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1:32So, when Jesus gives this gospel commission, he gives it to a community, a community of believers, the disciples. And what distinguished these disciples is that they went to the place where Jesus had told them to go, simple obedience. That's basically what a disciple is, and that's what set apart these disciples. They were at the place where Jesus commanded them to be. And that's what a disciple is: someone who listens, someone who learns from Jesus, someone who takes in what he says and obeys him. That's what a disciple is, and that's the commission is to make disciples. Wholehearted obedience to Christ.

2:20Thought this morning as we're working through Revelation 3 in the church at Ephesus, or Revelation 2, the church of Ephesus. How is it that a work that Christ loves is any kind of work that springs out of a heart of delight in Him and devotion to Him? And then you go and live your life. Wholehearted obedience, delight in Him. Well, that's what the disciples came to be. And this is in turn the kind of Disciples they were to make.

3:03And so when they saw him, they worshipped him. That first generation of believers, that first community were Jesus worshipers. They worshiped him. The object is right. The New American standard, when they saw him, they worshiped him. Some were doubtful. And what's being communicated there, the word they were, it's the idea. The only other time this word is used is speaking in Matthew 14 when Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus. But then after a little while, he began to sink. As long as he had his eyes on Christ, he walked on water to go to Jesus. But then he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. And at that point, Jesus reached forth and pulled him and said, O you of little faith. That's the same word here. The idea is not that there's a lack of faith, but even those that first generation were still not unhinged to worship Jesus in an unrestrained manner. Some of them were doubtful. By the way, if Scripture was a fabrication, it would never have put this line in there.

4:26They had faith and all did worship him. Matthew says, and Jesus came up to them and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven on earth. Heaven on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. In a moment, I want to call John up here to give a report, and then I'm going to call Daniel, or then Daniel's going to come up and give a report, and then I'm going to come back up here and talk a little more about this. But part of the main philosophy that we have here at Emmanuel is to go and to be part of that enterprise of making disciples. And one of the key aspects of making disciples, that's the imperative, that's the command, make disciples. You need to be going, and you need to be baptizing, and you need to be teaching them. You need to be teaching them all that to observe all that I commanded you. And so there must be an aspect of teaching. Going and being involved in that teaching enterprise. If there is no teaching enterprise in the context of a local church, we don't go.

5:51And that's not because there's not a whole bunch of other good ministries out there doing great works. It's just we have limited resources, limited time. And the Commission is very clearly on being part of that teaching enterprise. And so where we go and when we go involves several things. Number one, we want to support local churches, Indigenous churches. We want to be involved in those ministries that really are raising up Indigenous pastors, Indigenous leaders, and are really doing it. Number two, we go where we go underneath the leadership of those local pastors.

6:42I think there can be a lot of arrogance in American missions. Sometimes we go thinking we know exactly what that country needs, we know exactly what they need to hear, and we come in and meaning well, I'm not saying that this, but sometimes there can be an inadvertent American arrogance. We know exactly what you need and when you need it and how we're going to do it, and Pastor, we need you to support the effort that we want to do. I think that's a little bit backwards. I think if we're going to support local churches and certainly help raise up Indigenous leadership, we must do everything we can on our side to come underneath those leaders and strengthen them and truly come under their leadership. What do you really need?

7:33How can we best serve? And so we go where there's an emphasis upon teaching, training, discipling, and raising up leaders. Second, we go to those where there's indigenous pastors that are leading. As you'll see in a moment, we went, spend a lot in Honduras at Batanya Baptist, founded by Southern Baptist mission movements back in the 70s and beyond, and part of that whole mission movement. Third, we go where we're invited. We go where we're invited, and that we have so many invitations, so many places to go, and so little time. And with the little resources we have at Emmanuel, that's what we do. And so we can talk a little bit more about this here in just a moment, but that'll give you a little bit of a context. Now, as you'll see on here, we're involved in building projects, we're involved in medical missions, we're involved in giving out gifts, shoebox donations to a community to bring people in. We're involved in all of those aspects, but we're involved in the context underneath the leadership of a local church in the context of raising up the next generation of leadership. But we have opportunity. To serve in all manner of ways.

9:06And so, anyway, that's just a little bit of a preamble. And, John, why don't you come up, share a little bit of what we do, and then Daniel will come, and then I will close out with a few more thoughts. This project was a tough one, just because it was, I think, the biggest undertaking we've had, just because of all the construction, just the added intricacies of trying to pull the roof and all the stuff that we were doing.

