Noé Argueta graduated from seminary in 2018 as an international student from El Salvador. He now lives in Siguatepeque, HN with his wife and two daughters, pastoring a church plant in the community of Ocho de Mayo. The name of this church is Iglesia Bíblica el Camino de Cristo, or Way of Christ Bible Church, and it is one of our church partners at MEDA International Missions. Here he shares his testimony of coming to faith and enrolling in the MDiv program at SEPE Honduras.
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I grew up in a Pentecostal church in El Salvador. I had always grown up reading the Bible. At 14 years old – I don’t remember exactly what passage I was reading – but something pierced my heart, and it was then that God made me realize: I need the Lord. That’s when I repented and came to know the Lord and made a commitment to serve Him.
Several years went by. I studied and got my high school diploma. Then I moved from my town to another city for work, and I went to a church there. After a while, things weren’t going well with my work, so I returned to my hometown.
While there, I met a pastor of a Baptist church, who had met [a MEDA worker] at a conference in Marcala. That was how I first heard about MEDA. One Saturday, my pastor invited me to come visit MEDA to find out more information and see the seminary. There, praying to the Lord, I asked for His guidance: Lord, I would like to study in this seminary. I want to prepare myself more to serve You. I was 19 years old.
After we returned to El Salvador, I still had the desire to study at MEDA, but my pastor was considering another young man for the scholarship that I would need in order to attend. At last, the other candidate chose to pursue a career with the police and turned down the opportunity at MEDA. So my pastor gave the scholarship to me.
Long story short, July of 2015 was when I arrived at MEDA to study. December of 2018, I graduated. The next week my wife and I got married and we went to serve in Roatán. My desire was always to serve the Lord, wherever He wanted us. We were open to anything the Lord had for us.
We served at a church there in Roatán for 11 months. Then, in His providence, the Lord brought us back to Siguatepeque in December of 2019. Pastor Robb Kensinger [a SEPE professor] had asked me to help him plant a church in Ocho de Mayo, a village near the MEDA campus where he had already started a Bible study. So we came here and began to work in Ocho de Mayo. But soon after we moved, the pandemic hit. We couldn't continue the study because everything had to be shut down.
Pastor Robb Kensinger and his family moved to the United States, so it was just me in charge of this ministry. Yet, in all of this, the Lord was working. We came here, without any support, simply trusting in the Lord, and He provided what was necessary to support myself and my wife and our children. In September of 2020, the pandemic was receding, so we began to meet again in Ocho de Mayo, continuing with the weekly studies.
Now, after all that has happened, we are serving in Ocho de Mayo, planting a church. We are happy to serve the Lord there. It is a great privilege! It is a small church but there is much work to be done.
Thanks to the Lord, He used my time at SEPE to equip me for my current ministry. Studying for four years in seminary helped me to know the Scriptures better, to love His Word, to be able to understand Greek and Hebrew, to know theology…. All of this is a great help. God prepared me, and now, He has me serving His church.
In Ocho de Mayo, we have a Bible study on Wednesdays. There are things that they [the church members] don’t know about the Bible, so they ask me, and as the pastor I have to respond and give them biblical answers. My seminary preparation serves me well in this work now. Also, systematic theology is a topic we are teaching in Ocho de Mayo, and thanks to the Lord, the seminary was my academic preparation for this as well. Those years of being discipled and trained in seminary have proven to be a great blessing.
My desire is not only to expound the word of God faithfully, but also to live it out – to be a godly man who fears the Lord. Something that I talk about with my wife is that, as a household, we want to be an example for the families of Ocho de Mayo. We are very excited to serve with the kids in Ocho de Mayo and see our children grow up with them. My prayer is that the Lord establishes a solid, biblical church there. The village is small but growing, and we want the church to grow, together with the community.
When I first started at SEPE, I didn’t even imagine how great a blessing it would be to study in the seminary. It was worth it. What I say now is: Lord, I studied for four years – I want to serve You. You have prepared me – now I want to serve You. I don’t want to stop serving You.
The desire to serve God is in my heart, and that of my wife. I don’t know how many years the Lord will have us in Ocho de Mayo, but I want to be faithful to God and His Word for however long He has me here. If He calls us to another place, we are willing to serve Him there as well, because I have already received the preparation, and there is no greater privilege than preaching the Gospel.