you
father in heaven we thank you lord for the missions conference and thank you god for the ability to be able to come here this morning and hear your word and we pray god that you please fill brother caleb with the spirit to be able to preach your word in jesus name we pray amen
you
David ends up going to the armies and he sees what's going on and then they tell him about what's going on with Goliath that Goliath is looking for someone to fight but the problem with Israel is that no one wants to fight Goliath and David ends up making inquiry about
the situation and then look down at verse 32 where the Bible reads and says in 1st Samuel 17 32 and David said to Saul let no man's heart fail because of him thy servant will go and fight with the Philistines so long story short what's going on is that David ends up deciding to go and fight with the Philistines and or fight with Goliath and spoiler alert he wins he beats Goliath you need to read your Bible if you haven't read what happens in this part of the story because it's a good story
he ends up winning and beating Goliath. Now from this story, because now I'm going to get to the
point of me even bringing all this up, because I know people are probably wondering, okay, what
does this have to do with missions? Well, from this story, oftentimes people, they see a problem,
but they don't want to be the ones who end up actually taking on that task or actually putting
or giving a solution. And what I mean by that is this, is that you see how the Philistines, they
knew, they know someone had to fight Goliath, but no one was willing to fight him. Even Saul, Saul was,
as the Bible said, that he was head and shoulders above all the other children of Israel. And you
would think he would be the best candidate to go fight against Goliath the giant, but he didn't
even want to do it. And it ended up being some small ruddy boy, you know, shepherd boy that was
willing to take on that challenge of fighting Goliath. So David's a prime example of someone
who's able to take initiative and do a good work of God. And we should have that same aspect in
our life. Now, the problem is, is that when it comes to missions, there's a void of people that
really want to do, that want to do real missions work. And I'm going to give an example in a second
and actually get people saved. I've been to, I used to go to old IFB churches before moving here
and attending Faithful Word Baptist Church, but oftentimes when you would have missionaries that
would come to the church and present their work, what would they do? They would often say, hey,
we're building houses, we're making roads, we're building schools, we're building, you know, all
these different things. They have all these different projects going on, but the problem is
they're not actually getting anyone saved. They're just doing all this work, but people aren't getting
saved in the process. And you'll even have people that serve as a full-time church planner or
a missionary. And what ends up happening with these people is that they, you know, they're on the field,
they have the opportunity to go and do a great work for God. But then, you know, a lot of it is
that they're lacking and they're not really actually doing anything when the rubber actually meets the
road. So I respect what missionaries do. I think missionaries, you know, they're making a lot of
sacrifice in their lives. They're leaving the creature comforts of America and going to a
foreign field where oftentimes they spend the rest of their life there trying to build churches and
serve God. So there's a lot of good missionaries out there, but then on the other hand, there's a
lot of bad missionaries out there. And what I want to do is this, is that I want to go over just a few
quick stories from missionaries I met in my life. And I am going to get to Fijian Tuvalu. It's all
just introduction. And so you can understand the state of missions in 2024. Well, and some of the
stuff I'm bringing up happened way back when, but this is the state of missions more or less in the
old IFB. So you can understand what's going on when it comes to mission work and why we have the
principle at our church of doing your own missions. And that's the point of the sermon today is that,
hey, if you can't find someone else to do it right, then you know what? You just got to do it yourself.
And that's the title of my sermon today is "Just Got to Do It Yourself." And I'm talking about doing
your own missions. Now, I was going to a church where they had a bunch of missionaries that would
come in and they would present their work. And one of the big things, and anyone who's went to an old
IFB church, you probably have heard of this, the 1040 window. And what the 1040 window is, is that
you have this part of the world where it has like two-thirds of the population in that part of the
world, but like 99% of them are Muslim. And they're saying, hey, these are an unreached people group.
And because they're an unreached people group, you know, we need to send someone to go there and
witness to them. And are you going to be that person that goes there? Well, the problem with that is,
is that Muslims are not receptive to the gospel. Second, another problem is a lot of the time in
those countries that they're saying are the 1040 window, soul winning is illegal. So it makes no
sense to go to places like that. But you'll have these missionaries get up and they'll start guilt
tripping you saying, are you going to be the one who goes, or are you going to be the one who goes,
or are you going to be the one who goes on the mission field when it's like, why am I going to go
and try to beat my head against the wall trying to reach Muslims? You know, it doesn't really make
any sense. I'm all from reaching Muslims. We've reached Muslims on previous trips, soul winning
trips that we had in Sierra Leone. We got many Muslims saved there, but we're not beating our
head against the wall going to places where it's 99% Muslim. And another principle we have is we go
soul winning or we go to places where soul winning is legal. You know, first of all,
I just mentioned that, but yeah, we go to places where soul winning is safe and legal and obviously
receptive. Now, another thing I want to bring up is that you have faith promised missions. I don't
know if anyone has heard of that. Our church really does. We don't do it, but faith promised
missions is another way that churches guilt trip you into giving your money to mission to missionaries
for works that may not be that great. And I'm going to go over a missionary that my church
supported back in the day. And you're going to, you're going to see what these missionaries are
doing and you're going to, we'll just, we'll, I'll let you be the judge after we're done with that.
But anyway, what faith promised missions is for those who don't know is that faith promised
missions is just where you have like, they have like a missions conference, similar to what we're
having now. And during the missions conference, they give you a paper and that paper has like
different amounts that you can be able that you would, you as an individual, as an individual would
donate to missions. And how that works is that for the whole week, you have all these missionaries
come up, they'll present their work, they'll tell you different stories about what's going on.
And then what they would say is that what we want to happen is that God's going to lay an amount on
your heart to donate to missions. And that once God lays this amount on your heart, you know,
it's going to be private, we're going to, we're not going to know about it. But then you're going to
write that amount down and that's the amount that you're going to give more or less above your tides
and offering to two missions for that year. So, you know, what they'll do is they'll say, hey,
it's between you and God. But then the whole time they're pressuring you saying, hey, did you turn
in your faith promised missions card? Because they did that to me a lot where I'm like, I'm,
I didn't really want to participate in it because I thought it was dumb. But they're like constantly
pressuring you to turn in your faith promised missions card. And I'm like, I don't want to do
it. But they ended up just pressuring me anyway. So anyway, but I'm getting at that is that's what
you have to deal with in a lot of old IFB churches. And again, there are a lot of great missionaries
out there who are actually doing the work of God, who are actually serving God, who are actually
doing a lot around the world. But then you have a lot of missionaries that let's just face it,
they're lacking. Now, I keep bringing this up because I want to read a few quick missionary
letters. And then again, I will get into Fiji and Tuvalu, but I just want you to understand the state
of missions so you can understand why our church participates in do your own missions or DIY
missions trips where we just end up doing our own missions because let's just face it, a lot of people
are not doing a lot of great works for God when it comes to mission. So now, this is a just to give
you some background of what's going on is that back when I was going to an old IFB church,
we had a missionary that came in pastors actually preached against him, like a long time ago,
it was a guy to Morocco. Well, he's no longer a missionary. And you'll probably see why after I
read these missions letters, but he ended up getting into real estate. So I'm not ripping on
anyone. I'm not ripping on anyone that's like, you know, that's that's currently an evangelist
or missionary or anything. This guy is not in the ministry at all anymore. And it's not because he's
just the bozo or anything. He just ended up he had some his church had some church split or whatever.
And then he ended up just going to a different like missions board. And then I don't know what
happened from there. But I just happened to be on his email list. Okay, that's why I have all the
updates. That's why I know what's going on with him. But anyway, he came to our church, and then,
you know, he presented his work. And then I signed up for his emails, because I actually like
missionaries. And I'm not just here trying to rip on missionaries. I'm just showing you that, hey,
this is what you're going to get sometimes when you're talking to missionaries. And the guy he
ended up I signed up for his missionary updates, as well as, you know, whenever other missionaries
will come in, I would sign up just to read it and see what they're doing and pray for them and stuff.
