people coming up to you and saying, I really wanna know. I really wanna know what this means. A guy that's dressed in Muslim garb comes up to you and says that in India. Welcome to Connections with Rich and Bobby. Hi, I'm Bobby, Bobby Hamlin. And I'm Rich, Rich Homeras. Our guest is Lee Prater. He's an associate pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Morgan Hill, California, and shares of his service to the Lord as a dad with a household of kids, a pastor ministering to a congregation, and as a missionary visiting various countries throughout the world. A lot of people who go to church are there to look for encouragement and they don't realize that pastors need encouragement as well. Have you come across needs for encouragement and any difficulties on your road to becoming a pastor now that you have been an associate pastor? Absolutely, of course. I mean, you do need encouragement, just even in your sermon preparation each week and just preparing for the message, you know, the attacks from the enemy every week. You need that encouragement. You need the iron sharpening iron. You need God's grace. You need His sufficiency, because we're not sufficient in and of ourselves. And so if we do it in our own strength, we'll surely fall. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 40, verse 39, that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. In fact, when I first became saved, that was one of the verses that really resonated with me in my heart. But right before that, in that context, it says, he gives power to the faint. Those that have no might, he gives strength. So really, the Lord is our encouragement. And it can be a lonely position or a lonely job. It's not a job, it's actually a calling. But it can be a lonely thing sometimes because you really just have to pour it out before the Lord, as Hezekiah did, and just lay it all out before the Lord. You know that it's His sufficiency. It's all of Him, and it's not of you. And when you start to think that in any kind of way, you're due to fall flat on your face because it's not of yourself. It's all about glory to Him and may He be glorified. And that's when you start to get more encouragement, when you start to glorify Him more and lift His name up and to praise the name of Jesus Christ. Lee, we've known one another for many years in different facets of ministry. As far as our background, you were behind the scenes supporting Staff members, they would call you for help, particularly if their computers went down or if there were glitches. Lee was the one that they called and you always came and supported and helped them. So you were working behind the scenes, but now you're on the scene in front. How has that been for that transition of going from behind the scenes support to on the scene support? Well, I've had many different capacities. In support, even in the past, going to foreign lands and being a short-term missionary, that was really awesome. That was an awesome experience for me and my wife. And just having a family, you're going to pastor your family all along, and so you know what it's like to be on the front line and to handle all the different things that come your way. And it's never easy, but God never promised easiness. In any capacity, whether you're a father or a pastor, you're not going to have a bed of ease. It's, again, leaning upon Him and His grace and His sufficiency. And speaking about being a father and having a family, how's that for your family to be pastor's children? Well, you know, they need the gospel just like anybody else does in the congregation, and they're there every Sunday, so I feel like at least they're hearing it as well. They're able to hear the gospel being preached. And so I'm always thankful for that, that at least my family is there. So I rejoice in that, and glory be to Him. You know, you mentioned that you are teaching, whether you're at home or whether you're in front of a congregation. And then you also mentioned going on mission trips to other countries. And surely, as we bring the gospel to people in other countries and evangelize, it's the same thing. You're sharing the gospel. So there is a lot of experience in that, probably before you became an associate pastor. Can you share a little bit about where you've been to evangelize on some of those mission trips? Absolutely, yeah. It's been quite a journey, and I just want to pause and say, you know, praise the Lord for my wife because she's really supported me in all of that throughout the years. She's had to keep the home fires burning, if you will, but I don't want to neglect, you know, giving her, you know, just honor that, you know, she's been able to support me in that. And now that you bring that up, let me just interject. So how many are her congregants there at home? How many children? I lost count, Bobbie. I'm not surprised. No, we've had seven total. Right now we have five in the house. So you have pastored them along the way. So your wife's been supportive. And then where have you been on your mission trips? Yeah, well, lots of times even just evangelizing in the local area. Currently, I try to do that with our church, just spreading the gospel there by tract distribution. But in foreign lands, I've been to Ethiopia, I've been to Argentina, also the Philippines, Russia, actually Siberia. And India, I was in India for actually months, many months, and there's nothing like it. And some of the best times of my life have been in foreign countries, just sharing God's word and, you know, just remembering their faces and then people coming up to you and saying, I really want to know. I really want to know what this means. A guy that's dressed in Muslim garb comes up to you and says that in India. And so you really just share the word with them. You really just give them all that you can, all the resources that you can, so that they can hopefully become saved by hearing the word of God. being diligent, true, and a faithful witness for Christ wherever God sends us. In Lee's case, both locally to his community, but also internationally, visiting many nations throughout the world. And we'll return to our visit with Pastor Lee Prater in just a moment. So stay with us. You're listening to Connections with Rich and Bobbi, and we'd love to connect with you. Just go to our website at Connections with Rich and Bobbi. That's all one word. And Bobbi is B-O-B-B-I dot com. That's Connections with Rich and Bobbi dot com. There, all of our podcasts are posted along with all of our contact information. Also, you can connect with us on social media by friending us on Facebook, post on Instagram, or tweet us on Twitter. Now, let's return to our talk with Pastor Lee Prater as he shares about his missionary endeavors. Was there a great hunger for the gospel, or were they few and far between? It varied, depending on where you were at. Depending, like in India, for