Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:05

We started this other feeding center this last month. We don't have the budget for it. But he didn't care. And I told him, I said, look, I will we'll try to raise more money for this. But at this point, you know, we've raised the money we've raised. Um and we'll we'll try to tackle it. But we have a bunch of other projects that our ministry is doing. I don't know that like I can't get to this right now. He's like, Well, we we started these things by faith without you. We're gonna start this one by faith without you. And, you know, so they're doing it on their own right now. But I am super excited about all that God is doing. And it's not just in our ministry, obviously. Uh, you know, other missionaries, national pastors all over the region that that are going forward for the sake of the gospel, and the gospel's expanding, and we just get to be, you know, kind of the front row seats and be a small part of it.

Welcome And Meet Nate Beale

Mark 0:49

There are some things about God's kingdom you can learn from a book. There are some things that you could hear from a pulpit. And then there are some things you may never fully understand until God takes you somewhere you never expected to go. Welcome to Kingdom Without Borders, where we take time to sit down with missionaries and ministry leaders to hear the stories of what God is doing around the world. Today, I'm joined by my friend Nate Beal. For the last nine years, Nate, his wife Tara, and their family have served with core missions throughout Latin America. Along the way, God has taken them into places and introduced them to people that have changed the way Nate thinks about missions, sacrifice, faith, and the kingdom of God itself. They've watched God provide in unexpected ways, met believers whose faith challenged their own, and have seen firsthand what God can do through ordinary people who are willing to just trust him. And along the way, they've learned that sometimes the hardest part of following God's call isn't going. Sometimes it's coming home. So today, we're talking about calling, sacrifice, unexpected turns, and what happens when you get a front row seat to God's work among the nations. I'm Mark Davis, your host, and this is Kingdom Without Borders. Here's my conversation with Nate Beale. Nate, for somebody that's meeting you for the first time, could you tell us a little bit about your family, uh, yourself, and where God has allowed you to serve over these last nine years? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

So I grew up in Southern California. I met my wife outside of Chicago. Uh we got married. We're um coming up on 17 years of marriage, and we spent the first couple years um doing church planning in the U.S. We helped plant two churches in Indiana, uh, one in Ohio, and then went into uh missions. And we have four children, um three girls and one boy. And uh we've spent the last uh nine years serving with core missions um throughout Latin America. Core stands for Centered on Remote Evangelism. We try to help uh missionaries train, uh equip, and send out local national pastors to plant churches amongst their own people, often in pretty remote areas. And uh so that's what our family's been doing.

Returning Home For Family Health

Mark 2:59

I know from the kind of the preparation for today's conversation, you told me that you guys have spent two terms on the field, but you're now entering a different season. What would you say ministry looks like for you today?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, so our desire has always been to be on the field, and that was what we did. We spent a term in Chile, um, in South America, and then the last one in Honduras, and our plan was to actually be in Honduras long term, um, somewhere, at least or at least somewhere in Central America, but probably in Honduras. And so we had kind of put roots down there, and then because of some uh health situations in our immediate family, um it became necessary for us to come back to the U.S. But we still have the desire to be involved in missions and had the opportunity with our ministry, as our ministry has grown that we're a part of. Um, we were actually the first family, our director started the ministry, and we were the first family that joined core missions, and that's grown significantly since then. Uh, as far as grown with supporting national pastors and in working countries around the world, but even our team, both here in the U.S. and abroad, missionaries that are serving with our ministry on the field has grown. And so as that has happened, um, they have approached me a couple of times over the last five years or so about coming back to the U.S. and working out of our home office and kind of working in throughout Latin America and then also working on a big program that we're I am working on now for starting Bible institutes. But uh I was always I wasn't super interested in it because I I wanted to be on the field, sure. Kind of boots on the ground. Uh, but I felt like through these, um, we felt like through these health situations in our immediate family, God was making it clear that our time on the on the field was done, even though it was not our desire to to be in the U.S., as many of us have seen in our lives. You know, God has a way of making things clear to you at times. And so that has necessitated a couple months ago and moved back, and now I'm working out of our home office. I am still traveling quite a bit um in in Latin America right now, mostly in Honduras, because we just had so many projects that were ongoing that I'm trying to kind of work through, handoff, and finish. Um, but then pretty quickly that will transition to different areas in in Latin America.

Mark 4:58

Okay. So with core then you're are you're the Latin American director. Is that kind of going, okay. So that would be all of Central America and South America?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yes, we we used to do more in South America and we had kind of pulled some of that back, and we want to go back and and and restart some of that. Um part of that reasoning was because we have um, okay, so when when we joined the ministry, it was just our director and his family. They were missionaries in Jamaica for about 10 years, started this ministry. We joined it uh about three years into the existence of the ministry, and we were the first family, American family uh that joined and then went to the field. Uh, and now we have um three other families that are on the field through our ministry, and then we have three other families that are here serving in the U.S. that you know, travel around and and talk about the ministry, raise support for national pastors, uh, travel a lot um uh internationally to our our our our teams and then also um meeting with new national pastors, trying to interview them, race, you know, raise awareness of them, uh, and then also you know, many ministry projects when it comes to church planting. Uh after a number of years, as the ministry has grown and things have um new projects have been needing to be done, uh, there was always that kind of pull to come back. But again, I was I was always fighting it because of wanting to stay on

Philippines Trip That Lit The Fire

SPEAKER_01 6:12

the field.

Mark 6:12

So, Nate, you said that missions was something that God put in your heart even as a child. Can you tell us where did that come from or what um kind of began that desire?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I grew up in a a church in a family that was very missions-minded. I remember as a young child giving uh even monthly to missions. Like I think my first time I started giving regularly was like a quarter. Uh-huh. I don't know if it was a week or a month, I can't remember, but it was a quarter, and I probably stole that from my parents, you know, somewhere. Found it along the way.

Mark 6:40

Maybe like you guys are involved like in faith promise.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, it was like a faith promise type model. Okay. And uh so I just, you know, I grew up around a missions-minded church and meeting missionaries and even having some missionaries in our homes at times, uh, in our home at times. And so that was kind of like that always, that desire was always there. And then when I was 19, I went to the Philippines on a missions trip with my church, and that was like where God has really ignited it. And so I always had the thought, the desire. I remember when my wife and I were dating, I was telling her, hey, just you know, be prepared because like, you know, if if God allows it, I I would love to be a missionary. Um, you know, hopefully you'll be on board with that if we're gonna get married, uh, which she was. Um, and so that kind of led me down that path. But then when I was getting out of Bible school, I was we were young and I knew, okay, I I just didn't feel like I fit into the model of uh missions that I grew up in, uh, like a missionary pastor, and not that I have any problem with that, but it just, you know, go to a foreign country, stay in one place, you know, pastor a church, just in a different culture and context. And uh I but I love church planting. I I mean that's what fires me up. And so I wanted to get experience, and that's kind of what led me to the path of doing church planting to get some experience and then going into missions. But uh yeah, I was just always had the desire to be uh to be a missionary.

Mark 7:55

Do you think can you remember anything particular on that trip uh that was kind of like the catalyst or the moment where you knew this is what I feel like God's calling me to do?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

I try to encourage everybody, every Christian, to take a missions trip. And so I know some people disagree with that, and I understand, and I understand that you know the statistics as far as you know how much money it costs and how many people actually become missionaries out of it, but basically every missionary I talked to went on a missions trip and it was a pivotal moment in their life to become a missionary. So not everybody that goes on a missions trip is gonna be a missionary, but very few missionaries I I feel like become missionaries without going on some type of trip.

Mark 8:32

And so it has an eternal value, um, even if it's even even if someone, I mean, I don't think it's necessarily a I think a waste isn't the word I want to use, but it's not a bad thing for someone to go on a missions trip and not come back and want to be a missionary. They but they very well may be more motivated to support missions because they've seen it firsthand. It's not a I I think I I don't know that I would agree with someone who says that it's not a it's not a worthwhile venture. I think God does a work in people's hearts when they see things that that does just doesn't happen apart from that.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

