Missions

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It's reasoned relevant content apologetics, worldview, and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. In a number of places, there are scriptures that have come to be known as the Great Commission. In Mark 16, 15, Jesus said, preach the gospel to every creature.

In Matthew 28, 18, 19, and 20, Jesus said, go into all the world and make disciples from every nation. Hi, Alex McFarland here. This is another edition of Truth for a New Generation. And folks, I wish you could see what I see. I'm with some very special people. And I'm on the road in West Virginia, met some of the great people up here in Augusta, West Virginia, and we were talking about missions. And I've met some brand new friends that do some incredible things to take the name of Jesus all the way around the world. And I wanted you to meet some of them because here's what I want, folks. I want you to get inspired that you as a Christian and your church would have a part in missions.

Christ's Great Commission. And so in just a minute we're going to talk with Paul and Christina Baker. Paul is the pastor of Little Cape and Baptist Church. We're going to talk with Mary and Paul Haynes that go to reach Indians, American Indians, Native Americans for Christ. But first of all, I want to say thanks to every one of you for making time to be on the program with us. But most of all, I commend you for what you're doing for Christ to take the gospel around the world. And Pastor Paul Baker from Little Cape and Baptist, first of all, tell us just briefly what you and your wife and you and your church have done for missions. Well, we started out in the country of Haiti working with my father-in-law.

And then I was first actively involved in the mission work through my father-in-law. And we went to Haiti, Dominican Republic, and did wells. We drilled wells, water wells for the people. We went to spread the gospel and work with the people and made sure that they had clean water and safe drinking water.

Conference centers, built churches, did all kinds of things. And my part of that was just a worker at that time. And when I went through the worker process, I was a certified welder. So I got to build the trusses that we put on top of the roofs and made the roofs for the building while they were building. And the Haitians just thought that was just the greatest thing, that you could build the walls and the trusses at the same time. I'm over in the corner building trusses. They're building, the other workers are building the walls, and then we put it all together.

You know, I'm glad you mentioned that, going to wells. When you think of a mission trip, you think of preaching in a pulpit, and that's part of it. But people that do other things, from construction work to just a myriad of things, I mean, we need a lot of people of a lot of different skill sets to go on mission trips, don't we?

Yes, we do. And that's why I got involved. I'm not an evangelist. I'm just a part-time pastor. But the main thing, I felt like I had something that God could use my skills and my abilities, that He's given me a talent, that He's given me to be able to go and share that work and to teach. Every time we went down there, we taught somebody else how to weld.

It was a great opportunity as well. And Christina, being married to a pastor, I mean, your whole life is a mission trip, really, isn't it? That's for sure. How important is it, Christina, that the church continually keep missions really at the forefront, and as kids grow up, and we continually remind every upcoming generation of believers that every Christian has a role to play in the Great Commission?

That's exactly right. We are the hands and the feet of Jesus, and we need to have workers in the field. And that's part of what the Bible tells us to do. And we try to help those who Christ has told us about, and He said that they're the least of these. And in Haiti, being one of, I mean, it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

And so we have, there's a great need there. And for young people, I know we even took our own daughter at the age of 14, and it left quite an impact on her, too, as well, when she went to Haiti. And that's some of the things, too, is that the children down there are just so loving, and they have just joy. I mean, if you look at any Haitian, no matter where they're at, they always have joy upon their face.

And that is expressed especially in the Christian communities. And when they see us coming, they get excited, and it was a major impact on my daughter's life, too, as well, to be able to help them. You know, she actually went several times, even with her grandparents, then back to Haiti, to help.

So it left an impression on her, which I'm very excited about. But we, as a team, my husband and I, as Tony had said, he wanted to be a worker, but God laid upon his heart that also now he needed to start leading teams. And that's when he started to do.

He started to start leading teams in 2009, and that progressed into where we're at today, where we have now the new mission called the Haiti Hope Mission. Going on an international trip, what does that do inside of you? Go someplace where you don't know the language. And let God break that language barrier, and let Him do the work ahead. Let the Holy Spirit lead. And that's so important, I think, as well, too. Well, what do you say to churches that, you know, maybe they've given some money to, you know, Samaritan's Purse, or they've done shoeboxes at Christmas, which is great. But beyond that, they've not really had a lot going on in terms of missions.

How can churches begin to start a missions program? I think what you said was very important, that you go, you've got to find something to connect with first. Find a reason.

