Where Are They Now?
Saturday, August 12, 2006
(John 15:8) (John 15:16)
(2 Timothy 2:2)
The Definition of “Fruit”
These two Scriptures give us an injunction from Christ Himself to bring forth fruit. The fruit of which He speaks here is not so much the fruit of a holy life, meaning the “fruits of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23) but rather, He is referring to spiritual reproduction; bringing others to a saving encounter with Christ.
This, in no way, minimizes the importance of the evidences of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but what is imperative for us to understand is that the fruit of the Spirit is not an end in and of itself. Apart from being evidence that the bearer of these fruits has been blessed with the gift of eternal life, it is a facilitator to the great and ultimate purpose of God for our lives here on Earth: reaching others and bringing them to Jesus Christ. This is what Christ called “bearing” or “bringing forth” fruit.
These two verses state three things that Jesus expected from our fruitfulness: (1) That it would glorify the Father, (2) That it would be the seal of our discipleship, and (3) That it would be permanent. * The understanding that this fruit would be the seal or proof of our being His disciples is found in the Greek word “ginomai ”, [G1096 - to be shown] is often translated “so shall ye be” in John 15:8.
Finally, in 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul affirmed that the true fruit of discipleship is generational. In other words, when your fruit bears fruit, your fruit was correctly discipled. Consider this, Luke, a convert and disciple of Paul, wrote the third and most complete synoptic Gospel. How many spiritual generations was he from the original 12?
Brothers and Sisters, we must understand that in the Bible, barrenness was considered a curse. Remember the fig tree? (Matthew 21:19-20; Mark 11:13-14 see also John 15:2)
“…and that your fruit should remain…”
One of the things that I really appreciated about the ministry of the late evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman, was the fact that she never published a testimony of a case of divine healing unless it was at least two years old. During her lifetime, when her books were published, many of the testimonies were already 20 years old. These people had documented evidence that they were dying or deathly ill, and 20 years later were still walking in divine health after experiencing the miracle of healing under her ministry!
It would be impossible for Gina and me to name or even mention all of those we have personally led to Christ and who are faithfully serving Him today, for they, very possibly, number in the thousands. Over the years Gina and I have received numerous phone calls, letters and emails from people that were saved in our ministry as children when we led their parents to Christ and now they are in full time ministry or on the mission field.
Mike Hernandez
In 35 years of ministry, I can go back 35 years to Monterey, California, and mention Mr. Michael Hernandez, one of the very first people I led to Christ in August of 1971 (Happy spiritual birthday, Mike!). Mike and his wife are members of Calvary Chapel Monterey and faithfully support our ministry with prayer and financial support to this day. Born and raised in Germany, Mike is, of course, fluent in German and has accompanied several of Calvary Chapel’s mission trips to Germany as a translator.
Christina Magellan
We can also go back 28 years to our brief 3 year ministry in Washington State and name many we led to Christ that are faithfully serving Him today: Like Christina Magellan, of Grandview, Washington, who along with her husband Alex and two children serve the Lord in a local church there. They also faithfully support our ministry.
My 12 Faithful Disciples
21 years ago, after 5 years of sowing the Word in Mexico, we planted a church in Tecpan de Galeana, Guerrero, Mexico. This church was planted on the basis of Christ’s plan to disciple 12 faithful converts in order to exponentially multiply the work of God through them. Those twelve inherited my spiritual DNA and have gone on to win many for Christ since then. (Those of you that have know me for 20 years or more know that I was talking this long before the moniker “G12” came about in 2002).
We had about 15 other young people that had been converted in other churches that we had planted in other parts of Mexico pass through our Discipleship Training in Tecpan also. We can give exciting testimonies of all of these young people that were our original 12, but right now I will just mention four: Teresa Salomé, Roberto & Julia Radilla and Eusebio Jaimes Islas. 
Teresa (Tere) Salomé
Tere, was one of our first converts in our church in Tecpan. She comes from a family of career oriented professionals and was a high school student graduating with honors when I went and preached to her school in a school wide assembly in 1985. God deeply touched her life and she announced to her family that she had dedicated her life to Christ and was entering our discipleship and leadership school in the church.
We dedicated three years of our focus to disciple her along with the 11 other faithful young people. Afterwards we sent them all to Monterrey, Nuevo León; with a scholarship for three years of Bible school (Your financial support of our ministry helped us provide that Bible school scholarship.)
Today Tere is an ordained minister who has planted a thriving church in her home village under the auspices of our ministry in Mexico. She has been able to win her entire family for Christ as well as many, many others. Next month (September 26th) Tere will join us here in Spain for three months of ministry and discipleship.
Roberto & Julia Radilla
Roberto was not one of the first people we led to Christ in Tecpan, HE WAS THE VERY FIRST ONE!!! In 1985 he came to us bare foot, no shirt and in shorts wanting to know what we were all about… a true street urchin! He had come from a very rough family background and was being raised on the streets of that tropical village with the stray dogs. We took Roberto in, led him to Christ and began to disciple him.
Julia came in some time later when Gina led her to Christ. She also became one of our faithful 12. After three years of discipleship (that were very difficult for Roberto… he had never had any disciplines) Roberto also went on to graduate from Bible school. Today they serve the Lord together with their two daughters (who love the Lord dearly) in a church in Silver City, North Carolina.
Roberto is kind of like my middle man of communications to many of the other original 12 that are pastors and active in ministry in various parts of the world.
Eusebio (Chebo) Jaimes Islas
Chebo is indeed a dear son in the Lord. Being saved at 14 or 15 years old, in 1985 he was the youngest of the original 12. He is truly like my “Timothy”. Like the others, he went through discipleship and Bible school. He returned to serve in the church in Tecpan until I called him to work with us here in Spain for two years back in 1995. Later he went on to answer a Macedonian call to Liberia, West Africa. He was one of the first Mexican missionaries to Sub-Sahara, West Africa. (Since then the doors have opened for many Latin American missionaries to serve in several West African countries).
Chebo won the hearts of the Liberian people as he selflessly served them in the midst of a horribly bloody civil war. He suffered terrible cases of malaria and saw hundreds die violently. Yet he refused to leave and steadfastly ministered the Gospel to this precious but suffering people.
While serving in Liberia, Chebo met his wife Clarissa, a missionary from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They now faithfully serve the Lord ministering as missionaries to the Spanish speaking immigrant population in Chambersburg and surrounding areas. They both feel that eventually they will continue their foreign missionary calling to both Africa and Mexico. Today Chebo and Clarissa have two beautiful children.
Our Deepest Desire
Our deepest and most sincere is to continue to bring for fruit for our beloved Lord and in this way see Him glorified!
Your prayerful and loving support is vital to the continued effective production of the fruit that glorifies our Father. Thank you very much.
H.M.S.,
Missionaries Prince & Gina Parker
Cáceres, Spain
posted by Prince and Gina Parker @ 1:54 PM,
