Someone You Should Know: Garry Morgan

Garry Morgan shares his journey from growing up in Portland, Oregon, to studying history at Seattle Pacific University and later teaching Bible classes in Kenyan high schools. He transitioned to long-term mission work in Kenya, focusing on unreached Muslim groups. After 18 years in missions, he taught at a Christian college in Minnesota before retiring and moving to Spokane. At Faith Bible Church, he has been involved in global outreach, refugee ministry, and preaching preparation. Recently, he taught English in Thailand, which uses their classes to introduce Thai Buddhists to Christianity.

• Automated Transcription

• Seth Weber 0:00
  Today on faith matters. Gary Morgan is someone you should know.
  
  Seth Weber 0:10
  I'm Seth Weber, and you're listening to faith matters, a podcast designed to help you think biblically in matters of the Christian faith and update you on matters of faith, Bible, church. You
  
  Seth Weber 0:38
  it's good to have you here. Gary Morgan, thank you. We're here to get to know you a little bit, and I don't know that much about you, so I'm excited to learn. Tell us where did you grow up? Where
  
  Garry Morgan 0:51
  were you born? I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.
  
  Seth Weber 0:55
  Do you have any fun memories from growing up in that area?
  
  Garry Morgan 0:59
  Well, one memory is always trying to escape the rain somehow. I know there
  
  Seth Weber 1:04
  is in Seattle. I didn't, I wasn't sure if Portland was the same.
  
  Garry Morgan 1:07
  Portland same, okay, okay, but yeah, good, good childhood memories. And
  
  Seth Weber 1:11
  you grew up with brothers and sisters. I'm the the
  
  Garry Morgan 1:15
  eldest of four, okay? I have a brother four years younger, and then there's two sisters, who are way down, 10 and a half and 12 years
  
  Seth Weber 1:24
  younger. Okay, what did you do for education? Where'd you go to high school? Where'd you go to did you go to college after that? Yeah,
  
  Garry Morgan 1:33
  public schools in Portland through high school, and then I went to Seattle Pacific was still college and Sure. University,
  
  Seth Weber 1:41
  yeah, what did you study at? SP Well, SPC, I guess at the time,
  
  Garry Morgan 1:46
  yeah, well, God's hand was in that. Because growing up, I just because of family interest, my father and my grandfather were both in the medical supply field, okay, and always wanted me to be a doctor, and so I was going to be a doctor, and I started out in pre med, and eventually discovered I had no aptitude for many of the courses that were required to get into medical school. Okay, while I had ignored the aptitudes that God had given me, so had a late in college, change of major, and ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree in history, okay, which I still enjoy as a hobby to this day.
  
  Seth Weber 2:32
  Yeah, yeah. So how did you come to know Jesus?
  
  Garry Morgan 2:36
  I grew up in a Christian home. We went to Bible, believing, Bible, teaching church, and I I knew enough to make profession of faith when I was about eight years old. Okay, when I look back now, it's like my understanding was so minimal that I sometimes wonder, well, at what point was I really a Christian? Because you're not knowledge and understanding of Scripture and your walk with the Lord just continues to grow, and yeah, and sometimes has setbacks. So it does make you wonder, but I think I knew enough to make a genuine profession. Then, even though what I knew was very little. I was very much in agreement with it. There was spiritual growth during college in some ways that I had not encountered up through high school. And I was even in high school and college, I was involved in different different ministries, like Youth for Christ, choir and high school and different musical teams at Seattle Pacific that did ministry in churches, and yet, I realized that there was an element in my spiritual life that was not what it should be. And right around the end of my college career, I made what we'd probably call a commitment to really walking with God and and not just, you know, taking the the fire escape Christianity and so that had a real profound impact on what happened to the rest of my life. Because what do you do with a history major, you know, and very shortly after making that I would say, stronger or fuller commitment to the Lord, I heard about an opportunity to teach Bible classes in public high schools in Kenya, in East Africa, okay? Through, heard through a missionary who was friends of my parents, and so shortly after college, I went to Kenya for a year, lived with this missionary family and taught Bible knowledge classes in Kenyan high schools for a year. And then was that through translation? No, no high schools in English?
  
  Seth Weber 4:59
  Oh, really. Okay, yeah, okay.
  
  Garry Morgan 5:02
  So that gave some direction, then to where I wanted, you know, to go as an adult, career wise. And so when I came back then, I went to seminary, preparing for long term mission work. Where'd you go to seminary, Western Baptist seminary in Portland. My parents couldn't help financially with tuition, but they allowed me to live at home, so I have a free room and board while I was in in seminary, which helped a lot Nice. So near the end of seminary, I met Connie through a ministry to international students in Portland, and she can tell more of her story, but she had also spent a year overseas
  
  Seth Weber 5:45
  her episodes, if you're listening.
  
