Pastor Rey's Story

I grew up in the area of one of the largest cities in America. My father was from Mexico and sadly developed cirrhosis at the age of 36. He died just after turning 37. I was six years old at the time. My mother took our family to an Independent Baptist Church because folks from that church had come and knocked on our door in the past. While in a service at that church I went forward and made a profession of faith. It was an empty profession and I was still lost. A relatively short time later our family stopped attending that church.

Time went on and as a teenager I got involved with gangs and drugs. Our house was raided by law enforcement twice within one month. Our house was also shot at by rival gang members. My mom moved away when I was seventeen and remarried. I was suddenly forced to enter adulthood rather quickly. All of these things caused me to begin to question my life and choices I'd made. At eighteen years old, I recognized my sinful life and that I had sinned against a Holy God. I repented of my sins in my heart and placed my faith in Christ as my only hope of salvation. At that time, I realized I could not save myself and trusted Christ was enough for me to be saved. I changed. I knew God saved me. I began to read my Bible and attend church. Almost a year later I decided to move away from my neighborhood to another state. I went to live with my mom.

However, a short time later I found myself homeless and living on a friend's couch. It was then that the Pastor of the church I was attending advised me to go to small Baptist Bible college and took me there and dropped me off. Praise the Lord, I began to grow in my walk with the Lord.

I began that first semester driving a church bus. The following year I was given one address with three kids to start a new bus route for the church. By the end of the school year we had the largest bus route in the church with a high day of 143 riders! The next year, I was asked to work as the youth pastor. We started a youth program on Wednesdays. We started in a new area with three young people. In ten weeks our efforts were blessed by God and we were running over 60 kids! It was during this time of service that I met my wife, Nichole. What a blessed time!

​

​​​Atter a few years we decided to leave bible college and move

back to my home church. During the next six and a half years

I would be used of God to be the bus director, assistant to

the deacons, choir member, Sunday school teacher, youth

pastor, pulpit supply, and anything else the Pastor needed. 

In November of 2007 God spoke to me from His Word concerning

surrendering to minister to Native Americans. I surrendered to do the

Lord's will. In 2008, we were accepted as missionaries and began to travel to churches presenting our field and ministering on Indian reservations.

God moved us to the Sioux nation of South Dakota. We spent almost 10 years ministering to the Sicangu Lakota Oyate on the Rosebud Reservation of South central South Dakota. We fell in love with the people. Unfortunately, in 2020, COVID came and effectively shut our ministry down. We sought the Lord as to what to do next. Two and half years later as we were seeking the Lord's guidance, Chickee Baptist Church of the Seminole Tribe of Florida reached out to me through some mutual friends. They asked me to become their Pastor. So on October 19th, 2022 I accepted the call to come and minister to the Hollywood reservation.  My family and I moved down to South Florida in November that same year.