NLAI 70 Years

1954-2024

Celebrating our History Any organization that has been around for over seven decades is going to have history. In the case of New Life Advance International, it is a history that is chock full of God’s presence and blessing.

Dr. Fred Jarvis, the founder of New Life League International, that would later become New Life Advance International (NLAI), was a dynamic man of God full of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Fred’s primary calling was that of an evangelist who travelled a lot. Shortly after the Jarvis’s moved to Japan, Fred believed he may have been the first to preach in Hiroshima, only five years after the atomic bomb was dropped. Many received Christ and a church was planted.

He made trips outside of Japan as well. In their first ten years in Japan, he made 30 trips to Korea, preaching to audiences as large as 25,000. Clara wrote that he was impacted by “the nights of prayer, the early morning prayer meetings, [and] the sacrificial giving of the poverty-stricken Korean Christians.” Fred challenged the new believers to give to missions and to send out their own missionaries. Some gave the rice they had brought with them to the meetings to eat, and they fasted instead. One woman gave her Bible as she had nothing else to give. Is it any wonder today that along with the United States, the Korean church has more missionaries and gives more to missions than any country in the world? Look what God has done!

It was from this heart of passion that God started New Life League through Fred and Clara Jarvis. Fred and Clara sensed an urgent need to “unite and equip missionaries and national pastors with the tools to do an effective work for God. From the beginning, the motto of New Life League was “Serving Those Who Serve.”

Celebrating our Leaders

The Jarvis’s were the first of five couples that have given wonderful leadership to our organization.

Following Dr. Jarvis as president was Dr. Charles Davis. Charles served as president of New Life League from 1985-86. Charles and Frances have served the Lord for decades in ministry as missionaries, pastors, teachers, and missionary statesman. Charles passed away at the age of 93 in January 2024. Frances continues to live in Huntsville, Alabama near her family.

Serving as vice-president under Charles was George Livingston. Along with the Davis’s, George and his wife, Karen, moved the office of New Life League to Waco in the early 1980s. George became president in 1986 and served until 1994. Karen took care of many of the administrative tasks. Several years ago, George and Karen moved to West Virginia to be near two of their daughters and their families. Karen passed away in 2023.

From 1994-2002, Stan Runnels served as president. It was during Stan’s tenure that the corporate office was moved to Phoenix.

In December 2002, David Depew became president of NLAI and served December 2011. This was not a job that Dave sought nor wanted, but as with everything else that he has done in his life, he gave it 110%. Integrity and transparency are hallmarks of Dave’s life, and he brought those with him as president. Early on in his tenure, God laid it on Dave’s heart that New Life League needed a new name. New Life Advance International was chosen to reflect a desire to actively advance God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth.

Prior to serving as president, Dave and Susan served for 16 years as missionaries to Thailand. When they relocated to the US in the mid-1990s, Susan became a licensed clinical counselor and works in that field to this day. As Dave puts it, Sue can “read him like a book.” Dave set up a missionary training program for a local church and during his term as president, set one up for NLAI, as well.

Kendon Wheeler became the sixth president of NLAI on January 1, 2012. He and Wendy have lived in Guatemala since January 1988 where they continue to serve at the New Life Children’s Home. Wendy became the Director of NLCH following Kendon’s move to become president of NLAI.

Celebrating our Future

As we look to the future, what’s next?

Our mandate is the same: take Jesus to the lost. Our prayer continues to be, “Lord, give us your heart for the lost”!

As the world around us continues to change, presenting different challenges and opportunities, the focus of NLAI has been drawn to the plight of children at risk: the abused, the abandoned, the neglected…. the least of these.

Before focusing on the future, allow me to set the stage with a short recap of the first trip that Charles Davis took to Guatemala. It was the early 80s when New Life Children’s Home was only six or seven years old. Charles was met at the airport by his Guatemalan host who informed him that the government was taking steps to close New Life Children’s Home due to the poor conditions and practices of the Home. Charles sought an audience with the appropriate authority.

He humbly asked for a second chance to bring the Home up to standards and boldly promised that with God’s help, New Life would do everything in its power to turn the children’s home in Villa Nueva into a model home, one that the Guatemalan government would be proud of, and a Home the government officials would later be able to bring people to in order to show them what a good children’s home should look like.

