Using the nations to reach the nations

G

od is mobilizing the nations to reach the nations in El Paso.

Not long ago, a woman from India walked into a Wednesday evening church service at Jezreel Dios Siembra and began asking questions about the Christian faith. She wanted to know the difference between what Christians believe and what she was taught to believe. 

In 2022, a native Filipino, Gibson Garraton, began attending the church’s English-language service—one of the first Spanish-language churches in Texas to start such a service, according to Pastor Daniel Moreno. Garraton expressed a desire to reach El Paso’s growing Asian population. With the church’s blessing, Garraton started weekly services, preaching the gospel in his native language. He uses his food truck business to meet people, tell them about Jesus, invite them to church, and even minister to the city’s homeless population. 

In September 2024, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s People Groups department held a cross-cultural training with pastors and leaders in El Paso. SBTC leaders noted the presence of Hindu temples, Jewish synagogues, and Muslim mosques in El Paso, and offered tools and training to help the city’s churches reach an ever-diversifying population that is looking for spiritual answers.

The People Groups training, funded with giving through the Reach Texas State Missions Offering, helped affirm Jezreel Dios Siembra’s passion to be a church that reaches the nations.

“[Through that training], God placed in our hearts the possibility to reach more Asians through the ministry of Brother Garraton,” Moreno said. “This is still an ongoing process, but [our Asian ministry is] consistently having services every week trying to reach as many people as we can.”

“You would not think of El Paso, Texas, as a place to reach Asians,” said Dan Acharya, who leads SBTC’s People Groups ministry, “but the Lord of the harvest sends laborers from all places as He advances His mission.”