example, there's a caste system. So there's going to be variations within each caste. But typically, those who are of a lower caste had more hunger to learn and to try to understand it. But then they couldn't necessarily read, so you would need to, through an interpreter, explain it to them. But then, even in the different castes, you were able to share God's word with them and talk with them, because English was their second language. And so you were able to directly talk with them and have Bible studies in Ethiopia and college age kids hungering for the Word of God and being able to just talk about Christ and open up Isaiah 53 in Ethiopia. That was amazing. How's the balance though? going overseas and sharing God's Word and seeing people being receptive to God's Word. And then you mentioned that you do that in your own community here in the United States. Have you seen a difference between those that are being receptive to receiving God's Word as you pass out tracts here in our own land as you did overseas? Absolutely. You know, there's a big difference. I mean, here, people feel self-sufficient, that they don't really need God in general in our great land that we're in. And ironically, we had such a great biblical heritage in our land and where it's gotten to this point. Yet God calls our land and us as individuals to repentance. And so if my people that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven. And so there's two sides of the coin. There's repentance and there's faith. And so we need to call people to repentance, to turn from their sins a complete 180 degrees, and then faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ to believe on His holy name. Here, people don't really want to hear that, or they already know what you're going to say before you even say it, they think, and they tend to reject it off the cuff. Whereas other lands, they'll listen to you, and at least, you know, they're steeped in their own religion, they're in their religiosity, they're in their variations of what they believe, but yet they are curious and they do want to know. Like in Acts 17, maybe it's the unknown to them, maybe it's the unknown God to them, and they want to know, even though they have the devotions to everything else. You know, I was thinking about that and how there are so many different religions, say in India is an example. But the people are hungry for that spiritual side instead of just thinking, I'm sufficient on my own and I don't need to know about the higher power. So do you find that when you're in a place such as India that although they believed in other gods is I think you're saying is that they are curious to know because they are open to spiritual things. Oh, absolutely I mean the track would say do you know God basically and they would ask you and say have you have you seen the God and You know, they would say things like that, and it's like, I've seen Him by faith, and I believe on Him by faith. I have seen Him in my heart and in the Word of God, and now He dwells within me. And so that really opened up the whole dialogue to share the gospel with them, because they would want to take you over to their image that's in the temple. But then you'd say, yeah, I've seen Him by faith. You don't have to go to some temple to see God. That is not the permissiwa, who they call Him. That is not God. God is in the Word of God alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, by Christ alone, to God be the glory alone. You know, just like the Apostle Paul found a vehicle to communicate with those in Athens, the unknown God that you worship, I've come to declare that unknown God to you. Is it a thing of finding a vehicle to be able to communicate with those that you come in contact with? Just praying that the Lord would open a door to be able to share His Word? Absolutely. I mean, you know, you don't want to ever wind up in a gimmicky situation where you're coming up with different gimmicks to share God's Word. It's the simplicity of the Gospel. It's the three Ps, the preaching, prayer, and praise. And that's what you always lead people back to, is you try to get them under the preaching of the Word of God, if possible, and then you can pray for them, and then you could praise God in song and in heart. Really, it's just getting back to the basics. Just as a Reformation, everything got back to the basics, and that's what you have to do in a lot of programs these days. It's not about the programs. It's about getting back to the Word of God. looking for ways to be able to communicate. Yes. Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, that it's the Word of God that will change a person's heart and not our elaborate words. Right. I think that's the whole thing is inviting them to come and hear the Word of God and be under the preaching of the Word of God and giving them the resources that they need to keep on in the Word of God. So if they don't have a Bible, give them a Bible. Of course, there's a lot of online resources these days. but also giving them, you know, maybe a gospel tract that has life that can go beyond themselves. And that's the lovely thing about passing out a really God-glorifying biblical tract, is that it has life beyond just that initial interaction. You know, they could take it, they could put it in their pocket, they could read it later. That's why I've always rejoiced in being able to, in tract distribution, I think it's a wonderful method. And then circle it back to get them under the preaching of the Word of God. Sure. Do you have any words of comfort or challenge you'd like to share with our listeners, those that are tuned in? I would just say that, you know, that if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, to truly just look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone in faith, you know, believe on Him, trust in Him, He's the only way. Again, He gives us repentance and He gives us faith, and then we believe on His holy name. And so I would just encourage you to read the Bible, to continue to read His words so that you would come in that deeper relationship with Him, or if you don't know Him, to just read the Word of God to become saved. God's Word transforms lives, as Romans 10, verse 17 so clearly states. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And we thank Pastor Lee Prater for his visit with us. Now if you'd like to find out more about Pastor Prater and what we've been talking about, just go to our website at ConnectionsWithRichAndBobby, all one word, and Bobby spelt with an I, dot com. and click on Program Insights. That's Program Insights at ConnectionsWithRichandBobby.com. Now you've been listening to Connections with Rich and Bobbi, and we'd love to have you subscribe to our podcast on this platform or any of the others like iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify. 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