So, I didn't have any bad intentions. But then this guy is like constantly just sending out
missionary updates. And it got to the point he was sending them out like every week. And then
someone on the email list was like, hey, you're sending too many updates. So, then he sent an
email saying, hey, I'm going to send less updates now. But again, let me just give you some of these
so you'll know what's going on. So, this is dated from November 8, 2016. It says, "Dear pastor and
praying friends, just this morning, I was speaking to our security guard who watches over our
neighborhood and we exchanged greetings. I asked how he was doing and he said, 'Al hamud lila,'
praise to God, and 'al hafmed,' 1,000 praises. I've included a picture at the bottom of what
the saying looks like. Here in Morocco, it is normal to hear spiritual references to God come
up very often in daily conversations. 'God protect you. God complete goodness to you. God be merciful
to your parents. God provide for you. God help you.' Even though they talk about God often throughout
their day and pray multiple times per day, they do not know the true God. They do not know the God of
the Bible. Thank you for praying for us as we continue learning the Arabic language and that
God would help these people know the forgiveness, love, and grace that God freely offers
through Jesus Christ. Your souls in Morocco." And this guy was a missionary to Morocco and that was
the ministry update. He's telling us about different greetings that people say in a foreign
field. And this is the guy that they're forcing you to put faith promise missions and pay for him to
do, you know, work, missionary work out in Morocco. And he's literally sending you an update about how
he said hi to a security guard. I mean, it's like come on. On top of that, this is from February,
so this is two years later. You would think things may improve, but this is two years later in 2018.
He says this, "Please, dear pastor and praying friends, please pray for our brother in Christ
Simo. I just heard that his parents found out what he was doing with us. I need to talk to
talk with him to get more details. It sounds like he may have gotten kicked out of his house.
Please pray the Lord works in his family in this situation. Praise the Lord. Simo told me that he
is not afraid of his parents anymore and that they needed to find out. Please pray to God
to encourage him for his family to get saved. This past Sunday, Zakiri's friend Muhammad came back
to visit for the second time. Please pray the Lord continues to work in his heart and that he trusts
Christ as Savior. This week, our language school semester finishes and we get a little break to set
up our new home, which is closer to our language school. We are planning some outreach evangelism
activities in the area around the church. Please pray that many people hear the gospel, trust
Christ as their Savior, and get discipled in church. Thank you for your prayers. We hope you
have a great week. Your souls in North Africa." And that was his missionary letter, his missionary
update. Do you really see any work being done according to this guy? He's just telling us about
some drama that's going on in some Muslim guy's house that he got kicked out of his house. It's
like, you know, is that what you really want to be spending your money on when you're giving to
to faith promised missions or giving the churches where you're getting like really bad updates from
someone who's supposed to be a missionary? On top of that, I'm going to just read, I have a few
and I didn't even, I'm just gonna read one more just for sake of time, but I have a few and I
didn't even cherry pick these. I literally just typed in the guy's name, scrolled through some
emails, and then just clicked on it and then read it. I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna use that. And
that's how most of his things are. It's just like a whole lot of nothing. That's the easiest way to
describe what this guy is doing. He's doing a whole lot of nothing. And this is his prayer letter
from January of 2019. So this is one year later. So let's see if this guy got better.
No, I'll just give you the answer. He didn't get any better. But it says, "Dear pastor and praying
friends, we praise the Lord for all He did in 2018. God allowed us to serve in the city of Fest for
the first half of the year and the second half of the year in a new city, Tunis. Through teaching
and preaching every week, God allowed us to baptize two new believers in Fest and we're going to
baptize two more before we got banned from re-entering in July. We set up our home and
have been working hard at learning the new dialect of Arabic spoken here in North Africa.
We are learning and serving in an established church until we finish language school." And then
his goals for 2019 at the time, he says, "We are taking language classes and focusing on
learning the language well so that we can take a short furlough starting in December 2019.
Please pray for us as we learn from and serve under a veteran missionary family. As we return
from our furlough, we are looking forward to starting a new church in a needy area of this
large Muslim city where 99% of the people are Muslim. Please continue to pray for many in
North Africa to put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, your souls in North Africa."
So that was his missionary update and this is all he did. He got three bullet points for all the
stuff that he did in 2018. I think that is embarrassing. He got two people saved, which
praise God, you know, getting two people or sorry getting two people saved and baptized is a good
thing, but the guy had literally three bullet points for all the stuff he did in Morocco for
the year of 2018. Now I bring all that up because what I want to do today is preach to you about
what we did in two weeks in Fiji and Tuvalu and let's just compare what some of these missionaries
who are out in the field are doing and what our church is doing when we're doing our own DYI
missions. Now go ahead and turn with me in your Bible to Acts chapter number 13, Acts chapter
number 13. Again the sermon title today is this, you just got to do it yourself and we see that
these missionaries are not really doing a great work for God. I remember when I was, this was over
a decade ago, and I was graduating from college so then we had a missionary come to our church
and I'm talking to the missionary, he's presenting his work, and I'm like you know what since I'm
graduating from college I might as well just go and do like some short-term mission work before I
like start my career, start my life. I was single so it didn't really, at that point it didn't really
matter. So then the missionary comes, he presents his work, and then he gives us his email address.
So then I get his email address, I email him, and then I'm like hey I want to do some short-term
missions work. So then the guy ends up replying back to me, he tells me to fill out all this
information and then I fill out all the information and then explain that hey I just want to do some
short-term, I like, I liked what he was saying, I like that he was on, he was doing missions work in
a foreign field, I want to do the same thing just for a short amount of time, can I do it? He said
no, he said the only way you can do it is if you do one year of Bible college. I'm like I'm not doing
one year of Bible college so I didn't end up going on, doing any missions work with that church.
And it wasn't until Faithful Word had the missions trip to Botswana and South Africa a few years ago,
that was the first time I was actually able to get on the field and do some real missions work.