9:54First day, after the first day of work, I went into the middle of the room that we were replacing the roof on. I just look up. There's no roof. And I was kind of blown away that we broke through a roof and destroyed a lot of the root. So that was definitely a highlight. It's kind of interesting. I've worked in third world countries before, but realizing how much they work with what they have, because we literally showed up, they said, here's what we have to build with, and we built tresses out of rebar and just angle and whatever they had and made it work. So that was kind of new to me.

10:58I was amazed that, you know, how God answered prayer. Y'all didn't know that big metal beam was there. So that was a great answer to prayer. The Lord provided just like he always does. And so I think this time I had fewer misgivings about the project itself. There's always a day or two in. I always feel like we've getting off more than we can chew. And this time I still felt like that, but then I very quickly realized that the Lord always provides a way. So sure enough, we were able to get it done by his providence. So it's good.

11:34Ah, the lonely welder. Sitting in the corner, waiting for something to weld. Your praises and your name to every nation, tribe, and tongue, your church proclaims. This was the first time that the students were actually there having class. So it was kind of fun this time to see how the campus dynamic works when everybody's there. I guess I didn't realize how much they sacrificed to get the students telling us they sold absolutely everything they own just to buy a plane ticket to get to Honduras. It was incredible.

12:20Holy is the Lord Almighty. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. All creation, praise your glorious name. May the people praise you. Let the nations be glad. All your blessing comes that we may praise. May praise the name of Jesus. May the people praise you. Let the nations be glad. All your blessing comes that we may praise. May praise the name of Jesus. Well, you saw a little bit of some of the other things we did. But one thing, Amy Sokolovsky, who's an OBGYN, spent several days at the clinic and treated, what, maybe 50, 60 patients? I don't know how many ladies she saw, but that was sort of a behind-the-scenes that was going on while we were tearing off the roof and all that. And you saw everybody standing in that blue pool-looking thing.

14:12It was built as an outdoor baptistry, and it needed to be repainted. And so they had the special vinyl paint that some of our folks that were looking for something to do did that. And my point there is: there's always something to do down there. There's always a project that needs doing. I'm kind of a missions junkie. How many of y'all support like a church planning movement or missionaries that are out on the field doing something? You throw some money at them every month or whatever, and you pray for them, and they send you updates and all that. If the Spirit of God is in it, I'm for it. I love street evangelism. I love church planning. I love businesses, mission, I love anything and everything that's out there. And the thing that I really love about this that we're doing with TMAI and the member schools is. They are training these men not just how to rightly divide the written word, but they're also training them in how to live out with the living word in their lives, in the way that they, their relationships with their wives, and their kids, and their church, and their communities. It's a holistic training, and they're sending these men that's, you know, guys who speak Spanish, teaching guys who speak Spanish and live in the Latin American culture, teaching them how to do these things. And then they go back to their countries. And as Michael mentioned, some of these guys have, there was one young couple, and they were newlyweds, and they had to raise the money to be able to go to seminary. And they literally sold all of the presents they got for their wedding.

15:46You gals, think about that. You marry a guy, and then you just sell everything that you've been given. So you have literally the clothes on your back so that you have a plane ticket to get to Honduras so that he can learn how to rightly divide the word. You know, that kind of story. And they're not the only ones that have that kind of story. There are folks from Cuba that have had some really interesting times. There are some guys who've been saved out of some very interesting circumstances. There's a whole lot of testimony going on just at that one school. And there are how many TMAI sites?

16:22There's 30, 40, and they're expanding. They're going to have 80, 90 probably before long. But they have folks in. Ukraine, if you've seen those updates. But that's one of the neat things that's exciting to me: going and being able to be a blessing to those guys and just visit with them. And if you were here this morning and you saw the little teaser video with the guy that came jumping out of the room and saying, turn down that gringo music, that guy is actually, he's a professional clown. He's one of their students. He is a professional clown. He puts on the get up and goes and does parties for kids and stuff. And so you meet some very interesting people there.

16:58And I encourage you to grab one of the people that went and just ask them to tell you about it. Tell you about their experience. Because every one of us did something a little bit different during the week and had a little bit different take. And so, you know, grab Amanda, grab one of the Sokolovskys, whoever, just grab somebody who went and just sit down with them and ask them to tell you their story. I would encourage you to do that. So I'm going to turn it over to Daniel, wherever he is. There he is.

