Alferes’ Church

Several months ago, I stepped into our bookshop while Zarito was talking with a customer who was interested in purchasing large quantities of Bibles, including some in minority languages.  I joined the conversation and soon grew more interested in hearing Alferes’ testimony than in selling Bibles to him.  Sensing a divine call to bring the gospel to unreached people groups, he’d left his job for full-time ministry and connected with an African organization dedicated to that goal.  After a year and a half at its training center in Kenya, he and his wife returned here to their home country to seek out ethnicities that don’t yet have a thriving indigenous church.  That quest brought them to displaced populations concentrated in our own city, among whom they have planted a congregation.  Before we parted ways, Zarito and I exchanged contact information with Alferes and promised to visit his church.

We fulfilled that promise on July 19, together with Zaida and Marcelino, whom Zarito had invited to join us.  Pastor Alferes met us at the vehicle inspection post at the opposite end of town and led us for a mile through the neighborhood, riding his motorcycle while we followed in my vehicle.  I parked where he indicated and we set out on foot on the remaining narrow pathways to his home.  There we joined about 25 people gathered on his porch, singing and praying, mostly in our national language.  During the prayers, everyone interceded out loud at the same time regarding topics which the leader announced every few minutes:  salvation of the lost, healing for the sick, protection for travelers, and more.  Next, we contributed to the offering and listened as a woman preached from Jeremiah 17:9 on speaking kindly to those around us.  During the announcements at the end of the service, Pastor Alferes stood, as pictured here, to introduce the four of us visitors.  Then everyone mingled and shook hands, blessing one another with the peace of the Lord.

The other congregants left within a few minutes, but Pastor Alferes asked the four of us to stay for the lunch which his wife and four children were hurrying to prepare.  During our hour of conversation with him, seated under a tree, he shared much about his life and work, and Zarito and I marveled at what the Lord is doing through his ministry.  Zaida, a newer Christian, stayed quiet, and later shared that she was taken aback by the weaknesses she observed in his church.  We noticed them too, and pray that God helps Alferes grow in his understanding and application of Biblical principles, perhaps using our organization’s conference in September which he plans to attend.  You can join us in that prayer as you thank God with us for this African man who has dedicated His life to making Christ known among those who have never heard His name.