Is Revival Happening?

You're connected with God, His love, His love over one she goes back to, that His love flows out. Yes. And it's like rivers and living water, because it brings life to us. It's what life's all about. There's nothing more impactful than that love that you allow God to pour through you. And out of that love, the truth come. And the only thing that heals is the truth. In any way. And the only thing that brings life is the truth. Yeah. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast, where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited. Welcome back to Ignite. A very special guest, one of my best buddies in the whole world. I love you. You know that. I know 20 years. I don't know how long we go back a long way. So this is the teen challenge director for Romania, okay? Cataline, we call him Cataline. And I don't get messed up in the last name. I'll miss it. I'll miss it for now. But Cataline's my buddy. We have had great times together. And Mike Kennedy, who is with us in our ministry, we came already one time just to say, I just want to get away from all the glitz. I want to get her hands dirty. I didn't remember that. Boy, you did that real quick. I mean, we're down the sewers or those four lost folk and drugs and smoking glue, not smoking but sucking and hailing glue and they're like zombies, I think. Thousands and thousands of them living in the sewers, leaving the state orphanages, ending up on the streets and living in the sewers. Winters are very tough, so they survive there. But hey, it doesn't matter where, how dark the dark is when the light comes. God can capture us. Exactly. That's what he wants us to do. And we want to run from dark to actually in the darkness of the greatest miracles. Yes. And at a time when I just needed a reset, did I get a reset? And it's lasted me, this is pointedly now, those visions are still in my mind. And of course, what's going on with your ministry? Give us a little quick update. It's not about your ministry, but I want to promote you right quick, because it's in God's mean, you live in God's favor. You live in the favor, God. You know that. Yeah. And what's been happening here recently is just give a little quick insight of tea challenge room media. Then we'll get to the sharing phase stuff. I do believe that we all live in God's favor. It's how much we treasure that and what we do with God. And that's like, and I want to thank you, Bear, for being here and for you being more than a friend to us. And thank you for what you've been doing in Romania over 22 years. Oh, man. Because you are a big part of what's happening with all the people that are very kind, but it's true. And we've been blessed by it in so many ways. So tell us about the ministry right quick. Yeah. So there was a two minute lot of, we're doing this. Yes. So 22 years ago, we started, we've been working with strict kids for 70 years and 22 years ago, we started the ministry called in challenge. And because all these kids who are living on the sewages, they started using heroin. We had no idea what to do. How do you do it? How do you do it? There was money. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. The heroin was cheap. The main route from Afghanistan to the western world was through Romania and it was very cheap and they could get it. They would beg for money. They would use seven, eight, ten years old, shooting heroin on the sewages. So we had no idea what to do. We heard of the ministry called in challenge. We heard of the powerful fruits that God was doing through in challenge. So long story short, the Lord orchestrated, we started it and it's been 22 years. Now we have three centers, some of those kids and two more to open very soon. Some of the church downtown Bucharest and an outreach, we'll talk about it, but it's like an outreach that now we go to schools all over Romania. We just reached over 100,000 kids' students' life. And so it's been, like you said, we've been living in the grays. We've been watching God, what He's doing and it's amazing in our lives. It's a way to really move to support you right now. They could send checks for Romania, a teen challenge, just Southern California teen challenges. Yes. And in a memo to write for Romania. Yes. But still in California teen challenges, Riverside don't have the address on Chicago Avenue but send it to them or call them and send money for Bucharest or Romania to each other. There's no better ministry, no better place to put your buddy to get the biggest bag for you. Thank you. But anyway, tell us right quick what's going on. I mean, we're having revival here in the world. The church is still sitting kind of flat. It's like Trump, okay, Trump got elected, we can relax now. But the world's going unglued, the statistics are that the world, the 80% or not Christians are waking up and one thing we're got is an asking all kinds of questions and really seeking God. It's unprecedented. We never see anything like it. It's fantastic. Bibles and it's sales are off the charts here in America