My Journey to GTG

By Reverend Michael Farias

I was sitting at my desk minding my own business when I felt a prompting to call Global Youth Evangelism. It was Wednesday, January 30, 2013.

GYE was the ministry where I began my Christian life.  I gave my life to the Lord in one of the GYE churches, attended Bible school at one of their schools, became a minister in the organization, and became a senior pastor in one of their churches.

As a Bible school student, one of my duties was to collate Bible studies by hand.  This was a new initiative to produce and distribute discipleship materials to the world.  It had been named “The Christian Worker Bible Study Series.”

Another task I participated in during my Bible school experience was the construction of a facility to house GYE headquarters, including the printing, production and distribution of the Bible Study Series; and another structure that would be the church building.  A plumber by trade, I was honored to plumb these buildings. The location was a 5-acre parcel in the middle of rural northern California, in the small town of Orland.

Over time, I separated from the organization to pursue other ministry opportunities.  GYE had become part of my past, but not my future, or so I thought.

When I decided to Google the phone number for GYE and make the call, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the organization was still in existence.  I had heard that the founder had left a long time ago along with most of the leadership, pastors and ministers.  I knew that the once thriving organization had fallen on hard times.

I was quickly put on the phone with Reverend Earl Megginson, the president of the organization.  I was already acquainted with Earl.  He was my pastor during my first year of Christianity, was a former mentor, and even preached at a missions convention I hosted in my church 25 years earlier.

When I arrived in Orland about a week later to meet with Earl, it was like walking into a time warp.  Everything was the same, only older - much older.  It was obvious that the organization was in dire need.

It didn’t take long to see that Earl needed help. He was aged, and was carrying the responsibility not only for the small church, but for the Bible Study Series as well.  While we were at lunch, he shared that he had been praying for God to send him help, and he believed that God had sent me as the answer.  To support his belief, he showed me some notes that had been scribbled out, claiming that they were prophecies that were given to him by three different people he met at a minister’s retreat.  Sure enough, they seemed to indicate that God would send him help to advance the ministry.

I definitely was not interested in going back to the future, and I certainly was not there to participate in GYE.  So I thought of a way out.  After all, how many years or decades had he been sitting on these prophecies, just waiting for a sucker to come along?  I was no sucker, so I asked him, “how long ago did you get these prophecies?”   His reply stunned me.  He said, “a week ago Tuesday, and you called me on Wednesday.”

At the time, I was running two companies that I had founded and was also very busy in various Kingdom building activities.  But I recognized the providence and the voice of God, so I succumbed, and agreed to sit on the Board of GYE as Vice President. I began to develop an exit and succession strategy for Earl, as well as a strategy to re-launch and rebrand the church and the Bible Study Series.

The first priority was taking care of God’s church.  Since the transition, we have seen God do marvelous things with the church, and it is rewarding to see it thriving under the leadership of its new pastor.  It has nearly quadrupled in attendance and is enjoying a new name, look and feel as it impacts the community.

In September 2015, Earl resigned from GYE without warning, and the responsibility of the organization fell on me.  While I never intended to devote my full time to this ministry, I was now the last man standing.

With this responsibility came the freedom to re-launch and rebrand the Bible study series without needing permission.  The decision was made to invest the meager resources we had and drain the savings account that had taken decades to accumulate in order to move forward with the services of a professional, faith-based marketing and technology company.

Everything would have to change.  GYE could no longer be in the publishing, printing, warehousing, distribution and shipping business.  We had to get back to our core mission and vision, which is to take the Word of God to the world.

In order to do this, Greater Than Gold was birthed.  GTG holds the intellectual property rights of all the Bible studies, and is responsible for winding down GYE and winding up global distribution. We are now using modern technology to carry out the original mission.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.    Habakkuk 2:3

A major challenge I faced was how to get these Bible studies into the hands of leaders in third world and developing countries, so they can get them into the hands of the people.

Over the years, some of the products were distributed to 70 countries and  translated into 17 dialects.  Unfortunately, in the past decade, global distribution had all but stopped and it was time to bring this amazing Kingdom asset back to life.

I received an email on May 6th, 2016 from Dr. Carl Gibbs, a leader at Africa’s Hope.  I had never heard of him or his organization, but I was familiar with a product called Roots of Faith that was mentioned in the email.  More than a decade earlier, a missionary to Angola, Africa, Harry Osland, was given permission to take our Bible studies and translate them into Portuguese for exclusive use in his work in Angola.  My response to the email led to a meeting with the executive team from Africa’s Hope.  In that meeting, I learned that our humble Bible studies were being used in Angola to train and disciple thousands of local believers.  In fact, there are approximately eight thousand students enrolled and using our product.  I learned that the need for discipleship materials in Africa is huge, and that Africa’s Hope would like to use our studies throughout the continent in their missions work, translating them into 12 more dialects to disciple and train more people.  Of course, I agreed, and a great friendship and partnership has developed.

I was also recently contacted by Jorge Parrot, the Missions Director for Rick Joyner, MorningStar Ministries.  Jorge had heard about our studies and asked for the right to translate them into dialects for use in some of the 68 countries where they support missionaries. Of course, this too was granted.

It is my expectation that the doors are just beginning to open because the need is so great.  I believe the Bible studies entrusted to Greater Than Gold are the best kept secret out there.  It’s time to literally get the Word out.  But even better than getting God’s Word out, is getting God’s Word in; into the people who hunger and thirst for something greater than gold.

Mike Farias