Uncle David’s Message

THIS IS THE TIME, THE POSITIONING TIME

Only humanitarian flights are being permitted to fly at this point with special permission.

About 4 months ago, while in Guyana, I had plans to go back to the U.S. to take care of some appointments and other work related issues. Right then, at the airport, when I was about to fly North, I got a phone call about the borders closing and the airports and all the transportation being shut down.

Immediately I was impressed to go back to Bolivia, I canceled all my appointments and flew south instead to Brazil. From there I crossed the border to Bolivia. The following day the borders were shut and for the next 4 months everything has stayed shut down. But thank the Lord I was at home with my wife and parents who now are living with us in Bolivia. My father has been very busy helping us with coordinate supplies for construction up in the mountains as well as preaching on Sabbath. My mother is very weak and not doing as well. She has good days and some not so well.

THE QUARANTINE EFFECT

With all the quarantine protocols and restrictions, it has been very difficult to fly. Only humanitarian flights are being permitted to at this point but only with special permission. A few weeks ago the U.S. Embassy called me and said: â€œWe have an American citizen who needs to go back to the States. Would you be able to fly her out of the jungles so she can catch her flight?” Gonzalo, one of our Bolivian friends and pilot who has helped us much in the past, got the permission and made the flight. One of the missionaries contacted the local mayor to inform him ahead of time of the flight. He then informed the quarantine coordinator who is a lady. She was furious that someone from Santa Cruz was going to fly there without their permission even though the federal government had issued the permits.

She called me and was furious. â€œWe are not going to let him land,” she said. I tried to calm her down. “Listen, he has all the permits from the government.” â€œNo” she interrupted, â€œIt’s an illegal flight”. “No” I repeated, â€œIt’s a legal flight. He’s flying to pick up this lady so she can catch her flight to go back to the U.S.” She is a missionary who went to visit her daughter and got stuck away from the rest of her family. â€œSo,” I requested, â€œJust check the paperwork.”

“We’re not going to let him land,” she insisted. â€œIf you’re not let him land,” I replied, â€œYou are going to cause an accident because he doesn’t have enough gasoline to go all the way back.  Please let him land and then check his paperwork. If something is wrong then it is up to you. But if everything is okay, which it is, then he should be able to continue”, â€œWell” she retorted, â€œWe’ll see.”

Covid-19 Medical Suit

FROM JUSTICE TO INJUSTICE

It turned out they let him land, but he had to be dressed in a spaceship uniform. It was terribly hot there. He was made to unload 250 kilograms (551 lb.) of food by himself. Nobody was willing to help him. He then had to put the gasoline in the airplane. They denied him a ladder and would not even to let him to put the mask off. He was sweating like a horse, and started to get faint.

He asked for a chair, but nobody would help him. He then turned to the doctor and said, â€œCan’t you see that I’m dehydrated? I need some water.  Can somebody help me?” Nobody got him water or would help him. He tried again, â€œYou’re a doctor. You know that I need help.” Still they offered no help. When he was done they made him get back in the plane.

They finally let the passenger get into the airplane, but suddenly, before he could close the window, they sprayed him with pure Clorox. Everything the Clorox touched got oxidized, eaten up! His backpack became shreds. On the flight back he got very nauseated and landed at another small town where he had friends and went straight to the hospital where he spent the night and was rehydrated. The next morning early I met the plane at the airport and took the missionary lady to the airport where she caught her flight to the US. We were so sorry for the way the pilot was treated but grateful that our passenger was able to be reunited with her family.

A few days later, the pilot informed me of his decision to file a lawsuit against the leaders of that small town. â€œDon’t sue the Major,” I requested. â€œHe has always been very helpful of our school and unfortunately was not the authority in this particular problem.”

It is true that some people act so ugly. Many times there are sad consequences when people act selfishly. Within a week or so, the daughter of the lady who had mistreated the pilot, committed suicide. The pilot desisted from the lawsuit, feeling like the lady must be suffering for the loss of her daughter. â€œI learned something important,” he said. â€œAnytime you do something good, there’s always opposition.” Since then we have made other flights and worked together to help as many people and medical personnel as possible.

Coronavirus Protective Suit

Seeing how we have been working closely and accomplishing a lot, the enemy has tried to break apart our close working relationship between Gonzalo and myself. But with much prayer and humility, it has been restored and the work is going better than ever during these very difficult times. The other day, he told me â€œDon’t we make the best team together?”

