Episode 90: James Smith Interview: A Broken Plan In Cancun Becomes A Rescue Mission

A mission trip can feel like a one-week event until the plan falls apart and you find out what you really believe. Britney sits down with James Smith to tell the behind-the-scenes story of how First Baptist Church built a long-term missions partnership in Cancun, Mexico, and why bringing families along changes everything. What starts as construction and service work becomes something deeper: a new way of seeing people, a new tenderness toward poverty, and a shared family memory of God’s faithfulness. 

James walks us through the early days, from taking his own kids on their first mission trip to watching youth ministry trips grow into today’s family mission trips. We talk about what teams actually do in Cancun with Vita Life and Kingdom Academy, including painting, installing fans, encouraging moms, playing with kids, practicing Spanish and English together, and visiting homes far from the tourist beaches. Along the way, James explains how missions helps young people discover gifts they didn’t know they had because they are forced out of their normal environment and into real dependence on God. 

The most gripping moment comes when a key missionary leader quits mid-trip and most supporters leave but the local pastors stay and our church stays too. James shares how that crisis became a “we didn’t come to fail” turning point, and how relationships later connected ministries across Mexico and Peru through YWAM, DTS training, Starfish medical work, and Casa del Aguila. We close with a surprising story about an accidental introduction that helped confirm a 62 year old man’s call into ministry. If you’re considering a Christian family mission trip, a youth missions experience, or you want a clearer picture of church missions in Cancun, this conversation will give you both the heart and the practical realities. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a push to go, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Visit our website at www.fbcboerne.org for more stories, information, and service times.  

Transcript

Welcome And Mission Mindset

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome friends. This is Britney, and I am so excited today to have James Smith here in the studio with me. I know you're going to enjoy today's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to FBC Missions Sew That Podcast. This is an encouraging place to hear how God is working in and around us. We know that He blesses His people so that they can bless the world around them. Join us as we discuss how to join God and all that He is doing. Why is God working in our life, church, and community? It's so that through us the world will know that He is new.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

All right, friends. Well, welcome to the FPC Missions Sew That podcast. And I'm so excited today to have um James Smith here in the studio. He is a servant of God. And I am so blessed, James, that my family we got to meet you about a month ago, two months ago, three months ago, as we were preparing for the Mexico family mission trip, which was incredible. So thank you for coming in today.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Happy to be here, excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I'm so glad you're here. I know I didn't realize that you do maintenance here at the church. Um as kind of your your I was kind of telling you a second ago, like your retired job.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yeah, it's kind of like my retired job, but it's also kind of a a different type of ministry for me and a ministry to buildings to be prepared for people to receive God.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I love that. Yeah. Just in talking to you, it's fascinating all the ministries that you actually do have. And so we're gonna get to talk to you about that today. And I was hoping if it's okay, let's start off with um your passion for taking families on mission trips. So we're in the middle of a series on the family mission trip here at FBC. Um, we've interviewed the Burleson family minus the mom. We're gonna do a mom's a mom's podcast also. And then uh we're gonna have Shauna and Claire in. And so I really love hearing from you because really from what I've come to understand, is is you are I would say the founder a little bit of this trip in some ways. If you'll share a little bit about the history, I will say, listeners, if you want to, you can also go back to episode 20 and hear an episode

How A Family Trip Sparked It

SPEAKER_02 2:15

where James was interviewed by Pastor Chad. But will you share with us a little bit about the history of how this all started for FBC and why you have a heart for taking families?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

