Welcome to our New Blogspot!
We are excited to share with you about our ministry with World Gospel Mission and our work as pastors to missionaries.During the month of July we traveled to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to gather with 35 missionaries in a week long retreat. Our role as pastors to missionaries allows us the opportunity to invest in the lives of missionaries to encourage, inspire, counsel and pray with some of God's choice servants working on the front lines.
Marlene, Jordan and I flew in to Santa Cruz to begin our ministry. We attended retreat activites, enjoyed great fellowship with missionaries, hearing their stories, listening to their hearts and speaking encouragement into their lives. The week was filled with wonderful opportunities for ministry. Jordan connected with the MK's on the field and enjoyed their programing under the leadership of VIA Missionary Liz Morriss. Many fun filled times took place as this group of MK's laughed and played together while growing deeper in their walk with God.
One of the highlights for our time there included the opportunities to have some hands on involvement in ministry with the missionaries. Ned went out on the streets with Rick Lampen, the field director who partners with YWAM in a ministry to the street kids. We boarded the city bus and traveled to an area busy with traffic hustling by. At the intersection of this busy crossroads lay a drainage canal underneath. Each day street kids ages 12 on up grab a blanket, cardboard, plastic whatever they can and sleep under the bridge in the canal. When they wake up in the morning they head out to the street corner with a spray bottle and squeegee to wash windows. Dressed in the same clothes day after day they wash windows at the red lights to get money for food, or in many cases drugs.
Rick's ministry as a nurse practicioner is to treat these kids wounds with first aid and try to share Christ with them. Let me tell you a story about Lucito.
Lucito is 22 years old. Over a year ago, he was struck by a car while washing windows.A car hit him, running over and crushing his left arm and left leg. He went to the social hospital and had surgery to repair broken bones, but it has left him on a crutch with pins in his knee and severly crippled arm and leg.
Rick attended to his wounds while another missionary prayed with him. I gave him a spanish New Testament and tract to help introduce him to Jesus. He was interested in what we had to say and appreciated the help he was receiving. YWAM has a home for steet kids to go to for safety and rehabilitation. They provide for their needs and give them an education and teach them a vocation. It is a chance for Christ's love to be shown in very practical and meaningful ways.
Lucito needs surgery to remove the pin in his leg. It has only been a miracle that infection has not set in. We are praying for that to become a reality, moreover we are praying for the seeds of God's Word sown that day to grow in his heart and for him to come to Christ. Rick continues weekly visits to this street to visit with these kids. Pray for this ministry as God love is poured out.
Marlene had a wonderful opportunity to go to an orphanage with WGM Missionary Donna Brown to love on some infants there. Many of these children come because no one can take care of them or their medical problems are complicated and there are little means to help them. This orphanage has the chance to be Jesus to the least of these.
Here at this place Christ love is poured out on these precious little ones and they are ministered to and cared for in loving ways as they are nursed back to health. Missionaries and Christian workers have a chance to teach these little ones that Jesus Loves them and He has not forsaken them.
"If you have done it unto the least of these, my brother, you have done it unto me."
Marlene and I believe that we have one of the greatest jobs a missionary could ever have. Pictured above are some of God's finest servants that are giving of themselves each and every day to serve Jesus in Bolivia. We had the joy of visiting with these wonderful people, eating together, playing together, laughing and crying together. What a joy to invest in the lives of these missionaries. They are responsible for helping Jesus' love to flourish in the nation of Bolivia;on the streets of Santa Cruz among the homeless;in the orphanages, universities, churches and the like. The name of Jesus is being lifted up by these great people.
What a humbling experience is ours to pastor this flock. In this picture is just one of our WGM Teams of missionaries serving Christ cross culturally. Equally humbling is for us to realize that YOU are praying for us and supporting us financially so that we can go to the mission field and serve Christ by serving our missionaries. We thank you from our hearts for we know that together we have this ministry.
Thankyou each one,
Ned, Marlene and Jordan McGrady
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46953
727-459-2966
Special Prayer Requests:
* For Marlene's parents health
* For Ned's family at the death of his sister's husband
* For Jordan as he begins college this fall
* For our upcoming visit to Peru September 19 -29
* For God's blessings and faithfulness to all in this ministry