The airplane has become famous because everybody know that little airplane is the only plane that is flying for free. Hardly anyone will make free humanitarian flights. They all want to be paid and we do it for free! I thank God that the airplane is available and fulfilling its mission of saving lives and helping missionaries.

THE BEST DAYS ARE COMING …

Though I was able to finally get permission to leave Bolivia for the US for a few weeks, I should be flying back in the next few days. Will I ever come back to the States again? I don’t know. I am expecting and preparing for greater difficulties ahead. But one thing I know is that our Heavenly Father is in charge, and nothing happens without his approval. We can trust Him always. Whatever happens in the future, He will carry us through to the end. We just need to stay close to Him, and He will guide, provide and protect each of us. There are some things that we need to learn and other things we will never be able to do again.  

The best days of the church are straight ahead and will take place after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Latter Rain. This is not a hiding time, but a positioning time so that we can keep working when cities are suffering. It is the preparation time, physically and spiritually.  

We pray for and love each of you. Should we not see each other on this earth again, let it be at the great inauguration of our coming King.

From the Frontlines,

Uncle David

Frontlines Mission News

“A City on a Hill Cannot Be Hidden” 

WHAT IS CITY BIBLE GROUP

City Bible Group began as a small Bible study group in the city of Houston, TX in March of 2013. Toward the end of that summer, after we ended our curriculum of study, my friend Angel and I decided to reassess our strategy for teaching God’s word so that we could reach more people.

We took a few weeks to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance. When we met with the purpose of deciding our way forward, Angel proposed starting a podcast. Coming from the corporate world, my natural inclination would have been to use a webinar format instead.

Even though back then the only podcast I was familiar with was Joel Osteen’s, I was grateful and open to receiving the Lord’s guidance on what form the ministry should take. I told Angel I would do my due diligence and seriously look into podcasting as a potential format for our Bible studies.

Indeed, after reading only a few articles on podcasting, I sensed the technology had many benefits. Despite being still in its infancy in 2013, it held great promise. Only the Holy Spirit could’ve inspired Angel’s thought!

I proceeded to find an online class where I learned everything I needed to know to launch a podcast. Our first Bible study was broadcast in December 2013.

THE WORLDWIDE EXPANSION

Since then, â€œSetting the Record Straight: God’s Truth For This Generation” has progressively expanded its worldwide audience. As expected, our largest audiences are English-speaking: US, Australia, Canada and UK. But we also reach thousands of people in countries where English is spoken as a second-language. This is the beauty of technology to spread the gospel!  I also try to translate some of the podcasts into Spanish and release as YouTube videos because Spanish people don’t listen to podcasts. I also need to produce the English podcasts as YouTube videos as well. And during this time, podcasting has quickly become an entrenched – indeed mainstream – broadcasting media.

Up to this point I do everything myself with no help at all other than the Lord. Angel started the ministry with me when it was a small group, and during the early days of the podcast. We separated over doctrinal differences (Adventism versus non-denominationalism).

Podcast 

THE FOUNDER

Marla Ilona is the founder and presenter of City Bible Group. She describes herself as a â€œbrand plucked from the fire”, having walked in darkness most of her life. â€œThe Lord in His infinite goodness had a rescue plan for me, as He has for each of us. That plan required that I leave France, where I had lived for 25 years, to return to the US. It was in a hotel room in Seattle that I gave my heart to Jesus after listening to a sermon by a well-known tele-evangelist. For six months I attended his Sunday church, until the Lord guided me to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. My family was Adventist, but I had stubbornly stayed away until the Lord led me with a sure hand to His Sabbath-keeping Remnant Church.”

“My teaching of the Bible evolved as I grew and matured in the Seventh-day Adventist faith. In 2018 I left my corporate career to serve the Lord with all my time and talent. My intention was to join the GMI team working in the media center in Bolivia. However, when I stopped in Puerto Rico on my way to Bolivia to see my family, I realized her health condition wasn’t very good. The Lord brought the mission field to my home! So I’ve been in Puerto Rico for nearly two years now taking care of my mom.”

“Throughout my stay here God’s Holy Spirit has been teaching me in many areas of truth and blessing me with a deeper understanding of His Word, prophecy and history. Today, my focus is primarily on end time prophecy, and preparing God’s people to stand in the time of trouble and to be ready to meet their Savior.”

