but he who didn’t know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.
Living the Great Commission with a Heart for Missions
About this episode
Pastor Mike Franklin of The Torch Church in Demarest, Georgia joins Philip Cameron for a compelling conversation about what it truly means to live out the Great Commission. Mike shares how a genuine missions burden begins not with a plane ticket but with prayer — "if you start praying, you'll end up giving and going" — and how that progression transformed his own ministry and sent his congregation to Haiti, Honduras, and across South America. Drawing on Matthew 28, Mark 16, and John 20, Mike unpacks every believer's three-fold responsibility to go, give, and pray. He describes witnessing miraculous healings on the mission field — goiters falling off necks, cancer disappearing — and explains why mission trips ultimately change the people who go far more than those they serve. "You will never be the same," he says plainly. With 2023's relentless global upheaval as a backdrop, Mike turns to the story of Esther and Mordecai's charge — "for such a time as this" — to call Christians to step into their God-appointed moment rather than step aside. He closes with a stewardship challenge rooted in Luke 12:48: to whom much is given, much is required. Pastors and church leaders ready to ignite a missions culture in their congregation will find this episode both convicting and practical. Visit www.thetorch.net to connect with Pastor Mike's church and ministry.
Part of our Missions collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“The rescued became the rescuers. Hundreds waited in the rain, shuffling along in a line that ended in love — smiles, bread, fish, and words of care from the heart of the redeemed.”
“Mission trips are very rarely for the people there. Mission trips are for the people who go. That's where it starts. We start loving on people over there, and we're launching more hearts.”
“God could have picked any other time in human history to put us on the earth, but he put us on the earth right now, in the midst of the greatest evil, of turmoil, knowledge explosion, and world upheaval of evil and lawlessness just exploding. And God put us here at this time for such a time as this.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Mike Franklin of The Torch Church (Demarest, Georgia) joins Philip Cameron to explore what builds a genuine missions burden in a pastor and congregation. Citing Matthew 28, Mark 16, and John 20, Mike outlines the believer's three-fold call: go, give, and pray — arguing that faithful prayer inevitably leads to giving and going. He recounts miraculous healings witnessed on the mission field and insists mission trips transform the sender as much as the recipient. Turning to Esther 4 and Mordecai's challenge, Mike calls the church to embrace its 'such a time as this' moment amid global upheaval, and grounds the appeal in the stewardship principle of Luke 12:48.
- How a Missions Burden Begins
- Miracles Witnessed on the Mission Field
- Mission Trips Transform Those Who Go
- Navigating Chaos in 2023 with Faith
- Mordecai's Call — Such a Time as This
- Stewardship and Accountability Before God
- Clothing the Persecuted Church as Gospel Witness
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith today. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am delighted you are with us. I believe that you need faith in your life every day — that's Daily Faith. You need the affirmation of the Holy Ghost telling you that what you believe isn't wrong. You live in a world system that denigrates and ridicules your faith. They want to tear down the gospel. They want to make Jesus a mockery. Look around you. The reason I didn't even know the name of the show — it was a musical show — that was the Emmys or the Grammys or whatever it was, when they glorified the devil. Let me tell you something: America is in trouble. The only hope this country has is an old-fashioned Holy Ghost revival, and that's not going to come from Wall Street. It sure as heck ain't gonna come from MTV. It's going to come from the church when the church gets serious and gets down to business.
Philip:I believe that the church — there are a remnant. There are still 5,000 that haven't bowed the knee to Baal, and I believe in God. I'm looking at a few right now. So the reason why Daily Faith is here is because we bring some of the greatest men and women in America that are on the cusp of what God is doing in our generation, and we get you to meet them and just let them talk to you for a little while. And we love what we do. One of the things we do is it just thrills our heart — as a family, my wife and my kids are all involved in this — and that is missions.
Philip:33 years ago, I adopted — we adopted a boy in a country called Romania, starving to death, dying in a crib. And I picked him up, half naked, covered in his own waste, and I promised him I'd never forget him and I'd come back. Well, I came back — every six weeks I came back. And while I was there I discovered no toilets in a lot of places. The toilets in the beds were painted with layered paint. So I replaced the beds, and the roof leaked, so I replaced the roof, and I painted all the walls. And little did I know that the year I had to wait to adopt him, God hooked me into caring for missions.
