We are exited to debut our new website: GallowaysOnMission.com! We have been working on this for months with the help of our partners at 320designs.com.
Take a look at what we are up to as a missionary couple who is taking the gospel to the nations and find out how you can get involved. We would love to stay in touch with you and this is the place where you can find us to see photos, videos and blog articles about our work around the world with Youth With A Mission. We may be working thousands of miles away from where you are, but really we are just a CLICK away! Come see us!
In this latest installment of our wild new adventures as YWAM missionaries on assignment in Mexico, we tell of one of our biggest outreaches in the jungles of the Yucatan. We were blown away by what God did and I think you will be too.
Members of our host church, Cielos Abiertos Internacional, all loaded up in a big bus to head back to the village of San Cosme for what would be our biggest outreach yet.
The Cielos Abiertos Church team holds up their finger to represent their motto, “Uno Mas Para Cristo! (One more for Jesus!)”Tufy the clown knew how to work the crowd. Tuffy led the kids in fun games.
One of the worship leaders from our host church has been clowning for Jesus for 30 years! The kids loved him and he did a great job not just making them laugh and teaching them games, but explaining who Jesus was.
Barb is always telling us she is young at heart and I believe her.
Our oldest teammate, Barb, shared her testimony of how she gave her life to Christ at 6-years-old and the children responded to pray to do the same. Can you imagine traveling to remote Mexican villages in blazing heat at 70-years-old? Our outreach team is full of rock stars like Barb.
Families who attended were so happy and loved the program.So many children responded to prayer and were hungry for God.
The numbers exploded that night as families walked through the jungle to see what was happening. There was so much joy as the families were treated to a fun and powerful night of ministry. At the end of the night we even gave free toys as a gift to every child.
This little boy said during the prayer time, “I feel the fire of God in my heart!”This aerial drone shot shows just how far out in the jungle we were.This little girl was really enjoying her torta (Mexican sandwich.) Every family member received a free meal.Kids don’t get any cuter than this guy. 🙂
That night we led games, and taught silly songs as usual. Some of our team was home sick, so we weren’t sure if we could perform our gospel drama. Fortunately, some of the young people from Cielos Abiertos church jumped in to learn the missing parts. The drama was a huge success. God showed up and impacted the lives of the 200 people who came. At the end of the program everyone was fed delicious tamales and tortas. It was our biggest event yet and many lives were touched, including ours. It is a privilege to be on just one of the many YWAM teams traveling on outreach around the world to bring the hope of the gospel to every tribe and nation.
Thank again to all of our friends and partners who have been praying for us as we serve the beautiful people of Mexico!
Tracy and I have been doing street ministry since we were teenagers sharing the gospel on the streets of downtown Dallas in the 80’s. On this missions outreach to Mexico we have gone back to our roots and discovered that Jesus was right when he said that, “The fields are ripe for the harvest.”
As we walked the dusty streets of many towns in the states of Quintana Roo or Yucatan, we discovered people who were glad to meet us and come to the fun events that we were throwing. The beautiful people of Mexico have been so gracious to share their lives with us. We always get a huge welcome everywhere we go.
Tracy and I had the roles of crucifying Jesus in our gospel drama. Many times people were so moved that they would cry.All of the kids got a hot meal as part of the event.This guy was a happy camper with the new mustache that Tracy gave him.
I had the blessing of getting to pray with all of these kids to receive Christ right there on the sidewalk. It’s hard to describe how engaged they were in everything we presented. They were having the time of their lives.
One night we did a street outreach in which we used cardboard signs with messages written in Spanish. One side described the pain in our lives and the flip side told how God had helped us. We met two men from a rock band who really loved the performance. They allowed us to pray together with them and one asked for God’s help with depression. He was happy to receive a Bible after we prayed.
Back To The Beach!
One week we had an open day that wasn’t booked for village ministry, so our team put together a plan to minister to families at Playa Del Nino (Children’s Beach). There no were no tourists in sight as we were the only “gringos” around. We had a plan to welcome everyone to our beach performance, but weren’t sure if they would come.