So you have all these churches, you have bad missionaries that are doing nothing for God,
but then on top of you having these bad missionaries that are doing nothing for God,
you have people that are hindering people who want to serve God and actually do real missions work
from actually going out on the field. They're putting all these borders and barriers so that
you can't even do any real missions work yourself. So that's why I believe in the mentality of you
know what, if you can't find someone else to do it then you just got to do it yourself. And I had
you turn to Acts chapter number 13. Now my first point is this and I'm just going to tie in some of
the principles from pretty much like the common sense missions, you know, ideology or teachings
that our church has where hey if you're going to go to a place let it be a place that's receptive,
let it be a place that they speak English, let soul winning be safe and legal. Just I wanted to
kind of go over those things but just show you how we use a lot of those principles in our trip to
Fiji and Tuvalu this year. Now in Mark 16 15 the Bible reason says and he said on to them go ye
into the into all the world and preach the gospel every creature. That's the great commission is that
we need to go out and preach the gospel to everyone to preach the gospel every creature and we need to
go into the world to do it. Not only that it says in Acts 13 look at verse 45 is that we want to go
to places where the people are receptive to the gospel and it says in Acts 13 45 when the Jews
saw the multitudes they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by
Paul contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary that
the word of God should be spoken should have been should have been spoken sorry should first have
been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life
lo we go we turn to the Gentiles for so had the the Lord commanded us saying I have set thee to be
a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth and when the
Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believe so we see here in this passage that the Jews weren't receptive to the
gospel so what did Paul and Barnabas do they ended up just going to the people who were receptive
which were the Gentiles and go turn with me to Matthew chapter number 10 Matthew chapter number
10 so even God makes it where hey if people don't want to listen to you and people don't have
anything to do with the gospel then go find people who do or go find people who are receptive and
don't sit there and waste time trying to talk to people who are not receptive to the gospel now it
says in Matthew chapter number 10 look at verse 11 Matthew 10 11 it says and until whatsoever city
or town ye shall enter inquire who is in who in it is worthy and thereby till ye go
thence and when ye come into a house salute it and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it
but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you and whosoever shall not receive you
nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city shake the dust off your feet
verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
judgment than for that city so Jesus is saying the same principle hey if you're going to go to a place
then let that place be a place that is receptive let that place be a place that wants to listen to the
gospel and if there's a place that is is hindering people from preaching the gospel or hindering
people from being able to listen to the gospel then don't go to that place you know shake your
feet if you go there they don't want to listen shake your feet off and go to a place that is
receptive and it's not your problem because Jesus even says that hey in in the day of judgment it's
going to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city so that city is going to be
destroyed but it's not your fault it's their fault because they don't want to listen now I bring that
up because when we choose places and when we plan different mission strips to go we choose places
that are receptive now when it comes to both Fiji and Tuvalu they're receptive for instance in
Tuvalu or in Fiji we're able to collectively get 2115 people saved in the course of about a little
bit over a week just going to Tuvalu or just Fiji alone and then Tuvalu we're able to get 207 people
saved in the course of about a week so we went to places that were really receptive and we were
talking and when it comes to the planning I was talking to someone about going to Fiji or they
actually asked me and they were this is like towards the end of 2023 so then I believe in
earlier this year so I think it was January of this year pastor Shelley ended up going to
Fiji and then when he went to Fiji him and another guy they were able to get 23 people saved in the
course of like two hours so it wasn't like or not two hours but a few hours so it was just him and
another guy they were soul winning in a city called Nandi and that's where we did some of our soul
winning but they really get 23 people saved in the course of only a few hours so to me that's
receptive if if it's two people getting that many people save in the course of a few hours not only
that pastor Sepulveda um a while back he had some people from his church they ended up going to
another place that we were soul winning at called Suva and when they went to Suva they said it was
super receptive there so because we heard these stories we saw pastor Shelley put out a video
about how receptive Fiji was we're like you know what let's do it let's go to Fiji because this
place seems like it's going to be receptive and lo and behold when we got there we found out that
it was and since we were already on that part of or in that part of the world we ended up just saying
you know what we might as well just go to Tuvalu while we're at it and we ended up making you know
killing two birds with one stone with that trip by going to both Fiji and Tuvalu at the same time
and as a result what we ended up doing was what we planned the trip around Labor Day or sorry
Memorial Day because a lot of people have Memorial Day off so it was just a lot easier to accommodate
some people's schedules that way as well as that uh the we had the plane tickets were actually cheap
during that time to go to Fiji to um around Memorial Day so it made it a lot easier for
for people end up going to go soul winning there and what our church was able to do was that the
church was able to cover the the the hotels and um the uh transportation for everyone who ended up
going on the trip that came from our church so now while just talking about Fiji let me give you some
quick fun facts about it because people are like what's Fiji or what is a Fiji and Fiji is a country
so that's that's the first thing you gotta know Fiji is not a person or or a thing it's a it's a place
it's a country and it's what's called a Melanesian country so Melanesia is just um Melanesia is
it's an area close to Australia like in Oceania so it it makes this square that if I remember
correctly it goes as far out as Papua New Guinea and then it goes as far out as like as far out
east as Papua New Guinea and then it goes as far west as Fiji so it's like this big part of the
South Pacific right by Australia on top of that they were under British rule up until 1970 and
that's when they gained their independence yes that is where Fiji water was created and no I
did not drink Fiji water while I was there because I just don't really care that much about Fiji water
now one cool thing we learned on this trip was that if you're in the U.S. you can go to or when
we were planning this trip is that you can go out to your local bank and they they before if you
want to get some cash before you go on the trip they will give you you could you could do some
exchange here in the U.S. and it's a lot cheaper than going to like a money exchanger when you get
to like the airport or in the in the foreign country that you're at and get their local currency
there so that's just a travel tip for any future missions trips is that you can just get your
currency here in the U.S. and then take that to whichever country and we did that when we were at
in Fiji now just to give you an idea of Fiji's geography it consists of 330 islands and we were
on the main island of Viti Viti Vua which is is where we did most of our soul winning at and that's
where we went soul winning in Nandi which that is where our plane landed and we did some soul winning
there and then we also went to a place called Suva and that's where we did the majority of our soul
winning when we were in Fiji and then we also on Sunday because we went to church in Latoko
we ended up doing some soul winning there so we went to those three places all on the same island
and like to me and forgive me for those who like Fiji Fiji was kind of hit or miss for me I really
wasn't super impressed with it compared to like other people I know a lot of people like Fiji but
and you know it's like the tourist destination but I just really I think because it was raining a
lot there I just wasn't really like super jazzed about it and then on top of that just the scenery
wasn't really that like breathtaking now maybe it was just where we're at maybe maybe I don't know
because we drove literally like from one part of the island all the way to the other part of the
island and there were some nice things but overall it was just like yeah I don't know and again some
people may feel different than I do but I just wasn't really that impressed with Fiji like all
the hype that people have about Fiji now in Fiji there's about 900 000 people 57 percent of them
are native there's a lot of Indians in there so there's about 33 percent Indian and then more or
less like six percent other so we actually preached to a lot of Indians and we actually got a few
Hindus saved while we were there on the trip and then at one point in time or here so in Fiji they
drive on the left side of the road so that happens in different countries that you visit but what's
a little interesting with our story is that we ended up renting a manual 15 passenger van or two
actually three manual 15 passenger vans so if anyone who knows how to drive a manual the shifter
is on the opposite side so instead of shifting on your right hand side like you do in the US
you're actually shifting with your left hand and then as well as the clutch is on the opposite side
so it was not easy for some more than others but I still thought it was fun I really enjoyed driving
that on the other side of the road and just everything's like completely backwards I thought
I was like warped in some time another dimension just because it's like oh this is cool everything's
like the opposite of the US but anyway another thing is that in Fiji they're a lot of the people
they were they used to be cannibals and I don't know exactly when they stopped being cannibals
but they weren't cannibals when we were there I could say that
but they were cannibals at one point in time and then I guess they stopped being cannibals praise
god because if they were cannibals I probably would not went that's another thing we should add to
common sense missions is don't go to a place that that you have cannibals okay that's another pro
tip don't don't go to a cannibal eating or people eating country so in Melanesia so and what it means