now. They're buying Bibles. They're trying to find out where God is and we need to do a better job of restraining back. But is that kind of thing happening other places like Eastern Europe? Is that, are you feeling a wave of anything that's going on in the United States taking place there? Or is God just supernaturally doing it on his own for Eastern Europe? I was going to say that's exactly what happens there right now too because the war in Ukraine, the news of the war, what happens with the Western Europe, the European Union, then Trump gets elected and that really stirred up especially the Christians. Like you said, it's a moment of a wake up and people are wondering what is going on. They know it's supernaturally. They know it's supernaturally. We leave one the best times possible for people who are thinking them, for people who think this life on earth is a vapor. It's a great reminder for all of us that life on earth is a vapor and all that matters. What we do for the king on this earth and getting somebody closer to Jesus today in everything. And that fear, and we've seen that, that fear should be in Romania in particular, people that don't know because they can fear paralyzes you. But if you realize it's an opportunity to do more for Christ, I think it's fantastic. Fear paralyzes you. It also sterilizes you. Yes. I like that. Fear you're not in faith. I like that. Which is so. It's basically sterilized, afraid to do anything. Not even sure their own wants to go on to leave owned, giving somebody else to leave it in the Lord. What they'll say or they'll react. So we live in fear. God has where we're at. You'll let us stay there 10% of the US. And we can talk and praise God. And all wonderful stuff and all of a sudden if you just keep us at 10% of that number's actually going down in America. And he's fine with that. always he keeps us in fear. That's the problem. We've got to get out of fear. We've got to break loose and start to have some fear. It does not come from God. There's only one fear coming from God. But it's, we leave amazing times in my opinion. Right, right. When you have fear, what you're saying to God is you don't trust Him. You can't get away from that. When you fear, when you fear anything, I don't care what it is. You're saying to God, I don't trust you with this. I don't believe you can help me. I don't know if you could help me with this. That's, that's serious. Go ahead. I'm sorry. It's just a point that needs to be made. And of course it's, it's, it's all over the way. Sir, are you, are you sensing anything in your government? Any, any change in your government? They kind of status quo. I think what happened with Trump being elected, it really stood up things more than than I could ever imagine. Really? We've seen a lack of leadership in politics, in everybody, especially in politics, in Romania, in Eastern Europe, and of course the Western Europe. So with Trump being, being coming to President and the way he started the President, I think he worked every while. The decision being so decisive. And that's what he's been lacking because we are a Christian. We have to be decisive. And doesn't matter what we do, if we're not decisive, it's, it's terrible. So to see a man at that level, for us, you look in America, you go, okay, it's like it's the best country in the world. And to see a man that decisive, that does things with, and of course not everybody likes Trump. And I'm not everybody, I'm not even talking about politics right now. I'm talking about principles and values and decisiveness. And I think that opened the door for our politicians to take decisions based on values, principles more than ever. That's what I was hoping to hear because we know what's happening here. Now you can see whatever you want with Trump, but you can't deny the fact. These open the door for Christians. You know our pastor, Tommy Bardette, preached sermon right after the election. And he said, Trump just announced, President Trump just announced, there's going to be the four, the golden years for America in these next four years. He's, I agree with him. If the church wakes up, if we don't take advantage of this moment in time, yeah, meaning get off the bench and get in the game folks and start sharing your faith, it's white open, there's no, yeah, you have no excuse for not sharing your faith. If we don't do that as a church, we'll lose this opportunity. It will not be the golden years of the, the, the lost years. Yes, yes, I agree with that one, nine percent. Yeah. But I think, I think that the way he stood things up, the way he woke up, it was that, you know, he woke up the politicians. He woke up the leadership because people were looking only at dictators of being decisive and, you know, now you have a leader that says, it's time for decisions. When he was there before, he made it okay to say Merry Christmas again. We got what you couldn't say Merry Christmas. Everybody's saying happy holidays and because of his last ministry, he write off that it is Merry Christmas folks