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Season 11

A quiet question in a dark basement changed everything. George Cisneros went from Sunday routines and Broncos games to selling it all, moving his family to Guatemala, adopting five siblings, and building a boys’ academy anchored in daily Scripture. The path wasn’t polished—no sending agency, no perfect plan—just a hard yes and a habit of showing up when it mattered most.

We walk through the moment that sparked his calling, the year of praying a single sentence that reordered his priorities, and the trip that revealed a different kind of wealth in the worship of children who had little but gratitude. George shares the surprising realities of independent missions, how his church supported faithfully if modestly, and why a small village school with an hour of Bible each morning may be the most strategic lever for shaping future husbands, fathers, and leaders in Guatemala. His approach to Scripture—reading for width and depth—offers a practical map for anyone ready to move beyond skimming and into study that sticks.

We also dig into the family’s adoption story, the decision to keep siblings together against the odds, and what endurance sports taught him about long obedience under thin air. If you’re exploring missions, George offers clear steps: get biblically grounded, put your house and finances in order, practice evangelism now, and build trust through a consistent newsletter. He even opens the playbook on fundraising that raised $140K in seven days from a small but engaged list. Warm, candid, and full of field-tested wisdom, this conversation invites you to trade hesitation for a faithful next step.

If this story stirred something in you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—your support helps more listeners find these conversations and take their own step of faith.

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00:29 - Welcome And Guest Introduction

01:59 - Poker Icebreaker And Humor

05:14 - The Call: Loving God Above All

11:49 - Saying Yes And Moving To Guatemala

20:02 - Independent Missions And Church Support

26:57 - Adopting Five Siblings

34:36 - Building A Boys’ Bible-Centered School

40:36 - Studying Scripture For Depth And Clarity

47:28 - Mountaineering And Everesting Goals

WEBVTT

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Hello everyone, thank you again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsey Us show.

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And the Dorsey Us show is sponsored by the Audery Audio Group, which inspires and uplifts through discussions, testimonies, and teachings, equipping listeners for meaningful conversations.

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On today's episode, we have George Cisneros who is a Christian missionary and he recounts his family's journey from the US to Guatemala, where they established a school that provided aid and adopted five children.

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George has his diverse experiences, including mountaineering, marathons, and Bible study, emphasizing his passion for helping others understand the Bible.

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Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

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Dorsey, it is my absolute pr pleasure.

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I've been looking forward to this.

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I'm excited to get into it.

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Definitely.

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So yes, I played in the World Series of Poker a few years back.

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It's been probably five years, but so they have a seniors, uh a seniors, I don't know what you call it, but a seniors group.

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So you had to be 50 years older or older to play in it.

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There were still thousands of people that entered and played in the World Series of Poker, the seniors division.

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And yeah, I placed in the money, which basically means I got my money back.

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But in my past, I used to just love to play poker.

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It was just something I love to do, and uh didn't get a chance to do it until a few years back.

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And I got to go back and spend a weekend playing.

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So it was a lot of fun.

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Okay.

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Nice.

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I'd like to open up with a couple of icebreaker questions.

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What's your favorite funny story to tell other people?

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Wow, I think a funny story for me.

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And first of all, I've been looking forward to your icebreaker questions because these are questions that I have no idea what's coming.

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And as I listened to some of your other episodes, I was wondering, what is he going to ask me?

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So that's a great question.

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I think one of the funny stories that I like to tell is when we got to Guatemala, my wife and I did not know Spanish.

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And I remember one day we're leaving the neighborhood and there was a small little store that sold uh snacks and water.

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And I parked the car, and my wife said she'd go in and buy the water.

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And so she went inside and she came outside of this little tienda and she said, they don't have any water.

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And I was like, What do you mean they don't have water?

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Because they all have water.

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So I said, uh let me go in.

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So I went inside, and of course they had water.

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I asked for water.

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Uh I bought some water.

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I came back outside.

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And I said, What did you tell them exactly?

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And so she had asked them incorrectly.

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She said, uh, tengo await, which is I have water.

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And I think they were just kind of looking at her like, okay, great, lady, like you have water.

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I don't know.

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So it was just funny.

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It was just uh uh a miscommunication, but it was funny.

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We still give her a hard time for that.

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That was that was 10 years ago.

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Right.

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What one of your biggest challenges in life?

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One of my biggest challenges in life.

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You know, so we are parents to nine kids, and we have four biological and we've adopted five.

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And I think that fatherhood, just being a parent, is probably one of the biggest challenges because they're just you're never really prepared for the next step.

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We've, like I said, we've got nine, our four adult children are in the United States.

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They grew up on the field, so three of them are married, one is engaged.

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And, you know, when they leave, you're not prepared for it.

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It leaves a hole in your heart that you don't even know is coming.

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I don't know why nobody really talks about it, but when your older kids leave the nest, it does lead a big hole.

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And uh they're off starting their own family.

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They're doing exactly what you raised them to do, um, but you miss them.

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And so I think probably raising kiss is probably the most difficult or the most challenging thing I've had.

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What is the backstory of you and your family going from the US to Guatemala?

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How did that happen?

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How did that take place?

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You know, I mean, I know, you know, in your bio because you picked up and you left, but there has to be some type of backstory to that.

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Or maybe there isn't, and you just decided one day, hey, I'm gonna go to, let's all go to Guatemala.

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Yeah, you know, that's such a good observation because I think a lot of people, when we said that we were gonna be moving to Guatemala, uh, a lot of people thought, well, that's such a random decision.

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Like, did you just pick up and leave?

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And so that's actually a great observation because there is a backstory.

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The backstory is that before we moved, I was in the basement watching my favorite football team, the Denver Broncos, and it was just me.

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I mean, I got another Bronco fan.

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I love it.

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Well, I was watching this particular game.

