misalleges by the name of Bill Crispin and the Coskrascon

[00:14:08] they talk about the fact that most people in social locations they have psychological boundaries

[00:14:15] in their minds right it's kind of like that old train track concept right I won't pass

[00:14:22] the train tracks here and it's important for us as we walk to notice that and to even ask

[00:14:28] ourselves why is that? Why don't certain people go to certain places even in my community or as I'm

[00:14:35] walking why do I notice a lot of people riding their bikes around five o'clock? Why is it that

[00:14:41] 12 o'clock? There are no cars or maybe you live in a certain place where there's a lot of people

[00:14:47] who work from home. Maybe you can notice that by seeing a lot of cars I'm in that social location

[00:14:54] right this is why it might be a good idea to walk and make observations about that.

[00:15:01] Principle number five and this is the last principle as you contextualize and get to know the

[00:15:07] people and your neighbors. So many times trust me I get it we we add to our community

[00:15:16] especially if you're per shooting and you just want to give people the gospel right away and

[00:15:21] I believe that the Holy Spirit does prompt us to do that sometimes but other times

[00:15:27] sometimes we just need to be students of the culture in which we find ourselves. I want to encourage

[00:15:33] answer into people's world matter of fact why don't you even see if you're even welcome

[00:15:39] in those places and if you're not why not? Why not discover and maybe even investigate what

[00:15:44] it would look like to be welcome in those places. When I think about this I think about Matthew

[00:15:50] chapter 10 verse 11 and 12 Jesus he commissions his disciples and he tells them this he says

[00:15:57] whatever town or village you enter search there for some worthy person and stay at their house

[00:16:03] until you leave as you enter the home give the home your greeting. That picture of being welcomed

[00:16:12] into somebody's home right so enter into people's worlds get to know them and I think this is

[00:16:19] really important as we do this listen to people listen to understand before talking and as you talk

[00:16:27] only talk to serve. So these are the five principles that I want to encourage you to practice as

[00:16:35] you are I'm doing the work of contextualization as you're seeking to plant the church or do a ministry

[00:16:43] outreach. Well I think it's so important to be able to learn the culture that you're serving,

[00:16:50] the people group and their idols and their ups and their downs and their hopes and their dreams

[00:16:55] and to be able to give biblical counsel and give them God's word and the gospel in that

[00:17:01] cultural context. This is a very important thing not just when you're planning a church but especially

[00:17:06] when you go to a different culture or different language you have to speak the language right and so

[00:17:13] whether it be something that's very familiar to you you think about a lot this episode is trying to

[00:17:20] teach us and understand this aspect of missions where we need to learn culture to be able to share

[00:17:26] the gospel. It's right now a big thing is well and important for us especially older leaders

[00:17:33] because we not only need to cross cultures we need to cross generations right as we know that the

[00:17:39] gospel is going forth through means like video like this podcast or social media there's a

[00:17:46] cross generational thing that needs to happen when we pass the baton and we just need to understand

[00:17:51] where people groups are at and so what are they valuing what idols do we have to

[00:17:58] tear down and strongholds and those type of things and so I was in California for the

[00:18:04] Calvary Global International Conference the movement I'm a part of is a global network

[00:18:08] of church leaders and I sat down with one church planner and missionary Kakah or Rekardo from Brazil

[00:18:17] again I've had a great opportunity to be able through the cloudary level network to actually have

[00:18:22] connect groups online groups cohorts through a lot of church planners missionaries around the world and so

[00:18:30] Kakah is one of those guys where we actually did a cohort for a year and never met in person until

[00:18:37] I went to California, met him, talked and had an incredible conversation with him about 45 minutes

[00:18:44] about cross cultural missions. I'm going to share two videos on this episode of wisdom that he shares

[00:18:50] but you can get the full episode of me talking cross cultural missions his married to his wife

[00:18:58] from Switzerland they've gone traveled all over the world he has so much wisdom and experience

[00:19:04] it's so incredible I put that full interview on the Patreon page and I probably releasing more

[00:19:09] clips as episodes go but I wanted to at least have his perspective because he's full of wisdom

[00:19:15] a practitioner on just the importance of learning the culture and I ask him how important is it

[00:19:21] learning the culture before you preach the gospel make disciples like what does that even look

[00:19:25] like and how do you do it and so just wanted to give you this snippet you can get the full

[00:19:30] interview on our Patreon page it's a monthly membership where you can actually go and get all these

