KCU Graduation

 Following God’s direction, I moved from Mexico, my country of origin, to the United States in the summer of 2004.

My main motivation and what led me to resign from a ministry of 16 years was the opportunity to pursue my master’s degree at Kentucky Christian University and at the same time, to take the leadership of a newly-born Hispanic outreach at Harvester Christian Church in St. Charles, MO .

I thank God for letting me to achieve this goal...a dream that took me 25 yrs in order to be fulfilled.

KCU Baccalaureate and Commencement Ceremony

May 7th. Grayson KY

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle (An article about "Priorities")

Definition:

a) “Prior” taking precedence (as in importance).

b) “Priority”= precedence in rank, time or place. (Webster’s Compact Dictionary)

--Exists a close relationship between these two words: Priorities and Responsibility

--In the opposite side is the --Procrastination-- “The killer of dreams”

Ephesians 5:15-17 "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." (NIV)

 A responsible person is going to live according to its priorities. That kind of person is the one who will be living a well balanced life, a healthy life.

 In the other side, the person who ignores and lives a life of procrastination soon or late will reap a life full of problems.


JESUS EXAMPLE: John 17:4

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. (NIV)

       Few years ago Alfredo Valdez a friend from Monterrey, MX sent me an email with a story that later I used as an illustration in one of my sermons in the Spanish Service. A story that I would like to share with all of you. When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, maybe this will be helpful for you as has been for me:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. He picked up a very large and empty jar and filled it with golf balls. He asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

   The  professor then picked up a box of marbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and the marbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous, “YES!”

The professor then produced 2 cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

As the laughter subsided, the professor said, “Now, I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life:


- 'You must understand that this bottle represents the LIFE:


a) The golf balls are the important things. (GOD, Family, Friends, and Things that get passionate to you…like Ministry)


b) The marbles are the other things that matter (work, vehicle, house…)


c) The sand is all the others, the small things (sports, hobbies, etc)

If you put the sand into the jar first:


- there will be no room for the golf balls.


- there will be no room for the marbles.


The same goes for LIFE:


- If you spend all of your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are very important.


CONCLUSION

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your purpose in LIFE:

- Play with your children.
- Spend time with your parents.
- Visit your grandparents.
- Take time to get medical checkups.
- Take your spouse out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter.
Set your priorities… The rest?...the rest  is just sand.

Plus AN EXTRA LESSON:

       One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled and said,-- “I’m glad you asked. The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.

                                        Blessings!!!
                                          JCastro

On Immigration

"When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don't take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners…Levíticus 19:33,34

My Experiences at The Instituto Biblico Nacional

As STUDENT. In 1983 when I was a freshman 'The National Bible   Institute' http://www.institutobibliconacional.org/ was a small college. They were renting two houses, we were 30 students and five teachers, our classrooms were a living room, dining room and a bedroom, with old blackboards, and chairs donated in the 70's by a warehouse from Texas. With assistance of one of the teachers we made our own metal bunk beds, closets and desks. Every weekend we went to help with evangelism in churches around Queretaro city. I graduated in 1986.

1983-1984 Students and Full time Faculty

My FIRST Ministry. After graduation I went to Atizapan in the Mexico City metro area for 5 months to my first ministry, at a small mission that Tom Chamberlain an American Missionary was started but he went back to the U.S. he made arrangements for me to live with a family; I served there trying to do my best, 19 years old, without experience and without salary (due to a lack of communication, eventually I get paid) so one day the head of the house just told me “this is not working, we don’t know nothing about the missionary…” I packed that day and I went back to my parent’s house.

After 7 years studying and working in a church in 3 different cities out of home I came back to live with my parent’s for 7 months, that was a nice time. During those months every morning I work along with Ramiro Garcia my friend. We were building a dorm in a Christian Camp and in the afternoons teaching discipleship classes for a week in 4 villages in the area.

Juan M Garcia, Efrain Sanchez, Jaime Castro, Jose Herrera and Alberto Herrera

Mensajeros When I was at the college 4 students and a teacher integrated a musical band  with 4 acoustic guitars and we traveled to sing in the churches. On 1987-1988 we met again and we spent the whole year helping churches full time with revivals, conventions, and more. That ministry was amazing, we made 3 recordings (tapes in that time), and we had the opportunity to sing and to know almost all the churches and ministers in the country. But financially was impossible to keep the ministry, so we decided to stop it.

As a Professor and later President of the College. On the summer 1988 resigned the President and 5 teachers of the college where I graduated so the college just had 2 full time teachers. In that emergency one of the trustees invited me to teach there, I was 21 years old, I decided to help them only for six months… finally I stayed there 16 years.

