Around the World
Creating a Safety Net
Most boys at the juvenile prison where we minister have lived on the streets with no one to care for them.
These boys, boys as young as twelve years of age and up through age eighteen, have endured abuse, suffered from drug addiction, and gone without any formal education. Our hearts go out to them. We pour out as much love as we can on them every week holding Bible studies, leading worship, playing games, and enjoying meals together. The time we get to spend with them is making a huge impact on their lives. Three of the boys feel a calling to become pastors. Others want to become Christian leaders in other areas. Yet sadly, a lot of these boys are afraid to be released from prison because that means going back to the same environment that led them to where they are. It has been our dream and prayer to provide a safe place for these precious young boys when they are released from prison.
Our dream is finally coming to fruition. God opened up an incredible opportunity in November of 2019 for us to purchase a property in Nogales, Mexico, that we can use as a safe house for the boys when they are released. This property comes with a four-bedroom house and a large, partially constructed building behind the house. Once finished, it will have a living quarters complete with bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. There is room on the property to build a community center that can be used to hold Bible studies, church services, and community outreaches.
In addition, God has provided just the right house parents, Jaime and Mary Fuentes.
Jaime and Mary’s Story
Jaime and Mary Fuentes are no strangers to troubled backgrounds. We met Mary in 2012 at a prison Bible study we hold each week at a women’s prison. When Mary was just six years old, her father kidnapped her. She never got to know her mother. Then when she was just 14 years of age, Mary’s father died in an accident. She thought, “Why me? Why my dad?”
Four years later Mary met Jaime, who would become her husband. He was working as a drug dealer, and Mary became his top helper. She enjoyed the comforts of having nice clothing, cars, jewelry, and a house. The couple became parents to three beautiful children. As time went on, Mary started using drugs herself and became an addict. Christians would come to the house, but Mary always rejected them because she thought that if God truly loved her, her dad would still be alive. Even though she loved her children, she was afraid to change.
When Jaime was 13 years old, his father abandoned the family and Jaime became the father figure to his seven siblings. His family needed more income so Jaime decided to go to Nogales, Arizona, to look for a better job to help out his mom. That’s when he became a drug dealer. While running drugs back and forth from Mexico to the U.S., he ended up in jail for the first time. After his release he returned to running drugs and made lots of money, but soon he started using the drugs he was selling. He was 31 years old when he met Mary.
It wasn’t long before federal officers caught up with Jaime. He was jailed and soon deported. The couple lost everything and landed in Nogales, Mexico. Mary prayed God would do a miracle in her life. Although it was very difficult, both she and Jaime quit doing drugs and moved back to the U.S. with their five children.
Jaime found a legitimate job, enabling him to afford a house and cars. Nonetheless, in 2007 the family was deported and lost everything again. Now with six children, Jaime and Mary felt hopeless. Life in Mexico is hard, especially with six kids. When it seemed like things couldn’t get worse, on October 11, 2011, Mary was falsely accused of a crime and landed in prison. Jaime was forced to take over both dad and mom duties. It was not easy, as they were living in an abandoned house with dirt floors. The house had been gutted and had no electricity or water. There were no windows, doors, bathrooms, or kitchen.
Even though it seemed that their situation was hopeless, God answered Mary’s prayer for a miracle. That miracle occurred the day we met Mary at the prison and she accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. She was baptized in the women’s prison! We prayed with her for her freedom, and she was released from prison five months later.
When Mary told Jaime she had accepted Jesus as her Savior and that she met some missionaries who were going to help them, Jaime didn’t believe her. No one had ever done anything that nice for them.
We were happy to help the family get their lives in order, but then their son Isaias became very ill. He technically died, but God revived him and gave him his life back. That miracle really struck Mary.
Even so, the Fuentes family had their new-found faith tested. In 2014, during Isaias’s continued struggle with lung problems and seizures, Mary found out that after being cancer free for seven years, her leukemia had returned. She had to take a bus to and from her four-hour chemotherapy sessions. Jaime was left to tend to Isaias’s serious health issues and care for their other kids as Mary was not able to. Yet the couple stayed committed to God and relied on Him to heal both Isaias and Mary. In the midst of their struggles, they asked us if they could serve in ministry alongside us. They remained faithful, continued to seek God, and eventually became part of our ministry team, God is on the Move.
