The Mailbox Club: $0.80 Disciples a Child to Jesus — A Partner Highlight with John Mark Eager (Ep. 12)

For about 80 cents a child, The Mailbox Club walks a kid through a complete course of Bible lessons. Last year: 17.3 million children enrolled, nearly 12 million completed the course, and 8 million made a decision for Christ — across 100+ countries, 200,000 churches, and 750,000 volunteer mentors.

In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with John Mark Eager, CEO of The Mailbox Club, about how a 1965 mail-based Bible lesson ministry in Valdosta, Georgia became a globally decentralized, church-driven discipleship engine serving the 4–14 age group in the hardest-to-reach places on earth. They cover the Samaritan's Purse distribution pivot that dropped costs and 10×'d graduation rates, the 10/40 Window math, why discipleship-first flips the math (80%+ of kids discipled come to faith anyway), and Franklin Graham's counsel when John Mark laid out a growth plan: "Don't limit God."

The Mailbox Club: https://mailboxclub.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most giving today doesn't produce any lasting measurable fruit. Welcome to ROI Ministry, the Don't Bury It podcasts, the show for Christians who measure what really matters. Up to 30,000 times the eternal return on every dollar, every hour, every opportunity, so that you know you're making a difference. Because good intentions aren't enough. Generosity and wise stewardship changes everything. Let's get into it. Thank you for joining us today for another episode of ROI Ministries podcast, Don't Bury It. We are very excited about the uh very special guest today and friend of mine. Now, after 10 years of being on our ROI Ministry top 10 list, John Mark as the leader of the Melbox Club. And before I hand it over to him to tell us a little bit about himself, a little bit about the organization, for those of you who have not followed our episodes, let me give you a quick recap on what we're about and why I think it's the most important information you will ever hear after reading your Bible. So with that said, we started off in episode one talking about the church's greatest problem, greatest challenge. And in 2001, there was some research that was performed looking at giving worldwide. And everybody wanted to know, and everybody participated, every major church, denomination, non-denomination, parachurch ministry organization. And what we discovered at that time, at the turn of the century, there was $270 billion coming into the Big C church. And the big question was where it went and what were the results. Well, unfortunately, they discovered we spent most of what all gods entrusted to us preaching to the choir is 97% of all Christian giving was being used in nations that were already Christian, mostly wealthy, wealthy nations, and only 2.97% at that time was being used to minister or to evangelize to nations that were not Christians. And that's heartbreaking. But what's even worse is one third of one percent of all Christian giving was being utilized to reach the poorest lost people in the world. And what's agonizing about that is when we open up our Bibles, Jesus says he came to preach the good news to the poor, to set the captives free. That was as he inaugurated his ministry, and at the end, he tells us where to go to all nations, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. And so it was clear that our our talk is not matching our walk as a church. And so that became the catalyst for starting ROI ministry nearly two decades ago. And what we also found in that research, the good news is the small amount that made it to the ends of the earth, to the poorest of the poor, overall saw 3,000 times greater results. Now we didn't just trust the research, we went out and investigated. And we met with the the greatest leaders in the space. And I got an opportunity to sit down with Hugh McClellan, founder of Generous Giving, and others that not only got excited about what we were doing, but encouraged us and provided us ministries to add to our what became our top 10 lists because they were 30,000 times more fruitful than average. And so since then we've been providing, and our board has been underwriting the cost to provide you unbiased top 10 ministries in the world based upon their measurable kingdom impact per dollar. And I'm happy to say that the Mailbox Club is one of those. So with that, John Mark, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and your faith background.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Thank you so much, Tim. It's an honor to be with you. And uh again, I'm John Mark Eager. I'm CEO of the Mailbox Club. Mailbox Club is located in Valvasta, Georgia, but we work in over a hundred countries around the world. Uh my parents founded the Mailbox Club in 1965, so we're coming up on 61 years as a ministry. Uh, but I came to faith in in Christ uh when I was eight years old. I went off to a wonderful Christian boarding school for high school, and while there in Asheville, North Carolina, we had a great revival. It was life-changing to me to just come into a deeper walk with Christ, totally surrender, offer my life up to him as a as a blank check. And so uh I'll tell you a little bit more about how God involved me in the ministry, but I'm blessed with uh a beautiful, very supportive wife. We have five children. They're all in their 20s, except for our youngest, uh, who is 17, Elizabeth. And uh a couple of my favorite verses are Romans 12, 1 and 2, uh, which talk about uh offering our lives to Christ as a living sacrifice, which I believe is daily, dying to self and offering our lives to him. And once we do that, it's amazing to see what he'll he'll do with our lives. So again, thank you for letting me uh be with you this morning.