Around the World
God Changes the Narrative
By Michael Lumbard
You know what it is like: before a movie is even partway over, you already understand the plot and have predicted the conclusion. But then it happens. There is an unexpected plot twist which leads to a change in the narrative and a surprise ending.
God specializes in surprise endings. When life has written the destiny of a person’s life, God flips the script. Suddenly there is a surprise ending that no one saw coming.
One such story is set in a squatter community on the beautiful island of Trinidad, the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. It was there that Pastors Ansyl and Gail Grant, sent out from Church of the Open Bible in Marabella, Trinidad, were called to minister around twenty years ago. It is in this community that Bayshore Open Bible Church was trying to bring light and hope, including to a toddler like most, whose future was already determined by poverty, a broken home, crime, and gangs.
When five-year-old Kenson, a boy with the street name of “Boysie,” came to church for the first time, like many others, his future was already set. His father had several children by two different women. His brother, as a teenager, was involved with guns and gangs. By the time he was seventeen, this same brother was charged with murder and sent to prison. Kenson’s sisters all became pregnant in their teens. In primary school, Kenson was involved in fights and viewed as a future gang leader. As he looks back on that time in his young life, Kenson says that he had three options for his future: a life on the block with gangs and drugs, life in jail like his brother, or death!
Pastors Ansyl and Gail Grant saw Kenson differently. They saw a young boy who was playful, funny, and full of joy. They saw a potential leader. They made the choice to personally invest in Kenson’s life.
Ministry for the church in the Bayshore community had seemed to be an uphill battle at first. When the Grants first arrived, they were overwhelmed with the conditions and had no idea how to pastor the handful of people. But then God gave them a strategy for spiritual and community transformation. They found an open door with the children and youth, so they determined to focus on ministries like Sunday School, a pre-school/kindergarten program, Vacation Bible School, a homework center, and kids’ fun days. Concentrating on young Kenson seemed like another good step toward transforming the next generation of the community.
It was clear to them that they had to get this young boy out of the toxic environment of the community. The Grants began taking Kenson home, about twenty to thirty minutes away, on weekends, but the influence of the Bayshore community was so powerful that they needed to take stronger action. By the time he was eight, the Grants fully adopted Kenson with his birth parents’ permission. Yet the young boy continued to have behavior problems in school. By age nine, he still did not know the alphabet.
A special academic team, comprised of Kenson’s teacher, the Grants, and their adult children, Andell, Marcelline, and Renee, was put together to help him turn his academics around. The transformation was so dramatic that by the age of sixteen, Kenson was awarded a Certificate of Academic Achievement by the Mayor of San Fernando in Trinidad. God awakened faith in Kenson as well. (See the feature image at the top of this page of Kenson with the Grants as he receives his award.)
Kenson’s dramatic story that began with a young boy with no future became one of a nineteen-year-old man of God preparing for a career as a commissioned officer in the Trinidad and Tobago military. These days wherever he goes, Kenson is introduced as a minister, an evangelist, and even a missionary. Three of the last four people baptized by the Bayshore church were reached because of Kenson’s ministry. Kenson is committed to raising his future family in a totally different environment than the one in which he began. His goal is to help people and get them off the streets so that they too can find hope.
My wife, Pam, and I have visited Bayshore weekly since 2010. It does not even look the same today as it did when the Pastor Ansyl and Gail first arrived. They recognize God’s hand in their adopted son’s life. They say, “This is a story written by God before we even became pastors in the Bayshore community.”
I call it a surprise ending. God specializes in turning Sauls into Pauls. Regardless of the storyline written by society, God is able to change the narrative. He wrote a surprise ending before you were born. Like He said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you . . . I knew you . . . and set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5).
Let God show you a surprise ending for people without hope. There are more Kensons ready to be transformed.
About the Author
Mike Lumbard and his wife, Pamela, are directors of the School of Global Leadership, a missions training school in Trinidad and Tobago. They train future missionaries to have God’s heart for the world and God’s heart for the lost. Through on-the-job training and missions intensives, they show people how to live and minister cross-culturally. Mike and Pam are visionary leaders with a heart for the lost and hurting.
Have you ever wondered, What in the world are our Open Bible missionaries doing now? We wish we could visit every church or sit down over coffee and share what God is doing where we serve—but that isn’t always possible.
So this month, we’ve gathered brief notes from missionaries around the world. As you’ve read these updates from around the world, we invite you to pray for our missionaries—their families, their ministries, and the communities they serve. Please also share these stories with your church so others can join in prayer.
Use the interactive map below to see the updates:
Trouble seeing the map? Click HERE
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE 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.
Ask Open Bible pastors in Africa what the biggest problem in their church is and most reply with one word: REVIVAL! Just as Saul once ravaged the early church in Acts 8, our African brothers today face similar conditions: harassment, arrest, and even death for following Christ. But in the face of persecution, our churches are experiencing rapid growth in thirteen African nations. They’re calling for our help, not to alleviate the suffering, but to build new church facilities to serve their expanding congregations and communities.
