Around the World
Let’s Not Go Empty-handed!
By Travis Hunsaker
This past November we spent some time visiting family in Iowa. The reason for our visit was not the same reason many of you gathered with family, for Thanksgiving. We returned to Iowa due to the passing of my grandfather, Clyde “Neil” Hunsaker, on November 18, 2021. I was reminded once again that this life is temporary. As James 4:14 says, we are a “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” These past few weeks I’ve been contemplating life and death. The truth is, Grandpa was 85 years old. The fact that he was at the end of his life doesn’t diminish the pain of losing him. But as the hours and days passed from the time of his passing, I found a glimmer of hope and joy amidst the pain and sadness as I thought about the undeniable fact that we will once again meet in heaven.
As I allowed my mind to dream and wonder about that day, I tried to imagine what Grandpa will look like in his heavenly body (1 Corinthians 15). I pictured him once again young and strong, able to move mountains. I pictured him with broad shoulders, rough hands, charcoal black hair and beard, and a half grin on his face, much the way he looked when I was only a little boy standing waist high to him. I have imagined how he met Jesus face to face for the first time at the pearly gates of heaven. And even in the grief, I felt joy in my heart because I knew that Grandpa Neil knew his Savior (Philippians 3:20-21).
The idea that heaven really is not that far away was cultivated and began to grow in my spirit. Heaven is not a faraway land or a mystical place; it is a place that is much closer than we care to admit. As I began to meditate on this, I believe God started to reveal some truths to me.
Thinking of going to heaven is much like my family returning to Iowa. My wife, Heather, and I are missionaries to Mexico and live in Tijuana. Each year our home church, First Church of the Open Bible in Clear Lake, Iowa, brings our family back during the Christmas season for a time of rejuvenation and reconnection with our family and friends. Every year I start a list of things I want to bring back with me to Iowa. I start formulating this list weeks, if not months, before we leave because I do not want to forget anything.
Iowa is just a 30-hour road trip from our home in Tijuana. You can see it on the map. It is a real place, a place with which we are familiar. Iowa is the place where we plan to visit family and friends during the holidays; a place to which we prepare ourselves to go.
Heaven is also a real place, a place that we can know about and should be familiar with. A place that we are to be preparing to visit for eternity. A place where we are excited to travel and meet with our loved ones who have gone before us. When my Grandpa Neil crossed over from death to eternal life, he was met first and foremost by his Savior, Jesus Christ, my sister Nel, who passed in 2006, and numerous other family members who have gone before him. Now on the other side of eternity, Grandpa Neil waits for us so we can be reunited as a family in our perfect, heavenly bodies that the Lord will bestow on us.
Just as I create a list of things to take when I am preparing to go to Iowa, we should have a list for heaven as well. Who do we want to take with us to heaven? Which of our family members do not have Christ as their Savior and need to accept Jesus? Which of our friends need to hear the gospel one more time? I want to have a list of those I love, whom God has purposely placed in my life. It is often most difficult to witness to those loved ones in our lives who have not yet accepted Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Sometimes it can be most difficult to witness to our longtime, dear friends. And yet if strangers coming to Christ are worthy of all of heaven rejoicing, how much more so our unsaved loved ones?
In these times we are living in, I would encourage you to focus on the trip that really matters, our eternity in heaven – not just for ourselves, but for our unsaved family members and friends as well. Make a list with me of the people you love that are not yet in the family of Christ. Pray for their hearts and souls to be won for Christ. Don’t give up! Tell them of Christ again from a position of LOVE. Who cares if they use some coarse language or belittle you while you are sharing with them? Their eternal souls are worth it! I rejoice with every stranger that I see come to Christ, but how much more so when it is a lost family member or friend. I want those people with me in heaven, an eternity with the Lord where our tears are wiped from our faces and our disgrace has been removed (Isaiah 25:8).
If you’d like to support the Hunsakers’ mission, you can donate HERE
About the Author
Travis and Heather Hunsaker have been married for 17 years. They, along with their children, Wesley (10) and Mya (8), live in Tijuana, Mexico. They have served at Puente de Amistad as missionaries since 2016 and have been the directors since 2019. Travis and Heather say they are just “low-key people who want to serve the Lord and help others along in their journey to serve.”
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.
Around the World
Hope Rising in Venezuela: How Open Bible Churches are Transforming a Nation Through Faith and Compassion
Despite Venezuela’s fifteen-year ongoing humanitarian crisis, with nearly seventy percent of the population enduring multi-tiered poverty and almost half facing severe humanitarian needs, a movement of hope has unfolded in Open Bible Churches. Across the country, Open Bible is not only responding to urgent physical needs but is also nurturing a generation of believers in faith and service to stabilize Venezuela’s future.
Open Bible is not only responding to urgent physical needs but is also nurturing a generation of believers in faith and service to stabilize Venezuela’s future.
Church soup kitchens have long ministered beyond their walls to ensure that vulnerable children receive a hot meal. They also see that families receive food supplies, clothing, and shoes, bringing tangible relief to their neighborhoods. The Church has also stepped in where public services falter through medical outreaches – with eye exams, vaccinations, and even free haircuts. Through these initiatives, a vibrant children and youth ministry has emerged. The youth are not just recipients of aid but have become leaders, actively involved in church life – in worship, evangelism, and home groups.
Often, children and youth have no Christian family support and are the only believers in their homes. Many were left with relatives when their parents went to nearby countries in search of a better life. So, the church teaches and empowers youth to grow spiritually and practically. These “little-big giants” are proving to be a wave of hope as they grow “in wisdom and stature, and favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
Venezuela’s church is resilient, reinventing itself to meet the social, spiritual, and familial challenges with creativity
Over the years, events like the “Good News Festival” have sparked revival, resulting in Open Bible church plants. This festival, focused on children, reflects God’s heart for the youngest and most vulnerable, and brings new life and whole communities into faith. It is not unusual for entire families to be brought to Christ through their children.
Despite the widespread emigration of many adults, Venezuela’s church is resilient, reinventing itself to meet the social, spiritual, and familial challenges with creativity and, above all, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Open Bible brothers and sisters in Venezuela demonstrate how the Church can thrive despite adversity by living out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors, serve the least, and disciple this generation. Through continued partnership and prayer, we look forward to seeing Venezuela transformed by the hope, faith, and love found in Jesus. If you’d like to support our Open Bible family in Venezuela as they share Christ’s love and serve those in greatest need, please send a check to:
| Open Bible Churches 2020 Bell Ave. Des Moines, IA 50315 | Make checks payable to Global Missions of Open Bible Churches and write “Venezuela humanitarian aid” in the memo line. |
Thank you for partnering with us to extend Christ’s love and mercy in Venezuela.
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.