[00:19:36] all at one time as soon as you subscribe from day one there's over a hundred resources of

[00:19:41] behind the scenes bonus content from book quotes to interviews to extra content all there and that's just

[00:19:48] to thank you to say thank you for supporting this ministry e-e leaders to get this type of

[00:19:52] content out to church leaders around the globe and so here is Kakakah Ricardo giving us that wisdom

[00:19:59] on just learning the culture as you serve the Lord and preach the gospel what are some things that

[00:20:09] are key to your heart that you're like no matter what culture I go to I'm going to do that yeah

[00:20:13] I think it started by like being like really having a humble heart and it realized that

[00:20:19] you don't know everything yeah so you got like for example I was very blessed by one guy

[00:20:27] and a local guy you know that helped me a lot so even though I knew what I want like to do and to

[00:20:35] teach but he'll be the one who always liked who comes to me and say hey here we do like this

[00:20:40] you know here we do like that so when I think about biblical principles like we can say that

[00:20:47] like Christians are different in every part of the world so we have Jesus and then most of what we do

[00:20:54] like no Western you know countries we do the same on the other side but we gotta just look at him

[00:21:03] and realize that what is really like a Christian like culture and what is out of the Christian

[00:21:09] culture so it's kind of hard to tell like one or two things that you know but what I can tell that

[00:21:15] Christians are way more graceful than any other people around so like there's there there is room

[00:21:24] for mistakes when you have a humble heart when you don't have a humble heart you're gonna suffer

[00:21:30] and it's gonna be hard but we had like a humble heart is like you take it easy when we like mistake

[00:21:36] for example yeah you know and then you learned so being part of a local church make a whole

[00:21:42] difference that's something I'm really like I always say I'll never get tired of saying that

[00:21:48] whatever you go everywhere you go look for a look at church it might be very different than

[00:21:55] back home but it's gonna be the place that is gonna have this sense of community that is

[00:22:00] gonna be this sense of like people to teach you what you have to learn so you can be there and

[00:22:08] you can succeed and it can be blessed well I think that learning the culture is natural to me

[00:22:15] because when I planted a church with my wife we were from Washington State and we moved to Florida

[00:22:20] which doesn't seem that big of a deal I mean it's still the United States right however

[00:22:24] the culture was so different it seemed like everyone was walking around with half the clothes on

[00:22:31] because it was sunny and hot compared to rainy and cold people coming from the north east a very

[00:22:37] spiritual place with all of these I don't know I would say all of these cultures in like a melting pot

[00:22:44] but yet very unchurched as well it was just a different culture whereas Washington was the most

[00:22:50] unturge state for many years growing up with me and then they were very antagonistic course

[00:22:56] spiritual things and so the vast difference of going and parachuting into a different culture I

[00:23:01] immediately saw wow this is a super important thing even though I'm instilling the same

[00:23:07] country the culture is different and so when I crossed into a different culture I had to learn

[00:23:13] what was valuable what was important to the people and the people I wanted to minister

[00:23:18] and to love and I think that that's so important in our control context whether there were

[00:23:24] doing cross generational ministry, cost cultural ministry we have to understand that people are

[00:23:30] not like us and that's okay we're not trying to convert other people to a Christian culture

[00:23:34] but the kingdom of God and knowing the gospel and so we have to understand these things

[00:23:40] learn these things and declare these things and what's really helped me is exposing myself to

[00:23:44] other men and women doing mission work doing church work from around the world you hear their

[00:23:51] perspective sometimes we can get in the trap especially in the comparison game with instagram

[00:23:55] we look at what one church is doing maybe saying Nebraska and let me say in Montana and we're

[00:24:02] like this is amazing let's do that but it doesn't work for our context because guess what

[00:24:07] where maybe in a more populated area like a north New York city New Jersey or a south

[00:24:11] Florida context and the vice versa our ministry style maybe not doesn't work for that and we sometimes

[00:24:17] hold great value in what we do the method and not necessarily the message meaning we can come and

[00:24:24] take our approach and our method and elevate that into like this work right now for me but yet it

[00:24:30] may not work in another season or in a different cultural context and so we need to be aware of that

[00:24:36] and one thing that's helped me in just learning this approach is relationships that I have with you all

[00:24:43] this community it's a global network there's many people that I have been able to zoom coach call

[00:24:49] a fellowship pray with that are around the globe and I hear what's happening and it's so

[00:24:54] different but yet God is at the center of it all one also thing that I was just a part of