I'll try and I'll try to keep it short. We got time, but it can be a long one. Um I started um um finding a passion for missions by taking my family on a mission trip. And our first mission trip was across the border to Piedras Negras, and we started working with a local church there. We went there to help build an addition to the church, which that day we found out we weren't just building an addition, but we were building a second story as well. So it became quite complex real quick. But what I found is that I was able to take my family with me, and it we were able to experience these journeys together serving and working alongside people doing doing missions. My kids could not do much at that time. They were they were not even in double digits of age yet, so you know, probably eight and six or something like that, but they were very young. But they got out there and they could move some rocks or or push some dirt or you know, or they just played around with the local kids, which was great. And so they began to learn about a little bit of missions as as as they grew up. And as I grew, learned to to continue to to serve in that that area. And we did that for, I don't know, good five, six years of going to Piedras Negras on a constant basis basis and developed quite a relationship with them. And then, you know, things changed, um border changes and things like that. So so that was put on the side, and we had started doing some local mission trips here and there helping some other other um entities and um um um and that's a whole nother story. But we we couldn't find that Mexico trip again for a long time. And then we wound up at at uh um my kids, we started First Baptist when my kids were still in youth. My son was a junior, my daughter was sophomore freshman, depends on how you want to classify her, they're both homes homeschooled. And and we started going to youth here, and um and we found out they were gonna start a mission trip and be doing their first mission trip. I'm like, we're all in, you know, back to go to Mexico, back for a chance to go to Mexico and all that. And the youth pastor here had worked with a guy in Colorado, uh, Jason Brown had worked with a guy in Colorado called Alonso, Alfonso, and uh um he was just starting a ministry in in and around the Cancun area, and he needed some help. And so we got a big old mission trip going, and this was I don't know, the first overseas mission trip, well, kind of overseas for for for the youth, but youth in a large number, and we had about 40 people or so. And so

Youth Trip To Cancun Begins

SPEAKER_01 5:25

um um my family, we all signed up. Um we didn't we didn't have the money, but God provided, and we were able to again experience missions in Mexico again, and then the next year my son was off to a Christian camp to serve alongside and and and be discipled, and then it was just me, my wife, and my daughter. And we went, and then the next year was maybe me and my wife, and then slowly my wife stopped going, then it was just me, and then um uh long story short, and um the missionary that was down there that we had contacts with and we were developing a relationship with, things were going great. We were we were starting churches, doing different things, and uh and it was becoming an exciting time, time. Cancun was uh was a growing community, a lot of people, a lot, a lot of needs, and we were continuing to go out there every year. And then it was kind of like, why do you need me out here, Lord? Why do you need me? And then hold on.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

It's all right, it's all right. I I just uh recorded another podcast a little bit ago and I did the very same thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So

Missionary Leaves And They Stay

SPEAKER_01 6:46

I was ready to lay it all down and say, hey, you don't need me.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

And then uh we uh show up with a team of people from from the church, and the um uh Alfonso, the missionary that was down there, he quit.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

That was why you were there.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah. He quit his uh his ministry, but he also quit his family. And was it devastating, but at the same time, here we have do you remember how many years ago that was, James? I can't remember. My dates all just kind of fall together in my old old age. It was it it was a while ago. It was um uh 15, 16 years ago. Um but we had just got there in Cancun and we had a week to stay with a with a bunch of of students ready to work and serve, and the missionary that we're gonna serve and work beside of left.

unknown 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And so it became more of a rescue mission. And then uh I had a chance, chance to I knew the people well, had a chance to sit down with them in a room and just say he had mentored about five or six pastors there, and uh they were devastated. And so I gathered those pastors together, and we had a sit-down.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

And uh And that was with Vita Life?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

With with with Vita Life, um Jamie and Darius and YWAM, um they were kind of there, but not functioning like they were now. Now they were just establishing their bases, establishing um um um YWAM in the area area, and they were definitely not in Kunamaya yet. But so this was with the pastors of Vita Life and uh and where they focus on they had a downtown bilingual centrals church, and then they they had started several mission churches outside in the local communities deep in Cancun where poverty was bad.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

So Alfonso was overseeing all of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