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Great, yeah, that's great news. And I always hate to one-up my guest, but uh, you know, we have five kids, and our youngest is 19. Second year of college, so we're right there with you. So that's a side. So give me a little short background on uh the Melbox Club ministry, how you began, what was the uh really the holy injustice, the passion, the vision. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, my as mentioned, my parents founded the Melbox Club in 1965. My dad was a tremendous evangelist, and back in the day he could go into public schools in South Georgia, really uh all around Georgia, and uh stayed out of the big cities, but rural Georgia, Alabama, Florida had a wonderful assembly program, uh, assembly programs, I should say, in the schools, and realized quickly needed follow-up and began using some materials, but eventually God led him and the team to begin writing mailbox club lessons. And the mailbox club ministry was mostly North American in our focus at that time. And then in 1990, I was in seminary and working on a master's in missions, and the opportunity came for me to join with Child Evangelism Fellowship and help them develop a discipleship program in Eastern Europe. And so uh I left seminary, dove into doing ministry. I feel like I have a master's in in missions, but not not officially, you know, uh on paper. But uh we started helping them in the 90s, and again, uh God just had bigger plans for the mailbox club, just kept expanding it. We began partnering with Samaritan's Purse uh through their Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Ministry, and it was then that we learned God had a better distribution network than the postal system, because the postal system doesn't work in a lot of countries, like Nicaragua, like Zimbabwe, and it cost too much for ordinary people making $100 a month. And so we learned from them the better distribution network was the church, the body of Christ. And so we began training the same churches, the same volunteers that were passing out the shoeboxes to do the discipleship, and it changed our whole ministry. It's just unbelievable. We went from being centralized to very decentralized, very field-driven, and God has just blown the lid off our ministry. Uh, last year we served over 200,000 churches and ministries and schools around the world and worked in over a hundred nations, and it it's it's just unbelievable. Our passion is to train and equip believers. If you think of uh Ephesians 4.12, talks about equipping the saints, and so our passion is to equip believers and churches to do the work of evangelism and discipleship of children and young people. And we believe every child should hear the name of Jesus at least once in their own language. And uh the ministry has grown to over 17 million children enrolled in Melbourne's club last year. We had over 8 million salvation decisions, and we give God all the glory. I'm I'm just a farm boy. God has just done unbelievable things. You know, we're coming up on 61 years as a ministry, but I like to tell people that we're a we're a work in progress. We don't have it all figured out, we're constantly learning, and and why not? I mean, this is about eternity, this is the whole ball game. Why not try to improve our processes, our strategies, our procedures every year? Learn from people. You know, the saying old dogs can't learn new tricks is totally false. I'm an old guy, but we keep learning and learning and learning. We keep pushing ourselves. We have a great team, kind of an entrepreneurial team, and God just keeps just blessing the ministry beyond imagination.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, that is that is great. What a great history. Uh, I love everything you share. Getting to know you over the last decade. For those who don't know, I worked for one of the largest design engineering firms for 12 years before I went out, started my own consulting company that allowed me to uh basically get my bills paid off so I could do this full time. So um I I love that. I love the fact that as I I get to know the executive directors, the leaders, CEOs of these organizations, they're always, hands down, people that would have made two to five, ten times more per year working in the private sector, that walked away from it like yourself as a civil engineer, but also how God uses that that that mind that he gave us. And uh it shouldn't it gets often overlooked, but when Jesus reached back to Deuteronomy 6, 5 to give us the the greatest commandment, he added mine to that. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength. He added mine. And and that wouldn't have missed the the listeners of the of the day. He also added to love your neighbors as yourself, giving us the application for it. And so I celebrate the fact that when God gets a hold of a person with a marketplace background or a great education that he can use for God's kingdom, as we saw with the Apostle Paul and others, uh with others partnering aside alongside them to do great things. So I'm gonna ask you a little bit about the Melbourne's club as it relates to ROI ministries top 10. And but let me just provide some background for our listeners. We have had a number of top 10 ministries that just got to the point where they really didn't need our endorsement. They were doing great, they liked it, but they just changed directions in the ministry, and we didn't it it wasn't something that was measurable. We loved them, and we love the fact that we got to play a part on where they're at today as a 50, 60, 80 million dollar ministry and the time that they were on our list. And so I I actually celebrate that day when that comes potentially with the mailbox. I don't think it will because unlike our other ministries, the mailbox club keeps coming down in impact per person per year, which is unheard of. Everybody else has inflation, everybody else's cost goes the other direction. But give us a little bit for those of the for those obviously that don't know our our our history, but there was a time when we added you to the top 10 list that you weren't the the massive or larger organization today. For those who don't know, most ministries are less than a million, uh about over 90, I think five uh 94% of all ministries. There's nearly two million out there today, nonprofit organizations in the United States. But they they have revenue that's less than a million dollars. And I don't think there's any on our top 10 lists that don't have revenue that's substantially more than that. But tell us about where you were then, what you what were you going through? And and I love the fact that we're able to encourage you that one of our board members got behind what you're doing financially, just to share with the listeners we're we're happy users of this the free services we provide. And but just tell us where you were at then as it as it pertains to revenue, size of the organization, and what our endorsement has hopefully helped or contributed to what you're doing. And and we'll get it to a little later, I think, in in the next question. But the fact that uh everybody else's price impact per person goes up each year, but yours seems to keep coming down. So with that, yeah, speak to speak to that, Shamar.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, Tim, I I think ROI began to endorsing Mailbox Club in 2013, if I'm not mistaken. And I believe at that time we were just a little over $2 a child, but with economies of scale and huge volume printies like we're printing this year, God willing, for well over 5.5 million children just in India alone. So that you know, that brings costs down. And we're we're we've kind of patterned out at about 80 cents a child to complete a course of Bible lessons. That's a key measurement that we we tracked, not just how many kids enrolled, there were about 17.3 million kids enrolled in Mailbox Club last year, but almost 12 million completed the course. And by the way, going back to the Samaritan Spirit model, when we went from the postal system to church-based discipleship, our costs went down dramatically, and our graduation rates went through the roof. And any business person loves those metrics when costs go down and outputs and and graduation rates improve dramatically. They increased ten times when because kids through the mail is great, but kids love to be a part of a club, a weekly Bible club. So the secret of what we're doing is serving over 200,000 churches and ministries and and schools. And last year had over three-quarters of a million volunteer mentors. So those people were putting tremendous skin in the game. Imagine if we had to pay every one of them $100, they'd add $75 million to our budget. So I'd have to get go back and look, but I'm guessing our budget was probably around two and a half to three million dollars at that time in 2013. And last year, praise God, we've been through an unbelievable growth curve. We'll talk more about that. But last year we took in almost 10 million, spent almost $10 million last year. We just seen God, and like I said, we had almost 12 million students complete a course of Melbourne's club lessons. And so I had a business person ask me, what could you do with 20 million, 50 million, 100 million dollars? It's simple. Divide it by a dollar. You know, it if we had $50 million, I'm convinced we could reach 50 million kids because our our model is is based on uh a minimal amount of staff who leverage uh an unbelievable amount of relationships with churches and ministries and volunteers. And so, you know, that's the secret sauce. And I don't mind telling people, and if they want to copy us, we we don't have a patent on it. Uh there's two billion kids in the world. We're barely scratching the surface. Time is short, so by all means copy what we're doing. But you know, when you give to Mailbox Club, you're supporting well over a hundred thousand churches around the world, and and that's exciting. We're we're providing Christ-centered evangelism and discipleship materials for children through the church, through the local church, and you're helping church members.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

