Missions Monday

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And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. This is Russ East, your host. sitting in for my boss and my friend Stu Epperson. I'd like to start us off with prayer, and we're going to have a special guest.

His name is Mike Bell with Healing Nations. Today is Missions Monday.

So we're going to be talking about the good ministry of Healing Nations. And so we're going to Dive into that in just a moment. Let's pray together. Would you join me in prayer? Lord, we come to you, Lord, needy and dependent on you, Lord, to carry out this great commission.

So Lord, would you guide this program today? Lord, just work in Mike Bell's heart and his staff at Healing Nations. Lord, for all the listeners right now that that you've brought around a A cell phone or a radio Lord or their computer screen Lord, however, you've reached out to them to. Inspire them to take the great commission seriously. Lord, I pray that we would just be faithful to you and just show us.

How to do that now. We commit it to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

So Mike Bell. with Healing Nations. Thank you for being on the program. Would you share with our listeners a little bit about how did this ministry get started? What were the things that were happening that started Healing Nations?

When did it all start? Yeah.

Well, first off, Russ, thanks for having me on. I want to make sure you could hear me. Yes, yes, yes, okay. Never heard the beeps. Um Well this all started in 2000, probably around 2008.

I had originally been part of a church planting team here in Utah with my wife and my kids in 1998 and spent 10 years leading worship and doing a variety of things there. And I just started to get really bunched up about global poverty, sort of out of the blue. And had never really spent a lot of time thinking about issues like that. I was. I was involved in like loving my neighbors here locally and wanting to make an evangelistic impact in the culture of Utah.

But I hadn't really thought too much about the plight of the poor. And through a series of events and things that I came in contact with, a number of writers and videos, I just really got stirred up about it and was asking myself, like, what's my problem? How come I never really cared about this before? And um I'll answer that question in a little while. I ended up deciding I've got to do something about this.

And, um, Was looking at a couple of countries and thinking, man, I bet the church could use a little bit of a helping hand there from people in the West, and I wanted to help churches. go and do compassion ministry. And lo and behold, I found an organization up in Canada that was doing just that. One thing led to another, and pretty soon I was opening a national office for them in the States. And the organization was called Hungry for Life International.

And so we spent and I gathered some staff together and we raised some support and we began working in the United States and then eventually realized that our paradigm had shifted a little bit and we wanted to do things a little bit differently than Hungry for Life had been doing. And so they graciously allowed us to keep our nonprofit R501 And not have to reapply for that, and just change the name of the organization. And we parted ways. amicably, and we became healing nations. And we were still involved uh primarily helping I shouldn't say primarily.

Our first objective that we ever had, which was helping churches. establish long term international partnerships overseas and then putting in the plumbing, if you will, for teams and projects. and hoping that those relationships that were fostered would continue long term. We've continued to do that, but then we've added some additional things to that menu as well. I've told people multiple occasions, we're kind of like eHarmony for church missions.

We're trying to connect churches, not in a romantic sense, but we're trying to connect churches in long-term engagement, long-term partnerships overseas. and help them continue to do that successfully.

Okay, praise God. That is awesome. Maybe you're listening in Dayton, Ohio, maybe Toledo, Ohio, Lynchburg, Virginia, Winston-Salem. or Raleigh, Charlotte, North Carolina, or maybe right here in Salt Lake City. Maybe you have a burden like the burden that Mike felt back in two thousand eight.

And you just didn't know where to go. And so the Lord, He knows this. He knows your heart. And so I want to encourage you to call us. Even this afternoon, and connect with Mike.

The number you can call is 866-256. Three four eight. 7884-866-368. three four eight seventy eight eighty four And if you're not able to call today, this afternoon, if this is not going to work out to do that, just Google. Stealing nations and send an email off to Mike Bell or one of the staff people.

And as the Lord leads you. Uh, you know, that would just be just awesome. to hear from you. because we want to help mobilize Christians to carry out the Great Commission. We want to take this seriously.