I got to practice my Spanish talking to the kids. I found out they love comic books as much as I did when I was their age.
People came from all over the beach to watch as we led the kids in fun songs and shared our drama about how Jesus gave his life for us. Afterwards, Tracy and I got to know the kids while other members of our team shared the gospel with the parents. The kids loved the luchadore (Mexican wrestler) style Christian comic books that we brought them, as well as the face painting and ring pops. Thanks to Foursquare Missions Press for all of the fabulous tracts and evangelistic comics!
Almost every parent was eager to hear us share the story of the prodigal son, and then responded to give their lives to Jesus! We couldn’t have imagined a more successful beach outreach.Tracy got to talk to many beachgoers after our performance and minister powerfully one-on-one.Candy was always a big hit with the kids!
After 18 years ministering on the streets of New York City, it has been amazing to meet people on the streets of Mexico. There are many difficult similarities such as poverty and hardship, but I have equally discovered so much beauty and joy.
As the people of Mexico have welcomed us, they have truly blessed us. It reminds me of this scripture: “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Romans 12:16. When people of different countries, cultures and languages come together in the name of Jesus, we realize that we are all brothers and sisters.
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and please keep praying as we continue our outreach!
Our team ventured into a small village in Quintana Roo, Mexico. A new church had been started one year earlier by Pastor Noe. His testimony was mind blowing.
The inside of the new church
In a former life, Noe worked for a drug cartel for many years and his main responsibility for the gang was kidnapping! When he wanted to leave this dangerous life, the boss told him that if he tried to escape, his daughter would be raped and his wife killed while he was forced to watch.
The boss went with his men to attack another drug trafficking gang. Noe knew he should not participate this time and it saved his life. The boss and all of his men were killed. The drug lord’s son was a Christian. He came to tell Noe that God had given him a way to escape that old life.
Noe went to work in the tourist district in Cancun, but still wasn’t following God. Although he was married with children, he had many women and was physically abusive to his wife. He heard a song on the radio titled, “Come Back To Me.” He heard God tell him that this was his last chance.
Pastor Noe and I
Noe went to his wife and told her that he wanted to go to church. He visited Cielos Abiertos church in Cancun. He was so nervous that he carried a gun with him. The pastor asked church members to pray for him but they were afraid because he was armed. Nevertheless, Noe gave his life to Jesus that day and became a new man. He got rid of the cache of automatic weapons at his house, he got rid of the women and he got rid of the large drug stash that he kept on top of the refrigerator. Noe started a new life and began following Jesus with all of his heart. When the pastor of our host church in Cancun eventually asked him to pioneer this new work in San Cosme, he knew it was God’s will for his life.
This hole is actually very large and big enough to fit a person into it.Occultic graffiti next to the hole
After hearing his testimony, Noe traveled with us to a rural village nearby that was deeply troubled. On the way he stopped to show us where witchcraft and occult activities were taking place. In Mexico, some people worship evil known as Santo Muerte (Saint Death). At this rocky location was a deep hole in the ground with evil graffiti around it that said “The Street of Nightmares.” Drug gangs would initiate new members by beating them up and putting them in the hole overnight. No one would ever drive on this road at night because if they came along while witchcraft was practiced, they would be killed. We prayed over the area and did spiritual warfare against the powers that were trying to keep this community in bondage.
While we were still praying a man came along on a motorcycle with a gun on his back for protection. He allowed us to pray for him right there on the road while he was still sitting on his motorcycle.
We were ministering in a very rural area of Mexico where the jungle was thick.
We continued on to the village and when we got there it looked like a ghost town. It was deeply impoverished with no signs of life. Pastor Noe pulled out a big speaker and turned on some loud Spanish music. People started to come from every direction to see what was going on. There was a somberness and hesitancy about them. Pastor Noe explained how not only witchcraft, but abuse and even incest had been prevalent here. They seemed beaten down and afraid. Their clothes were dirty and full of holes. The children’s hair was matted as if no one was looking after them.
