WHO WE ARE

THE GLORY HOUSE INTERNATIONAL STAFF
Linda Holfinger, Candi & Jeff Martin, Isaac Martin

CORE VALUES |  VISION |  ABOUT US

OUR VISION

To be faithful and obedient to the great commission - locally, nationally and globally.

To love and establish the Kingdom of God in the earth. Jesus is Lord to the Glory of the Father over every issue of life.

To glorify God by giving Him what He originally purposed in our creation and now in our redemption, that is the total devotion of our hearts to His heart and purpose.

To stay current with the move of the Holy Spirit in our generation.

To establish a multi-generational work dedicated wholeheartedly to making sure the upcoming generation is a powerful force in the earth for Jesus.

ABOUT US

I was born in March of 1953 in Jacksonville Florida. My parents were hard working middle class people, and lived a conservative lifestyle. My dad was a construction estimator/project manager, and my mom was a banker. My parents were Episcopalian after a fashion, but never really met the Lord in a real and living way during those years. I am pleased to tell you of the great faithfulness of God. Before my mom died, she prayed with me and was secure in her salvation. At the time of this writing, my dad is 82, saved and filled with the Holy Ghost!

We lived in a neighborhood that was drawn to the action and craziness of the mid to late 1960’s rock and roll drug culture. When the 1960’s music and counter-culture roared to our side of the country, we roared in right along with it. Bye the time I graduated in 1971, we were lost in the drugs and music that so affected that generation of young people. I marched in the protests, carried a sign, and was tear-gassed twice. What a wonderful time to be from. When I finished my first year of college, I moved back to Jacksonville, intending to drop out of college and pursue a life in music. Jesus however, had different plans. I did not know Jesus, and did not think about Him very often. He however, thought of me every moment of the day.

In February of 1973, a good friend got really saved. I mean bone deep, filled with the Holy Ghost, miracle working saved. His name was Alex. In March of 1973 on my 20th birthday weekend, Alex prayed for me and Jesus both saved me and healed me, bringing me into eternal life. Two things occurred in the natural when he prayed. First of all, I was totally stoned under the influence of multiply narcotic’s. When Alex laid hands on me I was completely sober and in my right mind. Secondly, I had speech impediment. I stuttered all my life, and had many embarrassing moments straining to talk.

Beginning that night, and continuing into the next few weeks, Jesus took it all away. God healed me and gave me not only a freedom from sin, but also of speech. I had not been able to express myself confidently my entire life. The healing freed me to not only express myself freely, but to use my voice as a gift to Him. People have said that I preach to long sometimes. Well, so what? I did not talk much at all for the first 20 years. I am still catching up! Besides, I have never been one to believe that the Word should be conformed to your comfort and ease of rear end realities…

The next few years were filled with street evangelism and discipleship. Due the spiritual hunger and total radical nature of my leaders during that time, I was brought into a place where we witnessed and saw souls saved almost daily. We were trained (provoked!) to expect miracles every day. During these years daily life was our pulpit, and the street was the congregation. Our church was a living room, and our pastor was a painter. It was a wonderful time of foundations and growth.

In April of 1978 Jesus brought Candi into my life. It had been a year of great discouragement for me personally. It was a season of personal failure for me, and one of the worst times in my life. Instead of rejecting me based on my recent track record, Jesus met me with the love and grace that was Candi. She was his personal gift to me, and together they restored me to a place of anointing and renewed purpose. We now have 4 grown sons, and 6 grandchildren. My son Josh recently informed me that there is another one on the way! Praise God for his Mercy and promise of inheritance.

Candi was born in San Pedro California in January of 1958. Her dad was an Air force lifer, and she had literally moved and lived from California to Hawaii, then to New Hampshire. When we met we were in Ft. Worth Texas. She had never lived long in one place, and had never known true life-long friendships. Her families were Baptists. I think I was about the first tongue talker they ever met.

