Wilfredo and Mimi Munoz drove into Santiago de Maria almost three years ago with only the assurance that the Lord had called them to that place.
And now three years later, they have the largest and most active Baptist congregation in the city of 36,000. An average of 80 adults and more than 250 children attend services held by the church each week.
“During our first service, one person gave her life to Jesus,” Wilfredo said. “That was confirmation from the Lord (that we were supposed to be there).”
The Munozos met at the International Mission Board’s Bible Institute in San Salvador. Wilfredo, a native El Salvadoran, was one of the teachers and Mimi came as a student after moving from the United States. Born in Honduras, Mimi’s family moved to New Jersey when she was 14.
After establishing a thriving career as an insurance agent and eventually a travel agent, Mimi remembered an earlier calling she felt from the Lord. While in Honduras as a young teenager, Mimi gave her heart to Christ during a service preached by a Southern Baptist missionary. She also felt a call to become a missionary herself, but she did not pursue that call until more than 15 years later.
It was then that her home church in West New York, N.J., Nazareth Baptist Church, sent her to study and serve in El Salvador. The original plan was for her to spend two years there and then return to New Jersey to serve as a missionary on staff at the church.
However, Mimi met Wilfredo and they married. Wilfredo became a Christian at 15 and had been studying, preaching and teaching ever since. Nazareth Baptist continues to support the Munozes in their missionary efforts.
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