We don't want our life to just pass by. I mean, I just. Celebrated my 60th birthday yesterday with with um A great party and everything, and it just really hit me. Like, right, Mike, it's like we're not 30 anymore, we're not 25 anymore. It's like we're moving on to that next quarter of our lives.

It's like this, this could be the fourth quarter, you know, or the third quarter. You know, it's not, it's not the first or the second, and and so that's okay, it's just we want to be. productive, faithful, number one, you know, so So So give us a call 866-06. three four eight. 7884.

Maybe your church you know, you need someone to help to Kind of like, you know, galvanize a team together to give you the connections and all the details that goes into. Helping the poor. I was just recently finished up a class at Southern Evangelical Seminary online. And it was on an ethics class, and the title basically the whole topic of the class was What Do Us Christians Do in Helping Those Who Are Less Fortunate, That Are Poor? You know, and one book I read was the least of these.

I believe it was called And that really opened up my eyes and And so yeah, I've heard on on this topic more than before. I mean, Maybe you can share with our listeners a little bit about some of the ways that people can be involved are you looking for like personal support or support of your staff people or more for projects out there? What tell us a little about how people can get involved that way. Yes, absolutely.

Well, everything you just said, everybody at Healing Nations lives like a missionary. And so we are always looking for people who are looking to support other people that are involved in um catalyzing this kind of activity for churches and groups. We're also looking for people who are interested in financing projects of compassion as well. But I want to say also that no matter where anybody lives, and even if your church already has a lot of things on deck, or maybe things that you can't participate in because you can't go to Africa, and that's where the You know, it's a country in Africa that your church is engaged in, and you're looking for something a little closer. We have.

we don't just work with churches and do their groups. We also have some compassion teams that specifically go to Guatemala and work down there with some folks that we're allied with. doing a number of different things. And then we also do exclusively medical Ministry trips to Guatemala and utilize a clinic that we actually own. That's our property where we host teams, and we are basically the medical care for the larger region of Santo Tomas in Guatemala.

So there are a number of different ways to connect with us. Uh it bets. And then financially it's certainly one, but that's not the only And let me also say, Russ, that If somebody's listening is thinking, why? Man, I love the sound of this, but I'm more of a share-the-gospel kind of a person. One of the One of the uh Things that I realized after having been a Christian for a few decades was that I had kind of a truncated view of the gospel.

I thought that. the gospel was simply sharing that Jesus died for your sins and you know Believe in him, trust in him through faith, and you can go to heaven. Um And I later realized as I was reading some different things that it was more holistic than that. And I hear some music, so maybe I need to come back to that in just a minute. Hold that thought.

Yes, hold that thought. Stay with us. We'll be right back with Mike Bell. and Healing Nations.

So you're you're tuned into the Truth Network here. Truth Talk Live. We'll be right back after a couple quick messages. But don't touch that dial. We'll be right back.

Truth talk. Why? Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Russ East, your host. Wanting to welcome everyone listening from Places like Charlotte and Raleigh and Winston and Lynchburg, Virginia, Toledo, and Dayton, Ohio.

Salt Lake City, Ogden, Layton. our our stomping grounds right here where Mike Bell lives here in Utah. And he is the president for a ministry called Healing Nations. And we're just talking about. all the good things that they are doing to carry out the Great Commission.

And you know, Jesus told us to To go reach out and to go to the prisons and to bring a cup of water to people and do this as if we were doing this to Christ Himself. And so Mike was just talking about. Sharing the gospel and how, man, you know, sharing the gospel can be. pre predicated upon serving somebody That's a need. And wow, what what an open door that is, right, Mike?

I mean, you when you help someone take care of like physical needs, that can really open up someone's heart. You know, like Jesus would see the 4,000 and and so on, right? Yeah, yeah, what I was I was what I was saying was that It's easy for us to uh fall into an either or sort of mentality about Proclamation of the gospel message of the salvation message, I should say, and demonstration and actually carrying out compassion for people. And it's a both and proposition. The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus was preaching and living.

