Birthplace: My name is Jaime Rafael Beniez Benitez. My parents names are Rafael Benitez Pertuz and Maranel Benitez Benitez. I have 7 siblings: Ramon Dario (40), Julion Cesar (35), Regina Ester (33), Marinela (29), Rafael Alexander (26), and Juan Pablo (23) I was born March 9, 1967 in the Town of the Llanadas, in the Corozal , in the Sate of Sucre, Colombia
How I came to know Christ: I was born into a nominal Catholic family. My parents did not take us to any rituals but only to the parties because they enjoyed those. In my town only the women attend mass and it looks bad fro a man to go. Only the women and senior citizens attend mass. My father was very involved in the things of the world because of his profession s a musician. However he was also a jealous man with his family and never got involved with liquor or any other kinds of addictions. E was a dedicated and hard working man that made sure we studied hard. In that sense he was a great example. My dad was very comprehensive with my mom although when she received Christ he was opposed to it. He always loved to have her with him and after getting saved till now he keeps her in the house with him because he doesn't like to be without her. When I was 11 my mother started to take us to the evangelical church of my town. It was a Baptist church originally but had strayed much from the original doctrines. My dad did not let my mother go to church at all. She however ended up receiving Christ from reading her Bible and followed the steps to be saved from listening to the Tran world Radio with is aired from Bonaire and the Dutch Antilles. She would listen to J. Vernon Maggi. Whenever I didn't want to go to church I would threaten her with telling my father because I knew he didn't like for us to go. I got saved when I was 12 years old. The whole town began to call me “the brother” and still do. Although I did not like that nickname at the time, it helped in my first steps of the Christian walk.
How Christ has changed my Life: After receiving Christ God changed me I into an obedient boy. Before I had been disrespectful and quite rebellious. I learned to have a healthy fear about the things of God and quickly tried to put into practice all that I would learn. I stopped being friends with the boys in my neighborhood and made the older teens (18-20) of the church become my friends. Right now my entire family is saved and two of my siblings dedicated themselves to God for full-time service. My brother is the director of a Seminary in Bogotá and is a strong Baptist leader in that city. My sister is working as a teacher at a church in New York . She is single and is faithfully serving the Lord.
My Calling into the Ministry: As a new Christian I used to love to go with my pastor to different places to preach when he needed someone to accompany him. I was the first boy to get baptized at 13. Back then they didn't baptize people so young bit it later became a common thing. There was a deacon meeting I which they discussed whether to baptize me or not. They asked me time and time again if I really wanted to get baptized and fin ally allowed me to do it. At 14I got involved in the treasury department of the Sunday School and after a bit became the young people's teacher. I also go involved in the evangelism ministry in my church as well as in the father places of my city. I met my wife when I was 25 and we were married that same year (2002). I have an 8 month old baby and god has greatly blessed me. While working at the “Community of Love “Christian Church. I asked God for a place to prepare myself for the ministry without outside preoccupations and be able to prepare full time. That is when I was told about the Seminary in Arequipa by missionaries Michael Hart and Edwin Quispe. At first I thought it would take around 5 years to be able to complete the processes of getting here bit Praise God here I am. The Seminary is the greatest opportunity for us to prepare with the right doctrine. Other than adapting to the schedule here, the big challenge is the classes. Financially God is providing for each and every one of our needs.
My Plans for the Future: We are open to whatever and wherever God wants us. For now I want to be a missionary pastor and am praying about worming in the West Plains of Colombia . I am praying for Bogotá and that god would allow us to start 200 fundamental churches in the capital We're also praying for Peru , North Africa, and Spain and we hope God will guide us in His will. If God would permit us to work in the Plains our objective would be to start a center of missionary operations ruin the Yopal of Casanare. From there we would make sure the work was very solid and then spread out and multiply ourselves throughout the entire Plains area.From there we could send workers that we have trained well to go reach their each sub-region. We want to maintain a world perspective where we are and wherever God places us. |