Manuel Guardado helped us organize one of the largest outreaches in the history of the nation of Belize. Ten crusades in ten different cities simultaneously. On today’s podcast we talk about what God has continued to do in his life and in the nation of Belize since our big outreach.
Connect with Manuel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Manuel360Guardado
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have my very special guest, pastor Manuel from Belise. And how do you say your last name? Gudo.
(00:14):
Well, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. You and I have been friends for several years now. We first met in the nation of Belize. God put it on our heart to do an event where we wanted to reach the entire nation of Belize and we invited 10 different evangelists to come down to Belize and we did 10 festivals simultaneously and you were very instrumental in helping to organize that. You’re from Orange Walk, which is part of Belize that has a large population of Spanish speaking people. And so as I remember, you were helping us to coordinate all of the Spanish speaking churches across the nation of beliefs. And it was marvelous to see what God did. What do you remember about that? What was special about that event?
Manuel Guardado (01:07):
Hey Daniel, it’s a pleasure to be here with you. I am so glad for your ministry and thank you for allowing me to share with you. I never going to forget a moment between you and I in the B T L park in front of the Sea of Belize City. The plan was to do an event, a crusade in Belize City, the biggest and the old capital of the country of Belize. But then you was there and you say, the Lord is putting in my heart that we should go to the whole nation of Belize and I see you thinking processing, but then you tell me, take me to the whole nation. I want to go. I want to see. And I think that was the moment when I realized that the Lord have something amazing for the country of Belize to the point that we will be able to take it everywhere in the country. So yeah, I never going to
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:00):
Forget. Yeah, and we drove everywhere. We drove up north to the border of Mexico all the way down south to the border of Guatemala and the islands. We went everywhere and we took the boat to the islands. And the ministry that we got to do in Belize was just amazing. We had a great event in Belize City. And then between the attendance at all of the events and also the people who watched online from Belize, we had over 10% of the entire nation in our services that week. And so many people were saved and touched by God. It was really amazing what God did. Now, another thing that is really exciting to me is that God is continuing to work through you. Ever since we were there in Belize, the evangelist who came to do the festival in Orange Walk was my good friend Will Jones, who leads Awakening Ministries International. And I love Will and his wife Jen, they’re close friends and I remember he came down with us and God really put Orange walk on his heart and you helped organize that. God moved in such a great way and afterwards Will came to you and asked you to start working with him. And so since then you’ve done a bunch of things with Brother Will tell me some of what you’ve been doing with him.
Manuel Guardado (03:27):
Yes, will is a blessing for the body of Christ, the way he’s, he’s an ex-athlete in basketball. The Lord called him to be a minister of the gospel preaching the gospel. And thanks to you I was able to meet him in that whole week that we was traveling all over the country of police Will was in charge of Orange Rock, the whole city. We was able to do that event and then after that it was a connection between he and I and my family, his family. And we was able to organize four more festivals the next year to be exact with you for the first time in history in Orange Rock. Normally the big events happening in the city, but we’ll choose to go to the communities where normally nobody goes. So we was able to do four that year and then another, then the other year we was able to do two more. So we did six festivals in total and we have an amazing time, great response because everything was done through the empowering of the local church. So many people comes out from their walls and just go into the communities to preach the gospel and we was able to see the grace of God during the whole process in so many souls come to the Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:46):
So with Brother Will, you recently went to the nation of Ecuador and what did you see God do in Ecuador? Talk to me about the strategy of what you did there and what God did.
Manuel Guardado (04:58):
Yeah, so when we finished the events in Belize, will Jones called me and tell me, Manuel, I would like to for you to consider and pray if you could be a Latin America director for festivals, thinking about all the experiences that we have together, that was a great moment for us to go out. So we start to find all over Latin America, places where the gospel is not so much preach and we find a location called Esmeralda Ecuador where it is the most poor area of the country. It’s like abandoned. Nobody want to go there. And we was able to reach that community and there was an amazing group of leaders that receive us on the first trip, we call it the Pray Trip. And we was able to meet many leaders including the Alliance of pastors that represent more than 320 pastors in that specifical city.
