Name:

Luis Alejandro Vargas

Job:

Pastor

Location:

Santa Lucia 'La Mosca'

Family:

Reyna... Luis, Yeison, Dilson

Favorite Verse:

Romans 5:8

Prayer Requests:

• The church
• My family
• For a vehicle

Bio:

Although Luis’s parents were believers and taught him God’s word, he grew up not wanting any part of Christianity and his choices reflected that. Finally, at age 26, his “disorderly life” caught up with him. Due to his street fighting and drug use, he was forced to leave his home and neighborhood. Once he parted ways with his old crowd, the trouble in his life started to calm down. It was around this time that Luis met some girls who, while playing ball in the street, shared Christ with him and a friend. They invited them to church and the boys went, hoping to get better acquainted with the girls! As the pastor began to preach that Sunday morning, his words immediately struck a nerve with Luis. He struggled internally, but by the time the sermon was over, Luis couldn’t stay in his seat. He went forward and accepted Christ.

Soon, Luis was volunteering his time at church, beginning with feeding the children at the nutrition center. He grew in his faith and later went to help out with the youth at another church. When his pastor announced that he was leaving his position at church and wanted Luis to take over, he accepted the job.

Today Luis is a pastor in La Mosca. He describes the community as sad and needy as most living there deal with extreme poverty. Many make their living via the dumpsite that is located in the neighborhood. For a while the government pushed to shut the site down, but so many survive by eating what they scavenge and also using and selling items that they retrieve from the dump that, for now, they seem to be looking the other way. Luis adds that his community lacks order and discipline and many are uneducated and angry. For example, “although you may provide food for someone, two minutes later that same person may throw a rock at you.” “God,” he adds, “has covered me with patience.”

Luis seeks to penetrate La Mosca with God’s word. From going from house to house, to forming Bible study cell groups throughout homes in the community, evangelism is a priority to him. Also, the church continues to have a feeding center which serves one hot meal to 115-120 kids six days a week.

Luis’s dream is to develop an area in his community for people to come and play. He hopes to have a small park with a basketball court in La Mosca in the near future.

Luis faithfully serves with his wife, Reyna, and together they parent their three boys: Luis Miguel (25), Jason (16), and Dilson (12).”