By Erik Giron

My name is Erik Girón, happily married to Minerva Girón. I was born in Guatemala. During my childhood, I witnessed the severe needs of people living in the world, where there is a lot of idolatry. I was interested in the gospel and attended the Christian church.

When I was 13 years old, my family emigrated to the United States. It was an exceedingly difficult, month-long journey through many dangerous paths. God was faithful and took care of us along the way, even though I arrived in the United States without shoes. With complete faith and trust in God, I knew that if God had allowed us to arrive in the States, it was because He had a plan for my family.

In my youth, God spoke to me through other people. He used them to say that He had separated me from my mother’s womb for the Pastorate. Although pastoring is a serious responsibility, it is also a privilege to be chosen. As it is written in Ephesians 4:11: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.”

Many years passed during which God shaped and prepared me. From a small fellowship group, meeting in my parents’ living room, I witnessed how God formed a church, Iglesia Restauración en Cristo in Mount Joy, Pa. A church that I would belong to for 19 years. I was able to grow in that church, developing in different responsibilities. In due time, in that same church body, God allowed me to meet the woman who the Lord had chosen to be my wife and my right hand.

In our short time as pastors, we have been able to see the hand of God working in our favor, opening doors. It all started in March 2018, when my pastor, Jose Baez, anointed me. I was able to leave the church in Mount Joy in the correct way, to start my ministry. Together with my pastor, we went to see the church in Lebanon which had been closed for over 1 1/2 years. Little by little the church building and the congregation has been restored both physically and spiritually. 

The church doors are officially open. We continue to meet new people in the Lebanon area who help us so that the work continues forward. On Saturday, September 4, 2021, my wife and I were installed as the new pastors at Iglesia Evangélica Altar De Dios. In attendance were my parents, our family, pastors, and congregation members, from Concilio Iglesia Evangelica Shalom (CIES) and brethren from Iglesia Restauración en Cristo.

If we have learned anything in this journey, it is that God requires our obedience to Him.

There are many goals yet to be met, but the most important is that we can continue to take the gospel wherever God may place us, through whatever doors He may open. Upon the start of my call to be a pastor, a word was given to me that many vessels (people) would arrive at the newly opened doors of the Altar De Dios Evangelical Church. I was commanded to welcome them and preach the word. The Holy Spirit would take care of doing the rest. Our job as a church is to obey and trust that when God speaks, we must believe with confidence because He is faithful to His promises. God is the waymaker, opening doors in His time, not ours.