June 8th, 1990

Teaching there I found my wife, Ruth and I got married in 1990. After the wedding, she continued taking her last year in the college. Two months after we married my mother went to a normal gallbladder surgery; after the surgery the doctors announced that she had cancer and that there was nothing to do (no chemo, surgeries, nothing) in October 29 two months later she died.

Four years later in 1992 another President resigned and we were 3 fulltime teachers, so the trustees asked me to become President of the college, I accepted. Be a President of a Bible College (at least in Mexico) doesn't means that you are going to have your own office, “for 12 years I never had my own office” there were no space for that!, doesn’t means that you are going to have a good salary (I started receiving 62 dlls. per week) No! after my nomination I started to gain the approval of the oldest ministers, because I was 25 years old, too young, without experience, etc. I spent the next 16 years traveling every weekend and every summer and vacations time across Mexico, parts of Guatemala and Texas and Colorado in the U.S. to fulfill my job: Recruit students, raise financial support and all kind of supplies (food, school materials, whatever). Colleges in Mexico can’t receive financial assistance from government, can’t charge high tuitions because the students can’t afford that, and colleges can’t raise too much offerings, churches don’t help bible colleges, even in the U.S. when I asked for support churches didn’t show interest, if I talked them about an Orphanage…that is another end in the story.

Run!

I notice that, so I made the following statement part of my philosophy to do ministry and as college as well “We are going to do whatever we can, with whatever we have”. I recall that on Easter week in 1997 we planned a tour with a group of 17 (13 students and 4 professors) but we didn’t have vehicles, so I went to an Orphanage and I asked them to let me borrow a Suburban… they let me borrow a 1975 old school bus, with a good engine, and that was the only good thing it had, when I arrived at the college the students found a rat in the roof of the bus, during that travel the clutch stopped working so I was driving and the group had to push the bus to start the engine, and then jump inside the bus because if I made it stop, the engine will stop, (that was our own version of “SPEED the movie”).

1997 Recruitment Rondalla Tour

In that ministry I had something that I asked God when I was a student in the college… to teach and preach the gospel in every place, and help the national church in every possible way. From 1995-2004 I had the privilege to do that, almost in the whole country.

Students Body 2001-2002

Reflections:

God choose me not considering my weakness, but because he considered that I will be a faithful servant. I Timothy 1:12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.

In the Bible God choose: A tax collector, farmer, robber, a fisherman, a former guerrilla man… I Corinthians 1:26-27 “…not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the strong… Vs.31 “if somebody is going to glorify, glorify in the Lord

MINISTRY is to be part of a WAR, the war against the devil and his bad works. Each person that we gain through the gospel is a precious soul that we take from the Devil’s hand. You can be a soldier in the front line, or an officer leading the troops, or a prayer warrior, or a financial supporter of this war, BUT if you were washed by the blood of JESUS You cannot just remain seated without doing nothing…

Stand Up! And take your role in this battle!

Blessings!!!

How God called me into Ministry

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,
who has given me strength,
that he considered me faithful,
appointing me to his service”.
(I Timothy 1:12)



Since I born in the preacher family it is supposed that you are going to be a Christian, and in the preacher family you are going to heritage the pulpit, church, etc. When I was a child some of our games were “baptizing my brother or cousins, leading the worship, offering meditation… (Except communion, our parents don’t allow us to do that), when I was 8 or 9 years old I just want to be a Preacher like my Dad. But, when I was 13, many things and questions start to come to my mind.


I recall that I was at the Sandia el Chico Family Camp when Victor Vazquez a student of the Instituto Biblico Nacional was preaching about that if your parents are Christians that not mean that you are Christian or if they will be go to heaven, not necessarily you are going to the same place. I realized that a relationship with God is individual and I have to make a decision to invite Jesus to be my Savior and my Lord. To my mind came a thought “what if I die today, what I am going to say before God “I am the Minister son” no that not works, God will say me “I don’t now you”. Then I asked Jesus to come and live in my heart.


After that, I start my commitment trying to be a good Christian in the youth group of a very conservative church, pursuing a career and dreaming with the day when I will be an Engineer, Lawyer or Teacher to have my own family, house and success. Two years later I was starving in my spirit, tired of religious practices and legalisms in a church where the elders and many adults were immersed in all kind of Pharisees battles. I start to die in my relationship with God; I become a churchgoer because I was hosted by Christian families but not for conviction.