And I agree, and we we still host our ministry hosts quite a few missions trips for churches because we do all the logistics and planning and all that, take it all, take that burden off them. And I don't always necessarily even love hosting missions trips. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of work, yeah. Um and but at the same time, there is a huge value to it, uh, both to often them supporting the pastors we work with and projects. I just was in Honduras this last month going back, and a church that came and saw this church building we've been building for a year and a half, and this church plant. We were uh we were la last month was the inaugural service, so we're there for it. The church sees this, this U.S. visiting church, and says, this church has no chairs, they have no PA system, they're in a building without windows and doors, uh, because we're near the end and we ran out of money. Like all the time. Another burden, it's another burden. And they took up an offering and they bought chairs and they bought a PA system and lights for this church. Uh so yeah, it's a huge, you know, huge, huge value for them to come and see it. But I I just think any Christian that goes, they're gonna come back and they're gonna have a more of a heart to see it. And so in my case, when I was I was young, but I was in the Philippines, and I remember at one point they sent me on the back of a motorcycle with this national pastor who didn't speak a lot of English, and we went, I mean, I'm I must have spent an hour or two away from our group where they were staying. And I was staying in this little village. I think they sent two of us, so there are two of us there for safety, of course. And we go into this village and we stayed with the pastor, this Filipino pastor. Um trying to think about I'll tell the story. So we we walk in the village at one point and they have rooster fighting in in the Philippines. It's a big deal. They do it in stadium sometimes. Oh wow, it's quite a barbaric event to witness. So, anyway, we go into this little village and they're you know having a fight and it happens, and the the losing rooster that didn't make it, the guy goes and grabs it, hands it to the pastor. I don't know if that was his tithe that week. I have no idea, but we took it back to the house, and that's what we ate for dinner that night. Nice where we stayed in their home, you know, preached uh the next day for them, and you know, took us back on the motorcycle, and that was definitely a welcome to you know developing world missions experience. But yeah, there's so many things that happen along that trip that you know, and you, you know, you meet people and you and you meet Christians, especially. Like I tell people all the time, you know, we in America we live in almost this celebrity church culture at times where we we look at people who are platformed and they're the heroes of the faith. Well then what happens? Unfortunately, you know, m man is is fallible and man is and men are sinners and they fail. Um Jesus never fails, but men do. Yeah. And oftentimes if we put our faith and trust in that person with all the giftings and talents, you know, our faith can fail. But then if you go to the mission field, like I tell people all the time, the my heroes of the faith are these Honduran pastors that I've worked with the last few years that no one knows their name, they but they are some of the most genuine, humble, and faithful Christians I've ever met, and they love people, they will give sacrificially when they have nothing. And when I'm around them, I'm like, man, these are heroes. They're the real deal. These are yes, these are the heroes of the faith to me. And but no one knows who they are. But I love getting to have people come and visit and meet them and tell their stories because they're you know, I just I almost almost almost always say, I don't want to tell their story at all. I'm gonna have them tell it, I'll interpret it, but I want you to hear it, you know, in person from them so they can tell you how they started this church on the side of the road with no money under a shade structure, and how God has provided miracle after miracle and not American money or miracles, but you know, their the faith of these people and how God has taken care of them. And so those are the things that I think when someone goes on a missions trip can be so impactful. That's very, very

Being The Outsider Abroad

SPEAKER_01 12:47

good.

Mark 12:47

Um in in the preparation, you wrote something that caught my attention. You said that one of the adjustments uh of being a missionary was feeling like you were the outsider. What was that experience like? Or what do you what are you referencing when you're writing that?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

So whenever you go you're in another country and culture, you know, you just stick out like a sore thumb. Yeah, now I'm I'm big, I'm 6'2, 250, I'm bald, I have a red beard, you know, I don't fit in many places in the developing world. And so when you when you're in places like that, I'm I'm at this point, I'm very comfortable in it. It doesn't bother me, but at the same time, you there's no anonymity. You know, when you're in the US and you're walking around, like, yeah, maybe you run into somebody you knew from high school or that you wouldn't go to church with or something, but you're just a normal person walking around. In another country, usually you are a spectacle and you're stared at every day when you leave your house. And in my case, with my family, you know, it's a rarity in the place we lived, uh, there weren't other than a few other American missionaries, there weren't a lot of Americans there. And then some of the more remote places that I would go, and my family would go with me sometimes with our church planning. We'd be up in these mountains, rural mountains in Honduras, where we have a church plant and feel some feeding centers for poor children that we that we've started in the last couple years. You know, like it might be the first time any of those people in the village have seen Americans, and I've got little girls with red hair, so again, very not in a bad way, but just it's unique. Yeah, there's different. Yeah, and and most of the time there was not a lot of um, I mean, sometimes it would be a little weird, but most of the time it's you know, grandmas, you know, patting their head and that kind of thing. But still, it's just anytime you go out, you know, you're you're on display, so to speak. And then also in our case, you're on guard because it's not the safest place in the world.

Mark 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Uh especially when it comes to things like kidnappings and ransoms and things like that. And so, you know, you're just, you know, like our kids never left our sight when we were in public. You know, they're holding our hand. If we're in a store or something like that, they're they are not out of our sight. And so you, you know, you just feel like you're kind of on guard at all times. Sure.

Mark 14:51

You did say uh something that caught my attention about lifelong friendships that formed remarkably quickly amongst yourself and some of the nationals. Um, why do you think those relationships on the mission field became so deep so quickly?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Some of us probably are ministry model. So even though we had some church plants that we were a part of doing and kind of leading, because of the the idea of our ministry being that uh, you know, that we want to train faithful men who can train faithful men uh and teach others also, um and and partly because of the area of the world we're in. So I'll I'll back up a little bit. For example, I have a younger brother, John, who's a missionary in Thailand, and it's I think under one percent Christian, professional Christian in Thailand, and he's up in the northern border with Myanmar and Laos in an area that's not super evangelized. The Golden Triangle. Correct. Actually, yes. So in his case, it's a it's different because there's not that many Christians there. There's not that many pastors, whereas the gospel has been in Latin America for a long time. So in my case, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can, and there's nothing wrong with uh an American missionary going and planting a church in Latin America and it's still needed, but there are also a lot of faithful men, uh nationals that are already doing the work. That are yes, that are already doing the work or are in training to do the work and you can help them and help them launch faster and and um take some burdens off them, especially financially, but also in other areas. And so in our case, like when we left, we had in the last year three church plants that we were I was a part of helping, all three of them, but I'm not necessarily the pastor sure. So so the good thing about that is that when we had to step back and leave, things were not falling apart because from the day one, they had a Honduran pastor, and I would I would really just split time with them. So almost every day of the week, I was in a different local church that we were a part of, you know, planting um over the last there there's been about five church plants in the last maybe six years in Honduras that our ministry has been a part of. So almost every single different day of the week I'd be with a different one and I'd kind of rotate weekends and everything with them. But you know, you're working hand in hand with them, and again, um my ministry philosophy is a lot more collaborative as well, where I don't I didn't want to be their boss. I mean, granted, we were helping them in different ways, and so we were a team, but you know, I want them to be the pastor of that local church because I don't want uh it's not my you know, it's God's church, and I want them to be the under shepherd. So I do think that that helped um establish friendships quickly. Uh but yeah, I mean, like those guys, I still almost almost every day I talk to them, well, you know, exchange messages on WhatsApp. Uh, and part of it is because we have ongoing stuff happening, you know, church plants, buildings being built, um, feeding centers, and things like that. So, you know, a lot of it's ministry related. Yeah. But yeah, we, I mean, they're some of my best friends

Pastor Oscar And Mountain Feeding

SPEAKER_01 17:38

in the world now.

Mark 17:38

That's awesome. Um, you mentioned that you've met some national pastors who literally have almost nothing and yet sacrifice what they have for the gospel. Could you take us into that world and tell us a little bit about what you've seen there in regards to that? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I'll give you an example. One of my my best friends, Pastor Oscar, he's about 60. Um he's in great shape because he hikes mountains all the time. I do not enjoy my time being with him when he wants to do that kind of stuff because I don't like to hike up mountains. But he grew up in the mountains in southern Honduras. Crazy testimony. He he was a soldier when uh there was a war between Honduras and Nicaragua. This is the whole Iran Contra deal. And um he through that experience and became a drunk. He was young. I think he joined the military when he was 15, maybe. Oh wow. Um became an alcoholic, ended up stealing arms, uh guns from the Nicaraguan faction that this that the U.S. guerrilla of the Yes, that the real that the U the US was supporting. He was stealing guns from them, okay, selling them on the black market in Honduras. That got found out. So the Honduran army wasn't trying to get in, but this you know, group that the US was funding was coming after him, so he had to flee and hide in the mountains of Honduras. Oh wow. He became homeless, and then an American missionary reached him with the gospel, and his life completely changed. Uh credible testimony. But he is the kind of guy that when I met him, he had this church, existing church that was about 10 years old and and and doing well, you know, not necessarily financially, but you know, a strong church. Um, but he had always had this desire to start feeding centers in poor mountain villages because he's just that type of guy that will just again give everything to everyone else. Um and so when I first went and visited one of these feeding centers with him, the kids that were there, he was trying to feed them five days a week because these kids live on this mountain, um uh Montaña de Congo, so it's like the Congo Mountain, and it's a small mountain, only about 200 people live on it. Um, but it's looked like almost straight up, and it's no cars can go up it, not even motorcycles can go up it. You can only walk it or go with a donkey or a horse. Oh wow. And so some of these people that live up on this mountain, and I I can't even get some of this is just in our American understanding of thinking of things, is like, why does why does someone live up there? But maybe it's free land at one point, who knows? But there's about 200 people that live up there, and he's gone and walked, you know, hiked it to evangelize these communities house to house, sharing the gospel over the years. So there was a family that got saved from there, and they were coming to his church, and so he met all these kids. Now to come to his church, they have to come down the mountain. Right, okay. So they they they hike about a mile an hour down the mountain and then about 40 minutes through the town to get to his church, this family, yeah. Crossing a river and yeah. So these kids though that live on this mountain, about 25 of them hike down every single day to the base of the mountain to go to school. Some of whom hike two hours from the top of the mountain down, go to school, and then hike up at the end of the day, and don't have much for food. And so he had a desire to help these people, and but he just didn't have the funds to do it. But as he had money, he would do it. So the day I went and saw it the first time when he was trying to start it, the each kid got a piece of bread and this cream sauce they called mantaquilla, which is in Spanish means butter. But it it can mean in Honduras, it it can mean butter, or it can mean like almost like a sour cream type sauce. And that so that's what I would compare it to. And so they put it on a lot of things, but anyway, it was a piece of bread with that sauce on it. So you imagine like handing a kid a piece of bread with like a buttered piece of bread on it, exactly. And that's what some of them might have eaten for the day. And so, um so not much nutritional value. No, no, no, not at all. And he had again desire to do it, but just no no fun. So we were able to raise some some support for the feeding center, and now they're able to feed the kids una comina digna, they'd say, like a like a dignified meal meal, yeah. And so uh you know, every day of the week now we have a feeding center there that feeds kids five days a week, and then through that pastor, we have three other feeding centers. Uh one of them's three days a week, and then the other two are as part of church plants.