Her mom was a praying Christian momma, and her dad was gone a lot of the time. When he retired from the Air Force, he had joined the Teamsters, and was driving a large rig across the nation. Candi’s life was filled with lots of motion, and very little stability. She was also a child of the drug culture, and had the years there had not treated her kindly. When she met me she had just made a decision to walk with God, raise her son and be a good girl. I was not walking very strong with Lord at the time, so God had a real job on His hands. To make a very long story short, we repented at our wedding, and turned our lives totally over into His hands. You should see the wedding pictures…Ha.

Over a period of the next 15 years or so the little living room fellowship gained a vision and purpose, and blossomed into a great work with a global vision. With this came the opportunity to advance in learning and experience. It was also a time of trial and testing. I wish I could say that I have passed all my tests the first time I took them. I can say that Jesus is so loving and persistent, that by His grace, I managed to pass them the second or third time around. I am glad that He thinks and acts out of the box of religion.

Some men are like Daniel and Joseph. They are slaves taken by force, that rise up to rule empires. While they have their tests and trials, they seem to always pop us on top. They do not seem to have the situations in their lives like David did. For me, David has been the pattern. I am reaching to attain the stature of a Joseph, or a Daniel. This would be such a wonderful testimony. Jesus is not just calling all men to reach upward for a greater testimony, but to reach personally for His stature, and come into His holiness and maturity. What a goal to reach for! Some people think this is impossible, but I know that the heart of the Lord is always calling us upward and forward. He finishes what He starts, and performs His Word to the hungry and thirsty. Jesus knows that no one rises to low expectations. My testimony is that whether I attained or did not at certain points of my life, He was always there with an abundance of mercy, calling me forward out from myself and into Him. His grace is revealed in that when we reach in faith and sacrifice, He empowers us to attain what we reach for. All of the promises are yea and amen in Him.

In January of 1988, while I was the assistant pastor of our church, we experienced a great time of trouble ( as churches do) and I inherited the missions department. This was a great turning point in my life.

In May of 1993 we resigned our post as pastors, and moved our family to Belize, Central America. We lived and ministered among the Spanish and Kek’chi Mayan peoples of the area. We built our home in the village of Boom Creek in the southern or “forgotten” district. It is a place of jungles and rivers. When we went there was no road, and the only way to the village was by boat. We were the first whites to live in that village, although our partners there had worked there for several years. We lived in that village for just over two years. When we first went, there was no electricity, running water or toilets.

It was a good time of building and falling in love with what people call the third world. Our house there became a gathering place, and was filled with people every day and night. One night early in the first few months, we had a gathering of people at our house for bible teaching and prayer. The Holy Spirit fell and many in the room were immediately filled and began to speak in tongues. During this moment, the pastor’s wife Lucia Sanchez, fell and began to cry and wail. When she came to a place where she could talk again, she said that years before, she had a dream that white people moved into the village to help. She realized that she had been with us in our house in a vision years before, and that she had seen all of what we were experiencing in the house that night through great work and struggle, time and a great amount of money, the various missionaries (including us) that have worked there have changed the face of the villages in Belize.

Now in Boom Creek there is a road, a Christian school, solar and generator power, cell phones and a different life attitude. Most of the villages in Belize have electricity now, but Boom Creek is still waiting. Remember what I said about the forgotten district? Many places in the world are just as forgotten.. I have learned to stop calling people groups un-reached. The so called un-reached are actually only neglected. God is looking for people who will not allow them to go neglected any further. Stick around with us for a while, and we will have you in the field too. God is looking for someone just like you!

In Belize we saw and experienced many things. We had a child birthed in our house. Several days later we buried her in our yard. We saw God give life in the place of death, and many wonderful healings and wonders. We saw Jesus baptize a great amount of village peoples in the Holy Ghost. We took team after team of young people into the area for missionary training. Some of those young people today are mission’s leaders and ministers.

In April of 1997, we went back with a team of ministers and worshipers, and got to see Jesus fall on the nation with a mighty revival. It was so powerful! Isaiah 61 was manifested in all of its Glory. The restorations, the manifestations and the events were overwhelming. The Word and the revival went from that place to most of the towns and cities in the nation. We are still involved with Belize, and are in relationship with a number of the prophetic and apostolic leaders there.