Was both of those things. If we look at his ministry, he was sharing truth. He was a truth-teller for sure. He was truth incarnate. And he was also healing and feeding people and taking care of their physical needs.

And There's a whole variety of reasons why we've sort of in evangelical circles leaned more heavily on proclamation over the last one hundred years, and we probably don't have time to get into all that. And there's a bit of a course correction, I would say, happening in our generation where people are recognizing that there's more to this message that That the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and lived out is the same thing that He's expecting us to proclaim and live out. And compassion is part of that. The vision of Healing Nations is a world that recognizes and declares God's glory. As individuals, communities and nations experience healing through truth, and compassion.

You need both of those things. And so, hey, we do have An opportunity for you to call in right now. You can just ask a question, maybe make a comment of maybe how you've seen the Lord work through. Your life In showing some compassion. Maybe it's locally.

Maybe it's right there in your own hometown. We've got to do it right here. There's needs. And then overseas, we can't even hard hardly imagine the depth and the breadth of the poverty that we see in other countries.

So 866-348. 7884. That's 866. Three four eight. 78 84 talking with Mike Bell with Healing Nations.

Share with us, Mike, Some of the obstacles that you have seen, but then also the solutions for people when they're kind of in that. tug of war, you know, with their Fears of wanting to be involved and going on a trip. What are some common, maybe, questions or frequently asked questions that people have? When they're starting to show that interest in being involved, With healing nations to whatever degree, whether they're doctors or nurses or, you know, um, people that want to just go and support. You want to want to share some of those those types of things for our listeners as they're tuning in today?

Yeah, yeah. I think the well, oftentimes the first thing that we hear from somebody who has never Gone to a developing country to do anything is, will I be safe? And of course, there's no way to guarantee safety to anybody at any time. I mean, I could get hit by a. hit by a car, walk in the street if I leave my house in a few minutes.

But we have done everything we can to ensure safety, everything w humanly possible from our vantage point. We've got the partners that we work with in these various countries are solid people. That we have vetted ahead of time. And we send team leaders out with each team that goes from a church, from our organization, and so that whoever the leader is from the church can focus on relationships and devotionals and things like that. And we can take care of logistics on the ground.

But we work with people who have a track record of doing things the right way. And yeah, we have never had anything super scary happen to people who are on trips that we've been on with them.

So safety, that comes up. And we try to help and coach people into recognizing that all of life comes with risk. And the Lord made it clear to us that in this world we were going to have trouble, but He's overcome the world. There's a degree of caution that we should have. But Um I for example, I mean I may be going to Haiti in the near future.

There's a small group of people that are really interested in getting back to a partner that we've been working with there for years. But there's been trepidation trying to get people engaged in that trip because, of course, the capital of Haiti is a dumpster fire right now. It's being run by gangs. But our partner is nowhere near there, and we have safe ways to get in and out of the country and plans in place in case anything were to happen. But of course, you go to the the State Department website and it says Haiti's a category four, don't go there and things like that.

Meanwhile, our partner is saying, yes, please, please bring people. We would love to do compassion ministry with teams and They've had people come recently, and it hasn't been a problem.

So, even in the most extreme situation, I guess my point is, even in the most extreme situations, there are still safe ways to do things. I want to continue this topic here, but I just had to bring up the fact that isn't it interesting when we think about. When Jesus Was starting his, you know, his formal ministry, and he was in Nazareth. And if my memory serves properly here. you know, the the the people that were the religious leaders And those that were really faithful to Rome, the Herodians and the Sanhedrin people.

I mean, they wanted to kill Jesus right at the get-go. And I've just been struck by that recently through a Bible study with Robert Marshall. And he brought that up to me, and I'm like, wow. I mean, talking about. You know, I mean, for us, we have to trust the Lord for safety, but Jesus came into a hostile environment, didn't he?

