An ice cream break. That’s what they needed. Luis Baltazar and Hugo Gonzalez recently traveled to a South Asian city to discover whether there were any believers among an unreached people group. They had no contacts, and they didn’t know where they were going to spend the night. The hotels they walked into were too expensive. The weather was also bad, which made everything more stressful.
They decided to stop for ice cream and regroup. This pitstop turned out to be the turning point in their search.
Gonzalez and Baltazar moved to South Asia from Venezuela to serve as Global Missionary Partners (GMPs). GMPs are financially supported by their sending church or organization and serve with IMB teams. The IMB team ministers to 17 people groups.
The men met at a training at Baltazar’s church in Venezuela, and they went through the same sending organization that trains and sends missionaries from Latin American countries.
Ice cream and bumper stickers
The wall of the apartment they share has pieces of paper pinned to the wall. One column has the label “English,” and another for the local language.
Eight months ago, Gonzalez could not speak English or the language of the South Asian country. For six months, both he and Baltazar studied the local language for four hours a day, and Gonzalez also spent four hours a day studying English.
Now, both Gonzalez and Baltazar actively and successfully seek out, find and train believers using the predominant language in the most unreached areas where their IMB team serves. Gonzalez is also now comfortable using English.
IMB missionary James Andretti said the GMPs are pioneers and live in strategic places with the least amount of access to the gospel.
“These guys love and invest deeply in their national partners, helping our team with our goal of ‘going farther’ into unreached areas, and ‘going deeper’ in discipleship,” Andretti said.
Now, back to their ice cream break. As their ice cream melted, Gonzalez and Baltazar prayed and prayed. They’d traveled to a city to look for believers among one of the IMB team’s 17 people groups. It was getting late, and they’d made no progress.
After they finished eating their ice cream, they hailed an auto rickshaw. As they slid into the back seat, they noticed a sticker that read, “God bless you.”
“Is it possible?” they asked each other, excitedly.
The auto driver, a Christian, was the contact they’d been praying for. They asked if he could take them to meet his pastor because they had a training they’d like to offer.
The driver helped them find a hotel, and they made plans to meet the next day. On their trip, they met the driver’s family, who are also Christians, and they had the opportunity to pray for them.
Baltazar and Gonzalez met with the pastor, and he was interested in the training. The pastor invited them to speak at a meeting that evening with a group of pastors, who they were then able to train.
They went into the city knowing nothing and came out with contacts and trained churches.
“You cannot start a work before praying,” Baltazar said. “God made it all happen.”
They plan to return later this month.
Andretti said on their trip, Gonzalez and Baltazar opened doors in an area their team had never visited, which resulted in two discipleship and church planting trainings.
From having nothing to having everything
Searching, walking and praying are themes of Gonzalez and Baltazar’s term in South Asia. Recently, they walked around the city for more than an hour.
“God, please, I need your help in this moment because I want to talk to the people about Jesus,” Gonzalez prayed. “I want to talk to the people about the Gospel, about Jesus, about the Bible, about truth, about the life.”
Soon after, the Lord led them to a man from the lowest caste. Gonzalez and Baltazar were moved listening to his story.
The man told Gonzalez he was sad and felt alone. Gonzalez told him he was not alone. God loved him and wanted to have a relationship with him. Gonzalez shared that he wanted to give him a gift, the gift of knowing his Savior and how he could have forgiveness from his sins.
The man chose to commit his life to Christ.
Mobilizing a missions force
Baltazar and Gonzalez film videos they send to churches in Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Brazil. The videos are in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Their hope is to encourage and mobilize more Latin Americans to serve overseas.
Andretti said they already have mobilized many churches in Latin America to pray for entry into areas where Gospel witness is unknown.
The GMPs translated a Gospel-sharing tool that shares stories from Genesis to Jesus into Spanish that is used to help Hispanic volunteers understand this tool in their heart language before they arrive in South Asia.
Their commitment to serve is for two years, and they can renew for another year.
Baltazar said there is so much work to be done, and two years isn’t enough time. He plans on serving longer. Gonzalez plans to return to Venezuela to cast vision to churches. His desire is to see many churches join the task of reaching South Asians with the Gospel.
Andretti commends Baltazar and Gonzalez for accepting the challenge of raising the missions-sending capacity in Venezuela and other Latin American countries.
The two men continue to walk, search and pray as they seek to contact more people from the 17 people groups.
Some names changed for security reasons.
