A passionate missionary force
It takes people from all nations to reach all nations with the gospel. From the very beginning, SEND International has recruited and sent missionaries from various countries. Len and Marrian Geddert mobilize Spanish speakers for SEND and shared these stories of the amazing people God is preparing to send to the harvest fields.
A couple weeks ago, we were on the campus of Rio Grande Bible Institute in Texas, our SEND pamphlets spread across our table and the SEND banner standing strong beside us, when we met Ricardo, a student from Honduras. He had emailed SEND several months ago with questions about education and we were very excited to meet him face to face. We were fascinated as Ricardo shared about the journey God was taking him on.
“I am a radiologist,” he said. “One day, while I was in the operating room at the Christian hospital where I was employed, a patient went into cardiac arrest. At that moment I realized his critical condition, and a huge weight came over me. I have never shared the gospel with this man! He may die and go into an endless eternity without Christ!
"Well the patient did die. That moment was life-changing for me. At that moment I knew I had to do more than just carry out the responsibilities of my medical profession. Processing this experience, I decided to set aside my career in radiology and find the means and the training to serve the Lord as a missionary. That’s when I came across SEND’s web site and wrote them an email.
"Later, I was relieved to find out that a nurse had shared the gospel with that same patient just a couple days before the surgery and he had accepted Christ!”
Ricardo is now focused on attaining a missions degree and is trusting God to provide for him and direct him to where and in what capacity he should serve on the mission field.
Later on, while enjoying some coffee at the campus coffee shop, we got to know Raquel and Melissa (from Honduras) and Darío (from Chile). These three young adults have a call to serve on a SEND field among “M” refugees. Tears welled up in our eyes as we shared the passion for the lost souls in many nations today. Diligently completing their degrees, these dear friends are trusting God to open the doors for them to minister overseas. This will take a miracle!
Back at our table again, we answered as best we could all the questions the students could throw at us. “I am a doctor,” a young lady said. “I will soon graduate with my Bible degree and want to use my medical skills as a missionary. Where could I serve?”
It’s all sort of overwhelming. We look at our world today, all the pain and suffering, thousands that do not even know their spiritual need and definitely do not know God — the task is huge and the means seems impossible. Who will go and tell them? God is forming multi-national teams for the task and, among others, He is calling Latin Americans. They are a missionary force with a tremendous passion yet with huge hurdles before them.
Josue and Laura, both teachers from Guatemala, are raising support to go to Spain with SEND. Danny, from Honduras, is an accomplished musician. He and his family want to serve in Spain as well. Ossman and Erica, both teachers in Honduras, also want to serve in Spain with their family.
Abel, the leader of our partner agency in Honduras recently told us that the average salary of a Honduran pastor is $400/month. How can we mesh that with what it costs to send harvest workers to live in places like Spain, where the cost of living is more than 10 times as much? It will take a miracle for sure! We encourage these ones to be courageous as they count the cost to go and to be confident in the One who calls them.
SEND is accepting donations toward the Global Worker Initiative , a program that assists cross-cultural missionaries from low-income countries by covering some of their mission-specific expenses. To learn more or donate, visit SEND’s GWI page.
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