SANTIAGO'S JOURNEY:
Santiago grew up in a small village called Jose Maria Morelos, about 150 miles from Cancun. His father was a lay pastor and used to preach in the community. When Santiago was young he met a group of Americans came to the church on a short-term mission trip. He remembers the names of the men who came and ministered to us. This had a great effect on him as these loving Christians ministered to all.
As a young man Santiago moved to Cancun and worked in the hotel business, where he learned to speak English. Everything changed after he met Samuel May, a local church planter at a “youth camp”, and he recruited Santiago to work with him as he started Immanuel Church in Cancun. Very soon he became a deacon at Immanuel and became very involved in the youth ministry. After a few years, Santiago sensed a call to go to seminary at San Pablo Theological Seminary in Merida, and there he became a pastor. Santiago graduated in 2000 with a Batchelors Degree in Theology.
Upon graduating, Santiago immediately worked with youth ministry at Immanuel and then began to minister in mission churches in more rural settings, Esperanza, Valladolid Nuevo, and Hol Box. He reproduced what I had experienced as a child with the various churches I served. Bringing short-term mission teams in to help is a blessing for everyone.
Later he accepted the call to Shalom Presbyterian Church in Cancun. Again, he was able to use past relationships with American churches to bring groups of short-term mission teams for building and ministry to children. Shalom began to grow, but there were some difficulties that made it impossible for healthy growth. Therefore, Santiago decided that it would be best to leave and start a new church, Christ Our Redeemer Church. The ministry has been fruitful, yet challenging in this age of the Covid pandemic.
In 2021, he began to work with Great Commission Coaching to promote Third Millennium Ministries to help train pastors and church leaders. The response has been overwhelming. In a short time, there have been over 100 pastors and church leaders who have been trained, with many more conferences planned to train leaders through out Southern Mexico. They are currently developing a network of pastors and church leaders to have a good source for free Biblical and theological training.
Christ Our Redeemer has purchased a plot of land, and the plan is to build a building that can house the church, which will reach children in the community, and with rooms to use for training for Third Millennium Ministries.