celebrate Christmas. He's done the same thing now with, but by not being apologetic for being a Christian. I mean, the prayers in the, in the chamber, the prayers. We, we ask Christians who are almost were afraid of playing, praying in publics or in school. And now you see a president do that and promote that. I think that really stores things up. I mean, you're going to put your way. You got a Christian, not a Christian, you got a rouse. So he's all that is in the, and none of us are perfect. But what we do know is he's raising the banner and for the freedom, it's not persecuting Christians. Christ is the most persecuting group in the world. It looks like what's going on. We never, never, never talk about Christians being persecuted. I think it's a new way of courage and a new way of courage for Christians to share their faith to which that should always be the case. But I think now there's, it's almost like the gates have all. So do you sense? I mean, from, I mean, you're, you're a little isolated, unless you, you talk to leaders in teen challenge, particularly all of them, are you sensing? There's this mood on a globe. It could be sensing a global revival right now. That's, that's what I'm hoping for. Do you sense that that might be taking place? I totally sense that we are at the verge of a revival. But before the revival, there's always going to be things that are stirred up. The reason that there's a revival is because then there was a need. There was fear was overwhelming. There was confusion. People moved from looking at themselves and looking at the idols they've been building to seeing everything gone and being, what's next? And they start looking up. When the moment you start looking up and asking God for his will, his thoughts, his plans, his presence, we're going to get united. We're going to get on fire. Thanks for everything. I'm, of course, I'm looking all the time. And half my life or whatever I have my life is secular because I'm a car guy. And most car guys, great, frankly, are not Christian. They're better living the most Christians. They live better lives than most Christians, but they're too busy with their cars and having fun. And they're moneyed and whatever. Sorry, I live very much in a world that is not Christian per se indeed, yes, but not saved in every except Jesus Christ. But I hear the same question all over what's going on. God must be up to something. That was a miracle. We don't understand it. God is doing to, they want to know. And he was like, quarring minds want to know everywhere I go. I hear this. And I'm wondering if you're hearing the same thing. The same thing. It's the same thing in these weeks. The secular world up. And I say, you know, the crops are white for harvest. Yes, they're white for harvest. The labors are few. We're living exactly that scripture. The labors are few. They're ready for us. We're the one that's holding it back at this point. See, I work with the young generation. We have in our, you know, our discipleship programs. We have in, you know, we called it rehabs, but really I don't do rehab. I just share about Christ. I have every person here. So somebody's in chains. If somebody's just disparate, you just share Christ. And that is hope. And let me just say the universal exhibition of Teen Challenge, biggest oldest, most successful program in the world, we're beginning to people off of drugs is God has created all of us with a void, a void, a God-shaped void that only he can fill. It's very simple to understand. We try to fill that void with drugs, or sex, or fame, or money, or you go on and run. And every one of those things satisfy for a moment. And then you want more. And then you want more. That's why there's such recidivism. You go to non-Christian rehab programs and you get off, but the whole is not filled. And the craving is still there. And so the recidivism rates are just incredible, like it's never ending. But when you fill, when you ask Jesus Christ to come in and fill that void, the need for drugs or money or sex or all that goes away, it's just amazing. That's why we have an 86% cure rate. This is Teen Challenge, okay? So anyway, to understand where this man is coming from and what has his heart. It's about Jesus. It is. It is rehab, but really it's given in the Lord and God loves it. The rehab is a bonus. I think what really men like to think about it, this is that we serve psychiatry, psychologists. They say, hey, they are gone. They've been missed. They are not developed emotionally. They've missed so many things. They're not going to make it. Well, some of them became businessmen today. Oh, yeah, hundreds. That's all you're going to do. I'm gracious. I mean, change lives. Businessmen. I know you have great jobs, great family. You saw them. There's no hope. And now they're a businessman or a teacher, whatever. I mean, there's no greater joy. Oh, God can do that. The Apostle Paul says, what will be my reward? What will be my crown when I get to heaven? He says it's you. Those that we lead to the Lord will be our