Theological Education/Discipleship Ministry Lima, Peru

Eder is serving in two different capacities. He helps to teach hundreds of people from all over Latin America through the on-line discipleship class that is run by the brothers in Barranco. He also teaches discipleship classes at La Iglesia Bautista del Salvador in Barranco (Lima).

Testimony and Calling

In 2008, God, by His Grace, just as He commanded that light shine in the darkness, shone in my heart to illuminate in me the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  John 3:8 says “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The work of salvation is a supernatural and sovereign work that surpasses my understanding. “The wind blows where it wishes… but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going,” but being that it is a supernatural work of God it is impossible that this work take place unperceived because there is clear evidence when a person “hears the sound of it.” What I am trying to say is that I cannot fully explain the work of salvation in my life. When did it happen? How did it happen? This isn’t all completely clear to me but I can testify of the fruits of the work of God in my life. I don’t know precisely the day and hour of my salvation but I do know that something supernatural happened in me. It’s my desire to use this opportunity to share with you God’s inexplicable work of salvation in me and to praise the glory of His Grace.

I was born on the 22nd of April, 1990 into a family made up of my father, Leonicio M., my mother, Maria S., and my brother, Cesar M. My family, by tradition, was Catholic. I don’t remember much about my childhood but I do remember clearly that I had a very evil heart. I grew up hating my father and brother because they abused me verbally. I dreamed of growing up and killing them one day. I was very prideful and wicked and I did so many terrible things that I wouldn’t even be able tell them all to my best friend. When I turned 15, a cousin of mine invited me to a charismatic evangelical congregation called Living Water which works with Vision G12. When I went to that congregation I made my “decision for Christ” and they sent me to an “encounter” which was supposedly a three-day Christian retreat.  I later started taking G12 classes and continued for about two years and during that time I became the leader of a youth group and became part of the music ministry at Living Water.  From my prospective, everything was great.  It appeared that my life had changed and that I had found the truth.

In early 2008 (I don’t remember the exact date), my mom told me that a friend of mine had been looking for me because he wanted to give me a DVD.  Tito was a friend of mine who lived across the street and who went to the church on the corner called the Baptist Church of the Savior of Barranco.  One day I ran into him and he told me that he wanted to give me a DVD of a sermon from a youth conference.  My first thought was, “What’s this guy going to teach me? He goes to some tiny church and he thinks he can teach me something? I’m a youth leader and I’m in a church that has thousands of members.” That was my attitude at first but I took the DVD anyway so he would stop bothering me about it. That very day I went home and watched the video. I remember it was called “The Narrow Path – Paul Washer.” From the first moment that I started watching the sermon I noticed that something was different about it. I had never heard anybody pray like he did. I was used to men making promises and bragging about their “anointing”, but on that DVD I saw a man praying in humility asking God to be gracious. I remember that while I was watching that sermon tears started rolling down my cheeks and at the end I could only come to the one conclusion that according to the Bible I wasn’t a Christian. I saw that my life was not in line with the Scriptures and that although my outward behavior had changed I was still ungodly in my heart. I saw my sin clearly and felt deserving of God’s condemnation for having preached a different gospel for three years. I felt a deep pain for having taken the Scripture so lightly and for having taught a false gospel.

At that moment I really didn’t know what was happening but now I know that God saved me, turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh, made me be born again, and opened my eyes so that I could see my sin and His Great Salvation in Jesus Christ. I truly deserved the wrath and the condemnation of God but in His Grace He enabled me to see, by faith, the Salvation that there is in His Son Jesus Christ. What happened that day is something that I can’t explain but what I can say is that something supernatural happened. From that moment my eyes were opened and I saw the Scriptures in a new way and my only desire was to know God more. By the grace of God I had a new desire to know the Scriptures better. I remember that I went back to my friend Tito who had given me the DVD and I told him, “I’m not interested in being a leader of multitudes anymore. I don’t want to be a great musician anymore either. Now, all that matters to me is knowing Jesus Christ and His Gospel, so please teach me more of the Scriptures.” I remember that Tito very gladly started to teach me more about the gospel and at the same time I starting finding sermons on the internet about the true gospel, the cross, justification, regeneration, sin, repentance, and faith.

