Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Missionize with the Missions Guys, a podcast of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, offering biblical and practical insight and strategies designed to equip and encourage missions leaders to carry on mission work. The goal is to fulfill the Great Commission from a church's local community to the ends of the earth. That is why we missionize.
Now, here are your hosts, the Missions Guys, Sam Roberts and Quint Richie.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of Mission Eyes. I'm Sam Roberts, and with me is our co host, Clint Richey. Now, if you're new to Mission Eyes, Clint and I serve on the missions team of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. That's who makes this podcast possible, and we're grateful for the support that we receive here.
We're also grateful that you've joined us for this episode, and if you like what you hear, please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a review Share this Content with others Now. Clint, I've been thinking recently about how God's just really blessed me over my years of ministry with great friendships.
And I think that's one of the reasons I get a kick out of doing this podcast. I mean, Clint and I are not only ministry colleagues, we've known each other a long time and we're friends, and that does make a big difference. It does, you know.
Now, prior to coming to this position, Clint and I both served the local church as a pastor over 35 years. I served four churches God gave me the privilege to serve. Clint, how many churches? How many years?
[00:01:44] Speaker C: Three churches. 18 years.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: And in each of those churches I know, speaking for myself and my wife and our family, we developed some really strong friendships that have remained to this day. You've had that same experience, right?
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: And why have those relationships been valuable to you?
[00:02:05] Speaker C: You know, you find yourself at a place and you just live life with people, you know, And I always made a commitment. I wanted to be in a small group or Sunday school class with my wife, and it was to be with her. But yet we found ourselves with other couples. Same life stage as us, same, you know, some of the same interests. And, you know, those were people we lived life with. And, you know, you leave and that relationship changes, you know, but.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: But it remains.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: But it remains and. And even deepens in a sense, you know, and. And as I look back, each place are some of the, you know, best friends that we still have are from those places.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: You know, some of them guys I hadn't seen in a long time. But yet, you know, technology today, able to stay in touch with and we know what's going on in each other's life through Facebook and, you know, but those are some of the best relationships we've had in life.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's another episode for another podcast about the importance for our listeners, who mostly are pastors within our churches here in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, although we have listeners widespread in a lot of places, but a lot of those guys serve in the local church, and it's so important to develop those relationships with people. Don't isolate yourself, guys. Put yourself out there, get to know those people, develop those relationships. See what God does there.
Those are that fruitful time of ministry, not just seeing new people come into the kingdom, but developing that community with others, doing life together. Now, while serving here at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, in this particular season of my life, God's also allowed me to get to know some pastors and denominational leaders on a more personal level.
And last year, through a mutual friend, I was introduced to Marshall Santos, who is executive director of the Baptist Convention in Maniera, which is a state in Brazil.
And although the population is much greater than Arkansas, the size of the convention in terms of churches, very similar to our state.
Last fall, he and his family spent a sabbatical here in Arkansas. And during that time, Martha and I just fell in love with Marshault and Marcella, his wife, and their two children. And we celebrated birthdays together.
They came to our home, had an American Thanksgiving meal.
We got to go experience a Brazilian barbecue at their home in Hot Springs. Oh, it was so great. You would have loved it. Clint, next time, if they come and do this again, I'll make sure you're on the guest list.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: All right.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: The men just stood around the grill as he just cooked different kind of meat after meat after meat, and we just took it right off the grill.
And then the ladies would come out with their plate. They would get some. Oh, it was so heavenly.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: I'm in.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Now, all of that. All of that is just a segue in what we want to talk about for the next few minutes.
Now, Marshall's heart is to see people come to faith in Jesus.
That's the same heartbeat we share Clint, and here on the mission team.
And he developed some incredible mission opportunities for churches there in his convention to fulfill the Great Commission.
Now, one of those ministries really grabbed my heart, and it's called Touch Peace.
It's an app that he developed which offers emotional, relational, spiritual help to people who are struggling via a video call. And that call is free. It's individual. It's immediate it's confidential. It's available 24 hours a day and currently it's in three languages, in Portuguese, Mandarin, and most recently in English.
And God is using this ministry to transform lives around the world. Now join us today from touchpeace are Jared Feit and Jer Campos.
Welcome to Mission Eyes, guys.
Thank you, Jer. I'm sorry I've massacred your name, but we will learn it.
Would you guys take a minute or two and introduce yourself to our listeners?
Tell us about your family, where you live and what connection you have with touchpeace. And let's start with our guest who's traveled the farthest to be with us.
Jer, that would be you, my friend.
Tell them where you're from.