to be Melanesian is that you have people they're pretty much like various shades of brown or you
know black but some of those people are able to grow blonde hair so that's one thing that makes a
lot of these Melanesians Melanesian is that they are able to grow blonde hair so they'll be as black
as me and maybe even darker but then they'll have blonde hair but usually that's only when they're a
kid and then as they grow older the pigments go away because they have some specific gene that
gives them blonde hair another thing is to say hello in Fiji or in the Fijian language you say
bula so and then if you say thank if you want to say thank you you say vanaka I'm not saying either
one of those for the rest of the sermon because I was on the plane and I just got so tired of hearing
that they just like every time they talk they're just like bula bula vanaka bula vanaka bula vanaka
I'm just like all right it just it got old like it was cool the first like 20 times you heard it
and then after that it's just like all right I'm done on top of that the food was good
and we ended up going to a market while we were there and they had a lot of fruits and vegetables
so the food I would say out of all a lot of the countries I've been to so far in the South Pacific
Fiji has the best food on top of that there are many tourists from Australia and New Zealand that
end up going there the three main languages are Fijian English and Hindi and what we did before
we went on the trip is that we made some custom youtube cards that had those languages on there so
if we did speak with someone that didn't necessarily speak that great of an English or didn't speak
English at all then we would give them that card and then they would be able to to scan that card
and it'll take them to the Bible way to heaven video in that language on top of that the people
were really friendly there they had really good manners they would whenever you would talk to them
like whenever you would preach to them and they were eating they would just stop what they were
doing and then let you speak with them and then after that once you're done preaching to them the
gospel then they would bring the food out or they would start eating again so and when I was there
I felt extremely safe like it's a super safe country like hands down like you do not feel like
you're gonna die at all while you're there unlike South Africa where is he I don't see him so he's
here oh he's right there yeah unlike South Africa so anyway it's a great country and South Africa's
cool I mean as long as you have pastor Bogart there then you're good you'll be safe so you
don't have to worry about that and one big problem I do have with Fiji it was a great country I really
like Fiji I just am not too jazzed about just like I want a better scenery but other than that it was
a good country the only thing one big problem I do not like about Fiji is that in Fiji a lot of the
men wear skirts so they have these things called sulas and you'll literally I don't know if we I
gave some pictures out to that you may be able to see but you'll see a lot of us preaching the gospel
of guys in skirts and it's just some cultural thing that I think is horrible and wrong and
that they shouldn't have but that's something that's really popular in Fiji for some reasons that
a lot of the guys wear skirts there and same with Tuvalu a lot of the guys just ended up wearing
skirts in Tuvalu too I did not see that in Vanuatu so I was like praise God for that so anyway when
it comes to religion it's 64% Christianity around 30% Hindu and then seven six seven percent Islam
and so on and so forth so now for my next point is this is go to Philippians chapter number three
Philippians chapter number or sorry Philippians chapter number four Philippians chapter number
four verse three so that just gives you an idea of why we chose to go to Fiji is that it was
receptive the people are friendly it was a safe place to go it was a good place to go for soul
winning so we use that common sense principle in Fiji for that or when planning the trip to Fiji
second thing is this is that anyone can participate we were able to have 57 people show up to the
trip 33 of them were with pastors of all of this church or with his group and then we had 24 soul
winners with our group and it says in Philippians four verse three and I entreat thee also true
yoke fellow help those women which labored with me in the gospel with clement also and with other
my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life so one great thing about this trip is we had
a good turnout of both women men and then we had some children on the trip so we made this trip
open to anybody who who especially from our church that was able to make it and go now this
goes contrary to the old ife where they say you have to have a bible degree college before you
can do some short-term missions trip which I still understand you know if someone wants to serve god
just let them serve god but we're able to accommodate people and bring them on those trips so they can
have that experience of going out and getting people saved in the foreign field now turn with
me to act chapter at act chapter number 18 act chapter number 18 now while we're in fiji or what
ended up happening while we were kind of getting everything going and setting up the trip was that
someone made a pretty misleading video and what I mean by misleading was that they had a video like
while we were playing the trip we're trying to get as much participation even around the world
so we sent out an email about hey our church is going to fiji if anyone wants to participate you
know just let us know and we'll try to uh we'll give you more details and then on top of that we
had a video that was kind of and why I say it was a little bit misleading is that it was just like
the video said hey we only have a few slots left so to for people to come on this trip and if you
don't uh sign up then you know these slots are going to be filled up and you may not be able to
go well people took that as hey we're going to pay for your whole trip and they thought we're going
to pay for their plane tickets and all this other stuff when that wasn't necessarily the case and
you know that was a problem on my part because I didn't catch that I just the person sent me
the video I was just like yeah it looks good and then brother sagura's talk he said hey this video
is pretty misleading and once after he posted up he watched and he's just like this video is pretty
misleading so he's just like any emails that come in I'm sending them straight to you so I'm like
answering all these emails about like people thinking that we're paying for like like people
in different countries thinking that we're paying for their plane tickets to Fiji when that wasn't
necessarily the case we're trying to like at least just get more participation for people that you
know have that are in that area and that are able to to try to make it but what ended up happening
was this after sifting through all those emails and I got a lot of emails about that we had one
guy that was living in Papua New Guinea at the time and he saw the email or he saw the video and
his name was Rafa Rafa and he ended up saying hey I was originally born in Fiji and I see that you
guys are doing a soul-winning marathon or you're doing a missions trip there I want to join up
with you so then I eventually got in contact with him on whatsapp and then we started talking and
then he ended up confirming that he was going to be able to take some time off go to Fiji to visit
his family and then come on the trip so that's where we get into Acts chapter number 18 because
I think his story is really good and I feel like it ties in really well with the Bible character
Apollos where it says in Acts 18 verse 24 "and a certain Jew named Apollos born at Alexandria an
eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures came to Ephesus this man was instructed in the way of the
Lord and being fervent in the spirit he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord knowing
only the baptism of John and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue whom when Aquila and
Priscilla had heard they took him they took him onto them and expounded onto him the way of God
more perfectly" so this is a perfect example of kind of what happened with Rafa was that Rafa never
he was never he was saved but he never went out soul winning so then when he actually came
to Fiji and then ended up going on the trip with us and meeting us in Suva he was actually able to
go soul winning with a lot of the guys Rob ended up going I believe you went soul winning with him
either when we were in Nandi and you guys were in Suva so Rob ended up going soul winning with him
Pastor Sepulveda ended up going soul winning with him so he was able to learn how to go soul winning
as well as on the trip he ended up getting baptized while he was there so we were able to help this
guy grow in the Lord teach him the Bible help him so that he could be a lifelong soul winner and if
I remember correctly because I saw a picture of him preaching to someone towards the end of the
trip so even by the end of the trip this guy is already starting to try to preach the gospel
and I think that's another good thing with these trips is that because we have the you know do it
yourself missions mentality is that you can try to get other people who may not necessarily be
in church or serving God but they're saved and they want to be a part of these type of trips
so that they can be able to serve God better now go with me to Matthew chapter number five
Matthew chapter number five so Matthew in Matthew 5 15 when you get there what I want to just quickly
do is go over a few stories that we have of things that happen in in Fiji and just a few highlights
just because a lot happened while we were there I do want to give you a few quick things I think are
are really good but in Matthew 5 15 the Bible says or the Bible reason says neither do men hide
sorry neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth
light onto all those that are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your
good works and glorify your father which is in heaven so I bring that up not just because I'm
trying to say hey look at all the stuff we did but did while we were in Fiji but I bring that
up because I want to glorify God and just show how God can work with just a handful of people
in a foreign field where they're able to get many different people saved so again just to give you
the soul winning numbers in that week that or you know a little bit over a week while we're in
Fiji we're able to get 200 2115 people saved when we partnered up with pastor Sepulveda's group
now when it comes to the soul winners of faithful word we were able to get 750 people saved during
that time and then on the trip we're able to get two people baptized so we're able to do more in
these two weeks that we were there than a lot of missionaries do in you know a year while while
they're out on the field now one cool thing is that we were preached to a lot of big groups
while we were there for instance pastor Sepulveda he ended up preaching to a group of like 18 people
and then one like uh I don't remember exactly which day but one of the days we were there
we were able to get 500 people saved in one day with 57 soul winners I believe that was the
