Pastor Eddy & Family

We met Pastor Eddy Garcia and his wife Maria Luisa 6 years ago when our dryer broke - Eddy works as an appliance repair man, and someone recommended him to us. While he worked on our dryer, he excitedly told us about the little church meeting in his garage, and how they went out each week and passed out Bible literature in the elementary schools around Colomba. We were immediately impressed with his others-focused mentality, when we had only seen other churches in town be focused on making money for their churches. There were always construction fundraisers, food sales, raffles…. They seemed to have lost sight of the vision of sharing the Gospel and serving their community. Pastor Eddy is an evangelist at heart - fearlessly entering gang neighborhoods, knocking on doors and sharing the love of Jesus with anyone who will listen. We started attending his church in August of 2020 when all other churches were shut down out of fear - either fear of covid, or fear of government harassment. As we grew in our friendship, we were able to see Eddy’s faith put under trial as he dealt with death threats from gang members, medical emergencies, and extreme poverty. Throughout it all, we saw his faith in Jesus shine, and knew we wanted to partner with him in ministry. 

At the time, Eddy was studying at a Baptist bible college in Coatepeque (30 min away) and receiving support from a Baptist church. However, once we started attending his church regularly, the sending church began to expect him to share with them a portion of the tithes and offerings (aka OUR tithes) and the relationship became strained. He could barely afford to feed his family (six children) and was working hard to build a better home for them (dirt floors, and the entire family sleeping in one room when we met them). In the end, the connection was lost and he was on his own as an independent church. 

For the 2.5 years that we met with Pastor Eddy and his family, the church mostly consisted of our two families. We occasionally had some of our students or other friends who would visit, and Eddy’s extended family would attend sporadically as well, but we remained a small church. 

Since moving back to Colomba in January 2025, something changed. Pastor Eddy, now without the covering and support of the Baptist church, asked Shane to share the preaching duties. At the same time, when we extended invitations to friends and students - we noticed that once they visited the church, they decided to stay! It is clear to us that we are doing the same thing we have always done - but God seems to be doing something different. We now have a little church with 6 families who regularly attend, and we are basically maxed out on space (meeting in our home).

When we were gearing up to return to Colomba, our pastor in Xela at Calvary Chapel La Esperanza asked us to pray about starting a church in Colomba. We didn’t intend to start one, but it seems to be happening regardless. With that confirmation from the Lord, we are moving forward with joining the Calvary Chapel Association and becoming Calvary Chapel Colomba. We’ve been invited to the Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conference being held in Antigua, Guatemala this October, and Pastor Eddy and Shane are currently taking the course “Calvary Chapel Distinctives” through the Calvary Chapel Antigua BIble College. 

We are currently meeting in our home, but see the need to purchase land and build a church building in the near future. 

To support the church, donations can be sent to Pay Pal: jesuslovescolomba@hotmail.com