17:34This on? Okay, good. That's from El Salvador. I'll tell you more about it. I'm very excited to be back. Maybe you'll see it in my face. And my skin, I got a little toasted over there as well with the heat. But it's good to be back. I'm very excited. So many things to tell, so little time. Talking about the time, let me see. Because I need to give it back. Okay, so God at work in Central America.

18:07That's an understatement. You'll see here. I'm going to tell you a story of the two seminaries that we went to. We were talking a little bit more, John was talking a little bit more about work that we did. I mean, I say we, I didn't do much, to be honest. I was doing a lot of social life. And I hope it will be helpful because I was the only one who was very, very fluent in Spanish. I mean, John is very good at Spanish too.

18:39But I mean, that's my language. So I spent a lot of time talking to the guys that go to seminary, and I got a different take as well, like John was saying. That's the seminary, very well built. That's impressive, especially for a third world country. And the money that went over there is very well spent. Let me tell you that. CEPE is the name of the seminary. It's called Seminary of Expository Preaching in Spanish. Seminario de Predicación Expositiva.

19:10And let me see. Oh, yeah, high-quality biblical studies. I sat down, I sat on every class. They have the four years in each classroom. So there are four classrooms, and you have first year, second year, third year, fourth year. And I saw a lot of the very similar things that I had. When I was at Shepherd Theological Seminary in North Carolina, getting my M. Div. Very good training, quality training in their theology, practical theology. They went through, I saw them go through Paul David tripp in the matters of humility in ministry, so needed.

19:50What else? Sodiology. They were going through Greek and Hebrew, and I saw them squirm over there while they were learning all the Greek verbs and whatnot. Let me see. Great faculty, great guys over there, very well trained. And they bring in some heavy hitters, scholars over there as well. So they get great faculty. They have approximately 50 students. I saw between 13 to 20 students in the classrooms. Two-week modules. That's how they work. They go over there to the facilities. Most of them are pastors. Most of them are in ministry, so they can do that. So they take off two weeks and they go and they stay at the iCampus. And they have classes from 9 to 5, pretty much. And they learn and they go to.

20:48There's so many needs over there. There's so many people that don't even have a computer. They cannot even afford one. That's something heavy in my heart. I was talking to Amy, maybe giving a computer to one of those. Guys, imagine doing Greek, Hebrew. I don't know if you've ever done Greek and Hebrew, but or doing papers, you know, going to the university and you don't have a computer. You go over there with a notebook. Incredible. So, they, yes. Anyways, two big week modules, they stay there and then they go out, they keep pastoring, they keep doing ministry, and it's a four-year program. Great stuff over there. That's another picture of the seminary.

21:30Those are the, like I told you, I attended the classes. That's one, I think, fourth class. Before the week started, all them got together and they prayed for the beginning of the semester. Great time. So, let me introduce you to some people. John stole my thunder a little bit, but this is Antonio. Let me tell you about him. He's the one with the guitar. He has his wife over there. They are serving at Betanya, the church, with the kids, especially. And he's from Ecuador, great guy. And he's the guy that sold everything. So John stole my thunder and that story. But think of this. This guy, he went to Peru to get his bachelor's in the Bible with his wife. Well, they got married. And they wanted to. To come here, he has a brother that is in fourth year. He's about to finish and he wants to go back and do something about it, about biblical training, about pastoring. And he brought him over there as well. And it's so interesting to think about this: that they needed only $1,400.

22:55And it's not that much when you think about it. Think about that. They spend $40 per class. And even then, they need scholarships because of how economy works over there. It's different. They needed $1,400 and they couldn't have it. They both worked full-time, but that was enough to keep them at level, but not to raise their own funds. So they started selling fruit salad. They went and where there was a game at a stadium, they went over there, they sold the fruit salad from the church, fruit salad. Any time they got free time, sell fruit salad. And they only got $500 out of that. Hard work, one year.

23:51And what happened next is that one of them got very sick. They had to spend all that money. Had been waiting to spend on going to the seminary. So, back to square one. What are we going to do? So, they got that incredible idea that John told you. They had recently gotten married and they sold all their gifts, all their wedding gifts. And that got them to $600. And their family was a little heartbroken because they were saying, This guy cannot provide for you, the father of the wife.