wednesday if I remember correctly while we were there another thing another cool thing was that
we did a lot of soul winning on what's called the university of south pacific's campus
and there I believe it was the most receptive place in Fiji just because we had a lot of people
or a lot of students that their english was good on top of their english was good they were super
receptive to the gospel it was just really easy to get get a lot of those guys saved and on top of
that you ended up winning a lot of people of christ that were just visiting Fiji but they were from
other countries just like Raymond was saying yesterday that he had some guys that we talked
to in Fiji ended up going back to Samoa that's kind of how it was at the university of south
pacific it was a big melting pot of just a lot of different people that you're able to talk to
and we had people talk to people from countries like Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and
it was extremely receptive on top of that if we weren't at the college a lot of our soul winning
ended up happening at a mall and the mall was kind of like it seemed like the big central hub of the
city so at the mall to me it wasn't that great because I didn't really have a good too many
success stories there but I know a lot of the ladies on our trip they hung out at the mall and
they were soul winning at the mall and then they got to the point that at a certain time I think
it was like two or three o'clock a lot of the school-aged kids started getting out of school
so then they were able to preach to a lot of them and get a lot of them saved on top of that even
though the mall was hit or miss for me I was able to get some government official saved while I was
there because and this guy was like low hanging fruit super receptive I started talking to him he
was just like I don't know if I'm going to heaven I'm preaching to him the gospel it's just like
everything is just clicking clicking clicking clicking it was really it was a really low hanging
fruit and then after I'm done preaching to him he's just like hey do you mind coming and preaching to
all my government friends because he was asking how long we were there for and I was just like
well unfortunately I'm not going to be able to because it was a Friday night when I was preaching
or a Friday evening when I was preaching to him and then we're leaving that next day to go back
to this was in suba we're leaving the next day to go to go to nandi so we weren't able to talk to
I wasn't going to be able to do that but I did get his contact information so if we do go back
and we happen to be in suba you know we have that opportunity to go preach to his government buddies
in in Fiji and then Pastor Sepulveda while we were there he ended up preaching an evening service
sermon and at that sermon that's where all the everyone who was on the trip so the 57 soul winners
we ended up meeting at like an Indian restaurant Pastor Sepulveda preached there and then on top
of him preaching there we ended up just spell shipping and eating really good food and so on
and so forth but while he was preaching like first of all we were singing in the the the Indian
restaurant and we were singing loud and we thought they had it closed off to everybody but that was
not the case like some just a few people started walking in and then we're still just like singing
as I mean we were the the place was I don't know if it was really shaking but that's how I felt
like just because we were singing that loud at this restaurant well come to find out one of the
people at the that was in the restaurant was the vice prime minister of Fiji so he heard the sermon
he saw us singing so I thought that was cool that that guy ended up coming in and just at least
seeing how Christians do you know how Christians do it right or Baptists do it amen now several
people ended up on this trip they ended up getting Hindu saved they got Buddhist saved they got Muslim
saved Rob talked to some demon possessed guy but the the like some demon possessed guy was trying
to like not let Rob talk to someone and then Rob I guess his partner your your soul winning partner
was able to deflect the guy so the guy the person you were talking to was able to get saved and then
again we went soul winning in three different places the majority of the time we're in Suva
so that was for probably about four or five of the days but we did do some soul winning in Nandi and
then we also did some soul winning in Latoka and I'll go over that in a little bit and one cool thing
was Miss Jennifer Johnson she went to Fiji and then she ended up getting a guy from Eloy Arizona
saved so I thought that was cool so she leaves Arizona to go across the world and then she's
able to get someone saved that lives here in Arizona so I thought that was cool but and then
on top of that we ended up going to like just different bus stops and stuff and getting a lot
of people saved there like the bus stops seem to be super receptive there for some reason like
we went there the first day we arrived so it was me Heather Michelle and someone else and we ended
up going soul winning at like a little bus station and within two hours we ended up getting 16 people
saved in two hours just the four of us and then the neck the rest of the team they arrived the next
day and I was telling people like so half of the group ended up just going straight to Suva as soon
as they got there I mean there was we're on Fijian time so they had to wait a little bit but anyway
they ended up going straight to Suva and then you had another group that was in my van and I said
hey anyone who wants to go soul winning before we go to Suva you guys because I know they pretty
much we to Fiji it's a red-eye flight so it's like you you leave LAX at like almost one in the morning
and then you get to Fiji at like two days later at five in the morning or five almost six in the
morning so it's a red-eye flight some people can't sleep on planes I sleep like a baby on a plane I
have no issues sleeping on planes at all but some people do so that's why I gave some people the
opportunity of going straight to Suva so that and you know not doing any soul winning but I'm like
hey anyone who is able to sleep on a plane or who wants to go soul winning then they're able to go
so anyway they can go with my group and then we would go to Suva later on well anyway I was telling
people that because it was really early in the morning this is like by the time we kind of got
settled down it was like eight in the morning and the first group that was going straight to Suva
already left and I took everyone back to our hotel I'm just like hey if you just want to rest and
relax and then we can go soul winning at like you know 10 30 or something at a more reasonable time
you can but the thing is I like leave for a second because I had to drop off uh some people
somewhere and then I come back and like everyone's gone and I'm like I don't know where everyone's at
so then this is I'll leave them alone because the people know who I'm talking about but anyway
but uh so then I leave and then I come back and then they're all gone so I'm like what happened
everybody so then I start like driving around trying to see where everyone's at and they're
literally like down the street at a bus stop and they're just like preaching the gospel this is
like eight thirty in the morning and they're just preaching the gospel all these people I'm like I'm
like hey you guys know you don't have to do that but I guess you know these are super soul winners
where even at eight thirty in the morning they still want to go soul I'm like hey more power to
you so they ended up doing that and I don't remember exactly how much we got saved but we
got a lot I think we if I remember correctly it was like by the time we were done and we ended
up heading back to Suva we got like 40 people saved so it was a pretty good good morning for us
that day now the last thing I want to bring up for Fiji just because I'm kind of going in order
chronological order of what happened and then I'll go into Tuvalu and then shouldn't take too long
with Tuvalu but uh turned me to Romans chapter number eight Romans chapter number eight so
while we were there we ended up visiting another church and um or visiting a church in the country
and uh I didn't really know exactly what we're going to do for church I was debating on whether
or not we want to have our own service or we want to just go to another church like visit a church
and more or less be a blessing to that church to see how it is see if it's a good church that we
can recommend people to well anyway I didn't know exactly how we're going to do it and on Saturday
we were soul winning in the mall area and that Saturday was when we were going to head back from
Suva back to back up to Nandi to to be able to because we we were gonna everyone was leaving
everyone's flight left from Nandi back to the U.S. so we ended up just leaving Suva on Saturday
because everyone's flight was leaving Monday night so so that they can be able to you know we can
have enough time for people to get settled down in Nandi so we wouldn't be too far from the hotel
instead of like rushing down to Suva from Suva to Nandi because it was like a three and a half four
hour drive to Nandi so we didn't want people having to rush to catch their flight and stuff
so I said hey let's just leave on Saturday and then we get to Suva spend the night in Suva for
the next two days and then everyone else everyone who's leaving to go to Fiji or go back to the U.S.
from Fiji they'll be able to leave on Monday well anyway while we're so that morning that Saturday
morning we ended up doing like three hours of soul winning and while we're soul winning
Alex is talking to a guy and let me read the verse and then I'll explain what's going on let's let's
just we'll go for Bible first then I'll explain what's going on but in Romans I don't want to get
too ahead of myself but in Romans 826 the Bible says likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make it intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the
mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the the saints according to the will of God
and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are called
according to his purpose now I bring that up is that when you love God a lot of things are going
to happen that you're going to be like hey I'm surprised this happened so anyway and this is
where I wanted to get into was that while Alex was soul winning he's talking to a guy and coming to
find out it was a guy and a husband and a wife and come to find out the guy was a pastor of a church
now he was a he was newly ordained to be the pastor of a church called solid rock baptist
church and it was in a different town but he was saying that his sending church was in a place
called Latoka and the guy was saved he gave when Alex talked to him he gave all the right answers
about salvation so we were like well maybe we should just go to church there and uh once we go
back to nandi so we looked it up and it was only like a 40 minute ride from our hotel to that
church so we're like you know what let's just do it so I think God was able to work it out in that
circumstance that you know Alex just happened to talk to a guy that happened to be at that mall
that happened to be in suva that had a church that was actually close to where we were at
