By Pancho Madrid, GCLF Pastor
On March 27, 2021 while at a dinner for my son’s birthday, I received a phone call from someone who said that he was looking for a church. At first, I thought it was a prank call from one of the church leaders, but I soon realized it wasn’t. Junrie had just completed a 14-day quarantine as he had come to Guam from the Philippines as an H2 worker. We picked him up the next day to bring him to church but had no idea how God was at work.
H2 workers are overseas contract workers with the type of US Visa where they are not allowed to bring family members. From the start, it was evident that Junrie was a Christian who desired to make the gospel known and invite his fellow H2 workers to church. That was our prayer from the start. A few months later, he brought another believer to church, and another one a couple of months later, then another after that. The first group of men was all believers.
On November 28, 2021, the GLCF Men’s Ministry named “The Talayerus” (“talaya” is the Chamorro word for a fishing net) had a fishing fellowship and these men invited a non-Christian co-worker to come along. That person was led to faith in Christ that morning. That same evening, three other men from the same construction company visited our church and two of them were led to faith in Christ. The Sunday following, three more men, then another and another.
On January 1, 2022, six men out of the eleven professions of faith declared their faith in believer’s By Pancho Madrid, GCLF Pastor baptism. New Year’s Day has always been one of the most anticipated family gatherings since the inception of GCLF. New H2 workers joined us for that event and three more men came to Christ on the first Sunday service of 2022.
The church leadership sensed what the Lord is doing and after much prayer and consideration felt the need to start a “bus ministry” in order to provide transportation to the H2 workers. God worked providentially in the hearts of many people, including the auto-dealership owner on the island, and a partnership with Hawaii Pacific Baptists and GCLF was able to purchase a 15-passenger van.
Our Christmas Eve Service with the Pinoy-style fiesta celebration was planned around welcoming our new brothers and guests with the intention of easing their homesickness away from their families during the Christmas season. It was a great success. The highlight of the evening was that three men accepted the Lord. I’m sure they won’t forget that date, we won’t.
We started a new believer’s class as our way to do the follow-up and usher the “babies” to a deeper understanding of the decision they made, grow into a deeper relationship with our Father, and present the many ways they could serve in the church.
Thank you for praying for us as we continue to serve God and share His love with others.