Shepherd’s Gate Ministry, a Full Gospel Assemblies partner ministry in Weirton, WV is sharing the name of Jesus wherever the opportunity opens.  Their vision is to bring the gospel to the nations in the most efficient way possible by supporting and equipping indigenous workers and pastors to take the gospel to their own people. Shepherd’s Gate Ministry was founded by Pastor Terry Blake and has been tenaciously serving the Lord Jesus for the past thirty years.

This ministry began following a two-week mission trip to China. Pastor Terry had the opportunity to spend a day with a family of the Bai minority people. He and his companion did their best to share Jesus with this family and two of their friends. Pastor Terry shared that the experience was exhausting, and worse, at the end of the day the only thing they accomplished was to offend one of the friends. He was frustrated and that night Pastor Terry cried to the Lord to show him what went wrong and what was he missing. The Lord showed him that in that particular instance people had believed a lie for so many generations that it has become the truth to them. It was then that he understood that the change he could bring in short-term mission trips was extremely limited.

Pastor Terry continued praying and then one day the Lord spoke and instructed him to go to Vietnam, but not as a church planter but as a supporter of a church that the Lord already built. Since then that is what he and his team have been doing – supporting and equipping indigenous workers and pastors so that they can take the gospel to their own people.  In 1996, Shepherd’s Gate Ministry (SGM) was birthed.

There are many ways that SGM supports and equips workers. In Vietnam, it means getting Bibles into the hands of the people. Sometimes, it means partnering with church workers or organizations of the community that may be better prepared or equipped to accomplish the vision.  This is particularly true in some of the restricted countries in Asia. 

In Thailand, SGM has partnered with Crossroads Christian Church in supporting ten Karen (the Karen are a people group) workers as they take the gospel to unchurched Karen villages. In the first six months, they have had more than 65 baptisms. All glory to our Lord. In one Karen village SGM purchased a property and are busy building a church building. They also help support a Filipino missionary who teaches English in one of the villages in Tak Province of Thailand. In Mexico, SGM  is partnering with FG Assemblies – Mexico.  There they are working with pastors in the Sierra Mountains. They have recently purchased a property there and will begin building on it in June. It will be the only church in that village, with the next nearest church being over ten miles away. In the country of Zambia, SGM supports two indigenous missionaries as well as a ministry that reach out to prostitutes in Livingstone. The workers share the gospel with the women of the street, and assist them in creating and finding other work.

Shepherd’s Gate Ministry is a testament that a seemingly failed work can pave way to a vibrant ministry if one is willing to heed the Lord. Expect to discover more of what God is doing through SGM in future articles.