“There is still much light to be revealed. God didn’t leave the last generation without the special light we would need to make it through the time of trouble. If we allow the Holy Spirit to broaden our perception of truth, there are many layers of truth coded into God’s word, in both the Old and New Testaments. These revelations the Lord has reserved for the generation that would really need them! This is the Bible principle of Contemporary Recognition of Prophetic Fulfillment, which states that the full meaning of a prophecy is revealed just before the time of its fulfillment”.

“God needs messengers who are willing to give the trumpet a certain sound to prepare His people for the end time battle. God needs messengers who are willing to call out Satan’s deceptions even when the entire world, and sometimes even God’s church, have believed them (as with Covid 19). I ask the Lord for His help to always be that kind of messenger.”

Marla Ilona presenting at “Battles of Faith” Puerto Rico, May 2019

If you’re looking for that level of depth and truth in the study of God’s Word, Bible Prophecy and Present Truth, you definitely need to listen to City Bible Group’s podcast. You can stream the podcast directly from the website at https://citybiblegroup.com. 

You can also listen on any major podcasting platform such as iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, iHeart Radio, etc. Search for â€œSetting the Record Straight: God’s Truth For This Generation”. The YouTube channel is another option, where you can watch the podcast videos in both English and Spanish. On YouTube search for citybiblegroup.

Marla presenting “Notre Dame Spiral Burning” at “Battles of Faith” Puerto Rico 2019

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CITY BIBLE GROUP?

The ministry goals are:

• Improve the frequency of English podcasts (be able to honor a bi-weekly schedule)
• Begin to produce video programs and presenting the material, in both English and Spanish
• Begin to produce programming in French, both video and audio

These goals can only be reached through expanded resources. I’m praying the Lord for laborers who can help in the different areas of AV production.

The Bible says in Revelation 11 that God’s end time messengers will prophecy in sackcloth. In other words, very difficult times lie just ahead. According to Bible end time typology, coming up very soon are more pestilence, famine, war, the total economic collapse, the establishment of the New World Order, Satan’s counterfeit Second Coming, and the Sunday Law. But by the same token, the glory of the Lord will be manifested upon His true people as He pours out His Holy Spirit upon us.

My responsibility is to continue to bring God’s truth to the people, both the Church and the world. I need your help in order to do that. The vision for City Bible Group is to continue to produce more audio programming in English and Spanish, and to expand to include video programming as well as the French language. I’ve listed some of our ministry needs below. Please support us in every way that you can.

Funding and Equipment Needs:

1. Funding to finalize sound-proofing of video/audio recording studio
2. Funding for video camera
3. Funding for new Mac computer and required software for video and audio editing
4. Funding and resources for new video set and props
5. Monthly donations for recurring monthly operating costs.

Volunteer Needs:

1. Video production: camera, sound, set, editing and broadcasting (location Puerto Rico)
2. English, Spanish and especially French Translators and voice-over talent (can be remote)
3. Graphic Designer for video, website, social media, and landing pages (can be remote)
4. Content researchers/creators/writers (can be remote)
5. Studio set design and build (location Puerto Rico)

HOW TO HELP

You can donate online: http://gospelministry.org/donations/

Or by phone at: 423-473-1841

Or you can mail a tax deductible donation to:

Gospel Ministries International
PO Box 506
Collegedale, TN 37315

Kindly include a separate note that it is for City Bible Group.

“New Normal, New Reality” Watch and listen this presentation.

“Watch ye therefore and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” Luke 21:36.

Founder City Bible Group

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: info@citybiblegroup.com

Website: https://citybiblegroup.com/

YouTube Channel: @CityBibleGroup

Podcast Page: https://settingtherecordstraight.libsyn.com/

Facebook: @CityBibleGroup

Twitter: @citybiblegroup

MISSION STORY
My Life in the Mission

IN MEMORY OF AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE

DR. JOSE GUILLERMO GRIS PERALTA 
June 25, 1955 – May 14, 2020 

HIS FAMILY BACKGROUND

José Guillermo Gris Peralta, the youngest of six sons, was born June 25, 1955 into a Catholic family living in Mexico City D.F.  At the age of 10, while serving in a parish, he had a very strong impression that convinced him to declare himself an atheist for 13 years. He studied in a popular high school. 