[00:24:59] some training in wells I'm a part of a cohort where there's 15 of us and I'm the only one right now

[00:25:05] in the states rest of them are doing mission work around the world summer in Germany and France

[00:25:11] in Belgium and we were in wells for a training about church planning movement and how to start

[00:25:19] one and lead one of those things as we have many responsibilities in our training other people

[00:25:24] and just want to see the gospel go forth and one person Gretchen Schwartz who's married to the

[00:25:30] professor in the lead person of this cohort school that I go to bill Schwartz his wife just shared

[00:25:37] one piece of advice and it's golden it's simply just don't quit and I think that with cross

[00:25:43] culture missions learning another language learning another culture is super super super hard

[00:25:49] have I said it's hard it's incredibly hard however I want to encourage you guys listen don't

[00:25:55] quit don't quit the call the gods called you to I'm I have another meeting set up even with

[00:26:01] another missionary from a different part of Spain where it's not even Spanish he's living

[00:26:06] it he's learning a different language and it's a very unique situation like it is so important to

[00:26:12] not give up and to understand the work that God's called you to and it's going to take some work

[00:26:16] but expose yourself it's hard sometimes to expose yourself to different cultures that's that's what

[00:26:21] the world is having a problem with right that's what we're having a problem with even in the political

[00:26:26] party just to have a Democrats say what the Republican say what the Democrat and just listen

[00:26:31] and we need to be learning and loving and learning cultures and not attacking people and just saying

[00:26:36] God we want you to be the final authority how do we do this and so this is one of the reasons why I'm

[00:26:42] giving you missionaries church planners missionaries and even the one piece of advice from

[00:26:47] Gretchen Swartz who is a missionary church planner in Belgium to just encourage you to bless you

[00:26:53] and I want you to hear different voices voices from men and from women voices from senior pastors

[00:27:00] and lead pastors church planners but also from associate pastors from worship directors from

[00:27:05] youth pastors we need one another to be able to listen to learn be quick to listen slow to speak

[00:27:13] and I just want to thank you for listening to this podcast for sharing and letting people know

[00:27:18] you know when you do a five star review and let on iTunes or wherever else it lets other people know

[00:27:24] and let us have a voice in their ear and so I know this is a very intimate thing that I'm just speaking

[00:27:29] or you're maybe watching the podcast and it feels like we have a relationship because we do

[00:27:36] I pray for you and it's awesome to be able to pour into you in this way and to introduce you

[00:27:42] to some of the friends and people and ministers that are blessing me and I'm just so

[00:27:47] honored to be able to host these type of things to bless you and so this is Gretchen's one piece of

[00:27:53] advice telling us not to give up. Hi my name is Gretchen Schwartz my husband and I serve as

[00:28:05] missionaries in Belgium and we also serve as the regional directors of central and eastern

[00:28:13] Europe as well as Belgium so if I was to give you one piece of advice I would say don't give up

[00:28:21] I believe in ministry as ministers we all have many opportunities to be exhausted to be

[00:28:33] frustrated with situations that were in the devil coming against us in many different ways

[00:28:39] whether it be with people in the church or just a lot of circumstances that we walk through as

[00:28:44] ministers and I think it's very easy at times to say enough I can't take anymore and I just give up

[00:28:53] ministry and I would encourage you to push forward to keep going on to persevere and God will see you

[00:29:00] through it he's not gonna leave you he's gonna walk through walk through every situation with you he

[00:29:07] will get the victory you will get the victory if you keep moving forward that's my advice

[00:29:11] well I think that struggle is real to actually give up you know I continually say there's nothing

[00:29:17] better than doing what God's called you to do but let's just be real it is hard this is why

[00:29:21] there are verses that say you do not labor in vain be steadfast and movable always abounding in the

[00:29:26] work of the Lord so we need to be encouraged by that and I just want to encourage you all if you're

[00:29:32] not a missionary and you have those on the field those that are doing a great work I want to

[00:29:38] encourage you to reach out to them it is so lonely at times to be a wife of your family a different

[00:29:44] culture doing the work and thinking no one cares I want to go back to Kakah who I had a great

[00:29:50] interview it's 45 minutes I mean who knows it's worth your time to listen to that whole thing

[00:29:56] whether you be a patron community member or maybe one day I'll just release it as in a whole episode

[00:30:00] because it was just pure gold but he me and I him and I were talking and he just gives this

