NEARLY SUCCUMBING TO COVID, TODAY HELPING TO PLANT A NEW NAZARENE CHURCH
Cristhian López, born in Nicaragua, now lives with his family in the city of Paraiso de Cartago in Costa Rica. During New Year’s Eve dinner in 2020, the Lord gave him the promise of Nahum 1:7. “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.”
On January 8, 2021, he tested positive for COVID. He immediately was told to self-isolate at home. When his situation worsened, he was taken to the hospital emergency with a high fever and barely able to breathe. In addition to COVID he had 4 different bacteria in his body and hovered close to death. Giving him a survival rate of 1%, the doctors told his wife, Norma, to prepare their children for the death of their father.
When the news of Cristhian’s illness became known, urgent prayer requests were sent by the Mesoamerica Regional Office and many people began interceding for him before God. He spent a month in hospital in a medically induced coma. Drs. performed a tracheotomy, but the process did not go well, so they operated removing 2 cm of his trachea. The doctors believed he would never speak again. When he awoke being able to speak normally they were astonished.
Months after leaving the hospital, Cristhian became friends with Andres Fernandez, lead pastor of the Los Angeles Church of the Nazarene in San Jose, Costa Rica, who was beginning a new work in the city of Cartago, the former capital of the country.
Cristhian says, “As a thank you to God, my family and I started to feel the need to share food with the homeless who live on the streets. always taking the opportunity to talk with them about God. We did the same around the train station, outside of hospitals, and the street vendors in Cartago. In all situations they always took the opportunity to talk about God
“Being in direct contact with people and helping them with their needs, I preached the Word in places where I was invited to do it. We began to feel the need to equip ourselves more to take the message to the unsaved. This is how my wife and I began studying at the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas (SENDAS).
“Pastor Andres, guided by the Holy Spirit, invited us to help in Cartago as a mission point (church plant) where they were already working. We accepted the challenge with fears and dreams, but confident overall that God was calling us. So, we became church planters in the mission of Cartago, one of the most important provinces in Costa Rica, in which there is still no presence of the Church of the Nazarene. The Lord called us to serve and multiply his kingdom. Today we are committed to growing this church plant. We trust it will develop as an organized, solid local church with resources, having a Nazarene identity and with different active ministries, and preparing people to become involved in local, district and global activities. Currently we have 15 adults, 5 teens, and 5 children.”
At SENDAS we give God thanks for the miracle he has performed in the life of Cristhian in response to many prayers. We also praise God for the greater miracle – the transformation of the families of Cartago through Christhian’s life and grateful service as a response to the Lord’s mercy and faithfulness. To Him be all the glory and honour!