Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001517A
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00:09 The Carter Report presents,
00:10 The Living Word around the world. 00:17 Hello, friend. I'm John Carter. 00:19 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 00:21 Our program today is entitled "Miracles in El Salvador." 00:27 My special guest is Pastor Pacheco, 00:30 the leader of the Adventist Church, 00:32 the Christian Adventist 00:34 in that part of the world in Central America. 00:37 Another very special guest today 00:39 is Pastor Carlos Acosta, 00:42 the senior pastor, 00:43 in Spanish American Adventist Church 00:47 in Los Angeles. 00:48 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 00:53 God has His time and His place for everything. 00:58 And the time and the place now is Latin America, 01:02 including Cuba. 01:05 Time Magazine talks about 01:07 the Second Protestant Reformation 01:10 and describes how hundreds of thousands, 01:13 even millions of Latinos are coming to the gospel of Christ. 01:20 I'm not an armchair theologian. 01:23 I'm speaking according to experience. 01:25 I've seen it with my own eyes. 01:29 Recently, we went down to El Salvador. 01:33 There I spoke in the largest football stadium 01:36 in Central America, with the biggest crowd 01:40 that that football stadium had ever, ever seen. 01:43 They came not to see a football match, 01:46 but to hear about the blood of Christ. 01:50 Millions are coming to a knowledge of God 01:53 in Latin America. 01:55 Doors are opening in Cuba. 01:59 Who knows, we may be going to Cuba soon. 02:03 As the doors open by the grace of God, 02:06 we are going to step through those doors. 02:09 And we want you to step through those doors with us 02:13 and be part of our team for such a time as this. 02:17 Please write to me, friend. Don't put it off. 02:20 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 02:25 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 02:29 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal, New South Wales. 02:34 Be part of the Second Reformation, 02:38 join us and see the miracles of God. 02:43 Amen. 02:54 Welcome today to the Carter Report, 02:56 Pastor Pacheco. 02:58 I'm so glad today to have you here at the Carter Report. 03:01 Welcome today. 03:03 Gracias. 03:05 And also, Pastor Acosta, 03:07 we want to thank you for coming today. 03:09 Thank you very much. Happy to be here. 03:10 It's a privilege for us to have you men, here today. 03:13 Pastor Pacheco, in our last program we spoke about 03:18 the great evangelistic campaign 03:20 that you organized in El Salvador. 03:29 You hired with our help, the largest football stadium 03:33 in Central America. 03:39 And people said it will never be filled. 03:43 And yet you told me just recently, 03:47 the crowd that came to the great football stadium, 03:51 was the biggest crowd 03:53 that had ever come into the football stadium. 03:57 Gracias. 03:58 Now before the big event, not the major event, 04:01 but the big finale in the football stadium, 04:08 you organized how many local campaigns across El Salvador? 04:20 We had 96 evangelism meetings. 04:24 All the churches 04:27 and small groups organized churches, 04:32 organizing and supporting each evangelistic meeting. 04:36 It was a historical feast. 04:39 And people came, you had pastors 04:42 who came from other countries. 04:50 We had pastors from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. 04:58 That they knew about the feast 05:00 that we were gonna have, the celebration. 05:03 But they never imagined 05:06 how that was going to end at the stadium. 05:12 Even-- that even moved them 05:17 to tell the conference presidents of other countries, 05:20 "Let us do the same thing." 05:23 Now El Salvador has not always been a happy country. 05:29 Now tell me about your background, 05:31 growing up as a boy? 05:44 In the middle of the war, that took place 05:47 and the criminality and violence. 05:50 You have dreams of course, 05:54 your great visions, you know to accomplish. 05:57 Yes. 06:01 But then when you have Christ in your soul, 06:07 those dreams become fulfilled 06:09 even though there's great challenges 06:11 like the ones that I have, 06:13 because God is the one that leads you. 06:25 And we were growing up preaching, given Bible studies, 06:27 getting involved in the church, 06:31 and the dreams of God were just being fulfilled in our lives. 06:34 Now we know that 75,000 souls 06:37 were murdered in the terrible war 06:40 that took place in El Salvador. 06:44 You were brought up, you saw your friends being killed. 06:47 You saw young people being murdered. 06:50 You saw blood on the streets, 06:53 and you were preaching the gospel as a boy. 06:56 When did you start preaching the gospel? 06:59 How old were you? 07:02 I was ten years old. Ten years old. 07:05 At that age I got baptized. 