by: Johnny Esposito
Friends,
I am in America and we just concluded the Missions’ Conference at Pacific Baptist Church. As most of you know, my brother Pastor Joe, is still in a coma. He is in dire need of a miracle!
PLEASE PRAY FOR MARY, THE KIDS, THE CHURCH FAMILY, AND STEVE MEYERS AND THE PASTORAL STAFF AT THIS TIME!
Many of you, in fact, thousands, from around the world have been praying.
THANK YOU!!!
While none of us know WHAT the future holds, we rest assured in the fact, that we know WHO holds the future. JESUS still sits on His throne, working out the fulfillment of His eternal purpose!
We know; we don’t think, we don’t hope, but we KNOW that “all things” work together for our good and for His glory, and in this we rest.
On the last Sunday morning and evening of the Missions’ Conference, I preached a two-part message from ACTS 16:1-5 entitled “Don’t Let the Dream Die.”
I thought I would include a few thoughts from the message that would help you to know how to pray for the church as you pray for the family:
DON’T LET THE DREAM DIE (ACTS 16:1-5)
The dream started in North Chicago in the early 1980s. Joe was a bus captain and had been for quite sometime. At the time, the vast majority of his riders were Hispanic children. One day, Joe started noticing Asian children hanging out on or near his bus route.
He later told me, that these were a people who it seemed as if “No man cared for their souls.” I can remember Joe and I talking about the possibility of him starting a new route to reach into this community of Cambodian families who had fled the communist regime of Pol Pot.
Joe started the route, he loved the people, and he started learning the language. At the time, he lived with my wife and me, and I can remember listening as the tapes played of the Cambodian language down in our basement thinking, “Wow, now that’s a difficult language.”
Joe felt the desire and burden to go to Cambodia to reach these people; a people who no man cared for their soul. Regrettably, or possibly the sovereignty of God, Cambodia was considered a “closed” country at the time. Of course, we now know that no country is “closed” to God, but at the time, at least for many in the Independent Baptist community, Cambodia was closed!
What a “coincidence,” for those of you who believe in coincidences–I don’t, but for those of you who do–my brother soon found out that over 40,000 Cambodians who had fled the communist regime in Cambodia had moved to our hometown of Long Beach, California. More Cambodians lived in Long Beach, California than anywhere else in the world outside of Cambodia and Thailand.
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to the Cambodian people of Long Beach.
My brother decided to plant a church in Long Beach. It was called, Cambodian Baptist Church. My brother Joe loved the Asian people, especially the Cambodians. He often referred to himself as an “egg: yellow (Asian) on the inside and white (Caucasian) on the outside.”
God blessed, and the church grew as did the vision!
After many years, Cambodian Baptist Church changed their name to Pacific Baptist Church. The church became ethnically diverse. Before long, Pacific Baptist Church had a thriving Spanish ministry, as well as a Filipino ministry.
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to Long Beach and surrounding areas and to many different ethnic groups!
About eight years ago, one of our assistant pastors, Dave Board, resigned from PBC and left for the harvest fields of Cambodia. He eventually came back, and my brother and Dave Board prayerfully started Team Cambodia and sent a team to Cambodia. God is doing a miraculous work there in Cambodia with the team headed by Dave Board.
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to Cambodia.
A year or two later, one of my brother’s former bus kids from that Asian route in North Chicago, a Hmong young man named Jay Chang, was recruited by my brother with another couple from the midwest to start a team in Thailand.
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to Long Beach, Cambodia, and Thailand.
It wasn’t too long later before through another “coincidence,” that God laid the country of communist Laos on my brothers heart. We sent Koumaly and Darath Thongdy, along with two single girls to this “closed” country. My wife and I would join them about 18 months later.
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to Long Beach, Cambodia, Thailand, and to communist Laos!
Right about the same time that we were preparing to send a team to Laos, my brother got the vision for planting more churches in California. The first church plant was in the East Los Angeles area. Being that this area was predominately Hispanic in it’s makeup, we naturally thought it would be primarily a Hispanic congregation. What we did not know, here’s another one of those “coincidences,” that the area where the church would be planted had more Chinese living than anywhere else in America.
We started a Chinese ministry, and by God’s grace began to reach Chinese folks. Little by little, the vision expanded. Over the past year or so, my brother became burdened for the 1.3 billion people in China. Some of the last words my brother said just prior to being rushed to the hospital, on the first night of our missions’ conference, which just so happened to be emphasizing China, were “China or Bust.”
My brother had his stroke on the first night of our missions’ conference. This conference had China as its main emphasis. Two missionaries from China were brought in along with Dave Board (missionary in Cambodia) and me (missionary in Laos).
My brother and I were supposed to have a meeting during the conference about the future of our team in Laos, and China was definitely going to be discussed!
The vision that started in a small neighborhood in North Chicago, had now expanded to Long Beach, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and to the entire 10/40 Window, but specifically China!
“Where there is no vision the people perish”
While you pray for Pastor Joe Esposito, while you pray for the family, while you pray for the PBC family, you must stay the course.
Don’t let the dream die!!!
Johnny Esposito
Missionary to the 10/40 Window