Mark 21:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Um, but this pastor, we also were able to raise him some support financially as a pastor, and we don't do it long term with our ministry, it's anywhere from two to four years to try to help get help pastor kind of get off the ground a little more, not spend as much time working secularly uh and being able to focus more on the ministry. But I had to specify with this pastor, and he's 60 years old and one of my you know good friends and also just kind of a really mentor, but I had to Kind of you know, not talk down to him, but tell them, hey, okay, we have the support for the feeding centers, but we have this not a lot of money. It's like $200 a month, but this is for you and your family, and you cannot use it for the feeding center. Because I know him, he will give it all away. Right. And he started crying and he said, No one, so people have given over the years for different projects that we've done, have seen what we do, and try to help us because we want to help everybody else, but no one has ever, you know, cared for our family. And he said, Thank you for telling me that I can't use it for something else, because that will help me to use it for my family. You know, so like that same pastor, we had a church in Texas that unfortunately closed down, but they sold their property and they um, I guess they must have just cut a check with to all their missionaries because we got the largest check we've ever received in our life. And at the time my wife and I were talking, like, man, obviously it's always nice to receive money, but we were doing fine at that point, um, financially in the field. And we said, let's give all this money away to the pastors. And so we over the last year or so we've been able to, we were able to um use that money to buy a vehicle for uh for the pastors that we work with down there, and this is one of them. But we were able to get him an old uh, I mean, nothing super nice, but uh uh get an old Ford Explorer uh four by four. And again, because he wants to do this mountain ministry, he was at one this this other mountain, not the one I'm talking about, different mountain next door. He would uh go up the mountain, th walk it three hours up the mountain to get to this village that he was trying to evangelize and and trying to start a church in. And so we were able to get him this this SUV. And so now he's able to go up and down. And he just told me the other day he did there's this indigenous group, the Tulupan people, that are in central Honduras, or north north central Honduras, where uh where we lived, and they're really cut off from the rest of um Honduras. Um, and they even have kind of almost a close society. It's very dangerous. If you're an outsider, like they kill outsiders, and and but he knew somebody in there and he'd always wanted to evangelize these people, but he couldn't get there. And so the other day he says, Yeah, we my wife and I, it you know, uh geographically, like uh as the crow flies, it's not that far from where he lives, but it's up these crazy mountains took eight hours. Oh my word. In yeah, and these roads, I mean, uh they're terrible on your bot, you know, on your body, even just driving them. But went eight hours to get there. They let him come into one of the villages. Um, he brought food and different things and held an evangelistic service, and he's like, I can't wait to go back, you know. And that's just that is just the type of people that we've been able to meet and work

Feeding Center Logistics And Costs

SPEAKER_01 24:24

with there.

Mark 24:24

So you you've mentioned several times about feeding centers. Um, can you help me understand and our listeners understand what what is that? What's going on? Like what I mean, obviously people are being fed there, but like what what what what happens at a feeding center?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, so we started uh the first one we had, our ministry had is in Haiti, and um we still have that today, but because of the political situation in Haiti, we have not been able to go back to visit it recently. Um but there's actually the missionary we work with there is a Filipino that's been in um Haiti for oh my goodness, probably 35 years now, and has a you know church, a Bible school, an orphanage, all kinds of stuff going on. Um, but they he also has a feeding center in a small fishing village, maybe 20 minutes from the bigger city that he lives in, um, but they didn't have a budget for it. And so we years ago we met him, got introduced to the concept, and um, so they have a feeding center there.

Mark 25:16

Is a feeding center like a building?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Is it uh or is it you're just calling a feeding center like a place where people meet or sorry, um and so in and sometimes some of them we have buildings, some of them we don't. Okay. But basically we're feeding children that would not otherwise have a meal is the idea behind it. Almost always children. Uh if we have extra, you know, if there's adults there, we'll feed them too. But the the goal is we have malnourished children. Haiti, it was like this little village with with terrible malnutrition. I mean, that you go there and these kids will have white hair, uh, distended bellies, I mean, just all kinds of I mean it's horrific, really. And so the one in Haiti, we feed 200 kids um for six days a week. Okay. Um, and so we, you know, basically in that case, we're just sending money at this point. Um, we used to go and visit it quite a bit when it was a little safer to go.

Mark 25:58

But who's preparing these meals? Is this are they are they paid to do this or is it volunteer work or no?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So it's the missionary in and like a lot of times, like the Bible students. So the in Haiti, the the students that are going to the Bible school will work you know around the ministry.

Mark 26:11

So it's a ministry then of the the ministry of the ministry of the college, you have the local church, yeah. So in Honduras, so you've taken that same model that you've seen done in Haiti and other places and applying it to okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah, so in Honduras, the model is a little bit different and it depends where we're where we're located. So this pastor, Pastor Oscar, I was telling you about when he was reached by this American missionary, it was in the mountains of southern Honduras, and they were wanting to go into these little villages and start churches. But one of the ways that they were also accepted and and and also as a way to be the hands and feet of Jesus uh is not just meet spiritual needs but also physical needs. Is they would start a church, but um in tandem with a feeding center. So what they would do is go into this village and they would have uh like a Sunday school for kids, and then they would feed all the children that would come to that, and then they have a regular service for you know adults, everybody, and that was kind of the way they would launch a church plant, but they would usually keep the feeding center long term as part of the church. So when he, this pastor Oscar, went to the city called Toyos, Honduras, it's up up uh near the north coast of Honduras, near the Caribbean, about an hour south of the Caribbean. Um, he started this church, like I mean, no joke, on the side of the state highway on under the shade structure. He started it with the same model. So they would have sunny school, they would feed the children that came and then have service. So that church that he's in now is now 10, 11 years old, same thing. Every week they have a Sunday school for adults and everything now, too, but and then they have a break and they feed all the kids, and then they uh have a service. And so the places that we're doing it though right now are usually very, very poor areas where most of the families don't have much, and the kids, it may be the only solid meal, probably is the only solid meal that they're gonna get uh on a daily basis. So one of them runs five days a week, Monday through Friday, uh with during school. One of them now is running three days a week, and that just started uh three weeks ago. Uh-huh. And the the goal will be to have it five days a week as well, but it's more just time and budget. And then the other two are part of church churches. Uh, one a church plant, one an existing church, and that one runs on Sunday. Gotcha. So, like the one that we run five days a week, though, we have um the ma a few moms in the church and moms of the kids that are in the school. They do all the cooking. So we provide the food and we have a little um it we were we were gifted uh a little basically it's a cattle feed station. So it's basically like a like a feeding trough that's made out of concrete with a shade structure over it that wasn't being used. Uh-huh. And so now we turn that concrete um feeding trough into a bench and we built a table in front of it. So that's what the kids sit on is the concrete where they where they used to feed cows. Okay. Um, and then it were like a watering trough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then uh, and then we put built these tables on it and we put a new roof on the shade structure. We built a little playground a few months ago, uh, but it's just uh a piece of land that wasn't being used that is being lent to us. Okay. But nothing is really like concreted down, so we could move it if we had to.

Mark 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Um, but that one we have built a little uh outdoor oven area. That's what I was wondering.

Mark 29:10

And as I was asking there, like buildings. Obviously, if you're feeding people, you gotta cook the food. I don't know if they're like cooking the food and transporting it in, or if it's being cooked where they're meeting or usually where they're meeting, but the like the one there's another one on a different mountain that's at the top of this mountain.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

It takes about an hour in a four by four vehicle to get there. Um, and then uh at that one, again, moms and the village were each preparing a little bit of it, but that is a headache. Um, so just this last month we had enough raised enough money um to $700 to build a kitchen off the back of the church. And again, I say kitchen. It's gonna be yeah, like a like a shade structure with like a little brick oven, you know, block oven that they're gonna use, you know, wood to cook on. Um, but you know, it does the job for them. And and then so anyway, any of the ladies that are making the food too, we have enough uh that to feed them as well. And then usually if there's parents that are there with their kids, we do our best to feed everybody that we can if it if there's enough, but for sure, all the kids.

Mark 30:06

So I'm just thinking, even like logistics, like you got a you know, two-hour ride, and I think you said two hours in a vehicle, so you gotta get food delivered up there, and like there's just so many, like my mind is going a thousand different places, it's a lot of work. It is even just for something that we would just take for granted to have a solid meal.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Yeah, because up on the mountain, like for for example, we built a building up there and all of the materials have to get transported up there, and it's not cheap because you got to get them on a truck and take them, you know, up the mountain. But normally what we're doing is uh at the beginning of the month, you know, we send uh a substantial amount to the pastor there, Pastor Oscar, and he and his um his wife and then a few people in the church, they're buying things in bulk as they can and then distributing it to the different feeding centers. Okay, and usually like the dry goods, like especially because again it's Honduras, rice and beans, rice and beans, yeah, tortillas, you know, like um stuff like that. But the good thing is it's enough. So basically it costs us about a dollar per meal per person. Um, and you can have a pretty decent meal in Honduras for that and uh a filling meal. But I mean it might and so and even a couple days a week they're gonna get meat, which most of them are not gonna be eating meat normally. But so they'll have like a soup with some chicken in it, like a chicken soup. Yeah. So they're not getting a ton of meat, but they're getting some meat. Well, yeah, but I mean, but beans themselves, I mean, they're like super nutritious. Yeah, totally. So um almost every meal they're gonna have probably beans and rice or or combo of them and some kind of tortilla, and then maybe some kind of spaghetti, sure, chicken, you know, um, soup, that kind of

La Mosquitia Bible Shortage

SPEAKER_01 31:33

thing.