(05:56):
And we begin the conversations about the possibility of doing a massive evangelistic effort for a whole week in that city. So understanding the hunger of these people and understand the hungry of the church to see people being saved. I think that’s where everything start. We work for nine months in total to prepare this festival, to empower the local church, do a lot of trainings. We have a great team in place, 12 committees in total mobilization, transportation, ushers, counselors, and we work with other many four different organizations that provide tracks, evangelistic materials. So for a whole week we bring 37 Americans to the place, also three people from Belize that came with me. And we was able to impact more than 28,000 people in a week doing outreaches in school prisons, and also preaching from a stage to one of the most surrounded places like so many people all there in that area. It’s the center of Esmeralda, it is like the main park of Esmeralda. So we did the event there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:14):
And a lot of people there are Afro-Caribbean,
Manuel Guardado (07:18):
Afro Equator,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:19):
Afro Equator, and they’re really in many ways an on reach people group.
Manuel Guardado (07:26):
Yes, that’s correct. Is one of the groups that have left behind in that area. The government, if you ask about what type of programs the government’s doing there, it’s not so much effort. Even part of the main streets are not paved compared to the other parts of the nation. So yeah, there was a lot of need in that specific ethnic group in that part of the country of Ecuador.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:49):
Wow. Now another ministry that you’ve been working with is my home church Victory Church from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And it’s really neat how they built a relationship with you. They came to me and they said that they had a heart to go to Belize and they said who would be really good to work with in Belize? And I mentioned a few of the different ministries that we had worked with there and you were one of them in Orange Walk. And so they came down, they met you and they started bringing teams of teenagers to work with you. And how many years has victory come down to work in Belize? Now
Manuel Guardado (08:30):
It’s close to four years. I’m talking about the pandemic time. So yeah, four years in total.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:37):
And I’ve just heard so many great testimonies from the young people at Victory that come down to Belize and you’ve even done a crusade with my pastor, pastor Paul Doherty and seen God do really amazing things. And it really cool because we went one time to Belize, God gave us an assignment for a season, but many different ministries have been continuing to come and God’s really given you tremendous favor as you’ve opened the door for so many people to minister all over Belize.
Manuel Guardado (09:16):
I think that when moments like 2016 when you came to the country of Belize, I believe that the event, the Festival of Hope that happened on 2017 was a big door open for the country of Belize. I am talking about that spiritual part of it. I see because it’s not only me. There is so many great people in the country of Belize that believe on the vision of the Festival of Hope and was a big part at the moment. I am seeing them very active on their cities. They love their cities, they’re trying to do something for their cities. I could tell them by name. They love so much the country of Belize. And I think the Lord used you, Daniel, to do that big part. And incredibly after seven years, the fruits still going, going, going, going until now about victory. Thank you for trusting in us and sending your home church to us in Belize. We love victory. We love the missions Pastor, pastor, the senior pastor,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:25):
Pastor Tachi Wilson.
Manuel Guardado (10:27):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:28):
Wonderful woman of God.
Manuel Guardado (10:29):
Yes. And also your pastor Paul. We have been able to work specifically with schools in Belize, CarePoint partnering with Children’s Cup in Belize and also doing great work in the communities focusing on evangelism to the new generations. So we love it
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:48):
Now. Right now we are actually together in the nation of El Salvador. And the reason that you’re here with us is because I’m going to be doing a big crusade in Santa Ana and it’s part of an initiative by the Global Evangelist Alliance. So this is a group of evangelists from all over the world that have come together and we have a vision to reach everyone on earth with an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ before the year 2033, which is the 2000 year anniversary of the original day of Pentecost and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus up into heaven. And so over the next decade, the next 10 years, the Global Evangelist Alliance wants to reach every single person on earth with the gospel. And so one of our key leaders is the evangelist, Nathan Morris and Nathan has been coming down here to El Salvador for several years and seen God do amazing things, had really great crusades here.