Belize for us was a place of great breakthrough and great struggle. So many do not think these things are related, but they are. It takes great sacrifice and great yielding to take the world for Jesus. We sold everything to move there, with no regrets. The power and outpouring we experienced there was not without great difficulties, but it was worth the eternal fruit.

It was also not without great humor! You should see my wonderful and sophisticated wife Candi washing clothes on a rock by the river, or boiling down an iguana for dinner.

lf you have never gone to the coastal marshes to gather the best palm leaf for your thatch roof (One of my sons almost died there in quick-sand) , or walked miles of jungle trails to minister in remote places no one has ever heard of, or slept on chain-sawed planks that serve as church benches, you just have not really lived yet.

One of our most humorous memories was the great flood of ’94. The river rose so high that it overflowed our outdoor jungle potty and did what none of us could do; it flushed the toilet! We had a huge group of people with us, including our 165 pound dog.. We had endured days of being together in our beautiful jungle house, and had many adventures as all the people were forced to interact in a totally inconvenient environment, but the loss of the potty was the last straw. We had to be evacuated by boat. What a time.

There was also the invasion of the June bugs when our roof was off. Oh brother. Someone (me) left the light on in the upper loft where Candi and I slept. There are times where you little light does not need to shine! The entire upper loft was covered with layers and layers of bugs. Enjoy your sleep tonight. Some of us have just slept through stuff that most people never thought possible. There were also invasions of army ants several times a year, (good pest control) along with all the other interesting things that happen in the jungle. Our son Jason fell on his machete and Candi had to stitch him up without anesthesia. She prayed for him and stitched him up. The word we gave him was that if you are going to be dumb, you have to be tough. Selah

Another of our sons, Isaac, tripped one day and dislocated his knee. I had just read the chapter on setting broken bones in the book, “Where There Is No Doctor”, written by a missionary. I just went outside and pulled his knee back into place again. You would be amazed to see God anoint you with the power to live when the props are removed.

In August of 1995 we moved back to the States again, and began to travel internationally. My first outreach was to Pakistan with Dan Duke. What a journey.. Revival poured out and it felt like the powers of the heavens were shaken. I had real encounter with the Holy Ghost, and have never been the same. From there our steps took us from the USA to England, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, to Malaysia, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Pakistan and East Timor, as well as many of the little Island nations in the Caribbean. One thing we found common no matter where we went; People are hungry for God, and God is hungry for people. We have not been one place where Jesus has not poured out His blessing on spiritually hungry people., we have not been on single place where the Word was not welcome when preached with confidence and clarity.

I do not know how many thousands we have spoken to, or how many thousands we have laid hands on over the years. I do not know how many people have been saved or transformed in the meetings over the years. I do not keep track of most of the miracles and testimonies. Jesus is working through so many these days that is hard to keep track of all of it. Jesus knows all the details, and He will reveal them all on that Great Day. I know that we have ministered to the sinner and saint, to the Buddhist and Hindu.

I have spent many hundreds of hours with the Muslim people in different places and times. Some of the greatest miracles and wonders I have seen occurred in the Islamic nations. God is moving in the entire world to bring people to himself in redemption. I still have the spears and blowpipes I got from Kalimantan/Borneo when I was there with the Dyak’s. Even though we have had these experiences and done these things, we do not consider ourselves to be great or really even seasoned yet. I am only 53… One thing I know though, you will never experience any of this until you are ready to sell out for God. As a young pastor I never dreamed that Jesus would include me in these kinds of things. We are simply amazed that He has done anything through us at all. You see, I know who we were, and I know who we are in the flesh. Jesus however, sees us through the eyes of love and total redemption. He sees not just who we are today, but He sees according to His purpose for our lives. That is how he treats us too. He treats us like the Royal Priesthood that we truly are in His eyes. He sees us through the cross.
 
