It’s been a privilege for me to work with Pastor Walter Herrera, who started six churches in Argentina (five of them in the province of Buenos Aires and one in La Rioja). He trained pastors for each of these churches and now there are more than 1,300 people that are being discipled in these churches. In 2006, I was able to assist him in getting a Religious Workers Visa so that he could come to the United States to plant a church. Together with his wife, Rosanna, they started Iglesia el Gigante es Jesucristo in Castaic, California. They began worshiping in a home, then they moved their services to Sunday afternoons at Lake Hills Church. Just a few months ago, they were able to move into a leased facility (just around the corner from my first office as pastor of Lake Hills Church).
Pastor Walter’s vision is: “To preach the gospel to all living creatures, guiding them towards salvation and maturity as disciples of Christ. To develop in that person a solid spiritual life, both socially and among families, so that he can impact the world around him.”
I have a vision to plant churches that will in time grow more with the word and grow more in numbers as well; so that they in turn can reproduce and start new churches as well. I will work by establishing elders and leaders that will be prepared to work in ministry just like the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 4:11, 12.
To begin this vision I wish to target the Hispanics and their families that live in the Castaic area and even areas around Castaic. I also wish to establish churches wherever there are people who have converted and not wait for them all to come to the temple, instead I would start a new church along with them.
I so appreciate Pastor Walter’s commitment and dedication to the task of church planting.
I am well aware that all this will require a lot of time and effort but this is what I have been sent to do with the help and grace of God. I didn’t come here to see what happens; I have come with precise orders, convinced of what God expects from me. I will work my hardest but I know that even then I have the best help I can get from God. I am not here to try anything; I only want to serve in that which God has called me to do.
I was so blessed recently to celebrate the church’s second anniversary, and to preach (with a translator). Please pray for them as they seek to reach “a new generation of Hispanics, and in some cases even grandchildren of Hispanic immigrants, who are bilingual.” Recognizing that most of the Hispanics that come to this country have a religious background in Catholicism, they are “even more determined to present to them the gospel of forgiveness and freedom in Jesus.”
In my role as a missionary to the United States with OC International, I hope to partner with many church planters to start ethnic churches and multi-ethnic churches to reach our nation and the nations among us!