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I uh for whatever reason, and I think it's one of those things where you just remember the details of important times of your life.

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But I remember Jay Cutler was quarterback.

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I remember we lost that particular game, and I just turned the TV off and in the basement it was dark, and I just was kind of sitting there, and I really felt the presence of God asking me, Do you love me?

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And it was just weird because I generally don't have this conversation with God.

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Matter of fact, I've probably only had five conversations that I can recall that I really felt like it was the Holy Spirit talking to me.

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Do you love me?

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And I said, uh, yes, of course I love you.

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I I love you.

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And then I fell to him asking me, Do you love me more than you love your wife?

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And I didn't answer quickly because I thought about it.

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I see my wife every day.

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We wake up together, we have coffee together, we pray together, and spend more time with her than I spend with anyone else.

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And I just I said, you know, God, I think I love my wife more than I love you.

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And then he asked me, Do you love your kids more than you love me?

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And that was actually a bit easier to answer because I would die for my kids.

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If my kids today called and said, Dad, I need a heart transplant and I could give them my heart, I would do it.

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And so I said, God, I love my kids more than I love you.

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And that's very humbling.

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But then the next question was kind of funny, but not funny at all.

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And that was, do you love me more than you love the Denver Broncos?

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I kind of in my head, I wanted to say, yes, of course, I love you more than I love the Denver Broncos.

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But I thought about it.

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I took a second and I thought, I just spent three hours watching my favorite team play football on a Sunday.

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And I do every Sunday during football season.

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Sometimes I'll watch a Monday night football game.

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Sometimes I'll watch a doubleheader on Sunday, spend hours watching football, and I have never spent three hours alone with God.

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I'd never prayed for three hours straight.

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I had never read my Bible for three hours straight.

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I had never spent three hours in a row with this person, God, who I say I love.

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And so really made me wonder, you know, do I even love God?

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And so it was actually a year later, almost to the day, which is crazy, that I, so well, let me back up one step.

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So that night I talked to my wife, I told her about this conversation, and I told her, you know, I need to explore this.

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And I said, I'm gonna stop praying.

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And I made a decision, stop praying for my needs, for our businesses that we own, for our family, for things like that, for health or anything else.

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I stopped praying and I traded all of those prayers into one prayer, which was, I love you, or Lord, love you.

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I prayed that prayer for an entire year.

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Anytime I felt like praying for myself or for my business or for anything other than that, I just it was a trigger for me to remember to say, Lord, I love you.

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And that was my prayer for a year.

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So a year later, my church had a spot open up.

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They were going on a missions trip to Guatemala, somebody canceled and they said, Hey, if anybody wants to go, we have one spot open.

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I said, Yes, I want to go.

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It wasn't, you know, any kind of inspiration from the Holy Spirit or anything.

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I just felt like I wanted to go.

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And quite honestly, it was probably selfish.

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I probably just wanted to go and do that and feel good, maybe, or help someone and feel good about myself.

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And so I went on this trip.

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We were working at an orphanage for the week.

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And basically what that meant was we got to play with the kids and just love on those kids.

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But at the end of the week, there was a feeding center that we got to go be a part of where we fed a couple hundred kids from the inner city a hot lunch.

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And honestly, as a very poor, as I know now, living in Guatemala, uh, it was a very poor part of Guatemala City.

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And we fed these kids, but before the meal came out, the worship group, the worship team came up and they started playing.

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And I was at the back of the room, the back of this cafeteria, and I just remember being overwhelmed by 200 kids.

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They just jumped up out of their seats, they started praying and really just singing with all their hearts, thanking God, hands in the air.

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And I'm looking at them from the back of the room, recognizing what loving God really looks like.

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Like they were loving God.

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And it was on that day, December of 2000, I guess it would be 2011.

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I remember it was that day that I recognized, you know what, I love God too.

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I love God.

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And it was the first time, maybe in my entire life, that I realized I love God.

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So I get back home, I told my wife again about the trip and that experience of just feeling this deep love for God and really feeling like he was calling me to follow him, which meant he was calling our family to follow him.

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And so we made the decision that night, Dorsey, to sell everything we have and follow God to Guatemala and serve him there.

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We didn't even know how, we didn't know what, we didn't know anything about it, but we made the decision that night and seven months later.

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So we put our house on the market uh a month later.

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Seven months later, we were aboarding a plane to Guatemala City.

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And so that's the backstory.

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Now you are missionaries now to Guatemala.

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Do you have any type of organization that you or search that you work with when you're down there?

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So it's crazy.

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We actually don't.

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We had no idea.

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We felt called to Guatemala.

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We didn't feel prepared.

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We didn't feel prepared in all kinds of ways, but we did have something, and that was our obedience.

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So we said yes.

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We came here to help some other missionaries kind of uh do the work that they were doing.

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But as it turns out, that actually didn't come to fruition.

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Really, just spending time with the Lord and looking for his direction, which thank God he gave us.

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Um but no, we don't our church does support us.

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Um they've supported us for the last 13 years, the church that we were going to, but really they just support us financially with a little bit, which we're super grateful for, but we're not really under any kind of um umbrella.

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We are here independently, and which, as it turns out, we have really appreciated.

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And in the end, um, even though we went through a lot of growing pains and a lot of learning and and a lot of financial difficulties, in the end, it actually worked out for the best because we were able to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and not be guided necessarily by you know uh uh a church that maybe has visu that we weren't kind of matched up with.

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So interestingly though, I wouldn't recommend that.

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I would recommend being sent.

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Um, but that was what we had to deal with, and it worked out incredibly well.

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Now you did say, and I was thinking my next question that your six does support you and support you financially, but when you went, I mean, before you went, did you go to your pastor and say, hey, I'm gonna take my family and I and we're gonna move to Guatemala and wouldn't be missionary, what was that discussion like?

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And what did your pastor say?