crown over the Lord heaven for eternity. If you were to die right now when you go to heaven, how many people would be there because of your influence? That's the question. It's not a question. That's the question. Wherever you are, you have influence. What are you doing with your influence? And think about what you're doing today. Think of everything you're doing today. What are you doing today that has eternal consequences? What? Name it. Go through all the important things. You're stressing over things. You got to do all this. You got to all this. What are those things as eternal significance? There's only one. If you're using those opportunities, experiences to lead people to Jesus, nothing else matters. I mean, that's just the truth. So we're about space sharing. And you're about space sharing. Do you have any fun story you always have? And we just we haven't been together. We just got together right quick and get to see for the first time in a long time. But you always have fun stories to tell me. Warm my heart a little bit with some real life stories from Eastern Europe, from Romania. It's a safe story. A couple of weeks ago, we had one minister that came visiting one of our centers. So the minister came with his entourage, came with directors from the minister of culture. So there were about 10 people there. And they came to the center just to see, visit, no particular purpose, no interest in hearing how we're doing, what we're doing. But they came to visit. So why were we sitting there? And for me, it's always like, Lord, we all need, we all need hope. We all need something that is beyond our earth, like what you were saying earlier. And I don't know who said it, but he said that everybody, every time somebody opens a bottle or shoots a dose or snips a cocaine, they're looking for God. They just settle for less. Yeah, they just don't know. So in that case, they're looking for peace. They're looking for peace. And what peace everybody wants peace, they want peace. And you find it something that's so addicting that sort of tears you apart. Exactly. So we're sitting there in the in the meeting. And one of, you know, we one of our students we called the people who are in the program started to share, it was a girl there, started to share how she was transformed, how she never had the faith, how she never heard, she knew about God, but didn't know him. She knew about she heard, she heard about Jesus, but didn't know Jesus. And now she was glowing with. Yes, they know, they know, most of my friends are not saved. They know who Jesus is. They would swear to God, he's a son of God, but they never received him. They never accepted his savior and their Lord. They just keep on walking. And that's like the greatest decision in life that you can take. And this man was the director in the minister. He was very upset with God. He was very bitter against God. And for all reasons in his own mind, because he had a 30 year old daughter that died on overdose. Now nobody knew there. We didn't know his colleagues. So he's sitting there. And then he hears all this testimony. He starts whipping from her testimony. Yes, from her testimony. And then we start talking with him about Christ and about the hope of Christ. And then out of Nazi, just like we ask him to circulate, we pray for you. Test the body of the new believer. Yes. Convict in the pastor. And it was so out there, so real. And we all pray for him. And he just said to us, he said, I mean, never understand why my daughter died on overdose, but I am I am open for the first time to know Christ. Yeah. And we pray for him. He knows. Hey, I don't know why he took my daughter. Well, I took the call. She's 49 years old. Most prolific face share. I've ever known. Yeah. And I called you to talk because I knew you loved her. And you said, I was thinking through I might boy, it'd be really neat to have. I've counted and speak the funeral. And you said to me, oh, I'm coming. I said, what? I'm coming. What do you mean you're coming? You said, I'm coming to Nicole's funeral. I can't miss her funeral. Well, then would you speak? And that was amazing. That was amazing. And we had a thousand people with the funeral for Nicole's, Nicole Vaguay celebration of life. And it went on YouTube. You know, if you watch that video, 20,000 people have watched the video of a funeral on YouTube and go to Vaguay celebration of life. And so do I have any questions about God taking her? We had we had we had an opportunity to accept the Lord right then, a number of people that were hard knows except for the Lord at the service and hundreds. I mean, I have no idea how many of you were sentenced because so many of you said they've accept the Lord from watching the video. It got good. Give me a spontaneous one. Just something you meet on the street or something. Because this is basically about a spontaneous ministry not a group thing, which is how can all of us move everybody every day closer to Jesus being being open and watching, right? Watching all the time, watching for the