BGEA’s Internet evangelism ministry is reaching out to Spanish-speakers in the United States with an evangelistic website called PazConDios.net. The online ministry, En Busca de Jesús (or Search for Jesus), is now looking for more volunteers to receive training and serve those seeking answers to their spiritual questions online.
Diego Schaefer, a Georgia resident originally from Argentina, was recently retired from sales when he heard about this volunteer opportunity at a missions conference. He now volunteers with En Busca de Jesús as an e-counselor.
As a volunteer, Schaefer chats with visitors on PazConDios.net. He prays with them and points them to Christ.
“It has really helped me to be more outspoken in my faith,” he said.
In person, he says he’s not one to ask people if they have a relationship with Christ, but online, “I feel freer to ask where they’re at [in their faith]”—and to share the hope he has in Christ.
Other volunteers with En Busca de Jesús serve as discipleship coaches, leading people through an online discipleship course, and as email responders, responding to messages left on PazConDios.net.
Since 2012, the site has reached more than 1 million people, with about 185,000 indicating a commitment to Christ and 30,000 passing on contact information for further follow-up. The outreach tool targets Spanish-speakers around the country. And there are many.
Nearly 40 million people in the U.S., ages 5 and up, speak Spanish. While many in that group also speak English, Spanish is typically the preferred language, their “heart language,” Spanish ministry manager Jessica Romero explained.
“It is always more effective to reach the heart of a person in their own heart language,” she said. It’s what they are familiar with and their primary means of communication.
Many Hispanics come to the U.S. to work and support their families, she said, but that often means leaving friends, family and their culture.
“They also go through the same struggles that all other human beings go through,” Romero said, “such as marital problems, drugs, alcohol, and more.”
Schaefer once chatted with an online visitor whose spouse left the marriage after the couple moved from Mexico to the U.S. He chatted with one man online who struggled with temptation and with another online visitor who found it hard to understand the Bible.
“The questions are out there,” he said. “People are seeking. … It has certainly encouraged me to delve into Scripture more.”
Schaefer moved to the U.S. in 1964 and became a Christian four years later after watching a BGEA film called “The Restless Ones.” But he had no ministry experience before joining En Busca de Jesús.
The training he received from En Busca de Jesús staff, as well as the regular communication with his volunteer coordinator, have helped tremendously, he said, adding that the ministry really is a team effort.
It’s a team Romero is excited to see grow as more and more people find PazConDios.net.
“Our volunteers are online, ready to give them hope,” she said, “to encourage them, and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.”
If you have a heart for sharing the Gospel, an Internet connection and a few hours a week, consider making En Busca de Jesús your personal ministry. Click here to see how you can get involved.
