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Today is Good Friday. I’m thinking about the death of Jesus Christ. I’m also thinking about the death of Charla Pereau. They both have had a great impact on my life. Jesus was God in the flesh. Charla was made in God’s image and was conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Because of the death of Jesus my sins are forgiven, my guilt is washed away and I am redeemed. Because of the life of Charla, I found my place in the Kingdom of God; I also found my wife and have a precious family.

Before I met Charla, I met Foundation For His Ministry (FFHM). Charla started FFHM over 60 years ago. The ministry began as a home for needy children in Vicente Guererro, Baja, Mexico. I first visited in 1987 as a recent graduate of Bible college with a degree in Missions. I was disappointed and disillusioned with how the mission program of my denomination worked. Too many hoops to jump through before a person would get to be on the mission field. I had kind of given up on ever being a missionary. FFHM renewed my dream of serving God in another country. At this children’s home I saw a lot of normal, everyday type of ordinary people who just wanted to make a difference in the lives of poor Mexicans, especially Mexican children who had been abandoned, abused, neglected and were suffering the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual effects that come from not being wanted. The staff was made up of Americans, Canadians and Mexicans who simply wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus and bring healing to hurting people.

I had come for a week to volunteer and left with a hope and a lifetime ambition to one day be a permanent part of this incredible organization. Unfortunately I had to wait 18 years for my dream to become a reality. In the meantime I went to Vicente Guererro almost every year to help out for a week at a time, as thousands of volunteers have done since the founding of the Mission. I met Charla and talked to her a little bit over those years. Looking at her and chatting with her, I would never have guessed that she was the visionary who, full of faith, determination and grit, was making such a big difference in the Kingdom of God in Mexico. On the surface she just seemed another volunteer who cared. I knew better, because I had read her book, Charla’s Children where she described her vision from God and how she began to think God’s thoughts after Him with regards to loving the poorest of the poor in Mexico.

Fast forward to 2005 and I was finally at a place in my life where I could live full time doing the work of God in Mexico. But instead of Baja, Mexico, I went to Oaxaca, Mexico, where FFHM was putting the finishing touches on a new home for needy children. Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico and the need was great and still is great, to bring help and healing to suffering children. And not only to rescue children, but also to reach the lost in remote mountain areas and restore the broken lives of those in prison and rehabilitation centers.

I jumped in with both feet in March of 2005 and have been here ever since. These have been the happiest years of my life. I feel like a puzzle piece that never quite fit just right for most of my life and then the Lord put me here and it has been a perfect fit. Not only have I loved working in various aspects of ministry here, but I also met my wife here and we have two super daughters. I couldn’t be happier, and it’s mostly because of Charla.

Charla, and her husband Chuck, would come to Oaxaca every couple of years which was a joy for us all. She would tell stories to the kids and share with the staff how the Lord had spoken to her, used her, directed her, and sometimes rescued her through the years of her life. I never failed to laugh and cry when she spoke and was always inspired to trust God more, give more freely and love more deeply. Charla said one time that her daily prayer in the morning was “God, lay some soul upon my heart, and love that soul through me.” I wonder if some days I was that soul. I also remember her saying one time that God doesn’t want our ability so much as he wants our availability. That encouraged me as I don’t have all that much ability to give the Lord, but I have plenty of availability.

When different partners of this ministry would die over the years, Charla liked to say that they “graduated to heaven”. Charla “graduated to heaven” February 28. I imagine there was a heap of treasure waiting for her. She laid up a lifetime of loving others well and no doubt filled up many celestial coffers with her acts of compassion, her works of kindness and her obedience to the Lord in meeting the felt needs and more importantly, the spiritual needs of thousands of people. In Matthew 6:20 Jesus tells his followers to store up treasures in heaven. In Luke 12:21 Jesus encourages people to be “rich toward God” and in verse 33 to “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail”.

Charla was a great example to us all of storing up treasures in heaven by being rich toward God. Thank you God for Charla!

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“As Chuck and I face our few remaining days, we sense God would still have us focus on what matters the most – His commission to reach the lost with the message of Christ and His charge to believers in Matthew 25: feed the hungry, provide drink for the thirsty, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, care for those who are sick, and visit the prisoners. This is the foundation on which we built His Ministry.”

Charla Pereau – Charla: An Ordinary Woman with Faith in an Extraordinary God