Blessing the Blessers: Reset Joy Ministries' Mission | Gail Marten | EP 130

to iRefresh, where we talk about the impact of prayer in God's Word. Welcome to another edition of iRefresh, and I have with us a returning visitor, Gail Martin. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me again. We were back on episode 67 a few years ago, and we were talking all things about prayer, which obviously with our ministry is our passion. Yes. But you have had a few life changes, and I just felt like it was such a great thing that you and your husband are doing today. to make an invaluable difference in our community of the churches. So, Gail, talk to us about what's going on and what God's redirecting you to do now. Sure. I'd love to. really started seeking God a couple years ago as we were approaching our retirement years. Oh, yeah. And we're calling it our third act. You know, Lord, we've got more to do. We've got more to give. What is it you want us to do? And he began to direct us because Gary and I were small church pastors decades ago. And we pastored in Illinois, two small churches, 50, attendance of 50 in one, 80 and another. Then we were associate pastors at a church of about 400, which felt huge to us. But of course, in the big city, even 400 isn't that big. So we had that experience when we lived in Illinois. And then just so many things in the small churches that I think we as the body of Christ aren't always aware of. that those shepherds go through. They're assigned and appointed to take care of these people. And they might have 15 or 30 people in their pews on a Sunday. And so those tithes and offerings don't go very far, both for their own salary. We know so many pastors, since we started this ministry a year ago, we've met so many who can't even pay their bills because they're living below government poverty level because of what they can be paid. And since COVID, the churches have shrunk. A lot of people never went back. And we see boarded up churches in these small churches, and it just breaks our hearts because that's where we came from. We grew up in small towns. We pastored in small towns. So we hate to see that, but we also understand because we're, We left the ministry 20 years ago, and we call it ministry shrapnel, that there's a lot of wounded shepherds out there. And, you know, if you think about shrapnel, sometimes you don't even know where it came from, and that's what happens. There's these wounds. They're not even sure where it came from or just people's words, people's... insistence and so many of these shepherds are isolated in the small towns. They don't have resources. They don't have people helping them. They feel very alone. So some of those hurts become even deeper because there's nobody else to help them heal. So it just really was our heart because we've been there. So when the Lord started to lay out for us that we would call it Reset Joy Ministries. And our vision is to spoil and encourage these pastors and spouses and remind them of their calling and keep them on the road where God has set their feet. And so we do retreats at no expense to them. We bring in married couples and we sponsor the whole thing so they can just have 24 hours of a reset. And we let them go out on a dinner date. Gary and I teach sessions to remind them, first of all, about their marriage and And we remind them of their calling. We remind them that they have purpose. And then the last session, we pray over them. And it's just such a power. God shows up at those retreats. And they leave those retreats. just encouraged. We've gotten such good feedback and it's all God. We're so thankful that the Holy Spirit comes in and just, you can just feel him enveloping them and they're, they're weary and they're, you know. Well, how do you find them though? I'm assuming you have relationships with people from the past being in the ministry, but how do you find them today that you feel like, oh, we need to really invest in them? Mm-hmm. We have connections with—Gary and I attend an Assemblies of God Church right now, so we have a relationship with the district superintendent. He is so on board with what we're doing, and so he sends us names of pastors in that denomination that are struggling, that are down to 30 people and 50 people and feeling alone, and he'll say they could use a reset, they could use a refresh, and— Like I said, it's so exciting to see them come and see God do a work in them where they feel like we can do this. And they go back stronger. And then they've made connections with us so that we can help them with additional resources. Like when you say resources, that's kind of general. Can you pinpoint exactly what is it you see what the needs are? And you're like, okay, that's something that we can reach out. And we can even share with our audience of, the things that are practical that we may not be aware of that their needs might be, other than emotional. I'm hearing emotional. Besides, obviously, when there's 30 people, it's trying to be able to fund a pastor's salary. It's got to be challenging, too. Right. Absolutely. Gary and I teach a marriage seminar and a parenting seminar. We've done that for many years. So when we connect with these pastors... We offer that service and we come and do it for free. And it's just an opportunity that they don't usually have because they don't have the money to pay a guest speaker to come in and do something. And so we would encourage anybody that maybe has those kinds of. skills or something that you offer, or maybe a, you know, a worship night or something. And you know of a small church. We're amazed, Cheryl, of how many people we talk