(11:58):
And so we were in a meeting and we’re talking about, okay, we need to find a country that we can reach the entire nation for Jesus. And it can’t be too big a country. I mean we can’t do India. That’s 1.2 billion people. It’s too big. Even a country like Brazil would be so big, but where is God working? Where is there an opportunity? And Nathan Moore said, let’s go to El Salvador. God has opened up great doors in El Salvador and so the Global Evangelist Alliance has agreed to come here to El Salvador. We’re going to have seven different zones in this nation and the evangelists are going to go and do seven different crusades in these seven different zones. And so today we were here for a pastor’s conference getting ready for all of that, and it was really amazing. We had, I think there were over 500 pastors and these are top level leaders from across this nation that came together for the Pastor’s conference.
(13:04):
And they’re just so excited hearing that El Salvador is going to be the first nation that the Global Evangelist Alliance is going to join together in order to reach people here. And so when I was in this meeting, they asked which of the evangels want to be involved. I immediately raised my hand and said, I don’t know how much it costs yet, but I want to be a part. Just put me down on the list. I want to be a part. And then Pastor Tachi Wilson, the missions director at Victory, she was talking to me and said that Pastor Paul Dougherty wants to start doing more crusades. And so she said, where would be a good place for us to partner with you to come to a crusade? And since I was coming here to El Salvador, I said, well, why don’t you come to El Salvador, but don’t bring just Pastor Paul.
(13:58):
Let’s bring all of the young people from Victory Christian School to come down. So every year, victory Christian School sends hundreds of young teenagers out on mission trips and it’s actually really cool. My family was instrumental in helping to get that started because the very first mission trip that Victory Christian School sent out was probably when I was 12 or 13 years old. They brought the seventh and eighth grade from Victory Christian School down to Juarez, Mexico to work with my mom and dad. And so I was working with them and I was just a young teenager, but I went and helped do all the ministry and then Victor Christian School came down to work with my parents every year for like 13. So every year they would bring people. One year I remember we had over 96th graders just from the sixth grade that came down and we took them into the streets of Juarez, Mexico and these kids are running around door to door just inviting kids to come to the church and we would block off the street in front of the church.
(15:12):
The church was too small for everyone that came block off the street. And we would have a big crowd of people there. The kids from the school would do dramas, they administer, and then we’d give an altar call and a bunch of those kids would get saved. And we helped plant more than 40 churches that we were helping to grow and increase in Juarez over the years. My parents were there for about 20 years. Amazing. And so now it’s really neat because Victory has continued that over the years. I mean of all the churches in America that have a heart for missions, victory is one of the greatest churches because every year they send out hundreds of missionaries. They support missionaries all over the world. God has given victory such a great heart for reaching out to the world and they do it to nations around the world. But then they also love reaching out to people right there in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And so it’s such a beautiful church. I love being part of Victory.