He really came into a place that he You know, and this is, of course, Jesus who's in control of everything, but still, just to like realize that. Here is the God-man, you know, here is God the Son, and he comes into this. time in this place where By many people, sure, he's loved, but then by others, they wanted to kill him, it says. They were trying to find a way to do this, you know, and so. We have to trust the Lord with our sa with our safety and realize.

You know, we are we are in his hands as his children, uh, true believers, and you know, him, and so. We can do that. Yeah, I've had an opportunity to go to India a long time ago, and now I have another opportunity to go there. And things have kind of changed from 15 years ago, and things are a little more. Volatile on the political front and religious freedoms and things, but I just told my wife just the other day, like, I cannot be like I was fifteen years ago where I fought it all the way, Mike.

I mean, I fought it, you know? And I was nervous. I was like, hey, man, India is pretty close to this country and that. It's like, if God wants you to go, We better obey, right? Because none of us want to be swallowed up by a fish.

I mean, it'd be for our best, the thing that we need to have happen. You know? Yeah.

But, um so fear.

Well, I was just thinking, you made me think about my first trip out in this capacity when I was investigating things was to Haiti, and I was terrified. I mean, everything I'd heard, and then everything was fine. And so you work smart, and you accept a certain amount of risk, but you don't do anything silly. And for us, for a lot of the places that we are connected in. you know, you're talking about high crime, and so there's like a guy with a a machine gun or whatever, or not a machine gun, but a guy with a rifle outside of a McDonald's.

You know, there's there's always security everywhere, and you're like, oh dear. Um this must be a big problem. Um But we don't face the persecution in those situations, which you might. face if you go back to India. It depends, but you you know, you gotta be willing to do it.

Let's keep talking about let's give our fears over to the Lord And let's just be faithful to him. We'll be right back. I'm with Mike Bell with Healing Nations. Check out their website. We'll be right back here on Truth Talk Live.

Stay with us. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Russ East. I'm with my friend Mike Bell with Healing Nations. Google Healing Nations.

This great ministry that has been doing compassion ministries, medical missions, sharing the gospel with people. They've been doing this. basically since two thousand eight Okay, and uh and Mike lives right here in Utah. In fact, I was thinking, Mike, about how you know, if someone wanted to call us up 866-348-7884. We can put you in touch with What vehicles, ministries through Healing Nations and whether they're local to you or in Lynchburg or Winston or Raleigh or Charlotte or Toledo or Dayton, Ohio, right here in Utah, we'll do whatever we can.

We'll pray with you, we'll encourage you. Maybe God's just got getting a hold of your heart. Like You know, I've got to do something, kind of like what Mike was sharing about his testimony to how this ministry got started. And we really do need to take this. Seriously, and do what we can to be faithful in carrying out.

what Christ has told us has taught us to do. And that is to to uh look at the poor and look at those in need and not just get caught up in our Christmas holidays, you know, and yeah, we're gonna have a lot of fun, yeah, we're gonna get a lot of presents and we're gonna celebrate the birth of Chr Christ and the earth and everything, but Mike, how about just like let's just talk about it a minute for a second about like the rescue mission ministry. I mean, if nobody has ever gone down to their local Christian homeless shelter, would you say that, that's a great place to start? in order to kind of break some of those walls of seeing people that are That are broken and are maybe like they don't have hardly a dime to their name due to various reasons. Would you think it's a good place to start to gain some compassion?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, when people come back from these trips, one of the questions that we want them to be asked is, what might be a local expression of what you just experienced overseas because you don't want that to just be a one and done, right?

So especially here in Utah, that the rest the downtown rescue mission is absolutely at the top of that list. We have a number of different ministries like that that are focused on people's lives here. And that is a great place to go show compassion. As a matter of fact, that's been so popular here. In Salt Lake, that I don't know if they have any open slots down there anymore for churches and groups that want to come down and help serve and do a message and provide the worship music and all that.