Philip:And suddenly I came back to America. We were known for singing. I'd written a book on household salvation that had sold 300,000 copies. I was on every television program — Robert sent for me. I was on the Benny Hinn show, the PTL, TBN — name it. And suddenly it was empty, because I was looking at faces that had heard it all a thousand times before, mostly gray and disinterested and unmotivated. And I felt like I was living in a multicolored world stuck in the middle of a black-and-white gray world. And I started going more and more to the mission field. That's where my passion is. If I can use Daily Faith to get you hooked on missions, man, I'm a king. I'm successful.
Philip:And so we've been going. We started out in Romania, moved to Moldova, where girls are trafficked at 16 — they're put on the street and their souls sold into sex trafficking. This last weekend, the Super Bowl is the largest trafficking event in the world. More girls are trafficked while we holler over a ball being kicked and run along a field — more girls are trafficked during the Super Bowl than any other event in the world. Once a trafficker gets a girl, she's worth $300,000 a year for him. So we started taking these kids — boys and girls — into a place called Vatra. Vatra Village is an amazing place with six gorgeous houses right next door to the biggest lake in the country of Moldova.
Philip:It was built for rich people to have summer homes, and they poisoned the lake in the deal, and when the deal was done they lay unfinished, with birds flying through them for nine years, until we went along and bought them and finished all the homes. And when kids come out of the orphanage or come out of poverty or second families, we take them to our place and say, if you're born, God has a plan — you're never a mistake. And these kids, once orphans, become sons and daughters and our missionaries. So when the Ukrainian war broke out right across the border, our orphan kids became missionaries, fed thousands and thousands of people. And I honestly have never seen anything like this before in my life.
Philip:So recently they went up to Ukraine, right into the middle of a war, and they sent this — this is their video that they made with their voices. The voice you'll hear is one of the women who was a house parent at Vatra Village. Her name is Jazz. Watch this video — what orphans did in a war zone. You won't believe it.
A year ago, their world was a happy place. They had jobs. Their kids were in school. The corner shop sold bread and cheese and everything else. Their world was just like yours. Until, through the mist and snow, monsters came. The tracks rattled on the ice-packed fields. The guns pointed towards the world they lived in. It takes less than a second to obliterate everything that they had spent their lives building. There are no accurate numbers as to how many have died. The end is nowhere in sight.
We have been in Ukraine for years. From the first explosion we were involved. We took this assault personally. The orphan's hands could not stand on the sidelines and do nothing. Our amazing group of young men and women did the unimaginable. Once orphans themselves, they have felt personally the hand of grace and redemption. To go to this devastated world seems to them as normal as having a meal or going to church.
They drove for hours, unable to stop and stretch their legs, as inches on each side of the vehicles were live mines. Every few miles they were stopped at checkpoints by nervous soldiers. They were running along the line between the Russians and Ukrainians. Our team finally reached Kherson — recently liberated cities still held in the grip of desperation. They had brought food and burning stoves that will save lives in the bitter, deadly cold that is to come. They brought blankets — that, to many, is the only barrier between survival and death.
On a dreary day, within the sound of guns and bombs, the most astonishing thing took place. The rescued became the rescuers. Hundreds waited in the rain, shuffling along in a line that ended in love — smiles, bread, fish, and words of care from the heart of the redeemed. As they traveled, they came across bombed-out villages, scarred by the strife of bullets, destroyed by the landslides of death. Their water, electricity, and everything else was gone. But the wooden stove had become the guardian against the deadly cold.
We know it is impossible for most to even imagine this world. But by giving and praying together for this unfolding tragedy, we can join our hearts and hands to bring the hope that was sent to Earth by the living God. If it were us, we would wait in line hoping that someone, somewhere, was thinking of us. We must go back. Will you send us? Every gift you give allows us to be his hands — the orphan's hands.
Philip:The orphan's hands. The whole point of the ministry is to educate and motivate orphans to become missionaries. I have never seen anything like it in my life. These kids go in — literally into the teeth of danger, where a missile can land at any moment — and yet they share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I am so thankful. I need your help. We were just there last week. My son had a team in — he was there last Thursday — and a thousand people lined up and waited in a bitter cold. And I got a piece of video back from Ukraine that thrilled my soul, as my son with an interpreter shared the gospel with a thousand people, because they're waiting to be fed.
