Duane & Sue Kershner are missionary legends who have built the most beautiful mission base in the world. For over thirty years, Roca Blanca mission base in Oaxaca, Mexico have been training students to minister to the unreached people groups of southern Mexico. On today’s podcast, they give us the secrets of their longevity in ministry.
Website: https://rocablanca.org
Read the Story of Duane & Sue Kershner:
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Duane & Sue Kershner are missionary legends who have built the most beautiful mission base in the world. For over thirty years, Roca Blanca mission base in Oaxaca, Mexico have been training students to minister to the unreached people groups of southern Mexico. On today’s podcast, they give us the secrets of their longevity in ministry.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:24):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King. Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:01):
I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have some very special guests with me, missionary statesmen, a great legends on the mission field, Dwayne and Sue Kersner from Roca, Blanca, Mexico. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Duane Kershner (01:21):
Yes. Well, thank you Daniel, for having us it’s an honor for Sue and I, to be able to share with all of you and testify some of the things that the holy spirit has caused us to do helped us and let us in doing so. Yeah, it’s great to be with y’all.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:38):
You have been family friends for many years. You graduated at the same time as my mother and father Robert and Susan King from the Victory World Missions Training Center, which was under Pastor Billy Joe and Sharon Daugherty, a missions training school here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was three month months of intensive missions training back in 1988. I was 10 years old and my mom and dad graduated and they went to war as Mexico and north Mexico. And you went to south Mexico, to Roca Blanca. Tell us how you ended up there in south Mexico.
Duane Kershner (02:17):
Yeah, well, Daniel, first of all, I went there in 1971. So that’s a, you know, 50 years ago and that was about a year and a half old in the Lord. And miraculously, the Lord led me to south Mexico. I walked on the coast 300 miles living the Matthew tin call it came to me directly from the Lord. It was a supernatural encounter. And I led two guys to the Lord and Mexico city. And the Lord told us along the Seacoast, great lightest spring up to people sitting in darkness. And we got up left Mexico city, hitchhiked, Acapulco, and walked for the next two months down the coast. Well, as we walked down the coast of Southern Mexico, which is a state of get arrow and the state of Oaxaca, God began to give me a burden for the people that are there.
Duane Kershner (03:11):
And in the state of Oaxaca, we had 17 tribes of unreached peoples scripts that speak 155 different dialects. So when we went there, moved there much later after missions training school, which was in 1990, we moved there 31 years ago. Well, Huck had the greatest concentration of unreached people in this entire hemisphere. I know that’s hard to believe, but when you get, when you, when we arrived there, you’re going to understand because it’s a coastal area, but also a rugged mountains. The Sierra Madre mountains run down through that area. So you had a high mountains with indigenous people living isolated in these areas. Some places there were no roads, there were no electricity. And so it had a great concentration of Irish people.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:02):
And so tell me about the ministry that you planted there. You have the Roca Blanca missions base, which is one of the most beautiful missions basis in the whole world. You know, I was always upset at God a little bit because he sent us to [inaudible], it’s nothing but tumbleweeds and sand. And you are at Roca Blanca with the beach. The ocean is right there and Palm trees. It’s so beautiful. But tell us about the ministry that God has raised. Yeah,
Duane Kershner (04:34):
Well, you know, first of all, I have to say, we didn’t choose the place. W we, we obeyed and I wasn’t just a gringo that like the beach. Actually I got a word in my heart and my wife Susan knows very well because she, she endured me. I had a word on my heart that said, [inaudible] Roca, Blanco. We were looking for a mission space because we had been going to Mexico, taking short term teams all through the eighties, we’d pass her to work in Kansas. And so every year we would go into this coastal area of will haka taking teams. And so a movement started, we had like 2000 people coming to these events, you know? And so we knew we had to have a training center where we could make disciples, or we were going to lose the momentum.