[00:07:08] Speaker D: Well, I was born in Brazil and my parents were missionaries in Portugal. My dad was Portuguese, immigrated to Brazil and 1957 he was 16 years old and he met Jesus through my mom.
And God told him to come back to Portugal to his homeland to preach the gospel.
And from there were sent by the Portuguese Baptist Convention to France to work with immigrants. Portuguese immigrants there went back to Brazil and did my college in biblical studies there.
And then God called me to go back to Portugal, a place where I said I would never go back to.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: We all have those voices.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: It's universal, my friend.
[00:07:57] Speaker D: But anyway, after four years there, I felt the need to study and I applied for a scholarship with the imb, the European office. And they graciously, graciously granted him that.
And well, a journey that was supposed to last a few years because I wanted to do my master's and doctorate there at Southwestern in Fort Worth. Ended up being a 25 year.
So I was involved in church planting there.
I was a church plant. I planted a church with the support of the convention, the state convention, and then got involved in church planting. I became a church starting strategist for the Southeast Texas part and so learned, had to learn my fourth language, which is Spanish.
And then I saw the move of God, learned a lot about church planting being a church plan, also working on the sort of about 120 churches in eight years. And then after that I started help the Texas Baptist Convention in a partnership with Brazil with the Brazilian Baptist Convention to jointly support missionaries in Brazil. Start with the Amazon.
And I'm glad to see that that's a tremendous partnership.
Brazilians are the second largest mission standing agents and they do a lot of work with imb, some things that we don't even know.
And it's an amazing partnership. And so I developed what's called the Missionary Adoption Program.
And that was created by the Brazilian World Mission Board.
And I'm all about that.
I'm a chief DOT connector.
So I like to connect the Baptist around the world to reach the world for Christ. That's my passion. Finishing my D man at Southwestern, graduating, graduating on 2 May and wrote about it and the role of the local church in missions as modeled by Paul and the Philippine Church.
So anyway, I'm a nomad for sure.
And Marcio, I was in Japan leading a trip in partnership with Southwestern.
And I was there and God brought me to tears.
I was in Shibuya, which is Tokyo Times Square.
And so many people lost. So many people and, you know, suicide at about 22,000 a year in Japan and 100,000 people just disappear and they lose their identity, they delete everything about themselves, end up in drugs and, you know, end their lives.
And God brought me to tears. I was crossing one of the crossroads. I was crossing and said, God save Japan.
And so the idea was to wear, you know, doing biblical counseling, connected to biblical counseling at Southwestern with Dr. Okinaga was to actually do an app. Create an app where people can just scan the QR code and it'll be available to, you know, to have to get a new ID in Jesus.
So I was sharing this with Marcio and he said, you're not going to believe it.
This is already done. So there's an app. Let me talk about this app.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:50] Speaker D: I've known Marcia for many, many years. Of course, the connections with Brazil. And I've been a believer since then. I've been. I know I went to the launch in Brazil on purpose.
I flew there from Houston and I'm being an advocate, you know, so he asked me to help and. And I can't say no. I'm like you. I love Marcio to death and what he does and what the potential of Touchpeace has. The potential that Touchpeace has to, you know, as a missionary tool, you know, you can overcome all barriers and go straight to the person that is lost anywhere in the world. So it's amazing.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Jared?
[00:12:35] Speaker E: Yeah.
My wife and I live in Hot Springs. We're Arkansas natives.
Lived out of state for a while while I was active duty military.
We have two daughters, four and one. And my wife and I have the privilege of co directing the English side of Touchpeace together.
I am a pastor at heart, even though I'm not pastoring at the moment a church, I'm in between churches, but that's what my undergrad is in. I'm currently a student at New Orleans Seminary for an M. Div. In evangelism and church health, and my wife has a degree from Liberty University in Christian counseling. So this is very much our speed, evangelism and counseling combined together.
And so we had the privilege of getting introduced to this back in the fall while Marcio was here on sabbatical.
And we've officially launched English December 2nd, and we've been going ever since. And so we live in Hot Springs. That's where we're located.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: So this is more than likely a new idea, a new thought for those who are listening. They've probably never heard about Touchpeace before.
So just in just a few sentences, just briefly, would you share with us what is the mission of Touchpeace and walk us through how this works?
[00:14:08] Speaker E: I would say that the mission of Touchpeace is simple.
It is to see lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is to fulfill the great commission of Jesus Christ. And the way that works in our ministry context is people who need someone to talk to can download our app and do that with a few clicks of a button on their phone and get connected with somebody who's ready to listen, who is engaged, who is friendly, who will not judge them for what they're going through, and who will just love them, whether that's through prayer, whether that's through a gospel presentation.