All of that. And so um um gathered the pastors together and and we just sat in a room and and I asked them, what do you want to do? And you could see in their faces they were just devastated and and didn't know where to turn, their heads were down, down, and and and uh they couldn't even grasp what was next. And so one of them spoke up, just said, Hey, we didn't come to fail. And so we've hung on those words ever since to uh continue to believe in what God has for Cancun and what He's going to do there. Um and so we had a rough two or three years after that, but then the consistency grew and the relationships grew so much deeper.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Wow. I'm thinking about the fact that you shared before you worked here at the church, you were like project bandaging for rebuilding. Indeed, you are.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it it it it it was a whole different role role.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

But still you were helping to rebuild. Like that's amazing that God had you there at that time, and yet you you were there to pick up some pieces and help rebuild.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

And and if you've been a part of missions for a long time is this is not normal. Normal, usually when the missionary that you support leaves because every s other church that had supported this mission left.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

They left them. Um because the connection was gone.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

And so First Baptist didn't, and we didn't. And so that's not typical model of how we do missions, where you stay in when it gets tough, so to speak, and you stay in when it when things look like they're gonna fall fall apart and crash. But but we did. And so, and then to see what's going on now, you you can understand why.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Wow, okay. So I d I didn't know I didn't know that part of the story. My understanding, you know, having just been my husband and I took our three children.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

And this this was my my perception was okay, James has been going for a long time and before it was a family mission trip, it was a youth mission trip. Well, you actually had a family mission trip with the youth mission trip when it first started, and you saw you saw the impact it had on your children. Will you speak briefly about just the impact you saw early on and how that created this passion and dream for you to do this for other families? Then I want to circle back to Alonzo.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Um

Why Missions Changes Kids And Families

SPEAKER_01 12:17

my kids were able to see a world that they didn't live in that um that exist where a lot of us don't get to see. And especially growing um I'm not the rich and wealthy from Bernie, Texas, but I'm just the work hard person from Bernie, Texas, and and we didn't have everything, but but with my kids growing up, everybody else had everything. And so sometimes when you look and see the prosperity all around you, and you don't see the poverty all around you, you forget how to feel, how to, how to serve, how to help. And as I've watched my kids grow up, I still see that willingness to help always, the willingness to see people not necessarily above themselves, but able to see them in a way where they're equals or on a plane where they want to help one another. And they're also good at kind of problem solving and working things out with people versus giving up. Um my daughter, um, her husband works in the ministry, he's a young adult pastor, so so she's been able to continue on and go on mission trips, trips with him. Uh she went to Africa with him. And so it's so it's neat to see how it yeah, how it continues to I I I think it's it's hard to describe, but it's that attitude of missions that gives you where you you still have a soft heart.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah. That I I totally agree with you. The attitude of missions, it's like it's so I saw we saw that, Dwight and I saw that with our with our three kids when we were in Mexico. I mean, it's just it it it was exactly that for us. We we really because you do you you know, here in Bernie, you look around and things are beautiful and green and pretty and big and just to have that very, very different perspective. It's resonated. I mean, we're almost a month out of our trip and it continues to resonate, and I pray that it continues to resonate. So I I would agree with you. And so you saw you were beginning to see the impact it was having on your family, on your children. And now FBC has had its third uh year of taking families to Cancun, serving Vita Life and Kingdom Academy School. And so will you speak a little bit about just the trip? I know this year there were 42, is that correct? 43?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

42, I think.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

42 people that got to go. Um, of course, FBC's been taking youth upwards of 30 to 40, I guess, uh, for many, many years.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

And you've have have you gone on all, if not almost all of those?