  Garry Morgan 5:49
  And so we met, we were both interested in long term mission work, and we were married after I finished seminary. Okay, then we started the process of moving overseas. We were open as to where we would go, but ended up back in Kenya, back in Kenya for me, okay, it's interesting. Now we talk about unreached people groups like, oh yeah. People have realized that forever. But in terms of modern mission, I mean 20th century and now 21st Century missions, it was an idea that had kind of gotten lost for a long time and only really came into prominence again in the 1970s and then in the late 70s, I was in seminary, and this was being taught, okay? And so the mission agency that we wanted to go with was trying to recruit a team to work with an unreached Muslim people group on the coast of Kenya, and then kind of drew us in that direction. Okay,
  
  Seth Weber 6:58
  I'm sure there's a lot in that time in Kenya that could be talked about. But do you have any amazing things that you saw God do that you can share a story?
  
  Garry Morgan 7:07
  Yeah, there are many. One that still stands out, a man from this tribe who came to faith in Christ, and I was discipling him and his hunger for the Lord was incredible. I mean, every time he got off work, he'd show up at my door saying, Can we have another Bible study? We became very, very close friends. And his life was so changed by Jesus that his wife, who was a very staunch Muslim, came to Connie and said, I just I can't believe this change in my husband. And when I ask him, what's going on, he just says, it's because of Jesus. If Jesus can change my husband like this, I want to know about him. Will you teach me about Jesus?
  
  Seth Weber 7:56
  Amazing. You spent many years on the mission field. How did you then end up here at Faith, Bible Church? Well,
  
  Garry Morgan 8:03
  there's something else in between.
  
  Seth Weber 8:05
  Okay, okay, tell us the in between. I had a
  
  Garry Morgan 8:08
  two career life, okay, total of 18 years with the mission and Okay, together with Connie, 16 of those back in in Kenya, we were at a transition point really looking at some option, ministry options, assuming we would stay with the mission agency, but redeploy somewhere, and doors just weren't opening. Okay? And then I got an email from a professor at a Christian college in Minnesota, saying we have this opening. And somebody in your mission gave us your name. Would you be interested in applying? And I said, No. And he said, Okay, send us a resume anyway. You know, every something might change down, years down the road. So I sent it in, and after a while, he emails back and says, Your resume looks like you photocopied the profile of the person we're looking for. Would you reconsider? Okay? And with some reluctance, I went through the process, and they ended up hiring me to teach missions, intercultural studies, and we spent 17 years in Minnesota, wow. Okay, so then I took an early retirement. We needed to move to Spokane for family reasons, okay, and so I was able to, I mean, I was mid 60s, so it wasn't super early retirement, but retired from was now University of Northwestern St Paul, okay, retired from there, moved to Spokane, started looking for church. Found some that you know were good. I mean, there are a lot of good churches in Spokane, and like just wasn't quite like. Not fully what we're looking for. And then I was back in Minneapolis for a board meeting. I was on the board of a seminary there, okay? And at our former church in Minneapolis, I was there on a Sunday, woman handing out worship folders at door. Hi, Gary, how's it going? And by the way, I got a phone call from a pastor in Spokane last week asking about our refugee ministry. She says, I don't remember the name, but I'll look it up and email you, okay? And she actually remembered and followed through. It was Jared gilter, okay? And faith Bible Church, which we had not run across in our search. So, you know, we looked at the website. It's like, okay, look solid. Let's go check it out. And found out it's if you don't know Spokane, well, it's not easy to get here. We drove around in circles, around Gardner down here, but we arrived. I think our first Sunday here, three people invited us to their growth groups. Nice. And we started the new members class and and
  
  Seth Weber 11:10
  then started a bunch of ministries of your own sense. And
  
  Garry Morgan 11:13
  then, so we've been here almost nine years now.
  
  Seth Weber 11:16
  Nice, nice. Do you and Connie have children? We
  
  Garry Morgan 11:20
  have one daughter, okay, a miracle child that three doctors had told Connie she'd never have. Wow. Okay. She lives here in Spokane. She and her husband, okay? And so we have two grandchildren, seven and five. Wonderful,
  
  Seth Weber 11:33
  wonderful. Okay, tell me a little bit about how you've been involved in ministry here at Faith since you've been here over the past nine years,
  
  Garry Morgan 11:41
  yeah, well, I've been on the global outreach team and trying to to help there with enlarging our focus on unreached people groups and putting together some short term mission trips that engage with short term, sorry, engage with unreached Okay, people groups, and also on pastor Dan's preaching prep team, and we help out with the refugee ministry, kind of try to assist and encourage. Mike sawat ski, yeah, in that. So we were involved in starting this a good SL classes. Way back, which lasted until COVID, and then hosting the refugee dinners here once a month, and, yeah, and also doing stuff through World Relief. I help them occasionally with refugee simulations, where groups come to me and I spend 15 minutes teaching of Swahili using no English. Wow,
  
  Seth Weber 12:48
  that's amazing. What has God been teaching you lately
  
  Garry Morgan 12:55
  that I need to not slack off? Let's put it that way or not take for granted the walk my walk with the Lord, but that it requires constant vigilance.
  
