I was born in El Salvador and spent almost eleven years of my life there. I was a curious, active, independent boy in my childhood. I was highly curious and liked to explore nature. I climbed avocado and mangoes trees, went walking in canyons and rivers with friends, and herded animals. Discovering new things was my favorite thing to do. I went to a rural school. I remember my walks to school through a dirt wall trail. I thought it was fun. I was very diligent in school and had good grades.
I enjoyed outdoor games in the night with friends. Arranca cebolla (people tug a war), mica (freeze tag), A la vívora de la mar (the serpent of the sea) and salta cuerda (jump rope) were some I remember. Singing silly “Ronda Songs” like “Los pollos de mi casuela” were part of nightly games.
I had very little supervision by my mom who was a meat dealer at the mercado (market). My older sisters (at the time four of them lived at home, two of them adults) didn’t guide me either. I don’t remember any formal intentional instruction on how to live life or anything else. I learned by “discovering” the world.
When I was ten, we moved to the closest city of mejicanos. I got to know modern amenities such as running water, flushing toilets, and showers. After this we moved to a wood shop that my uncle owned who had moved to the United States. I started 5th grade and about halfway we moved to the United States. I started 6th grade while we lived in Los Angeles for a year.
Then we moved to Orange County and went to Intermediate (Middle) school for 7th grade. While we were there our family got invited to a Baptist church. We had never gone to a Christian church. I do remember that as a kid I had gone to a service in Mariona where I lived. But I never really got involved or got interested. It was in Santa Ana where the church was that I first heard the Gospel. Eventually I trusted Christ during an evangelistic meeting.
From this point on I had a man named Jimmy that took me along and I was able for the first time to see what a Christian marriage and family looked like. I was introduced to Christian music, Amy Grant and Keith Green, the latter which I still listen. He left to go to the military, then went into ministry. I helped him a couple of times while he did church planting in another city in California. He went on to become a pastor at a church in New Mexico where he still is a pastor after 27 years. We are still friends, and I value our friendship. He is like my older brother that I didn’t have (I do have one but never lived with me or my side of the family).
Then came my youth pastor who mentored me as well in areas of ministry. He only had a daughter then and so I became like his son. He was very temperamental and had issues with anger. I learned the good things and ignored the bad things. Eventually this was problematic because he exploded publicly in anger towards people including his wife. It was very embarrassing. He is still a pastor, and is currently planting a church. Regardless of his weaknesses, I learned a lot from him about ministry perhaps more than from anyone else.
My friend Mark, our first youth leader also mentored me, teaching about leadership, administration, taught me how to play the guitar, got me started memorizing Scripture as he learned from the Navigators when he was in the Navy. He also instilled in me the passion of reading, especially biographies.
The first book was about the life of Jim Elliot who became a martyr for the cause of Christ. He was the son-in-law of the pastor and was charged with starting the youth group. He had a strong personality and ideas that put him at odds with others. Regardless of his weaknesses, I admired him (he was the first “Caucasian” that I was close to) in how he intentionally discipled his children, though at times he was rough. He eventually left the church and went his way; I think it was because he was trying to become a missionary. He died of a heart attack in his fifties. We went to his funeral. His investment proved to be very fruitful in my life. I am very grateful for his life.
These three men gave me much of what I became. I became a self-learned young man by reading books about the Bible and the Christian life. I was a ferocious reader and became an avid reader. My passion for teaching became dominant in my life. And it has continued. I served in the church in all aspects including preaching. I loved it. This is where I know God called me to become a pastor which led me to prepare for ministry.
I continued to learn about preaching through several other pastors. I listened to John MacArthur on the radio, bought the study guides and studied the Scriptures daily. I was spellbound by the way he could explain the Scriptures verse by verse. Another local pastor in a local church where our Senior pastor was sent as a missionary, was instrumental in teaching me how to preach with passion with a clear outline. He preached and explained the text giving much of the background of the text. I sat under his teaching for at least a year, and this also helped me a lot and formed me in the way I preached thereafter. I also learned from Chuck Swindoll (He turned ninety years old this month and formally retired from preaching.), who was then a pastor in a city nearby. I listened to him on the radio and read several of his books. From him, I learned the art of communicating in a creative way using stories and quotes from good authors. It is from him that I first learned about C.S. Lewis who has become one of my favorites. I got introduced to A.W. Tozer, and many others influential Christian writers.
My personal ethics and morality were also influenced by an organization called Focus on the Family started by James Dobson. I was introduced to them by my friend Mark and begin to listen to their broadcast and became informed through their literature that helped me understand the Christian worldview. Much of what I believe now about family and morality was formed by what I learned from this organization.
