A day in the life of…

A day in the life of the Black’s:

I am not sure what idea the word “missionary” conjures up for you. For Lisa and I, our minds go to what our life was like in Africa: orphans, sitting in the dirt with Go-Gos (grandmas), building medical clinics and community centers, Church’s, and working on sustainability projects with locals in the nations.

Maybe Lisa, Noah and I are more like volunteers… we have had the opportunity to do all of the above, but now we are simply empowering young people to work on their character, to go deep with their convictions, and watching their gifts and their talents come alive through that.  Then we teach them do the same with the people around them and to take that to the nations. 

It’s called discipleship and it is not a very popular “job” in the western Church. 

In the past 10 to 15 years, we have seen this major move toward missions, being a missional Church or missional small group, and we have forgotten that Jesus actually told us to “go and make disciples”. He never told us to worship Him; He simply asked us to “follow” him and make others look like us while we do that. 

As a “volunteer” Lisa and I spend our days consistently like Thursday: 

     7:00 am quiet time and prayer.

      8:00 hiking the mountain (Training for the El Camino with our Squad)

    9:30 am G-42 Leadership classes/working insurance biz

    12:00, 1:00, 3:00 and 4:00 PM meeting with interns/discipleship/ deliverance/ helping to plan their  futures

     5:00 SKYPE with AIM staff and leadership

     7:00 Dinner with community couple  (Discipleship around the Kitchen table)

In between there are skype calls from all over the world from kids that are hurting, or feel lost or alone, or simply just need direction.  Some we have known since our first WR squad in 2005, and some are friends of our kids or…our own adult children.

We take Fridays to spend with Noah, Caleb and each other, and usually play American
football around 2:00 with the community (a family that plays together stays together)! During the week and Saturday we write and catch up. Sundays we usually clean our apartment, plan our next week and do nothing else. It is a full life, and we volunteered for it! 

Moving forward we will continue to serve, play and rest in this capacity simply because we have a deep understanding that the youth of America, and the youth of the nations need us as is. They need us to stop, to dig into their lives, to have fun with them, to challenge them at new levels, and ask them to do the same with someone else wherever they go, in the nations or back home in the States.

Back to missions. The reason we are getting back to coaching a World Race squad on top of all of this is discipleship. The leaders of AIM and The World Race have shifted all the focus of what we have been trying to do these past 10 years to what Jesus asked us to do.

Where discipleship and missions collide:  Starting in April, Lisa and I will focus on our “Squad Leaders” and walk with them as they lead 21 racers traveling to 11 countries in 11 months. #11in11

Our discipleship model looks like this: How does a person of character live; how do we do marriage and raise our children, how do we share our faith, treat people, look people in the eyes, take care of our hygiene, lead, serve, experience deliverance, encourage, live our lives day-to-day? Then our squad leaders go and teach the World Racers to multiply this with locals in every country in which they land. We will be traveling to meet our squad leaders and the team every few weeks to train, love, and see how the discipleship is going. 

We want to see the Kingdom planted in every nation we touch. The Racers will find a local family that is in need, pour their lives into them, show them how Kingdom people live day-to-day, meet their needs and show them how to meet the needs of all the people around them. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, vocationally. 

Toward the end of their month there, they gather all the teams and their “disciples” together and have “Church”. Small communities of people, walking in power and character. Our hope is to see something like the first Church had in Acts 2.

It will happen.

We want to continue to bring Kingdom here in Spain, as well as every nation where we are honored to visit by loving people and bringing them LIFE. It is hard, rewarding life-giving work. And, we wake up everyday and do it again… A day in the life of…

As we live as “Volunteers”/”Missionaries” out here in Mijas, Spain we need your prayer and financial support. Our Foundation is a public charity and every gift you give, from $5 a month or more is tax-deductible, and helps sustain our daily lives and helps us build for the future. Any one-time or monthly gift really does affect our family on a daily basis. Please go to New Horizons Website and look around. We can do matching gifts with corporations, receive gifts from Estates, from Stocks etc. And, please seriously consider supporting us monthly and with your one-time charity. We believe we are right where we are suppose to be, and your generosity proves that to us every day. 

There are three easy and secure ways to partner with us on our quest for a generation…

1) Online at:

New Horizons Foundation TeamBlack 417

*there is an option for one time donations or reoccurring donations. We are a “Public Charity” with full tax-deduction and matching gifts.

2) Mail a check to:

New Horizons Foundation

5550 Tech Center Dr., Ste. 303 Colorado Springs, CO 80919

*Please include in memo of Check “TeamBlack 417” 

3) Text “TB” from you cell phone to 719.445.8383 and follow the link. 

From Gary, Lisa, Caleb and Noah – thank you so much for joining us on this journey, we are praying for you daily, and please email back any and all prayer needs and requests.