Unlike most of the children we met, these were timid and skittish. This was the place to bring our hope in Jesus.
We met an older man who was the founder of the town and he received us gladly and even spoke to the villagers on our behalf. It turned out that their main language was not Spanish, but Yucatec Maya.
Performing the Cha Cha song in the village. It never failed to get smiles!
To win over the scared children we handed out lollipops. Then, we performed a fun song for the kids with hand movements. We concluded with a powerful drama demonstrating the story of how Jesus created mankind, healed us of our brokenness and sin by dying on the cross and rose again to give us new life.
The villagers enjoyed the skit and afterwards allowed us to pray for them. Many would turn their faces away in fear but then begin to cry as the Holy Spirit started to touch them. It was an intense time, but we were so glad that God gave us this opportunity to bring light to the darkness. We had planted many seeds for Pastor Noe to water in the future.
After all the ministry, the village kids finally began to trust us and warm up to us.A happy dad brought his kids to the program!God moved that night as many families were touched by the Holy Spirit.
That night we ministered outside of Pastor Noe’s church and it was a big hit. All of the kids made salvation bracelets and could explain what each color meant: Dark-sin, Red-Jesus love, White-clean, Blue-baptism, Green-growing through God’s Word, Purple-adopted by the King, Gold-heaven.
The next night we ministered at the same church again and the crowd exploded! I will share those stories and photos in my next blog.
This was a couple of days that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone who interceded for us and covered us in prayer. You are an important part of our team and we couldn’t do it without you!
After weeks of great outreaches our missionary team had our most insane number of incidents yet.
Pastor Gabi and his sweet family
In the beginning of our 17-hour day, our outreach team headed out to the village of Kantunikin. When we arrived there we met Pastor Gabi and his family who started this new church by sacrificially leaving their thriving business in Cancun. They were wonderful leaders who truly loved the people of this village.
Was it hot? YES!
Inviting families to the special event
Although it was blazing hot, our team went out to the community door-to-door to invite people to the special event we were throwing that night. We received many smiles as we invited them. It was so hot, that two of our team almost passed out from heat stroke and we had to ice them down! One of them is our friend Barb who is 70-years-old. Barb said, “I was so weak that I literally could have died that day. I almost collapsed.”
Our friend Barb getting iced down by TracyVictor is full of fun and spunk!
As we were about to head over to Sebastian’s house to take a break, a terrible event happened. Our youngest team member, Victor, who is 6-years-old ran into the road and was hit by a car! I happened to be the first one to reach him and pick up his little body. I was hoping he hadn’t been critically injured or had broken any bones. Victor was scraped up, but thankfully he was okay. Before he started crying he was in shock and said, “That was the first time I have ever been hit by a car!” We were all shaken by this incident and giving thanks to God for preserving Victor’s life. Victor is Norwegian and his family have been missionaries in North Africa for 20 years.
Our team crashed Mexican style!
Our team took a break at Sebastian’s house and he proudly gave me a tour of the home while our team collapsed exhausted into hammocks. The home he had lived in for 40 years was like all of the other local homes, made of concrete and featured many hooks for hammocks. Everyone in this region sleeps exclusively in hammocks. Behind the house was a garden with many edible plants, some pigs and chickens bred for meat. His family cooked all of their food over a fire in the backyard.
The skies opened up on us and poured rain so heavy we feared that our special event would be cancelled. As soon as it let up, we headed back out to the church. The heavy rain had kept people away so we headed back out to invite people again and they came!
Everyone loved the program that night!We used colors to share the story of the gospel and afterwards everyone made salvation bracelets with those colors to remember the presentation.This little church is making a BIG difference in this community.The prayer was powerful that night!
The service was filled with joy as families and children sang songs, watched our gospel drama presentation, made crafts and cried as they received prayer. Almost everyone raised their hand to give their lives to Jesus! It was a special night that we will never forget.