My Bible college experience also formed me. Academically, it was easy because I had studied a lot on my own and had already a diploma in theology. I was recently married, and we had two kids, and we decided to move to another State. With an offer of $300 a month from a small Baptist church to be their pastor we moved with our family. The first six months were not easy, and we depended on savings. After this, my wife got a job, and I also left the pastor position and focused on my education. Financially, this was our hardest, but we learned to depend on the Lord and on good budget management.
Three of my professors come to mind that helped me in my Christian formation. South African, Dr. Peter Flint, a Dead Sea Scroll scholar who taught me Hebrew for three Semesters. He was small in stature but had a great gentle heart. He guided me as I learned the basics of classical Hebrew. During my graduation, he gave me a commentary on Psalms and Ruth as an award from the American Bible Society as a “student who has demonstrated excellence and consistency in Biblical Studies and Biblical Languages”. I have no idea why I received it because I struggled to learn Hebrew. I felt frustrated spending many hours translating passages from the Old Testament. It’s hard to believe he is already gone with Jesus.
Professor Steve Sonmor, a former missionary to the Philippines helped me to keep a passion for missions and for evangelism. Our time going to Mexico on a missionary trip was memorable. I enjoyed our conversations and his stories about his experiences as a missionary. Professor Tim Reed, youth pastor helped me to see that college education was not just for the head but for the heart and feet. His assignments often challenged us to live our lives faithful disciples of Christ. I wrote my obituary as an assignment, and it is so interesting to read it now. I read In His Steps for the first time as an assignment and it has become one of my favorite Christian novels. My time in bible college was short, only two years and after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor in Bible we moved back to California.
I started my Master of Divinity as soon as we moved back and became part of a Southern Baptist church. The next three years were very practical and helpful since at this point, I also became a church planter which lasted for six years. Going to school full-time and being a church planter wasn’t easy but it was what God lead me to pursue.
Several men stand out during this time that impacted my life. Professor Thom Wolfe who taught missions. He was then a pastor in East Los Angeles that took a dying church and helped her become a multiethnic church and a hub for missions. The church sent more missionaries than many other churches back them. His passion to take the Gospel to the nations was contagious. He often shared and wept as he taught. My wife who also took his course, was impacted as well. He went on to serve in India. Pastor Wolfe continued to affirm our call for missions as the church not only here but abroad. This has led me to understand what God wants to do here in America to reach those from other nations and learn how they can be instrumental in carrying out the Great Mandate. The second person that influenced me was my preaching and theology professor John Shouse. I had the privilege of taking two semesters with him, one on advanced preaching were there were only two of us. I appreciated his words to me when he said he liked me as a preacher. With his background in Shakespearean theater, he taught me that a message was woven as movements, it was all linked together. This helped me become a better preacher seeing it as a theatrical piece with a series of movements that lead to a conclusion helping hearers apply the Word of God. Finally, Don Overstreet whose classes on church planting helped me navigate as I strived to plant a church among Hispanics. His heart for reaching the lost through church planting was evident. He was gentle but exuded a passion that has helped me understand that the best way to reach the lost is through church planting. He went home with the Lord in 2017.
These years as a church planter were hard and eventually, I left ministry and went into full time teaching. I decided I would no longer be in ministry ever again. But God had a different plan. After six years of not been involved in ministry, God called me again and after nine years I am still serving as a pastor.
Many times, while I was growing, even as a young adult, I felt lonely. At times I felt sad and cast down. At home I was the only man, but I was not treated like a man. I was expected to act like the man of the house without knowing how to be one. At church I was a leader but I was younger than most of my peers and so I was seen differently, and I did not connect well with many of them because of this. But it was there that God gave me a wonderful wife that has been my helpmate for most of my life. She, like no other has made a huge difference in my life and who I am now.
In retrospect I know that not having a father and not having any instruction as a child affected me. But God knew this, long before he created me. He knew what I would be, what I am now, what I will be in the future and prepared the path for me. He’s been my guide, the Good Shepherd whose rod and staff comfort me. I follow him. He uses me even though I don’t have exceptional qualities. Nothing can make me worthy because I am worthy enough through Christ. Yet, I know serving him is a privilege, an act of grace from Him. I don’t take it for granted. This morning, I didn’t think all of this. But my initial feelings of being alone prompted me to think these things (I have often included these into my conversations with the Lord). In the process of reminiscing, it brought a remembrance of my joyful childhood, and the path God has led me through in my life. I am grateful. I’ve been given a lot. I don’t ever want to take it for granted.