Later Charles realized that God had inspired him to speak that prophetic word. It was an honor to have him and Frances visit the Home in 2003 where he spoke at a special anniversary celebration. He shared that he realized that God had moved upon him to speak forth that word, and that God had indeed and continues to bring it to pass.

In that spirit, here are some things that I (Kendon) believe God is laying upon our hearts for the future.

1. We know that God wants to bring all to himself through Jesus Christ. He would that none would perish.

2. God has a special heart for the widow and the orphan. The kingdom of Israel was in large part destroyed because the Israelites did not care for the widow or the orphan. They neglected them and took advantage of them. On the other hand, there are concrete promises of blessing to those who care for the orphan.

3. Children are suffering all over the world, primarily because of decisions not made by them, but made by adults. Many times, those damaging decisions are made by the very adults that should be protecting them, their own parents. Children’s Homes and different programs for rescuing children from lives of abuse and neglect are needed today more than ever, and not just in Guatemala.

4. I believe that the Lord desires to take care of the orphan through different and innovative ways. He desires to raise up more Homes, community families and and other programs to provide families for these kids. Psalm 68:6 says, “He places the lonely in families.” We are already doing this, having hired additional therapists and social workers to facilitate expanding the different services that NLCH offers. In other words, we are not simply taking care of the 50+ children who continue to live in our Home. We are providing follow-up care for children after they leave our Home as well.

5. That is why we need more workers. We are committed to the task of continuing to share the need and pray in the workers to work in this harvest field. We are praying for God to call and bring to New Life men and women who are committed to Christ and are called to the ministry of rescuing children from the clutches of the enemy.
But it takes a team. We have those that go and those that send. We have seen God form teams and raise them up to launch. That is our prayer as we look to the countries around us, throughout Latin America and throughout the world. In watching the news the last few months and years, we are painfully aware of the large number of people leaving Central America and trying to get into the US. The reasons are not simple to address tonight. But I will tell you that one of the main crises that is going on in all of these countries involves the children. They are the first ones to suffer and they suffer the most. We may not can resolve what is going on at our border, but NLAI is strategically located to be used of God to minister to and address the needs at the source: taking Jesus to the children and providing a safe home and family for them.

6. As we go deeper with God, he grows us broader. What do I mean by that? As we pursue God and doing things for his children, in his way, and in his timing, he will grow and expand the ministry. As E.M. Bounds wrote: “The Church is looking for better methods. God is looking for better men.” We will continue to love one child at a time, providing the very best care that we can for each child. We are committed to quality care and genuine love, looking to be vessels for God to meet individual needs of children. One of the ways this is happening is through mentors for our children. Thanks to the efforts of a young couple in our church in Guatemala City, several young couples and singles have stepped up to be life mentors for our kids. This is a way to provide for the needs for our young people as they mature out of the Children’s Home and begin life on their own. We are praying that each mentor will be a life-long person in their lives.

7. But there is one way in which we can meet the needs of more children… many more children, and that is through the school. It all started in 1991 with a team that was made up of folks from Highland Baptist in Waco and Trinity Church in Lubbock along with others from around the US. We held a Vacation Bible School. Expecting 80 to 100 kids, we were blown away when 500 kids showed up the first day! Many gave their hearts to Christ that week. We also became aware of the huge need for more schools in the area so we opened the school to the community. After the first year, the enrollment doubled over the next three years, going from 40 students to 80 to 160 to 320. This year, our pre-kinder - 9th grade school has 475 students which include 42 students in our special education department, one of the only departments of its kind in the southern part of Guatemala City and Villa Nueva. In January 2020, the school expanded to offer high school. In February 2021, the old original children’s dormitory was demolished in order to begin the last phase of our school building expansion project. Once it is completed, we will have a capacity for 650-700 students. Why do I mention this? Many of these kids come from non-Christian homes. A significant number of these kids live in situations very similar to the ones that our own kids who live in the Home lived in prior to coming to NLCH. Through the school, we are not only able to offer a solid academic education, but we also share Jesus with them. Every year, we have kids and parents come to Christ, thanks to God working through our dedicated Christian school teachers.

Thousands of people have been impacted for eternity through the first 70 years of ministry of NLAI. From Japan to India, Papua New Guinea to Guatemala, Sri Lanka to Kyrgyzstan, Turkey to Thailand.

God is not done with New Life Advance International. The best years are in front of us, and I invite you to join us in putting the hand to the sickle and bringing in the harvest.