River of Life Mission, the largest faith-based organization in the Hawaiian Islands, serves meals to over 1000 people a day. But more significant than that, the staff of River of Life know the names of every person they serve. Paul Gates, the executive director of River of Life and Gina have a conversation about Paul’s life as the son of missionaries, discovering his passion and purpose, finding his way to the Hawaiian Islands to be executive director at River of Life, and the critical role of family in the restoration of those struggling with homelessness.
A Legacy of Mission
Gina:
Welcome to your office. We’re on Oahu. We are at River of Life, which is an incredible charity in the islands, and I’ll let you talk a little bit about that, but I’m so excited to be able to be here and visit you. You’re new in this position, Executive Director of River of Life. You’ve been on Oahu for about four months or so.
I’m excited for people to hear about what you’re doing, what God’s called you to, and all of that. You have an incredible story, you are an amazing guy and person, and I would love for people to get to know you a little bit and just hear about God’s faithfulness through your journey. So wherever you want to start!
Paul:
I love my story. I always start with, that I was born in Papua New Guinea, which is like this instant connection for people of either “Oh, that’s really cool.” Or, “Oh, that’s kind of weird. Like where is that?” And a lot of people don’t even know where it is. My parents were Wycliffe Bible translators to Papua New Guinea.
I’m walking through a season right now, as you know, my mom just had a stroke, so you’re going to get the raw and real Paul Gates today. We got a lot going on there. I’ve heard additional stories about my mom, even just driving my dad back and forth to the hospital to see my mom, and my dad told me that at that time in Papua New Guinea, that all the women that were pregnant and having babies were either flying to Australia, or flying back to the U.S.A. to have their babies. Nobody was having their babies in Papua New Guinea.
My dad told me that the reason my mom wanted to give birth to me in Papua New Guinea, is that she did not want the ministry to stop. So, that’s the heritage that I grew up in that I’m really proud of. Not only having this cool story, that people are intrigued by being born on an island called Papua New Guinea, but growing up in this family that was hugely dedicated to serving others.
I really believe that that’s something that I’m still being mentored by my parents in, even now. So I just love it; It’s just part of my history. Now we’re sitting on an island again, which is crazy. We’re kind of giggling as we’re sitting in Oahu. I know you have a lot of roots here as well, which is really cool that we’re here together in Oahu right now. To be able to be back on an island and doing ministry to people that are desperately in need, it’s just a pretty radical blessing for me, full circle.
Gina:
It’s interesting, as you’re talking about discovering more about your parents and their heart and their passion for ministry, that really there’s this legacy, this mantle of serving, and really a passion for missions.
You’ve been a missions guy, and not just a title on staff at a church somewhere, but it’s part of your DNA, how God’s really knit you together. Even that takes a lot of time and maturity in the Lord to really mine out what that looks like, and how God has defined it for you; not dependent on your parents or on a church staff position, but really, you as a son, who God loves and knit together. What has He placed in you? So you’ve been on a journey to figure that out.
Paul:
Yeah, and I think it started even early. I went to Biola, and my dad was actually at one point asked to be the president of Wycliffe, and Wycliffe’s second largest faith-based organization in the entire world. So, Campus Crusade is the largest, and Wycliffe is second largest as far as number of people serving. My dad was actually asked to become the president of Wycliffe.
It’s actually another story about how amazing my parents are. At the time Wycliffe was realizing they weren’t attracting young missionaries, and so they were going through an organization wide emphasis to try and attract 20 something-year-old missionaries into Wycliffe. So when they asked my dad to be president, he said, “I actually think because you’re going after this initiative to attract young missionaries that you should actually bring in a younger president that could also attract younger missionaries.”
So my dad actually, I think in a lot of humility, took his name out of the hat for the betterment of the organization. And they actually brought in a younger president that attracted younger missionaries. My parents were very well known, so when I was coming out of Biola, everybody knew of my parents and we’re asking, “Paul, are you going to go be a missionary?”
So I was even in my early twenties, I was juggling this wave of “what is God calling me to do?” And this wave of people saying, “Paul, where are you going to go serve?” Is that Africa, or back in Papua New Guinea? Maybe it’d be somewhere that has surf, because I’m a surfer or something else?
Ultimately it’s really cool, because I realized that the experience of serving had such a profound effect on my life. I felt like my call was to stay in America and actually help give people the same experience I had in serving. That kind of tip-of-the-spear entry level experience in serving, might bring this radical richness to their life.
Well, after that, I stumbled into youth ministry, we started with three kids that have and eventually that became 800 kids. It was almost like a small church, but even with a staff that was built up over years, I’d say, “We’re going to put all of our events and trips on a board for the youth ministry.” And we did that. And I said, “What we’re going to do now, is our serving and missions trips have to outweigh our fun trips, like our ski trips and wakeboarding trips and all that. The staff just immediately said “Oh, okay, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
So it was really cool that even in my twenties, number one, I felt a call to stay here and expose people to this beauty of serving that might have these profound lasting effects on their life. Even in youth ministry, in my twenties, I said, “I want to have the youth ministry be weighted in the way that we’re more focused on serving.”