Duane Kershner (05:24):
So we were looking for property and I got a word in my heart and it was a rock of Linka. We didn’t know what Roca Blanco we’d had no idea what it was. Well, finally, a year after I got the word in my heart, we went to look for Roca Lanka and it turned out to be an island about three quarters of a mile off the coast. Well, I couldn’t understand, but I knew that I had to get out there because that was burning on my heart. So this is hard to believe, but literally Sue knows us swim out early one morning to this island. And when I got out there, I climbed up on the rock. I looked back at the coastal area and the Palm trees and the mountains in the back where the indigenous people live. And as I saw Sue sitting on the beach and my eyes went down just a little and came upon this Palm Grove, literally Daniel, there was a flash of light and I heard God audibly speak to me and say, that’s your missions based property?
Duane Kershner (06:21):
Well, I wasn’t even aware that I was looking for property and it totally surprised me. I jumped in the water, swam back made it through the surf and told SU our mission space is right down the beach here. So anyway, after that, we went to mission school and Daniel, we knew this we knew that we needed medical missions, that God put that on our heart. We knew that we had to have a Bible school for training, and we knew he had to have school of worship because we were going to plant churches. And so to get into the indigenous people into their areas, we knew there were no doctors in many places, there were no clinics. And so we, we knew by God’s grace, that we were supposed to take medical. Well, we did Laura Pratt who studied with your parents and us in the world missions training.
Duane Kershner (07:15):
She went with us and so the door would open after prayer and fascinating for us to go in with medicine. And gradually people would begin to get saved. Sometimes it would take us 12 hours, four wheel driving to get back into these areas. But people began to come to the Lord. We knew we were to work with the chatting window hands that make stick wind and the most schools and the support techs plus the coastal people. And so we’ve given the last 31 years to those indigenous people. And there are now 70, 77 churches, I believe that are led by graduates out of the mission straight center. So when we have this establish a base, well, of course it was a Palm Grove. So we had to buy property. We had to build facilities, of course, the developer team. And anyway, 30 years later, well, there we are. And I hope that’s somewhat of an explanation,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:17):
Took a great deal of faith over these 31 years to, to buy it, to build. And it’s so beautiful. And how many students have graduated from the school now? And what are some of the things that you are teaching the students that come to your school?
Duane Kershner (08:35):
Yeah, well, we have approximately 1,500 students that have graduated. It’s a three-year program now. The first year is 29 courses that basically we adapted and used from victory Bible Institute here in Tulsa. And then we added two more years of training which has a lot having to do with leadership administration, but also laying on of hands. And especially trying to get back to the original discipleship of preach, the kingdom of God, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out their wills. And so we’re really endeavoring to get ourselves higher in that level. And also train disciples that literally can do the original call, which is basically kingdom heal, the sick raise, the dead cast out demons. One of the
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:32):
Amazing things about the graduating class that you and my parents were in is that there there’s a fair number from that class that have remained on the mission field. And, and it seems like sometimes it’s easy for people to give up. But you guys, haven’t, dewerd, you’ve stayed and continued to flourish all these years. Ms. Sue, what is some of the lessons that you’ve learned that can help people with longevity and actually staying faithful to the calling that God has on their life?
Sue Kershner (10:05):
The biggest thing I believe is to really know that it is God who is calling you to the work I’ve been challenged in that area many times. One specific time was when there were some bandits who were in hiding in the river. I learned about it as I was taking a couple to the, to the doctor. They were about to have a baby, but the baby was in trouble. The mother was in trouble. And as I was leaving the base, the, I saw a truckload of policemen that were getting up on the, the pickup truck and they were leaving. And as I was wondering, what was going on, it was right off the base property. And, and so as I came through the town one of our friends told me that the reason that they were leaving was because there were five hooded, gunmen that were hiding out in the river for my husband and our other bass director.
Sue Kershner (11:18):
And I had the big challenge. Do I go back and tell them, or do I get this emergency to the doctor? And I sensed the piece to go ahead and take the couple. It, it was late afternoon at that point. And by the time we were finished, it was dark. And so I’m coming back to the mission base in the dark, not knowing what the situation was. And I said, father, talk to me, I really have to know, is this something that I should be concerned about? And instantly, he said, don’t fear for your life. Fear him, who has the power after death to throw you into hell. And it sort of startled me. Number one, I could relax. I didn’t have to fear these that would maybe, you know, threatened with guns. But the second part of that was what really gripped me and I, and so there’s where the fear of God has really taken hold in my life.