I mean, it seems like they're. They're pretty booked up. And it's probably similar in other places, but if somebody's feeling the the tug at kind of getting in the compassion game, they should check out. They should call the local rescue mission and see. Also, other, you know, refugee ministry, international students.

Intervarsity and crew and all these different things on college campuses, there's so much opportunity for ministry outside the walls. Of the local church. Not that there's, of course, anything wrong with doing ministry in the local church, but we are to be a light in the world. And so these are these are just some suggestions that I've made here locally that I know do extend into other parts of the country. Another thing I want to mention really quick for us is If you're thinking, man, I want to know more about God's mission in the world in general, what is God up to?

What's God been up to? Um there is a class that our ministry is involved in coordinating here in Utah, but it's national and actually international, and it's a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. And that class is 15 weeks Kind of a commitment, but worth every minute you spend there, where you will find out what God's been up to for like the last 5,000 years. And you'll find out what's going on in the world to reach unreached and unengaged people groups. There are whole groups of people, millions of people, who have no witness of the gospel whatsoever.

And we're still trying to figure out how to reach these people. We're still trying to translate the Bible into their language and find missionaries who are willing to go out there and And reach them cross-culturally. And ironically, a lot of those people groups. live in places that are the poorest places in the world as well. And so compassion ministry can be a way to get involved and engaged in those communities and show them that you love them and you're not just there to sh you know Share a message alone with them, even though it's the most important message they'll ever hear.

But oftentimes, I think you mentioned earlier, yeah, compassion ministry can be not only part and parcel of the gospel of the kingdom, it is a way to show people that you care about them and earn the right to be heard. You know, I want to reach out to all those that just turned sixty. You know, if you're thinking that your time, you're just kind of washed up and you're just no good anymore, you've had the good old days in the past. I want to just tell you to please Give that thought over to the Lord right now and don't give that a second thought. That's not how the Lord would want you to think.

Don't be thinking that just because you're getting close to Medicare and Social Security and all that, that you don't have anything to contribute. Is that one of those things, Mike, that comes across and maybe somebody wants to call in about their experience being out there on a mission trip, 866-348-7884. Do people ever wonder, am I capable enough? What are my skill sets? Do you want to share about that?

Like you'll take anybody willing to share and they probably don't realize all the skills they have. Oh, absolutely. There's always something that somebody can do. We do have a number of different sort of physical tactile things that people can get involved in, like extreme home makeovers where they rip down just a little twig home that somebody's been living in and provide the resources financially and work with a crew on the ground, locals that are being put to work and given jobs because of those financial resources, jump in with them and do some physical labor, but also relational ministry, ministry with children, helping In schools. There's so many different things.

And Russ, you really, you said something that's so important. Man, the last. I don't know how we want to put this, but when you get to 60 plus, you've got so many years still potentially left To serve in various capacities, and a lot of people go out on their trip, their first trip post-60. And frankly, a lot of people taking perspectives classes. And by the way, if you want to know more about that from anywhere in the country, go to perspectives.org to find a class near you that's starting up soon.

A lot of the people who take perspectives are over 60, and they're finding out that there are ways for them to engage in reaching the unreached and being involved in compassion ministry and being involved in local and regional ministries. you are not done just because you're getting close to Social Security. As a matter of fact, the missions world is just opening up to a lot of people who are approaching retirement. And so the opportunities are huge to be engaged at that point in your life. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, how we can get caught up in thinking, oh, I'm too young.

I don't know enough or what I do know is not applicable anymore. We can just come up with a lot of excuses, right? But Christianity. Truly is an adventure. I mean, sometimes, yes, I'm tempted to want to just, you know, find reruns of Gilligan's Island and just, you know, do a big binge on Star Trek or something like that.

