Darwin

Darwin with his wife Nelly and their daughter Mikaela.

"Preach and teach." During my early years of ministry it was what I thought would help me have a successful ministry, "preach and teach." And although I believe with all my heart that the Word of God has the power to transform the lives of people, if this teaching has no purpose and is not accompanied by a healthy mentoring relationship, it does not produce the fruits that the Lord wants to see In his disciples.

This is the change of mind that has occurred in my life during the last year and a half, using the material of Servant Leaders and allowing team members to mentor me.
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The result of this is that during this time the ministry in our church has taken a very important turn, we have found a north to address and we are building ever more significant relationships between mentors and disciples, which in a short time have given more fruit than in years of single teaching.

 We are learning to see our church as the family we really are and in that environment we are allowing the Lord to act in each of our lives, so that in the not too distant future we can be able to reproduce our leadership and mobilize the brothers to plant another church if the Lord will allow us.
I can say that now the ministry makes sense and is far from frustration, it is marked by a very great hope of seeing the Lord at work and the huge desire to move forward.

Darwin serves as lead Pastor at Rebirth Church in
​Pifo, Ecuador

Leo

Leo with his wife Nivia, their son Joshua, and daughter Camila.

After years of trying to search for answers in the material things of life such as houses, cars, professional achievement, living a marriage full of lies and infidelity, falling into financial bankruptcy, almost losing my life and that of my son because of a car accident caused by my irresponsibility, God reached out to my family with His grace and mercy showing us through His Word that we can be saved in Him.  I understood that life does not give us any answers to our spiritual emptiness. I yielded to him and fell at His feet on Sunday July 4, 2010 accepting Him as my savior, after a service at Living Rock Baptist Church with my pastors Cam and David.

My wife Nivia had done this some time before, in the solitude of his room, reading a Christian book called "The Purpose Driven Life." Met by His grace He called us to begin training to serve Him that same year.  We were tested by fire, in a matter of months, with illness and death of my father who died in December of that year. Although there have been struggles in the flesh to leave the ministry, we have persevered in the Lord placing all our trust Him. A special passage for our family is Joshua 24:15 that says, "As for me and my house we will serve the LORD."

Leo serves as one of the Pastors at Living Rock Baptist Church in Paraíso (Paradise), Costa Rica. 

Cesar Sria

I thank God because this is the tenth year in which I can feel the love and peace of God in my life and in my family.   It has been amazing to see how He has worked in our lives.  My life was a continuous struggle for material, social and personal goals; many of  which I was able to obtain through my own strength.  My marriage and my family were sinking and I was powerless against such a circumstance that I could not fight my flesh, my hypocrisy, my lie, my adultery, without God in my life; but He took me to a point of brokenness in which I had only two options, leave my family or turn to the Lord welcoming his mercy to rescue me.
During these circumstances God used missionary Pastor Cameron Woolford as a tool to carry his message and reveal the truth of the gospel. God used His Word; (Romans 3:23) revealing my state of separation from Him and the need for a new birth (John 3:3).
   

From this moment I realized that without God in my life I could not get ahead, or be a good parent, a good child, a good husband or a good friend.  I had to accept the love that God was giving me through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross (John 3:16).
 I thank God for every day that He has given me the wisdom to understand what He wants with my life and my family.  For me it was important to understand that nothing belongs to me, my family or my wife or my children or all material things; that everything belongs to God and that I am only an administrator.  This has shown me that one should stop clinging to material things.  I feel very fortunate that God has called me to ministry and to serve as a lay pastor at La Fe.  I hope to live up to the expectations of God and that when it is all done He will speak well of me.

Cesar Soria is one of the Pastors at Faith Baptist Church in Cuenca, Ecuador