07:14 And at that age in El Salvador they tell you, 07:16 "You are ready to become a preacher." 07:18 When you're ten? 07:19 When you're ten. 07:21 Now you had a brother who was a younger preacher, is this so? 07:26 And what was his name? 07:29 David. David. Yes. 07:30 How old was he when he started preaching? 07:35 Seven years old. 07:36 And he was preaching the Bible? 07:42 But, one thing, he couldn't read. 07:46 But he was preaching the gospel. 07:48 How could he preach the Bible 07:50 if he couldn't read? 07:54 He would memorize the Bible texts. 07:58 And he would quote the scripture, 08:01 find it in such place, 08:03 and he would have me read. 08:05 And so, in your soul, there was a fire burning. 08:09 And you were going to grow up 08:11 to become a preacher of the gospel. 08:15 And so we came down to El Salvador, 08:19 and we met you, 08:20 and you were the leader of the church. 08:22 They call you a Union President. 08:25 And we met the other presidents, 08:27 and we met these great pastors. 08:30 And then the dream started to grow. 08:34 And you decided by the grace of God, 08:38 "Let us join forces with the Carter Report 08:42 and let us-- let us go and rent the national stadium." 08:48 What was the reaction of the people? 08:57 Within the pastors and the brothers, 09:01 there are brothers that have much faith. 09:04 But there are some that do not have faith. 09:05 Well, that's true everywhere. 09:09 And I remember that they told me 09:19 "That has never been done, be careful, don't do it." 09:22 Yeah. 09:25 "That's not happened here before, 09:29 aren't you afraid?" 09:31 I said I'm not afraid. 09:32 No. 09:41 You know, one way Satan was trying 09:43 to put obstacles in our path. 09:47 But then, I would also listen to what God was saying. 09:52 These are my children. 09:54 Why were you not afraid? 09:59 Because we have a big God. 10:01 Uh, amen. 10:02 Great God. 10:03 And this God is the creator of the universe. 10:07 And so, together, we hired 10:09 the biggest football stadium in Central America. 10:16 Now how did the people get to the meetings? 10:25 Seven hundred and fifty buses. 10:28 Did you hear that, 750 buses? 10:33 Pickups and cars that were not counted for 10:36 but, they were in the thousands. 10:37 Plus cars and mini buses in thousand 10:41 and the people came from all over El Salvador. 10:52 You know, only 30 percent of the membership 10:55 participated in this drive. 11:00 The rest were friends. 11:06 All the members of the church in El Salvador, 11:08 they do not fit in the stadium. 11:12 But when people are making big lines, 11:16 they would come in an orderly fashion. 11:19 The brothers would cry. 11:22 The brothers would cry? 11:24 They would cry. 11:25 Why would the brothers cry? 11:34 They had never seen an experience at that church 11:36 could do such things with God's help. 11:38 And they never saw the numbers so big, so massive, altogether. 11:47 We had people from the government, 11:51 ex-president and the ex-vice presidents. 11:59 And they were so impressed to see the church, 12:01 the Seventh-day Adventist church. 12:05 They did not only come one night, 12:06 but they came the other nights. 12:11 We never thought that the Adventist Church was so large. 12:15 And when they heard the messages, 12:17 Christ-centered messages, 12:22 the Seventh-day Adventist message, 12:26 and when they saw and heard the whole program, 12:31 they said, "The Seventh-day Adventist Church 12:32 has a powerful message." 12:34 The message of Christ. 12:36 You know, Jesus said, "With God nothing shall be impossible." 12:44 And when we met you, 12:46 a man who'd been a preacher 12:48 from the day he was ten years of age. 12:53 Whose life had been in jeopardy a thousand times, 12:57 who'd seen dear ones gunned down on the streets. 13:02 When we met you, 13:04 and when we met the people in El Salvador, 13:07 we said to ourselves, 13:09 "Surely, the presence of our Lord is in this place." 13:13 We're gonna take a little break in a moment, 13:16 and then we're gonna come back, 13:19 and we're going to tell 13:20 some of the most amazing stories 13:23 from the land of El Salvador. 13:26 Don't go away. 13:27 We'll be back after this break. 13:32 Hi, I'm John Carter. 13:34 My wife Beverly and I were watching television 13:36 the other night watching the news, American News. 13:40 They told us that the church 13:41 in North America is actually shrinking. 13:44 They said that atheism 13:45 is the fastest growing religious movement 13:47 today in North America. 13:49 And people are saying, 13:51 "What on earth can we do to save the church?" 13:53 Well, of course, Christ died for the church, 13:55 He saved the church. 13:56 But what they mean is how can we keep the church 13:59 as a vibrant force in the world today, 14:02 in Australia, in America and in Europe 14:04 and in rest of the world. 