Larry Crabtree, the founder of Evangelical Resources in Spanish, spent his formative years in a small one-room farmhouse in Bentonville, Arkansas, USA. Despite the lack of essential services and pervasive poverty, his childhood instilled in him a deep empathy for those in similar circumstances. This enduring compassion has been a guiding force in his life.
At fourteen, Larry made a life-altering decision at Miller Community Church. He walked down the aisle and accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, a moment that would shape the rest of his l ife. His faith has been a source of hope, joy, and resilience, carrying him through the trials and tribulations of his life journey. Larry says, “I started life in poverty without hope of success by the world’s standards. Yet God had other plans for me. It was His plan that I became a successful businessman. At the high point of my career, I believed my success was due to my hard work and perseverance. However, when I looked back after leaving the business world, I realized that God had orchestrated my every move and was responsible for my every success. God blessed me with success to serve and bring glory to Him, not to live a life of luxury. God has a much greater purpose for every believer than achieving the American dream!”
At age 17, Larry joined the U.S. Navy in 1965, serving on a ship in the Atlantic fleet and onshore in Vietnam.
After being discharged from the Navy, Larry moved to Los Angeles, California, USA, and became an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. While working full-time as a police officer, he attended night school and earned his Bachelor of Science degree.
Larry resigned from the police department in 1983 and joined Wells Fargo Bank as a branch manager. Over the next 11 years, he rose to the Senior Vice President Division Manager position.
In 1994, Larry left his position at the bank and started a consulting business. In 1997, he closed his company to enter full-time ministry.
Larry is an ordained minister and earned a Master of Arts degree in Christian Leadership and Ministry from Talbot Graduate School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California. He also attended the Doctor of Missiology program at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.
 Larry meeting with Pastor Jose Angel Samol, President of the Baptist Seminary Guatemala City. |
Larry’s first mission trip to Latin America was to the Kumeyaay Indians in Mexico in 1970. Since then, he has made many mission trips to Mexico, Haiti, and Africa. The ministry he started in Cameroon, West Africa, was officially registered as an NGO with the Cameroonian government.
In 1996, he started a ministry to the Mayas in the drug cartel-controlled mountains of southwestern Guatemala that continues to this day.
In 2010, Larry started Evangelical Resources in Spanish. The goal was to train Christian pastors and lay leaders, provide them with Bible Commentaries and other Christian literature, and conduct evangelism events.
The commentaries were written by Fred Morris, a former missionary to Africa and Asia who understood the need to use jargon-free Easy English to improve literacy and provide easy-to-understand and easily translated Bible teaching booklets. Fred founded Manna Publications, which has offices in the USA and UK.
His most profound passion is for pastors and Christian leaders in remote areas who typically do not have Christian materials, such as commentaries and Bible dictionaries, to enrich their Bible studies. They often have little formal education and have not attended a Bible College. This severely limits their ability to grow in understanding God’s word and teaching it to their congregations. Some of the ministry activities the Lord has used Spanish Evangelical Resources to perform are listed below.
• Trained approximately four hundred pastors and provided Bibles and Bible Study materials to their churches.
• Held over one hundred fifty evangelism events in drug cartel-controlled areas.
• Provided funding to quadruple the size of an elementary school.
• Financed and installed a computer lab, study hall, and 1000-book computerized library in a Bible institute.
• Provided funding to build a church with 155 seating capacity.
• Granted annual scholarships to impoverished Maya children.
• Partnered with Alpha & Omega School to build and equip an ultramodern dental clinic to
conduct evangelistic outreach.
All praise, honor, and glory be to the Lord Almighty!
If you are a pastor or Christian leader in a remote area, Larry knows that gaining access to the Internet requires a great effort. He wants your efforts to visit us to be worthwhile and fruitful. We pray that we have provided you with valuable and practical resources in Spanish to help you and other Christians understand the truth of God's Word, grow in the knowledge of His character, and live a life pleasing to Him.
Larry's wife, Sally, shares his passion for teaching the truth of God's Word to unbelievers. Sally believes the church's biggest problem today is that a lack of biblical knowledge causes Christians to accept false teachings. Sally accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior at age five in a small rural church in Fortuna, Missouri, USA. She serves on the Board of Directors of Evangelical Resources in Spanish and teaches at Women on Wednesdays (WOW) in Jefferson City. WOW is a non-denominational women's Bible studies organization and fellowship dedicated to equipping women with the truth of God so that they may become more and more like Jesus Christ.
Larry and his wife, Sally, live in Jefferson City, Missouri. They are members of Mt. Olive Baptist Church.
Spanish Evangelical Resources is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered with the IRS.
Read How Spanish Evangelical Resources Began
These Bible Commentary booklets were born in the mind and heart of Fred Morris, who was concerned that people
in many parts of the world needed to learn these precious truths about God and His Son Jesus, in their own language
and in an affordable way. He wrote many such booklets. Learn more about Fred Morris and his wife Lorna at
the mannapublications.org (USA) website.
Another website manna-publications.org.uk has an editor and
others at work preparing more and more of Fred's books for free download in 4 languages so far. Western culture/jargon
is removed and religious terms are explained. They are easy to translate into more languages. (Yes, this is a BIG project!)
This site is focused on providing the Spanish translations as free downloads, and other helpful materials in this
bi-lingual Spanish/English website.