And and I just want to talk about that, and then I'm gonna talk about your scalability. Um, because those these are two things that uh is near and dear to my heart. So we at RI Ministry were never about robbing Peter to pay Paul, Peter representing the local church and Paul missions, and we're a matter of fact, in everything that we do, we we encourage people to give and support and serve in your local church. And if you do that, we found out through the research that God blesses those people to give even more. So that's our target market is people that are giving, serving, and and it's not a quick fix, it's not a two-week, two-month thing, but uh try it over a few years and see that that that God would bless you. I believe that that He will. And the other thing that you mentioned uh that is your scalability. I I get to sit down with people with influence in in places and spaces where there's allegedly billions of dollars being moved around. Kingdom Advisors right now has between through fifty to a hundred billion dollars under client management, asset assets under management. Uh there's organized that we we know National Christian Foundation, the Signatry, all these organizations. And you listen to the podcast, you talk to them, and there's billions of dollars going into the kingdom every year. And I'm going, where is it going? Because it's not coming through top 10 ROI ministries. Um, you know, we're out there hitting the pavement every week, every month, trying to point people to our top 10 so that, as our motto is, so that you know you're making a difference, because there's 92 billion dollars being embezzled each year by Christian causes. There's two to three times that amount that is going to organizations that can't tell you what they did with it. And we're out there getting into the face, I guess, of the Christian generosity community and saying, hey, we've we've succeeded. In the last 25 years, we have been successful in the generosity space. Giving has gone from 270 billion to over a trillion dollars now in the Christian community. But the amount going to the poorest loss, the percentage has remained the same. So the my big question to the generosity community is first, congratulations. This is great news. But it appears we're still getting an F in stewardship. Where is the money going? Can you, or maybe as a wealth manager, can you tell your clients or help them help your clients discover if their giving is going to an organization that's making a difference or not? Got a little off topic there, but I just wanted to speak to those two things because a lot of these large organizations say, hey Tim, you know, your top 10 ministries are smaller. If we we you know had this big gift, if we gave it to them, they wouldn't know what to do with it. They'd put them under, they couldn't handle it. And I'm saying, well, test me with it because when I talk to our executive directors, they're all set up to be, or for the most part, set up to be scalable. And and I keep hearing that. I just think there's a lot of pride, a lot of ego, and a lot of idols in this whole giving space. A lot of people patting each other on the backs with billions now sitting in donor advice funds, that we need to get out into the kingdom. We're missing the next Billy Graham, we're missing the next Mother Teresa. And that's what you're doing. So I know a little digress there, but I just want to encourage any listeners that have resources sitting in a donor advice fund. That was wise how it got in there. You saved on the taxes, but you haven't been generous yet. You haven't been wise yet. And we want to help you be wise and generous to hear one day, well, then my good and faithful servant, so that you know you just didn't bury that great resource that God's entrusted to you. So, with that, what are the key Bible verses that speak to what you're doing, John Mark? What what really gets you up in the morning as uh you open your Bible and and and God speaks to you?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Well, you know, I often pray that God would uh give me his heart for the lost. And I think I heard Adrian Rogers say, I believe he said, if you're not a soul winner, you're you're you're back you're backslidden. I I think we should care about people and their eternal condition. And you know, when I look at Mark chapter 10, verse 13 through 16, this is one of the times when Jesus was riled up. Then they brought little children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Jesus saw it, but when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased, probably, you know, turning the temple, uh the tables over in the temple is top, and then right next to it, uh, maybe even more, uh, he was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of God. And so uh that that's a passage is actually in uh three of the gospels about letting the children come to Christ. So, you know, it's a commandment to let kid help kids come to Christ. Uh the Great Commission, Matthew 28, says, Go. Uh, they're not going to come to us, the unreached people groups of the world. 