and we were able to go to that church and the service like on on like on that sunday the guy
the the pastor seemed like a nice guy I do think he may have been possibly dispensationalist because
on his he had a wall and it had like the seven dispensations or no sorry I had the seven church
ages so I don't know if he we didn't ask questions we just went so you know my thing is sometimes
it's just like best not to know just hopefully the guy's like a good guy so I didn't ask too many
questions but he did preach against he kind of was like like while he was preaching and he preached
a good a pretty good sermon he just was preaching that salvation was by faith so he had a lot of
things right and he was even saying that you know the jews have to get saved just like anyone else
so to this day I don't know exactly where he stands on uh dispensationalism and I don't really care
either because I don't know the next time I visit church but I hope he's a good guy you know what
I'm saying so anyway we ended up going to that church the church was a good service and then
after we ended up going to that church we ended up um um going soul winning at a mall that was in the
area and I don't remember the exact number of how many people we got saved but uh it was
decently receptive while we were there one funny thing that happened I mean it may not be that
funny but anyway one thing that happened to me while I was there was that I'm preaching the gospel
to this lady and then next thing I know like all these people just start running up to one another
and then they start fighting now I thought someone got shot so then I was like thinking about running
while I was preaching like also to a lady but I was just like wait no one else is running so
maybe no one else got shot so then coming to find out I guess these guys are just fighting and then
you know that was kind of it but that was like the only time I've seen something like that happen in
Fiji so I was actually surprised because I was just like Fiji is supposed to be this such a nice
country but like because they're super friendly there but I'm like really surprised to see that
you know these guys just fighting for no reason or whatever but anyway so that kind of sums up
everything we did in in Fiji so after we went to church I left that Monday to go to Tuvalu and then
the rest of the guys who were leaving to go back to the U.S. they ended up staying so on the last
day that they were there there was eight soul winners and they were able to get 112 people saved
you know for that day the day that they left to go back to the U.S. so I thought that was a really
great accomplishment so that's it for Fiji that's kind of everything that happened there's a lot
more stories that we can tell but I want to kind of jump into Tuvalu because I think some of the
things that happened in Tuvalu are really really cool too while we were there so now just to explain
what was going on in Tuvalu was that in Tuvalu Tuvalu's like it's like a two and a half hour
flight north to get to Tuvalu from Fiji and while we're in so what ended up happening is like while
we're planning the trip they ended up canceling our flights to Tuvalu so we thought we're gonna
get there on a Saturday but then come to find out we ended up they canceled that Saturday flight so
then we had to rearrange a bunch of stuff so we ended up leave having some guys leave to Tuvalu
on a Thursday and then I just stick stayed with the rest of the group and then I left to go to
Tuvalu that following Monday so while I was still in Fiji we already had some people doing some
soul winning in Tuvalu and the cool thing about the soul winning in Tuvalu was that it was receptive
there too I know Rob had a really good time out soul winning when when we were in Tuvalu
and a lot of the other people that were on that trip trip had a really good time so I didn't know
all this was going on but we did have a whatsapp group and they told us kind of like kind of how
kind of just to tell us like more or less what they gave us a briefing on what was going on in
Tuvalu so I kind of had an idea but I wasn't fully aware but what ended up happening was that in
Tuvalu they ended up that Sunday they ended up visiting a Baptist church and this Baptist church
was a pretty good Baptist church I enjoyed that church a lot when I was there in Tuvalu because
they gave when I was there they gave me the opportunity to preach twice there but what's
funny is Quinn from our church he was talking to me about when he found out we were going to Tuvalu
he started talking to me and he was like hey I heard you're going to Tuvalu and there's a pastor
I knew back in um I believe in Iowa and the guy's name I think was Steve Larson or a missionary I
think his name was Steve Larson and he said that he was supposed to be a pastor in Tuvalu so he was
just like hey if you go there or when you go to Tuvalu try to find that church and if you can find
that church just let me know so I was just like yeah I'll do it so when we get to Tuvalu come to
find out the pastor or that guy that Quinn was talking about was actually there and it was the
only Baptist church on the island but the problem was was that during COVID he ended up leaving he
ended up going back to the U.S. and then the people of that church just kind of ended up taking
like the locals ended up taking over that church and then um running it so by the time we got there
they were you know it was the locals running the church so um that just kind of gives you an idea
of what was going on prior to me getting there so when I got there then you know the fun really
started right the party really happened I'm just joking but I do want to stop right there um just
to say some fun facts about Tuvalu because I'll be honest prior to earlier this year I didn't even
know Tuvalu existed so I do want to just at least talk about I like to give a little fun facts for
you nerds out there that like those type of things so you understand what Tuvalu is all about but
Tuvalu it means eight standing together that's what the word means and why it means that is
because Tuvalu consists of eight islands uh it's a Polynesian island so Fiji and Vanuatu they're
Melanesian islands but we want to but Tuvalu is actually part of Polynesia and Polynesia is a
stretch from like Tuvalu to Hawaii and then to the eastern island so it makes like this triangle
so it's still in that south pacific area but it's just more or less uh different people group that's
that's there so it has a population of about 12 000 people and it makes that's make that makes it
the third smallest country in the world and then on top of that it's made up of six coral reef atolls
which those are just kind of like things standing outside of the water and then uh the inhabited
islands are three coral reef islands and that's where we we were at so the capital is Funafuti
and that's where we did most of our soul hunting at um there's not a lot of when I was when I
actually arrived there there's not a lot of people that's just like you know how I at in other
countries you have like just parks where you just have tons and tons of people just congregated
there it wasn't like that inside of Tuvalu you really other than whenever an airplane land
landed and you know people are picking up or getting their friends and family from the airport
and stuff you didn't really have just like these big pockets of people congregating so when I was
there and I know with some of the other guys in the group we ended up just doing some we did a
mix of just hey talk to anybody you see on the street and then on top of talking to anyone you
see on the street doing some door-to-door soul winning and then later on towards the end of
the trip we ended up going to some schools to do some soul winning there now one interesting thing
about Tuvalu is that there's only five miles of paved roads so it's a really really small island
they let you rent motorcycles there so I ended up renting a motorcycle and I ended up just driving
across the whole island it takes like 40 minutes to drive like from one end of the island to the
other so it was pretty cool and when it comes to renting the motorcycle they don't ask any questions
and I thought that was like like literally they don't ask any questions the only question they
asked was what's your name and what hotel are you staying at and that was it they didn't take my
license they didn't do anything they just gave me I'm like do you need any more information the guy
was like nope and I was just like all right and I just got on the motorcycle revved it up and then
drove just because I'm like okay whatever because I guess they're really trusting there and then
everybody knows since it's such a small island everyone knows everyone there so it wasn't like
that big of a deal now another interesting thing there's only one hotel on the island
and on top of that there only being one hotel there's three guest house houses so there's not
really a lot of people there on the island on top of that for you conspiracy theorists out there that
are scared of the cashless society in tuvalu they only take cash so that's one thing about that is
that they only take cash but the problem is there's no atm so I don't know how you're going to do it
but they do have a bank that does exchange money so it's not that big of a deal on top of that it
is a really poor country so you don't get a lot of creature comforts that you get in the us like for
instance the showers had they were not there was no hot water and a lot of the water that you use
in tuvalu is just rain water so they just reuse a lot of rain water um on top of that they only
have one national tv channel no national newspaper one radio station and one fully functional
hospital so again it's a really really poor country and how they make a lot of their money
is through internet royalties because they have domain rights to the dot tv domain of a url so
that's how they make a lot of their money as well as they let people from other countries come in
and fish so I saw lots of animals outside the island because we went to on one of the
the I guess more or less wreck days we ended up visiting a few different islands so I was able
to see a lot of just animals I'm surprised that exists in the wild but I was able to see sharks
just there's like these sharks they're about that big they're called uh um black tip tip reef sharks
so I saw several of those I saw some flounders so I saw a lot of animals and then they have a
lot of stray dogs there so raymond would not like it if he was in tuvalu because they have a lot of
stray dogs but the cool thing about is the dogs are like super chill they do not bother people
at all like I went to go check out the beach and then I saw a dog literally just like go into the
water and then it went swimming for a little bit and then it just like got out of the water shook
itself off and then like started laying on the beach and it did that for like the rest of the
time I was on the beach just chilling I was just like all right man more power to you um on top of
that in tuvalu they only take they take tuvaluan dollars and then they also take um australian
dollars so we don't know how to get tuvaluan dollars but we were able to get australian
dollars and that's how we're able to function while we're on the trip they also let you they