I wouldn't have never went if my father-in-law wouldn't have said, you can weld. I need you, and you need to go. And you've got to find that reason, find a purpose, and find a mission that is tied to the abilities that you have. Churches are missing a fantastic blessing, financially and spiritually, by not participating in the mission work that God has put out there. That is our calling. It's a great calling, not only in our backyard, but to take it to the poor and the needy and everyone around the world that He calls us to minister to. Folks, you're listening to Truth For a New Generation.

Alex McFarland here with some very special people. Hey, stay tuned. We're going to talk more about world missions and what God can do through you, yes, through your life, to change somebody's eternity. Stay tuned.

We're back after this. America today is like a patient struggling to live, yet is being forcibly euthanized by her, quote, doctors. The life force within the patient fighting for survival is the honest citizens like yourself.

The team of, quote, caregivers are the local and national leaders actually contributing to the demise of the patient. The economy is crashing. Crime is exploding. The Constitution is being abolished. The assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late by Alex McFarland, has one single purpose, to get you prepared. Learn the real source of America's current problems that no one else is talking about and what you can do now to face tomorrow, regardless of what tomorrow brings.

The assault on America, how to defend our nation before it's too late, available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and local Christian bookstores. Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion and war. Too often we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ. How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions in 10 issues that divide Christians? Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography and environmentalism as he echoes the biblical invitation, Come, let us reason together. Only by engaging the scriptures deeply, thinking clearly and speaking truthfully, can we and God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose.

10 issues that divide Christians. Find this book and many others at AlexMcFarland.com. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit AlexMcFarland.com. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here on the road. So glad to be traveling and preaching the gospel. I'm in West Virginia, Christ Community Church, the town of Augusta, West Virginia.

Just having a great week. And as many of you know, throughout the COVID months, a number of our events around the country got canceled or postponed, 30-some events. But if you go to my website, which is AlexMcFarland.com, the calendar is up and we're putting things back on the schedule.

And so, number one, please keep me in prayer. But when I'm coming to your town, after being in West Virginia, I'm going to be in Fayetteville. A couple of times this fall, I'm going to be in Texas.

I'm going to be in Florida. We've got some things. And I want you to pray, folks. Right now, we're talking to a number of the major national news networks that want me to come and talk about my book. I've got a brand new book called The Assault on America, How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late.

And in the book, there are a lot of things about the moral and spiritual climate of the country. And so, I ask for your prayers. And I ask for you to come. When I'm in your city or nearby, come see us. Let's join together.

Let's pray for America. And let's stay equipped to present, explain, and defend the gospel in our nation. Present, explain, defend the gospel. That's our heartbeat.

And we want to come alongside and encourage you and help you as you endeavor to do that. But, you know, part of our job also is to proclaim the gospel around the world. The Bible talks to the uttermost parts of the earth. And two very special people. I wish you could see these beautiful people. The Bible talks about how beautiful are the feet that take the good tidings, the good news around the world.

And these people not only have beautiful feet in a biblical sense, but they are beautiful. Paul and Mary Haynes. I wanted you especially to meet them because they work with American Indians. And Paul and Mary, thanks for being with us on the Truth for New Generations show. I'm glad to be here.

And we actually started the missions in 2004. Easter Sunday morning, God just called me and said, you can go on this mission trip. I'd been asked.

And so I was so glad that I did answer the call. We wound up in Guatemala with the Maya Indians. And so we spent four summers down, going down there with the Maya Indians. And it just seemed like God was leading me to, why not stay with the American Indians?

Why not stay in your own country? And so we did. So starting in 2010, we started working with the Native Americans. So it's been such a joy. You know, Paul, one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the program, last night you and I were talking about reaching the Indians for Christ. And you just had such a smile on your face. And I could tell that reaching the Native Americans was such a joy to you. And I wanted to have you on the program.

Mary, you participate with this. And what states have you gone to here in the USA to reach Indians for Christ? North Carolina to the Cherokee and then South Dakota. We went to two or three different tribes there.

Things that were going on that we just joined in and worked with. What's unique about sharing Jesus with Native Americans? Well, they're just like us. They need Jesus. And they're receptive. And they accept the Lord if they are presented with the Gospel.

And that's been very rewarding. Paul, what do you do? When you go out to the Southwest or wherever, what's a mission trip to Native Americans like? Well, for us, we just let God lead us. I mean, we'll go out there and we don't know what God's going to have for us. And we usually wind up having something planned. But we always, God always has so many other things that we can wind up maybe going to the hospital, praying for people. We just do so many things.

But God has just made it, opens up so many doors. And we work with the Native American ministries, always out there a couple places. And we did work on a couple of reservations. The Native Americans, actually the five poorest counties in the United States is on Indian reservations.