Mark 31:33

That's really really cool. Several times in reading uh preparation for this conversation, you mentioned the Mosquito Bible project. Um, for those that maybe are listening and don't know anything about it, could you give us kind of an overview? Uh, tell us who the mosquito people are, uh what the need was, and then um kind of where you're at in that project and how that's going.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah, a lot of a lot of churches gauge this project, your church included. Okay, so I'll back up a little bit how this people group and how we were even introduced to them. So, right as we were transitioning from uh living in Chile and doing our assignment there, we were going to Honduras next. Right around that time, a ministry in the U.S. approached ours and said, Hey, we have this property in Honduras. I guess they had changed leadership. They didn't even know they had this property. They just realized they were sending money every month to Honduras and they didn't know why. And it was to pay a guard at this property. And so in the 80s and 90s, there's this 72-acre property in a remote part of Honduras called La Mosquitia. So if you look at Honduras on a map and you look at the western, the left-hand side of the country, that's where almost all the population is. It's where the large cities are, where the highways are. If you look at the eastern side of the country, it's mostly, you know, the lower uh the southeastern part is, you know, farmland and mountains and things like that. But the northeast point, so you think of Maine in the U.S., that is where and Honduras, where La Mosquite is. It borders uh Nicaragua and the Caribbean, and uh it's completely cut off from the rest of Honduras. You cannot drive there on a road. So the only way you can get to this area is either by plane or a bunch of crazy boat rides. Yes, and it kind of looks like to me the the geography, and if you if someone's listening and looks it up La Mosquite, uh Honduras, um, and it looks like the savannas of Africa to me. Okay. And then, but then also kind of like the mangrove swamps of Florida with the river. So everything, everything runs through the river system. There's there's three or four main rivers that run um throughout that region, and it's massive. It's almost a quarter of the size of the country, I would say, close to that. And it's only got a couple hundred thousand people, and it is largely populated almost exclusively by this indigenous group called the Mosquito people. Um, they've been there obviously for a long time, and also they've seen a lot come through there. It's been under colonial rule from the British and the Spanish, and you know, that's where the Iran contra situation was happening. The um there were people hiding out there. There's and right now, now it's a drug, drug running smuggling point area. So drugs come up from South America and often are hidden there for a time and then move up towards the U.S. So anyway, this m this this uh indigenous group, we got introduced to them um and we ended up meeting a group of Baptists out there, and there's about 80 um churches in this group of Baptists that were many of them were originally reached either by Southern Baptists or by the a few independent Baptists that were out there. And this property that we were given uh was just in a 72-acre property in complete disarray. I mean, all the buildings like half from the roofs were caved in, and you know, so at one point this was a real gospel center. They had a Bible institute on it, um, all kinds of stuff going on. They had a uh a runway, I think they had a radio station, but it had been sitting empty for 15 or 20 years. And so we took it on, and that was kind of our introduction to this people group, and then meeting these pastors. And one one day, about two years ago, I was in one of the villages and I was talking to a pastor, and most so the people that Mosquito people, they are I tell people that they're Honduran citizens, but they're not Hondurans. So culturally, they are completely different. I mean, m you know, Central Americans and Latinos in general usually are very, you know, outgoing, friendly, just jovial. Like they like to cut up, uh, but mosquito people are not. They're stoic and and they live hard lives. I mean, these people outside of the main town and one and one or two other towns in the region, there is no power. And even that main town is a generator that that runs it. So there's only about a one mile area of actual electricity when it's on. Uh everything outside of that in the villages, no village has electricity, running water, I mean anything, uh indoor plumbing. So they're bathing in the rivers, they're drinking out of the rivers. Very primitive living. Very primitive, very primitive. The houses are, you know, wood houses on stilts, no often no doors, no windows, maybe a curtain. Maybe. I mean, yeah, n most people don't have beds. You know, it's very, very rough conditions. And so anyway, we we were met this people group and we're at this village, and I'm walking through this village with this pastor, and he speaks a uh not a lot of Spanish, because most most people out there um some are bilingual, but very small percentage are actually bilingual and speak Spanish. Most of them speak Mosquito the language, because most of them don't go to school. And so I'm talking to this pastor, and he's kind of fumbling through like my Spanish was a lot better than his. And so I'm trying to communicate with him, and uh, he tells me that he comes, you know, uh to this village across this big freshwater lake, he has to canoe by hand one hour uh three hours one way. So when he comes to when he was coming to preach at church on Sunday, he'd have to canoe three hours by hand across this lake, and then three hours back at the end of the day, because he lived in a different village and this church or this this village had a church existing but didn't have a pastor, he became the pastor, but they didn't have like a pastor, like a parsonage to live in. They had one, but it was uh eaten up by termites and fallen down. Oh okay. And so he's so if he can't, if the weather's bad, because this lake is huge and it when it the weather's bad, it gets really choppy. He couldn't make it across. So I asked him what his greatest need was, and I thought he was gonna say, you know, uh a boat with a motor or a house, and he said, Bibles. He said, I have a Bible and my deacon in the we have one deacon, and he has a Bible, so when I can't make it, at least someone in the church has a Bible to have a service.

Mark 37:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

And as soon as I heard that, it was like, Man, God's just struck our struck my heart, and our director was there.

Mark 37:12

This was a Bible in the mosquito language.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yes. And so I said, Well, do you have a Bible? And he said, Well, I have when he showed it to me, it's a mosquito. And I said, Well, can where can we buy more of these so we can try to help? And he he looked at me like I was so dumb, like it was the dumbest question. He said, You can't buy these. And I realized there's not a store to buy these at. So at some point, someone, you know, missionary or whatever, had done, had brought some, and that was all they had. And then I got to meet other pastors, and I'm talking to this one pastor who had a church of like 200 people in the main city. It was a good big church for La Mosquitia, and he didn't have a mosquito Bible. He was bilingual, he spoke, he speaks really good Spanish, but he lost his mosquito Bible in a hurricane, and he had a Spanish Bible. So this guy, you know, was fine because he could understand Spanish, but most of his congregation couldn't. So he would read the Spanish and then his and then translate in his head to mosquito. Oh wow. I went into another church, the pastor had a Bible, um, but no one else in the church had a Bible, and I looked on the walls and they had these like construction paper on the walls, and they would have the verse in Spanish and then the verse in mosquito, and they were taking his Bible, because he had a he had a Spanish Bible and a mosquito Bible, and they were copying it and doing memory verses on the wall. Oh wow. So talk about you know, again, as America, not thinking how many Bibles have I had in my life. Yeah. I have my I've told some of the pastors this I have my ordination Bible, it's been sitting in storage since I've been a missionary this whole time. It's sitting in a a decorative box. Right. I mean, it's crazy. I the crazy thing is, even in um in the even in the mosquito language, because the translation was done a long time ago, um, Bible.is, U version, they have the mosquito Bible that you can access on your phone. But these people don't have smartphones, they don't have internet access. So anyway, that's what lit a fire. We found out where it was we could get it, and there's only one place in the world at this point that we could get it. There are some groups that are working on a new translation um because the other one is is very old and the and the mosquito language, because it is so primitive, has changed uh significantly. Um, but there is a translation. So we were able to find these Bibles, they're not cheap at all. So we were able to buy a thousand full Bibles, and then just recently we found um this ministry in Tennessee that had printed uh the New Testament and had sent a bunch of them to a missionary in Nicaragua, and we found out about it because it we couldn't find anywhere to get these Bibles, it was a big process. Um, so we that mis that uh Bible printing ministry had about I don't know, a few thousand left over, so we bought all those, which I mean it was a blessing. I think they sold them to us at their cost, like a dollar a New Testament or something crazy. Whereas the full Bibles we were paying twenty dollars a Bible. Oh wow, yeah. But again, it was the only place we could get them. Sure, obviously. But even then we have so few of them that we have to be kind of selective. And I mean it sounds terrible, but it's just you know, we so basically when we go into the the church that we're working with, um, we will do Bible distributions, but we will give one full Bible to each family unit, member unit of the church or regular tenders of the church, and they get one Bible, and then we also have had a ministry um Faith Comes by Hearing, um, that pr that uh gave us 350 proclaimer audio Bibles that have a solar charger on them, and that has the uh audio Bible, the New Testament. They don't have the Old Testament um recorded yet. And that's one of the things we long term I'd love to be a part of doing is recording the Old Testament in Mosquito um audio. Again, because so if someone's in the city, the main city, again, it it's only really one or two in the region, and they have a smartphone, they can get the Bible on their phone. In fact, every time I go there and I talk to people in the city, I tell them that, and I'll down, I'll go with them and download like the U version app on their phone and show them because they don't even know that it exists. Right. But out in the villages, that's not the case. So anyway, we a lot of older people, you know, uh lose their vision out there and have no recourse um or have never learned to read. And so we pass out those proclaimers as well in the in the churches. Uh, but the blessing of the New Testaments is we have so many more of them that when we go and we'll do like an evangelistic outreach, we will give again one to every family that comes to any kind of event we do or or the pastors or churches are doing, and we're able to give those out a little more freely because we, you know, we have them so actually just this last week, um, I sent um oh my goodness, almost almost 3,000 um Bibles. Uh we sent them on Delta uh cargo here on a flight last week to Honduras. So I'm I'm excited about those. Hopefully in the next week or two getting to La Mosquitia.