24:36So, you know, everyone was crying over there, saying, You sold everything, and here you go, you don't even have money to get over there. So, they started raising funds with the church, and they got to those $1,400. But that was it. They didn't have anything else. And they got over there, and the school has been so gracious. They have provided for them a place to live. He works part-time for the seminary, doing some manual labor or whatnot, just to keep them afloat. And when they finish, it's not like they're going to have been saving anything to go back. Go back to square one. So, those are the types of sacrifices that make you rethink some things. Let me see how. Okay, I got to keep moving. Kique Silva, that's another guy, great guy, he's from Cologne.

25:31Some of the people I went to other trips know him well because he just graduated, graduated last year, and he's now training as a teaching assistant. I sat on one of his classes in beginning Hebrew. He was doing amazing. He was a little nervous because I was there. He thought that I was going to criticize him. But no, he was doing amazing. And I actually talked to him today. He was getting on the plane with Adriano, which is Antonio's brother, who's also in fourth year, because they have been invited to Colombia, and they were going to Colombia, where they're going to have a little conference. I don't know how little it is, but they're going to have more than a few pastors there, untrained pastors, and they're going to be having a training session about how to read the scriptures and how to be effective in Scripture and the necessity of learning how to study scripture because that's one of the challenges. When you don't know that you don't know. And that's the state of many pastors who think that they know everything and they don't know. So that's part of the challenge. Show the need to go deeper into Scripture and be faithful, rightly divide the Word of God. So he's over there. Pray for him and Adriano.

26:51I think they arrived already. I need to check. And hope for them to have a great time with those pastors, an effective time. So as Kique other students, the guy on the red, Roman, he's in second year. He's learning Greek right now. He's from Honduras. He was sentenced. You see him, right? He doesn't look old at all. He's young. But he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He was part of the gangs over there in Honduras. And he got saved soon after he got into prison. And he became a crazy guy for the Lord. He started preaching to everyone. And they release him early for good behavior. And he got involved in missions and his local missions. He goes to different churches and he preaches the gospel there. And now he's been doing that for eight years.

27:54His main ministry is with the red zones. So while the moms of those kids of prostitution are there doing their business at their home and they have to drive the kids out of the home, he dresses up as a clown sometimes. He gives them a meal. He preaches the gospel. And a great ministry of that guy over there, Roman. Next to him, Josue, he's from Peru. He also studied and now he's doing his masters over there. And he wants to go back, and he wants to go to the Amazon jungles and raise and train pastors over there. Miguel, what a testimony I will do a disservice if I try to tell you right now, but he was also involved in organized crime. They tried to kill him many times, and he became a believer, and he said, I will not renounce, I will not go back to my former life. And there he is. He graduated a couple years ago, and he's serving at a church, local church, and passionate about the Lord.

29:06So let me keep I need to keep moving because we went to El Salvador and I have four more minutes to tell you all about it. So we kept teaching the hermeneutics class that we started in November. We were doing the second part. I don't know if you can even see the little letters there, but we flew on Thursday morning and we got there Thursday afternoon and we were teaching Thursday night. So it was a couple of busy days. And Thursday, Friday, Saturday afternoon, and Monday, mostly from 69.

29:49The people were so thankful for that class. 35 attendance per day, as an average, 16 pastors. Think about that. Act. Ten churches represented. And there were a good delegation of this ministry called SHIP. If you want to know more about it, talk to Laura and Ovid. They know more about that good ministry. But they came and some people were interested in attending and learning more about preaching and teaching the Bible well with more depth. During the Lord's Day, we also, Pastor Tom, taught. I translated there the service. There were two churches that came together just to listen. And afterwards, we went to lunch with the seminary teachers, some church leaders. We had a great time in just getting to know each other a little better.

30:51On top, you see the local teachers, five of them. Also great guys, everyone with their own unique testimony. Most of them, no, all of them, work full-time. If they don't work full-time, it's because they are they own their own business or something so they can allocate their hours. But on top of their full-time job, they are either studying or teaching the seminary classes. They have been prepared, and there they are, teaching. On the bottom, you can see the class. The last day that we had. And let me see. Now I just gotta keep moving on. So pray for these men. I know Pastor Tom will challenge you as well. But let me challenge you to pray for these men to see how we can help them. They need a lot of help. Imagine, they still work full-time. They are teaching. They are trying to keep this, you know, it's a whole institution, a seminary, with all its different parts and finances and administration and the curriculum and the legal stuff. So that's why I put over there there are financial challenges, there are legal challenges. The government, it's hard to get a response sometimes, and they need to fill out different forms and this to always stay good with the law, spiritual challenges, practical challenges. But the good thing is that when there is a challenge, there's an opportunity. And we have the opportunity to help. So just with that, I'll leave you with Pastor Tom to challenge us with the Word of God.