And not to say that you can't do that once in a while a little bit, but you know, we can't get anesthesized, right? We whatever we are. And not to say that, you know, yeah, when you're in your 30s and your kids are little and you're trying to, you know, make ends meet and you don't know how, you know, sure, life can be at different seasons and things, but you can give.

So, hey, would you give the website? May maybe you're in your thirties, your forties, and the Lord's blessed you financially and Maybe the Lord's leading you right now to just What is the website, Mike?

Someone might want to give like a year end gift, you know? And we've just been blessed by a little gift. Our ministry is I'm so grateful for that. Went to the P.O. box, and there was something to help us through with Utah Partnerships for Christ, you know, and So is it just healingnations.org?

Yes, that's exactly at healingnations.org. And we're always grateful to get donations towards our operating budget. You know, the people say the gospel's free, but somebody's got to put in the plumbing. That's what we're all trying to do, all of us that are in ministry. And so, yeah, we would welcome support coming from different folks.

And all of our staff are listed on our website. If there was somebody that somebody wanted to support specifically, our staff raised support apart from our operating budget. And what I mean to say, if somebody's interested in like, man, I would just love to give to a project. Let me tell you a little story, if we've got time here. Yeah.

There's an individual here locally that I met with about supporting our organization. And after that, we got to talking and he said, you know, I would be interested in supporting a project here and there. Let me know if something comes up. And I happened to run across an opportunity in Kenya with a partner we have there, had a church that was basically falling apart. The termites had eaten through the wood and all the metal it was a corrugated metal sh a large corrugated metal structure, essentially.

And the metal was getting bad, it was rusty, there were holes in it. And I ended up telling him about this, and I said, This is going to cost about $6,000. Which is peanuts to put up a church building, right? I mean, if you're thinking about North America. And he said, you know, I talked to my family, we want to do it.

And he gave through Healing Nations, and we, you know, I gave that money to our partner over there, who's the bishop of a large denomination. And they put that building up, and they're starting to see visitors they've never seen before. He gave me a report last just a couple of days ago and said, yes, we saw a couple of people come to the Lord last week, first time they've ever been in this place. And then this family has also decided to do a water project right outside of the church building because people were walking miles to get water. And he funded a well, essentially a borehole well type situation.

And his family's just, you know, they're blessing other people during the holidays, halfway across the world. Yes, yes. After this next break, maybe we could spend a little time also just maybe if you could help us. being that Missions Monday, every Monday when you talk about missions, uh here on Truth Talk Live. But I was thinking if you wanted to Share something that's kind of, you know, specific to a certain continent, like, say, whether it's Africa or Asia, you know, South America or something.

I'm just curious if you would share to give us a sense of maybe kind of. in a nutshell, what kind of things are we seeing, maybe a story or something from one of the continents out there. I I would love we had a couple of guys from our ministry go over to Ghana and do some ministry there. And I'm hoping to maybe go there in May.

So I appreciate that. But I wanted to say also that this coming Friday, I'm going to be at the Ogden Rescue Mission just sharing a simple gospel message. And then, you know, if you don't know how that ministry works, they feed people, they give them clothing, they provide housing, and they help them find work. Wow, it's a great ministry. It's part of the Salt Lake Rescue Mission.

So come join me if you want to just sit in and listen in and see what that's all about. That's this Friday at about 6:15 p.m. We have one more segment, so don't go away. Stay with us. You're listening to Truth Talk Live.

Mike Bell with Healing Nations will be right back. Stay tuned. Truth talk. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Russ East.

your host here in So Salt Lake City, Utah. Area here of where the Lord has me serving as the manager for this area. It's been a privilege to. to be with Mike Bell. The President for Healing Nations.

We've been having a great conversation. We'd like to bring you in on it as well. If you'd like to share, you know, maybe an experience that you had going out and reaching those who are less fortunate. Compassionate Ministries. Maybe your story could inspire somebody as well.