Vehicles That Multiply Ministry

Mark 41:33

Wow, that's really cool. The Bible project isn't the only time, Nate, that you've watched God provide in ways that you couldn't manufacture. You talked specifically, and I think you even referenced it a little bit here a few moments ago, about an unexpectedly large gift that enabled uh you all to be able to purchase vehicles for four national pastors. Can you tell us a little bit why did those pastors need those vehicles and what difference did that gift actually make in their ministries? I know you shared with us a little bit about Oscar. Maybe if there's another pastor, another story you want to share concerning that.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Yeah, so he actually wasn't, I think he was the second pastor we were able to give a vehicle to. The first one, um, Pastor Ilan, he is probably the best discipler of people I've met in my entire life, um, no matter the country or culture or language. To the point where he so I've been with him and we shared the gospel with somebody, someone accepted Christ, made a profession of faith. He doesn't wait for a church service. He he starts talking about baptism, but he's talking about, hey, I want you to come to church, I want, you know, I want you to follow the Lord and believers baptism, but you know, the next day or before the service, uh, I'm gonna come back and we're gonna start studying the Bible. And he doesn't, I mean, it's not even like a not even an option. Not even an option. Nope, not even an option. In fact, to the point where I love it that he does this because he said, and again, uh Condoras and a lot of Latin countries are uh very religious. You got a lot of people with Catholic backgrounds who are gonna believe in Jesus, they will pray to Jesus, but that doesn't mean they might do that, and the next day they'll they'll pray to Mary, sure. They'll make you know, they'll they'll they'll trust in the good works. Exactly. Right. And so it's it's very easy. I say that I try to say this carefully, it's very easy for someone to say, make a profession of faith. They would I mean you could lead somebody in s in a in a prayer to ask Jesus to save them, but it doesn't mean they're actually trusting Jesus. Sure. Um, and so it's part of his immediate discipleship process is let's go start studying the Bible so I can teach you you know sound doctrine, but also I I can immediately see the fruit of this salvation. And so if someone, like we've talked about before, if someone um doesn't want to study the Bible or come to church, he says, Look, I'm not gonna say they're not a a believer, but I'm gonna keep going back to them and I'm gonna preach the gospel to them again because if they don't show any desire to come to church, he's like, It doesn't have to be my church, but if they don't so any desire to come to church, any desire to study the Bible, any desire to follow the Lord in baptism, we probably need to make sure that they actually understood what they were they said they did. So anyway, he's just that's how he is. And he's sent out, we've now supported two church planners that he has sent out of his church. Wow. And uh actually uh one of the exciting things I'm working on right now is uh a Bible institute program for our ministry, and uh we will be launching one with him before the end of this year, a formal Bible institute. So he has five guys in a church in a church of about 75. He's got five guys he's training for ministry right now. Uh he's just so good at training men uh uh for ministry. Um but anyway, he had um no way to uh really pick up people for church. He had this old uh probably 40-year-old Toyota SUV, and the back of it had been hit by a car, the window was broken in the back, you know, hatch area, and he was picking people up for church, and the police were hassling him. And that part of this for context is the a lot of pastors in Honduras, other uh Central American countries are prosperity gospel preachers. Yeah, and so they are enriching themselves off the back of their people, you know, very poor people, but they're teaching them a health they're preaching a health and wealth gospel, and they're getting healthy, and or they're getting wealthy, excuse me, and sometimes healthy because they can pay for the doctors, but the people can't. And so this perception for the minds of a lot of Honduran people is that a pastor is a shyster. Yes, and also rich. Okay, and whereas the guys we're working with, they're dirt poor. Yeah. And these are just you know, humble servants of God that make nothing and and often give everything. And so I think the police were maybe kind of trying to shake him down. I don't know why they didn't know that he had nothing, but they basically kept giving him tickets for transporting people in this vehicle and um to the point where he was gonna have to stop picking up people for church. And so that was kind of the first uh kind of you know thing for me. They're like, oh man, they they could really use it another vehicle. And so we were able to get him uh an old Honda uh Odyssey minivan. Oh, okay. But you know, and actually it was our car that we gave him before we got this uh offering, but then it was like a blessing that we had this offering. Um, but I mean it's an eight passenger, and they'll put 150. Yeah, exactly. Yes, he'll send me videos sometimes of them going somewhere, like evangelism, or maybe if they're all gonna go to some special meeting or something, and it's just the amount of people coming out is crazy for an American to see. But yeah, so that was kind of the first one, and then just this last maybe three months uh or so, we were able to buy cars for two other pastors. And again, they're using them for routes, so they're gonna pick people up for church because none of these pastors had cars, so they're walking everywhere, taking public transportation, which is not always inexpensive if you're going, you know, far you multiple trips a day, that kind of thing. So economically, it's once you have a car, it's it's uh more economical. But then also for like uh this one pastor, it's a it's I was just there last month for their one-year anniversary, uh, Churchill we helped plant, and um, they have a vehicle now, and he told me uh yesterday that they ran the route twice. So they have just a little uh Honda S uh CRV, old CRV. So it's not in the big car, but they're you know, it's a lot of people in there. You know, they're running it multiple times, yeah. So that was cool, that was cool to hear. And so I mean, they all want a busito, they call it, which is basically like a 15-passenger van. That would be all of their desire, but they're very expensive um for any decent one. And then also even just storing it, most of them don't have room to barely store a car uh safely to keep it from being stolen, right? Much less a busito or a bus. Like they would love to have a bus, but it's almost completely out of reach for a national to have something that big to be able to store it, maintain it,

Loneliness Warfare And Real Support

SPEAKER_01 47:21

that kind of thing.

Mark 47:21

You talked about watching God do some incredible things in your ministry, but we also realize that missionary life isn't a highlight reel, right? Um, there's been some harder seasons. Uh, what do people sitting in churches back home maybe not often understand about what a missionary family uh carries a day-to-day?

SPEAKER_01 47:42

I would say for a lot of missionaries it's gonna be loneliness. You know, again, you you create deep friendships, but these are the it's always people of a different country and culture, and so you're never one of them. And so there's always a little bit of that. So now the the gospel and the family of God brings those things together in a beautiful way. Um, where you know, just and I tell every church I go to, I I I try to bring this up, every group that comes, I try to bring this up that, you know, no matter the language, the culture, you know, we are all uh in the family of God, and that that is a uniting thing. But it is still, you're still an outsider. And so there's some of that we were blessed and fortunate that we had in the town we lived in, there was um uh different missionary families that were uh working there already that we ended up having fellowship with in that region, and that was helpful. It's very helpful to have friends, like we would do, you know, Thanksgiving together, uh, Fourth of July together. Things that like in a lot of other countries, when you come up with the holidays, all your family in the U.S. is celebrating, and you're in a country that doesn't celebrate those things. Right. So the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving are just extra regular days to everyone else in the country. And so it is kind of weird. You're looking on Facebook and seeing your family with their Thanksgiving plates and the you know, Fourth of July fireworks, and you're just it's just a regular day. Yeah. And so it is nice when you can connect with other missionaries, have friendships, um, you know, get together on on holidays and things like that. And we would we would often eat, we did that in Chile and then in uh Honduras as well. And that's that's a big help. But missionaries are just people as well. So when you go around on a deputation raises your port, you're you're often either the hero and you're kind of really put up on this pedestal as like this super Christian, or you're really almost completely dismissed, and it's like, oh man, I got you know, we got to send money to this missionary, but you're kind of just in the corner, so to speak, you're at the missions conference in the back, no one talks to you. And it and truth is in the middle of those two things, right? Where missionaries are just regular people, regular Christians, and they've got good days and bad days like everybody else. Um, but sometimes those things can be magnified. And I do think there's a lot of spiritual warfare that happens on the mission field. Sure. And you know, you're often in dark places. Um, like when I go to La Mosquitia and in some of these villages, there's still a lot of spirit worship that happens there. And you can you can feel that spiritual oppression when you realize like you are in enemy territory. Yeah. Um in the cities, I feel like that's kind of it's kind of like in the US where spiritually oftentimes people are just spiritually dead. Sure. And so it's not even I don't even know that the that the that Satan needs to use, you know, some kind of crazy uh spiritual power at work. People are just distracted, they've got their lives and their smartphones, and you know, like the the the flesh is weak and there's uh access to sin at every turn. Yeah. And it's kind of like that even around the world in city in the city life. But when you get into the small villages and there's people, you know, praying to idols and practicing wish witchcraft and things like that, it's you know, you can you can feel it. And so I think there's a lot of unique challenges that missionaries can face. It's not always different than everybody else, because everybody's got the same, you know, family life stress and health and f finances, things like that. But there can be some additional things because you're in another cult country, so you're especially at the beginning, you're dealing with culture shock and again just being an outsider. So there are some compound some some compounding things that I think it's good for American Christians to understand and to try to, you know, it really just to pray for your missionaries, um, to check in on them. I mean, I I can't tell you how few people, you know, really keep up. Yeah. Um, and again, as a missionary, you're really grateful for those that are supporting you financially because you can't do it without them. But it is nice when people also, you know, are kind of you're a person, respond to an occasional prayer letter, that kind of thing.