32:52Well, thank you. By the way, that picture, if you ever wanted to know what happened to the Mayan Empire, they're said that that mountain. Was actually a volcano that blew up in late 1500s, and that's actually what put a big black cloud over Europe for three days, and that the Mayan Empire went into decline after that. So, anyway, there's a restaurant up there now, so you can. At least that's the story they tell up there. Anyway, one thing Daniel didn't tell you is Kikai, he showed you him, he went in, Daniel went into his class, and Kiki recognized Daniel's voice, or he recognized Daniel and was aware of Daniel's ministry there. And many of you all don't know, but Daniel is the voice of Stephen Davey that's broadcasted all over South America. And so, while we were there, and just to give you an idea, I mean, there's Bible Broadcast Network, BBN, is the Bible broadcast network that carries the program for Stephen Davey. That's the president of Shepherds. And we met, we took a little bit of a break and went over and met with a man by the name of Samuel Montoya there in Honduras, and we spent an afternoon talking with. Him and his wife. Well, he's the voice of Jay Vernon Gee. Okay, so Jay Vernam and his wife was telling the story, he was talking about radio, and he said, What's really funny is they begin to associate you, the voice, with the person. And so they were going, they did a conference one time for Jay Vernon Gee. It was basically for, and 8,000 people showed up.

35:00But it was just the voice of Jay Vernaman Gee. They didn't want Jay Vernon Gee anyway. So when Daniel showed up, these guys hear his voice on the radio. And so, and then I think that was part of that Kiki felt a little threatened because here's Daniel sitting in here. Oh, no, this is my first time I'm teaching. So anyway, but the work in Honduras has matured very well over the last 20 years. The work in El Salvador is really just getting out of the gate. And Emmanuel is heavily involved in its lifeblood right now.

35:50And we're looking for more ways and more opportunities to be able to take groups down and to minister there. And we have some ideas. And those will be growing, I'm sure, in the days to come. But I do encourage you all to consider being part of these trips. I want to pick up where I left off in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. So Jesus comes up and says, I have all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

36:38Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the age. Make disciples. Make disciples from all the nations. This isn't a go make all nations submit. No, it's go make disciples from out of all of the nations. And you do this by going, by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them. And the task of discipleship, the emphasis of the great commission is upon teaching, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

37:30That's quite a mouthful. The nations, they're commissioned to be going, they're commissioned to be establishing communities, and they're commissioned to, in the context of those communities, to be teaching them everything that Jesus taught his disciples. That's a lot. Jesus envisioned systematic teaching. You can't get around it. The commission itself involves systematic teaching from those who have embraced the truth. Systematic teaching in the context of a local church. And so that's where the task, and Jesus is the perfect model of a teacher, right?

38:20The disciples weren't always quick learners. Sometimes they were very dull and hard and slow. Teaching takes time, sacrifice, energy, and effort. And sometimes the process is going slow. But Jesus is the perfect example. He took time to teach people. He made sacrifices to teach people. And so the discipleship, the great commission itself has an emphasis upon teaching them. But he also gives the content, teaching them all that I commanded you. So, what Jesus has launched is a way for one generation, the first generation who saw Christ, who walked with Christ, to pass on what they know about Christ to the next generation.

39:17So, the eyewitnesses call into a whole generation of ear witnesses. And then, those ear witnesses are commissioned to go and make another generation of ear witnesses. And all the way down to us today, Christ envisioned a way that we would stay in contact with his teaching. We're part of a big enterprise. And we all are called to play a part. And I've thought about missions. One of the things that in the context of where we minister, and certainly El Salvador, sometimes it can be very squirrely. American giving can be very squirrely. A pastoral change, and all of a sudden, a big church that was supporting missionary efforts all of a sudden disappears because you know how Baptist politics can work sometimes. All of a sudden, wow, that pastor's out. We've got another one. Oh, yeah, we're going. Down another direction, or whatever, and so there can be a lot of instability on the mission field when a support.