drive on the left side of the road so similar to fiji and then the two main languages are tuvaluan
and uh english and then technically they're still part of like the british colonies because I don't
think they have their independence yet but they deal with everything all the stuff locally and
on top of that you have chiefs on the island that kind of dictate what people could do to a certain
extent sent there and then one very interesting thing was that there I don't so I don't remember
seeing any cemeteries so I do not believe there are any cemeteries there in tuvalu so how they do
it is that in front of buildings you'll have like a coffin in front of the house or in front of a
building so like where our hotel was at you had like you had like a coffin and I guess that's
where they put their dead you know relatives there so you know grandma was always watching you
literally wherever you're at so and what you would see people do is it's like it's really weird but
they would start they would either lay and sleep on these coffins or if they're not laying and
sleeping on the coffins they're like I like I remember seeing one lady just crying on it she's
like sleeping on it and crying on and sleeping on it so I'm just like okay I mean whatever so
anyway that just gives you an idea of tuvalu and one another thing is that when it comes to religion
it's 94 percent christian so the biggest church is called the church of tuvalu and their calvinist
I ran into a few of the people that go to that church while I was there it seemed like some
people were saved some people are not it just depended on who you talked to and then but you
know the majority of of tuvalu is christian and they have a few other religions or people are
not religious at all so like two percents like baha faith and then the rest is either other or
no religion so we did see as much as it stinks is that we did see all your cults on tuvalu for it
to be such a small island there was still there was a bunch of seven day eventus mormons and sdas
because uh sorry and joe and joeva's witnesses on the island so you had both of those or all three
of those cults had buildings on the island and I didn't really see any mormons but I know they had
a building on that island so you know that's kind of a bummer that even a small country like that
you still have uh false religions trying to infiltrate that so getting back to the story
when I got to um Fiji or sorry when I left Fiji and got to tuvalu I ended up going so winning as
soon as I got there so I got to Fiji roughly at like new so the airport and the hotel we stayed
at are literally from where this pulpit is at to that wall where the clock is at that's how close
they are so I literally got off the flight went through immigration and then just walked straight
to my hotel room put my stuff down and then ended up going straight uh going soul winning as soon
as I got there and when I went soul winning I liked it a little bit better than um Fiji for the
for the reason that in Fiji a lot of people I talked to they would kind of string you along
whenever you would try to preach to them the gospel some people it happened more than others
like I know for instance Nick told me some that happened to him every now and then Alex seemed
like he had more success where that didn't have happened that much but I would literally give
the gospel to someone and I would spend you know 15 20 minutes talking to someone trying to give
them the gospel and they would um they would seem like they're agreeing they would they would give
you all the right answers but at the end you kind of just ask them some more questions you say hey
what does it take to be saved and they'll just give you all the wrong answers again you're just
like am I doing something wrong but it's either that they just really didn't care what you had
to say they're kind of string you along or they just really didn't understand so that was the
problem in Tuvalu what I liked was and another thing in Fiji they it was hard for people to say
no and I think that was one reason why people would just listen to the gospel even though they
didn't believe it and in Tuvalu it was a different story in Tuvalu if someone didn't want to listen
to the gospel they'll just tell you no I'm not interested I don't want to listen and I actually
liked that a little bit more just because at least the person's up straight it's like hey I'm not
gonna waste your time you're not gonna waste my time it's a mutual agreement there and in Tuvalu
was like that Fiji I guess it was hit or miss miss with that um but when I got there um it was a
little rough at the beginning when I was going soul winning because I saw Rob's post in our other
whatsapp group and it seems like he was having a bunch of success anyone who seen some of Rob's
Facebook posts you know he was taking pictures of all these kids and you know it seemed like
he was having a good time but it was kind of rough for me at the beginning but then um after
that I ended up getting my like within maybe an hour hour and a half I was able to get my first
the first person save and another thing there is that I ended up going door to door soul winning
just because I couldn't find any real people on the road but what was kind of weird about
Tuvalu was that you'll knock on a door and either the door would already be open or people if it's
already open then what you'll do is you'll see people just laying on the floor because I guess
they didn't have any furniture there a lot of time because it's such a poor country so you'll
just see people literally laying on the floor I thought some people were dead at the time like
I was just like man is this guy dead I was like man I guess I caught you at a bad time
but I literally thought some people were dead but I was just like oh they're sleeping so then
that made sense I was just like okay so now I'd either knock louder or try to get their attention
but that's happened to the first guy I was preaching to was that he was just laying on the
floor knocked on his door kind of got him I woke him up and then I ended up preaching to him and he
was super receptive his English was great and he ended up getting saved and even there the English
was not bad like for there are some people who spoke English better than others I didn't have a
lot of success with kids it seemed like kids didn't speak English that well like kids under 10 but
kids above 10 their English was great like you can preach to a bunch of kids they were able to
get saved so another thing was this is that I had the opportunity to preach at the church that they
visited it was called Grace Bible Baptist Church and that's in Tuvalu and what ended up happening
was this is when I landed and we started talking they're like hey Caleb we want you know the church
wants us to preach on Tuesday night and I was just like okay and they're like we want you to
preach I'm like me to preach and at this time I was sick like the whole trip I was sick and like
I had that uh everlasting cough like where I just could not stop coughing it sounded like you know
a bunch of bullfrogs like mating that's how bad my cough was and I was just constantly coughing
and then it got to the point because we were singing at church um the day before I was singing
so loud I was losing my voice so by the time I got to feed or a to Tuvalu my voice was pretty
much just completely shot so I'm like I don't know if I want to preach just because I can't
I'm not feeling that great great and then my voice isn't really there but then I just decided to
preach anyway so that Tuesday night I ended up preaching at the church and what they like the
group that was already there they kind of told me what was going on they said the church wasn't
doing a lot of soul winning so they said it would be good to preach a message that like kind of
motivates them to go souling because they said their idea of soul winning was that they would
pass out tracts and they would only give tracts to people who wanted them so if someone didn't
want a track they wouldn't even give it to them and on top of that you know they weren't really
bold in how they preach so then I just preached a sermon about confrontational evangelism so I just
showed them why we do confrontational evangelism why we present the gospel the way we do where we
ask people if they know for sure they're going to heaven and if they're not sure then we preach to
them the gospel and then hopefully that person's able to get saved so I was able to do that or
able to preach that sermon just show people show them you know what you know our method of soul
winning and how it works so then after I was done preaching rob he ended up him and someone else
they ended up doing a soul winning presentation just so that they can understand how to preach
the gospel so then the next so after the service was done I ended up saying I asked the congregation
I was just like hey we're going to be soul winning all day tomorrow so if any of you guys want to
join up with us you know feel free to so a lot of the guys said hey we have to work we don't get off
at five but we do want you guys to come back tomorrow for their midweek service on Wednesday
and preach so I was just like um okay so then they're asking us if we can preach again so I was
just like yeah you know that would be great so they but we did have one of the people from the
church actually go out soul winning with us after you know that that wednesday morning I guess they
they heard that we were soul winning they got in contact with us and then they said hey you know
what I'm willing to go out with you guys for a few hours to go soul winning to see how you guys do
it so we took one of the church members out soul winning she was able to see how how we do our soul
winning and we were able to be a blessing to her um in that way so that she could be able to preach
the gospel there because the thing is is Tuvalu is small and you can talk to a lot of people
in a short amount of time it's only 12 000 people so I believe if someone just spent a few months in
Tuvalu you can probably get that whole country reached with osval in a really short amount of
time I don't think it would take it it would take that long well anyway so when it comes to
the preaching on the Wednesday night I decided I was just like you know what I wanted to give some
of the guys the opportunity to preach just so you can know that hey if you visit a different church
then or sorry if you go and do missions trips or missions work outside of uh you know you go to
another country do missions work there may be chances or times where you're going to have to
get in front of a church and preach to them so and you're not going to know when that's going to
happen but sometimes they'll just you go visit a church and they're like hey oh you're a missionary
hey come and preach for us and they'll just do that so I said I just want to give the guys who
are on the trip the opportunity to preach since that happened to me like the day before that I
didn't know I was going to preach and I ended up having to preach so I just said this I said my
rule and I think this is this lines up with the church rule is like if you're going to preach at
someone else's church do not preach stuff that's contrary to their beliefs so even if the church is
pre-trib don't preach a sermon about the pre-trib rapture or you know a sermon against the pre-trib
