Country: ​Mexico

APATZINGÁN, A DANGEROUS CITY

Apatzingán is located in west-central Mexico with a population of approximately 104,469. The city is the fourth largest in the Mexican state of Michoacán. As with the majority of the rest of Mexico, Catholicism is the dominant religion of the area. Recently, a strong presence of notorious, powerful, and wealthy drug trafficking cartels has been making itself known in the city. The citizens of the city are living in perpetual fear because of the cartels and the related violence, extortion, and kidnappings.

A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST

In April 1967, Salvador was born to a Catholic family in Michoacán, Mexico. In September of 1990, he and his wife Maria immigrated to the USA where he later accepted Christ as his Savior. They began attending the Good News Fundamental Baptist Church of San Carlos, CA, (which is also their sending church) where they began to experience the difference between the salvation they had in Christ and the emptiness of religion. During the time they were attending that church, God gave them three children. All three of their now grown children have been involved in various ways in the ministry. In July 2004, they returned to Mexico to study at the Ebenezer Practical Bible Institute in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. At the Institute, Salvador majored in Bible from 2004 to 2008. During that time, many biblical principles were learned which have helped them in their ministry in Apatzingán. Today, Salvador leads a church planting work in this needy region of Mexico.

“A superb evangelist.” “A great church planter.” These are comments that have been made about Pastor Sergio Herrera.

Brother Herrera was born in Santiago, Chile. As a child, he received no religious training nor had any fear of God. At the age of 22, a North American missionary shared the gospel with him. Sergio responded to the invitation, and his life was miraculously changed. God gave him a deep interest in the Bible and a burning desire to reach lost souls for Christ.

After finishing seminary in Chile, Pastor Herrera helped plant three new churches. During that time he led his future wife, Alejandra, to the Lord. After serving the Lord for 20 years in Chile, God called the Herrera family in 1997 to leave Chile in order to plant churches in Mexico. Serving the Lord in Mexico, a country with a current population of 130,318,469, as a foreign missionary, was a dream come true for Sergio. Over the years, God has used Sergio and Alejandra to lead hundreds of people to the Lord. As a result of evangelizing door to door, in parks, and on basketball courts, they were able to plant the Philadelphia Baptist Church.

I was saved on September 18, 1998. My brothers and I worked in Illinois cleaning offices. One of the offices belonged to Brother Mike Freisinger. We did not speak English but as we were cleaning his office we found a brochure that promoted an English school, and we were interested. He handed us a brochure and said that he could offer us something better if we visited him the next day. That sounded good to us. So we met the next day, and although we were in a grumpy mood, we were curious to know what he was going to teach us. It was then that he presented the plan of salvation to us. He knew very little Spanish, so he used a brochure, the book without words, and, of course, the Bible. By the grace of God, the message was very clear and precise, and at that moment we repented of our sins, asked God for forgiveness and received Him into our hearts as our only and sufficient Savior.

After we received Christ, Brother Freisinger took us to church, where we attended for four months. Due to employment, we had to relocate to California. There we found Iglesia Bautista Fundamental Independiente Buenas Nuevas and began attending the Sunday School classes. In Sunday School we studied the passage Acts 1:8, and through His Word, God touched my heart with the need to preach the gospel in my city and the surrounding areas. I returned to the city of my youth where the Lord is using me to evangelize and plant churches.