Cristhian López, born in Nicaragua, lives with his family in the city of Paraiso de Cartago in Costa Rica for four years.

On January 8, 2021, López tested positive for Covid-19 which sent him immediately into quarantining at home.

During New Year’s Eve dinner in 2020, the Lord gave him the promise of Nahum 1:7. “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.”

However, his situation worsened, and he had to be taken to the emergency room at the hospital with a high fever and was barely able to breathe. In addition to COVID he had four different bacteria in his body and hovered close to death. The doctors gave him a survival rate of 1%, and they told his wife, Norma, to prepare their children for the death of their father
During this time, the news of López had become known and an urgent prayer request went out to the region through the Mesoamerica Regional Office. Many people began interceding for him before God.

López spent a month in the hospital in a medically induced coma. They had to perform a tracheotomy, but the process did not go well, so they had to operate on him to remove 2 cm of his trachea. The doctors believed that he would never be able to speak again, and they were astonished when he awoke being able to speak normally.

Months after leaving the hospital, as a thank you to God, López and his family felt the need to share food with the homeless who live on the streets, always taking the opportunity to talk with them about God. We did the same around the train station, outside of hospitals, and served the street vendors in Cartago.

During this time of community service, the López family started to receive invitations to share about the Lord, and having more and more contact with people, the felt it necessary to prepare themselves to share the message of salvation in the best way possible. This is how the couple began their studies at the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas (SENDAS).

There they met Andrés Fernández, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene Los Angeles in San José, who invited them to become part of the mission point where the church was already working.

“We accepted the challenge with fears and dreams, but confident overall that God was calling us,” said López. So, they became church planters in the mission of Cartago, in which there was not yet a presence of the Church of the Nazarene. “So, the Lord called us to serve and multiply his kingdom. Today we are committed to growing this mission, developing it as an organized, solid church with resources, having a Nazarene identity with different active ministries, and preparing people to become involved in district and global activities,” said López.

Currently 15 adults, 5 teens, and 5 children gather in the misión started in Cartago.

“At SENDAS we give God thanks for the miracle he has performed in the life of Cristhian in the response to many prayers, but also for the greater miracle of the transformation of the families of Cartago through his life and grateful service as a response to the Lord’s mercy and faithfulness,” said Dr. Rubén Fernández, president of SENDAS.

Source: Nazarene Seminary of the Americas