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Absolutely, yeah.

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We did.

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And weirdly, on that particular trip, this is crazy.

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On that trip, I think there were maybe 20 of us that went on that trip to Guatemala.

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And on that trip, three families came back feeling called to serve in Guatemala, which is just, it's never happened.

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It probably has never happened since.

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It never happened before.

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As a matter of fact, our church had only sent, not supported, but sent one other missionary onto the field.

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And it was a pretty big church.

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It was an assemblies of God, it is an assemblies of God church.

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They they support missions, so they financially support a lot of different missionaries, but they had only ever sent one missionary onto the field.

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And so they were kind of weren't sure what to do.

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So they did the best they could to kind of help these three families, uh, my family included, to prepare to go out onto the field.

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And of those three families, one family stayed for, I believe, one year and then they went back to the States.

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Uh, and then this other uh family, they have been on the field um for the same length that we have.

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So coming up on 13 years this year, they've been on the field as well.

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So they were encouraging.

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They, like I said, they supported us financially a little bit, and they continue to support us financially.

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But yeah, it's they I don't know honestly what they do now if they send more missionaries out, but that particular year, they sent three different families out onto the field.

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You mentioned in your introduction there that you adopted five kids.

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What was that experience like?

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Wow.

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So here's how that came about.

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We were serving in our ministry.

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We uh started a uh um Christian middle school for boys in a very small village.

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But while we were working, my older daughter, when she was like 15 years old, she started working and volunteering at an orphanage.

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And she got to really get to know some of these kids, and she would come home and tell us, you know, there are these two kids that are older.

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One of them was born deaf.

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And, you know, it just had a big heart for them.

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And so my wife also started on her free time.

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She would go in with my daughter to support my daughter uh and and volunteer at this at this orphanage.

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And as it turns out, it was those two kids that became eligible to be adopted.

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And in Guatemala, the way adoption works, you can't adopt, you can't go in and choose kids to adopt.

00:17:30.419 --> 00:17:40.500
But because these kids were older and because one of them had special needs, we could go in and say, you would like to adopt them if possible.

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So we went through the process.

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We already were permanent residents, which you have to be in Guatemala.

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You can't be a U.S.

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citizen and not a Guatemalan resident uh in adopt.

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So it's only available to citizens of Guatemala and to permanent residents, which we were.

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We went through the process of becoming eligible to adopt, and then we went through the process of adopting these two.

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During that process, Dorsey, two other siblings, biological siblings, were found in another orphanage.

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They were transferred to that orphanage.

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The director called my wife and I, and I can tell you exactly where we were when we got that call.

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And she said, We have found two other kids.

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There's biological siblings, and now they are all basically a package.

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Can't we cannot split them, can't split legally in Guatemala, you can't split siblings up.

00:18:36.180 --> 00:18:42.900
And so we uh were asked, you can adopt all four, or you can't adopt them.

00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:45.779
You know, listen, we didn't even think about it.

00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:46.980
We said yes, absolutely.

00:18:47.140 --> 00:18:48.900
We didn't we didn't know anything about these kids.

00:18:49.060 --> 00:18:51.860
We didn't know what kind of needs they had, we didn't know, and it didn't matter.

00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:57.380
We said yes, because we we knew that the two older ones would probably never be adopted.

00:18:57.460 --> 00:19:01.140
And now that there were four, it just would never ever happen.

00:19:01.300 --> 00:19:05.140
In Guatemala, adoptions are uh rare.

00:19:05.620 --> 00:19:10.820
There are millions of people in Guatemala, and there are only a couple of hundred adoptions every year.

00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:13.300
And so we just knew what their fate would be.

00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:14.259
So we said yes.

00:19:14.340 --> 00:19:17.140
We adopted those four, went through that whole process.

00:19:17.300 --> 00:19:24.420
And then three years later, we got another call from the director, and she said, We have found another one of their siblings that was born.

00:19:24.580 --> 00:19:25.700
She's a young girl.

00:19:25.860 --> 00:19:35.140
She was born uh through, you know, that process because she was only a couple years old, but she had been taken uh out of the home because of neglect and abuse.

00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:36.500
Would we be open?

00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:39.620
She said, Of course, you know, you're not obligated.

00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:43.700
We just wanted to ask you first, would you be open to adopting this little girl?

00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:51.940
And we immediately said yes, went through the process, and that's how we ended up adopting five.

00:19:52.180 --> 00:19:52.900
Oh well.

00:19:53.460 --> 00:19:57.779
Do they know if there's any more possibly out there?

00:19:58.100 --> 00:20:03.220
Any older siblings that are connected to the to these kids?

00:20:04.100 --> 00:20:09.300
Well, wow, you're you just are so aware because that's that's a great question.

00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:11.380
And I don't think anyone's ever really asked us that.

00:20:11.539 --> 00:20:13.140
But yes, there are other siblings.

00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:20.580
As it turns out, there was an older sibling who was placed, she was placed in an orphanage for special needs.

00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:24.580
And interestingly, she had a clear mind.

00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:31.460
She was completely normal, but she had some physical disformities.

00:20:31.620 --> 00:20:32.340
Is that a word?

00:20:32.580 --> 00:20:34.820
Yeah, the deformity is a word.

00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:35.460
Yeah.

00:20:35.620 --> 00:20:43.539
So she had some physical deformities that when they put her in the orphanage, they thought that she was special needs, but really she wasn't.

00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:45.860
She just had some physical deformities.

00:20:46.019 --> 00:20:51.140
And so she actually ended up being adopted by the director of that particular orphanage.

00:20:51.300 --> 00:21:02.740
Once the orphanage uh director of that orphanage recognized that she was a completely normal kid, you know, and that she didn't really belong in that particular orphanage, she adopted her.

00:21:02.900 --> 00:21:03.940
Praise the Lord.