Pastor Gamaliel, Pastor Favy, Zulmey and Sarah
We drove four hours back to our base and arrived around midnight. When our host pastors, Gamaliel and Favy, from Quintana Roo arrived at home, some masked men with guns took them by surprise and robbed them. The men put a gun to the pastor’s wife’s head and told her to lay down in the street. She told them that she would not because she feared that the men would enter her home to attack her two daughters inside. She rebuked them in the name of Jesus and they jumped in the pastor’s truck and sped off. Had she laid down where they instructed, she would have been run over. Although their truck, laptop, cell phones were stolen, the police informed them that in these kinds of robberies, the victims are often murdered. There is much violence in this city and it was by the grace of God that their lives were saved.
The next day, the pastors and their daughters came to our base. They wept as we prayed over them and the Holy Spirit began to bring his comfort and healing. That night, the pastors shared their harrowing story with their congregation and the next day we headed out to yet another village to share the gospel. These leaders were undaunted and unstoppable as they were determined to not let the enemy stop them from God’s mission. I am meeting many heroes on this trip and their devotion and perseverance has taught me lessons that I will always remember.
For the last 3 weeks Tracy and I have been ministering all over Quintana Roo, Mexico. It has been busy, intense and powerful!
MINISTRY STATS: 1,300 Gospel seeds sown 53 Decisions for Christ 5 Healings and miracles 773 Felt needs met
This last week, our YWAM team drove 6 hours to the town of Chetumal, which is right on the border of Belize. Our day started with the baptism of 5 new believers in a beautiful tributary that is home to manatees. Later that day the same new believers and our team personally invited many families to come visit the first service of the new church being planted in their community of dirt roads and wandering wild dogs.
Baptism ServiceNew church launch
The next day we got the church ready for the inauguration service–not sure if anyone would come. They did come, and we had over 100 people attend! The church wasn’t much more than a tin roof with some poles to hold it up, but it became the new center of the community and many received Jesus. The floor of the church was just powdery sand, but that day it became holy ground.
“Beautiful (and dirty) are the feet of those who bring good news.” This is what the actual road looks like in front of the church.The sand and dirt is from the floor of the church.It wouldn’t be a children’s ministry in Mexico without a piñata!Silly songs and dancing! This is “Jesus Your My Superhero” by Hillsong in Spanish. Every child went home with a new ball!
Our team put on a fun program for the children and their parents full of singing with hand motions, powerful skits and crafts. There were so many smiles and of course everyone was treated to delicious tacos! It was a day we’ll never forget. The children and their families enjoyed the face painting, piñata and gifts of brightly colored balls.
Tracy painted many kid’s faces and they asked us for a selfie.Juan and new friend
The hardest part for us was the 94 degrees heat and no bathrooms during our outreach! We stayed two nights in the community with the pastor and families who were a part of the church plant. Sleeping accommodations were sparse and some of our team had to sleep in hammocks and on hard tile floors with not enough pillows or blankets for everyone. We were so touched by the gracious hospitality and generosity that the local pastors and families showed to us. They were beyond warm and kind to us, providing food and shelter none-the-less. Thank you!
Preaching at Cielos Abiertos Church.Tracy praying for healing for a woman at the altar.
Last night I gave a message at our host church, Cielos Abiertos (Open Heavens). People gave their lives to the Lord and received breakthroughs in areas of spiritual bondage through prayer at the altar. When our team prays for people they really go for it!
PLEASE PRAY Mexico is Level 4 in terms of COVID-19 so please pray for our protection as we continue to travel and minister in this region. Thanks to everyone standing with us as we follow God’s call into this new season as full-time international missionaries!
Partner With Us? We are so blessed to have 3 friends ask to give to our missions work monthly before we have even asked anyone. Thank You! We are waiting for our tax-deductible status with Youth With A Mission for donations that will come through this summer. Until then, we are trusting Jesus to provide each and every day. If God moves on your heart to include us in your missionary giving as a church or individually, you are welcome to join us by giving a one-time gift or monthly gift through Venmo or Paypal as we currently have no address or home to mail checks to. Here is the info. Regardless, we appreciate you reading our stories and keeping us on your prayer list! Hugs from The Galloways!
