#132 GDNTR S5 EP 5: HOPE: Hold On Pain Ends and the Power of Faith With Mike Acer

Michael is not with us , amen , but we do have another Michael in the room , amen , who's going to be joining us for our conversation today ? Michael , you want to go ahead and say hello to our listeners .

We pray for every ear that is here , god , that they will see the diamond that you see in them . God , we pray that you'll continue to just lead God and order our steps . We bless you , we thank you . We rebuke the devil and any tactics he would throw in the mix to try to distract us and throw us off of our path .

God , we rebuke him now in the name of Jesus . Father , that you would have your way . In Jesus Christ's name , we do pray . Amen , amen and amen .

It starts with a radical salvation , really God finding that diamond and pulling them out of the rough . God creating that and condensing that carbon , creating that diamond and really giving them a brand new life . They made the decision to follow Jesus when I was about four and a half , somewhere around there , and that's what changed everything . From there .

I grew up then in Mission Field . We smuggled Bibles into China when I was five years old . We did all kinds of poverty relief work . I got to see firsthand and play with kids in deep , despairing poverty . They were , you know , soccer friends of mine and such right . So then I moved back to the United States and I went down to that pastoral ministry .

After 18 years I got to a spot where I was just . I was ready to do something different . I was tired , my soul was weary and I was at a barbecue and God provided in that moment in an incredible way . I threw out there not even a serious endeavor , just kind of said , hey , I'd love to look at something different for a while .

And a friend said I'd hire you in a heartbeat . So I went and went to work for him in a global company and did that for a while , wrote a book while I was doing that on public speaking . It turned into a bestselling book . I lost a career in consulting for five years .

But then you know how sometimes you're doing something and on the outward everything looks good , the money's good , the situation's good , everything's good . But as I looked at life , I really missed the equipping , the saints or acts of ministry . And I thought you know what I'd love to do ?

And for years I had been the chair of a board of a mission organization called Go On the Mission and I thought you know what would be really fun would be to be the executive director at Go on the Mission or something like it . And then , lo and behold , a couple months later I got a call saying hey , the executive director has retired .

Would you consider applying ? And so I applied . A couple months later I ended up getting the position and now I'm the executive director at Go on the Mission and I recently wrote a book about finding your own personal mission on life , on purpose . So that's a little bit about who I am .

We can blame it on inflation , and we can blame it over this , that and the other , but the point of it all is to break the cycle . You know , they say it's a recession , but I choose not to participate in it . It's kind of like well , how can you not participate in something that's happening globally , but it all begins with your mind ?

Oh , you're fine , and that missional purpose , yeah , and so really , even when you think about life on purpose and you think about your own personal mission statement , I want you to think about how these three different areas might contribute to you helping someone break out of cycle of poverty . So here's the three huge areas that break the cycle of poverty .

First of all is nourishment . You know , if we just pray for somebody , say I'm praying for you and we have bread and don't give it , then our religion , james says , is empty . So it's not just praying for people , it's also participating , and one of the things that we need to do to provide people the break of poverty is nourishment .

They have to have really , they have to have water , they have to have food and they have to have health . Now , in the United States there is a fair amount of poverty as well .

Of course it looks a little bit different because there are enough different programs through churches in different areas that these basic needs are met water , food and and some to some degree , health .

The united states , really the the health part of this , nourishment , is probably the one that contributes to poverty the most if people don't have something saved up and they don't have health insurance and also be given a major accident . That lack of health contributes to not being able to work , which contributes to poverty .

However , if you look at other places , if you look at Africa , latin America and India , you'll see that water , that core , elemental need of humanity , is lacking . Core , elemental need of humanity , is lacking , yeah , and you'll see that food is lacking . Or like what we see in mexico kids go to school on a bag of potato chips . Now think about that .

That's there's no nourishment in a bag of potato chips . It's just empty calories , and yet they taste so good . They don't fill you up , they don't prepare you for what you need and so they can't do the second pillar of poverty , a poverty escape , because they don't have the first pillar .

So one of the core things that we can do is make sure that people have water , make sure that people have food and make sure that people have basic healthcare . I love what Mercy Ships does .

It goes around to different places and it's like a full hospital on a ship , and they go to different places and they provide these crucial health care elements like removing tumors and such . It's absolutely powerful what they do . So that's the first pillar . The second pillar is education . Now , education actually is three different areas .