00:21:04.100 --> 00:21:06.820
And so they do have an older sibling.

00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:08.180
Um, we have gotten to know her.

00:21:08.740 --> 00:21:11.460
She has since moved to Canada with that director.

00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:14.740
Then there is one younger sister.

00:21:15.300 --> 00:21:26.900
And as it turns out, that sister was adopted by her biological aunt, which makes that lady our kid's biological aunt as well.

00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:30.660
We have gotten to know them over the last couple of years very well.

00:21:30.820 --> 00:21:33.380
They're very good friends of ours.

00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:40.180
And matter of fact, they have spent the last two Christmases with us, spent the night, and we've all celebrated together.

00:21:40.340 --> 00:21:43.060
And so we we've built an incredible relationship.

00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:53.460
So the aunt actually grew up in an orphanage and aged out of the system and is married and has her own biological child.

00:21:53.539 --> 00:21:58.980
She has the uh Sophia, who she adopted, and then she is pregnant and due any day.

00:21:59.220 --> 00:22:10.980
So yeah, it's because of that connection we now actually um know a complete family history, which uh even the orphanage didn't really know about.

00:22:11.220 --> 00:22:11.779
Right.

00:22:13.220 --> 00:22:19.539
So it depends on the you know, to go back to the ministry part of what you do down there.

00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:24.259
You help men read the Bible daily.

00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:29.940
How has that making impacted your own work with God?

00:22:32.100 --> 00:22:40.340
So we started a Bible school or uh we started a middle school, it's a private middle school for young boys in our small village.

00:22:40.420 --> 00:22:44.500
It's our village when we started this middle school didn't have a middle school.

00:22:44.820 --> 00:22:50.420
And we didn't know why, but we really felt that God was asking us to start a middle school for boys.

00:22:50.580 --> 00:22:52.500
And we again, we have no idea why.

00:22:52.660 --> 00:22:53.779
We just we just did it.

00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:58.740
As it turns out, in the villages of Guatemala, men are not involved with church.

00:22:58.820 --> 00:23:00.340
Like it's just anemic.

00:23:00.580 --> 00:23:09.220
And so, as it turns out, God is raising these boys to be men of God, to lead their families as it should be.

00:23:09.460 --> 00:23:15.779
And so my job at our school, so we have a middle school, seventh, eighth, and ninth grade.

00:23:15.940 --> 00:23:23.860
We teach math, science, and language all of the classes, but my job is to prepare and teach the Bible every single day.

00:23:24.019 --> 00:23:25.779
And so um I prepare.

00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:28.340
Usually I get up very early, 4:30 in the morning.

00:23:28.420 --> 00:23:32.340
I'm preparing basically a sermon for the boys every single day.

00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:34.980
And then from eight to nine, I teach the Bible.

00:23:36.580 --> 00:23:53.380
My life has been transformed by reading the Bible, which is crazy because I've read the Bible, but when you are preparing a Bible lesson for anyone, you can't just skim scripture anymore, like I did for most of my life.

00:23:53.620 --> 00:24:05.700
You know, it really has taught me to slow down, to take a look under the hood, and to really understand word for word, you know, what is God teaching us?

00:24:05.860 --> 00:24:07.140
What is he telling us?

00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:09.220
Where is God in that scripture?

00:24:09.380 --> 00:24:15.539
So I'm wildly passionate about the Bible, about reading the Bible, about teaching people to read the Bible.

00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:21.539
More than teaching people to read the Bible, it's helping people fall in love with the Word of God.

00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:24.580
And it starts with the boys here at the academy.

00:24:24.740 --> 00:24:32.019
But outside of that, it's probably my greatest passion right now is to help people fall in love with Scripture.

00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:46.420
Now, I know there's a little off hinted question, maybe, but where is um, I mean I mean, I've heard of it, I'm sure most people have heard of it, but where exactly is Guatemala?

00:24:46.980 --> 00:24:47.860
That's a great question.

00:24:47.940 --> 00:24:53.380
I dare, Dorsey, I'm loving your questions because they're not the normal questions that people have asked me.

00:24:53.539 --> 00:24:57.539
They're they're always kind of one or two levels beneath the surface.

00:24:57.620 --> 00:25:02.500
Because when my church said, hey, we've got a team going to Guatemala, I had no idea where Guatemala was.

00:25:02.580 --> 00:25:03.860
I had to look it up on a map.

00:25:04.019 --> 00:25:06.340
So Guatemala is from the United States.

00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:11.700
You drop down into Mexico, you go south into Mexico, then right below Mexico is Guatemala.

00:25:11.860 --> 00:25:13.539
It's a tiny country.

00:25:13.779 --> 00:25:15.700
It's in Central America.

00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:18.500
So it's not in South America, it's in Central America.

00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:25.300
Central America is made up by a number of countries: Nicaragua, um, El Salvador, Belize.

00:25:25.460 --> 00:25:30.180
Uh, and so uh Guatemala is right below Mexico, and it's a tiny country.

00:25:30.259 --> 00:25:31.460
It's only the size.

00:25:31.620 --> 00:25:36.980
So I'm from Colorado, and it's one-third the size of Colorado.

00:25:37.140 --> 00:25:38.660
That's how small this country is.

00:25:38.900 --> 00:25:40.420
So uh it's very dense.

00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:44.980
There's a lot of people that live here, but it's, I don't know, it's one of the most beautiful countries.

00:25:45.060 --> 00:25:46.019
I've traveled a lot.

00:25:46.180 --> 00:25:49.300
It's one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to.

00:25:50.019 --> 00:26:04.820
Now, going back to what you mentioned before about doing a sermon for the boys, you all do 14 hours a week studying scripture and what can sermons and reading commentaries.

00:26:05.060 --> 00:26:06.980
What does that project look like?