opportunity. I'd say it's kind of like when you're playing basketball, you're watching for that opening and you're driving, you're seeing it all over and you're driving for the basket. It's fun to do that for the Lord. So do you have a fun story from recent times that you could share with me right quick? We, I remember one after our son died, he died of cancer when he was 27 years old, which again broke our heart. We did not understand but we trust in God for everything. I was in a place and I met somebody that was buying some flowers. And the person was there and I went to him and we were in line and I said, what did you get the flowers for? And he said, it's for my son. Oh, I said for your son. He said, yeah, my son died and I'm taking the flowers to the cemetery. Boy, that was a good moment. And he put that in and we started sharing. He starts weeping. I started weeping. I mean, both. And then, but I had the hope of Christ. I knew where our son, your new tears because he lived for Christ. He served Christ. He was just an extraordinary kid. Although he was, he was rescued from the sewages because we adopted him. I remember when we, he was the Lord used him in a powerful way. So I was sharing that with a guy and then we start praying and we just had that moment of prayer in a public place. And the person after we prayed looked at me and he said, I need to talk to you more. And out of that moment, that open door. Out of the tragedy. Out of the tragedy. God's doing things. He really is. The whole family comes, you know, to to know Christ. And in this life, no family came after that. It's all about. Yeah. That's the in this life. It's all about that. Wow. It admits that to miss everything else. And then there's the Romans eight races. All things work together for good. He didn't necessarily all things work together for me for good. I like that. Because for him for good is is souls. If he could use something bad in my life to lead more people to the Lord, then, you know, if I die, it's going to be leading people to Jesus. So there's no fear in that when you know that no matter what the bad thing is, he's in the business of leading people closer to the Lord. And sometimes we don't end up, you know, having a company or wife or cars. Well, what I have, sometimes that are much more prolific face shares are in tough times, but they're using it to the glory of God. And they're tested one day. I said, you're tested one day way better than mine. They expect me to smile. Of course, they don't know I kept smiling in all the bad times. And that's the keys. Just, you never lose your joy. Never lose your joy. With Christ, you never lose your joy. Anything comes of mind, something in an airport or walk in the street or something just spontaneous. They just popped around you and you do. We're not expected. And also there was somebody in your face that God put you together with. And you just know that's a God thing. I mean, for me personally, because it's every person I met, somehow we start to eat. It's so great to know people. And you're asking a question. And from that question, and you go into more of a talk, personal conversation. Yeah. And just, I know you do that. That's why I was very excited. All the time. Folks, it's, they'll know you're my disciple. He says, they'll know you're my disciple by your love. And quite frankly, you didn't say by your Bible knowledge or your oratory or your big personality or your money or your cars or anything else. They'll know you by your love. And when you just love on people, I know you do it. I mean, we love to love them. You're in conversation. You have a conversation there that we'd never expected. But it comes out of love. And then the Holy Spirit comes. That's, that's, that's not just your love. That's the Holy Spirit's love flowing through you. Do you know that you don't have a secular conversation? Never. Oh, there's nothing in your life that's secular. So true. Everything in your life is spiritual. Everything, everything you say and do is moving everybody to watch you closer, further away from God. And when you talk to people, he's minister to them. He's speaking through them. And the Holy Spirit will prompt them to even open up and share things with you. It's just amazing how that happens, isn't it? And I'll send you here. Oh, there's their need. They may not even tell their best friend about that. But they're telling a complete stranger because they sense their love. And then the Holy Spirit gives you the words to say and it's God speaking through to them. And that's hitting nature life. And I believe we, if we were love people genuinely with God's love. See, it has to be God's love. We don't have the bill. No, we do not. Not enough. That we will run out of it. We have to be continually filled with God's love through the Holy Spirit. So we can love people every single day, every person we get in contact with. And out of that love will pour a lot of things. Not just, not just the gifting of okay, just speaking or just out of that love because under the most effective