Education is general education , vocational skills , vocational training and then financial skills , financial management , and this , once again , we could apply to the United States and we could apply elsewhere . If you don't have general education , then you're typically not going to go into the next thing .

Even if you're looking for a basic job in the United States , they'll ask you do you have a high school education ? And so high school education , general education , is crucial .

Now in Senegal , where Go On the Mission has been working for more than 14 years in Senegal , the way that they go through school is that if you are going through school and you get tested and you don't test above a certain percentile , then you get stuck and you can't go on . So imagine the United States .

If you get through sixth grade and you don't test , they move you on and they just kind of put some different programs around you to try to support you . But you can actually go through the whole educational system in the United States without actually learning a whole bunch and you can get a high school degree or a GED .

If you got out For some reason , you need to come back in and you don't have to have like been a perfect student the whole way , but in Senegal you do , because there is scarcer education along the way . So think about it If you have a sixth grade education , you can't get a job now in Senegal . So now you are going to be in the cycle of poverty .

So , general education , but vocational skills . I have some friends who went through college and ended up doing some general education but didn't pick up any skill . They can read a book well , but they don't have a skill . And really we need skills that we can sell in the marketplace .

Whether that is cooking , whether it's engineering , whatever it might be , doctoring , lawyering , whatever it is , you need a skill construction . And so vocational skills out .

There's a , there's a school that we do sponsorship through , and they're all women in Africa and we do vocational skill training and they're sponsored into their twenties to learn how to do something like sewing and then really setting up a sewing shop , or learning how to do cooking and then setting up , really setting up a sewing shop , or learning how to be

cooking and then setting up a , some kind of bakery or something . So vocational skills and the last one is financial skills and this one , catherine , in terms of poverty relief . You got nourishment over here . Now we're on to education . Financial skills .

I just recently learned from someone who's in Zambia is one of the number one reasons why people who have these other elements that we already talked about are still in poverty . And if you think about the United States , isn't this true ? And how many people actually make a good income ?

Yeah , and they don't know what to do with their money and their you know , hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt or , you know , have gambling addiction or they have no savings or they're you know .

They have a job that pays well , but they're living paycheck to paycheck and if it goes into a loss of economy , they they're now living on welfare and then they maybe lose their house that they , that they over , paid for . I mean , I get it . I've been there . I've been on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich diet . That's real . It's real Around the world .

A lot of people , like the Koji Indians in Colombia , they sell their coffee . They get scammed out of it . They get all this money all at one point in time . Of course , they spend a fair amount of it . Then get all this money all at one point in time and , of course , they spend a fair amount of it and then a few months later they have no money .

So they have to pre-sell their product for the next year , which they get even a worse deal on . And so now they're in the cycle of poverty . They need to learn how to store up . You know like , think about joseph in the bible , store up . You know like , think about Joseph in the Bible .

And years of plenty , store up so that you have for the years of scarcity . That's a financial principle . So go back to pillars of breaking poverty . How can we help people ? We can make sure people have nourishment . We can make people sure that people have education . And the last one is and Catherine , you're going to love this one the last one is hope .

People have to have hope , and what you're talking about when you're talking about your podcast and about diamonds , that's a hope-giving sentence , because sometimes we feel like we are just dirty coal and we just feel like we are just nothing , and you're reminding people that they're diamonds , because if you don't feel like you can , then you won't Absolutely .

And if you think that you know what Mark Twain said or Henry Ford , whether you think you can or you can't , you are right . Think about that If you think you can't , then you can't , but if you think you can , then you can . So once we meet nourishment and once we meet education , people need to know that they don't have to stay where they are .

People need to know that they can get out and change the family legacy . And this is true in the United States .

When I was a pastor in Stanwood , we had a teenager who was in our church she was a kid when I first started there and regularly her mom would lose her residency and they would go sleep in a tent underneath a bridge and we tried all kinds of stuff , but one of the things that we did was we always made sure that she had nourishment and we always made sure

that the daughter was in education and that she was safe , and so often even somebody would take her into the church .

Now , there's all kinds of situations here , so not always does mom have a place to stay , but we made sure that the daughter did , and then we told her look , I know this is your experience , I know this is what's happened , but you can do more .

So that daughter went on to get her bachelor's , she went on to get her master's and she's steadily employed today . She broke the cycle of poverty because people around her came and said you can , isn't that ?