And it has proven very needful in Brazil, and we believe it will prove very needful here as well, on the English side and in Portugal and in Chinese, as I'll share some testimonies about later. But it's simple. We just want to get Jesus to people as easily and as effectively as possible.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Awesome. Now, you mentioned that individuals would see this app.
How do they run across the app?
[00:15:31] Speaker E: Several ways?
One of the biggest ways that it got out in Brazil, and I think one of the biggest ways it gets out here is word of mouth.
I go around and speak at several churches, whether that's preaching or presenting.
I've been here several times at the state convention building. Presenting. That's one of the biggest ways we see people learn about the app.
Another way is social media. We do our best to reach people with the message of Touchpeace through social media and then obviously through other avenues as well, such as passing out material, hanging posters on doors of businesses and things like that. I did some of that this past Saturday, but those are the primary ways people would hear about it.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And Jer, please, anytime, jump right in there Okay.
[00:16:28] Speaker D: I see this as an extraordinary tool for somebody, a church member that is looking for a way to do global missions.
I was talking to Jared a moment ago. God gave me this biblical episode when this woman that had exhausted all her resources in doctors and you see the issue of mental health, you see a lot of people that have no way to afford mental health care and don't even have the strength, strength to do that. And she was like that. She was, you know, in the midst of the. Of the multitude. And I see the world as the multitude. And she hears about Jesus and she goes, extends her hand and touches the garment of Jesus and she's healed. The power of Jesus comes out of him and he says, power came out of me, who touched me.
So. And I see this as if we want to be like, exactly like Jesus as we walk life, you know, or going to church or whatever.
We are on 24. 7 mission.
This is a great opportunity for people to, you know, share the book, the bookmark or share the app. But it's also a volunteer. We need volunteers, people, disciple makers. They want to say, I am Jesus, where I am not in that sense, but I'm an ambassador of Jesus.
I'm a multiplier.
And I want to share the gospel.
And so I want to be that Jesus that somebody in need that has exhausted, has lost hope, has a life of misery.
And people that extend their finger literally and touch the app, they will find Jesus. So we need those people, we need those missionaries.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: So there's two purposes then for us sharing about this today. One is to get the word out to folks that this resource is available.
There is a mental health crisis in our world today, and this is another resource that we need to spread to get the word out. The second part is though, that as you're mentioning, you need volunteers.
So for the listeners, all our listeners or pastors or church leaders, just exactly how can they be involved in this mission? Or how can they spread the word to folks in their churches like you talked about, that maybe this is their avenue to be involved in global mission? So how can our listeners be involved?
[00:19:16] Speaker E: Yeah, I tell one thing as a pastor.
I always like to stress this to pastors. We're a fully funded ministry. So I'm not.
I don't go around to churches trying to ask for you to support another mission with a check every month.
The best way for them to get involved is two ways.
Their members can volunteer to take a call an hour a week, an hour a month, however or however much or little time they would like, and then the other way is to be an intercessor for us and to lift our volunteers up in prayer, pray that our callers would.
Would be receptive to the message of the gospel, that they would get the help that they need.
And so those are the primary ways people can be involved with this. You know, Jer mentioned the woman with the issue of blood.
Well, the key part of that is that she had heard about Jesus at some point or another.
The thing that drove her to touch the hem of the garment was that she had heard about the power of Jesus.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: And.
[00:20:24] Speaker E: And so in order for her to come to the realization that she needed Jesus, she had to first hear about him. And so that's one way they can help is by helping us tell others about Jesus.
And, you know, I often tell people when I present, you know, we often. One of the favorite missions verses is Matthew 9, where Jesus says, the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. But we never often read the verses before that that say Jesus saw the multitude and compassion on them, that they were distressed and downcast like sheep without having a shepherd.
And so Jesus saw this problem. He saw how great it was. And we would look at that and say, it's a people problem. Well, Jesus solution to a people problem was more people.
And so I think that's powerful. We would often say, you know, well, if we got an issue with people, maybe we should stay away from people.
That's counterintuitive to the gospel.
There's a people problem, and the solution is more people.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Okay, So I want to just make sure that our listeners understand this process, that someone discovers the app, however that happens, God leads them to that app. They click on it.
They want to speak to somebody somewhere who speaks their heart language. And those languages that are available now are Portuguese, Portuguese, Mandarin and English.
So they click on that and then say if, if you are one of the we. We call them here in, in the English peace caregivers, I know they're referred to as counselors on the. The website, but those who have volunteered then say, say, I have.
I've said I'm going to do this from 6 to 7 on Monday evening. And just so happens somebody clicks.
