The Eurasia Region is excited to announce new team members in Tbilisi, Georgia. Cristhian and Vanessa Galindo and their daughters are settling into new roles working with field finance and mission teams while supporting local evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
“We are excited to help to raise the first [Nazarene] church in Georgia,” Vanessa says. They are learning new languages, meeting new people, and adjusting to the twists and turns of life on the missionary field.
“It looks different than what we expected,” Cristhian says, but adds, “That’s a challenge that we are accepting, and we are happy—we are excited.”
For Cristhian and Vanessa, lifelong Nazarenes, the path to accepting their calling was full of it own twists and turns.
At 18, Vanessa was serving her local and regional churches in Mexico through cross-cultural service projects and short-term trips across the Mesoamerica Region. Whenever and wherever she served, she experienced the same thing.
“Every time I was feeling exactly the same—that I belong here,” she recalls of her time spent ministering to others. She didn’t know where God would lead, but Vanessa knew that serving across different communities and cultures was exactly what she wanted to do.
Around the same time, Cristhian was experiencing a similar pull. He had been serving as a volunteer on his field’s communications team. Cristhian traveled across Mexico, sharing the stories of Salvadorans fleeing their country’s violence, helping tell the global Church how to support those suffering from a devastating earthquake, and connecting local congregations with their fellow believers around the country.
“We visited many parts of the country,” Cristhian says, “And I realized that there was a need.” The small team of four people served all of Mexico, and many churches were disconnected from those farther away. Cristhian, who enjoys photography, videography, and creating social media, knew he could make a meaningful difference for the field. “I just felt in my heart, wow, we are sharing the Good News through these pictures and short videos and news,” he remembers. “I felt in that specific moment God told me: You can serve in this way. I realized that this is a ministry—a way to preach—a way to spread [the] Word.”
The couple married and started a family in Guadalajara. Vanessa and Cristhian were focused on their futures: paying the bills, advancing in their careers, and accumulating the things that—they thought—made a life worth living.
One day, everything changed.
Vanessa was volunteering in her congregation when she suddenly realized that she found more meaning and fulfillment in serving the Church than she ever had while pursuing her career.
“Every time I was working in the local Church, or the field, or the region, I was feeling that this matters,” Vanessa remembers. “It doesn’t matter if I am just moving chairs or cleaning something, I am doing something that matters.” She knew her simple acts of service helped prepare the way for people to learn about God, or for leaders to discover and develop. Vanessa shared her realization with Cristhian, and he agreed that they should consider a shift into full-time missional ministry. The two prayed about what to do next.
In the beginning, Vanessa grew frustrated looking for God’s signal to officially say yes to becoming missionaries. “I am praying; I am asking; I am waiting for a sign— something that makes me feel that God is calling me to this specifically,” she remembers thinking. When otherbelievers would receive miraculous and clear guidance, Vanessa would wonder, Why isn’t God talking to me in the same way?
Vanessa and Cristiano approached their pastor for guidance. They shared the burden in their hearts but also the lack of clarity.
“I think that was the best choice, because we couldn’t figure out everything by ourselves,” Vanessa says. “He gave us good guidance to discover what to do…and here we are.”
”We don’t need to wait for something special, ” she adds, remembering her struggle to see a sign. “Now, I think differently,” she says. “God doesn’t always speak in a clear voice through signs,” she says. “Now I know that God calls you sometimes through other people. Sometimes if you are listening to a sermon and it makes you feel something inside, maybe you start with a question: Is this where God is calling me? If you sense God leading, with or without a bold sign, Vanessa says to go for it. “You don’t need to ask for something different,” she says. “God is doing something in your heart, in your mind, and God is calling you.”
“You should go to other people who are in the place that you would like to reach, and ask what to do,” Vanessa says. “And listen to them,” she adds.” And if you are one of the people who God called you specifically and you can hear the voice of God, that’s awesome—listen and follow the voice. But maybe some other people are like me, ” she says, “and we need to be guided by other people.”
“There is always a need in the church,” Cristhian says, encouraging fellow Nazarenes to step in and start serving at the local, field, and regional level in whatever capacity they have.
“God is always calling you.”