So we'd love to hear from you. The number you can call in right now is 866-348-7884. That's 866-3648. Three four eight. 7884.

I'm just going to pose this question to Mike. Um Before we talk about the countries Like a little short sketch or maybe a a story about an account, a a testimony of somebody out there being reached and so forth, like you've already been sharing, but um. Do people ever get caught up with maybe time away from the responsibilities at home or costs involved for a trip? Maybe comment on that. Like, what could somebody do?

Is there flexibility? Is it like a a specific time frame that you'd have to go out on. when you're going overseas? What is a typical length of a trip and so forth? Just to help maybe doctors who are listening or maybe dentists or nurses or people along those lines?

Yeah, so with medical trips and medical personnel, it's more of an abridged thing.

So they've got like. Four to five clinic days, and then some time in Antigua. Which is a quaint little town in Guatemala where they have a kind of a rest day and there's church day.

So it's kind of a week. The total, but shortened compared to a lot of our church teams end up going for just over a week.

So, they can get the most out of their time there. But my medical coordinator has kind of crafted the teams for medical to be in such a way that it's a little easier for medical personnel to take on, given the schedules that they have at home. And it can be a challenge for some people to raise. These trips can cost $2,200, $2,500, depending on where you're going. But we try to plan them out ahead of time far enough where people have time to either raise the money or save the money and then make those payments to their church.

And then we invoice the churches for that.

Okay.

So if you have six months usually to prepare. We found that most people can do it and sometimes their churches get involved and help subsidize and help them put on fundraisers and things like that. But it it hasn't been too terribly difficult for people to be able to participate Yes, thank you for that. Super. And then as we think about countries, whether the I don't know, does a person, does another maybe a ministry over in South America or Africa or Asia come to your mind right now that you'd want to share with our listeners just to give us some kind of extra encouragement to see what the Lord's been doing in in lives over there across the waves.

I I would say I would I think a couple of different examples. One is very individual and the other one's more community And the individual one is actually connected to that church I told you about where their structure was just rebuilt. The pastor of that church is a widow. And I think there's just there's there's She basically stepped up at at some point and said, I will be the leader here, because there was just a real vacuum of leadership and she was a commission for the the ministry there. And recently I received some x-rays on my WhatsApp from the bishop I was telling you about, who's over that denomination, that group.

And he said, Brother, I don't know if there's anybody who can help with this, but this widow pastor. who works with me, she's had a broken arm. For a while. And it's going to cost about $1,000 to get this taken care of. And he sent me the x-rays, and I was horrified because it was a bad break, and it was broken in a couple of different places.

So I just really quickly, we had a little fundraiser on Facebook and raised enough money for her to go get that fixed. And then I found out later. Her arm had been that way for three years. And I think how in the world Yeah, she's out she's out in a remote location, very poor. And it was a miracle in her life.

I mean, just the pictures of her after she'd gone to the doctor and had it taken care of was unbelievable. And now, not only is her arm fixed, and she's praising God for that, now her church building's fixed, they've got water in the community. It's been cool to be able to bless them that way. And uh and and the bishop keeps letting me know. It's just he's so thrilled to see the Lord work through that confluence of opportunity that people had to bless other people.

The other example just is in Guatemala because we spent a lot of time down there. We have our own clinic building I mentioned, and We've been able to serve those people in that community for a long time now. And we have charts on all these folks. Not everybody, but a lot of them are people who come back on a regular basis. And we're able to provide them with the blood pressure medication or the diabetes medication or whatever.

And so the stories have been innumerable to really articulate of people whose lives have been literally saved because there were medical people that were willing to go down. There were organizations that were willing to donate medicine. And we also see salvations happening at the clinic on the regular. We have pastors and one elder from a church down there. who come regularly and pray with patients when they come in, pray with them when they're leaving.