to that say, I grew up in a small town, or I know... a church, my grandma's church is down to 30 people or they, people have a heart for those small churches and it's, it's the grassroots. And I believe where revival is going to start is in those small churches and come up from there. It's not going to be the big churches down, but the small churches. I think, you know, when you, when you have a smaller church, the advantage is, you know, your people. Like, you know, everyone in that group, you have a good idea of what everybody's walking through if you're intentional to know your people, you know, in a more than just on a Sunday sermon. I think when you said one of the things I want to highlight is you were asking if you have a talent or a gift. And it could be that, you know, you are someone who's really skilled at financial. We're practical organizing someone's financials. What is it that you might be able to offer once in a while, maybe once a quarter, where you could come and maybe you can gather information. a group of these pastors where you could speak into their lives. Is that what I understand? That some of the, like someone's skillset, they could actually come and volunteer to use that skillset in maybe a group of them or maybe in a particular church. Or in a particular church. And that's just it. If they know of an area, again, because maybe they grew up there, Maybe it's time to look back at where did I come from? How is that church doing? And maybe offer some of those skill sets to them or even construction workers or, you know. you're a roofer and you drive by and you notice that a church is falling apart. Is there something that you could do to help them? All kinds of maintenance. All kinds of things. So if you are a plumber or if you are just a handy person, anything that you could offer, or maybe you're like, I don't have that, but I can clean. You know, sometimes maybe they need a good detailed cleaning to make it spruce it up. Maybe it's to offer paint or like, Maybe you can be part of providing paint and go give fresh paint to some of these buildings. Or you can caulk because there's probably a lot of cracks in some of these old churches. Something to help to refresh a building in this structure. So it sounds like we could really start pinpointing a lot of different skill sets and... That if we would, you know, I think it's great when we can have a community and start gathering and networking a community of people who we could like literally organize them and like, okay, we're going to be hitting this church this month. We're going to hit this church this following month. It would be great to start developing that network of resources, of people, your skill sets, and then the churches and start having them like, okay, these are the kinds of needs we have, like, Well, that works out on this particular day. We could have a group of our people come in and while they are doing repairs, these people are cleaning, refreshing the yard around it. I mean, I think there's a lot of things that like every one of us has a body of Christ. We could play one small role to really impact them to feel basically taken care of a little bit. Yes, absolutely. And any denomination, you know, I mentioned the Assemblies of God just because that's where we are. And that was kind of our first open door in finding some of these pastors. But we also did a retreat in Illinois where Gary and I are from, and we were able to reach out to people that we knew and just filled right up. And so that was kind of our way of planting seed where we came from. And so I think I don't want people to think, oh, I'm not the right denomination to be part of that. Any Christian denomination, they're all shepherds. They're all small church pastors and their spouses. And they need the physical help, like you were mentioning. But they also need encouragement and prayer and just to not be forgotten. So I would just encourage people to remember to pray for them because they are out there doing it with faith. no light shining on them for what they're doing. And some of them, their families make great sacrifices because they don't get paid much. And we came across a family who actually lived in the church. There was no parsonage. They couldn't afford a church. So the church kitchen was their kitchen. The church restroom was their restroom. Their Sunday school rooms were their bedrooms. They lived there for a couple of years before they were able to find a house for themselves. But That's what their call was, and that's what they did. They did what was necessary. And I just don't know if we in the body of Christ really know those sacrifices that are going on amongst the small churches. But they need our support and our prayers and our love and just that word of mouth, like you said, if somebody just would notice driving through a small town. A church that looks like it's run down, but it's still open. And how can we help? Right. I think, you know, it's about being creative and it's about, okay, what's in our hand? You know, the scriptures in the Old Testament talks about what is in your hand. The Lord's just asking you what is in your hand and what your resources are and how could those can be used for the kingdom work. You may be a business person or your world is totally different. You're not in ministry per se. But actually, we're all ministering at some point in and out of the church. And we can each individually come together and make a greater impact. One of the things, too, I want to highlight we've talked about in the past is when you're taking those pastors to do a retreat, because they're not offering it, they're offering