  Seth Weber 13:08
  How can we as a church be praying for you right now? Main
  
  Garry Morgan 13:12
  thing would be that I would maintain that vigilance. No,
  
  Seth Weber 13:15
  okay, you guys recently took a trip to Thailand or Taiwan, Thailand, Thailand to teach in a school. There is there anything about that that you want to share?
  
  Garry Morgan 13:27
  Sure? Yeah, the santisu English school is a Christian school for teaching English to adults. Okay, there's a huge need in Thailand for people to learn English. Tourism is huge in Thailand, so people need English their international business has expanded dramatically, and so there's just a huge demand for English speakers. And Thailand happens to have very low English levels. Okay, so this tantitu English school uses English classes to introduce Thai Buddhists to the Bible and to Jesus, and over the years, has been very effective. They've expanded. They have four locations now around Bangkok, and have planted several churches. Out of that many of their staff originally were students at Santia Sook who came to faith in Christ and are now part of the ministry. And Santia souk is even sending out missionaries to other parts of Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Vietnam, southern Thailand, which is predominantly Muslim. Amazing. So it's a great ministry. And it's, you know, anybody who speaks English and has a month can do that, because they have a well developed curriculum, good orientation and training. And you come in, you've got the books there, and it's all laid out, and you go through it. You engage with students. Eat meals with them outside of class. Thais are very hospitable, nice, and so they're always going to invite the teacher, you know, let's let's eat. We talk about how good Thai food is. Well, Thai people think Thai food is good too. They talk about food a lot. Was this your first time there? No, this was our, well, my third time Connie second, okay, when we were still living in Minnesota, I had taken students from Northwestern to serve there for a long while. Okay, so ironically, this was my first time actually teaching English instead of supervising American college students who were teaching English.
  
  Seth Weber 15:39
  Okay? Well, that's awesome. Yeah. What an opportunity. And we
  
  Garry Morgan 15:43
  just saw again how the Lord has worked through that some of the essays from my students just talking about learning about Jesus for the first time, and you know, having known nothing about him before reading these Bible stories in the English lessons and discussing them. And two of my students started coming to church services and small group and some other activities that school does. So that was very encouraging. That's
  
  Seth Weber 16:13
  really cool. Okay, well, we're gonna take a turn for the silly Are you ready for the speed round? Go for it.
  
  Garry Morgan 16:28
  Cats are dogs. I'm allergic to cats. Do you have any pets? Not currently. We used to have a dog. Pineapple on pizza, sure,
  
  Garry Morgan 16:37
  but not, not if I'm in
  
  Seth Weber 16:38
  Italy. Favorite book, besides the Bible,
  
  Garry Morgan 16:40
  ooh, I'm gonna go with the Boys in the Boat, which I think is the best non fiction book that I have read, or at least that I can remember
  
  Seth Weber 16:53
  favorite movie or TV show.
  
  Garry Morgan 16:55
  You know, TV shows is hard because we don't watch TV now, and we missed two decades of television living in Kenya, so people talk about shows we've never heard of, but movie way back old, old Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Okay, yeah, there are some one liners in there that are hilarious,
  
  Seth Weber 17:16
  nice, favorite musical group or band?
  
  Garry Morgan 17:19
  Well, we okay if we go secular Chicago.
  
  Seth Weber 17:23
  Best surprise gift you've ever gotten,
  
  Garry Morgan 17:25
  steak dinner on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
  
  Seth Weber 17:29
  Ooh, sounds nice. If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with all the extra time? Go camping and read favorite place to eat out in Spokane,
  
  Garry Morgan 17:40
  karma, Indian restaurant, okay, all right. Where is that one? On Monroe,
  
  Garry Morgan 17:45
  just right over your block. All
  
  Seth Weber 17:47
  right, check it out, people. It's on your way home. It's been a pleasure having you here. Gary, thanks for joining us. Yeah,
  
  Garry Morgan 17:51
  thanks for the invitation.

Garry R. Morgan

Garry Morgan, a member at Faith Bible Church, is a former missionary and retired missions professor. He is also author of Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day.

View Resources by Garry R. Morgan

Seth Weber

Seth is the Communications Director at Faith Bible Church and loves anything to do with design, video, audio and tech. He and his wife Kaitlyn have four children.

View Resources by Seth Weber