[00:30:07] last encouragement that I want to give to you as far as just the importance of encouraging your missionaries

[00:30:13] by visiting every year every two years and what that's that does to their soul and encourages them

[00:30:19] listen I know that I get encouraged when I hear from you guys when you email me a Daniela

[00:30:24] eeleter.com or I had someone email him just say hey man I'm going through this situation in that

[00:30:29] episode really encouraged me I mean that blesses me I know I need that how much more do all of these

[00:30:34] guys and girls that are on the field away from family away from a different culture language

[00:30:39] whatever may be they need support and some of you guys may say well how do I do that and that's

[00:30:46] why I wanted to play this second clip from Kakah from Brazil church planner and missionary who's

[00:30:51] done all this different stuff because he shares just practical wisdom of how we as the church can

[00:30:56] come around side and support missionaries those that are doing cross cultural missions I think

[00:31:01] it's super important and super encouraging and so you'll be blessed by this wisdom he has to share

[00:31:08] how are you encouraged by your sending church back in Brazil as you were out

[00:31:13] what ways that they encouraged you whether it be for the finances letters prayer like I mean

[00:31:19] all of it like what what did that look like as far as maybe because some of us are watching and we

[00:31:24] our pastors are part of a local church but we want to send love and support to missionaries

[00:31:29] yeah I think like we're very blessed by our church in so many ways yeah we were supported

[00:31:35] like financially for sure we had people praying for us all the time that's another thing

[00:31:42] we have even like sometimes the kids' ministry involved so that we have our pictures and the

[00:31:48] news letter and the kids were praying for us and they even raised money for life from there like

[00:31:54] no big banks whatever you know that's all yeah and so we got encouraged by like every once in a while

[00:32:01] so we had one lady that she was responsible for the all the communication with us

[00:32:06] so every time that they they wanted something like you know that could pray for us

[00:32:10] of just encourages we were just like sending some prayer requests or whatever would happen

[00:32:16] out of the normal basis we would send a picture and say hey can you pray for us we're dealing

[00:32:20] with this thing you know so and having the having the pastor being a friend of mine that helped

[00:32:27] a lot too so every time that things would get hard we could call each other you know you know

[00:32:33] open my heart out and they just say I think it's been hard and being cursed so hey keep it up

[00:32:37] continue man you know we're praying for you so I think the the role of the local church of the

[00:32:43] standing church is so important because many people like they I was very privileged like since

[00:32:49] we begin on my journey when it comes to missions because like both of the churches I was

[00:32:54] part of they were very like committed to us so they were not only like sending people to far away

[00:33:02] and just like hey you you figured it out they're like constantly having you know people calling

[00:33:08] us some of them had visited us yeah and now that's what I want to do as a pastor being the other

[00:33:13] side we want to be there. Well hey whether you are a missionary on the ground at a different

[00:33:21] country or maybe different culture or maybe you're just doing what God's called you to do in

[00:33:26] the city that you grew up in and you're very familiar with the culture I think we all have a part

[00:33:30] to play when it comes across cultural missions whether we're sending whether we're going man we

[00:33:36] we are doing this thing together and it's really important because it's a hard work we want to see

[00:33:41] the gospel go forth to the nations everywhere we go making disciples in that multiply and missions

[00:33:47] work as a part of that you know at our church we saved 10% of our ties and offerings to support

[00:33:52] missions and church planning and get the gospel to go forth with power and with finances and

[00:33:58] fruitful ministry to get people saved he who in souls is wise we want to walk and wisdom in these

[00:34:04] last days and so I hope that this was an encouraging episode for you I know that it's hard and

[00:34:09] next episode episode 14 I'm actually going to talk about caring for your own soul because at

[00:34:15] sometimes we can do so much work that we forget to work on ourselves and have ministries and overflow

[00:34:21] of our hearts so I got Brian Brookens with the leadership lesson I got come more interviews

[00:34:26] some one-piece of advice and the importance of just taking care of our soul finding those rhythms of

[00:34:31] rest and even being able to just have ministry flow from the overflow of our hearts and so

[00:34:38] I pray for you that you got would bless you that for the Holy Spirit will come upon you to empower

[00:34:43] you to do the work these called you to and no matter what you have in your hand when you do it

[00:34:48] off with the glory of the Lord man thank you so much for just listening for watching for making

[00:34:53] sure that you are part of this community and subscribing it is a privilege it is an honor and that

[00:34:59] was episode 13 cross-cultural missions we will catch you on the next episode