. That is , oh , absolutely yes , because I just , I'm a firm believer that if that hope is absolutely a must , you got to have some kind of light to look toward . You have to , and if you're surrounded by nothing that speaks life or hope , where are you ? You know what I mean .

I mean it's hard to hold on when you don't see any kind of hope , and I truly believe that's what Jesus offers us every day , and he um and and this and a sign that you know Jesus is in the room when he sends people like us into the lives of people who don't go to church and people who don't um , who , who really don't believe or question who , who God

is , and he sends a message like this you know a podcast like this that will bring hope , and that is the purpose and point of the whole podcast is to bring hope and to bring people on that can give it . So I love , I love , I love these three pillars that God has um broken in a way that you can illustrate it every day .

It's powerful , and so I'm definitely encouraged with that , because , you know , we can all seem like we got this together and we really don't have the root in order to grow . Did you catch that ?

What you're doing with the podcast is you're providing a place for people to listen to hope and so , as they listen even just the encouraging and the prayer at the beginning you're providing that . You're bringing on guests that give hope .

You and Michael are doing good work right here and people who are listening listening you're participating in hope by just listening to something that gives you hope . And so , hopefully , what right now you are doing ?

You're driving the car , you're walking the dog or you're you're hanging around the house or you're doing something with a podcast in , and just right now you feel lifted up a little bit , and may I just encourage you to do something about that , to share that hope to somebody else , so you can just send a little text to somebody .

You know , one of the things that we do for hope and people around the world is reminding them that one , this is not all . There is that , this life , and we just celebrated Resurrection Sunday , yesterday , on Easter , and there's more to life , there's more to life .

And then also , what we remind them is that they have community around them , because sometimes , like if you're in Senegal or Burkina Faso , the Muslim population is something like 95% . So when our sponsors send a letter to them twice a year , it's just a reminder like , hey , look , you're not alone . Hey , we got you you , hey , we're with you .

Hey , you have a brother , a family elsewhere that cares for you , and that they receive that . It's like , ah , I'm not alone , right , I'm not alone . That's huge and that gives them that wings to keep on going . Uh , one of the one of the girls that was in one of our sponsorship programs in Mexico my gosh , catherine , it was just so incredible .

She had the nourishment , she had safety . She was in a spot that was really just extremely corrupt , extremely crime-ridden , but she went to the feeding center every single day . Then , from there , she was encouraged to go to school . So she had accountability to go to school , community around her in school and she was giving hope .

People praying for her , people coming on trips to encourage her , people now are still connected with her . And now where is she out of poverty ? she is in her college degree to become a lawyer that is awesome so , so I just can't go on enough about finding ways to give people hope .

I feel like I could just keep on going for another 30 minutes , catherine , just about hope , but I'll stop right there .

He just said hold on pain ends . And it was just like that's it , because when you have hope , that just speaks that whatever you're going through is temporary . This thing , this too , shall pass .

And you have to look at it like that and know that life has cycles and you're going to go through things and you're going to have moments of ups and moments of downs . Moments of ups , moments of down , uh , times of loss , times of gain and so on and so forth . It's a part of the purpose of God that you know .

For me , I believe , it just keeps us humble and keeps us before him when we go through all of these different cycles um of life and and I understand this is just a part of the journey , and you know the nourishment , education and the hope , all of those things working together they make a powerful pot of soup .

You heard me Come on somebody , but I want you to talk a little bit more about GO , about GO , about the mission , about how people can contact you and find out more about you .

There's a christian school in the middle of a muslim area and so one person's like , look , I think I think we could do something where where we sponsor some kids to go .

So it's actually a really cool model for that school , where some people pay and some people are sponsored , so everybody's paying to go there , but others are paying for them to go to this private christian school in the middle of this area . Now , when you say private Christian school , you think like fancy , well , this is so Senegal , west Africa .

But right there , there was a need seen and then a need well , really met . And then meanwhile there's another counterpart . Another friend of this guy was in Mazatlan , Mexico , taking lots of youth trips , and there's all these feeding centers there where 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 kids would go in the morning and then go off to school afterwards .

It really just started with the pastor and his wife feeding kids out of the trunk of their car under a streetlight . So that's how it started . But then the feeding centers were there and this guy said wow , I see the need , let's meet the needs . These two were talking and they went to their church and said what if we do some kind of sponsorship ?

