Ambassadors for Jesus Christ

I was born in the mountains of Honduras in a poor village of Santa Maria without electricity in May of 1986. I am the first daughter of 9 siblings, and I grew up in an area where the girls were not allowed to attend school, but my parents, especially my father, worked very hard to allow me to attend school. 

I was not raised in a Christian home but a secular home heavily influenced by Catholic culture. Growing up in my village, I witnessed a lot of wrongs with how men treated women, and I had my own bad experiences that caused me to distrust all men. I had no dream to become a mother or start a family because of what I had experienced. So at the age of 15, I had planned on entering a convent of nuns. I tried to join, but the priest told me to wait one more year to see if I actually wanted to join. I was told that I would never be allowed to see my own family ever again. This news regarding my family scared me, so I never joined. 

Because of my parents, I became the very first girl to ever graduate with a high school education. In 2004, at the age of 18, my parents sent me to the city of San Pedro Sula to become the first of my village to ever attend a University. It was here in San Pedro Sula that I was introduced to “the church” because God had placed a young missionary couple in my path. They invited me to church, and I attended that night. The Pastor gave an invitation, and I went forward and was led in a prayer. I thought I was saved when I repeated that prayer. 

While the young missionary couple mentored me, I began working in an orphanage that was owned and managed by a Church. It was during this time that my desires to have a family changed from not wanting to have one, to suddenly wanting to one day have a family of my own. I saw how the young, missionary husband treated his wife, and it was the first time I had seen how a husband should treat his wife and what a healthy couple and family actually looked like. So I began to pray for a husband who had specific characteristics. 

Five years later, I met another missionary couple from Georgia who were much older than the younger couple, but were great friends with each other. The older couple ministered to the people of the streets of San Pedro Sula who struggled with prostitution and drugs. They graciously allowed me to stay at their home and serve with them while I attended college. This older couple attended an English-speaking, international church that met in a hotel conference room. In January of 2011, they would introduce me to a young man named Will, who had just arrived in Honduras to serve another ministry. 

Will and I were encouraged by everyone to get together and teach one another our languages. Will could not speak Spanish, and I could speak little to no English. We quickly became friends, and in April of 2011, we began dating while not being able to speak each other’s language. We were engaged in December of 2012. In 2013, because he did not have enough support, Will and I had to separate temporarily so he could return to the States and start earning a living for both of us and to begin the process for me to immigrate to the United States legally. In February 2014, Will and I were reunited and married. Will had met every characteristic that I had prayed for in a husband.