00:26:07.060 --> 00:26:12.180
And how do you make the Bible easier for others to understand?

00:26:14.019 --> 00:26:15.220
Thank you for asking that.

00:26:15.380 --> 00:26:16.740
Here's the thing.

00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:30.019
If I had to choose one thing to do for the rest of my life, I'm 59 years old, uh, actually 59 this month, and if I had to choose one thing that I could do, I think it would be that exactly.

00:26:30.100 --> 00:26:45.140
And that is reading the Bible, spending time watching sermons, spending time reading commentaries, and breaking down the Bible in a way that's easy for the kind of average person to understand.

00:26:45.220 --> 00:26:52.660
Because when you read a commentary, at least when I read commentaries, there are some amazing commentaries, but they're hard to read.

00:26:52.820 --> 00:26:54.019
Like they're heavy.

00:26:54.340 --> 00:27:04.100
And what I like to do is to go break it apart word by word until I completely understand it.

00:27:04.180 --> 00:27:13.060
But more than me understanding it, I then take all of my notes, I put it together so that it's easy for an average person to understand.

00:27:13.220 --> 00:27:27.380
Because once you understand the Bible more clearly and you understand especially the context of who it was, where it was, it it the book, the Bible starts to come alive.

00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:29.460
And that's that's my passion.

00:27:29.779 --> 00:27:38.900
So I spend um 15, 20 hour week doing exactly that, breaking the Bible down and then putting it back together.

00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:45.140
And then I started a newsletter, Dorsey, um, last year, January of 2024.

00:27:45.460 --> 00:27:48.500
Uh, with all newsletters, you start out with zero.

00:27:49.060 --> 00:27:59.779
And in uh, let's see, by the end of 2024, so in one year, I had reached 850 subscribers, which I was very happy with.

00:27:59.940 --> 00:28:06.019
But then from January until yesterday, I just looked again from January until yesterday.

00:28:06.180 --> 00:28:13.700
So it went from 850 and uh in one year, and now it's 2,574.

00:28:14.100 --> 00:28:21.380
So it's it's grown quite a bit, and uh there are 20 different countries represented that get this Bible study.

00:28:21.539 --> 00:28:23.700
I don't even like to call it a Bible study really.

00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:26.340
It's more just presenting the Bible.

00:28:26.420 --> 00:28:28.259
It's kind of a commentary, honestly.

00:28:28.420 --> 00:28:32.820
I would say it's this it's a commentary for the average person.

00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:42.259
Now I I see this next question and do and I'm gonna ask that question.

00:28:42.340 --> 00:28:57.060
But the first question I'm gonna ask is I was out in Denver several years ago, and I was able to go to a Denver Blanco game with a friend of mine, and we you know, we were able to spend the weekend out there.

00:28:57.539 --> 00:29:03.539
And it was the f it was the weekend that Pink Man was there, and he did the passing record.

00:29:03.779 --> 00:29:06.180
He broke the passing record in that game.

00:29:06.900 --> 00:29:14.660
And then like another, you know, couple of you know minutes later, he's taken out of the game because he's doing so bad.

00:29:15.300 --> 00:29:21.539
And then they had to bring in, you know, the backup quarterback, and unfortunately they they lost that game.

00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:28.740
But I'm getting the point I'm trying to make is we my friend and I also went up to uh Pike's Peak.

00:29:29.700 --> 00:29:34.820
And we went up to the to the top of uh Pike's Peak, we drove up to the top.

00:29:35.860 --> 00:29:42.500
You know, as you know, being from Denver, so high up there, I got sick to my stomach up there.

00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:43.940
We had to come down.

00:29:44.259 --> 00:29:51.460
But my question is have you ever been wanting to mountaineer and everything, have you ever hiked Pike's Peak?

00:29:52.100 --> 00:29:57.700
Well, actually, I have not hiked Pikes Peak, but I have hiked a number of Fourteeners.

00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:02.660
A 14er is just uh a mountain that is 14,000 feet above sea level.

00:30:02.740 --> 00:30:05.940
And I've hiked a couple of them, and I know what you're talking about.

00:30:06.180 --> 00:30:09.620
When you start getting near the top, it's very hard to breathe.

00:30:09.779 --> 00:30:18.420
You can't take, there's just not much oxygen, so you can't take very many steps before you're out of breath, uh, especially when you've been hiking for five or six hours.

00:30:18.660 --> 00:30:21.460
And so um my wife and I have hiked together.

00:30:21.539 --> 00:30:25.140
We climbed Mount Elbert, which is the highest peak in Colorado.

00:30:25.300 --> 00:30:28.340
Colorado has like 50 different 14ers.

00:30:28.580 --> 00:30:34.740
Um, my wife and I also here in Guatemala, there is a volcano called Volcán Acatanango.

00:30:34.900 --> 00:30:38.740
We hiked that one and it is like 13,500.

00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:42.019
It's also difficult when you get up near the top.

00:30:42.259 --> 00:30:44.340
And so uh I love to hike.

00:30:44.500 --> 00:30:52.180
As a matter of fact, weirdly, my buddy and I just decided to do something called 29029 Everesting.

00:30:52.259 --> 00:31:04.180
And so basically, what that is, every year, a gentleman named Jesse Itzler is uh kind of a motivational speaker, he puts on this uh this event in like seven or eight different ski areas.

00:31:04.259 --> 00:31:14.019
And what you do is you hike the mountain straight up, or basically straight up uh a ski mountain, and then you take the gondola down.

00:31:14.100 --> 00:31:18.019
But so what you're doing is you are climbing up elevations.

00:31:18.180 --> 00:31:27.060
So let you know, let's say it's uh 1,500 uh feet in elevation, this this uh elevation gain, I should say.

00:31:27.300 --> 00:31:35.940
What you do is you climb enough times to climb the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, which is 29,029 feet.

