When Friday Night Small Groups Raised Big Questions
Juan Carlos Garcia had his life perfectly planned. A successful accountant with a 30-year marriage and three children, he held firmly to his cultural religious traditions and weekly routines. But God had different plans—plans that would begin unfolding when his wife Julieta started attending a small group connected to the República Church.
Every Friday evening, Julieta would come home later and later from these meetings. Though she tried explaining the group to Juan Carlos, he refused her continual invitations. Yet he couldn’t deny the positive changes he witnessed in his wife’s life.
A Birthday Celebration That Changed Everything
In September of 2009, at age 40, Juan Carlos reluctantly accepted an invitation to the small group’s monthly birthday celebration. What he encountered that evening was unexpected.
“I will never forget how everyone welcomed me,” Juan Carlos recalls. “There was a joy, a different kind of joy.” As he watched them study Scripture and pray before the celebrations, something shifted in his heart. What Juan Carlos didn’t know was that the group had been praying for him long before that night.
When Loss Led to New Life
Just one year later, tragedy struck. Juan Carlos’s lifelong friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. But through his friend’s unwavering faith during treatment, Juan Carlos witnessed something remarkable.
“I was a baby Christian and couldn’t understand why God would let His children suffer,” Juan Carlos shares. “But every time I visited him, I left more encouraged in the faith. He shared the Word with me during every visit.”
A week after his friend’s passing in September 2010, Juan Carlos and Julieta took a decisive step—they were baptized together.
Trading His Plans for God’s Purpose
What started as occasional small group attendance led to deeper involvement at the República Church. Juan Carlos and Julieta joined the Bible Academy and eventually began leading their own small group. But God wasn’t finished yet.
“When I started attending the church, I thought I would stay just as another member,” Juan Carlos remembers. “But God had other plans.”
In 2016, when the pastor needed administrative help, he approached Juan Carlos—a request that would require leaving his accounting career. “I never imagined working in a church,” he admits. “But in all this, it was already in God’s plans. God is the one who determines the steps.”
Seven Years Later: A Life Transformed
Today, Juan Carlos serves as the República Church’s manager, teaches in the Bible Academy, and continues leading a small group with Julieta. His prayer life has transformed from making his own plans to simply asking, “Lord, you brought me here. Where do you want me? Here I am.”
“We made plans that we believed were the perfect ones,” Juan Carlos reflects, “but God started changing us and filling all the emptiness from the things we started letting go.”
Through your partnership with CMI, stories like Juan Carlos’s continue to unfold across Latin America. Your support enables churches like República to reach professionals in urban centers, transforming not just individuals, but entire families and communities for Christ. As Juan Carlos’s story shows, when we surrender our perfect plans to God’s perfect purpose, He works in ways we never could have imagined.