I was overjoyed to be studying the Scriptures but now I had a problem. Every time I would go to my charismatic congregation I would hear the preachers saying things that were unbiblical that left a deep pain in my heart. I would hear them preach the prosperity gospel and by the grace of God I could see that it wasn’t the gospel of Jesus Christ. I just couldn’t stand it. The more that God permitted me to know the Scriptures, the more the pain grew in my heart when I heard their false doctrine. For three months I preached the gospel to the young people that I was in charge of and my family as well as my leaders but they told me that I was confused and prideful and that I needed to submit myself to the teachings of that congregation’s pastors. I remember one time I was playing music with the band there and they had the lights out and people were jumping up and down like crazy and I felt a very deep pain in my heart and all I could do was hang my head and look at the floor and ask God for forgiveness for everything that was going on there.

Three months after having heard the only true gospel I was getting really sick of being at that congregation and at that point the pastors there decided to kick me out for preaching the gospel. They told me that they weren’t going to let me preach the gospel in that place. It was very sad and painful for me to see all the people who had said that they loved me turning their backs on me, telling me to leave, lying, and insulting me. But at the same time in the deepest part of me there was a great sense of joy for having done the will of God. In the midst of the insults and rejection there was joy in my heart because God had saved me from my sin and error. I was a young man deserving of the condemnation of God. I had preached a different gospel and had deceived a lot of people, telling them to just repeat a little prayer to be saved. I was a young man enslaved to sin but God saved me by His great Mercy and Grace. He saved me and I know that it wasn’t for me but rather for love of His Name. From that point on I starting going to the Church of the Savior and it was very comforting to find brothers in the Faith there, brothers who confessed the Gospel of the Scriptures. God has also given me the joy of seeing my mother saved as well as a few friends who had gone to G12 and whose eyes were opened to the true Gospel.

God saved me and since then my only desire has been to glorify Him, to know Him more, and to proclaim His excellencies. By His grace, God has enabled me to learn more of His Word and he has also graciously enabled me to preach the Gospel. I met a brother named Alfonso N. who now teaches me to preach the gospel with his life. I met Pastor Martin Z. and various missionaries from HeartCry and it was a great blessing to be able to learn together with them. A short time later God permitted me to go on a mission trip up into the mountains with brother Ryan R. and Jaime C. and after that God permitted me to go study at Grace Ministry Academy in the Dominican Republic which is affiliated with Grace Baptist Church. That was a time of much blessing during which I learned more about the greatness of God. It was a time when God was shaping my heart, a time when God let me grow in the Church, and a time of God confirming more and more my desire to serve Him. It was a huge blessing to meet Juan Jose P. and the pastors of that congregation. I must say that God has used Juan Jose to shape my heart; he is a great friend and brother and I love him deeply in the Lord.

It doesn’t matter to me what this world can offer. My unbelieving father’s desire to be a great professional doesn’t interest me nor does the thought of having a big house or a nice car or a lot of money. He has saved me and He has made me His son by Grace through Jesus Christ and I want to take up my cross every day, follow Him, and proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. I have died and lost my life that I might know the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. My desire is that my strength, my voice, and my days be solely for the knowledge and service of Christ.

God, by His Grace, permitted me to go on a few trips with Pastor Martin and it truly is a great joy and privilege to serve God. Being a servant of the Lord isn’t easy and the things of the Lord cannot be taken lightly. On these trips I have been able to see that being a servant of the Lord demands great responsibility but that at the same time God gives the grace for one to serve Him. It is a joy to serve Him, but not the kind of joy that depends on the circumstances but rather the joy that comes from knowing that He has saved me and that He has made me His son. He is worthy to be served joyfully. I have had the opportunity to travel to a few places such as Chile and the jungle of Peru and it is a great joy to proclaim the Glory of Christ in the Gospel and to see God’s people in those places. God has also permitted me to see the great need that there is today, the need for faithful men who are able to teach, men who know God and the Scriptures and who are willing to take up their cross. God is raising up His people and He has placed in me a desire to serve Him and I pray that God might give me the Grace to be a faithful servant.

Currently I am teaching a discipleship class on Sundays together with Junior C. It is a joy for us to serve the Lord in His Church and it is our desire to know Him more and more every day and to see more clearly the greatness of His glory and to give our lives for the praise of the Glory of His Grace.