00:31:36.100 --> 00:31:37.539
And so we're gonna do that next year.

00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:39.620
We have 36 hours to complete it.

00:31:39.779 --> 00:31:43.779
Um we're thinking about maybe doing the event in um Vermont.

00:31:43.940 --> 00:31:46.420
And in Vermont, you would have to climb this mountain.

00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:48.340
So it's only uphill climbing.

00:31:48.420 --> 00:31:50.500
You would have to climb this mountain 13 times.

00:31:50.660 --> 00:31:52.500
And so it's just a passion of mine.

00:31:52.660 --> 00:31:53.860
I love to do it.

00:31:55.460 --> 00:32:12.019
As we get rid of the end here, what advice would you give to someone who's starting out in raising support for full-time missions, especially when it feels uncomfortable or overwhelming?

00:32:12.820 --> 00:32:15.060
So I'm gonna I'm gonna break that into two pieces.

00:32:15.140 --> 00:32:18.820
So the first piece I'll talk about, and then I'll get directly with the question you asked.

00:32:18.980 --> 00:32:24.580
The first thing I would say is that if you're thinking about full-time missions, I would highly recommend three things.

00:32:24.740 --> 00:32:27.539
Number one is make sure that you're biblically sound.

00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:28.420
We weren't.

00:32:28.580 --> 00:32:29.140
I wasn't.

00:32:29.300 --> 00:32:34.820
I had gone to church, I had served at the church, I taught Royal Rangers, which is kind of a kids' program.

00:32:35.220 --> 00:32:38.180
But I didn't have a very good habit of reading my Bible.

00:32:38.340 --> 00:32:40.820
I read it, I didn't really understand it.

00:32:40.900 --> 00:32:43.300
Uh so I would make sure that you're biblically sound.

00:32:43.380 --> 00:33:05.060
There are so many great opportunities online in schools or colleges or Bible schools across the United States and of course across the world, that you can go, even if I would have gone six months or a one-year program to really understand how to read the Bible, the important reading the Bible, I would highly recommend being biblically sound.

00:33:05.220 --> 00:33:05.700
Number one.

00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:09.779
Number two is I would make sure that your house is in order.

00:33:09.860 --> 00:33:15.220
And what I mean by that is your marriage, if you're married, your marriage should be in order.

00:33:15.380 --> 00:33:24.420
You don't go onto the field hoping that because you're doing work for the Lord, that your marriage is gonna miraculously miraculously get better because it doesn't.

00:33:24.500 --> 00:33:26.259
It actually makes it harder.

00:33:26.340 --> 00:33:29.860
So I would make sure that you have a very sound marriage.

00:33:30.019 --> 00:33:32.980
The other thing is I would make sure that your finances are in order.

00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:43.060
Before you start asking people to support you for doing missions, especially long-term missions, it wouldn't be wide to try to do that if you've got debt.

00:33:43.300 --> 00:33:55.060
So again, God was preparing us before that day in the basement, watching the Denver Broncos before that day, the Lord had helped us and really guided us through getting out of debt.

00:33:55.220 --> 00:33:59.380
We had$45,000 worth of debt, and he walked us through that.

00:33:59.460 --> 00:34:07.700
And within, I think it was like 14 months, we were able to pay off all of that debt, having zero idea that we would be called to do missions.

00:34:07.860 --> 00:34:14.179
So those are just, you know, get your house in order and get biblically sound before you make that decision.

00:34:14.340 --> 00:34:19.219
In my opinion, that's something I wish that would have done is biblically.

00:34:19.460 --> 00:34:24.980
If you're not sharing the gospel currently in your life, wherever you are in the world.

00:34:25.059 --> 00:34:35.860
Um so if you're in the United States and you're not sharing your faith, if you're not evangelizing, if you're not sharing the gospel, you probably don't need to go train and learn how to do it on the field.

00:34:36.019 --> 00:34:39.139
That's something that, you know, I again highly recommend.

00:34:39.219 --> 00:34:47.300
And you can work with your pastor, work with your church and begin to participate more in sharing the gospel, evangelizing.

00:34:47.460 --> 00:34:49.940
Otherwise, you may end up doing what we did.

00:34:50.019 --> 00:34:51.219
And we got onto the field.

00:34:51.300 --> 00:34:56.259
And for the first couple of years, you know, at the end of the day, we were humanitarians.

00:34:56.420 --> 00:34:59.860
We weren't really sharing, expanding the kingdom of God.

00:35:00.019 --> 00:35:02.419
Now, let me say that's important as well.

00:35:02.579 --> 00:35:04.659
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

00:35:04.819 --> 00:35:08.579
Love your neighbor as yourself is part of the gospel.

00:35:08.739 --> 00:35:15.059
So I don't discount that work, but really we were humanitarians with Christian t-shirts on.

00:35:15.139 --> 00:35:24.499
And so now, today, firmly focused on participating, working with the Lord in expanding the kingdom of God.

00:35:24.659 --> 00:35:26.099
Okay, so that's thing one.

00:35:26.339 --> 00:35:29.139
Back to your question as far as raising sport.

00:35:29.379 --> 00:35:31.539
So let's say you've got that in order.

00:35:31.779 --> 00:35:44.819
I think that, you know, having faith, if God has called you to this, he is going to provide opportunities for you to be financially supported.

00:35:45.139 --> 00:35:46.339
It is not easy.

00:35:46.499 --> 00:35:49.539
You're probably gonna feel this or you're gonna tell yourself this.

00:35:49.939 --> 00:35:51.539
That's not my gifting.

00:35:51.619 --> 00:35:53.939
I'm not gifted to raise support.

00:35:54.099 --> 00:36:00.259
I assure you that if God has called you to the field, he will give you the gift of raising support.

00:36:00.499 --> 00:36:01.539
It's taken a while.

