MISSION LAZARUS - honduras

GCR has partnered with Mission Lazarus since 2014, when a group from our congregation traveled to southern Honduras to help construct a church building. And we still send groups of various sizes and ages almost every year. One special aspect of the work they do in meeting both physical and spiritual needs is providing education at Lazarus Academy. Mission Lazarus is currently educating 182 students from more than 30 remote mountain communities in Honduras and another 290 students in Haiti. Relationships with those students and their families are opening doors for Mission Lazarus as they conducted 379 home Bible studies in 2026, made 662 pastoral home visits, and personally prayed with nearly 6,000 people. Mission Lazarus now has eight home churches in remote communities with more than 200 people participating regularly. In addition, 31 people were baptized this year through those local congregations. Over the past 25 years, Mission Lazarus has served more than 150,000 pepole and planted 28 churches.

GCR’s financial support funds the salaries of the National Director and the Accounting Director, critical pieces to Mission Lazarus’ success. Their work isn’t always the most visible or glamorous, but their leadership and accountability allow the schools, healthcare programs, churches, children’s ministry, economic development programs, and humanitarian works to operate effectively and responsibly. It’s also helped Mission Lazarus earn accreditation from ECFA, recognition from Excellence in Giving, and Candid’s Platinum Seal of Transparency. 

In 2027, they will complete a new wing to their campus in Honduras, giving them more room for even more children and families from the surrounding villages.

Kenya Widows and Orphans

In 2026, KWO is providing food, loving homes, Christian education, and healthcare for 2,629 children in 21 locations throughout Kenya. Every day, 142 widows (Caring Mothers) minister to these kids, preparing and serving meals, offering comfort, and listening with compassion. Each child eventually ages out of the program to enter the KWO Vocational Training Center, where currently 139 students are gaining practical skills that enable them to step confidently into independent lives.

KWO’s greatest milestones are found in stories of lives transformed in ways once thought impossible. Children who arrive without parents or hope for the future discover their voices, develop their gifts, and begin to see the beautiful plans God has for them.

KWO began 21 years ago as a grassroots ministry by a handful of motivated GCR members, and continues to serve as a powerful witness to the transforming work of God.

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SerCris Training School - Brazil

GCR’s church-planting efforts in Brazil in the 1980s led to the creation of SerCris Training School in 2002, a two-year Bible degree program for evangelists and church leaders in Western Brazil. The school has welcomed students from 43 different cities across 16 Brazilian states, as well as a few from Bolivia and Ecuador, graduating 152 church leaders. Half of those are currently serving as paid ministers in their congregations, while most of the rest are ministering in a bi-vocational capacity.

SerCris offers morning theology classes for resident students, who are also eligible to receive scholarships for university courses in the evenings. The school also offers evening theology classes open to members of local churches.

Our financial partnership with SerCris funds the salaries of the school’s full-time staff, general upkeep of campus operations, student mission trips, guest professors, and rent for students who live in four resident-student houses.

One of the more significant developments in 2026 has been the growth of discipleship groups meeting on the school campus—small groups made up of every member of the SerCris staff and every SerCris student, studying and living out God’s word together.

GCR sent thirteen of our members to Campo Grande last Spring to help with a couple of campus improvement projects, special worship nights, and a preaching seminar. That trip happened during the start of the 2026 World Cup, no small thing in Brazil. Our group was delighted to take in Brazil’s opening round match at a campus watch party where they experienced firsthand the passion with which Brazilians cheer their national team. GCR also served a Texas-style dinner for the SerCris students and staff—a joyful exchange between two cultures united in Christ.

In 2027, SerCris plans to expand its discipleship groups beyond campus, supporting their students as they begin small groups in their local churches and hometowns. SerCris is also celebrating its 25th anniversary next year with a big reunion and spiritual retreat.

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Namwianga Mission – Zambia

Shepherd and Rhutt Mbumwae and Jason and Cintia Kumalo are our missionaries in Zambia, planting, growing, and multiplying churches in the Southern Province and overseeing The Haven, an intake orphanage for at-risk infants. The Mbumwaes circuit through the churches, hosting leadership and marriage seminars and Gospel meetings. They are hoping to purchase a vehicle in 2027 to expand their ministry to the Western Province. The Kumalos are expanding their sports camps next year and raising money to ensure that no families are turned away from The Haven.

GCR’s Wil and Jenny Pippin lead a medical mission trip to Zambia each July. Wil serves as the logistics director for the mission, while Jenny teaches Christian Leadership Development classes at the college. This year the medical team saw and treated over 8,000 patients and participated in 192 subsequent baptisms.

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