14:05 Let me tell you a little story. 14:07 John Wesley was one of the greatest preachers 14:09 that the English-speaking world has ever heard. 14:12 John Wesley came upon the scene of the church in England 14:16 a few hundred years ago when the church was dying. 14:19 Like the church today, it was a shrinking church. 14:23 But the people in the church were in a state of denial. 14:25 They refused to accept the reality 14:28 that the church was dying. 14:30 John Wesley did something 14:31 that other people said couldn't be done. 14:33 He revived the church through public evangelism. 14:37 Did you hear that? 14:38 He started to preach Christ, he preached the Bible 14:41 and he preached out of doors and indoors. 14:44 And the church was saved. 14:46 Not only did he save a lot of souls, 14:49 the souls of sinners, he saved the souls of the saints. 14:55 Please join me, my friend, in evangelism. 15:00 It's what Jesus did. 15:02 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 15:06 Thousand Oaks, California. 15:07 In Australia, write to me at the address on the screen 15:11 at Terrigal, in New South Wales. 15:14 Join me, my friend, in preaching Christ. 15:18 Join me in public evangelism around the world. 15:24 Thank you, in Jesus' name. 15:33 Welcome back to the Carter Report. 15:35 We are talking to Pastor Pacheco 15:37 from Central America from El Salvador. 15:40 Welcome, Pastor. 15:42 Gracias. 15:43 And we are also talking to another famous pastor, 15:45 Pastor Acosta from Los Angeles. 15:49 Thank you, Sir. 15:51 So we're so glad that you're here today. 15:52 We're talking about the great miracles 15:54 that are happening today in Latin America. 16:00 Time Magazine talks about the Second Reformation. 16:07 It's talking about the vast movement 16:10 among the Latino people right around the world, 16:17 but, especially, in Latin America, 16:21 and especially, especially in El Salvador. 16:27 Pastor, Pacheco, you grew up in a land of bloodshed, 16:34 75,000 people were gunned down on the streets, 16:40 they tried to kidnap you, 16:43 and take you to Guatemala, 16:46 and then take you to Cuba, 16:48 as a little boy of 14, 16:51 and train you to be a Gorilla fighter, 16:56 but God kept His hand over you. 17:00 Were you afraid, when you were a little boy, 17:03 growing up in El Salvador 17:06 with all these murders taking place? 17:15 Assume as yes, logically, I was very afraid. 17:24 But in my life I had a different hope 17:26 from the rest of the people. 17:30 And when one has that hope, 17:34 you learn to give your fear to the Lord. 17:36 Because we have the presence of God. 17:39 Now recently, you were in charge 17:42 of the biggest evangelistic campaign, 17:45 I think in the history of El Salvador. 17:51 How many buses to bring the people? 17:56 Seven hundred and fifty buses. 17:58 I didn't know there were 750 buses in El Salvador. 18:03 I didn't know there were 750 buses. 18:15 We always asked ourselves, 18:16 "Where are we gonna get such amount of buses?" 18:18 We gotta ask. 18:19 I know, it's incredible. 18:21 How did you feel personally, 18:24 when you saw the buses coming, 18:26 and tens of thousands of people? 18:32 When I arrived to the stadium, 18:35 and I saw the stadium full. 18:43 At that time, I remembered the prophets-- 18:45 the words of the prophet, Zechariah. 18:47 When he saw the child, 18:52 when he said, "Oh, now my eyes have seen the salvation. 18:56 Now I could die." 19:01 I said, "Lord, this is the biggest thing 19:03 that has happened to us here. 19:06 So from here on Lord, 19:07 You decide what is gonna happen." 19:09 And is it true that some people said to you, 19:11 "Be careful, this has never happened before?" 19:20 Yes. 19:21 So what do they say to you? 19:28 They tried to discourage me, 19:29 even a group of pastors themselves, 19:31 they tried to discourage me. 19:32 Yes. 19:40 So when Nehemiah was rebuilding Jerusalem, I remembered, 19:45 when people of Israel were leaving Egypt, 19:49 there were discouragers in this crowd. 19:56 But there were people, 19:57 encouragers, within these crowds. 19:59 Did you know, there was a drone? 20:02 You know about the drone. 20:06 And you people organize the drone. 20:10 And we, having to pay for it 20:11 but you folks organize the drone. 20:14 And it was flying around the place 20:16 and you showed these vast crowds of people. 20:19 And many of the people were waving 20:21 as the drone went over. 20:23 And then, the great climax for the campaign, 20:28 93 preliminary campaigns, 20:32 the hiring of the biggest football stadium 20:34 in Central America, 20:37 750 buses, plus, other vehicles, 20:43 vast crowd, record breaking crowds, 20:46 and then the baptisms. 20:49 Tell us about the baptisms? 20:51 How were they baptized? 