Soon after Rufino and his family became Christians, this family in Honduras decided to move from La Guacamaya to a new city. But it didn’t take long for them to have to move again. In fact, they had to move back to La Guacamaya.
Why the sudden change?
They realized that their friends and family in their hometown needed to hear the Word of God. They had personally seen how Jesus transformed their lives from the inside out, and they couldn’t stand the thought that their community didn’t know the same transforming power.
Rufino felt God telling him that since God had rescued him from his life of sin and darkness, he should go and spread the Good News to everyone he knew.
Upon returning to La Guacamaya, Rufino was approached by his pastor.
“Pastor Roberto invited me to participate in training to start new churches,” Rufino says. That meant traveling two hours to receive the training in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Despite the long distance, Rufino didn’t hesitate. He knew this was an answer to prayer. God had called him to share the Gospel and now God was providing a way to do just that.
“I loved everything about the training to start new churches,” says Rufino. “We have learned many new and different things. They give you practical tools to start churches.”
The work is not without its challenges, however. “There are people who do not want to know about the Gospel because of the bad examples of other Christians who have come before us,” Rufino says. “Those experiences are like weeds to our work. However, we are seeing that people are slowly receiving us and want to hear and learn more”
During this whole process, Rufino has appreciated the support from Pastor Roberto, who is acting as his mentor, and his wife María. Bible League Canada’s Starting New Churches program encourages all local champions to have the support of their mother church and their spouse so the local champion is never alone in this work.
Equipped with what he is learning at Bible League Canada’s training, Rufino walks more than 40 minutes to take the Gospel to the people of San Juancito, another community close to the area where he lives.
His goal, with your continued support, is to start more churches in the surrounding area and see the Holy Spirit multiply the harvest.