Manuel Guardado (16:13):
Amazing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:14):
So anyways, we are talking and they’re going to send 130 teenagers from eighth grade, which my son is in eighth grade this year. He’s going to come down on the trip all the way up to 11th grade. And so when we heard that victory was going to come and bring the group, you have helped to organize some of the group activities in Belize. And so Victor said, well, why don’t we invite Pastor Manuel to come to El Salvador to help out with organizing the team because doing the logistics for 130 people, you got to keep them fed, lodging, transportation, everything. It’s a lot of logistics. And so I’m so excited to be here with you working together again. It’s like God has a big plan
Manuel Guardado (17:02):
After seven years. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:03):
I know God has a big
Manuel Guardado (17:04):
Plan. Wow. Yeah, yeah, about that. When Tati, the emissions director of Victory, shared with me that they’re coming to El Salvador and with that large number of kids, she was like, can you help us to connect with some people and also bring in a team together so we could build a team in El Salvador to be a great host for the whole team and they could serve the most amazing way in the country of El Salvador. And I was like, my gosh, it’s my country. I born here. Danielle
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:38):
Born here. Yes. And your sister and brother-in-law lived just very close by to where we are now. That’s
Manuel Guardado (17:43):
Correct. So I was like, yeah, I going to go and I will connect and serve in some kind of way. Of course there is so many responsibilities up there that I have to do specifically in Africa right now with E M I, but just facilitating some things for the love that we have for this country because I really believe that what the Lord going to do in this country going to be amazing. Nothing that what is happening politic in the political arena and also in the different systems that are happening in this country. I think everything is prepared for the church to take control of this country and just reach so many thousands of people for Christ. I am so in love with that. And I pray that the Lord use you, Daniel like, oh, the Lord is able to use you in so many years. And also the other evangelists for the great work that you guys are doing in this country
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:36):
Today. In our pastor’s conference, we are there with Mauricio Canales who is the associate evangelist with Nathan Morris’s ministry and also with Elias Anaconda. He’s the son of Carlos Anaconda, one of the great Latin American evangelists. Really one of the greatest evangelists who’s ever lived. And the pastors responded really well. What’d you think about how the pastors responded to the messages today?
Manuel Guardado (19:05):
I think when I think about all this, and I try to bring a word to my mind on this, I see the word hunger. I see hunger in the life of pastors. I see that there is the openness to see God act and do miracles and see the reality of the church in action. And I see that availability of the pastor. So I think if you guys have a seed in your hand, I think El Salvador is ready, is ready for that seed to be planted. And in the next months years, you guys are going to see a big tree with so many fruits. That’s my prayer, I believe in on that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:47):
Amen. Let’s talk about what comes next for you. You are continuing to work with Will Jones in Awakening Ministries International. And they switching their focus away from Latin American countries where there’s lots of churches and really starting to focus more on the least reached parts of the world, places where the population of Christians did you say below 3%?
Manuel Guardado (20:19):
Below 3%,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:21):
Yeah. And so that is where an evangelist loves to go, the place where Christ is not known, and you are going to be involved in that. And so you’re going to actually be a missionary sent out from Belize to the least reached parts of the world. And one of the neat things that you’re doing is you’re actually raising support in order to support your family, support the ministry that God has called you to from within the nation of beliefs, which is amazing. Will Jones has really challenged you and increased your faith because sometimes it’s easy to say, well, if you live in America, it’s easy to raise money, but here you are, you’re living in Belize and there’s a lot of need in Belize, but you are actually raising support to support the ministry that God has called you to right from the nation of Belize. And you’ve been doing this for a while. And what percentage have you been able to raise? What commitment levels so far have
Manuel Guardado (21:30):
You at the moment is 69%.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:33):
So you’re at 69% that you’re supported. And so you have about 30, 31% more to go. And talk to me about that process. I know you’ve seen so many miracles as you’ve been sharing the vision with people. What are you doing in order to ask people to be involved in reaching people for Jesus?
Manuel Guardado (21:58):
Daniel? I will say that I have been able to know Jesus, know God little by little.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:06):
Can I say that? Do you feel like God has increased your faith through this
Manuel Guardado (22:09):
Process? I will say yes. I think that he’s my Lord and Savior, but I am experimenting his wisdom and grace and love through the different steps of our levels of faith and life. And I think our leader, will Jones in this case have do such a great job in the organization to help us to understand how amazing is our God that he could provide for our call for the vision that the Lord have give us. I am talking about the vocational of life. In my case, I’m doing pastoral ministry for 12 years and then going more out from the local church to be in the community, specifically doing festivals, organizing, pastors, conferences all over the country of Belize and also outside of the country of Belize. And then being challenged about why not be full time, why not believe that the Lord could raise your support from people that love you, that believe in you, and also monthly giving towards that. So we could go and be like, how you say missionaries being sent by our country was not easy. I was thinking that this is for someone else, not for me. We like comfortable, we like to work for someone to receive a check every month, and that’s okay, but this really challeng, but that
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:40):
Doesn’t take any faith to do that.