Tracy and I have been off the grid for a while, but I wanted to somehow try to describe the amazing journey we have been on over the past 3 months. I wanted to share my testimony to you of the goodness of God in our lives. I included some cool photos to help you visualize our surroundings.
Riding the Whirlwind
Imagine being whisked out of your everyday life where you live in the suburbs and work in the city to suddenly being parachuted into the south pacific to join a wild band of missionaries being trained to launch all over the world, taking the gospel to the farthest regions of the planet.
Last December, within two week time we cleared out our house, put it up for sale and got on a plane to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. After 18 years of serving people struggling with homelessness, putting down roots and building friendships, it wasn’t easy to leave our old lives, but sometimes God has to disturb our present in order to give us a new future. We are laying down the old story and old pattern in order to enter a new story.
Pruning can feel painful, but when God prunes our lives it is preparation for greater fruitfulness. Sometimes you have to sell everything you own in order to get the pearl of great price and it is all worth it, especially when the pearl is His calling for your lives.
Open Air Weekly Worship gathering at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) University Of The Nations
The Road to YWAM
For 3 months we have been living on another planet called the University of the Nations in Kona (click link to see video). It is the largest training center in the world for Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The missionaries here are willing to pay the cost of any sacrifice in order to proclaim Jesus to people of every tribe and culture. The ethos at YWAM is thick and even rings out of their songs such as The Missionary Anthem (click to see song live) that states, “I will preach the gospel, die and be forgotten, as long as You get the glory.”
Did you know that YWAM is the largest Christian missions organization in the world? Founded in 1960, it now has more than 2,000 base locations and 20,000 staff in over 180 countries. Each location is a Biblical teaching and missionary training center that welcomes young adults from around the world and is also active in ministries in their own communities.
YWAM’s mission is to “Know Him and make Him known.” Every international leader and staff member in this movement is a volunteer who has dedicated their life to pursuing God’s purpose and calling. To say that it has been inspirational would be a gross understatement. A passion for God rages hot in this place!
Our entire Crossroads class including kids
Crossroads
Our Discipleship Training School is known as Crossroads and is designed for people like us more mature “youth” who are at a crossroads in life. We made so many lifelong friendships with our fellow students during these past 3 months. When you go through an intense community experience like this, you are bound for life.
Crossroads provoked our hearts as we dove into core themes such as identity, inner healing, and the character and nature of God. We were challenged together to take new ground through classes on spiritual warfare, Christian worldview and the Holy Spirit. All of this while daily practicing listening to the voice of God as we interceded together for nations and received prophetic words from the Holy Spirit.
Let Me Be Real…
My GOALS for attending Crossroads DTS were to:
Find emotional and physical healing from trauma that I experienced during the pandemic
Restore my soul and recover from burnout
Experience the supernatural and become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that I could be better led by Him
Receive direction for the future, especially next steps
I am happy to report that God met me in all of these areas and gave me healing and new freedom in the areas of:
Shame- over trauma and rejection
Fear- of man, conflict, perceived inadequacy
Control- Performance and people-pleasing
I am being vulnerable to share these things with you so that you too can have renewed hope and faith for your own freedom. If he did it for me, he can do it for you!
Leaving our past life and position was a stripping down to the core and what is essential. God used this opportunity to remind me of my identity as his son rather than in what I can do for Him. Henri Nouwen once said, “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of our spiritual life. Being the beloved is our core spiritual existence.”
Radical Transformation
These 3 months of living from intimacy with God has been one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. We came here to encounter His power so that we could be more transformed into His image and he did not disappoint. We experienced a paradigm shift as we surrendered to God, becoming 100% helpless. Embracing our weaknesses allowed us to stop striving in the flesh so that we might yield to the Spirit. We have learned to go from trying to be responsible to being response-able to God’s leading. These are lessons that we will spend the rest of our lives practicing.