Transitioning Home Without Quitting

Mark 51:19

Yeah, yeah. Nate, you mentioned that your family is currently in a season of transition because of some health concerns. Is there anything that God's been teaching you uh as your the shape of your ministry is changing?

SPEAKER_01 51:31

My desire and even my wife's desire was not to come back to the US. I hope God will allow us to come to go back at some point. That that is our desire. I hope God allows us to stay in missions long term. Is it is uh it's it's my heartbeat. Um, it's all I've ever and wanted to do.

Mark 51:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Um but God made it clear after a number of health concerns in our in our family, starting with my wife, but then with two of our daughters. One just had eye surgery last month. Um, another one is we're trying to find um some answers to some some fear, uh, autoimmune responses, and it's just God made it clear your time there was done. You know, I you know, could we have tried to beat our head against the wall and continue? Sure. But God made it clear that you know you're not getting any help where you're living. The the help, you know, the healthcare in Hundreds, as you can imagine, is not very good. Yeah, my wife was flying back and forth a few times um, you know, over a six-month period trying to get help in the U.S. And so anyway, God made it clear, you know, come back. And we're very fortunate that the the ministry had an uh opportunity for us to continue serving. For the most part, um, a lot of churches have continued helping us do that because because of our ministry model with core missions, there's not a salary or there's no I mean basically every almost every dollar that comes in a month, uh we don't for one, we don't take any percentage of funds that are are sent in to support pastors. So it gets to us, we don't take a cut of it, we send it out to the pastors. And so because of that, even though now we're supporting a lot of pastors, we have a lot of funds that come in, they all go back out a day or two later and the the accounts are empty. And so all of the families that work in our ministry have, you know, raised support to to be mission to do missions work. Sure. So we're you know, we're still dependent on on uh churches to partner with us, and we're we're blessed that the majority still have, and hopefully that will continue. Um, but you know, God obviously knows and and understands where we're at. Um so but we have seen God's faithfulness um just in answered prayer with with health concerns that have not God has not fully healed them, but we've been able to find the right doctors. We're with our our uh daughter that's really struggling right now. Just this last week, we have this new medication that they're wanting her to try. And so we're we're still walking through right now, and we still have a lot of uncertainty. But you know, God's faithful. And I try to I talk to a lot of young people who are you know interested in missions or interested in ministry, and I try to encourage them that you know we've seen in our own life that we've had a lot of ministry transitions, not necessarily like in and out of ministry, but just you know, either God seems to close his door or open an opportunity. But you know, I kind of grew up thinking that the will of God was this mystical thing that I I had to, you know, do all the right things, don't mess up, because otherwise you're gonna mess up God's perfect will for your life, and you're not with in that day, years from now, when you're gonna arrive at that point, you're gonna be at the wrong spot. You you took a wrong path, you know. Uh and but uh I believe God's will is expansive, uh, not in not include um exclusive. I guess I'm saying that wrong. Yeah. English sometimes when you're right, exclusive. When you go back and forth between languages, sometimes you you lose some of your native tongue. Um, so I'm very at I'm very much at peace with where God has us, even though I would rather be on the field, I can serve God here. If God takes all of our support away tomorrow, I could go, I could go and serve at a church, a local church. Because whether I'm in Honduras or Atlanta, Georgia, we we can, you know, we that we can do the same things that we're doing there here and try to do the best we can to serve God and reach people. Now, would we like to do it in the way that we want to do it and the way we desire to do it? Absolutely. But God is sovereign and we are not, and so we're just trying to uh have peace where God has us, but also not be content to just sit or quit. We don't want to quit. Um, we want to keep going. There's still a lost world and there's still a lot going on that our ministry is doing throughout Latin America and around the world, and I still want to be a part of it if God allows us. And so we're trying to be patient, um, but we are also trying to adjust to a a new normal for sure.

Mark 55:28

It sounds to me like you're trying to steward well the circumstances and the place that God has given you. Obviously, your family and your health, um, they have to be um dealt with in a in a right way. And um, we'll pray definitely with you that God will give direction to doctors and uh make clear his path. But it sounds like uh the Lord has already opened doors for you to continue your ministry in a different way.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

And there was things that our ministry wanted me to do, even throughout Latin America, that I just I couldn't do logistically because I, you know, it wasn't super safe to leave my family in Honduras for a long period of time. Sure. And so even traveling throughout Latin America where they would want me to do those things, I didn't have the ability to do that. Uh and that was a problem because again, I'm I I'm boots on the ground. I want to be working alongside the pastor with that. That's my heartbeat. Um, but there were things that we really needed to take steps for as a ministry that we weren't able to, and and specifically the Bible Institute's been kind of our desire for a few years now, and we've had a lot of missionaries and nationals that have approached us, wanting us to help them do that, and we just have not been equipped to do it or had anybody with the time to do it, and so that is a kind of a big project we're working on now. In fact, last week we have an existing Bible institute in the Philippines, our ministry has for a number of years, but it's kind of been an informal setting, and so we just this last month um delivered a curriculum to them and they had started their new semester uh with this curriculum, and so we've launched it there, and then by the end of the year, for sure, one in Honduras, and then hopefully perhaps two, one in La Mosquitia, but that's still we gotta get the the curriculum translated.

Learning Sacrifice From National Pastors

Mark 57:04

That's really awesome. Um, you shared something, Nate, that I loved and I wanted to discuss just for a few minutes. Um, you said that serving cross-culturally taught you that we, meaning Americans, don't own the market on God's blessing, provision, or power. Uh, what did you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 57:21

We don't have all the answers. And I learned that, especially working with nationals and working alongside them, not being their boss or in charge of them, just serving together. Uh as friends, as co-labourers, and obviously we were helping them in different areas, but we weren't, you know, it wasn't all dependent on us. And also we're normally like our ministry, we are we're looking to work with men that are already doing it. So by faith, they are launching out planting churches without help from any any help. Maybe they might have a missionary that's trained them that's helping them a little bit, but they don't, you know, they're not coming to the US and raising support, they don't have any anybody helping them really. And we try to give them a shot in the arm, basically, of hey, we are not going to be here forever, but for two to four years, we'd like to raise enough support where this pastor doesn't have to work a secular job, can just devote themselves to being a pastor in the hopes the church can grow um to a point where they're supporting financially of their pastor and their church. Um, but you know, they're still the pastor. And so, you know, many of them are already doing it without us. It's just we're able to help them go further faster. And so, like in the case of you know, like this building we just finished building in Honduras, they were building that building without me. The church, the existing church that wanted to plant a church, they had been given this little plot of land. As that existing church had money, they would buy block, concrete, rock, gravel, cement, and they would, you know, put a course or two of block on and they run out of money, and now they wait until they can raise some more money to do it. And so they were doing that without us. When I saw it and saw what they were trying to do, I thought, okay, well, they're already doing all the work, the men in the church. So they're not paying any uh Mano de Obra, what do you say then in um labor? Labor costs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Labor costs. Uh, so they're doing it all, they just need materials. Well, let's see. I, you know, put a video up on Facebook trying to raise some money for that. And I think we had about close to 20,000 that we were able to raise quickly, but it was just to buy materials. And then over the last year and a half or so, though the men in that church, and I would usually be there a day or two a week. We did all the work and built this church building. Um, but you know, again, they were doing it without us, so it would have just taken them seven, eight years to build that building. And so, but it's so they're they're not depending on us. We can help them go further faster, but they don't have to have us, and also, you know, God's gonna accomplish his work with or without us. We just get it uh often an opportunity to be a part of it and to see God work and to see God do miracles, but if we're not willing to be a part of that, God's gonna use somebody else to accomplish his will. Sure. And so I think meet meeting pastors and working with them like that, and just faithful Christians and just seeing that, man, they are real, they live lives, many of them of true sacrifice. I think as Americans, oftentimes we we we give, but we don't always give sacrificially. Um oftentimes I think as Americans we're often giving of our excess. And again, what a blessing that we live in a country and culture where we have the ability to make the money that some some do. And praise God that there are Christians who God has allowed to be successful in business and and careers and who have been blessed financially, and they are the ones funding a lot of these missions things because they're giving out of a heart of gratitude of the blessings God has given them. But you also meet people uh like in developing countries that have nothing and give still, where they'll give to the point of I'm you know, you're trying to counsel them to be good stewards to say, listen, I appreciate this Pastor Oscar was talking about that. He went four or five years without a refrigerator, and uh most Hondurans will have some type of refrigerator, uh at least where where we live in the city, and the people in his church didn't even know that he didn't have a refrigerator. He kept a fridge in his house that was broken so that people would think he had a refrigerator. Yeah, again, that's the kind of things where I said, Hey, that's I appreciate the hardest sacrifice, but at some point along the line, we probably could have kept your fridge, you know. Like let's talk about how every month save a little bit of money, money so you can have a fridge to keep your food safe so that your family doesn't get sick from eating bad food, you know. But that's just the type of Christians that we I mean that there that are like that, that would sacrifice in that way. And so many of us, I think we're just so accustomed to the the beautiful life that we've been blessed with to grow up. I mean, it's you know, to live in America, even as a poor person, is a a huge blessing.

