Ministry Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Mordecai Project:

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday my heart is overflowing with gratitude for all the people who have prayed for me and Deborah and this ministry in 2019. Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for fighting in prayer for us. Thank you for supporting us financially.

This has not been an easy year. My mother ended up in a nursing home, and it has been hard to watch her decline so rapidly. Deborah’s mother died unexpectedly. Financial pressures have been enormous on the ministry. Yet through it all God has sustained us, and we are seeing so much fruit from our labor of love. We have no complaints!

Almost 10 years ago I met Dr. Nori Menendez (below) in Barranquilla, Colombia, when she was asked to translate for me. Her heart resonated with my message for women, and we began to work together to stop the abuse of women in Colombia. She is now the director of our ministry there, and she is counseling hundreds of women who suffer from various forms of domestic violence. She also has organized all of our events there. This year she organized two men’s retreats, one in the city of Cali and one in Barranquilla. I just returned home from leading these events.

Below you can see the men who attended the Cali event. We learned a long time ago that you cannot stop the abuse of women without first healing the hearts of the men who hurt them. This is why our men’s retreats are so important. I believe we are unraveling the spirit of machismo that causes men to see women as inferior.

Below you can see the men from the Barranquilla retreat, which was held one weekend after Cali. In both events the men received teaching, met in small groups and got personal prayer for their struggles. Lives were transformed. Men from all walks of life and from many different church backgrounds opened their hearts and confessed their secrets so they could receive emotional healing.

Below are the pastors who joined me to preach at the event in Cali. They are Mauricio Rozo, Omar Rivera and Enrique Morillo. Omar is Hispanic but he came from Chicago to join me for this event. These men taught on topics like “How to Treat Your Wife as an Equal,” “Healing from Father Wounds,” and “The Path to Sexual Purity.” And all of the leaders met in many one-on-one counseling sessions during the breaks.

Below are the pastors who joined me to preach in the Barranquilla event. Pastor Nadim Hadechini is a Spirit-filled Presbyterian, Sergio Castro leads a Pentecostal church and Enrique Morillo is a Spirit-filled Baptist. I am so blessed to be co-laborers with these gifted men.

It is hard to describe what happens in these men’s events. It seems that the combination of intense worship, open-hearted pastors and intimate small groups creates an atmosphere of love and spiritual hunger in the men. They open up to God in surprising ways, and the Holy Spirit steps in to heal.

It is always wonderful to see the men go to the altar with hearts of surrender. They get healed from their hurts from absent or distant fathers, and they confess their struggles with sexual sin. This is why so many of the men come back the next year and bring their friends to the retreat.

After I preached on healing from father wounds, men streamed to the altar to receive not only prayer but also a hug from a dad. The pastors and group leaders embraced them. Years of pain were drained out, and the men regained the capacity to show love to their wives and children. Malachi 4:5-6 becomes a reality in these moments: The hearts of the fathers are restored to the children.

I was so proud of my friend Sergio Castro. He has been to many of our events. This year he preached about how to love your wife as an equal. He powerfully challenged the machismo spirit that has controlled Colombia for too long. The men learned that real men serve their wives, speak tenderly to them, and involve them in decision-making instead of ruling like dictators. The Word of God is destroying the machismo attitude! I have preached this message many times in Colombia, but it is more powerful to hear a Colombian preaching it in Spanish!

Another thing that happens at our men’s retreats: Men find Jesus for the first time! You can see below that these guys gave their hearts to Jesus on the last day of the event. Most of them came with a friend. God softened their hearts and they melted!

Right before I went to Colombia, we also had our annual women’s Bold Venture retreat. This year it was held in Deland, Florida, and we had a great group of hungry women come for three days of leadership training and personal ministry. Below you can see the excited women who showed up this year.

Our theme at this year’s women’s Bold Venture was “Stretch,” and every speaker challenged the women to get out of their self-imposed boxes and begin walking in their divine potential. Below you can see Myra Goldfarb, Beth Taylor, Dee Mueller, Margaret Grady Turner, Cheryl Tolbert and Angela Munizzi speaking to the women. Every message was prophetic and every session was saturated in the Holy Spirit. I know the women left that placed changed forever.

Thank you again for praying for our work around the world. Please keep these items in prayer:

** I will be home in December, and during that time I will be working on a grant proposal to raise funds for our overseas projects. Please agree that God will open up a way to get $300,000 for the work in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

** I have one more overseas trip this year. I will be going to Reykjavik, Iceland, next week for 6 days to conduct a men’s retreat there. Iceland is a small country with a very small Christian population, so there is spiritual opposition. Please pray for me and the two men who are traveling with me, Michael Coretti and Alex Latis.

** We urgently need $2,400 to cover the costs of running our women’s empowerment center in 2020. With this small amount we can hire a project officer, farm personnel, and cover fuel costs for an entire year. It will enable us to train dozens of abandoned women in sewing, beekeeping, pig raising and farming so they can provide for their families. If you would like to give toward this project please designate your gift on the web site for Masindi, Uganda.

If you’d like to give to our work in Guatemala, Peru, Uganda or other nations, click on the “Donate” button below to give online, or mail your check to The Mordecai Project, P.O. Box 2781, LaGrange, GA 30241. All gifts are tax-deductible.

We appreciate your commitment to us. And we love you so much!

Lee and Deborah Grady

The Mordecai Project
P.O. Box 2781
LaGrange, GA 30241