Pastor, Barranco, Lima, Peru

Walter has moved to Peru from Argentina and is working with Martin Zacarias in the Church of the Savior (Evangelism, Discipleship, and Preaching) and the Bible Institute. He is also translating material from Paul Washer’s study manuals and various Puritan authors for the Institute.

Testimony and Calling

At the age of 20, in 2003, a friend of mine invited me to go to an evangelistic campaign at a city which was 75 miles away from my house. That morning, I went out totally lost, but at night, when I got to my bed, laying on my bed without feeling sleepy, a deep terror came to me, showing my condition of ruin and condemnation, putting me under conviction of my sin and my necessity of a Savior. The certainty of the flames of the hell scared me in such a way that I understood that unless I came to Jesus I couldn’t be saved from condemnation. Now I understand God was calling me and though I thought I was resisting, God made His calling effective.

The following morning, there was an evangelistic campaign in my city with a group of people who came from the United States and I attended the meetings. I started seeking after God through His Word and the Lord had put love in my heart for my brothers of the church and I told my family about the meetings and invited them. The week went by and I attended the church on Sunday to keep learning more about the Lord and the pastor asked me to share about what Jesus had done in my life. He started a discipleship class with me and I began to grow in the knowledge of the Scriptures. Temptations came to my life soon, but the Lord was chastening me to change me into the image of my Lord Jesus.

Two years later I finished college and God allowed me the opportunity to study The Scriptures at a Bible institute named Word of Life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I spent two years there studying God’s Word and when I was finishing my second year somebody invited me to go to Peru. I didn’t want to go and I was resisting but God’s will is not resistible and He is Almighty so He showed me my doubts and my lack of obedience to His will. I left my home in January of 2007 with a conviction of God’s calling to Peru. I spent two months at Word of Life Peru serving at the camps and working with youth and I started to consider Peru as a place to serve the Lord.

I met Martin Zacarías there and we began a friendship with his family. I went back to Argentina but with the hope of coming back to Peru again. God brought me back in December of 2007, 8 month later, and Martin invited me to the Conference of HeartCry at the Baptist Church of the Savior in Barranco. God showed me by the preaching of Paul Washer, Randall Easter, and Paul Walker, that all I knew about the Savior were the things my understanding was able to reach, but it didn’t agree with God’s Word. The Doctrines of Grace and the true Gospel were displayed before me and the Scriptures illuminated me like the lights in the darkness. All the passages that were previously hidden to me shone in the face of the Gospel and doctrines such as election, predestination and total depravity of man.

I was under the conviction that God’s grace had worked in a tremendous way, showing how wrong I was. I went back to Argentina but with the conviction of serving the Lord in Peru. There were many opportunities for service, but I was learning more about His grace and understanding the need of doing all the things for God’s glory and not just for the sake of being busy. So I wanted to decide to trust in God’s sovereignty and providence according to His eternal plan. After many conversations with Martin Zacarías, meditations on God’s Word, and prayer to the Lord for His confirmation on His calling on my life, I left my country to serve the Lord at the Church in Barranco, Peru.

I am so thankful to God because He was good and He has provided in many ways and I must give all the glory to the Lord and thanks to the Muro Family for their hospitality, to Martin and His family and all brothers in the church of the Lord there in Barranco, for their love in the Lord. I pray the Lord confirms His calling by the means of His sovereign grace, trusting that He always causes us to triumph in Christ.

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen”. Ephesians 3:20-21