00:36:01.699 --> 00:36:02.659
It's a process.

00:36:02.819 --> 00:36:07.699
Here's the what if I could give you um, well, first of all, two pieces of advice.

00:36:08.019 --> 00:36:17.139
Because this is also, I know it sounds like I have a ton of passions, but I I am passionate about raising support, helping other missionaries raise support.

00:36:17.299 --> 00:36:24.579
We've had we've helped multiple missionaries raise support to either stay on the field or to to build buildings.

00:36:24.659 --> 00:36:27.379
Um, we, you know, an orphanage and things like that.

00:36:27.619 --> 00:36:34.579
So uh, but number one is to have a plan and to begin to ask.

00:36:34.819 --> 00:36:45.539
And so that kind of leads into the main thing that I would recommend people that are thinking about missions in the future is start an email list yesterday.

00:36:45.779 --> 00:36:58.659
Write down every single person you know, get their email address, and start sending a monthly newsletter to them telling about the journey that you're on as far as becoming a full-time missionary.

00:36:58.739 --> 00:37:02.499
So you don't have to wait until you're on the field to tell people what you're doing.

00:37:02.739 --> 00:37:20.179
What you want to do is like, you know, this is this is what I'm doing at our church in preparation to go on to the field, not asking for any money, but you have this opportunity to share with potential supporters how God is calling you to do work kingdom work.

00:37:20.339 --> 00:37:26.019
And so if you can imagine, start out with every single person can have an email list of 100.

00:37:26.179 --> 00:37:35.859
And you're always looking and thinking, okay, when you're in new situations and meeting new people, introducing yourself and say, hey, I've got a newsletter uh that I send out once a month.

00:37:35.939 --> 00:37:36.819
I'd love to add you.

00:37:36.979 --> 00:37:38.819
Boom, you add them to the newsletter.

00:37:39.059 --> 00:37:43.699
We only have, we have like 650 people on our newsletter.

00:37:43.779 --> 00:37:45.699
So 650 people get it.

00:37:45.859 --> 00:37:52.739
Weirdly, amazingly, 75% open it, which is a very high open rate for a newsletter.

00:37:53.779 --> 00:37:57.619
As an example, last year we had a fundraiser.

00:37:57.699 --> 00:37:59.459
It was an email fundraiser.

00:37:59.539 --> 00:38:07.219
We only do it once a year, and we raised$140,000 in seven days from 650 people.

00:38:07.379 --> 00:38:10.899
So those are the operating costs that we have, and we were able to do it.

00:38:10.979 --> 00:38:24.979
So I would highly recommend that you begin writing a newsletter because the better you communicate what's going on and the stories that are going to start unfolding throughout your life, um, the more people are gonna connect with you and most importantly, they're gonna trust you.

00:38:25.219 --> 00:38:29.699
And um, so that that's probably my biggest piece of advice.

00:38:29.939 --> 00:38:30.339
Yeah.

00:38:30.659 --> 00:38:46.259
You said earlier that, you know, you weren't firmly, you know, founded in your faith or in your in Bible study and in knowing the Bible, different things of that nature, until you, you know, got down there.

00:38:46.899 --> 00:39:02.579
What was the you know thing that said, hey, I need to get, you know, learn my Bible, you know, and I need to get, you know, found a firmer foundation in my you know, it's crazy.

00:39:02.739 --> 00:39:09.859
As I look back over the last 13 years, I believe that the Lord brought us here to Guatemala, honestly, maybe just to save me.

00:39:10.019 --> 00:39:13.699
Like literally, my salvation came on the field, which sounds crazy.

00:39:13.779 --> 00:39:19.699
We came out here as missionaries, but you know, it's the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us.

00:39:19.779 --> 00:39:31.619
So even if it even if I was a believer, it's a completely different thing when you allow the Holy Spirit, like you get out of the Holy Spirit's way, begin to do work.

00:39:31.779 --> 00:39:39.859
And so when you start teaching the Bible, I did the best I could, but I was, I was, I was new to studying the Bible.

00:39:39.939 --> 00:39:42.259
There's a difference between reading the Bible and studying.

00:39:42.339 --> 00:39:48.419
And I believe that every single believer in their life should be reading the Bible in two ways.

00:39:48.659 --> 00:39:56.739
You should be reading the Bible for width, which means reading uh an amount of Bible.

00:39:56.899 --> 00:40:01.059
So it could be reading just a chapter a day, or it could be reading three chapters a day.

00:40:01.219 --> 00:40:06.179
If you read the Bible just three chapters a day, you're gonna finish the entire Bible in one year.

00:40:06.419 --> 00:40:11.299
So that's what I call reading wide, reading one, three, five.

00:40:11.539 --> 00:40:21.139
I've read 20 plus chapters uh a day to finish reading the Bible in three months, but generally I try to just one chapter a day is enough.

00:40:21.219 --> 00:40:23.619
You're gonna get through the Bible every three years.

00:40:23.779 --> 00:40:25.779
So that's reading for width.

00:40:25.939 --> 00:40:29.219
But I also think that every Christian, and this is really what changed me.

00:40:29.379 --> 00:40:35.459
This is what changed the entire game for me personally, and that was when I started reading the Bible for depth.

00:40:35.619 --> 00:40:39.779
And what that means to me is I started studying the Bible.

00:40:39.939 --> 00:40:48.019
So as I'm reading through Luke, for example, and I'm seeing, you know, different places uh that uh Jesus is preaching.

00:40:48.179 --> 00:40:49.779
Why is he using this word?

00:40:50.179 --> 00:40:59.459
It's amazing, Dorsey, that when you read the Bible, you kind of gloss over the parts that you don't understand or don't think are important.

00:40:59.859 --> 00:41:07.859
What we do when we read the Bible, generally, I believe, um this is the way I read the Bible is I would read it, and it's like, I understand that.

