Stories of Conversion: Esteban Valle-García
Growing up in a loving (yet strict) missionary Hispanic family in Latin America is like wearing a v-neck t-shirt underneath your regular t-shirt or having Mike Kellett deliver the Sunday morning sermon wearing a long sleeve camo shirt and khaki shorts: a little too much.
I was never the bad kid, but I was nerdy, terrible at sports, and an easy target for bullying at school (where less than 10% was non-Catholic). I always fell in love with girls who loved bad boys.
I actively participated in church activities: teaching Sunday morning Bible school, serving communion, leading songs, debating, and helping draft new bylaws for the national board that represented us to the Nicaraguan government.
I have no regrets about my upbringing, except maybe that my dad was so busy sharing the Gospel and helping the church grow during the 80’s (in the only country in the Americas that was fully aligned with the former USSR) that he only played baseball with me once. However, my story is not uncommon to the large majority of preacher’s kids.
At some point in life I began to think that, by being baptized before my teen years, there were not many sins that Jesus paid for me at the cross, so my redemption came cheap to Him.
I started desiring (from philosophical internal discussions with myself) that I should have sinned more so then I could have repented and be saved with just cause. I felt like I deserved the chance to do so!
And so I was a slave to my shame, to my “missed opportunities”, to my what-ifs. I owned them all, and they owned me. My story of conversion is one in the making. It’s about dealing with Romans 6 and realizing that I was a slave to sin—no matter what.
It’s about being grateful that I came to Christ at an early age and that I deserve(d) punishment for my sins and eternal death. Walking in newness of life means that I don’t pick my battles every day as soon as I leave my bed, but they’ve been already won (for me) by my Abba before time ever existed!
I love receiving a salary for the work I do, which allows me to provide and support my family. I also enjoy and am extremely grateful for the gifts I receive from my friends and family every now and then.
We work hard satisfying our flesh and we’re then surprised when we get paid with a large check full of zeroes and death. When that happens and you struggle with self-destructive feelings, never forget that you were given the free gift of God: eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We were slaves once and we are slaves now. The big difference is that our new Master feeds us with the fruits of the Spirit, which allows us to walk in sanctification and on the road to Zion we walk now.
Dios te bendiga ricamente!
Esteban Valle-García is the One Kingdom ambassador to Latin America.
Esteban works with his father Lionel at Guadalupe Church of Christ in Leon, Nicaragua. Together, they also host a daily World Radio program, Puestos Los Ohos en Jesus (Set Your Eyes on Jesus).
Esteban is married to his wife Iris and has two daughters, Abi and Aurita. He has been a great shepherd to his community and also to the Latin communities in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.