Breakthroughs
God embedded so many truths into my soul such as:
My confidence cannot be found in my gifts or abilities, but in who He is, His presence.
We behave what we really believe about ourselves and about God.
If the enemy can get us to believe lies about our identities, he can rob of us our destinies and ability to pursue our dreams.
What actually has authority in my life is what I look to to determine my purpose, meaning, direction and joy.
By immersing myself in God’s reality, my belief system has been reset and realigned with God’s truth, grace and love. Maybe God wants to use the disruption created by the pandemic to do a reset in your life as well?
Maybe you are at a Crossroads in life and instead of a sabbatical or vacation or extended break, are willing to dive headfirst into a community of believers who can wrap around you with love, kindness and training for the next thing? We would have gone internationally for this with missions but due to the pandemic ended up in our only choice due to closed borders which was Kaulia-Kona. Don’t be too jealous, we lived in a one room dorm with no a/c, regular lizard visitors, cafeteria food (involving more soup and salad then I knew my body could handle) and Tracy encountered a while boar while trying to take the garbage out! Yet, this was just where God wanted us during this season so we were thankful. We could have taken a sabbatical and just laid on a beach somewhere, working on finishing my latest book, but instead, we decided to dive headfirst into healing, training, and God’s long term plan for our next 20 years in ministry.
I Hear You God!
We received prophetic words in the very beginning of the school including this personal one: “You will be a spiritual father and mother, maybe going base to base mentoring leaders.” This was a confirmation of what the Lord was already putting in our hearts. Even during our stay at the University of the Nations, God opened doors to pour into the young people and staff all around us. Another prophetic word from the platform was, “God is releasing the grace to do His will, to call people to their destinies.”
What God is doing in us, we want to share to encourage you. He’s not done with you yet! If you are feeling stale or stuck in the mundane, He has a freshness and newness to reignite your passion for your first love. If you feel dry, he will pour out fresh oil and make you come alive! His dreams for you are what you were born to be and do. Let our lives be a living testimony to you of God’s grace and new beginnings, even in your last chapters of life.
The scripture that was spoken over us that is also for you is Isaiah 43:18,19:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it
springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
My word to you is not necessarily to leave your home and job to join YWAM (although I highly recommend it), but let go of areas in your past in order to enter God’s future. There is more!
Our New Tribe
One of our speakers, Terry York said, “When you find your tribe you will find your calling.” We have found our tribe and our calling at YWAM. Our mission is to take the gospel to the world so that salvation and freedom can be had in every country and people group. Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM articulates this so well in this video titled, I Am A Missionary.
We were created to live with hearts on fire and I believe this is the place he has sent us to enter fully into his calling and fully into his JOY. My eyes now glisten with hope for that reality. My life depends on love, His audacious, heart-exploding love.
I can sum up our experience and what I hope for you in this scripture verse:
Acts 2:28 “You have shown me the way of life and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.”
Next Steps
What next steps are there for Juan and Tracy? Now that we have completed our lecture phase, we are headed to the mission field for two months of outreach to the poor in Mexico. We go with a small team that includes 12 people ranging from 6-years-old to 70-years-old and includes citizens of Finland, Norway, Africa, USA and China. This is our team in the picture below. We will all be living in a 5 bedroom house together working 6 days a week doing outreach throughout the forgotten parts of Mexico. Usually, these teams go to Southeast Asia, but due to the Pandemic, again, we were limited on our outreach locations. But the poor are the poor everywhere and God loves them all!
Our Mexico outreach team
COVID continues to rage in Mexico and so we are trusting God for his protection as we take all wise precautions possible. Please pray for God’s protection over our team and for breakthroughs in our missions work.
After our outreach is over, we will be ministering on an island off the coast of Mexico called St. Thomas where my parents were missionaries when I was a pre-teen. Then, coming back to the US to visit family, friends and raise the missions partnership necessary for us to serve as full-time missionaries with YWAM. The most exciting part of the trip will be welcoming our first grandchild into the world in July! Our daughter River and her husband Jabez are bringing a precious little girl into our family and we couldn’t be more excited!
