John and Bonnie Gilbert

It’s not too often that you have the experience as a minister to have the same overseers for the amount of time that John and Bonnie put in overseeing 99plus1 Ministries. They say the average tenure for pastors is 3 years, the average tenure for missionaries is 12 years, and a “career” missionary is one who plans on spending more than 3 years in the mission field.

 

John and Bonnie Gilbert currently have 28 years in the mission field and 22 years of that was to plant and overseer 99plus1 Ministries.

 

John and Bonnie met while working in a nursing home and were married in August of 1970.  They are the proud parents of three children and 8 grandchildren in the states and many that they claim as grandchildren in Mexico.

 

John retired from the Navy in 1995 after 27 years of service as a Navy Corpsman. During that time, he challenged and received his credentials as a Licensed Vocational Nurse working on weekends at University Hospital, San Diego specializing in Intensive Care nursing with Neonatal ICU being his primary location, and Bonnie received her Licensed Vocational Nursing credentials while at the nursing home.

 

After raising their children, Bonnie worked for Bank of America as a cashier/signature officer. She then ran a licensed day care facility for several years. After the day care, she went to work as a Trust Accountant for two San Diego area businesses prior to entering full-time mission work.  

 

John and Bonnie Gilbert were both active in the North Park Advent Christian Church leadership since 1973 before being commissioned by the North Park Church in December of 1995 and John has a pastoral license from the Southern California Advent Christian Conference since 1998. They served full-time in Mexico as self-supported missionaries with Mexican Medical Ministries starting at the central office located near San Diego.  John was responsible for visiting Medical/dental teams and Bonnie was responsible for organizing and maintaining the warehouse to supply the numerous Mexican clinics and hospitals affiliated with Mexican Medical.  Together, once a month, they drove the supply truck down the Baja peninsula. Some trips were as far as Valle de La Purisima in Baja Sur to deliver those supplies.  

 

In 1997 the Lord called them to accept a field assignment as directors at “Clinica El Buen Pastor” in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico with Mexican Medical.  They continued in the capacity of “ministry site director” for an additional two plus years.  In the year 2000 the Lord led them to start 99Plus1 Ministries to expand the hand of the Lord beyond the goals of Mexican Medical Ministries.  Since then, their ministries of equipping ministries and churches has expanded almost the length of the Baja California peninsula.  They continued to serve as the leadership for 99Plus1 until their retirement.

 

Though retired from organized ministry, the Gilberts’ continue to minister on a one-on-one level, using their gifts to help individuals and organizations as needed.