The Global Harvest Offering of 2026 is “Building Hope in Africa,” and it is our opportunity to participate in this revival. In this initiative, we will partner with our missionaries and national directors to fund thirteen new church building projects across the continent. God is using faithful missionaries and nationals to plant churches, raise leaders, and reach communities with the hope only found in Jesus!
… in the face of persecution, our churches are experiencing rapid growth in thirteen African nations.
Our missionary partners are many: the Godwins, the Kopps, the Parkers, Okon Obot, Peter Mahoye, the Moores, the Welches, and our brothers and sisters throughout the Antioch Network.
Thirteen churches.
Thirteen countries.
One goal:
to raise the $200,000 needed to
cover the costs for all thirteen projects.
With over 230 Open Bible churches in the United States, we can meet the financial goal of the Global Harvest Offering if each church gives $875. Alternatively, just 2,000 people giving $100 this year would meet the goal. Your support in this effort helps build more than walls; it builds hope, community and the Kingdom of God. Look for the QR code or this link to give to Building Hope in Africa today. Thank you for your partnership to build hope for Africa.
On October 31 – November 5, 2025, Japan Open Bible Churches celebrated their seventieth anniversary. Global Missions Director Vince and Lois McCarty, Open Bible President Michael and Julie Nortune and I were honored to join them for this celebratory occasion.
My own connection with Japan goes back to my twenty-third birthday when I boarded a plane to Kobe with two suitcases, only five words in my Japanese vocabulary, and a heart full of missionary zeal. During my six years there, the Japanese church shaped me deeply as both a missionary and a person. When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart. Joining them again to celebrate seventy years brought me real joy!
When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart.
Japan Open Bible has become a true partner in ministry with Open Bible Churches globally, a partnership especially visible across Asia. The anniversary celebration honored the legacy of Japan Open Bible missionaries and the heritage of churches they planted while also affirming the importance of today’s smaller, community-based congregations. We visited, preached in, and celebrated with churches and pastors in both eastern and western Japan.
Japan’s geographical isolation and a 250-year ban on Christian missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave Japan a reputation as “the missionaries’ graveyard.” Yet, after World War II some US veterans, having seen the spiritual vacuum in Japan, returned as carriers of the hope of the Gospel. The Jake Collins, Eddie Carnes, and Phil Rounds families were among the first in the 1950s era to be sent by Open Bible Churches.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness. Even though fewer than one percent of Japanese identify as Christian, today across Japan we see our churches, large and small, alive with joy and power of the Holy Spirit.
One of the early converts, now ninety-year-old Yaeko Yoshinaga, is likely the oldest surviving member of those first Japan Open Bible congregations. As an eighteen-year-old, she lived with the Rounds family helping in the home. She loved their children and learned to love potatoes (more than rice) as they did, but even more, came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Yaeko says, “I would not have believed in Jesus if I had not met Mr. Rounds, the missionary.“ She and her husband later pastored for 45 years, and today her son and wife pastor the flourishing church. Decades later, the flame of God’s love still burns brightly in Yaeko sensei. Her love, joy, humility, and faith impact every generation in the church. She remains a powerful reminder of how one relationship can change the direction of an entire life.
Pastor Yoshio Ishikawa told me the story of how he came to Jesus as a young boy. In the late 1960s, ten-year-old Yoshio’s family lived near an Open Bible Church in the Sumida neighborhood of Tokyo. He recalls, “When I was ten, I saw a TV drama about an incurable disease. It scared me, and without really knowing why, I walked into the church in my neighborhood that I had passed by many times. That church was Sumida Open Bible – the church I now pastor.”
Today, Pastor Ishikawa uses his talent as a skilled musician to reach people in new, non-traditional ways. He teaches a group ukulele class as a bridge to the gospel. Students learn to play the ukulele, then hear a teaching from the Bible and join in prayer. Other approaches, like book clubs, English lessons, and choirs, give churches relational ways to connect and open doors for evangelism.
In fact, many “unconventional” forms of evangelism are used to touch lives in churches in Japan. Often, churches and Christians invest years building trust and relationships before someone decides to follow Jesus. In my own experience, I saw that converts under my ministry were often a result of groundwork laid by others before me.
Looking ahead, Japan Open Bible embraces a bold vision: to plant ten new churches throughout the country in the next decade. I, for one, believe it can happen! God has not abandoned Japan. The hope of the Gospel that the missionaries brought with them back in the 1950s continues to burn brightly in our brothers and sisters of Japan Open Bible. May God fan that flame as they carry His hope across the country in ways we have not yet imagined!
As I leave Japan once again, I reflect and am grateful to have shared in the celebrations of what God has done, excitedly anticipating what He will do next!
Listen to Yaeko Yoshinaga’s testimony:
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE 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.