43% of the world's population are considered unreached. We're to go to them, they're not going to come to our church, and we're to make disciples, not just decisions. And to of all nations, that's that means all people groups. And so, you know, you've already mentioned Acts 1.8 to the end of the earth. And uh, we know from Revelation chapter 7, there are going to be people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation will be worshiping Jesus. And so uh we haven't finished the job yet. We've got a lot of work to do. And so those are verses that are, you know, on my mind. And I heard David Green from Hobby Lobby recently talk about Paul said that he died, I died daily, and I think dying myself daily, and I heard David Green Green affirm that. I think it's just important that we dive our our wishes and and and we we surrender our lives to him every day and and live for him in the Great Commission. So those those are verses that are often on my mind. And Matthew chapter 9, when Jesus looked at the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. That literally means that's what turned his stomach, you know, not a not a beach house, not a pay raise, you know, not a fancy car, but uh lost people. And I I want my heart to be like his.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, and I'm I'm all for the the mansion and all the great things, but I'm all for them being at a place where you get to enjoy them for all of eternity. Yeah, that's right. I'm about the EROI. And it it's just a shame to think that people would put so much money in a temporal. Things that that that really don't matter in light of eternity. And eternity is a long, long time when you can invest in people. And and God's word are the only two things that we know is going to last. And and Randy Alcorn taught us the we can send it ahead. Can't take it with you, but you can send it ahead. That's great. I I love that. So, John Mart, why is the Melbox Club so focused on reaching kids for Christ?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Christ commanded us to let the little children come to Him. That's that's the first thing, and the most important thing. Secondly, uh children are the most responsive age group of any group to the gospel. Arna did some research that over 80% of the believers in America came to faith as children. Yet sadly, uh so few church resources go to reaching kids. Uh it doesn't make sense to me. You would think if 80% of salvation is with children, 80% of our money would go into children's ministry, but so few resources go to reaching them. So I our passion is to counterbalance that and invest heavily in children. I think it was Charles Spurgeon who said something like, it children, if one to Christ and properly discipled, can live long lives for him. So, you know, it's great when a person comes to faith in Christ in a nursing home or a deathbed conversion, the thief on the cross, but they don't have much time left, and a child can live for decades serving him. And I think that's very important. We find uh kids make great missionaries right now. They don't have all the inhibitions, and you know, they share their faith with their family and and friends, and others come to faith in Christ. And and then lastly, children are the future of the church in in every nation around the world. So it makes tremendous sense to invest in children. By the way, didn't I, 25 plus years ago, the McClellan Foundation began helping Melbourne's club in a major way. You mentioned them earlier. And I tell people, Daryl Healed with the McClellan Foundation, I saw the potential of Melbourne's club before I did. And they began to help us and to think strategically. And I look back, my goodness, uh, there's so many people that have helped me in our ministry get to where we are right now. And again, God gets all the glory. But I mean, we didn't have a strategic plan. I didn't know anything about a SWOT analysis, we didn't have a budget in the late 90s. It's actually kind of embarrassing, but thankfully, McClellan Foundation saw the potential and began helping us. And they challenged us to really focus on children. And I think that was a game changer for our ministry. We do have materials for teenagers and adults, but the majority of what we do revolves around reaching children for Christ with the gospel and then discipling them long term. So those are some of the those are some of the answers to your why question, uh, which is crucial. We can answer the how question pretty easily. How to train how we train people, how we do, but the why, being clear in our minds with the vision for reaching kids is very, very important.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah, let me add to that. I I love that. Um at my church, we have a saying, uh, because we focus a lot on the next generation, we and it is if you lose the next generation, you've lost everything. Could you imagine living in a country where the next generation is is not seeking Christ? We we know what that's gonna look like. We're unfortunately going that direction, and it's gonna get pretty ugly if we can't continue, as you mentioned, to invest in kids. Uh, my wife and I have supported, as I mentioned earlier, we love the local church and we support a little church that started from about 12 when she and I was there when they announced they were gonna start in Latin America, and we were was just there for their Easter service for about 400 people um just a few years later. And I told our young pastor, I said, Hey, what are we doing for the youth? What are we doing for the kids? I mean, these are you know young adults, kind of a hip church, you