José Luis Ramírez was afraid of being too happy.
By his early thirties, he and his wife Paulina had built a small empire in Quito, Ecuador. Multiple companies. Properties across the country. Enough money that their two children never wanted for anything. But José Luis traveled constantly chasing the next deal, the next expansion. Paulina was too busy managing the business and achieving more academic diplomas. Both found each other pursuing their professional dreams, putting their children and family time at the end of their list.
“We had everything financially,” José Luis admits, “but we didn’t have a family.”
Then came María Paz.
Their third child was born in January 2011 with a mitochondrial condition. Her tiny body couldn’t convert food to energy. For the next three years, José Luis and Paulina lived in hospitals while María Paz fought for life.
During those hospital years, they left managers in charge of their businesses. It proved catastrophic. The people they trusted bankrupted every company. José Luis and Paulina emerged from their daughter’s illness to discover they owned nothing except the house where they lived. Everything else was gone, sold to pay massive debts.
In September 2013, María Paz passed away. She was two years and eight months old.
“God sent our daughter to rescue us from our ways,” Paulina reflects now. “She came to pause our lives. She required all our attention, the attention we hadn’t given our other children.”
In their grief, they knew they needed God, but the rituals of a traditional Sunday mass no longer felt like enough. They needed Jesus. They remembered someone mentioning a church in Cumbayá. They didn’t even know the denomination. One Sunday, desperate for help, they took their two children and went.
They walked in halfway through the service.
“From the moment we got in, the Word of God reached us,” José Luis remembers. “We had an encounter with God. This became our home, our safe place.”
The welcome was immediate. The teaching was biblical. Their children actually wanted to go. Two years later, José Luis and Paulina were baptized together, becoming the first Christians in both their families.
Pastor Jorge and his wife Mayra walked closely with them, not with lectures but with honest transparency about their own challenges. They invited the couple into their home. José Luis and Paulina witnessed firsthand what a godly marriage looked like.
“Many people who knew my husband from before still have that old image,” Paulina says. “But only I and God know who he is now. He’s completely changed.”
The transformation ran deep. José Luis pursued a master’s degree in theology, then a PhD. He now supports the discipleship programs at Cumbayá Church. Together, he and Paulina also serve in the marriage ministry, mentoring other couples through the same restoration they experienced.
Their two children now study and live in the United States. Their daughter married a believer in California. Their son attends the University in Michigan. Despite their financial collapse, God provided for their children’s education through people and opportunities they describe as miraculous.
“We used to depend on financial projections and plan based on business techniques,” José Luis explains. “Now we live by trusting God. If we need ten thousand dollars tomorrow, God knows, and we know He will provide. It’s not irresponsibility. It’s faith.”
Money no longer defines them. Ministry does. Their desire to share the Gospel goes beyond the church walls. Together with fellow believers, they are planning monthly revival meetings in cities across Ecuador and initiatives to support impoverished rural congregations.
God’s work on their marriage and lives led Paulina’s sister and parents to Jesus as they attend church as well.
“We’re grateful for CMI’s support,” José Luis says. “Cumbayá is our home church because of partners like you.”
Because of your partnership with CMI, Cumbayá Church became the place where a broken marriage was restored, where successful entrepreneurs discovered their true calling, and where the grief of losing a daughter led to finding the God who redeems everything. Your support creates spaces throughout Latin America’s cities where broken people encounter Christ and multiply His work through surrendered lives.
By his early thirties, he and his wife Paulina had built a small empire in Quito, Ecuador. Multiple companies. Properties across the country. Enough money that their two children never wanted for anything. But José Luis traveled constantly chasing the next deal, the next expansion. Paulina was too busy managing the business and achieving more academic diplomas. Both found each other pursuing their professional dreams, putting their children and family time at the end of their list.
“We had everything financially,” José Luis admits, “but we didn’t have a family.”
Then came María Paz.
Their third child was born in January 2011 with a mitochondrial condition. Her tiny body couldn’t convert food to energy. For the next three years, José Luis and Paulina lived in hospitals while María Paz fought for life.
During those hospital years, they left managers in charge of their businesses. It proved catastrophic. The people they trusted bankrupted every company. José Luis and Paulina emerged from their daughter’s illness to discover they owned nothing except the house where they lived. Everything else was gone, sold to pay massive debts.
In September 2013, María Paz passed away. She was two years and eight months old.
“God sent our daughter to rescue us from our ways,” Paulina reflects now. “She came to pause our lives. She required all our attention, the attention we hadn’t given our other children.”
In their grief, they knew they needed God, but the rituals of a traditional Sunday mass no longer felt like enough. They needed Jesus. They remembered someone mentioning a church in Cumbayá. They didn’t even know the denomination. One Sunday, desperate for help, they took their two children and went.
They walked in halfway through the service.
“From the moment we got in, the Word of God reached us,” José Luis remembers. “We had an encounter with God. This became our home, our safe place.”
The welcome was immediate. The teaching was biblical. Their children actually wanted to go. Two years later, José Luis and Paulina were baptized together, becoming the first Christians in both their families.
Pastor Jorge and his wife Mayra walked closely with them, not with lectures but with honest transparency about their own challenges. They invited the couple into their home. José Luis and Paulina witnessed firsthand what a godly marriage looked like.
“Many people who knew my husband from before still have that old image,” Paulina says. “But only I and God know who he is now. He’s completely changed.”
The transformation ran deep. José Luis pursued a master’s degree in theology, then a PhD. He now supports the discipleship programs at Cumbayá Church. Together, he and Paulina also serve in the marriage ministry, mentoring other couples through the same restoration they experienced.
Their two children now study and live in the United States. Their daughter married a believer in California. Their son attends the University in Michigan. Despite their financial collapse, God provided for their children’s education through people and opportunities they describe as miraculous.
“We used to depend on financial projections and plan based on business techniques,” José Luis explains. “Now we live by trusting God. If we need ten thousand dollars tomorrow, God knows, and we know He will provide. It’s not irresponsibility. It’s faith.”
Money no longer defines them. Ministry does. Their desire to share the Gospel goes beyond the church walls. Together with fellow believers, they are planning monthly revival meetings in cities across Ecuador and initiatives to support impoverished rural congregations.
God’s work on their marriage and lives led Paulina’s sister and parents to Jesus as they attend church as well.
“We’re grateful for CMI’s support,” José Luis says. “Cumbayá is our home church because of partners like you.”
Because of your partnership with CMI, Cumbayá Church became the place where a broken marriage was restored, where successful entrepreneurs discovered their true calling, and where the grief of losing a daughter led to finding the God who redeems everything. Your support creates spaces throughout Latin America’s cities where broken people encounter Christ and multiply His work through surrendered lives.