Philip:You can't say be warm and be filled. You've got to give them the gospel in a tangible way, and when you do that, then you have their heart. And the people were shouting at Andrew after he finished, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." We need to go back again and again and again, and we are literally stuck by how much funds we have. We have stretched — we're not a big organization, we just think we are — and we've stretched ourselves absolutely to the breaking point.
Philip:And last night we had an amazing, crazy phone call. A pastor in Turkey — you know, the earthquakes there — a pastor in Turkey from a Pentecostal church, a persecuted church. Islam is strong there. His name is — he's the president, he's a tough man, a strong man. And a pastor called and said, "We are starving. We're in the earthquake zone. We have nothing." And our kids called me in the middle of the night. I was up all night talking to them, trying to figure this out. Those two vans you saw going into the war zone in Ukraine have been turned around. As we speak, they're driving to Istanbul, Turkey. We are loading up and provisioning them in Istanbul, Turkey, and then we're driving into the earthquake zone.
Philip:In the meantime, here in America, we are going to be asking God for coats again. And this is crazy — this is totally against any fundraising principles. We don't work along those lines. This is a miracle. So please be praying, and if you would, for helping us — any gift to help us get those vans back into Ukraine, or if you want to help us with the Turkish earthquake, if you designate that, that's where the money will go. Appeal Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. The quickest way is by giving through dailyfaith.tv, or you can call 833-Daily-Faith. That number will be on the screen again so you won't miss it, I promise.
Philip:And we just got this through email from Moldova. If you put that up — it's an AP article that says Zelensky foils Putin's plan to destroy Moldova. Putin has a plan to destroy the country, and we are working, as we speak, on top of everything else. How do you move a hundred kids out of Moldova into Romania if necessary? We're looking to try and lease a building, or get dibs on a building, so that if we needed to we can shift all our kids in a night. Our kids from Ukraine are already in Moldova, and we're trying to move — if necessary. We are in a war zone, honestly — a God war zone — and we just need you to reach your hand out into that circumstance. Get the address, help us. Any gift you can give will help.
Philip:I'm delighted that I have Mike Franklin with me. I love when I talk to a pastor and you feel that you're drinking from the same fountain. It's — I can't express it. Only pastors know this feeling, when you find someone of like mind and like spirit. And Mike Franklin pastors a great church — The Torch — in Demorest, Georgia. Mike, thank you so much for being with us today. I've gone two hours — two minutes over my time. But please, please be welcomed on Daily Faith. God bless you. How are you doing, my brother?
How a Missions Burden Begins
Mike Franklin:I'm blessed, brother. It's an honor to be with you. It's a privilege.
Philip:Oh, it's just — when I knew it was you, there was a sense that I'm having a vacation today. It's like a friend. And we are — isn't it great? And I know you're a man of missions also. Your church is involved in Haiti and Honduras and so many different countries in South America. Tell us, how does a pastor get a mission burden? Please tell me. Is there a magic pill you take that makes a pastor focus on the world?
Mike Franklin:Magic pill — I'd give it to everybody, because it's — I'm just gonna tell you, you either accept the commission of God. I mean, it's the Great Commission. When you look at Matthew 28 and Mark 16 and John 20, when you look at those passages, every Christian has a responsibility to go, give, or pray. And I'm gonna tell you, I think they need to do all three. And that's what the mission world — it's got to go, give, right? If you pray, in my mind, if you start praying, you'll end up giving and going. That's how it happened to me. Start praying and the rest will take care of itself.
Philip:Absolutely. Oh, you can't get involved in missions and experience the glory of watching somebody's life transform before your very eyes.
Miracles Witnessed on the Mission Field
Mike Franklin:It's amazing. You see the miracles that are really released. Knocking on the door at one o'clock in the morning, telling us, "How do I receive this Jesus you're talking about?" All these things miraculously take place. Cancers fall off. I mean, I was preaching in one of the mission places, and people standing there with goiters — they fell off their necks. Just the miraculous unleashed. And you stand there in awe of what God does. You can't help but love missions. I mean, you just get involved one time and experience the joy of seeing lives transformed, and you will forever be changed.