In 1998 Candi and I planted a church in Jacksonville Florida called the Glory House Fellowship. It was designed to be a base of operations for the ministry. It was never designed to become your mom’s corner church. We wanted to create an atmosphere, and a community that would gather and save the sinner, release the worshiper, teach the saint, and release ministry in to the earth through sons and daughter ministries. We see these things as fundamental with any church that is a life giving church. It was also created with missions in mind, because my great love and purpose in life has been missions.

During the years of ministry at the church, we were able to release great sums of money to the different missionaries we supported, as well as ordain and release people into ministry. When the Lord called us into the nations again, a church was created by some of the young leaders that we had marked and released. While we are not connected to the actual church that was created out from the Glory House, we are cheering them on.

The Glory House International is the result of Gods mercy and faithfulness to us. It is also the result of years of sacrifice, searching and vision on our part, and on the part of our team, partners and members everywhere.

Our ministry today and who we are as people is the result of His calling and grace poured out on and mixed together with our experience. His Calling and His anointing leads through life, always taking us further and further into His will. Candi and I are convinced that our actions in this life are married to our manner and quality of resurrection, and that our place and rank in resurrection is married to the closeness and posture we will have before Him in eternity.

It is said that our anointing and giftings are His gift to us, and the way we live our lives are our gift back to Him. We believe this. It is not just the power to preach and move multitudes that God intends or appreciates. The real deal is how we develop integrity and humility before Him personally. It is not just in how we express ourselves in outward action, but who we are in the quiet when no one is watching, and in how we love the unlovely. This is what promotes us in His eyes. Our ministry is aimed not at just the outward expression of the Gospel, but at the inward work of righteousness, peace and joy. This chosen and intentional intimacy with Him personally is what draws fresh anointing for the power and miracles of God. We can live well, or die well if we know it is for Him. Laying down our lives is the least we can do. Apostle and missionary Jim Zirkle told me once, that “ when you love Jesus, and understand the gospel, that living and dying for Him is a piece of cake”…living well, dying well as living sacrifices. Doing whatever it takes and going wherever you’re sent. These are the attitudes that God blesses.

Our life in Brazil started off with a handful of suitcases and the spare room at Dan and Marti Dukes house. Thank God for the Dukes! We arrived in Belo Horizonte in the early afternoon and went straight to the Annual Fire and Glory meetings at SESCE. Several days later we were with the Dukes in Belo. What a time. They were moving into a house that was under construction. That was July of 2005. Now their house is finished, and the Dukes are free from dust. (Most of the time)

We have now been in over 30 cities of Brazil, some of them multiple times. We have made many friends and been able to strengthen and bring many pastors and their churches into revival. Our team is growing as is our need for staff and equipment. One thing is still true; Revival fire is falling everyday on the hungry and thirsty. No one is exempt from the invitation to come and drink living waters. God’s arm in not short that He can not save, and when he does, it is eternal salvation to the utmost! God is moving these days to ground the church in a prophetic and apostolic way. He has marked a new generation for Himself, and we ourselves as part of a great Joshua company, bringing them into the Land. It is a time for radical salvations, radical churches, and radical signs and wonders. It is a joy to be alive to see the things that we have dreamed about for so long.

We have not planned much of 2007 yet, and are praying about the next year, desiring to go where He sends, not just where we are invited. We will be traveling back and forth to the States several times during the year. If you are interested in having us in during these times, please write and let us know. In this site you will also see how to support us monthly as a pledge partner, or how to send one time offerings as God leads.

God bless you and keep you in His grace.

Jeff & Candi Martin.

The Gloryhouse International is a submitted son and partner with the Zadok Ministerial Association. Zadok is an apostolic network and spiritual covering based on the principal of Zadok in Ezekiel 44. The founders, Dan and Marti Duke, have been friends, spiritual parents and a blessing to us for many years now. Dan and Marti can be found at the fireandglory.com website. You will find their link at our links button.

CORE VALUES |  VISION |  ABOUT US