We will return in August to join the YWAM staff in Kaluia-Kona at the University of the Nations where we will work with young people training for the mission field and mentoring their missionary staff in healthy leadership. We feel that God will use us as a spiritual father and mother to help catapult young leaders into ministry around the world. We will draw upon our 30 plus years of ministry experience to mentor and teach the next generation. After that semester, it is our intention to travel internationally, working with YWAM bases around the world. Let the adventure begin!
Our mission is clear:
Mark 16:15 “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Thank you for your love, friendship, partnership and prayers!
LET’S STAY IN TOUCH! You can connect with me at juan@gallowaysonmission.com or Tracy at tracy@gallowaysonmission.com to stay in touch. Our website www.gallowaysonmission.com will continue to be updated. If you want to hear the latest, feel free to tune into our Podcast www.anchor.fm/36questions or find our most recent pictures on Facebook or Instagram.
Check out our podcast about marriage, ministry and whatever crazy thing comes up while we are recording. In this episode…
Saggy biceps, taking your thoughts captive and U2 praying in tongues. What do all of these things have to do with each other? Listen to Episode 19 of 36 Questions to find out. In this episode we also review the book The Process by Bill Hoffman. Listen HERE or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
It’s hard to believe that I am turning 50-years-old! I want to celebrate by asking you to join me for a special cause. Please take a look at my video:
Please consider becoming one of the 50 people joining the monthly donor program for New York City Relief that we call DRIVEN. It’s easy to set up a recurring gift on my fundraising page. Any amount is welcome!
Help me celebrate my 50th birthday by changing lives TOGETHER!
Most people don’t know this about me, but I grew up in a black community in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My middle class neighborhood was almost entirely black and my public schoolmates and friends were also almost all black. I guess my parents were pretty progressive in this sense, because they definitely could have afforded to live in a more homogenous white neighborhood or pay for me to attend a private school where I would not be the “minority” in a majority-minority community.
This was the 70’s and the era of the big afro. During my childhood from ages 5-10, it wasn’t uncommon for me to be called “honkey” in a disparaging way on the school bus or in the hallways of my school. It was a little scary sometimes, but I also had many black kids who accepted me as their friend and equal, especially as we roughhoused together on the playground. We also got paddled together as equal offenders by our teachers when we got into trouble in class.
After my family became radically saved from a life of addiction, and depravity, we moved out of the states to become missionaries in St. Thomas and Tortola in the Virgin Islands. My parents started a church in which most of the congregation were black West Indians. From there we moved to Puerto Rico where they built the first Christian television station on the island, beaming out the gospel in Spanish for free to all who had a tv with an antennae.
Additionally, not everyone knows that my brother is Mexican American and was adopted as a child from Guadalajara, Mexico. I say all this to express my unique and rich upbringing in multicultural and ethnically diverse environments. It prepared me for my work at New York City Relief. Today, I serve a population of people in New York City and New Jersey who are predominantly black and hispanic. Unfortunately, the people I serve are also plagued with homelessness and disproportionately so.
Homelessness Brought To Light
Most people are familiar with blacklights and how they can reveal hidden blood, urine and semen by making them glow in the darkness. These are contaminants that are invisible to the human eye in the light of day, but are magically revealed by this tool.
New York City Relief is still serving food to many hungry people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This COVID-19 pandemic has been like a blacklight revealing tragic truths that have existed for years in New York City. With the largest homeless population in America (80,000), the greatest city in the world has actually been a humanitarian disaster zone for a long time. 2019 showed a 39% increase in homeless deaths over the prior year.
The crisis became normalized over time as people got so used to seeing droves of beggars that they began to accept this as an unchangeable reality. Recently, because of news media coverage revealing thousands of homeless men and women packed into COVID-19 infested shelters in New York City, the public’s eyes were opened to a dark reality. One man who struggles with homelessness named Luis said of the congested shelters, “It was like a death camp.”
