Starting a Christian Church in La Paz, Mexico

If you would have asked us how to start a bilingual church in La Paz, Mexico, a few years ago, we would probably have answered, “We have no idea.” If you ask us today, we’ll answer with absolute sincerity, “By the grace of God.”

It’s true. God’s grace is sufficient for us. This has been proven over and over since arriving on the mission field in 2013 to start a nondenominational Christian church in La Paz. We didn’t speak Spanish, nor had we ever worked as senior pastors. And church planters? That’s not something we ever thought we might be called, nor was it something we thought we had the skills or talent to accomplish. But God is full of surprises for those who are willing to do what He wants.

So it’s God who got us started and God who will keep things going. But here are the top 5 things we did right that enabled God to use us in ways we never dreamed:

1. When we became believers, we told God we would do whatever He wanted us to do. And we meant it.
2. We served wherever there was a need. That means we cleaned many toilets. (According to our calculations, we cleaned 4,120 at our home church in the 17 years we were there.)
3. We agreed to taking on new challenges, even when we considered them ridiculously difficult.
4. We silenced the enemy who consistently came to question the plans of God.
5. We put our faith and obedience into action. When God said go, we got up and went.

Now that we’re pastors of a Christian church in La Paz, we’re still open to doing what God wants, to taking on new challenges, to fighting the good fight and moving forward with God’s plans. And, we’re still cleaning toilets.