know, attracting the cool people in the Latin American city that they're in. Um again, just reminding him, you know, we we lose the next generation. We we've lost everything. And so the the same thing applies here as it does elsewhere. Uh, I have a text from Daryl this morning, so I'll reply to him that uh you're on the podcast today, and uh he's I'm talking to him about being on a feature line. But you you mentioned the McClellan Foundation. For those who don't know, Hugh McClellan, what an amazing story. Third, fourth generation, Hugh O, I'm talking about. His grandfather had the heart, the passion to start a business to honor God. He never saw that. He worked hard, business struggled, selling life insurance. Well, fast forward that several generations later. Here's Hugh basically selling out Provident to Unum Insurance, getting a billion dollars, nearly a billion dollars, and he spent the rest of his life giving it away. And he did it wisely, strategically. And uh when I had the idea, I thought God gave me the idea to start RI ministry, I'm like, I gotta go see Hugh. If he says it's half baked, then it's half baked. So the fact that I even got a meeting with him and he encouraged us and edited a ministry, opened up his research books. So again, for the listeners who don't know who we're talking about, he passed away recently. I went up to see him. He was unfortunately sick, got to spend some time with Daryl. And but that just speaks to here are people that are head and shoulders, uh at least above me in this giving space, and they can see a diamond in the rough. And and embracing the Melbox Club and saying, hey, that you are you are doing what God wants you to do, you're doing what God needs you to do, and you're gonna make a huge impact. So that that's a very exciting job, Mark. Are there any holy injustices that uh the Melbox Club seeks to address in what you do? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I think the first one I've already touched on, just the imbalance of uh so few resources going to reach children around the world, and putting the spotlight on the most uh reachable age group, children. People talk about the 1040 window, we'll get into that a little bit later, a geographic part of the world where the most unreached people live. But there's also talk about the 414 window, and that's the age group of children from four to young people at 14 who are most responsive to the gospel. So, you know, we're very, very focused on reaching children for Christ and not just easy, you know, decisions or you know, walking the aisle, but helping them really understand the gospel and come to faith in Christ, and then you know, years of discipling them and helping them grow uh into maturity and and and actually serving others. We'll mention that a little bit later. But we feel this is uh strategic for global evangelization and for the kingdom, and we seek to offset that imbalance. The second huge imbalance is what you've also touched on. Most unriched people in the world are about 3.3 to 3.4 billion out of 8 billion people. So 43% of the world's population are without the gospel, and you would think 43% of the global church giving would go to reach them for Christ. That's completely logical to me. But uh just the the the terrible indictment upon our our style of giving that only 0.4% or less of the global church resources go to reaching the most unreached around the world. And you know, it's just tragic to me. So those are those are two imbalances that we seek to to uh rectify. Uh we we make heavy investments uh into training believers in the 1040 window, reaching out into the most unreached nations in the world. I belie over last year we worked in over 50 countries that are in or touch the 1040 window, and we just make huge investments to try to reach them. Last year, over 70% of the Bible lessons we printed were for children uh in 1040 window countries.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

And I I I love that there's a there's a big focus on the 1040 window. Again, for those who aren't familiar with it, 10 degrees latitude, 40 degrees l longitude, I I believe that's correct. And it spans that area of North Africa, the Middle East, um, gets over into Asia, and uh that's where the majority of the remaining people that haven't heard the gospel. And so there's a lot of focuses on that. Whereas it's it's it's a focus of RI ministries, it's not the focus. We've found that uh when Jesus said to come go preach the good news to the poor, that that's a great strategy because we find overall that that's where we see the most reps receptivity. And it's and you think, well, you know, think about ourselves. We we don't come to Jesus when we're standing on top of the world, when everything's going well. We cry out to him um when we're suffering, when we're in need. And some people would say that's um manipulative to reach people while they're in so much need. But if you don't believe in eternity, or if you don't believe that if you can seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be granted unto you, which is food and clothing, then yeah, I guess it is manip manipulative, but for believers we know that it's not. It's the most important thing that people need. And what's not what what's amazing about the Mobile Heights Club is you're not out there, your focus is an