At the age of 17, while participating as a student guerrilla in the “Corpus Thursday” confrontation of 1971, he almost lost his life.  He continued his academic studies, graduating as a Surgeon in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (UNAM). It was his purpose in studying medicine to enter psychiatry, and due to his atheistic ideology, he began venturing into esoteric studies and astral travel exploration.

“God gives his greatest battles, to his greatest warriors.”

HIS MEDICAL TRAINING AND MARRIAGE

In 1978, he arrived at the Isla del Cd. Del Carmen in the Gulf of Mexico to do his undergraduate internship. It was there that he met Yazmin M. Nechar Alayón, a young lady who was not an Adventist but had studied and graduated as a nurse from an Adventist Boarding School “La Yerbabuena”.

When only 14 years of age in 1976, Yazmín arrived in Guatemala in a relief brigade, due to a 7.5 Richter earthquake in her hometown, and learned of a School of Natural Medicine.  The school, founded by American missionaries, was designed to train students for missionary service.  Yazmin decided to enroll in the school, graduated, and then returned to her hometown of Isla del Cd. del Carmen, Campeche.  

It was there that God guided in the extraordinary life changes and encounter between two seemingly opposite individuals who turned their hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus, and who after being baptized in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, also united their lives to each other, and commenced on a 40 year marriage full of love, dedicated to service for God. Their marriage was richly blessed by the birth of three sons: Elliott Gerardo, Jairo Guillermo and Oscar Adrian who also share their parents’ dedication and love for missionary service.

Wedding of Guillermo and Yazmin Gris Nechar

Gris Family – Seated: Dr. Gris and wife Yazmin. Standing left to right: Elliott Gerardo, Jairo Guillermo and Oscar Adrian

A MISSION WORK IS BORN

The life of Dr. José Guillermo Gris Peralta may well be compared to the apostle Paul who prior to his conversion stood in opposition to the Christians, but then becoming one of them.  In 1985, after many years of missionary service, he accepted the opportunity to go to the US to expand his study of Medicine in Integral Health.  So, Dr. Gris and his wife came to the US.

Dr. Gris blended the practice of medicine with evangelism in numerous settings; be it in a prison, or school, or clinic, through radio programs, in public campaigns and medical brigades or outreach at the time of some natural disaster.  He would be found teaching, preaching, healing, praying, canvassing and reaching out to all classes of people. He was a tireless warrior of faith and action, of vision and sacrifice; a loving and faithful husband, a great father and loving grandfather. 

During his medical ministry he was appointed as an ordained elder of the Adventist church. He was a leader of the Bella Vista Church in Chiapas, Mexico until the day of his rest.

He was the founder of the Bella Vista School of Nursing in Chiapas, Mexico.

THE ACCIDENT THAT MARKED HIS LIFE

He sustained a serious accident on September 3, 2017 when he fell while doing repairs on a roof, which paralyzed the lower half of his body.

Despite the fact that the enemy of souls tried to destroy his work as a doctor, he would continue to perform extraordinary surgeries that others might deem impossible to address (such as removing a large cancerous breast tumor on a lady church member), and he continued to care for and treat his patients until just days before his passing. 

Thus he said goodbye, as did other great men of war, in battle against the enemy of life, valiant until his last moments.

With the Staff and students.

In his medical student years.

AN UNFORGETTABLE LEGACY

He is resting in the hands of God, after consecrating his life in prayer in the company of his family, on May 14, 2020, with unwavering faith, and hope placed in God.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me: Write “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Rev. 14:13

His legacy continues and his works declare themselves in the lives of his family, and through his students who drank from his teachings at the “Bella Vista” nursing school since its creation. Other patients, friends, family and brothers in the faith, whose lives were influenced by him, personally testify and share remembrances through social networks of how keenly they regret the loss of a great doctor, noble man, and honest and exemplary father.

A legacy from father to son

With the staff of Bella Vista Clinic

Guillermo and Yazmin Gris

Birth of his grandson Gillio.

With his son who is also MD like his father

With the wives of his children and grandchildren

A FAITHFUL SERVANT

Very soon Dr. José Guillermo Gris Peralta will hear the voice of God declare:

“Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, …. enter into the joy of your Lord.” Matthew 25:23.

Words of commemoration & dedication from the Gris Family:

Yazmin M. Nechar Alayón (wife), Elliott Gerardo, Jairo Guillermo and Oscar Adrian Gris (children).

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”