40:39And so, how do you develop a sustainable, long-term kind of mission effort? And that's what I've given a lot of thought to: how do we? How do we, at Emmanuel, engage in missions in a sacrificial manner and do so in a strategic manner and do so over a long period of time so that 50 years from now, long after I'm gone and long after this generation has that there's still a vibrant relationship with active teaching mission sites.

41:26How do we keep something sustainable? Well, part of that is just real briefly: as part of this enterprise, there are those who send people. Obviously, it takes money to go, and so there are senders, there are goers, we need people to go. There's another generation that has to be exposed and awakened to make. So, in any given mission team, we want to have all those components. Those who are sending, those who have a vision for current missions, who are givers. We have those who then have gone, they become good prayers. You need good prayers, good goers, good prayers.

42:31You need there's a whole lot of ministry that can happen on the home front of strengthening and encouraging. There's so many students, we could pair you up with a family, and boom, you can be a blessing in their life very easily. Listen, the dollar is strong relative to the rest of the world. As we're entering into a time of declining strength of the dollar, it's like there's been a window of time when American dollars in missions are strong. And I would just say that the window may be closing. Use what is really pocket change to us here can make a huge difference. But we need goers, we need prayers. Prayers, I'm part of the going team, on a team, we need people that can really do something beneficial. And so there is a skill level. Wow, thank you for the team we had this year. I don't know what we would have done without John Gardner and Michael Bracken. We needed a structural engineer more than we realized. And all of a sudden, the Lord provided.

43:57And all of that. All of that is part of the enterprise. And it's not just one person going, it's a church engaged over the long haul, 50 years from now, that there would still be a relationship with some of these churches, some of these people, and something sustainable. And also, we have to, so we have to have goers. We have to have senders, goers, prayers. And we have to have another generation that are young. Right now, they need to be exposed to missions. They need to be making relationships and catching a vision for what God is doing around the world because they may very well be the next generation on the mission field. We're not missionaries. We support missionaries. We're just short-term helpers. The real missionaries are there. And so but they come from somewhere. They come from churches like this. And they so it's a big, it's a great opportunity. And just for my personal, when I lead a team, safety is important. And one of the reasons I like to minister with local pastors is they know where to be, they know where not to be, they know when you can be at a place, they know when you cannot be, they know the territory. So a safe, as much as missions can be safe, I try to do the best we can there. And those who are at Meda have been there, it's a good place.

45:50Is it free of risk? No, but we've done everything we can to minimize that and to be a blessing. Also, the food is good. It's important that we stay healthy. You can get sick pretty bad in some of these places. And so it's good to have a lot of those areas taken care of as well. So we have invitations really around the globe to go, to be part of. I just received another one for the Philippines.

46:30We have invitations, but really, right now, what's nice about Latin America is it's close, in the same time zone. And I would love to see us move in a direction of maturing biblical missions and to be part of an ongoing effort and a sustainable long-term effort of being a blessing to churches, individual churches around the world. And what a privilege there is. And so that's really all we have tonight. If you're interested in missions, feel free to reach out to John, reach out to me, and just let me know your interest in upcoming trips. We don't have anything on the books right now, but we'll probably be going back to these Latin countries, and there may be some openings in other places.

47:32We don't plan to go to Ukraine anytime soon. Although I just received an invitation about a year ago to go to Russia. So anybody up for that one? We'll wait. We'll wait. We'll wait on that. But anyway, well, thank you, mission team. Thank you, everybody that's been, and thank you, Sending Church. And if you want to give to missions here, you just put money in the offering box. And if you want to specifically designate to the missions, just write in the memo, missions. And we've got a fund for mission work. And your dollar really goes a long way in El Salvador. And we're hoping to see that ministry mature and hopefully bring some more people down there in the future when we think we can be more of a blessing than a burden. Right now they're crying for teachers and that's what they feel is the need is we need to our pastors to be educated. That's what they see as their biggest need. I got pastors, they just need to know how to minister effectively to their people. And well does anybody want to ask a question or two? And then I think I'll just close.

49:11Yes. Can you explain how far team when we go down to Launders were not overburdened financially on Meda? Oh, yes. What's nice about going down to Meda is they have rooms and we pay. And when we pay, We typically go in the offseason. This time we were there in offseason. The students weren't there. We overlapped some this time around. I don't think they've got their numbers back post-COVID yet. But we pay. And there's an amount that we pay for the room. And there's an amount that we pay for food. And so a whole staff, when we come down there, they're able to keep these people employed while they're waiting for the next round of students to come in. And so it's a good way to sustain. And what was the cost this time?