There are 961 documented cases of homeless people infected with COVID-19 and 87 now dead from the virus. The actual infection and death rates are likely much higher as many never got tested for the virus. The poor are typically very under resourced when it comes to health care.
Luis tells his story of homelessness during the pandemic.
See a powerful video of Luis’ story about what it’s like to be homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic here.
During the pandemic, while the average citizen was concerned about their own health and hunkered down in their homes, they began to imagine the hell people were experiencing who had no home to protect themselves. The homeless had no place to run and people were starting to take notice.
Racial Atrocities Revealed
This COVID-19 virus has not been an equal opportunity infector. Most of the people who have been infected and who have died are people of color. New York City identified death rates among Black/African American persons (92.3 deaths per 100,000 population) and Hispanic/Latino persons (74.3) that were substantially higher than that of white (45.2) or Asian (34.5) persons.
All of us are experiencing brokenness and suffering in America, but our brothers and sisters of color are being hit especially hard. People of color were already struggling in America. Blacks were unemployed 64% more than whites. Blacks make up 12.7% of the US population, but 33% of the prison population. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Ethnic equality has suffered and social injustice seems to continue unabated.
The recent deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery have also been like blacklights, but this time revealing the systemic racism that has existed in our country for hundreds of years. White America has had their eyes opened through the technology of cell phone video cameras capturing senseless violence inflicted on black citizens. The dirty secrets of hidden racism have been thrust into our faces and into our homes. It forces us to ask ourselves if we are part of the solution or part of the problem.
Christians Called To Action
Recently, Bishop TD Jakes wrote an excellent opinion piece for Fox News in which he said, “Americans – and Christians in particular – have a moral imperative to tackle this problem. “Learn to do good: seek justice, correct oppression,” the prophet wrote in the first chapter of Isaiah.”
As a Christian leader, I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters who have been stigmatized by the burden of homelessness to the point of not being offered adequate protection from the plague of the century. As the leader of a nonprofit outreach organization, I will continue working to give them not only essential survival supplies during this health crisis, but also resources that will enable them to take their lives back and escape homelessness for good.
I also stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters of color who have been marginalized and brutalized through our lack of attention, care and equal protection. Our country has no excuse. Silence is no longer an option.
God will not just help those who help themselves. In fact, if we could all just help ourselves we wouldn’t need God at all. God will help those who we link arms with. Together we stand, divided we fall. Together, we are the vehicles for justice and change. Scripture demands that we stand up for others in need, aligning ourselves with the oppressed:
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9
The American Nightmare
Both the pandemic and the recent murders of black citizens have shined a spotlight on the underbelly of the American dream. Those on the bottom just keep getting crushed when good people do nothing.
Jesus threw a wrench into the gears of the machine of power and oppression when he came as a poor man born into an oppressed race. His very being represented his heartbeat for humanity, but he made it clear through his teaching and daily lifestyle that he was there to lift up the outcast. In Matthew 25, Jesus represented himself as the hungry, the naked, the prisoner and the sick–all people who were vulnerable.
Jesus didn’t pity them, he called the weak strong and called the poor blessed. Followers of the Son of God must also honor those who have been disenfranchised, pulling them from the fringe into the center. As Bishop Jakes also said in his article, “You cannot be a Christian and stay silent.”
Could it be that the church and American citizens at large are finally being stirred by the crisis of the homeless during the pandemic and the barbarity we have seen inflicted upon black citizens? Will this compel us to do what we can to bring change?
All Is Revealed
Jesus himself says in Luke 8:17, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”
As God uses these “blacklights” I have mentioned to call out injustice, let this be our prayer of activation as we get “woke”:
“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14
If we will wake up to our indifference, our silence and our sins of omission, God will use us to:
Shine a light (demonstrate truth)
Tear down darkness (evil and lies)
Build bridges of reconciliation
Become agents of healing
Love like Jesus
All of this so that everyone–rich or poor, people of every color, will be welcomed to His feast where all are valued, enriched and loved equally. This is how we can be the answer to Jesus’ prayer, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