SPEAKER_01 15:25

I I missed one trip, but almost tried to go when I I broke my back and oh I about a month out before, and I kept telling everybody I will I will be there, but I was there in spirit, so to speak. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Wow. Well, I love that you saw the the goodness that it was that it was providing for your family, and you wanted to to help other families do that. I know our family's very grateful that you saw that vision and that you continue to move forward with that. So thank you. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah, it's God's good.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

It it is good. And for our youngest isn't in double digits yet, but our oldest two are. And I'm just profoundly grateful. The first time I went on a mission trip, I guess I would have I would have been 45.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

And I really wish that I would have been able to do it sooner. So so yeah, thank you for the opportunity, um, the the vision, the the tenacity to just say, let's do this. Let's, you know, that I bet that wasn't easy.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

No, it's n I've been trying to trying to make it happen for several years.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Well, I'm very grateful. So tell us a little bit about what families are doing when they go, and if you even want to say about what our youth are doing, and then we'll just kind of circle back again to just the mission down in in Cancun.

What The Cancun Trips Actually Do

SPEAKER_02 16:37

But but what does that look like for families and youth from FBC to go down?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Gotcha. So one thing that missions does that that especially in young people's lives is it puts them in an area where um they don't get to experience that area and puts them in spots where they don't think they have gifts and talents, but puts them in spots where they have to try to work it out and try to figure out how I can do this or or or or you know, just situations where they wouldn't normally be in. But I've watched how it's, especially with youth and young people, is how it begins to give them some place that they start to see where God is calling them. Whereas they wouldn't have recognized it before, so to speak, just just being in their normal habitat. And so it it literally changes lives because they have to look at it at it at a different perspective, and they have to look at it in a different environment and situations than what they expected themselves to be in. So what we do is is first of all, it's it's preparing for the trip and figuring out how can we help these missionaries in their area, where they're at during that time. And so we spend some time talking to the missionaries and say, okay, I've got 42 people coming. How can you best use this or how can we help serve beside you? So, like this year, um, and again, because of relationships, we can do a whole lot of stuff in a week. Uh, you know, with some of the ladies were able to spend time with some of the moms in in the school and encourage and love on them, them, and share the word with them. Uh you had kids involved in trying to uh work with Spanish and English and helping one another learn Spanish or English. And then you had kids just playing with kids and trying to find new friends with these kids that are here at the school. They also had an awesome opportunity where some of the kids got to take them, take some of the families from FBC to their house and show them where they live, live, and where they're growing up. And and they literally, there's probably no door, but they literally open their doors for you and say, come on in, and they'll probably serve you a meal, they'll serve you a drink, and and and they're as welcoming as possible in this environment that has not much.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yeah. And we often think of Cancun, you know. A lot of people think of Cancun, they think of resorts, they think of beaches, but that's not the picture that you see when you go serve.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Correct. They're nowhere near the beach. A lot of these kids have never even been to the beach that live in these these colonials outside of side of Cancun because they they don't have the means or travel to get there. They're pretty much when you're growing up in Cancun and one of the local colonials outside in the poor neighborhoods, you all you'll ever know is just the neighborhood you live in, usually. But it's um there's so much to do from work projects to house visitations to construction, more uh just we were installing fans this year, sometimes we're mixing concrete, sometimes we were painting this year. There's all these different things you you can do, but at the same time you're trying to find ways to engage with the people that are there. How can you share the love of Christ? How can you share what Christ has done done done done for you? And uh, and and it's just neat to see families work together and bond together and and you know they don't have their cell phones out. They they you know, they're working together to to to to minister to these people and how however way they they feel led. And whether it's painting, they'll jump right in there, whether it's playing with the kids or doing a quick BBS program for them, they're all in.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

It was amazing. I know I was super blessed to uh watch my children engage with other children to watch my family hang ceiling fans. Um, and I was really blessed to get to share with the women. I I got to lead two devotionals with the moms, and it was awesome to see how the Lord used not just our family, but everyone there. And and there's so much to be said, you know, for the partnership that's been established. Because without that trust, without that partnership, we wouldn't have been able to go and do all that, like you said. So again, it's just like wow, the things that God has done and the and the goodness. So going back, we've got a picture of what's going on down there, but going back in the history, we were talking about Alfonso and how that originally brought us there. And then if you want to