Philip:One of the great things we do in our ministry is invite churches to send a group to Moldova. And you talk about these folks who come over with all the ideas and all the answers, and they meet these young kids that have spent most of their life in an orphanage being abused. And by the time the week or ten days has passed, they're coming to us and saying, "We know nothing. We just want to — we've learned so much." And let me encourage pastors: you say, "Well, it's a lot of money to send folk overseas." Send them overseas, because they come back different. Totally changed.
Mission Trips Transform Those Who Go
Mike Franklin:Totally changed. And what you learn is that mission trips are very rarely for the people there. Mission trips are for the people who go. That's where it starts. We start loving on people over there, and we're launching more hearts. And then the fruit of what we need is that God raises up indigenous people and transforms the situation. It's a unique opportunity. And one of the things that I realize in my life — we've been blessed at our church and we're very grateful for that — but one of the things I've realized is that there are resources that we have that the rest of the world simply doesn't. There are opportunities that we have that the rest of the world simply doesn't. And we need to take those opportunities, and we need to take those resources, and we need to be open-handed.
Philip:What hooks me is the fact that, like last night, I was up all night. This pastor in Turkey, right beside the earthquake zone, called. They are without everything, and they won't go back into their houses in case the houses fall down and kill them. And the power that we have — for one of our young folk to call me last night and say, "Dad, let me explain what's going on," and by doing so open up to this pastor in a little town beside the earthquake right now, struggling and wondering where God is, having no idea that on the other side of the world two men of God are talking about how we can resolve this issue. And we'll involve other partnerships and help that they've never understood. So much help is on its way. That's the power of the gospel.
Mike Franklin:And God releases the miracle on both ends. It's amazing how many times God has moved on either my heart or some other pastor's heart and said, "Give X amount of dollars to this area," and you don't even know why you're doing it. And on the other end of it, there's some specific need that could not have been met any other way, and it's met. Those are transformed lives. And that's just one thing — if you go on a mission trip and you go see the world and the need for the gospel, you will never be the same. Never be the same again.
Philip:Never. Dangerous, yeah. And here in the beginning of 2023, it seems like every day there's — if it isn't balloons, it's murders. I mean, we are living in a tumble dryer right now of events. Tell us what the Lord's been talking to you as far as the Christian walk or your church is concerned. How do we sustain through this battle?
Navigating Chaos in 2023 with Faith
Mike Franklin:Well, I think the most obvious thing is to go back to the words of Mordecai to Esther. And I can't get away from that today — that's been in my heart. I can't move off of it. You know, we all need mentors like Mordecai who can give us a word and tell us the direction to go. We all have to make decisions about what Mordecai tells us. What Mordecai said — could it be that you've been raised to this position of queen for such a time as this? God could have picked any other time in human history to put us on the earth, but he put us on the earth right now, in the midst of the greatest evil, of turmoil, knowledge explosion, and world upheaval of evil and lawlessness just exploding. And God put us here at this time for such a time as this.
Mordecai's Call — Such a Time as This
Mike Franklin:And it's our call. It's our mission. It's our burden. It's our job to carry out the task that God has laid before us. And we're either going to step in or we're gonna step out. Our decision is our decision, but the outcome — you remember what Mordecai told Esther. He said, "I'm gonna tell you now, if you decide not to do it, God's still gonna do this work. He'll raise up someone else. The question is, are you gonna be involved or not?" Because if you don't, you'll perish.
Philip:I am keenly aware that if I drop the baton or if I give up — this Turkish thing, I mean, literally it hit me. I'm three hours into assimilating this, and the two vans on that video are now being readied to go through to Istanbul and loaded with what we can buy in Istanbul. That's affected by the earthquake — a 12-hour drive from Moldova, a 10-hour drive along the coast past Ephesus, right past where the book of Ephesians was written, right to the Syrian border. And these kids — now we've had all male drivers, but our kids are on their way on a mission journey just like the Apostle Paul. No different — a different day, but just exactly the same. And I am astonished, and I don't want to miss God using me.
Mike Franklin:Amen. Such a time as this. What an amazing stepping out. Yeah, come on. God has raised you up and sourced you, so use every resource and manage it for the kingdom. And realize — you know what the one thing that motivates me is? To whom much is given, much is required. I'm gonna stand before God and give an account for how I stewarded all the stuff he put in my hands. Every child of God will have to make that decision: how am I gonna steward what God gave me? And every child of God will give an account for the outcome of their decision.