And every once in a while, someone prays to receive Christ for the first time. And so life change physically and spiritually. And I I should say, Russ, we are looking for spiritual reciprocity in this equation where people are changed on both sides of the equation. Where we're we're trying to we're helping North Americans to experience Something that is going to enrich them spiritually while they are pouring into other people physically and spiritually, because poverty exists everywhere. It's physical in a lot of the developing world, but it's spiritual for a lot of North Americans.

And so we're hoping that we're addressing spiritual poverty at the same time as we're addressing physical poverty.

So if you're listening right now, And you're thinking, okay, wait, what's happening right now? I think the Lord maybe is speaking to me. It's it's December right now.

So, you could get in contact with Healing Nations. You could go on Google, type in Healing Nations, look for Mike Bell. Send them an email. And in essence, you know, you could see the Lord work over the next six months. and you could do the application, you could raise some support.

Maybe you've never raised support before, that's all right. They'll help you with all this. And you know, there are people out there that maybe can't go. They don't have the time or the health Or just the the screen. You know, the schedule of their life right now, they just can't do it.

But maybe you can, and other people they want to give.

Okay, they're just looking for a great place. to invest the funds that they've been blessed with. into someone just like you who's driving down the road And you're just saying, okay, Lord, you got me. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna get a hold of. Healing Nations, and I'm going to see about going because June and July, it'll be here before we know it.

And you can be on a plane. To Guatemala, and you think your life is boring now. Wait till you go to Guatemala. I mean, where is Guatemala? I'm trying to picture in my head, you got Mexico.

I know where Mexico is. Is it like on the other side of like Panama or where is it exactly? No, so it goes it goes Mexico, then Guatemala, then Honduras. And we have partners in Guatemala, in all three, actually. Yeah.

And if people are interested and they want more information about any aspect of what we've been talking about, you can just email info at healingnations.org. And if you want to know specifically about medical teams, then email medical at healingnations.org.

Okay, okay.

Well, we're coming about to the end of our time together here on Truth Talk Live, and you can call us. The number is 866-4666. 348-7884. That's 866-848. three four eight seventy eight eighty four.

We'd love to hear from you. And with our closing minutes here, we have together, Mike, does a passage of scripture come to your mind. I'm trying to think of something that might that might you know Come to my mind. I'm thinking about like the Good Samaritan. You know, there's somebody who went out of their way, you know, when other people were just passing by.

How many times have we. you know, we've seen someone we're driving out of a of a grocery store and there's someone with a sign, we don't know what to do, you know.

Sometimes maybe we might give them some food or something like that, you know, and that's good, that's good. We have to have a soft heart. But Do you want to comment a little bit on maybe like the the the Good Samaritan and what that person what what kind of a a risk that they maybe took, you know, to Mm. trust the Lord and to to go out and and help somebody. Um sometimes You know, your intentions can be misunderstood, but you just gotta.

explain to people when you're over there in a place like, hey, we're not trying to get anything from you. You know, did you ever have people that you try to help and they and they say, Well, What's it what's in this for you? You do have people ever come back and they have experienced some of that a little bit maybe? And you have to kind of just communicate to them that we love you. We're doing this because we love Christ.

We haven't had too much of an issue with that. People are very appreciative of the help that they receive from folks. And we try to do things you may have heard of this book when helping hurts. We don't want to do things the wrong way. We want to do what is necessary, what's impactful to the community based on what our partners are telling us, not what we think they need.

And we don't want to be out there, you know, painting a building that's been painted five times because all these Americans come down and are looking for something to do. We want to do something impactful. But to your point about the Good Samaritan, I mean, that guy went out of his way. Like, that was inconvenient. And we have to remember that that's what compassion is: it's loving your neighbor as yourself.

And Yeah. That's actually one of the most sincere expressions of the first great commandment of loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, because it's an act of worship when you show other people love. Mike, thank you so much for being on Truth Talk Live and thank you everyone for listening, for praying for the ministry of healing nations. You've been listening to Truth Talk Live. You're on the Truth Network.