rapture you know it's their church respect their church so so just preach a normal message that has
nothing to do with whatever doctrines we disagree with that was kind of my rule and that's what I
told them so anyway Rob ended up preaching that Wednesday night and he preached about soul winning
I preached the sermon just about how a church should look like and I was just trying to encourage
the people of the church so they understand that you know just different like what we do at our
church and you know how we believe a lot of stuff we do at our church is biblical such as like
congregational singing you know church discipline things like that so I just explained those things
in the sermon just so they can understand you know what is a biblical church and what a biblical
church looks like that they have hard preaching against sin and so on and so forth now the last
thing I want to bring up is this and that's you know that's kind of the gist of that so we ended
up going soul winning on on on Wednesday and then we went to the we preached on Wednesday night and
then Thursday was the day we left so I just want to wrap up what happened on the last day and then
we'll be done so go with me to Acts chapter number 28 Acts chapter number 28 so one thing I really
liked about Tuvalu and this just kind of wraps it up in a nutshell is that in Tuvalu they give you
the you have the freedom to preach the gospel no one is going to stop you from preaching the gospel
except for one guy and I'll get to that but but literally one guy is the only one that's going to
stop you from preaching the gospel I'm not joking about that there's only one guy so the Bible
reads in Acts 28 verse 30 it says and Paul dwelt two two whole years in his high own hired house
and received all that came in onto him preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things
which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him so towards the
end of Paul's life he had the opportunity of being able to preach to different people
you know and no man's stopping from preaching well anyway we had the same thing happen to us
where Rob he ended up while we're on the trip he ended up preaching to some three kids and then
the group grew larger and larger and larger so then a police while Rob is preaching to these kids
a police officer comes up to him he's like hey excuse me he's like can you move these kids off
the road and move them on to the sidewalk because it's safer there so the guy was really nice he
just was like hey I don't want the kids in the road but you can still preach to him another thing
was that the last day the Wednesday the Wednesday we were there before we left we ended up going
soul-winning at a school and I said this like we got there roughly like 9 30 10 o'clock and kids
were still going into class and I said my rule about when kids are going to class I just said
I've been to other countries other countries take education serious so I said hey for right now
until the kids actually get out of class and they're on their own I said why don't let's just not
preach to any kids let them go to class first and then we'll wait a few hours once they get out of
class then we'll preach to them because I know adults get really mad especially in other countries
when you stop kids from like getting their education or whatever so I said that and did
anyone listen to me some people did but not everyone listened to me so as soon as I said that
we dispersed and we started going soul-winning and then you had people talking to kids even though
I said don't talk to any of the kids right now because I know you're gonna get rebuked for it by
one of the adults well lo and behold exactly what I said happened so someone's preaching to some of
the kids and then an adult comes up to them and tells them hey you can't preach to the kids right
now but once they get out of school then you can preach to them so we were still able to preach
to the kids it was just that don't preach to them while they're in class and on top of that we ended
up getting the opportunity to preach to that school the day we left so we left on a Thursday
and we worked out some stuff to be able to preach in some of the classes so three of the guys that
were on the trip or three of the men that were on the trip we ended up preaching in in the classrooms
to a lot of the students on top of that there was another time where this is when I first landed
and then I was soul-winning and when it came to Rob and Tuvalu you never knew where Rob was at
the only way you can figure out where Rob was at is if you check Facebook and he would like post
like pictures of what was going on you're like oh I know where Rob's at now that's how you would
figure out Rob where Rob is at you would not know where he's at just because he would disappear
and then he would just show up on Facebook but anyway I was I was out I was soul-winning and
then I ended up running out of materials so then I'm walking back to the hotel and then I see Rob
preaching to some kids so then I'm like waiting while Rob is preaching to the kids so then this
lady ends up calling me over and she's just like hey come here come here I want to talk to you I'm
like oh man because you know in the U.S. if you're talking to little kids people are gonna get really
mad at you and the kids are just outside like just walking or playing whatever but I'm like oh she's
gonna you know she's gonna get on this for this so then I start talking to the lady and then she's
just like oh is he with you I'm like yeah he's with me and then she's just like oh I'm so thankful
that he's preaching to them right now and then I was just like huh and she was just like yeah I'm
so thankful that he's preaching to them because a lot of the parents don't preach to the kids here
in Tuvalu so then I'm glad that he's taking the time to preach to them about Jesus Christ
so then I talked to a lady come to find out she was already saved and she wasn't stopping us from
preaching the gospel she was happy that we were preaching the gospel to the people and to the kids
in Tuvalu now last thing I want to bring up is just that we had some opposition while we were there
now I was gonna go over a story but I feel like I'm uh I don't want to take too much time but
um like go go over the Bible story but I'll just skip to the story with that but while we're in
Tuvalu we were soul winning at a school and then some guy ends up uh following us to different
places while we were soul winning so we were soul winning roughly at like an elementary slash
middle school and this guy ends up coming up to us and saying hey you guys shouldn't be preaching
here and then we're like we have permission from the school to preach here because this was after
the kids got out of class and the administrator said we can preach there you know they told two
different people that that we can preach there with no problem so the guy was just being a a jerk
trying to get us to stop preaching so then anyway the kids a lot of the the elementary school students
ended up leaving so now we went to a high school and then we started preaching to the high school
student well the same bozo ended up coming and following us to the high school and then I literally
just finished preaching the gospel like five high school students and then once uh we were done the
guy just comes up to us and then he just tells me he's just like you need to go to Papua New Guinea
I was just like yeah we're planning on that soon that's what I literally told him and then he was
just like because I don't want you here in Tuvalu I was just like okay I was just like okay I was
just like so the guy was just like yeah I don't want I don't like that you guys are here you need
to go take this your stuff somewhere else so I was just like are you a Christian I asked him I was
like are you a Christian he was just like yeah I'm a Christian so I'm like so what's the deal so he's
just like yeah I just don't want you guys here so then I literally just finished preaching to those
students and then I turned to them I'm like hey I don't want you guys to be rude to an adult but I
was just like before I got here did you guys know if you're going to heaven and then the kids were
like no I said after I talked to you now do you know for sure you're going to heaven and then
they were like yes I was like if I did not come here and preach to you where would you have known
that you were going to heaven or where would you be going and they were like hell so I was just like
okay so I turned back to the guy I'm like so it seems like there are people here in Tuvalu that
don't know the gospel that want to get saved and you're sitting there telling me to go to another
country I'm like dude you're making no sense so then the guy just yaps off at me and then walks
away so it's just like come on you know but anywhere you go you're always going to have weird
people like that that just want to give you trouble when you're out so when you're doing a good work
for god so anyway that's our story with Tuvalu after we went soul winning there on the Thursday
we went soul winning Thursday morning got on the airplane went back to Fiji and then flew back to
the U.S. so it was a really good trip again we had 200 in Tuvalu we ended up having 207 people saved
and we want to go there again like I would love to go back to Tuvalu just especially to see
because we had such great fellowship at the church I wanted to be able to see what that church is
doing so as a conclusion just to wrap everything up is this I know the sermon was long so
and I didn't even get to every story so I'm glad you guys bore with me but I just wanted to help
you understand what a successful mission trip looks like and that I believe this trip that we went to
Fiji and Tuvalu was a successful mission trip it went pretty smooth we had some hiccups on the way
and while we were there we had a few hiccups but it was nothing that was too major that you know
we couldn't deal with but I'm glad we took this trip there it was a great trip super receptive
the people were great and you can just see how just the principles of common sense missions
goes with do it yourself missions you know you go to a place where you know the language
so it's easier to preach to people who are receptive you go to a place that's receptive
safe and legal so that you'll enjoy the soul winning and that you're not going to be hindered
for preaching the gospel and then you know with do it dyi missions you have the opportunity of
going anywhere you choose that fits that criteria and you can be able to go preach the gospel there
and have a great time doing it so this is you know with the choice or with do it yourself missions
then you have the choice of where you want to go as long as you follow the right principles to do
a great work of god so let's pray lord I thank you for all you've done thank you for giving us
the opportunity to go to Fiji and Tuvalu earlier this year to be able to serve you and do a great
work I just pray that you can help continue to let us have more and more missions trips and that
you continue to bless our lives as we serve you I thank you for all you've done lord and I pray you
in Jesus name I pray amen all right we're gonna go and get the song but we'll be dismissed now
if you didn't catch the announcement earlier there's a
song that's coming up in the next few minutes so I'm gonna play it for you guys so you can hear it.
you