Now Jaime ministers with us at the boys’ prison every Thursday. He even helps us baptize them. He understands the young men, having himself experienced drug addiction and life in prison. His advice carries great weight.
Jaime said, “God has made me into a new creature that is thirsty for His Word. He made me a man, a father, a husband, and He gave me a new life full of love. My father abandoned me when I was young, but God, my heavenly Father, has never left me.”
Mary has been cancer free since November 2017. She serves and ministers weekly to the women who are in the same prison where she herself was once incarcerated. She reflected on her journey:
These missionaries didn’t care who we were or what we had done. They came and showed us love and helped us like no one else did. They showed us God’s love has no boundaries. God brought my youngest son, Isaias, back from the dead. Only He could do that. After I accepted Jesus as my Savior, He changed my life from a life of pain, sadness, hopelessness, and drugs into that of a happily baptized, married woman with six wonderful kids. Now God rules my life and I am the happiest I have ever been. I know God gave His only Son for me and that He loves us no matter who or what we are.“
About the Author
Bill and Fayth McConnell (far right) are Open Bible missionaries to Northern Mexico. Click here if you would like to learn more about their ministry or to support their ministry.
My wife Lois and I have been working in the ministry for forty-one years, and we have seen God do so many amazing things. Our lives have been changed as we have witnessed major revival in Spain and Argentina and seen God move in countries across the globe. During the past seventeen years as I have served as Director of Global Missions, we have seen the Lord call many new people to the mission field, we’ve started new ministries, and we have begun brand new works in several countries.
Despite the beauty of these experiences, serving so many years without taking a break started to take its toll on me. I would read Matthew 11:28 (NIV), “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” and I would think, “Well, I don’t feel very rested; I feel tired.”
Our Creator knows that our souls need rest; they need time to pull away and unplug. God created the Sabbath, and humans were designed to have times of Sabbath when we allow our minds, bodies, and souls to pause and breathe.
In the ministry of Global Missions, I’d needed to make several tough decisions and navigate intense challenges, and I had not allowed my mind, body, and soul to assimilate afterward. When we are working for the Lord, whether in the pastorate or in other leadership positions, we feel the need to press on. In a culture where busyness is an obsession and being still is seen as being apathetic, rest is often equated with laziness.
Humans were designed to have times of Sabbath when we allow our minds, bodies, and souls to pause and breathe.
Without rest, however, we can miss the presence of God. He invites us into rest so that we might know Him more deeply. As Mark Buchanan says in his book, The Rest of God, “Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart.”
In May of this year, the board of Global Missions allowed me to take a five-week sabbatical. The first week was an adjustment, but as the days progressed, I felt my hunger for God return. I spent long stretches reading the Word and praying (which at this stage involved more listening than talking). As I finally processed the challenging season I had experienced, I felt a new peace sweep over me. I regained focus and ambition for the ministry and remembered what I already knew: God was always in control of everything.
Today in the Church we crave revival, longing for spiritual awakening. But to have a spiritual awakening, we need to first have spiritual rest and renewal, which starts by taking a pause (sabbatical). Because the truth is, the work is never done (or never done to our satisfaction). There will always be more work than we can finish. When we rest in God, we are able to encounter the parts of Him we have been missing, which is a gift.
When I was in Trinidad during April 2024 for the 70th Anniversary of Open Bible Standard Churches, we attended several church services. Each time, when an invitation was given to come to the altar after the preaching of God’s Word, the people would swarm to the altar. It was so refreshing to see such a spiritual awakening, to see people so hungry for more of God. However, this time of awakening in Trinidad started after months of intercessory prayer, with people taking time to pause, seek God’s face, and listen to His voice.
God is always speaking, but we are not always listening. We fail to be intentional, forgetting to pause and connect with Him, ignoring His invitation to boldly enter His throne room and receive what we need. We fail to listen, missing His words that sometimes pierce but always heal.
Sabbatical is more than a vacation; it is a disposition of the heart.
Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Just like the deer, if we want God to fill us, we must stop and take the time to drink His living water.
Now, as I endeavor to incorporate sabbatical into my everyday life, I try to leave work at the office and not bring it home. I know how difficult this can be for us who are in ministry, but the truth is, not everything is urgent. I don’t have to answer the email that came at 6:00 pm. Sometimes I leave my laptop at work or in my car (which is in the garage), so I am not tempted to answer anything after I get off work. Weekends belong to my family, and I try to keep those days sacred, spending time in the presence of my family and the presence of God.