Sue Kershner (12:34):
And I realized that boy, before the Lord, we are commissioned to take our territory and whatever it takes, we need to be faithful in that call because we are stewards of the call. And so that, and it turned out that it nothing happened with the masked gunman. Just like he said, you know, if our father says, don’t worry about it, then I thank God for a good father. I learned to trust him, my father from childhood and, and that, that basic trust has become a very cornerstone or one of the foundation stones that really feeds into our lives. And so, as long as we know what our father wants to do is like, then stick with it and see it through, stick with it. And don’t stop.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:41):
One of the tremendous things about your base is that you have the medical people that come talk to me about what you do to help the people medically.
Duane Kershner (13:54):
Yeah, as we said, from the beginning we began medical missions. So we have I really I’m, I’m impressed with the medical clinic. That’s on the base. We have a full dental treatment. We have a full-time doctor, nurses pharmacy. And so the, the treatment is basically free. We don’t have hospital care, but we do have all the ordinary, you know, necessary care and medicine for people that come from miles around. It’s hard to believe, but a lawyer plant Pratt and Nelson. Now I can tell you the clinic has treated over 150,000 people in these years. And so not only is a clinic at the base, but we take medical teams out into the villages and thousands of people have received help.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:47):
Let’s talk about evangelism in Wahaca and the other states they’re in Southern Mexico. One of the things that really brought you to that area, where these are unreached people, groups, and you had a, a burden, a heart to, to reach them with the gospel, what has been effective in reaching out to these very remote areas, sometimes dangerous to go into yes
Duane Kershner (15:14):
Medical missions along with all the medical teams, we’ve always had those who were ministering the gospel. So people will come from medicine, but we also pray for them and minister the gospel to them. And in those medical crusades, many people have gotten saved. Now also though we do crusades at the base, you know, mass crusades, people come we also do certain village crusades and on a local evangelism, our Bible school students work evangelism every weekend they’re, they’re going out every weekend. And so we’ve found that it’s so important along with evangelism to have the discipleship and also then the care of the local churches. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:04):
Talk to me about these churches that you’ve planted. What does a church plant look like?
Duane Kershner (16:11):
You know, each one’s different. I think of a, if you have how much you have, how many children, two children, if you have five or two or 10, each child is very different. Every church plan is different, but quite a few of our church plants have opened by medical missions. We’ve gone in and gradually a number of people began to come to the Lord. We begin to choose the the disciples out of those that come to the Lord, take them to the mission space. And sometimes they’ll say 1, 2, 3 years and training and then go back. Actually, all of the churches that we have are led by Bible school graduates. So that really helps us in maintaining our unity. And we are in nine different dialects language groups. So there are leaders over each one of those different regions, geographical, and, and language groups. And so most of the churches though have been founded by medical missions. But sometimes we’ve just gone into a village and began to share the gospel and people come to the Lord. So yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:22):
Yeah, you Are very sensitive to the voice of God. And of course, this, this last couple of years, the whole world has gone through chaos because of, of COVID and churches have faced many challenges in Mexico and the United States, other, other countries around the world. What are some of the things that you hear the spirit of? God’s saying to the church during this time?
Duane Kershner (17:50):
Yeah. As soon as COVID began and we had to shut down, we were very sad. We were planning the very month of March at the, when you’re two years ago, when covert began we had one of those massive ans plan that where you came down and participated with us some years back, we had to shut all that down. So we pulled our team together, our leadership team, we began to pray and fast. We knew that all things were being shaken. The Lord gave us scripture out of out of the book of, Hey guy, chapter two, all things can be shaken the shaken heaven and the earth. And then out of Hebrews, chapter 12, all things to be shaken. So we know there’s a great shaking going on. I believe that we just been separated from the chaff. I also believe though that we need to be all really getting ourselves geared up in the holy spirit because we’re coming into the greatest harvest the world has ever known with, with a power of signs and wonders, you know? And so we want to get, get up a little higher and that noting where we’re seeing deliverances and seeing people raised from the dead
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:06):
Ms. Sue, what would you say to young people that feel called to be missionaries? And they really want to see a supernatural move of God? What, what would you say as advice to them?