00:41:08.739 --> 00:41:09.379
That and that.

00:41:09.459 --> 00:41:12.739
So I might understand 30% of the Bible, especially in the Gospels.

00:41:12.819 --> 00:41:18.979
We understand so much of the Bible, but I would just skip over the parts I didn't understand.

00:41:19.059 --> 00:41:23.219
So what happened is I started going back to the parts writing down.

00:41:23.459 --> 00:41:24.419
I don't understand that.

00:41:24.579 --> 00:41:25.539
Why did that happen?

00:41:25.699 --> 00:41:26.659
Where is this?

00:41:26.819 --> 00:41:28.499
And I started connecting the dots.

00:41:28.659 --> 00:41:31.699
And when you start studying the Bible, slowing down.

00:41:31.779 --> 00:41:40.019
So for example, it can take me up to five weeks to study and write out and share this Bible study.

00:41:40.099 --> 00:41:43.699
It might take me five weeks for one chapter.

00:41:43.859 --> 00:41:46.099
That's studying for depth.

00:41:46.259 --> 00:41:49.059
And so I think it's important that you do both.

00:42:01.939 --> 00:42:14.339
You know, this is gonna sound like a broken record, but it is it is the most thing I'm passionate about, and that is to start reading the Bible, make it a habit.

00:42:15.059 --> 00:42:19.699
Probably just starting out by reading one chapter a day is enough.

00:42:19.939 --> 00:42:22.259
But then start getting curious about it.

00:42:22.339 --> 00:42:29.619
Start talking to God, start praying that He would open your eyes, start praying for the desire to read the Bible.

00:42:29.699 --> 00:42:35.299
Because most of my life, it was I didn't make time.

00:42:35.459 --> 00:42:36.499
It wasn't a priority.

00:42:36.659 --> 00:42:40.739
Listen, one chapter a day should only take you five or six minutes, seven minutes tops.

00:42:40.899 --> 00:42:46.019
I would also recommend this particular tool that was hugely important for me.

00:42:46.099 --> 00:42:47.939
And it was called The Bible Recap.

00:42:48.019 --> 00:42:48.979
I'm sure you've heard of it.

00:42:49.139 --> 00:42:52.099
The Bible Recap by Tara Lee Cobble.

00:42:52.419 --> 00:42:53.859
She became a friend of ours.

00:42:54.019 --> 00:42:56.659
We actually visited Israel with her.

00:42:56.979 --> 00:43:11.939
And the Bible recap is absolutely perfect for anyone who wants to start reading the Bible and understanding uh a little bit more deeply the meaning of the Bible.

00:43:12.099 --> 00:43:18.899
She covers her podcast covers three chapters in about eight or ten minutes.

00:43:19.059 --> 00:43:25.139
And so you read those three chapters and then you listen to her podcast and she recaps it for you.

00:43:25.299 --> 00:43:26.739
So I would start there.

00:43:26.899 --> 00:43:30.899
And I think the next level, I would I'm just gonna do a shameless plug here.

00:43:31.059 --> 00:43:34.899
I would, I would look into the Bible study that I send out.

00:43:34.979 --> 00:43:39.779
It's really just my notes and it's it's a commentary for the ordinary person.

00:43:39.859 --> 00:43:42.419
It's called uh it's called Covered in His Dust.

00:43:42.499 --> 00:43:45.059
I send it out once a week, usually on a Saturday.

00:43:45.219 --> 00:43:50.179
And it is it is just a very deep look into scripture.

00:43:50.339 --> 00:44:02.099
And I think, man, if I can encourage, if I could leave anything with your listeners, Dorsey, it would be to fall in love with the Bible.

00:44:03.219 --> 00:44:05.539
Where can people connect with you?

00:44:05.699 --> 00:44:17.299
And I know you even have a book which we really didn't discuss much of it, but where can people get your information and connect with you and even your Bible study?

00:44:18.659 --> 00:44:20.099
The two places.

00:44:21.139 --> 00:44:27.779
Coveredinhisdust.org is where you can sign up to get my notes that I send out once a week.

00:44:27.939 --> 00:44:33.299
And then I am on Twitter under 1G Ciceros.

00:44:33.379 --> 00:44:35.699
I just uh saw your account and followed you today.

00:44:36.019 --> 00:44:41.539
1G Ciceneros, and I'm also on Threads, and actually I'm probably on Threads more than anywhere else.

00:44:41.859 --> 00:44:44.659
Both places, I'm easily, you can get hold of me.

00:44:44.739 --> 00:45:00.019
Uh, if you sign up for the newsletter and you have a question or uh need prayer, anything at all, just reply to one of the newsletters that I send out on Saturday, and I respond to all of my emails, and I would love to connect that way.

00:45:00.099 --> 00:45:01.459
So that's probably the best place.

00:45:01.699 --> 00:45:02.979
Okay, great.

00:45:03.219 --> 00:45:07.219
Well, Georg, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

00:45:07.299 --> 00:45:09.699
We greatly appreciate having you.

00:45:10.099 --> 00:45:12.979
Man, Dorsey, it has been an absolute pleasure.

00:45:13.139 --> 00:45:15.939
Your questions were some of the best questions that I've been asked.

00:45:16.019 --> 00:45:17.139
I really appreciate you.

00:45:17.379 --> 00:45:18.259
Thank you.

00:45:18.979 --> 00:45:24.179
Well, guys and girls, thank you so much for coming on the show and for listening.

00:45:24.339 --> 00:45:44.339
Please go and like and share my this episode and um listen to previous episodes, and please go and like and follow the Audrey Audio Group on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and share and uh review some of their podcasts.

00:45:44.979 --> 00:45:47.299
Well, and until next time.

00:45:47.539 --> 00:45:48.339
God bless.

00:45:48.499 --> 00:45:49.299
Bye bye.