Pastor Will’s Testimony

I was raised in a Christian home in Brooklyn, NY, by my mother and Father.  The youngest of seven children, 5 boys, and 2 girls.  Mom taught us and instructed us in Gods ways, teaching us at a young age our need of salvation in and through Jesus Christ alone. I grew up attending a small Hispanic church, and at an early age I felt Gods hand on my life.  As a young child I felt Gods call on my life and was sensitive to him.  At the age of 11 years old at youth camp I recognized my need of redemption that could only be found in Jesus.  I surrendered my heart and life to our Lord Jesus Christ.  We come from a charismatic tradition, and soon thereafter the first call on my life came as I was prophesied over that I was called to be a pastor at the age of 12, I was excited, but at that young age I didn’t understand the what this meant.  

I was involved and active in our church’s youth group, and sang in choir, and was busy outreaching the local neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  I was discipled by our youth pastor Carlos Largaespada, these years were so instrumental and in teaching me a love for the scriptures and developing a deep relationship with the Lord. It was again at the at the age of 14 a confirmation of that calling was made as a minister prophesied over me that God had called me out to be a Pastor, that he was separating me out.  This time was more impactful because this minister called me out by name, he didn’t know me, but he served the God who did.  This was again an amazing experience and served to confirm what God was already doing in my heart at a young age.  

As I started Highschool I continued to grow, but during this time I started to stray and by the age of 19, I rebelled started to allow myself to be influenced by the world.  Deep inside I started to run away from the calling that God placed on my life.  It took a long 4 years of running, and many hurts and pains and bad experiences for me to come to the end of myself. Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.”(NIV)  I came to a point where I was so far away from God I felt I was too far for the grace of God to redeem me, I was spiritually bankrupt.  Thank God for his election, love and grace, I may have though he was done with me, but Gods dream and call on my life wasn’t. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”(NIV)  God knew all along what his plan was and he was going to bring it to fruition.  

I was 23 and I had come to the end of myself.  Through the guiding of the Holy Spirit, spurred on by the prayers of my mother and siblings, the proverbial prodigal son realized what he left behind and decided to return.  I literally flipped a coin in faith and moved here to Florida where God would redeem me through his inexhaustible and irresistible Grace, reconciling me once again as I applied the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my life and repented from my rebelliousness.  

I thought that was it, I had no expectation or ambition to ministry.  I was perfectly fine, happy to just be a reconciled to Jesus, to serve him, and walk with him again.  I didn’t think that he could use me in the capacity or for the purpose that he had originally intended.  I wasn’t coming back with expectations of ministry and leadership, I was happy, just as the prodigal son said, just to be a servant in my father’s house.  Sometimes we need to get rid of our stinking thinking, and remember as Isaiah 55:8-11 states, 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (NIV) 

And, Romans 11:29 reminds us that “Gods Gifts and his call are irrevocable!”(NIV)  God dream for my life hadn’t changed.  

Now it was the year 2000, I had moved down to Florida and connected with a good church in Sunrise, Florida.  I started to simply serve, a delight myself in the lord again.  A few years later in 2003, I went on a short-term mission trip to Venezuela.  This was the pivotal moment, God used this trip as a catalyst to reaffirm His calling on my life and to break me in such a beautiful way my life that my life would be forever changed.  I experienced Gods hand move in my life and in the lives of others in such a real and tangible way, and we saw many profess their faith in Jesus.  

It was on this trip I got to see God use me once again, He showed me that he wasn’t done with me. When we returned from this trip, God reconfirmed to me that call that I had so many years before been given as I opened my bible to Isaiah 61:1-2 

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
   because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (NIV)

As I read these verses, the Holy Spirit confirmed in my heart that this was still the call God has on my life!  I understand that these verses are talking about Jesus, theologically, but at that moment God spoke to my heart and was calling me out that his spirit was upon me, and that he anointed me to proclaim the Good News and the year of the LORDS favor.  Gods dream of redeeming and reconciling the world to himself through Jesus,  was now going to be the dream that God was giving me, the same vision and trajectory, through Christ,  to reach others with the same redeeming grace that he so lavished upon me. To Proclaim the Good news, to Proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners to Proclaim the year of the Lords favor.  

God reconfirmed that he was going to fulfill the vision he had for my life.  I was so impressed through this encounter with the Lord that it immediately changed the trajectory I was headed.  To me I was being given a second opportunity and I wasn’t going to waste it.  This shape the events of my life over the next few years.  I spoke to my Pastor and we began a process of preparation over the next few years that would equip me to the task God was calling me too.  Below is a time line over the next 15 years.  It has been a process to get to this point, but each step has been instrumental for the next.  

2003-2005 — I was I got discipled by my pastor and completed a 2 year Ministry training Institute at Solera Community Church 

2005- 2006 — Served as assistant Youth Pastor Solera Community Church 

2006 - 2010 — Served as Youth Pastor/Director at Calvary Chapel in Coral Springs and served as Church Elder at Calvary Chapel Coral Springs 

2011- 2017 — Served as an ordained Associate Pastor at Calvary Chapel in Coral Springs 

Through this process, I finished my Bachelor’s degree from Trinity International University in Business Administration in 2006.  Kristan also attained her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Trinity as well and is a License Mental Health Counselor in the state of Florida, she has her own private practice and focusing on Christian counseling and doing community outreach mental health seminars.  I started a Christian sober home business in 2012, and a Christian drug treatment center in Lake worth in 2014, both businesses ran successfully until the end of 2017 when I decided to transition out to follow after the call that God has placed in my life.  

It’s been a process, and God has molded both me and my wife through the years for this moment.  Over the last two years He began stirring in both our hearts that He was going to start something new with us.  This was the time that once again God was calling us to step out in faith to plant a church in the city where we lived. We had move up to Boynton Beach, FL in 2015.  We were communing south to Coral Springs, for two years and were seeking Gods direction on the next step in our journey. As we prayed and sought after His direction, He led us to  Isaiah 43:18,19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it.  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (NIV) This is when he impressed on both Kristan and I, that our call was going to plant a church in our city, Boynton Beach, this was going to be the new thing that he was already doing in our lives up until this point.  We believed that God was going to make the way for us.  This was a big step for us since we were established at Coral Springs and had a succession plan in place to step in to the role of Senior Pastor at Coral Springs.   We trusted in God, and took the leap of faith, spoke to our pastor and the elders at Coral Springs and they prayed and confirmed this calling on our lives. 

We were sent out by Calvary Coral Springs in January of 2018.  In the process we have connected with a established church plant in Delray Beach, Redemption Church, and have just finished a church planters residency while I finished my seminary degree at Lancaster Bible College/Capital Seminary with a Masters of Art in Ministry, with a concentration in Church Planting.   We are now ready to help fulfill Gods dream to Reconcile the world to himself through Christ, and now we get to be part of that dreams fulfillment as he sends us to Boynton Beach to start Proclaim Church.