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L
ong before Vidal Flores pastored a Hispanic congregation in McAllen, he did everything he could to keep Christianity out of his home.
When he met the woman who would become his wife, Faustina, Flores was trapped in a cycle of alcohol and drug abuse. One night, while under the influence of both, he asked her to marry him. She accepted, but then confessed something she hadn’t told him yet—that she was a follower of Jesus Christ.
He agreed to marry her on one condition: He didn’t want any Christian literature in the house or visits from pastors or those believers he then called “hallelujahs.” Faustina respected the condition—technically.
One day she placed a sticker outside the house with the words from Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” When Flores protested, she reminded him, “You said inside the house. That’s outside.”
She left him speechless, and he didn’t argue, so he saw the sticker every day. Eventually, he memorized the verse.
More than three decades later, those words formed the foundation of a reality the young rebel would never have imagined. Today, Flores pastors the Spanish-language ministry at First Baptist Church in McAllen. Faustina serves alongside him, their children are involved in the ministry, and the small Hispanic congregation—which survived years of transition and a pandemic—is growing once again
A mission field on the church’s doorstep
McAllen has an estimated population of 150,640, and 87% of its residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. Additionally, about 74% of residents over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home. For FBC McAllen, these figures represent much more than statistics. They represent a mission field practically on the church’s doorstep.
Flores describes McAllen as “a place of passage,” a border city marked by the constant movement of people and families. This dynamism presents one of the challenges of ministry, but also opportunities to share the gospel with people from different backgrounds.
The Spanish-speaking congregation at FBC McAllen gathers for Sunday school and worship on Sundays and for Bible study on Wednesdays. They recently completed a series based on Acts 2:42–47, examining the characteristics of the early church: teaching, fellowship, prayer, and the breaking of bread.
Flores wants those principles to extend beyond a Bible study. Every two months, the congregation celebrates its members’ birthdays with a time of fellowship and encourages them to bring guests. They share gospel tracts, pray specifically for people who do not yet know Christ, and use their digital platforms to invite others.
However, one of their main strategies is much simpler—follow-up. When someone visits the church during the week, they make a point of reaching out via letter or phone call. If the person continues to attend, they look for other opportunities to get to know them and let them know they are important to the congregation. Faustina helps coordinate this effort by maintaining a list of people with whom they want to stay connected.
“They need to feel the love—the love we have because we have Christ,” Flores said.
For him, it’s not just a growth strategy. It’s what God used in his own life.
“They need to feel the love—the love we have because we have Christ.”
A life touched by grace
Flores grew up in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico—directly across the Rio Grande from McAllen. When he was 11 years old, he lost his father, who had professed faith in Christ and was seriously ill. Flores recalls that some believers came to pray for him, assuring him God would perform a miracle. His father died that night.
Instead of drawing him closer to God, the experience led to rebellion.
“I fell into all kinds of vices,” he said.
Over the years, alcohol and drugs came to control much of his life. On one occasion, he suffered a drug overdose and was left near some trash cans. Faustina found him while he was convulsing and cried out to God for her husband’s life.
A few days later, around his birthday in 1991, Flores recalls having another experience that deeply confronted him with his own mortality. That night, he began to feel physically strange, as if his life were fading away. Thinking his body needed what it was accustomed to, he tried to turn to drugs again, but he says he couldn’t do it. He tried to drink alcohol and couldn’t do that either. The same thing happened when he tried to smoke.
It was at that moment Flores realized he no longer wanted to keep running away from God.
“I said to Him, ‘God, I’m not going to fight against you anymore,’” he said.
Flores surrendered and promised the Lord he would serve Him if He transformed his life. When he left his room, he noticed something had immediately changed.
“My hands aren’t shaking anymore,” he told Faustina. “God is doing something in my life.”
Then something happened that surprised his wife even more: Flores asked to go to church.
It was a Monday—normally a night with no service—but the church was hosting a special screening of a Christian film. At the end of the screening, an invitation was extended to respond to the gospel.
Flores approached the altar, bowed his head, began to weep, and cried out to God, placing his faith in Christ. Among the words he spoke that night were the very ones he had seen printed outside his house for so long: “My house and I will serve the Lord.”
After moving to McAllen, Flores and his family attended a Hispanic Baptist church. During various periods of pastoral transition, he was asked several times to help lead the congregation temporarily. In 2005, he began studying theology for the pastorate. Three years later, in November 2008, he and Faustina arrived as visitors at FBC McAllen. Flores was invited to teach a marriage class, and when the Hispanic ministry later went through a transition, about 12 people remained.
They continued to meet as a Spanish-language Bible study group. Twelve gradually grew into dozens. At one point, the congregation reached approximately 100 people. On June 3, 2018, Flores was ordained and began formally pastoring the Spanish-speaking congregation at FBC McAllen.
Then the pandemic struck. Like many congregations, the ministry suffered significant losses. By 2022, Flores recalls that about 20 people remained. Today, about 60 gather. The growth has been enough for the congregation to prepare to move to a larger space within the FBC McAllen facility.
The love of Christ on display
Flores doesn’t speak of God’s faithfulness solely in terms of experiences that turned out the way he expected. In 2020, after one of several heart surgeries he had undergone, his family began another difficult journey. One of his granddaughters began falling frequently and showing concerning symptoms.
Doctors discovered an inoperable brain tumor and gave the family a prognosis of 12 to 18 months. The news sparked a prayer chain that, according to Flores, reached believers in different parts of the world.
The girl died on Oct. 11, 2022, but Flores recalls that even during her illness, his granddaughter’s faith touched those around her. On one occasion, before she was taken to receive medical care, she was the one who asked everyone to stop and pray first. After her death, people continued to share with the family how her life had touched them.
For Flores, experiences like that have deepened a conviction he seeks to convey to the congregation: God’s faithfulness does not mean the absence of suffering, but rather learning to trust Him even in the midst of it.
After 35 years of following Christ, Flores can look at his family and see that Bible verse in Joshua which for so long was posted outside his home has been fulfilled in an unexpected way. His brother is a pastor. His oldest son is also a pastor. Another of his sons serves in the church’s technical department. Faustina continues to serve alongside him.
Today, Flores wants FBC McAllen en Español to transform families in the community as well through teaching the Word, preaching the gospel, seeking the lost, and ensuring that long before anyone decides to stay, they can experience the love of Christ.
For Flores, the way his wife reached him still influences how the church seeks to reach others.
“I [once] forbade her from talking about Christ,” Flores said, “but she showed me the love of Christ.”