it for free means it costs something for someone. And that's where we can also have a place for people to donate so that you can provide more opportunities to have more pastors to come and refine that reset. How would they find your website where they can donate? Yeah, that'd be great. It's resetjoy.org. And there is a donation page on there. And any amount helps us. About $340 per person is what we need. for a retreat. But any amount is a blessing. And it really does touch them. And at the end of every retreat, we have volunteers come, whatever area we're in, and they line the halls after that last session, which is our prayer session. So when they walk out, people are cheering for them. And it's so emotional because they line the halls and they cheer and they say, thank you. And these pastors and their wives, or I don't want to say pastors and wives, pastors and spouses, because sometimes the pastor is the female. But these couples come out and their faces are just like people are cheering for us because we forget them. Right. and we don't want to forget them. You know, I think one only thing we can talk about is well, I don't have the capacity. I don't have the time. I don't have whatever it takes. So maybe it simply just is a donation. Or maybe if I paused and prayed and asked the Lord, what is it that I could do? Even if it meant I pray for Lord, lead the right people to Gary and Gail's ministry. Lead them to a place where they can find hope. You know, if we don't have hope, that's one thing is it's a tragedy because we give up. And yet the Lord knows, has reminded us so often in the word about how hard life is going to be. But it says, but it's those if we would realize if we can put our hope in the Lord and trust him, he says he will deliver us out of where we're at. And we really want to encourage people that feel called to do the work of the Lord. They don't give up. Yes. That we can be the Aaron and the Hur, right? It was the Aaron and Hur that would hold up Moses' staff to keep where they would fight and win the battle. Yes. And so we're looking for the Aaron's and Hur's, and we just pray that you would consider and pray about what is it that you might be able to do to walk alongside, get experience, and I think go to their website, learn more about what they're doing. And you might have some creative input and ideas that it's about gathering people together and sharing. One of the things that we would also recognize is when you're saying the churches are so small, that means people stop going to the church. So maybe you're one that's a listener, and you're like, you know, I kind of gave that up for Lent. Or I'm just kidding. But maybe you just stop going. There's a lot of reasons, and I'm not here to judge. I just want to encourage you. So often when I drive by churches of all sizes and shapes— I pray that Lord bring the people back into that fellowship. The Lord wants us to fellowship. You should not be alone. And if you're feeling that, or maybe you're like, I'm fine, the Lord desires you to have that fellowship, and there's that connection with one another. Then when we don't have it, we forget what we're missing. But some, I would encourage you is take a step forward in the new year of let's go back to the churches. Let's go back. What can we do to contribute and get to know an amazing group of people? They really are. Yes. And the small churches I really love because you actually get to know one another. When I'm in a larger church, I can disappear. Mm-hmm. And sometimes I don't mind being that invisible person. I want to come in and out. But there's something about the fellowship amongst those smaller churches that is really rich. Yes. Yes. And it's okay if, as somebody is listening to this, it doesn't have to be under our umbrella. Just if something sparks that, you know, I could go, I know that they, you know, they do a food pantry. Maybe I could go help with their food pantry or a lot of the small towns, that's kind of The only thing that's left in their small church, the only ministry they have left is a food pantry. And a lot of the small towns do have a lot of poverty-level residents, and that's what they do. So if we can help in any way, in any area, but we've got to have our antenna up and know where God's leading us. Because, boy, God is so good. If we ask the Holy Spirit. Right. Where do you want me? What do you want me to do? Just like Gary and I seeking him a couple years ago. What do you want us to do? And pretty soon it was just all laid out. And we had the name of our ministry. And we had supporters. And we had our first retreat set up. And then there were people coming. And God will show you if you will ask. And if you are truly willing to be obedient, God knows that. That's so good. Well, Gail, we want to encourage our listeners to go out to their website. Go ahead and say that one more time. Your website is? Resetjoy.org. Yeah. Learn more about what they're doing, connect with them, ask them the questions. And if you have ideas even to share of how to increase and grow this community, they're doing this out of the heart of faith. And the Lord honors that faith and they want to, we want to help to provide for that. One thing about iRefresh too is we want to go alongside the body of Christ. And these churches are a place where we as a prayer team can go in and minister. We've done it before. we love going into the small churches and begin to pray for the group of people that are there. And they crave it. They love it. They need it. And we all can come together and make a difference. So take a look at it. Thank you, Gail, for coming. Oh, thank you for having me.