Manuel Guardado (23:42):
No,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:43):
That’s so easy.
Manuel Guardado (23:45):
Exactly. So I think to come to the point of understanding that the Lord will is for me to go in this direction with my wife and my three kids was one of the most hardest part of my life. Because we start to read books like the God Ask and many other books that speaks about God could be our provider, so we could do the ministry that the Lord is calling us to do. And in this case, I really believe on the vision of the Lord have give to e m I to awake the nations, to see the nations arise for Christ and go to that places. Daniel, where it’s really hard to go. There is countries in West Africa right now like Senegal, like Guinea, like Sierra Leone, that close to 97%, 95% is Muslim and just like 3% or less is Christian. So at the moment in this countries, it’s possible for us to preach without get to jail.
(24:47):
It’s possible to not do it. If you go to other countries to the top of Senegal, you will see that if you preach, you could go to jail. So why not take advantage of this moment in this part of the world where yes, there is a lot of Muslims, there is a lot of other religions, but we could preach the gospel. So we are called to do that. And I remember Danielle, when we invite my friends to come to the fundraising event for this, everybody was so excited to see that a Ian person, Ian Salvadorian is going to left his country for some times to organize festivals that we’re going to be able to preach the gospel for so many people is so excited because people could go, but also people could send someone like me to go to the nation. So we are so glad to see the 69% and we are believing to reach the a hundred percent. We have still some months, and that’s our goal in the name of the Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:56):
I think your story will help inspire other people from Central America to become missionaries. Because in the past there was this idea that people would go from the west, from North America and they would go to other countries as missionaries. But now instead of the west going to the rest, I think what we’re going to see is the best from every country being sent by God to the rest of the body of Christ. I agree with you. And so you’re part of that. And if you can do it and God can do miracles through you, then God can do it miracles for other people here in Central America. And I really, I love the passion and the enthusiasm here in Central America. The churches know how to pray. They know how to cry out to God. And now I think it’s time for the church here to rise up and to start sending out missionaries, especially to the Muslim parts of the world. People from the United States of America sometimes can’t get into nations, but there’s an open door for someone from El Salvador or from Belize that they can go in to these nations.
Manuel Guardado (27:15):
And also I have been able to be in that country already at the moment. We are working on two festivals for this year and more to come next year. And we see a lot of hunger. Like hearing El Salvador, the pastors are ready to go. I am so amazed that the way you have to preach the gospel there is you got to do it different, but the church in some kind of way adjust the ways, but never change the message. And I love to see that, love to see how the church adapt to the realities of the cities of the nations. And many people are coming to Christ through that dynamic that the church is doing in Guinea. It’s a French country. I was trying to find someone that speak English. It’s not easy to find someone, but thanks God, we have an amazing partnership in that country that have receivers and we have a long-term work to do in that country.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:13):
That’s awesome. Well, you’re at 69% support and if someone’s listening and they feel prompted by God to help support you and to help send you as a missionary from beliefs to the nations, how can they find a way to support you? Can they do it at the Awakening Ministries website? Yes,
Manuel Guardado (28:34):
Yes. Yes. I would recommend to anyone that we like to support this vision is to go to www awakening mint tl.work, awakening mint tl.org. And yeah, when you go to the donation part, you could find out for who specifically you want to do at donation. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:57):
That’s awesome. Well, brother Manuel, it is so wonderful to be here with you again in Central America and hopefully we can work together somewhere, maybe Africa, maybe Asia, but we’ll see. It’s just so appreciate your heart for God and your heart for reaching people for Jesus, and it’s an honor to serve the Lord with you,
Manuel Guardado (29:23):
Danielle, Jesus is coming.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:25):
Amen.
Manuel Guardado (29:26):
We have to continue preaching the gospel and encourage the local church to keep up. So it’s a pleasure to serve with you.