20:57 It was very impressive for me. 21:06 When we received the financial support 21:08 from the Carter Report, 21:11 and the question now was, 21:13 "How are we gonna baptize all these people? 21:15 How are we gonna transport the water? 21:17 How are we gonna do it?" 21:23 So we had the young people, the path finders, 21:25 the adventurers and the master guides. 21:28 And the committees of leaders, 21:31 they said, "Pastor, don't worry about that. 21:34 Just get us swimming pools." 21:39 So Carter Report donated pools, 21:43 four big huge pools. 21:49 There were 14 pastors baptizing in each one of these pools. 21:52 There were 14 in each, each pool? 21:58 And all the pastors were at the same time baptizing 22:03 and people walk-- going into the swimming pool. 22:07 People screaming, people screaming, 22:10 "There's more, there's more coming, 22:11 there's more coming." 22:12 And pastors were baptizing. 22:17 And the people wanted to get baptized 22:18 at that place, at that moment. 22:20 People were coming to Christ, 22:23 not just joining a church, 22:25 they were joining the church, yes, 22:27 but they were coming to Christ. 22:29 And surely the Spirit of God was in this place. 22:33 Pastor Pacheco, under God, you were the man. 22:39 God used you, then he used the church leaders, 22:42 the conference presidents, the lay people, 22:45 all the pastors, but you were the leader there under God. 22:50 But God was our leader. 22:51 Tell me about some of the people 22:54 who were baptized. 23:10 There were many people who belong to gangs. 23:14 Many people who were gang members? 23:16 Yes, that also got baptized, 23:18 turned their lives to Jesus at that point. 23:28 There were another group of people 23:29 who had been listening to the word of God 23:31 for many years, 15 years 23:32 and they also gave their lives to Jesus at that point. 23:40 And at that point, the Holy Spirit touched 23:42 all these people's hearts. 23:50 They did not require an invitation. 23:52 Just the Spirit would bring them 23:53 to the pool to get baptized. 24:03 Many marriages, they reconciled 24:06 and they both decided to come 24:08 and join the church to be baptized. 24:10 And many of these married couples got baptized. 24:14 They accepted the Lord Jesus. 24:39 Everything that happened just gave us the indication 24:42 that the Holy Spirit was present. 24:44 Many hearts came together and many people cried. 24:46 And we say, glory be to God, 24:48 and glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 24:52 Now you are a president, a leader of the church, 24:56 do you practice evangelism or do you just talk about it? 25:04 We practice evangelism because that is our lives. 25:07 Do you run evangelistic campaign? 25:10 Yes, I do. 25:11 And what are your plans for the future? 25:19 We need to keep thinking big. 25:20 Yes, indeed. 25:26 And again, we were waiting for you to come 25:29 and do greater things even, for God's glory and honor. 25:33 But we know that you do evangelism yourself. 25:37 And you go out into these streets 25:39 in the highways and the byways 25:41 and you preach the word 25:43 and you compel people to come in. 25:47 And today, we are seeing the Second Reformation 25:51 in Latin America, 25:53 because these people believe in evangelism. 26:01 Pastor Pacheco, we congratulate you. 26:05 We are proud of you. 26:06 We thank God for you. 26:08 And we have a saying where I come from, 26:12 that evangelism is the lifeblood of the church 26:19 and when the church stops evangelizing, the church dies. 26:25 So when you go back, and we've only got a minute, 26:29 when you go back to El Salvador, 26:32 what will you be doing? 26:37 We are gonna keep doing evangelism 26:41 because our church elders, the children, women, 26:45 the young people, the pastors, 26:49 the administrators, 26:53 treasurers, presidents. 26:54 Glory be to God. 26:55 All of us do the evangelism. 27:00 And this is how the work of God is going to be finished, 27:04 because Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, 27:08 preach the gospel to every creature." 27:11 And when we believe this, we see the miracles of God. 27:16 I want you to do something for me, please. 27:19 Give my greeting to the believers back there. 27:23 Give my greetings and my love 27:26 and the love of our team, 27:28 to our brothers and sisters in El Salvador, 27:33 the land of the Savior, the land of the Savior. 27:37 My friend, what more can I say, 27:40 just support the preaching of the gospel, 27:42 help us to help this great reformation. 27:46 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 27:50 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 27:53 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal. 27:57 Help us to light a flame in the darkness 28:01 that will never go out. 28:03 And thank you, my brothers. 28:05 And thank you, in Jesus' name. |
Revised 2015-12-10