Mark 1:01:41

Blessing, yeah. It reminds me of in scripture, you know, the the little widow that brought her two mites. People are looking at it and they're thinking, like, this is like why did she even bother bringing it? You know, this we can't do anything with this that she's bringing, and yet Jesus said she gave more. And I think sometimes it's just a good reminder to us. Um, it's not always the what you give, it's the why you give and the heart behind it. And that's a good reminder, and what a blessing to see God using these people who, as far as we they don't have a lot, a lot of earthly possessions, and yet they hold them so loosely that they're willing to sacrifice them for the benefit of the gospel. Uh, it's a good reminder for us to do the same. Uh, Nate, just a couple more questions before we

Expansion Needs And Hard Limits

Mark 1:02:29

wrap it up. Um, as you look at Latin America right now, what's happening there that makes you excited about what God may be doing next amongst those people?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

So I tell people a lot of times that throughout Latin America, uh at least places I've been, there's a lot of religious people, right? And a lot of people who believe in God, believe in Jesus, but their understanding is skewed, whether it by be by church tradition and teaching or someone distorting God's word, which is very, very common there right now. So there are people on you know, kind of both sides of the aisle, whether it be the from one side being Catholic, the other side be prosperity gospel Pentecostals. Um there's not a ton in the middle, but those that are in the middle preaching um a true gospel, that are preaching sound doctrine, like God is doing something. And you know, we're just kind of along for the ride. But I mean, I'm getting like we have more people and pastors that need help that we than we can help right now. Sure. And so, you know, long term, I think just the idea for us of you know helping expansion. Yeah, like definitely expansion. Um, but you know, like anything, it's time and money. And so especially with again with our ministry model, you know, we're just we're relying on on true faith of people partnering with us and giving um like this pastor, Pastor Oscar. You know, he's just like we started this other feeding center this last month. We don't have the budget for it. Uh, but he didn't care. And I told him, I said, look, I will we'll try to raise more money for this, but at this point, you know, we've raised the money we've raised, um, and uh, and we'll we'll try to tackle it. But we have a bunch of other projects that our ministry is doing. I don't know that like I can't get to this right now. He's like, Well, we we started these things by faith without you, we're gonna start this one by faith without you, and you know, so they're doing it on their own right now, and hopefully we'll be able to raise the support for that. But there's so many things like that that are coming up, you know, month every month. And I know other missionaries probably have the same thing going on where there's more people that need help than you can help, more works that happen. And that's one of the things I really struggle with when I first went to the mission field. Um, you know, in the Bible, Jesus talks to said this at one point, the poor are with you always, because that is when you have a heart of of uh of empathy, it is very hard because everybody there has needs. There, you know, everybody's poor, everybody's hungry. And you can't see, yeah. Um, I mean, I even like people begging on the side of the road, I would I would try to always have um you know little snacks with me, like packages of crackers, things like a lot of times it'd be children, and then you know, even then, like you know, they want to give you want you to give them money, and they take that money and you they run into their handler. Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's not, someone being exploited, you don't know. Um, so then I started bringing food because I knew okay, a package of crackers, they'll just be able to eat that, you know, at the time. But again, it's like every stop but you go to, there's another person banging on your window asking for help, and they they do need help. Um and then it's like that with the Christians as well. And so it is it is difficult uh, you know, trying to see that and see all the needs, but I am super excited about all that God is doing, and it's not just in our ministry, obviously, uh, you know, other missionaries, national pastors all over the region, um, that that are are going forward for the sake of the gospel, and the gospel is expanding, and we just get to be, you know, kind of the front row seats and be a a small part of it.

Mark 1:05:41

I mean, at some point you have to just realize God is sovereign and he has a purpose and you don't you can't always figure it out. And you I mean, I'm sure you guys probably uh in some fashion you're you're burdened with the need that you see and you wish that you could do more. It's it's it's like you're talking about, I'm sure it's the same feeling because it's like a weight where you You feel like I'm doing so much, but I don't feel like I'm doing enough. Like but then the reality is like humanly speaking, I I can't do more.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

Well like this this last week, one of the pastors like his wife's pregnant and she's like anemic, they can't afford the medication that they need. You know, and so thankfully we were able to send a little bit, but it's like something like that is and these are the pastors, you know, and so anytime I can help them, I do. But then there's other things that come up like you know, I can't. It's hard because and you you don't want you can't be their savior, right? Like they have to depend on God just like you do. But at the same time, she needed ninety dollars for the specialized medication that they that's out of reach for them. And obviously, like at this point, it was a sacrifice for us on monthly, or you know, this month to give ninety dollars, but it's like I know that that's you know, for them, that's a quarter of their monthly you know, what they would bring in. So it's like think about that in our terms, and it's like, wow, that's astronomical for them. Yeah, but that's just all the time. Yeah.

Advice For Future Missionaries

Mark 1:07:11

Wow. Nate, I'm hoping that there'll be people that are listening to our conversation that maybe believe God is calling them to missions, but they're scared, uh, or they're unsure, or maybe they think that they couldn't do it. What would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:26

I would say God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

And we I referenced it earlier about the will of God. Um God is with you and God will care for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

I've seen it happen so much in our life, and it doesn't always it doesn't always turn out the way you want it to, but God is with you through it. And I can't saw the few years we're in Honduras, I saw more people die than I'd seen my whole life. It's just a part of life. Now we're shielded from it in the US, you know, right? Like if if it happens, it's kind of immediately covered up, not in a bad way, but just you know, out of respect. And I like that in Honduras. Someone passes away in an accident on the side of the road, they are there for a while until the police come, you know, just laying. It's crazy as an American, getting used to it. But life is short. James tells us that life is uh your life is a vapor, it's appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. It's here and gone. Yeah. But God is with you. And we've seen you know, we've seen that happen time and time again. And I would say um, don't be afraid. God, if God is giving you that desire, if God is gifting you, if God is and now first off, I'll say if God is if God is proving you, if you've proven in your local church you're faithful, like the the the the the mission field is not going to be the answer to your spiritual problems. It is going to be the magnifier of your weaknesses. It will magnify and amplify your weaknesses, and you will be tested more than you think you are. So do not go to the mission field because you feel called, but that you're not spiritually mature and that you have not proven yourself in the local church, and your local church has not seen God's gifting on your life and and your spiritual maturity.

Mark 1:09:07

That's very important, I think, because a lot of people unfortunately, you know, very that's where I think we get those uh those high attrition rates of missionaries that go to the field but don't so many don't make it through deputation, so many are done off the first term.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:22

And you know, it's funny that like my wife and I have been battling with that recently. We're talking about it like because you feel like oh, we're a statistic now. You know, we oh yeah, you were the one who didn't make it, you know, and again, so so you have to almost that's a humbling process, and you kind of have to almost preach the gospel to yourself every day, like no, I am who I am because of Jesus in me. It doesn't matter my earthy position or title or physical location, like I'm no more or less uh loved by God because I'm physically on the mission field or here. Right, but I will say if if it's still about your mind, but yeah, the harvest is plenty, but the labors are few. And I I've I was convicted recently about over our you know, giving reports church, things like that, not encouraging missions enough. Yeah, I'm talking about what's that God is doing, I'm encouraging them to give, to be a part of it, but I want to encourage people to consider it. It's an amazing life, like it's an adventurous life. My wife and I talk all the time. I mean, we've been all over the US raising support, and that's not that's a grind. I mean, it's not I don't want to do it again, but you do see some cool things, you meet a lot of mission friends. We became friends through this process. But you but also I believe that it's formative, it's a it's a faith builder. Uh, I wish there was a few tweaks to it that would make it a little bit more accommodating for families, but nonetheless, you know, and then on being on the field, it's like something different every day. And in my case, I love working my hands, I love being alongside people. So we're building buildings and we're preaching the gospel and we're you know doing evangelism events, and I mean it's just something different every day. Uh, it's a it's an amazing life. I'd love to, I mean, I'd love to be in it long term. I'd love to go back to the field. If God is giving you that desire, I would say, you know, prove yourself faithful, uh, serve in your local church. I mean, I've met people that, man, I don't know that they ever really did any kind of ministry themselves and went into missions because they had a a call or a desire of it uh to do to be a part of it. And I think that that God does give that to us, but also we have to, like a lot of things, we have to steward that. And so if if you're not serving in your local church, if you're not showing your faithfulness there, you're not gonna show it on the mission field. Because again, it's just gonna it's your your your the places you fall short are just gonna become magnified in the mission field. Um and so you you've gotta like if you're not walking in the spirit now, it's not gonna magically change because you changed locations.