That’s been one of the blessings, I’ve seen a lot of those students still come back and say, “Paul, I’m still serving today because of the emphasis on all of those serving events,” I had this wave of influence to go do one certain thing, but I had to back up and say, “God, what are you doing for me? What are you stirring in me? What’s going to be my pull in ministry?”
Even though I was in my twenties, and I didn’t know the breadth of what that looks like maybe as I do today, about prayer and having mentors that are encouraging you, and fasting and all those things. But there was something in my twenties that caused me to take a step back, and not listen to all the noise and say, “God, what are you doing for me?” And I still believe I’m walking in that ministry journey still today from when I was in my twenties.
Gina:
That’s really good and pretty profound, because I think seeing a generation of kids growing up in the church, it’s hard to have that kind of place of delineation, where your faith and your relationship with Jesus needs to become your own, and where your call and your purpose needs to become your own; all of those things.
So we are a similar age, although I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. I met Jesus when I was 12, and like in 1980, my parents weren’t believers at all. So when I had kids, it was like, “Hey, how is Jesus different from Santa Claus? How is being a Christian different than just a cultural thing where we choose to live this way?”
I knew I could raise a child the way they should go, and I could do all these things, but at the end of the day, they’re going to have to have that moment where they choose, where they receive who Jesus is.
It’s the same for my kids, people say “Oh, you’re Norm and Gina’s daughters! Do you sing?” And they live with that weight. But for you in your twenties, to be able to have that moment of recognition, that, “Okay, I need to not listen to the noise and I need to really lean into You, and what are You saying to me?” And then choose to take that step of faith that may not go with the crowd’s expectation or presumption of what they think you should do or how you should do it. So that’s pretty significant.
Ministry Looks Like You
Paul:
Yeah. I think I’ve always been a pretty passionate person, and sometimes a little wild, sometimes even wild and misguided maybe, you know, and just like, “Oh my gosh, hold on. Here goes Paul!” I’ve just learned that’s okay. That’s who I am. It sounds totally worldly, but I’m just gonna rock what God gave me.
I’ve always had a lot of passion in my life. I think there’s something where the church, Christian organizations, and Christianity at large, at some points have struggled with people’s individual passion, because they think the only way to serve the Lord looks a certain way.
Or the only way to live out your Christian faith looks like this. I think right now we’re coming into a beautiful season where people are really willing to say, “No, those passions, gifts, talents that God’s given you; those things that are just stirring you at night, and in the morning and just drive you, could you use those things for the kingdom and to share Jesus?”
And the answer is absolutely. It used to be, if you were a surfer and I was meeting with Tom Bauer who runs Surfing the Nations. It’s a massive ministry now affecting young people all over the world. And when he first started Surfing the Nations, everyone told him “Why? Like this is so foolish. Like, why would you work with surfers?
All they want to do is surf and stick their feet in the sand.” But Tom was like, “No. Surfers are actually some of the hardest working people on the planet. They don’t mind getting dirty and grubby, and so they’ll go to the ends of the earth.” And he stuck with it.
I think we’re in this new season where if you’re a surfer, a skateboarder, an artist, a musician, could God use that for the Kingdom? Absolutely. If that’s what you’re passionate about, and first and foremost, passionate about your relationship with Jesus and how He could use you being the hands and feet of Jesus. Like, can you mesh all those things? Absolutely.
So I think before passions were just seen as this radically worldly thing, what we’re saying now is discover your passions and mesh those with what Jesus is doing in your life and see the beauty that can come from it. That’s something that I get excited about.
Gina:
It’s your passion, it’s your gifting, it’s even your life experience and how you’re uniquely made. I agree with you. I think, especially in maybe the last 20 years, there’s been this presumption that, “If what I have to offer doesn’t fit within the programs or what the church is doing, then it’s not worthy of Kingdom work.” You know?
Paul:
The beauty of that, is that this box is being blown open.
Gina:
Totally, wide open. Right before we started recording, you were talking about the gift of COVID, as hard as it’s been, this disruption has been such a gift, really removing the dependence on the people, the programs and all of those things, and putting the work of the ministry and the church back in the hands of sons and daughters. But in order to do that, they have to believe in their identity.
And that’s you and me, you know, we’re not talking to someone else, It needs to start with us. That I recognize and trust my identity, that you recognize and trust your identity, and recognize there’s an invitation from the Lord to, with Him venture on those things, on those passions, on those dreams. So that’s what God’s doing with you right now, which is pretty amazing. Why don’t you share a little bit of how you ended up here, and then what River of Life is doing.
Paul:
Yeah. Just to bridge off of what you were saying, as I try to put a positive spin on everything; I am even called the mayor of utopia, which is one of my nicknames. I just always have felt this, that we live in a world of such negativity and it’s all around us. Drama is what fuels the news you know? So I just want to be this positive person.