Sue Kershner (19:22):
My advice is allow the Lord to do that supernatural work in one’s own heart, touching every deep place, every place that the enemy has tried to steal Rob kill or destroy all of those hidden places in one’s being things that we’ve received from our parents, from our from the generational line, anything that does not line up with the Lord Jesus in our life needs to be identified and then renounced and, and really overcome the promises to the overcomers. And so when you overcome in your own life, then that gives Liberty to our father to bring other things to you, that you can overcome in the power of his presence in your life. And so that just goes in ever enlarging circles. And so the first, the real key, and it’s not a hard one, it’s not a mystery, it’s when your own battles. And from that point, then the spirit of the Lord will have Liberty to direct. That’s good
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:46):
On your missions base, you offer Spanish lessons. So people who feel called to missions can come down and learn Spanish. And you also have opportunities for, for groups to come and to minister. If someone wants to learn more information about you or support your ministry, find out more about what you do, what is your website address? How can they find you?
Sue Kershner (21:13):
Our website is www dot Roca, blanca.org, or G. So R O C a B L I N C a.org.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:25):
And what kind of opportunities do you have for people who feel called to missions?
Duane Kershner (21:31):
Yeah. Well, I’m not sure we do. Short-Term teams. We have a great guest house and people coming down on short-term teams. Well, we have a variety of things, medical missions, of course, it’s always a plus, but we do construction. We do a children’s ministry, a youth evangelism any area, you know, that people can give, we try to focus them in that area, on short-term teams. Also, I’d like to add, you know, Daniel, I’m not sure that you’re aware of this, but we also have a children’s home. Now we have 17 orphans. We don’t like to call them orphans now because they’ve been adopted into the family of God. We have house parents but 17, we have a house that will hold 24. And also now we’re doing trade school. Trade school is really important so that our disciples have an ability to make a living once they’re on the field, because if you’ve spent three years in Bible school or in worship school, but not having an ability to support yourself, once you get to your mission, that’s disheartening and can be really frustrating. So we are developing it’s in process, but it’s coming along. Quality trade school, carpentry, mechanics, welding cooking, sewing multimedia plumbing and electric. And so our Bible school graduates will be equipped with the trade.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:02):
That’s wonderful. Well, I’d like to finish up by asking both of you to pray over those who are listening and especially pray for those who are called to evangelism are called to missions. We have a heart to go out in the mission field and see God do amazing things. I would just like to ask you to pray for an impartation of the same spirit that’s in you to come upon those who are listening.
Duane Kershner (23:30):
No, no Joshua and Caleb, the scripture said had a different spirit. They have the spirit of faith. And so we do pray over each one that you know, you’re being called. We pray over you that you will hear the word of the Lord and then obedient to it. It’s one thing to hear, but it’s the next thing to be obedient. And we’ve found that by obeying the word of the Lord that comes to us, God opens away and makes the way. So father, we pray now in the name of Jesus we know that we are called to do the greater works. Your word says those who believe on my name will do even the greater works than I’ve done. And so Jesus, we’re asking just now those who are listening, those who are watching the anointing of your holy spirit increasing upon their lives, the guidance of the holy spirit, and then the spirit of faith coming to them to make the step, take the first step, put your feet in the water, crossing the Jordan and go into your divine destiny at your promised land and Jesus’ name.
Duane Kershner (24:40):
We asked this, we know that each one of us who have been saved through faith by his grace, we are called into divine purposes. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, Ephesians two 10, which he ordained from the foundation of the world. And some of you who are listening, you know that you’re called perhaps you don’t know how to take the first step. I encourage you to come on a mission strip get your feet in the water. If you’re called to Latin America, come down to go to Spanish school and begin to get cross-cultural arrised and, and see if you’ve, if you’ve got that kind of grace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:21):
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. I really look up to you. You are heroes of the faith great examples to all of us. And I just so much appreciate you and your faithfulness and the beautiful mission space that, that God has raised up under your care and what a tremendous impact you have. So thank
Duane Kershner (25:45):
You, Daniel. Thank you, Daniel. We’ve been friends. It was Daniel’s parents for many years, 33 years now. And so we appreciate you having this.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:55):
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Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:58):
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