Spiritual rest starts when we quiet our minds and allow God to speak to us. Sabbatical is more than a vacation; it is a disposition of the heart that keeps your life focused in the right direction. When our spirits reconnect with the Holy Spirit, we receive healing and renewal on every level, creating space for the spiritual awakening we all long for.
About the Author
Vince McCarty
Vince McCarty serves as the Executive Director of Global Missions, giving oversight to Open Bible’s work in 55 countries of the world. He is thankful for the great missionary staff and all the national leaders he has the opportunity to serve with. He would like us to remember that the Great Commission is too big for anyone to accomplish alone and too important not to try to do together.
When the Global Missions Board announces travel plans to meet with our pastors, missionaries, or field directors, we get very little pushback when we visit countries such as Mexico, nations in Central America, or the Caribbean islands. It is expected we will visit impoverished nations. However, when we recently announced that we were heading to France, people were shocked. The French are known for extravagance, wealth, and the finer things. They are known for incredible food, expensive clothing, and the best wine in the world. This country is not impoverished in the same way as many countries we have assisted. But France is facing another, very real kind of poverty: spiritual poverty.
In the 1970’s, France experienced a revival that increased the number of Christians from one percent of the population to over thirty-five percent. The Lord was moving mightily, and the nation was changing. People were fleeing from strongholds and running to Christ! Within ten years the revival was silenced due to persecution. and Christians fled to other countries for their own safety. France again became a nation with Christians numbering less than one percent; they became what could be called a spiritual third world country.
France is facing another, very real kind of poverty: spiritual poverty.
But in the midst of all this, there was a remnant burning. There was a group of believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, that KNEW God had a plan for the nation of France, a plan to prosper the nation with His full gospel message. Despite facing a hyper-secularized and ungodly nation, the remnant kept holding onto the ancient hope of Jesus Christ.
In 1989, Pastor Michel Marvane and his wife Joelle moved to Dijon, France, to plant a church. They trusted in the Word of the Lord and began to seek His face for their city and nation. But God had plans to use Pastor Michel to reach the world. In 1996 the Lord sent him to Madagascar, where he established missionary work to reach that nation. That work spread and he, along with other partners in ministry, developed the Antioch Network, based out of Dijon, France, where he serves as the organization’s president. Since then, the Antioch Network has planted multiple churches, schools, and higher education institutions, as well as breathed new life into existing churches in France and throughout Africa. Each church has different goals and visions but one solid mission: expand the kingdom of God!
In the nation of France there are currently twenty-three churches in the Antioch Network. In 2010, Pastor Michel and his ministry partner, Pastor Phillipe Montuire, set a goal to have fifty new churches planted by 2037, and they are off to a great start! Since 2010, eight churches have been planted, four are currently in the beginning stages of planting, and ten churches are seeking to join the network.
France is on a slow incline in spiritual growth; for the first time in a couple of decades the percentage of active Evangelical Christians has surpassed one percent of the population (surpassing 745,000 people). While we rejoice in that number, we also know that we have a LOT of work yet to do.
In March of 2024, the Global Missions Board had the pleasure and honor of traveling to Dijon, France, to meet the leadership of Antioch Network and the pastors of Le Tabernacle, the largest evangelical church in France. We got to hear the heart of their leadership and see the fruit of their labor. We attended church with them, preached in their churches, and prayed with the people there.
The Antioch Network has… breathed new life into existing churches in France and throughout Africa.
The Global Missions Board is delighted to share that the Antioch Network has chosen to come under the cover of Open Bible Churches as ambassadors of Global Missions. They saw what God has historically done in Open Bible and asked us to partner with them to expand the kingdom of God in France, Africa, and eventually across Europe!
Because we so fully believe in this mission, the Global Missions Board chose the Antioch Network to be the focal point of our 2025 MVP Global Harvest offering. We are asking Open Bible Churches in the U.S. to financially support our endeavor to expand the kingdom of God in France! In 2025, we are looking to raise $150,000 for the Antioch Network to help plant five new churches!
About the Author
Mark Hornback
Mark Hornback has served as the lead pastor at First Church of the Open Bible of Ottumwa since June 2017. He has been part of the Global Missions Board since 2022 and has been actively involved in MOVE ministries since 2020. Mark is married to Jennifer, and together they have three kids: Alex, Lydia, and Henry.
