Local pastors are the heart of our ministry in Bread of Hope. They are the ones working each and every day in their communities reaching the Wayuu people for Christ. When our mission teams leave, they are the ones responsible for overseeing the discipleship process in new Wayuu believers. One of our most inspiring local pastors in Colombia is Jesualdo Gouriyu. Jesualdo is a passionate Wayuu servant of God who loves to see his own people come into God’s Kingdom. He is married to his wife Delia and together they have 4 beautiful children.
Jesualdo became a disciple of Christ in 2005. He was at the lowest point of his life struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. One night he received a vision from God and immediately ran to a pastor and asked for prayer, a week later he surrendered himself to Christ. Now, Jesualdo is currently the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Manaure, Colombia. He has been the pastor there for 2 ½ years. A few months ago our local staff gave him a Proclaimer during one of their mission trips. Pastor Jesualdo really cherished this gift and was using this same Proclaimer in 8 different Wayuu communities. He would carefully plan out his week to visit 1 or 2 different communities each day. These communities are very far apart and pastor Jesualdo would often travel by foot up to 4-7 miles to visit them in a very arid environment with temperatures easily reaching over 100°F. In these communities, people normally stay inside their homes during the day because of the extreme temperatures and the severe drought in their region. This hasn’t stopped pastor Jesualdo. He doesn’t make excuses. He will give everything to see His people come to Christ. This past March we were able to visit with Pastor Jesualdo and bring Proclaimers for each one of the communities his church is currently working with. These gifts were gold to him and his church. Pastor Jesualdo continues visiting each one of the groups and they are growing and multiplying. Two more groups have been added since we visited him in March. God is doing remarkable and powerful things through the faith of Jesualdo.