I do think COVID has been an incredible gift. I think there’s been this radical paradigm shift where the church used to say, “Let’s offer all these programs so everybody comes to us” and then all of a sudden COVID hit and nobody was coming. So then they’re like, “Okay, now we got to flip and go out.” And that’s the way it should be.
I think a lot of it is that people are realizing that individuality is a huge thing. It’s not a worldly thing. It’s a Christ given thing for us all to be different, individuality is important. I think for a lot of years, people were in churches and organizations where individuality was not supported very well. So I think now people are realizing that we have to embrace individuality.
And that’s where in the Bible, I see that there’s a lot of great examples of wells, and Jesus ministered at wells, but there’s even more examples of rivers, and rivers of life. When we’re going out and doing ministry, and embracing individuality and passions that people have, and meshing that with a calling of Jesus in their life, we can have radical ministry anywhere and everywhere. I’m really blessed by that.
My wife Shauna and I were just praying about potentially staying in the area we were in, and doing ministry or in church ministry. So we were praying about that, and the biggest thing is just prayer. We really were praying. I was running a nonprofit on my own and loving it, and great success there, but I was missing working with a team, I’d worked with a team my whole life.
God was moving in us to start praying again and looking at a team. So God, through a timeless, miraculous, schedule of events, He connected us with the River of Life Mission. I really didn’t know much about the organization, but I put my name in the hat. All of a sudden I had an offer from an incredible church and River of Life Mission.
So then we had a choice to make, and we prayed and fasted and just felt like God was calling us here to Oahu to minister to people desperately in need, the poorest of the poor, people living on the streets, the homeless. I literally accepted the position and flew two days later, and to go over the oldest, most storied, and biggest Christian nonprofit in all the islands. I don’t even know if I really knew that, even when I accepted the position.
I have to tell you, when I showed up here and started rubbing shoulders with this incredible team, I just said, “Thank you, God.” This was nothing short of miraculous, because I had gone through a ministry season that wasn’t pretty, wasn’t easy, and was pretty rough. Even at the point of where we were going, “Okay, God, are we really supposed to stay in ministry? Because right now it’s not easy.” It was really, really rough, really rough. And we thought, “Maybe God’s calling us out?”
And then all of a sudden, after four years of really hard times, God was saying, “Nope, I’ll launch you in ministry and here you go.” And that was the River of Life Mission. I absolutely love what we do. I could go on and on about what we do, but we’re seeing radical miracles here already because of prayer. We’re seeing people on the streets, reunited with their family, people flown off the island, reunited with their family.
We’re seeing radical miracles even way beyond that. This has been so evident that this was what God was doing and it hasn’t been easy. We’ve had incredible attacks from the enemy. We’ve had people being injured, and out for a month on the job here. We’ve had injuries in our family. We’ve had significant attacks, spiritual attacks, just crazy stuff, but we’re pressing on, and we’re trusting the Lord. It’s actually kind of bonding us as a team.
We’re kind of at the tip of the spear in ministry here in Hawaii. So we love people praying for us and just supporting us in what we’re doing. It’s wild right now, but we’re still here, and we’re bonding together. We’re unified and trusting in the Lord, and God is doing radical stuff.
The Impact of Intentionality
Gina:
So good. You gave my daughter Carly and I a tour before starting this. Meeting every one of these precious people here, who are giants in the Kingdom and nobody will most likely know their names, but they’re serving with so much love and integrity, strength and confidence in what God’s called them to do.
You feed around a thousand people a day. Carly used the word intentionality, and it’s intimate intentionality, It’s not just intentionality for the masses, It’s intentionality for each one.
Paul:
Each person, we call them our guest. I just love that because there’s so many organizations and even ministries on the island that call people, clients. At River of Life Mission, we call them our guests, and they know them all by name, and even Noel, who we just sat with, who does custom bags of clothes, clothing for every person by name.
It was so cute to hear her say that it’s important for the women, because they like certain particulars. They like certain colors. They need certain items, which I don’t even understand all that, but you’re a woman. So, she makes custom bags with their own name on the bag with this intentional care.
Gina:
I think that it’s easy to serve, or want to minister to the needy, and serve in a place where it’s a donation to the masses. I’m not saying that as a criticism, but I’m saying that there’s something so powerful about how in this place, with how this ministry functions, the mission isn’t just to clothe feed and shelter, it’s that every person is seen, known, and loved. And that is the grand place of healing.
That is the place of miracles. That’s the place of God doing things beyond just taking care of my physical needs. When I recognize that I’m seen, when I recognize that I am known, and when I recognize that I am loved. Those are the places that strongholds are torn down.
You shared with me yesterday, as we got to hang out with the turtles on the north shore and have a conversation. You were talking about the four tenets of this. I would love for you to unpack that a little bit, because you are dealing with a lot of people here that you serve, that have been homeless for 20 year, 30 years, or 12 years.
The restoration of family can take on two forms. There’s obviously spiritual family and Kingdom family and new family, but then there’s also those family origins and those broken places being restored.
Paul Gates is the Executive Director of River of Life Mission
Check the rest of this conversation Putting the Homeless in Family
Check out the Dwell Meditations