Discipling the next generation has been a value of Open Bible since its inception, and this commitment has been shown through a variety of Global Missions initiatives worldwide. From orphanages in India, to schools in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, to feeding kitchens throughout Latin America, to working with teenage inmates in Mexico, to youth camps in Ukraine and Uganda, Open Bible intentionally invests in children and youth. Across cultures, both traditional and culturally specific approaches are employed by Open Bible churches. The common theme in all these initiatives is to reach, disciple, and engage the next generation for the Kingdom of God!
Japan is one of several countries where exciting things are happening because of Next Gen investment. Despite Christians making up less than one percent of the population, Japan Open Bible Churches show profound commitment and creativity in reaching beyond the four walls of their churches to the next generation.
Japan churches have made it a priority to actively address social needs, enhancing their accessibility to the community. Machida Bible Church in the Tokyo area, pastored by Yutaka and Sakie Yoshinaga, hosts a monthly “Curry Day,” tackling the issue of children eating alone at night due to their parents’ work schedules. This event invites children to join church members for affordable curry rice in a warm, welcoming space. The aim of such initiatives is to present the church as a safe haven and to foster meaningful relationships with neighborhood families.
In a similar effort to connect with the community’s elementary-aged children, Machida Bible appeals to their sweet tooth! Once a month they transform the church into a “Sweet Cafe,” giving all attendees coupons to exchange for tasty treats. Church members then invite children to participate in other activities such as dance, playing musical instruments, sports, and games. The Sweet Cafe has proven to be a welcoming space for both children and mothers with young children.
Despite Christians making up less than one percent of the population, Japan Open Bible Churches show profound commitment and creativity in reaching beyond the four walls of their churches to the next generation.
In modern Japan, mastering English is more than just a practical skill; it is an effective way to engage students who might not typically associate with Christianity and to introduce them to Jesus. Church English classes use conventional language acquisition methods alongside unconventional ones, such as praise songs, dance, camps, and Christmas programs. Additionally, monthly student-parent gatherings feature illustrated Bible stories and related activities. These English classes resonate with Japanese youth, and Open Bible Japan welcomes native English-speaking missionaries to join them in this venture.
Laying the foundation for faith and discipleship is a priority, and Sunday School is where much of this happens in Japan’s Open Bible churches. However, it is the active participation in ministry – even for the younger generation – that solidifies that foundation. Therefore, elementary students regularly participate in Sunday worship teams, playing the drums, the guitar, or keyboards. Church youth groups also form “Mission Go” teams to support smaller churches in youth evangelism initiatives. These teams have helped run a basketball clinic for the community’s youth and assist in local children’s ministries.
Partnering with Open Bible missionaries in Thailand, Japanese youth take part in mission trips. These cross-cultural experiences leave a profound impact on their lives. One teen noted, “I led the worship time and thought to myself, ‘I’m praising God in another country!’ I was deeply moved by how sincerely the people worshipped and my tears flowed uncontrollably.” Another participant remarked, “I could see the strong tie between Thai Buddhism and their landmarks. I realized the similarities with Japan and that we must pray that these places in both Thailand and Japan be dedicated to God rather than idols.” Japanese youth’s active participation on mission trips helps deepen their faith, encourage gift development, and give perspective on how to effectively pray for other cultures. Japan’s ministry to and through its children is a powerful testimony to what can happen when we entrust the gospel to the next generation.
For some, ministry to children and youth is seen as secondary. Global Missions’ dedication to fostering a legacy of faith to the next generation is more than commendable; it is biblical. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt. 19:14 NIV). Thank you for your support of Open Bible churches worldwide through the investment of prayer, time, energy, and finance as we seek to reach, disciple, and engage the next generation for the Kingdom of God!
About the Author
Tammy Swailes
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE Global Bible College to disciple and equip leaders throughout Europe and beyond is a great fit! Tammy has lived in Europe since 1999 – first in Hungary and now Ukraine. Before that, she was in Japan as well as Spokane, Washington. She now serves as INSTE regional director in Europe, assisting INSTE programs in five languages. Tammy has her undergraduate degrees in both Missions and Christian Education, and a MA in Intercultural Studies. Photography, good coffee, multi-cultural experiences, and the family’s Yorkie are some of Tammy’s favorite things.
