When did you trust Christ?
I grew up in a non-Christian family as the only child of my parents. My parents never attended a church. I could not imagine the existence of the world without a creator (I believed in God). Still, I did not know anything about the possibility of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I did not understand that I was lost without him and needed him as my Savior. I came to faith as a college student in August 1991 at an evangelistic summer retreat of the German IFES movement in Norway. When the gospel was presented to me (through Bible studies), I surrendered my life to Christ with a prayer.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
I pray that the YRM will help me in growing in my personal life with Christ, being blessed by the fellowship with other church leaders, sharing experiences and learning from them, and helping me grow in my leadership skills, but that the Lord might also use it in this transition into this new role of principal elder (full-time) at church and that he might help me to shape the (leadership) culture of the church and to develop His church as He wants. I hope that I will also be able to share what I learn in the YRM with my church leadership and help them grow.
What is your ministry?
I have been leading the missionary team of SEND International in Spain for the last five and a half years. Now, I will focus on my ministry as an elder of the local church in Guadalajara. I have been a missionary in Spain with SEND International for almost 19 years, involved in college ministry, church planting, and mission leadership. The church in Guadalajara was started in 2007 by missionaries and was registered in 2013. It has 31 members. There is no pastor. In 2018, we started a hand-off of leadership to a national leader, but it didn't work out