evangelist, your focus is discipleship. But I think it's what 80 plus percent of the kids that you disciple come to the Lord. So it's like a reverse. Most organizations say we're gonna share the gospel, get people to make an indicated decision for Christ. But what I love about what you do, John Mark, and the Mox Club, is you're you're teaching that foundation, you're walking these kids through what is it, a dozen different lessons throughout a year, and through that they they get it, they understand. And like all you know, my kids that I've got to lead to the Lord, it was when they were kids. Yeah, as teenagers, young adults, they're they were more like me, you know, like father, like son, hard-headed and skeptical and critical. So we talked a little bit, John Mark, about the 1040 window and how it's a great focus. It's not the primary focus of ROI ministry. There are some there is some hard ground there. There's some nations where it's they're not going to open their doors to share Jesus. Um, but we do see that poor nations that are receptive to the gospel are are great investments. And it appears that you're operating in those also. So tell us a little bit more about that, where the Mellbox Club currently operates and where do you see the greatest need, where do you see the greatest fruit?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah, we're working in um 100 to 110 nations, and we we believe in just reaching children in every nation. Like you said, some ground is very hard in America. It's hard. We're seeing actually God do tremendous things. Our ministry is growing in America. Uh we're working in Central Asia. In fact, my oldest son's planning to go there in in August. It's a very difficult part of the world. So we we want to reach kids. Kids are most responsive to the gospel in every nation. So we want to go to the ends of the earth. But uh our biggest regions are MENA, uh, Middle East, North Africa, mainly Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad. Those are really big countries for us. As you mentioned, some of the countries like Morocco and Libya, some great countries are very, very difficult in MENA. But we're trying to print for 3.7 million children there. In fact, just recently we had a team train believers who came over from Iran into Iraq. I'm pretty sure this just happened a week or two ago. I'm waiting to get a report. Uh, but it was scheduled at the end of June. But we're training believers in Iran to reach 10,000 kids for Christ. So I'm excited about that. We need to be praying the war ends and freedom comes to uh the people of Iran. So we're trying to print for 3.7 million kids this year in MENA. Sub-Saharan Africa is on fire, and it would constitute a lot of what you were talking about reaching the poor. We we're trying to reach uh 5.5 to 6 million children this year in Sub-Saharan Africa, working in 30 nations uh in Sub-Sahara Africa. Uh, Asia's huge, our biggest country in Asia is India. We're printing for over 5.5 million children this year in India. In fact, God willing planning to take my wife and baby daughter uh next week to India and just get my family out into the 1040 window to see the most lost people. But we just have an incredible team of people. Uh, we we we moved away from thinking we had to have all Americans going to be missionaries overseas, and I'm not opposed to American missionaries, but uh typically it takes $100,000 to put a missionary couple in Thailand, five years to learn the language, when with that same money we can engage the services full-time of at least 20 people, nationals living in the country. They don't have to wait five years, they go to work tomorrow. So our team uh has grown to around 175 internationals on our team, God willing, by the end of the year. So we just have great missionaries. I can't I can't brag on them enough. Uh I've met so many of them, and everything I tell you on a scale one to ten is about a five. When you meet our missionaries, you'll meet you'll you'll believe that the Mel Office Club is a ten because we have great people in the field.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

So, John Mark, do you see greater responsiveness in the poorer nations than the wealthy nations such as ours?

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Absolutely. Western Europe is very difficult, America is very difficult, other parts of the world are wide open to the gospel. My daughter and I were just in Ethiopia, met our whole Africa team, all Africans, by the way, 39 people from 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. They're just doing a fabulous job. Their goal is to reach six million kids for Christ this year. They do a fabulous job of longitudinal evangelism and discipleship. They train up young people who've gone through our discipleship program to go back and teach children. We had over 80,000 young people teaching younger children in Sub-Sahar Africa last year, which is fantastic. Uh, this team club leader idea is new. It's a field-driven idea. They also do a great job of data collection, which helps us grow, but no doubt about it, we're seeing uh a greater response to the gospel in the poor nations.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

That was exciting. What what can our listeners do and where can they go to partner with the Mailbox Club in a big way today?

