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For 25 years, Maria Elena
Valencia prayed that her husband Fernando would come
to know God personally. After years of waiting for
an answer, she struck a deal that paved the way for
Fernando to discover Jesus in a whole new way–
uniting their marriage and their vision as never
before.
Fernando walked through the
apartment. It was just what he needed. The right
size. Reasonable price. Furnished. As the owner’s
daughter, Maria Elena, showed him around, he knew
this was the place for him. But one factor made the
apartment an even better deal – perhaps it would
permit him the opportunity to get to know Maria
Elena better.
He immediately agreed to rent the
place and in the days to follow he not so subtly
began to bring the monthly rent check personally to
Maria Elena’s home. Eventually he invited her on a
date. A year later they married.
In the years that followed, Fernando
built one of Ecuador’s largest advertising firms.
Headquartered in a large office building and with
advertising accounts that included major firms such
as Philip Morris, business was very good.
He was successful and confident in
his abilities – living life and making decisions
according to what he thought was best. Born and
raised in the Catholic Church, Fernando was educated
in Catholic schools and regularly attended mass. But
his faith was largely ceremonial and largely
disconnected from his day-to-day life.
“For more than 50 years I attended
mass at the [Catholic] Church. It is very sad to say
that during those years I never touched, never
opened the Bible,” Fernando laments. “Fifty four
years that I lost getting to know the Word and Our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
Maria Elena’s spiritual background
was very different. Like most Ecuadorians her family
was originally Catholic. But when Maria Elena was 4
years old, a relative led her mother to faith in
Christ. As a result, Maria Elena grew up in an
evangelical church. By her own admission, however,
she went through times where she did not walk
closely with the Lord. “But I always had Him in my
heart,” she says.
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Fernando and Maria Elena
with a short term medical missions team from
Fairhaven Church in Dayton, Ohio. “The
medical missions are focused on the very,
very poor people,” Fernando explains. “I now
know the kinds of needs they have and this
has touched my heart.” |
After marrying Fernando, the
difference in their beliefs became an increasing
concern. While they lived together, they both
functioned very independently from one another
because of their differing priorities. Through those
years Maria Elena was growing in her faith and began
praying that Fernando would come to know God in a
very real and personal way. But months became years.
Years became decades. Nevertheless, she continued
praying patiently for nearly 25 years.
“I was stubborn,” says Fernando. “In
a very intelligent way she didn’t push me to change.
She took things very slowly.”
After more than two decades of
marriage, they struck a deal. Maria Elena would come
with Fernando to his church one week and then
Fernando would go with Maria Elena to her church the
next. At the time, Maria Elena was attending the El
Batán Church – an Encounter with God congregation in
central Quito. When Batán started a new church in
the suburb of Cumbayá, they switched and began
attending there.
As time went by, Fernando began to
sense a real difference in his experience at the
Cumbayá Church.
“When I was going to church with her
I started to learn how faith connects with God.
Before I used to pray all the time in the Catholic
Church, but the prayers were practically without
meaning sometimes. At that time I started to learn
how to communicate with God.”
And God began communicating with
Fernando. Fernando joined Maria Elena at the Cumbayá
Church permanently. In time he began to feel
convicted about the products that his advertising
firm marketed.
“Some of my best clients were
companies like Philip Morris selling cigarettes and
liquor. We used to advertise scotch, whisky, rum,
vodka and all those. But after I joined the church I
started to turn down those clients.”
His business began to suffer the
loss of these clients and after he was baptized at
the Cumbayá Church, Fernando decided to close the
company for good. Today, he is largely retired
though he does work part time from home cultivating
investments in real estate and foreign exchange.
“I think the most important change
in Fernando is that [now] he depends on God for
everything we do,” says Maria Elena. We count on
God’s will. That is something that at one time
Fernando didn’t do. He did what he thought was best.
We pray to God a lot and we try to do what God wants
us to do.”
Doing what God wants them to do has
led them to a new season in their life and marriage.
Fernando and Maria Elena have embraced roles serving
as part of a team comprised of people from various
Encounter churches in Quito that help facilitate
international ministry groups visiting in connection
with CMI and partner churches from the United
States.
“One of the best things now is that
I am [ministering] together with my wife,” says
Fernando.
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Fernando and Maria Elena
with their daughter Maria Jose. “It’s a
wonderful experience,” says Maria Elena, “to
share with my husband the same feelings, the
same hope and to be able to pray together as
a couple and as a family.” |
Through their work together they
have been especially instrumental in facilitating
medical missions teams from CMI partners like the
Fairhaven and Hudson Chapel churches from Ohio. In
this role, the Valencias work with the network of
Encounter with God churches in Quito to partner
alongside teams of medical professionals from the
Ohio churches.
“The medical missions are focused on
the very, very poor people,” Fernando explains.
“That has had an effect on me. I developed an
interest for helping people now that I have been in
contact with them through these medical missions. I
now know the kinds of needs they have and this has
touched my heart.”
“We see the people who are suffering
because of bad health and because they are poor. It
makes us aware [of their needs],” adds Maria Elena.
“You look at people in a different way – in love –
wanting to help as much as you can. They are just
like us except they have much less. But there is one
thing we have in common and that is God.”
As a result, the Valencias and
others are working to develop a foundation to help
provide ongoing care for people beyond the
short-term medical teams. Moreover, they are sharing
their faith and inviting friends to bible studies.
They know the influence that others in their level
of society can have and believe that churches like
Cumbayá are uniquely placed to reach other
influential professionals.
“Our purpose [at Cumbayá] is to find
more souls for the Lord,” says Fernando.
Best of all, through their shared
commitment to Christ, they are doing it together.
For Maria Elena, that is a dream come true.
“I always tell women who have the
same kind of relationship that I had with my husband
to never stop praying because it comes. It took
about 25 years of praying. It’s a wonderful
experience to share with my husband the same
feelings, the same hope and to be able to pray
together as a couple, as a family, with the same
communication and the same wishes to be able to
really be in touch with God and be able to work for
Him.”
Through their lives and others like
them at the Cumbayá Church, many more will
undoubtedly discover the same joy.
EQ Spring 2009 Issue Main Page
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