Vita Life And YWAM Growth

SPEAKER_02 21:45

take us forward from that to where it is now, and um, I know we have a cool story to tell um as well about one of the new church plants. So we'd love to hear just about the history moving forward after that happened the year with Alfonso.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

to hit hit the highs real real real real quick. When God called me down there, I I I I got called into this mixture of a group of people and it and yes it's Vita Life and there's YWAM but this group came together for me and I've always functioned around them so to speak. So that's Darius and Jamie which are with YWAM and then there's Pastor Noe, Alex and Victor, which which Alex and Victor are the only ones left from the original Vita Life life. Pastor Noe came in a little bit afterwards. And these people I feel God has called me to be with them and to find out what God has for us together as long as He He says so. And so we've rode that journey for a little bit. So what has happened? YWAM has gone off and now they have mo have a couple different bases there. They reach out to several students and doing DTSs. They've even, now that that we've had some of our own students come down there and do a DTS with YWAM and one of our students that went to do DTS for YWAM he is now he leads mission trips left and right all the time. He was talking about me I saw him at Easter and he says hey you want to go to Pakistan with me? I said all right let's go. So he's he's he's got the mission bug um maybe more more than me. And then they and this is not normal YWAM they formed the school Kingdom Academy during that time and um and uh because the kids didn't have the kids lost the opportunity to go to school and so they created an opportunity so the so they could go to school short version of version of it. And it has taken off beyond measure. On the Vita Life side we've had lots of downs we've um one of the original pastors that that was with us um after Alfonso left uh he was just kind of bucking the system the whole way so so to speak so we had to let that he had to go back go on his own and then he kind of took over a property that was technically Vita's life's and and tried to claim that as his house and we've kind of had a legal battle with that for a long time and we don't know where that's going to land up and we'll just leave that to the Lord. But that was the original site where we always went to it's called Rancho Viejo. So that kind of left to the wayside put that away and as God was just kind of preparing things he was kind of just shifting things around to where he wanted to be and Pastor Noe came in after Alfonso left. He had been there before but he had actually um he had jumped a train and got gotten into Mexico and he had been a painter like me and and uh and then he went to some biblical training and stuff and he started being being a pastor in Colorado and lived lived and worked in Colorado and then he got sent back to Mexico him and his family. Wow and so and that was shortly after probably the same year that Alfonso left but not before um and then he came in and uh and the church at that time was rotating between pastors who was they wanted to rotate every three months to see who you're pastor this week, you're pastor this week your pastor this week. And so what they did was the first guy for the first three months was Pastor Noah. The guy for the next three months was Pastor Noah and they just realized that he needed to be the pastor of downtown church. And so um that came about and then we have the we have a mission site called El Suerzo which we kind of used to have a building we don't it just meets in the local park and uh and they have church service there. We have two sites at

Connecting Cancun With Peru Ministries

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Malagro 1 and Malagro 2 too and then we're slowly starting to work in another site um called Ranchito a little further out a little bit more rugged and then the years um through I also go to Peru and work with Casa del Aguilar and I was going there and and their ministries was similar to um what Cancun was doing and I thought they could glean from one another so I was trying to figure out well how can I connect them? So lo and behold um long story short um the YWAM does a DTS and every year at DTS they do a mission trip. So we got them to get out to Castle del Aguila so they did a mission trip to Castle Aguila in fact uh Noe's son Aaron was on that trip and they got to establish a relationship with them there and then one trip I do medical dental trip too was an organization called Starfish and one year we decided we would take uh one of the pastors and um um Jamie the director from Casa de Aguila to Cancun with us and get them to meet them on the ground too. And so this started a relationship between Peru and and uh and and and Vita Life outside outside of we've got first Baptists ministering to both these agencies and working with them and now we've got two of our mission organizations kind of working together knowing knowing one another well and shortly that that developed into um Pastor Andres was with Vita Life well sorry not with Vita Life he was with with Casa de Aguila and he he he committed out there to serve for two years but he's from Tijuana Mexico and his real heart was to start an orphanage so Pastor Andres real quick he wound up in Cancun and he's outside of Cancun and he is he's got land he's building a fence and pretty soon he'll start foundation on an orphanage out there in in uh in uh Puerto Morales just outside of Cancun and that's just again when you establish relationships they just do things.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