Prayer Requests And Reaching Men

Mark 1:11:43

It doesn't happen because you got exactly, yeah, exactly. Um before we finish, how can the people listening specifically pray for you and your family and the work that God is doing in Latin America?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:54

Yeah, pray specifically for health for our family. Um, we've still got a lot up in the air. And so, yeah, just that that would be a huge thing. Uh adjustment, you know, back to the US, it's a weird deal coming back, you know. So you come back to visit and things like that, but you know, it's a completely different mindset. So even for our children, it's a big um that you're knowing that you're not going back. Yeah, because then even when you're coming back to visit or like a furlough between our terms, it was like, hey, you know, we're here, yeah, we enjoy the American life and seeing fans, friends and family, but you're going back. And so even, you know, so now it's like I went back a couple times last month, and my kids are asking me when are we gonna go back to Honduras? And you know, so it's just it's a big change for them. Uh, and they're young, you know. My oldest is 11 down to three, and so it's a big cultural shift for them uh to be back in the U.S. and permanently for them. Um, and then as far as the ministry is concerned, you know, yeah, we got these Bible institutes that are that are kicking off. Uh, we've got the Bible project that we're continuing, um, and then just different church plants throughout Latin America that we've been partnering with that are, you know, they all have their own specific needs. And, you know, it's um it's difficult to get a church off the ground anywhere. And, you know, and and and the the ones that we're at work with in Honduras, you know, trying to reach family units, specifically men in Honduras is very difficult. Um, you know, there's uh the culture is very much like the man goes out, you know, earns some money, takes care of hopefully the finances of the home. The mom stays home, takes care of the kids, runs the house, but then the dad also often, especially the unsaved, often they they they go and work, but then they get to do whatever they want. So they're gonna, you know, maybe sleep around, they're gonna go out and drink, they're gonna gamble, and so they're the spiritual apathy that most men have there is is strong. And so it's not I want to say easy, but more readily, um children and women more readily accept the gospel and and assimilate the church, which that's I think often around the the world. Now leadership. So one of our church plans they just celebrated a year, and in the young pastor, he knows and he's trying and working hard, you know, targeting specifically, trying to reach men with the gospel, trying to train them. Um, but the majority of the church after one year is children and moms. And again, you don't want to push them to the side, but also a healthy church needs to have family units in it. And so that's a that's one of the things that all of the churches that we work with there pretty much struggle with, but also, you know, are are working at trying to reach to reach men with the gospel because the good thing is once they are reached for the gospel and become uh uh disciples of Jesus, they usually are very strong Christians and strong male leaders in the church, but getting them there is is is pretty difficult.

Kingdom Bigger Than We Think

Mark 1:14:31

Yeah. Um I want to ask you the same question that I've asked every guest on this podcast, and it's this one. Um, from where you stand today, Nate, what have you learned about God's kingdom that you could have never learned if you would have stayed at home?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:50

Probably that it's bigger than I thought it was.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:54

And going into other cultures, uh even indigenous cultures, man, it's uh it's such a sweet fellowship that we have in the gospel that sometimes like when I'm in La Mosquite, I don't speak much of any mosquito. And I'm still I mean I'm bilingual in Spanish, but I still have a ways to go to be fully like you know, not look searching for words at times or messing up. Sure. Um, and so now in Spanish, it's like I love it, but like even here in the US when I run across Hispanic people or uh I was in a Spanish service the other day, and it's just like, man, I was sitting in the Spanish church in uh La Grange, Georgia, and we're singing Spanish, and I'm just crying on the front row because I just miss, you know, I miss my fr I miss my friends, I miss God's people there because it was like that was now my adopted home, you know, and my adopted people, and they I love them and they love me. Um but even in La Mosquitia, where I don't really understand, you know, much of what's going on. Um now sometimes I'd be speaking Spanish and maybe a few people would understand what I'm saying, and then one of the pastors that was bilingual would interpret a mosquito.

Mark 1:15:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

But like we had a US group, it'd be it'd be three languages, you know, they'd be in English. Sometimes one time, I mean there were times where we had to go English to me to Spanish to Spanish to mosquito. Oh my god, you talk about losing an illustration in a sermon. But even in the midst of that, you know, they're someone someone uh translated a bunch of the old hymns, English hymns, to mosquito. So a lot of the tunes are familiar. We'll like and they love it because we'll sing, we'll have a group of like men there doing construction, and these are okay, you know, a lot of them like we're having to, you know, we're in this little church of you know 40 people in the little village. Um next month we're gonna be back um building a church building that had collapsed. And this church in Ohio gave the money for it. We bought the wood, so a group of men from their church is coming, and then the Honduran church are the those men are gonna take the week off work, and in three or four days, they're gonna build, you know, a simple building. But we're you know, we'll be in La Mosquitia. Yeah. And so we'll be but we'll be in one of those churches and we'll we'll make the men like the visiting groups, we'll make them sing, you know. And so a lot of guys like these, you know, some of these might be contractors and like they're there on a mission trip, but this is not they're not up in the choir, their home church singing. Right, they're not musicians. Oh no, no. But we'll we'll cajole them and just you know get the you know, get them to go up there, but they'll sing, you know, Amazing Grace or something like that. So then the people recognize the tune, and then usually we'll stop and then they'll sing it in mosquito. And then it's always you know, you talk about there shouldn't be confusion in the church, you know, we can go to Corinthians, but they want to sing at the same time. So then we'll have that group singing in English and they're singing it's total, total chaos, but they love it, you know. The people love it, and the the the mosquito people don't smile a lot again, hard lives, stoic people, but sure they'll they love that because part of it is because they they see these, you know, goofy gringos making kind of a fool of themselves, but in a good way, you know, enjoying themselves, and it's just this camaraderie that we have in the gospel that it doesn't it kind of it kind of uh mystifies human understanding to me. Because for the for the unbeliever, it's like what do I have in common with this person? Nothing. Why would I be here? Why would I be here? No one, I mean, outside of humanitarian stuff or missions work, no one, no, no, no foreigners are going to this area, like none. Uh, but in the gospel, we share this beautiful thing, the salvation, uh being become being children of God, that we are a part of this faith family, and that's the thing that I would never have had an opportunity to really experience um without being doing missions work. Heaven's gonna be an amazing place. Yes, and and and talking about the the the faithfulness of people, realizing, man, we we have people that we kind of put on this platform, and and again, I think people who've done a lot of good for the Lord, who God has given a platform to to influence people, but we we put them so high because they are out in public. Meanwhile, the faithful, faithful people behind the scenes just week in and week out serving God, loving people, sacrificing. And again, you think I just have these little these stories of just these places I've worked and lived. How many other missionaries have untold? And so I think again, like you said, when we get to heaven, it's gonna be just such an awesome reunion. Uh, and again, no language barriers. We're gonna be able to worship God together.

Mark 1:19:20

And really, the hero is gonna be Jesus. Yeah. Um, that's the one that made it uh, you know, obviously through Jesus coming to be our sacrifice and taking our penalty. Um, you know, I we just recently talked about this in our in a Wednesday night here at church. Like, we're gonna, you know, we come to church on Sunday and we have worship services and we were talking about what worship is, but you know what a remarkable thing to think that like for all of eternity we're just gonna be worshiping God um for what he is worth and what that he's worthy and that he's worth all of the sacrifice, right? You know, I think of your family and uh the the burden, the struggle of change in ministry, right? And right now it some maybe sometimes feels um overwhelming, and like you even said you don't want to be the statistic. But at the same time, like whatever God's called us to, whatever place he's placed us, whatever difficulty he's brought us to, it's really just to prove yet again that he is worthy of our just saying, Lord, what we're you're in charge, you're in control, and we're gonna be faithful wherever you call us to. And that's a good reminder, I think, for all of us. You you always have an idea of what things should be like, and then there's the reality of what they are. And um, I'm thankful that God's faithful in those places, even whenever we're maybe feel overwhelmed um and we don't know what's going on. Um, it's it's comforting to know that he knew that he knew nine years ago when you guys wrapped up deputation and you were heading off to uh Chile for the first time. You guys did language school there, right? Yeah, and you head down to Chile and do like language school and stuff like that. Um God knew that nine years later you were gonna be in this place and the situation, and he was working it all out. And I I just what a great reminder to us that he's good and faithful. Well, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to sit down and talk, and um, I think that this will be a blessing to God's people. And I just want to say thanks to you and Tara. You are probably one of the few missionaries, and it's and shame, I guess, on me. Uh but you do a great job at just touching bass every now and then. And um, thanks for doing that. And uh hopefully um other pastors and folks respond to your messages. Uh, but yeah, I I you're you're a great friend, and I'm I'm glad that I know you and I'm happy that we're able to be part of your message.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:47

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, we uh we're blessed. We have such good um gospel partners, you know. Uh again, uh I would we we've had some you know, stop supporting with this trans. And I have but it was no hard feelings. I totally understand. Um, a lot of people that that's their policy, or just you know, they want to support someone on the field, and I I'm for totally behind that. But we are we are also fortunate that a lot have continued uh through this transition because again, our desire is to continue in missions, and so we couldn't do it without you guys and other churches like you.

Mark 1:22:14

Well, I appreciate that, man. Thanks again for sitting down and having a discussion, and uh hope that maybe the next time we talk, we'll hear of God doing great things with Bible institutes all around Latin America. I appreciate it. Take care. I think one of the dangers of living in our little corner of the world is that without realizing it, our view of God's kingdom can become very small. We know what God is doing in our church and what he's doing in our community. We know the people whose names we recognize. And then you hear a conversation like this one, and suddenly the horizon gets a little wider. Nate reminded us today that God's kingdom is much bigger than he thought it was. And I think that's a fitting place for us to lead this conversation. To remind ourselves that God is at work, in places we know and in places we don't, through people whose names are celebrated, and through countless faithful servants whose names we will probably never hear on this side of eternity. The remarkable thing is that God invites ordinary people like us to have a part in what he's doing. So maybe the question isn't simply what is God doing around the world? Maybe the better question would be, Lord, what part would you have me play? For some, that may mean going. For others, it could be giving. And for all of us, it certainly means praying. Sometimes it simply means being faithful in the place that God has put us, even when that place isn't where we expect it to be. I want to challenge you to continue praying for Nate and his family during the season of transition and for the ministry that God continues to give them throughout Latin America. You can find more information about the Beale family and core mission in today's show notes. If this conversation has encouraged you, would you please take time to share it with someone else? Help us to continue telling these stories and reminding one another that God's work extends far beyond what any of us can see from home. Thanks again for joining me for another episode of Kingdom Without Borders. Until next time, keep looking beyond the borders because God's kingdom is bigger than we think.