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Well, I think there are a few things. Uh I I think it'd just be great if people just pause and close their eyes and thought about what it would be like to live in utter darkness spiritually. And that's the condition of 43% of the people in the world, uh, the unriched people of the world, 3.3 billion people. So I think that's the first thing. Just imagine you know what life would be like without Christ in your life, without the light of the world, and just have a heart for reaching them with the same good news that you and I have received and pray for us. That's the second thing. Uh, we've seen God almost quadruple the ministry in five years and just take the ministry through the roof. In fact, uh the opportunities are unbelievable. We've we've been flooded with more opportunities than foreseeable funding, and I'm just trusting God to provide. And you know, then I can't exaggerate. I just want to give a shout out to Samaritan's purse, especially Franklin Graham, and the blessing of all the time he's invested in me and the resources he's invested in our ministry, his wise, uh humble counsel. I went to see him one time. I was invited to go have lunch with him, and I laid out a plan to grow. This was probably four years ago. I laid out a plan for our ministry to grow from about four and a half million to eight million kids by the year 2030. And I was feeling pretty good about that. I mean, that's you know, if you in the financial world, that'd be a really good return on the investment. And uh Franklin told me, don't limit God. God may want you to grow to 30 million. He's just advised me. I remember another time he he told me we can't continue to grow if we don't invest in infrastructure. So, you know, we've added uh key people, we've put vehicles, motorcycles in place, just things to help our team get the job done. We've invested in our IT capabilities, and so Franklin's just been a tremendous blessing in the Samaritan Spirit team. So I'm so many people to thank for helping us get to where we are. But again, we have ginormous opportunities. In years past, put a lot of money into partnerships, but now God's just flipped the table, and the people are coming to us. For example, a major denomination in Tanzania is wanting us to help them reach eight and a quarter million kids. Schools in many nations are wide open for us to go in and reach kids in public schools. It's mind-boggling, especially when you consider the condition in America in our schools. So we just have really double the opportunities than we see in the foreseeable funding. So I think the third thing I welcome people to visit our website, give me a call, uh, consider giving to the Melbox Club. Uh we've got uh been blessed with some wonderful endorsements, including ROI Ministries, which we appreciate very much, and Charity Navigator, Ministry Watch, ECFA. And then I would say consider going on a mission trip and seeing the most needy parts of the world. And you know, I'm challenging my own family this year. Uh most of my family is is going out to the 1040 window or has already gone this year. And I think it's important to see the need and gain the heart of Christ. So feel free to call me, visit our website, uh, mailboxclub.org, email me at jmeger at mailboxclub.org. But I'd be happy to talk with anybody who watches this and wants to get involved and participate and reach uh millions of kids for Christ. There may even be somebody who just says, hey, I'd like to sponsor a whole nation. We're trying to reach a million bonus kids this year or in the coming year in Malawi. And this is just cake that fell on our lap. We actually have a letter from one of the divisions of the Ministry of Education in Malawi inviting us to come and help them. And and God just keeps dropping these opportunities on us. And I'm just trusting him. You know, I'm just a farm boy, and if God brings opportunities, uh, he's able to provide. And I just have to operate in simple faith. But thank you, Tim, uh, for everything you guys do to help us.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Hey, thank you. And if you've liked this episode, like it, but definitely more importantly, share it with others to get this message out about the great things that the Melbox Club is doing. And so again, thank you, John Mark, for your time today. Keep up the great job. Uh, we love you guys, and thanks again. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Bye-bye. You just heard what generosity and why stewardship looks like when it actually works. Go deeper with Tim Barker's book, Boom, What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You. Hit Field Guide for the Moment Your Money, Your Marriage, Yalth, or Your Calling Falls Apart. And what to do in the wreckage that will change everything for your good. Every one of my dollars of every copy goes straight to vetted ministries that transform lives. Grab one for yourself, hand it to somebody in the blast zone. Don't bury what you have heard and know you're making a difference.