I I'm just listening in awe of all the things all the you know I think of like connecting the dots how God's connecting so many dots all the time that we can't see or even understand and you've been a part of so many dots. Yeah I can't keep track I can't either it's incredible and I don't know you we were I was like okay what are all your ministries well no wonder you're like I don't know you're a servant of God and I love the way that the Lord has used you and even when you've said at times Lord why why am I going you go and he just it's like a you know I just look at like a multiplier of just shooting I'm doing these things with my hands right now where he just can can create all this connection and so you're involved with the Starfish Ministries YWAM youth with a mission you're not directly involved with any of these but you go and serve and help connect YWAM puts on a DTS discipleship training school I mean you've just connected so many people in the world of missions there's just so much opportunity and there's so many different unique missions organizations that do things that get on the ground that create partnerships it's it's almost like James Smith is its own missional entity. So that is so cool. James and you were talking about before we hit record you were talking

An Accidental “Prophetic” Pastor Calling

SPEAKER_02 29:55

about a relationship that we got to celebrate well not a relationship I guess a calling that we got to celebrate this year.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Getting to stand in Milagro 2 which is one of the newer Vita Life churches the very first day we were there this year we got to go to church at Vita Life downtown and we got to hear you deliver an incredible sermon. James delivered a sermon that Sunday morning about the importance of being a part of your church and getting involved and not just sitting in your recliner. That was so good. We got to just be encouraged about the importance of all of us stepping into our church the life of our church being part of the church and so we delivered this sermon then we loaded up in the vans and the kids the families at FBC I was amazed they just took off in the in the jungle my youngest my eight year old included and initially they come back holding hands with two little girls and we thought well this might be all that is coming today but it wasn't we that building was just overflowing at this new church plant and then we circled around and just we're excited about what's about to happen there. But one of the men in the circle isn't the pastor of that church but the year before you um you wanted to share a little bit about the year before and Pastor Diago Berto and his call.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

So we had a friend of ours called uh uh his um his name was Benny and he he was one of the pastors there and he'd been there for uh Benny was our adopted son so to speak and Benny was Pastor Milagre one and Benny too um um he kind of gave up in life I I was able to marry him and his wife and then uh uh a few years later Benny Benny decided kind of like Alfonso that he's had enough and of ministry and and being married and so Malagro one we'd been struggling with to um what do we do with Malagro one?