Then in the 1983 summer I was in the Sandia el Chico Camp and Jose Manuel Cortes a young bible college student beside a small lake after baptisms was preaching about the CALL OF GOD to those who he was calling to full time ministry, after he end his sermon he mentioned 15 churches with an urgent need of a Minister, and he made the Invitation… “Who is the young man or girl that going to respond God today –“Here I am”-…. Stand Up! 6 or 7 started to stand up, two of them invited me to do the same, but I was living an inner crisis… what about my school? What about my career? What about my plans? After that devotions time the camp was not more fun, I was struggling with that Call in my mind...
On that night I decided to go to the Instituto Biblico Nacional in Queretaro, MX and be prepared to serve God for the rest of my life. 28 years has been passed and without doubt I still have the same conviction, thats why..."I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service".

About Me

I was born in Saltillo, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico in 1967. When I was born, my parents were serving in a rural ministry 400 miles south of the border. At the end of 1968, we moved ten hours further south to Cuernavaca, in the Morelos state, a city 60 miles south of Mexico City. My dad was attending a Bible college in Mexico City, while my mom and I were hosted by missionaries in Morelos. We waited for my dad who came back home on weekends. He finished in 1969.

Larry Cuyler, an American missionary, invited my dad to work at a missionary project in a rural area very close to where he grew up. So we moved to Sandia el Chico where six American families and a single lady were planning to establish new churches in a forty square mile area.

My Mom -Rosario Samaniego (1942-1990)-

This was a rough area. It consisted of roads that existed only for carts pulled by animals. There was no electricity, no vehicles, and the closest medical clinic was three and a half hours away. A three hour walk was needed to get the bus on the state highway.

The missionaries bought around 1200 acres and built their own houses, a clinic, and a landing strip for a four-passenger plane. They started to plant sorghum, potatoes, and corn. It was a huge project that worked for two to three years.

During that time many good things happened. The clinic was a blessing to the people because it provided surgeries, baby deliveries, and care for the sick. The missionary project provided jobs, shared the gospel of Jesus Christ, and evangelized each weekend to approximately fifteen different villages by vehicles and plane.

This mission ended when the father of the surgeon died. He decided to put the body in the plane and fly to the state capitol, Monterrey. When he landed in the airport and was on his way to the authorities and American consul, one of the people in the airport saw the body and reported it to the airport security, so they detained him. The local government went to the mission to investigate. A newspaper reporter wrote about a religious “sect” and their clandestine runways in different villages. Of course, that scared the missionaries there, and that afternoon they packed what they could and returned to the U.S. Essentially, this was the end of the mission project.

My dad and three new preachers are the only ones who continue serving there. Around seven of those churches still exist, and they are now trying to plant three new churches. They hold a family camp with around 300 people attending each summer.

So, I grew up there. Our house was a 10 x 10 rustic room. My dad added another room and a kitchen with a fireplace where my mother cooked our meals. To go to school two miles away, we used bicycles. I am the oldest of three brothers. My mother died when I was twenty three. I gained one stepbrother (Sammy) when my dad married with Mrs. Maria Cruz Sanchez again four years later on April 16, 1994.

Filemon Castro & Maria Cruz

At the end of my sixth grade of school, I was twelve years old and ready for middle school. But we did not have that level in our area, so I went to live at a mission ranch near Saltillo three hours away. I lived in one of the rooms in the camp and had all my meals and expenses covered by the Tate’s, a family from Illinois (Lowell & Brenda, Tim and Todd), for 2 years and one year by Robert Walker, a single man who was a teacher for missionary children in the city. When I finished my ninth grade, I went to live with The Sanchez family to attend a technological institute for one year. It was in this place, one year later, when I was sixteen years old, that I received God’s call for the ministry.

My family experience that I had during my twelve years at home helps me to understand my cultural values today. I think that my parents always did their best to give us a healthy home. We never had a nice house, a nice vehicle, or everything we wanted because they could not do that. When I lived there we never had TV, but to stay together as a family was nice. That is something that now I am trying to give to my own family.

Familia Castro / Castro's Family

2009

A DIOS sea la gloria! pues ha bendecido mi vida con una hermosa esposa y mis "4M's" quienes alegran mi vida (Merari, Maresa, Migdal y Michael).

To GOD be the glory! He has blessed my life with a beautiful wife and my "4M's" (Merari, Maresa, Migdal and Michael).

Reciban un saludo afectuoso de nuestra parte. Seguimos sirviendo en el Servicio en Español de Harvester Christian Church.

Receive a warm "hello" from us. We keep serving at the Hispanic Ministry at Harvester Christian Church.


Bendiciones!!! Blessings!!!
J.Castro