And I'm sitting at my computer six to seven on Monday evening, and that comes up on the screen and I'm able to speak with them, correct?
[00:22:35] Speaker E: Yes, sir.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: That's how the process works.
[00:22:37] Speaker E: Yes, sir. It's all down through the app.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Now, that person who's listening now that says, hey, I may have an interest in that.
I'VE got an hour a week or an hour a month. I'd love to have the opportunity to speak with somebody about Jesus, you know, using technology to do that.
How. What steps do they need to take to become a peace caregiver?
[00:23:03] Speaker E: What are those steps there for touchpeace English? It's simply this. They would contact me and I would send them a volunteer application.
Every person that volunteers must be recommended by their pastor.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Okay, good, good.
[00:23:19] Speaker E: That's not to shy anyone away from serving Jesus. But simply, we want people.
We don't want people who need to use the app to be volunteering to help people use the app. And so that volunteer application has a pastor recommendation in it.
And so I would contact their pastor. Once that pastor recommendation is given, then I would send them a link to our online training. Once they finish the online training, it takes a couple hours, then they would contact me and we would get them an account set up, and they. They're good to go from there.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: And so how. How did they get in touch with you?
[00:24:00] Speaker E: They can contact me on my cell phone.
501-701-8118.
They can find me one more time. Yep. 501-701-8118.
Or they can email me. It's Jared Fightouchpeace app. J a r e d dot f I t e touchpeace app.
Or they can find me on Facebook simply. Simply on my personal Facebook page.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Can they.
Is there a link on the website that takes them to a volunteer?
[00:24:39] Speaker D: Yes, it's touchpeace app.
Touchpeace app. So they can go there. There's a.
There's a be a volunteer, something like this. And volunteers, you can apply there as well.
Follow the.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: And is that available on the touchpeace en it is?
[00:25:01] Speaker E: Yes, sir. It's the same website for all of the app. And whichever language they apply in will get forwarded to that director.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: And so the purpose of this is. Yes, to help people at a point of need, whatever that need is, that struggle they're going through emotionally, mentally, relationally.
But in the midst of that, there's an opportunity of sharing the gospel. Correct as the solution.
[00:25:38] Speaker D: Exactly. So I believe in the gospel, it's the door to introduce the gospel to that person.
It might be in some places it's food, some places is mental health. In the case of Japan, is the church to become a center for people that are struggling with this issue.
This app answers that call, so they will receive care.
And we know that the only peace they will get is from Jesus.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: So.
[00:26:18] Speaker D: And from that process, when they make a decision, the gospel is. I just got this number yesterday. It's 95% of the caregivers are sharing the gospel.
95% of the calls, they are sharing the gospel.
So when you talk 110,000 people that heard this gospel, the Gospel of Jesus, last year, man, that's an incredible, incredible opportunity.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: So over a year we've had 110,000 people.
[00:26:50] Speaker E: Yeah, I was just going to say, to put that in perspective, From September of 2023, when we initially launched in Portuguese, and obviously since then we've had Chinese and English launch, We've seen almost 110,000 calls, made over 30,000, over 35,000 downloads, and we've seen over 450 people come to Salvation in Christ through this app. And you know, I know we're Southern Baptists, we like numbers. It's not about the numbers.
There are 109,500 people that did not get saved through those calls. But they all heard the gospel or got connected with the love of Jesus one way or another.
We had one person call a couple weeks ago that claimed agnosticism. He was an agnostic. And as soon as my wife began to share the gospel with him, he didn't want anything to do with it.
We would often look at that and say, that's not necessarily a success story. I would say anytime the gospel gets shared, it's a success story. Whether they accept it or not. That's the Holy Spirit's job. I'm just there to tell them about it.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Yeah. One thing that I learned in speaking with Marshault about touchpeace, and I know some of our listeners may have this question as well.
For those who do make that decision to follow Jesus, there is a process in place of follow up, of discipleship.
That is done. Jer, can you speak to that just briefly?
[00:28:27] Speaker D: Yeah. So people there, there are some cases that are very, very extremists. Like a person in Brazil that did justice with their own hands. You know, there's a lot of corruption today in Brazil and some people that are supposed to be in jail are not. So this guy thought he would take that with his own justice, with his own hands, and he killed 150 people and made them suffer for 24 hours, burning little by little somebody's body. I know, I'm sorry, I'm being very graphic.
But this is, this is one call that is incredible, you know, and extreme call.
And he wanted somebody to listen to his confession and repentance because he could not live with that.
And he heard the gospel.
But cases.