SPEAKER_02 32:03

You know do we keep it uh how can it continue to minister but and Victor was was uh helping keep malagra one and malagro two going and so there was this faithful old band there his name was Diagoberto and James before you before you go into that I just want to paint a picture for listeners when we're talking about these churches Malagra One Malagra II like we're talking about dirt roads in a jungle very bumpy dust rocks and a concrete building with maybe holes for windows hot these are these churches that we're talking about and out really in in a very um junglish area I I don't know if if that's how you would describe it.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah they're just planted right next to a somebody else's house piece of land that we were able to get a hold of and yeah it's very remote and and um um very interesting place doesn't look like your normal church villages outside of Cancun just a very small room yep um so Diagoberto um um was a faithful follower there at the church and and he had been and um and so we had come down for the summer mission trip for the youth and my understanding was Diagoberto was the new pastor of Malagra one. Where I got that I don't know but so um um we went out there to work and serve out there and then afterwards I like to you know spend some time praying for the pastors and stuff before we leave so I said hey guys I want you to introduce Diagobertto here he's the new pastor Malagra One and I said this and I didn't realize but behind me or close by somewhere was his family and they're like all excited and hilarious just like yes yes yes yes but I didn't realize I didn't see that and then uh we prayed for him and everything and had a had a good time and then uh and then um that evening I got a text from Pastor Noe says hey me and the pastors need to talk to you I was like okay I don't have a lot of time because I'm on a mission trip but I'll try to make some time so I met him for breakfast and they're like so a few days later met him for breakfast and they're like hey Iagoberto's not the pastor malagger one I was like what? I was like Victor you told me he was he's like no I didn't tell you and I was like yeah yeah and they said no no Pastor Victor's Pastor Malagar one I says okay I says I'm sorry I'm sorry you know I felt so stupid so inadequate and um and and and I'm like do I need to go apologize? I'll do anything to make the situation right you know I was backpedaling all the way you know no how could I do that and grace of God shows up and they're like you know we started thinking you know maybe we we need to train somebody to be there and what we'll do is we'll talk to Dilberto and tell him this is what you need to do to become the pastor. And if you do those things you'll become the pastor well a few months before uh the family trip came I was able to uh be a part of his uh um ordination service into ministry um sent a video message uh to encourage him and then uh um um um in January I yeah a little bit before January we did that and then in January when we go on a short weekend trip I got to go down there and pray pray with him and and uh but the thing is Diagoberto think about this 62 years old just accepted call to ministry that's amazing he acts like a 20 year old he's happy he is ready to go so where's your life you know and you still accepting the call to Christ and so it just encourages me to keep on that is so good and I'm just now looking at the time and it that's a great ending spot but that is so true what

Invitation To Go And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 36:06

James just said it's like it doesn't matter how old you are um you never you never know when someone's premature words might actually be God's calling on your life.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Right you had no idea. Right oh I I bet that was just getting to go down there in January and pray over that how special was that it it it was very special.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

It was um um um up there is one of my moments you know to to to have those relationships to be able to see God and my I call it my stupidity to to to use m use my words you know and that's another thing to think about you know you don't have to have the right words because even when you mess up the words God God takes those words and uses them and you know his his family was back behind me thinking I was being very prophetic then I didn't have an intention to be prophetic but God had an intention.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

And your words became such encouragement I'm sure for him as he was stepping into that calling and preparation to become a minister and and how's his church doing um like what what what's already going on down there with that?

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Because I I'm sure future trips we'll get to experience him and that yeah right right now both churches Milago one and Milagro II are doing a children's camp together I think it's happening like all week and then then I think their last day is on Saturday and I've been seeing pictures on Facebook and stuff and um looks awesome some of the kids from the downtown church are being involved and helping and um God's going to do things in Millardal.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

That's so cool and and I would just say listeners if if you've been considering a mission trip as a family for your youth and your family you know that are in our youth program here or perhaps you're just hearing Bernie and you're hearing this like I highly recommend it. And James I thank you for the groundwork that you've laid for the partnerships that FBC has longstanding partnerships and getting to see the kingdom advance in the can Cancun area it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Yeah that's fun. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Absolutely let's go and and of course everything James is you know saying in those conversations you know actually in Spanish like I was thinking about that too as you were talking.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Well thank you again James is there anything as we wrap it up that you want to add to or share before we hit stop no just like I said let's go do you know if you haven't done missions it's it's time. I love it. If you haven't done missions it's time and if you're having some questions or you're curious reach out to the church for the youth group you can definitely talk to Pastor Garrett or Pastor Andrea for the um kids you can actually you can talk to Miss Stacy or Miss Teresa and they all work with James to make these trips happen and you will just be amazed at what the Lord will do.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Thank you thank you James thank you for listening I have no doubt this has been an encouragement to you and I hope you'll come back again next time thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

We are so thankful that you joined our podcast today. We would love to hear any feedback you may have for us. Remember Psalm 67 says may God be gracious to us and bless us. Make his face shine on us so then your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations don't forget why the Lord blesses us so that we bless you to us. Until next time God bless