Pastor, Oasis de Villa, Lima, Peru

Dario is pastoring the church “New Life” in the district of Oasis de Villa in the southern area of Lima. The area is very poor. The church has approximately 20 active members

 

Testimony and Calling

I had the opportunity to attend a Baptist church as a child with my aunt and uncle. When my parents and I moved I no longer attended church and at the time I had no conviction that I was saved.

When I was a youth, I sporadically attended the youth group at my aunt and uncle's church, without showing any signs of conversion. When I was 19 I was invited to attend a church anniversary at the church that was very close to where I lived. It was incredible that I continued attending because at first none of the other youth wanted to greet me or talk with me because of my bad reputation.

After six months some of the other youth began to greet me, sit with me, and invite me to whatever event they were having. I couldn't believe it, I was so happy. I had already given up partying with my friends; I had gone six months without drinking or smoking. I'm not sure how, but during this time it was like I was invisible to my worldly friends. One time they asked me where I had been for so long. This question gave me pause and after thinking about it for a few minutes I concluded that I was a Christian. Even though my friend did not understand my response, I did.

With my profession of faith the problems began. Some of my friends reproached me, some made fun of me, and others became angry with me. Even my father got angry with me. My friends continued to pursue me and to try to get me to sin with them. On one occasion I fell into sin with them. The fall was very painful and I felt miserable. I was no longer the same; God had worked a miracle in my life without my knowing it.

I became the black sheep of my family, as they happily called me, since I was the only Evangelical in the family. This went on for about two years of my life. For personal reasons I ended up moving to San Sebastian in the state of Cusco. When I got there I immediately began attending a Baptist church. It was in San Sebastian that I decided that I needed to be baptized. I was baptized in August of 1989. I then spent some time working in each of the ministries of the church; Sunday School, youth group, and evangelism.

My church decided to search for a co-pastor to help the church since the membership had grown and since the church had several missions that it worked with. At this point an older man from the congregation posed this question to the church: "Why are we going to look for a co-pastor when we have a brother right here in the church who does all of the things that we would get a co-pastor to do? Why don't we just recognize this brother as the co-pastor?" He also recommended that the church begin paying me and the church agreed. That is how my life in the ministry began.

After this I was elected secretary of the Association of Pastors of the Inca Region. At a family camp (affiliated with the Association) I was involved in an accident; I was electrocuted by touching a power line. I had to go to Lima for rehabilitation and while there I began attending Maranatha Baptist Church. I was married at that church and I also served God there and the pastor as Timothy did for Paul (as a son with his father). I served there for five years.

While at Maranatha Baptist Church I served in different areas of the ministry. I even served as deacon for several years. During this time I also maintained a secular job. God provided for our needs during all of this time. Also during this time I never lost touch with my pastor from Cusco. Whenever he came to Lima he would come by my house and visit. We would talk about our children in the faith who today are pastors and missionaries and about the good old days when I was in the ministry. There was an emptiness in my life. Without realizing it my love for God had grown cold and I had come to love money and to care more about providing a home and nice things for my wife and my daughters. My wife felt responsible for this.

One day my pastor from Cusco arrived with another pastor from Lima; we talked a while about the work and then they left. After about a year both of them returned and they asked me if I would like to take over as pastor of a work in Oasis de Villa (a part of Lima). I was so happy to hear this question. The pastor told me that he had been praying for me for a year. I told him to simply let me know when I would get started. I didn't even need to give it a second thought. However, it occurred to me that I needed to speak about this with my wife and with my pastor. So, after the brothers left I shared with my wife what the brothers had told me. My wife told me that she had been praying for the Lord to give me a better job and she considered that the Lord had answered her prayer. She asked me when we could get started. I told her that I still needed to speak with our pastor.

My pastor encouraged me not to make a hasty decision. He told me that I should pray. At about this same time, my brother offered me a job that had an incredible salary. I shared this with my wife and she answered me that God had already answered our prayers and that she did not feel like God wanted me to accept the job with my brother. I then called the pastor from Lima that had spoken with me about the pastorate in Oasis and I shared with him about my desire to take over the work there. That is the story of how I came to be the Pastor of the church Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida of Oasis de Villa beginning in May of 2006