Raised in the church, Henry Flores walked away from God in his teens. “I began to get lost in alcohol. I let my friends carry me away,” says Henry. He tried but couldn’t beat his addiction on his own.
When he had children, Henry began to see his need for Jesus again. “I told my wife that we were going to start attending church. I saw the need in my life, and I rested in God’s promise that He would finish the work He had begun in me.”
Back in a church family and reconciled with God, Henry found the freedom he had desired for so long. Since then his heart has been committed to serving God. When his denomination invited him to be part of their long-term strategy to plant churches, Henry accepted. He was trained through a Bible League Canada joint ministry partner.
“[The training] has been very helpful… With more ways to talk about the Word, we are reaching people,” he says. “We always want to have more tools for the work of the Kingdom of God.”
When deciding where to plant a church, Henry was moved by the spiritual hunger of people in the Berlín neighbourhood of Guatemala’s Retalhuleu region. One family joined him and then two more. Now, around 15 people belong to the new church and are being discipled.
Not everyone in the community wants to hear about Jesus, but most will accept prayer from people in the church. “One day I was visiting a lady and she began to have a lot of pain in her stomach. We prayed for her and she received healing. She is now part of our group!” Testimonies like this have allowed the people, little by little, to see that God is real and that they can reach out to Him.
Henry continues his important work, knowing that men and women just like him need to be reconciled with God. He knows that he is part of a growing movement that is trying to bring real change to Guatemala and help the country to heal from problems related to poverty, drugs, and violence.