people in sharing the faith, they're not even the evangelists. That's right. People who have an incredible love, just for their neighbor, if you're connected with God, his love, his love over ones you goes back to that his love flows out. Yes. And it's like rivers of living water because it brings life to us. It seems awful. There's nothing more impactful than that love that you allow God to pour it through you. And out of that love, the truth come. And the only thing that heals is the truth. In anything. And the only thing that brings life is the truth. So yes, that you love them, but then you come with the truth and the truth will set them free. I love it. We have a lot of folks out there that follow us who don't even know the word yet. I mean, a lot of folks here that are sharing the faith. Others haven't yet their thinking about starting or it's got a cross section. But protect me for those that are around in the version to share their faith. You have a word for them. Would you give them a low encouragement? What do we do for them? Firstly, if they get off the bench and get into the game? I believe that everything in life starts with curiosity. You have, it's people who really found God is the people who are who really wonder does God exist. I wouldn't be here today if I wouldn't met a girl, beautiful girl, 33 years ago. I got in love with her and in the clubs and I was a DJ and my love was going in the wrong direction, but for me it was the best I didn't do it then. And then I met this girl. She shared her faith with me and I tried to convince her that her faith is crazy. And she said, and I tried so much to tell her, you wasting your life. And she said, hey, if I would be used to it only, I would ask, I'd be curious if God exists. And that triggered me. And the triggered me with a question, does God exist? Yeah. If you're not serious about that question, you're not going to make it, right? I really want you to know. Do you really want to know? Because if you want to know, the Lord will make himself known to you. There is a secret in that. It's almost like, why would the Lord choose that? I have a lot of friends I've been chummy with. I call it chummy, I try to throw fish. I just I'm chummy with them trying to get them to come in and accept the Lord. And most of them are they don't want to know yet. They're satisfied. They have money, they have cars, they go car rallies, they have all kinds of friends, everybody treats them like God. They're just wonderful. Life is good. They don't want to know the truth. They just don't want. And I can't reach them until they get the point. And maybe when they're and I have to do it, people are dying. I have that opportunity with their father. They call me. Okay, can we talk now? But seriously folks, if you're not there, yeah, you got to really want it. You can't just be casual. You got to be all in. God is not an add-on. He's everything. He's everything. And then he gives you everything back more. I like cars and sports and boats. And we've been out in the boat together. We have fun. We have fun. It's not that you got to know. No, he gives you life and life more abundantly. I have more fun with Jesus than because I was afraid that you've once I become a Christian, I would not have fun anymore. What a lie. That's what a lie. People out here, listen. Yes. Exactly the way I don't want to give up what I got. No, no. And you're the ones in Bondi trying to hold onto that. It's a lie. Jesus came to give us life and life in abundance. Budded life. So it's not life. I have the time my life. I don't have or fun in my life. Everything and adventure it really is. And it's because I have one goal. I just want to move everybody every day close to Jesus. And then he blesses you. He says, when you live for that purpose, when you live for his verse, he'll bless you. He'll answer your prayers. He'll direct your steps. He'll give you joy. Oh, it's all ours. Can you imagine Holy God focused on on you? Holy folks on you. You know, he loads your every thought. He knows the words you're going to say before you speak them. He made you and he made you for eternity not for this world. And he's speaking to you right now. I hope you hear this man's heart who does this for living and a ministry and his heart. You do it if you didn't get paid. But there's a financial consequence to just building a ministry and you have huge financial needs and we want you to give money to this dear brother. But you're driven by your heart. You're just it's a heart thing. It's a heart thing. It's a heart that God give us because once you know God, everything changes even the way you see things. You start thinking of others along. And that's what you talk about. Yeah, absolutely right. Thank you. Thank you very much. I love you. You can't leave Teen Challenge Director Romania send money if you want to help him over there to study California Teen Challenge in Riverside, California. In the meantime, move everybody. Move everybody. Every day, close to Jesus, to His glory. Amen. See you next time.