Stewardship and Accountability Before God
Philip:Well, the outcome of our effort in Ukraine — we raised 15,000 brand new coats. 15,000 coats — more than that, but that's when we counted. 15,000 coats packed into a container. Two of our containers are gone. We've got one more leaving next week. And the question I'm having — I'm going to talk to our board — because one container is already on the way, one container went to the refugee camps in Moldova, one container is on its way to Odessa. Do I take the container that I have here and send that to Turkey this week? And then the stuff that comes in to support Turkey for that container — it's all the same stuff — but we allow me to go and send that to Ukraine a month later. But they already have the stuff from the one that's on its way. So that's my agony of heart right this minute.
Philip:And we're asking — if you're a pastor watching just now, if you're within driving distance of where we are in Clinton, Tennessee, or if you'd like to send us by UPS — today the UPS truck came with a bunch of boxes. We're looking for gently used coats. Gently used — don't send me something that will offend someone, because it will never get in the container. I promise, all you're doing is giving my wife and our team more work. But if you open your wardrobe and you have coats that don't fit you, get them in a box, bring them to the church. Let's try and start a network. If you're a pastor, if you're part of a church, contact us in Tennessee, and that address is going up right now. If you write us and say, "Listen, our church is in Georgia," or "our church is in Alabama," or "our church is locally" — we would have a van and a trailer that goes and picks up these things. So we are literally — this is infancy right this minute — but I believe God used you today to speak faith into my heart to go for this.
Mike Franklin:Let me say one more thing. You'll never out-give God. If you bless the kingdom of God and his kids, you'll have plenty yourself. I promise you — never fails, never fails.
Clothing the Persecuted Church as Gospel Witness
Philip:Well, this pastor in Turkey — the Christian churches are persecuted — and for us to be able to give this man clothes, and then him be able to give clothes out to the community, all of the people — the Muslims — would see that the church cares for them. And as I'm saying, you can't say to the naked, "Be clothed" — you clothe them. This is a great witnessing opportunity. And so please pray. To get in contact with us, the church is called The Torch, 800 Canon Bridge Road, Demorest, Georgia 30535. The website, if you want to get involved with The Torch, is www.thetorch.net. Mike, thank you again. Our time has flown past. You've got to come back and do it more often. But I'm interested — if we get partnered, we can start this thing out. You'd talk to your friends and your churches, and I'll start talking to churches. Wouldn't it be something if we gave out a container full of coats and warm things to those that have lost everything, in the name of Jesus?
Philip:We love you. Thank you so much for being with us. We will be together again soon, I am sure. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. You can be a part of God's hand being extended by giving. We need your help. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ.
The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-Daily-Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
How does Mike Franklin say a pastor develops a heart for missions?
Mike says it starts with prayer — if you genuinely begin praying for the world, giving and going will naturally follow. He frames it around the Great Commission (Matthew 28, Mark 16, John 20) and believes every Christian is called to go, give, and pray — ideally all three.
Why does Mike Franklin think mission trips benefit the people who go just as much as those being served?
Mike says mission trips are 'very rarely for the people there — mission trips are for the people who go.' He explains that going launches more hearts for missions, and the real long-term fruit comes when God raises up indigenous people to transform their own communities.
What Bible passage has Mike Franklin been leaning on to encourage Christians during the current chaos, and what's his takeaway from it?
Mike keeps coming back to Mordecai's words to Esther — 'for such a time as this.' His point is that God deliberately placed believers on earth right now, in the middle of global upheaval, and each person has to decide whether to step in or step out. He also notes Mordecai's warning: if you don't act, God will still accomplish his work through someone else.
What miracles has Mike Franklin personally witnessed on the mission field?
Mike describes people knocking on his door at one in the morning asking how to receive Jesus, and he recounts preaching at a mission site where people with goiters had them fall off their necks. He says the miraculous is 'unleashed' on the mission field in ways that leave you in awe.
What does Mike Franklin say motivates him to steward his resources for the kingdom?
Mike says the principle 'to whom much is given, much is required' drives him. He believes every child of God will stand before God and give an account for how they stewarded what was placed in their hands, and that reality keeps him open-handed with the resources and opportunities he has.
Topics
mike franklingreat commissionmissionsthe torch churchesther such a time as thischristian stewardshipmission trips