TESTIMONY AND CALL TO MINISTRY:
I was born into a Catholic household. When I was eight years old, my aunt invited my brother and I to a meeting of children and teenagers at the church I now serve in a pastoral capacity.
It was there that I heard about a God of grace and love for the first time, but I really didn’t understand more than that. It would be at least three more years before my spiritual reality, one of sin, was evident to me. There were several times that I found my hand raising for the altar call during sermons, camps, activities, and the sinner’s prayer, but I didn’t really understand what I was deciding or believing.
At this time in my life, my dad was a policeman, and the environment in which we lived was influenced by sin, alcohol, and corruption. This brought a spiritual need to my mother, and so the Lord reached out to her. Thus, our church attendance was more regular.
When I was twelve, the light of the Word revealed to me that I was a sinner; deserving of condemnation. There was nothing I could do. This awakened a deep desire for the truth within me, and from that young age, God urged me to read His Word in a search for what was real.
God wanted me to look for answers, and it was in that pursuit that I realized that only Christ could rescue me from eternal punishment. Christ alone could rescue me for an inheritance of eternal life.
I repented of my sins, and embraced Christ completely. God had saved me, and His efforts had been for the sovereign work of making me born again.
At the same time, in the Lord’s providence, my dad was being called to salvation in an exceptional way through an accident suffered by my brother. Thus, my entire family attended church. Despite the many difficulties of adolescence, temptation, and struggles with the flesh, I began to get involved in the church.
I was a part of the youth ministry, and learned to play the guitar for the worship service.
When I was sixteen, after a youth camp, I returned to church with a new longing in my heart; a new desire to prepare myself biblically for the Lord.
I was able to travel to a biblical seminary in Argentina for training. In my second year of study, I was reading Revelation 19:7, where God reveals that the church is referred to as a bride adorned and prepared for marriage to the Lamb.
As I looked at the New Testament, I noticed that those whom the Lord calls to instruct the saints are called “pastors.” In this way, the Lord was calling me to pastoral ministry: a burden was placed in my heart to love Christ’s church in an altogether more substantial way.
In my time at the seminary, I met my wife, Ailén, and when we returned to Ecuador in 2015 from our theological studies, we married. We shared the same desire to serve the Lord and His church.
A month after marriage, the elders of my church proposed for me to stay in order to serve as a pastor leading and teaching the youth group. I was also asked to host Bible studies in a nearby rural community called Jambelí. Thus, my longing to edify the church of Christ was increased.
In the next seven years, the Lord also gave me two beautiful children; Abril Natalia and Lucas Bautista.
I was also able to advance my studies at the Confessional Baptist Seminary of Ecuador, where my drive for pastoral care and missions was confirmed and refined. After my graduation from the seminary in September of 2021, I received a proposal from Pastor Jorge Rodriguez to support a group of brothers in Quito and the Valle de los Chillos (about an hour and a half away from the city where we lived.) This is how the beautiful work began, has progressed, and has grown.
We have now seen confirmation from the Lord to start a church there.
During these years of walking in the Christian life, the Lord has taught, grown, challenged, and guided me in every step. I always saw his hand sustaining and protecting me. My faults are very great, yes, but I know that His grace is greater. My prayer is that my life reflects Christ, and that he will continue to help me know Him, and to reveal Him to those around me.