And the church said that's amazing . I don't think it's in the scope of our church . It's a lot of administration , a lot of detail , a lot of organizational details that go into that . But I don't think that is something that we can do . But you guys should start off and do it .

Well , it was all about , hey , let's go , let's go do this , let's go on God's mission . And that's how it started . And over the last several months , what we've seen is about 40 different new sponsors coming in . We have 450 sponsored kids . We have about 150 waiting to be sponsored .

So if you're listening to this and God is moving upon your heart to join us , go to GoOnonthemissioncom and choose one of our five different locations and sponsor a child . Give them nourishment , give them education and give them hope . Why I was drawn to it was I loved the way that it is not like the American savior complex .

It's not about colonization , it's about partnership . So it's not like , hey , we're Americans , you know , we're Westerners , we're going to come in and we're going to save you poor people . It's not like that at all . It's like , hey , we're Westerners , you are somewhere else , let's learn from you , because we have a lot to learn from other cultures .

And let's learn and let's hear and let's understand and let us find out how we can serve you . And then we come back . And we come back refreshed , recharged . We learned so much from them . I've learned so much about listening and so much about prayer and so much about believing in God , even before believing in the almighty dollar .

And it's amazing that if you were to ask one of our partners and if you were to say , do you want money or do you want prayer you know in the United States we go well , prayer is great , but can you give me money first ? And that's what we really need and that's how you know the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is solving things .

Let's throw money at it . But if you go to our African partners , for example , or our Mazatlan partners , they would say , well , money's great , but can you really pray ? If you would really pray for us . That would mean the world , that's powerful . That's a little bit about Go and the heart of Go .

You can find us at wwwgoonamissioncom or michaelackercom , and I have a book as well that is just called Life on Purpose , and would love to help you find your specific purpose statement in God's grand view of your life .

And it's just like God just gave me a word through you and said it ain't about the money , it's about the love , it's about the hope that you bring , it's the hope , it's the value you bring to prayer . And it's like to me I'm just like I just had an aha moment and I thank you for that , michael . So so very much .

Um , or you can go on amazon and buy the physical copy , um and physical copies all nice and color and everything , and um looks nice on the inside as well and there's places for you to write down and interact with it . So if you can get the free version , that's great . Vaultgoonthemissioncom , or go to Amazon . Just the life on purpose . Michael Packer .

You might be looking at your kids , going oh my gosh , these kids , what am I going to do with them ? You might be looking at your aging and going , oh my gosh , I don't know what to do . You might be looking at your finances . You might feel purposeless . You might feel like you've strayed away .

You might feel like you're right in the center of God's will , which is incredible , and where you are is not where you have to stay . In fact , even if you're in the center of God's will , there's more for you to do in His will as you go forward . But if you're discouraged , you can find encouragement .

If you feel like you're ordinary , you can find extraordinary impact through God and His Holy Spirit . Whether you are in a good spot or a bad spot . That stain is not where God has for you . He has a newness for you to enter into . So where you are is not where you have to stay . Take heart , you who conquer the world is in you . Father .

God , thank you for the diamonds here and I just pray an encouragement for all of them here . I pray that your Holy Spirit speak to them and that you would direct them towards their next step on your great mission for their life .

And , lord , we pray for these people that we work with at Go On the Mission and collectively , even all the listeners here , all the diamonds praying .

We just pray , lord , that you would provide for them in incredible ways , that you'd bring the right sponsor to the kids who are sponsored and that these kids who are sponsored in Muslim countries , in poor situations , in the middle of lands that are run by cartels and all kinds of other situations , that , as we provide nourishment and education , that they would

find that hope through the gospel and that they would turn from where they are and they would go to where you want them to be . So we pray for the listeners and we pray for the people that we are partnering with . In the name of Jesus , we pray Amen .

. And you know , diamonds , you know , don't take life lightly , because you know we kind of look at , we can easily look at people , um , who have , who are in um , places like africa and india . Look at them and kind of look at ourselves as if we're better because we're over here in america and really we're not .

A whole lot of them will come here and be like , oh no , I no , I want to go back . You know what I mean . So just don't take what you have lightly and use it to the glory of God . Amen , use it to the glory of God . So again I say , michael , thank you , we appreciate you .