And so that makes it bad. And we've went through some reservations that's been so poor. And actually on Pine Ridge, at the time we was out there, it was 70% unemployment. So that was, that's outrageous. And actually I stopped at Wounded Knee and I bought a necklace off of this lady. And she'd been there all day under this little brush arbor and trying to make a few dollars and sell necklaces. And she had everybody that bought something off of it, she had them sign her name. And she'd only had three people who had stopped all day. And that was the fourth one.

So I made that. And she talked about the conditions on the reservation. She didn't have any water and no electricity in her house.

She had to carry water from a great distance. Last night, Paul, you were talking about a statistic that really broke my heart about the rate of suicide. Speak to that, if you would, among the Native Americans.

Yeah, it's really so great. It's about 7% greater than it is on the rest of our nation. And it's no hope. They have no hope.

They just feel like they're hopeless, you know. They don't have jobs, and without giving them Jesus to give them some hope, well, you know, they just don't have it. What is their response, Paul and Mary? When you share the gospel, you explain how to be saved, how receptive are they? Well, we've had several, especially when we do a vacation Bible school.

It's usually, of course, kids. And I'm just thinking of one little boy that came forward, accepted the Lord. And he actually was kind of laying down on the floor, like, just laughing. He was thrilled and so happy.

Yeah. And I guess this was the little boy she talked about. He was actually a 12-year-old. And actually, he'd never been inside of a church before, I mean, on the reservation. And when he came in there, the first night we picked him up, he came in and he said, What are you doing here? You know, he didn't know what was going on. And he took a really, he was just like a sponge. He sat on the front seat and he soaked everything up. And about the third night, he gave his heart to the Lord. And actually, when he did, God just came over him and he just laughed. I mean, it was just, what a thrill, you know. It just blesses me to see him, how God blessed him and saving him.

And it's been several like that. And so, God's been so good. We had one lady, she brought her little boy.

Well, he's a 10-year-old boy. Brought him to every night and she said, Can I stay? Oh, sure, anybody can stay. And she stayed and she got saved on the last night of her. And so, I mean, just what a blessing. She brought her boy and she was the one that got saved. So, I mean, God is so good and it's been such a blessing. And I know being a mom was part of that.

I just had a deep spot in my heart for them. Folks, you're listening to Truth For A New Generation. Stay tuned. We're going to come back and we're going to talk about the most rewarding, most thrilling thing in the world, which is to be used by God to bring another soul to faith in Christ. Stay tuned.

We're back after this. You know, Alex mixes it up with humor and stories he gleaned from decades of working with youth and encourages teens to build a foundation of faith that will stabilize their lives and help them take a stand for Christ. Simple and straightforward.

Stand. Core truths you must know for an unshakable faith. Available wherever Christian books are sold. America today is like a patient struggling to live, yet is being forcibly euthanized by her, quote, doctors. The life force within the patient fighting for survival is the honest citizens like yourself.

The team of, quote, caregivers are the local and national leaders actually contributing to the demise of the patient. The economy is crashing. Crime is exploding. The Constitution is being abolished. The assault on America. How to defend our nation before it's too late by Alex McFarland has one single purpose to get you prepared. Learn the real source of America's current problems that no one else is talking about and what you can do now to face tomorrow, regardless of what tomorrow brings. The assault on America.

How to defend our nation before it's too late. Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and local Christian bookstores. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex McFarland is a voice you can trust to speak the timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. You're listening to Truth for a New Generation radio. We're back on Truth for a New Generation.

Alex McFarland here. And again, folks, think about this. If you're a believer, you heard about Christ and had an opportunity to respond because somebody shared the gospel. And if you're part of a church, there were faithful folk that preceded me and you and built those churches. And I often view the body of Christ like links in a chain.

And here we are. We're blessed. There are churches. There are Bibles.

There's gospel booklets. And somebody prayed for us. Somebody shared with us. But now it's our turn. It's our moment to pass the message on to the upcoming generation. We're talking with Mary and Paul Haynes.

We're talking with Paul and Christina Baker, some dear friends and brothers and sisters. And in the time we've got left, let's talk a little bit about how it honestly is every Christian's, I would say, privilege. Not just duty, although it is a responsibility, but it's a privilege.

It's not a have to, it's a get to. Pastor Paul, talk about how rewarding it is to know, as a Christian, you're doing the assignment that the Savior gave us. I mean, is it fair to say that the Christian who is in no way interested in missions is really in a state of disobedience? Is that true?

I would agree with that. And I think that God has made preparations for us. I was in three years of high school, took French for no apparent reason. And little did I know that God would use that ability to then speak with the Haitian people and work with the kids and talk with the people. A couple of times there was a few small miracles where they would ask for things. And I didn't know the French word and all of a sudden I had to blurt out something and the Holy Spirit must have said something, right?