So we touch peace. We offered a discipleship online, discipleship through Zoom.
And the goal is to integrate that person into the church. So we also need churches that will say, yeah, we want to disciple these people. Of course, in this case, we don't know his name. We don't know where he's from. Well, we know the city, but it's a case that you would hand to the police.
But anyway, we need churches that will say yes. As soon as we find that partnership with a church that is aware of the process, then we hand it over to the local church.
So to be disciple. So we take that very seriously. So it becomes. I believe in discipleship and evangelism. Discipleship go hand to hand. I'm one of those that believe that discipleship starts with that knock or that touch with some, you know, and so we want. It's full circle. You know, maybe that person will be a missionary. Maybe that person will be a pastor of a church.
And so that's very important value that we have is bring that person into a discipleship relationship with the local church.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Awesome. We're nearing the end of our time together, but I just want to remind our listeners, from what I've heard and what I know about touchpeace, there are a couple of ways that you can be involved. If you want to know more, please reach out to Jared.
I'll have him give his contact information again as we wrap up in just a moment.
But you can be involved with just praying for this ministry. Please do that.
Incredible stories coming out of this ministry of people who are at the end of the rope and have nowhere else to turn. And God leads them to this app, and they have a conversation with someone on the other end who speaks their heart language. And. And that person listens and doesn't judge and then has the opportunity of sharing the gospel.
And just like any gospel conversation we have here, it may not end with that person trusting Christ, but if it does, then praise God. You know, the gospel has gone out, a life has been transformed and will continue to be transformed as that person is placed in a Zoom discipleship class and then is connected with a local church.
So if you're kind of thinking through this prayer is one way of connecting and being part of this ministry.
Second, volunteer to be one of the peace caregivers. Go through the training that is online.
It's great stuff.
You learn a lot about how to do this ministry.
But become a peace caregiver.
Go to the website.
Volunteer Jared will get with you. He'll send that application, walk you through that process, get the training that you need. You choose the time you want to participate in this ministry as an hour a month.
You may do it an hour a day.
The whole purpose is to do this 247 in English. And we're almost there.
[00:33:05] Speaker E: That's right.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: And then if we have someone out there that's listening that loves discipleship.
I mean, discipleship is your heartbeat, and you want to become one of those individuals here on the English side that provides the zoom discipleship. Jared can speak with you about that as well.
So let's wrap this up this way if we can. Jared, would you go ahead and give us that contact information one more time? We'll allow Jared to say one final word, and then we'll wrap our time up together.
[00:33:46] Speaker E: Yeah. So my cell phone number is. Is 501-701-8118. You can call or text me anytime. My email address is Jared fightouchpeace app. That's J A R E D dot F I T E Touchpeace app.
And we would love. I'd love to talk with you about it. We can have lunch.
I can drive out to your church. We can do whatever is easiest for you.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:34:17] Speaker D: And the final thing, just to the bookmarks, we have 30,000. We can print a lot of more. A lot more of them. So if you're a pastor and you're listening, or if you're, you know, evangelism leader. So if you can get those bookmarks, you know, and distribute to your church members. So that would be their mission task that week to help hand this bookmark with a QR code to people.
So I gave yesterday a non believer a pack of 20 so she could spread to her friends.
And just we need that word spread out.
And your church member can be that person that will hand a bookmark to another person without saying it's Christian, without mentioning it. It's just, this is a free emotional support because we want Muslims, we want Hindus, Buddhists, atheists to. To get that app and use them. So it's an appeal that I have. Please call, call, call and ask for those bookmarks.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: And we have. We have a supply of those in our office here at the missions team. Jared has plenty of those at his office.
So please let us know and we'll get those to you. Clinton, what do you have to wrap us up with?
[00:35:38] Speaker C: That's just a reminder of how Arkansas Baptists are touching lives to the ends of the earth.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:35:43] Speaker C: And a way for all of us to plug into that. So Jer, thank you guys for being here. Thank you for your ministry and want to encourage our listeners to check out touchpeace and see how you and others in your church can be involved.
[00:35:56] Speaker E: Thanks for having us.
[00:35:57] Speaker C: Yeah and you guys, welcome back anytime. And you know, if you're listening, check them out. As mentioned earlier, be sure to give us a like or review. Share the content if you found it helpful. And as always, we're here to serve you and to serve your churches.
Thanks for listening. Join us in two weeks where we'll have some other content that we're excited about and some other guests and so look forward to meeting with you then.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Thanks for joining the Missions guys today. If you liked what you heard, rate and review us on your favorite podcasting platform.
And to keep up with what is happening in Arkansas missions, visit absc.org missions.