50:08It feels real cheap. The biggest cost is airfare. Right. It was like $1,200, wasn't it, per person? The total trip cost was $1,200. And the recent airfare was only like $350. But because of that project we did, that was a very expensive project. Yeah. So we spend more on that stuff. So think about this. You spend $1,200, you get some of the some excellent lodging, excellent food. Anybody eaten anybody there? It's good. I mean, it's local, it's good, and it's clean. I don't think anybody got sick. They know how to. And it's really good. I mean, it's authentic. I mean, it's the real Honduran food. And they've got these kitchen with these ladies, and you're employing them. And then.

51:00Out of that $1,200 comes all of the mission projects that we were doing. We took a bunch of boxes down there. We took a bunch of, they didn't even show any video of the distribution of the, almost like Christmas boxes, but Christmas boxes in March, because a lot of the kids, they hadn't come back since COVID, and it was a way for the church to reach back out to the community and to connect. And so, yeah, when we're there, it doesn't cost us very much, but it employs and it keeps that financial stream coming in.

51:39And we always take one day to go and see Honduras, like you saw us on the lake. They like to show us their country. But it's very affordable. I mean, you try to go stay anywhere for a whole week and see if you can get away for $1,200. And it would be pretty challenging. But that's a huge blessing in addition to all of the work that we provide. So thank you for asking that. Yes? Isn't there an opportunity to go into the community and eventually?

52:22Yes. Yes. In fact, but we would do that under the leadership of In fact, they will let us into the schools. They will let us, when we were going to do our VBS, part of the advertising was to be done in the schools. And so I don't remember if that was a couple years ago, if we actually went in the schools or not. But they let you come in and let everybody know you're there. And so, but yeah, all of that, they have evangelism efforts, and we can work with them in those endeavors if that's part of the plan. And we would do that under the church's leadership so that it's an evangelistic effort that the church isn't afraid to come behind. And it's actually underneath their leadership, and it's happening in a way that is helpful to them and advances the church and the church's ministries there. So, yes, and you know Spanish?

53:37Yes, sir. Yeah, well, well, ship is I guess about 45 minutes away, depending on traffic. What's that? 35. So a group from SHIP came over. Now, They're doing a lot of education, and I know Laura could speak more about. They're doing a lot of education with a lot of the elementary, and they're trying to go all the way through high school pretty much now, right? And they're kind of like through second grade. And so they've built a facility about a half hour away and are bringing in a bunch of kids and training them. And they came, some of the leaders, Raquel, I don't know if you saw Raquel's picture there, but and Walter, they came. It's got the leadership, and he's a pastor. And so they came. And maybe long term, there could be a good relationship there. I mean, there's a good relationship there, but it may be that some of these kids that graduate, maybe down the road, could be part of, you know, go on from high school education and maybe be good candidates for the seminary sometime. I don't know.

55:14But yeah, but right now, who knows? But yes, it's good that there's some overlap there. There's some connection there. And they're aware of each other. And, you know, so those are good things. I'm going to dismiss this. And I'd be happy to talk some more. And if you are interested in being on one of these teams, just put your name on a list. Get it to me, get it to John, so that we can know who is interested in being part of one of these, and we will organize them accordingly. And I don't want to be the one holding back great mission efforts. So if we've got mission-minded people that want to go, there's plenty of opportunities. So we just don't have enough time. That's our problem. And so, Heavenly Father, thank you for the evening. Thank you for the work that you're doing around the world. And thank you for the enterprise of gospel ministry that you have established and that you allow us to be part of, help us to be part of an effort, a sustainable effort long-term that is a benefit to all the people that we're involved with. And so, Father, we pray for your church worldwide. We pray for the situation in Ukraine and Russia and the ministers there. We pray for the situation in Latin America and all the other places where your word is being received with excitement and joy. Father, I pray that you would protect your ministers, protect the truth.

57:00Cause great harvest, as you already are doing, and ask that you would continue to do and help us. I pray that you would raise up some men and women after your own heart here who would have a real passion for these kinds of ministries. And so, thank you, Lord. Please raise up missionaries from among us in Christ's name. Amen.