Because it came back with what we wanted, so it all worked. But the rewarding experience is being obedient to God. And I think if we understand that and we move in that direction, to watch him unfold those things, if we're obedient to his Spirit, is the greatest blessing of all. Christina Baker, y'all's church, Little Cape and Baptist, did y'all start the Haiti Hope Mission? I know you participate with it, but were you all the founders of it? Yes, our church at Little Cape and Baptist was. And in turn, my husband and I felt that he had led many mission trips to Haiti. And during that period of time, we found that there were several members in our congregation who had such leadership abilities.

And my husband had asked certain members within our congregation if they would be willing to step up to the plate, and they definitely did. And so we do have an organization now called Haiti Hope Mission, where we sponsor children for $25 a month. We also have teachers that we sponsor. The organization sponsors an orphanage that houses 12 orphans.

And we have two mamas down there. We've built a medical clinic and a dental clinic. And so we're constantly doing new things, and one of our newest things that we like to do is to build a technical school. And when we first started, we only had 42 enrolled in our school, and now, at the last semester, we had 406. So it's just such a blessing that we're giving them a Christian education, and this is not just an education.

This is an education that they're learning all about the Lord. Unbelievable. In what amount of time? From 40-something to over 400.

Ten times the amount, and how long of a time period? That started in 2011 is when the school started, and of course, until 2020. A three-phase project. It went from 2011, we took it in three phases, built the kindergarten, and then wanted to follow them through to the sixth grade, which is considered a reasonable education in Haiti to get to the sixth grade. And unlike our schools, which is based on age, theirs is based on capability.

So you may have a 16-year-old in the sixth grade just because that's what they can afford, and that's where they're at. But we're currently in sixth grade looking to build the technical school so we can teach things like welding, plumbing, electrical, graduate to the next phase of that to get technical training. You know, I'm hearing y'all, and I know there's prayer and there's investment of time and everything, but I'm hearing good strategic planning. I mean, the preaching of the gospel and the intercession in prayer, that's important, but just good common-sense visioning and planning, I mean, that's a crucial part of the success too, isn't it? It started out holding hands around a circle around a tree, a big old mango tree right down in Pastor Eddie Sanville's compound down there, and we just said, God, we want to be here, we want to be used. Another group from Pennsylvania was already involved in another work. They had initially built the church and the orphanage, and we said, we want to do whatever you want us to do.

Didn't know what that was, had no idea. Came back, reevaluated that, sat down, started the strategic planning, and allowed God to work through that. Ended up saying, hey, we may not be able to proclaim God in the school here, but in Haiti they welcome any kind of school, and they're willing to hear the gospel, and it's a government-recognized school.

It is run by Christians and teaching the children Christ-centered thoughts and ideas. Folks, if you've just tuned in, we're talking about missions, and this is such a great thing. My prayer is that you would get a vision for this, Christina and Paul Baker, Mary and Paul Haynes.

We've only got a little bit of time left, but I want you to give a final encouragement. God has used you and your wife to reach American Indians for Christ. How important is it that we, yes, be willing to share and go, but to pray and to remember the Great Commission is the Christian's life assignment? How do we keep that at the forefront of our heart and our priorities? I think you have to be led by the Lord. I mean, you have to have such a desire to want to do it, and God really put that desire in my heart, and so I'm so glad that we can do whatever He wants us to do. We've seen Him just lead us through all kinds of different situations and seen so many souls saved.

That's been the main thing in our life. It's just a thrill to see somebody come to Jesus, especially our own Native Americans. You know, I wish you could see the smile on their faces as he said that.

Folks, let me challenge you. A man asked me this when I was a brand new believer. He said, Alex, will there be anybody in heaven because of you?

This is Buford Smith in Greensboro. I kind of stumbled. I didn't know how to answer. I said, well, anybody in heaven, it's because of Jesus. Buford Smith looked at me.

This is 35 years ago. He said, that's right, but Alex, do something with your life so that somebody, at least one soul, would be in heaven because of you. Mary and Paul and Anthony, also known as Paul and Christina, you've done that. I commend you. Listeners, I challenge you, do something so that somebody would be in heaven because of you.

This is Truth For New Generation. Keep us in prayer. You can find us online at alexmcfarlane.com.

This show and more were on YouTube and Facebook. God bless you. Pray for America and tell somebody about Jesus. 877-YES-GOD1.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. Or give online at alexmcfarlane.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment. alexmcfarlane.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.