A family discovers God’s relentless grace through the physical help and spiritual witness of multiple WELS congregations.

Hardship pursued the family relentlessly.

Ronald’s eyes were heavy with weariness from his family’s traveling. Fear followed him, the defender of his family, when they were forced out of homeless shelters and separated from one another for days at a time. Desperation plagued him, even after arriving in the United States—their promised land—as they spent sleepless nights on the streets with hunger still gnawing at their stomachs, thousands of miles away from home.

Ronald; his wife, Ismar; and their four children, Elliany, Santiago, Jérico, and Andrés, were desperately in search of hope.

Finding hope

One Sunday morning, lost and alone in the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, they walked through the doors of our church, Cross of Christ.

“We’re Venezuelans,” Ronald told me, and my heart broke.

I’m all too familiar with the collapse of their country. Having lived in Miami, I’ve heard countless firsthand accounts from refugees of crippling poverty and hunger, relatives kidnapped and held for ransom, and threats of violence on every street corner. As she told me their story, Ismar held back tears, and I knew that, like so many who have fled Venezuela, they had left everything behind.

“Our hearts broke to have to leave our parents and family behind,” says Ismar, “but we had to leave them and carry our pain with us in search of better opportunities.”

With nowhere else for them to go, our mostly empty three-bedroom home became their refuge. For a week, it was filled with laughter, love, the smell of arepas con queso, and the sound of broken Spanish.

Our church members embraced them with open arms, as we tore down the barriers of culture and language in Christian hospitality. Soon, strangers became friends, and friends became family.

“When we first decided to open up our home to them, Elena and I prayed that we would be able to help them not only with their physical needs but also help them to know Jesus and his love,” says Nathanael Jensen, pastor at Cross of Christ. “They quickly became like family to us, and God answered our prayer and brought them into his family too.”

In building a relationship with them, we had the opportunity to give a personal witness of God’s love. Relief washed over them as they heard for the first time of God’s free and faithful grace; his gift of salvation; and his unconditional, sacrificial, personal love for them. Hope filled their hearts—the hope that they had been longing for; a hope rooted in God’s promises; a hope that, though hardship pursued them, clung to God’s relentless grace.

Because of the work of the Holy Spirit, Jérico and Andrés were baptized the following Sunday, and they became my first godsons. Because of the generosity of our church members, the family boarded a plane to Chicago that same afternoon hoping to find a permanent place to stay, and we bid them a tearful good-bye. We prayed that this was only the beginning for them.

Pursued by grace

By the grace of God, it was.

While sheltering for several months at a police station in Chicago, they made the lengthy journey to meet with Seth Haakenson, pastor at Immanuel, Waukegan, Ill. “They were sincere, humble, had a genuine need, and were grateful,” says Haakenson. “Clearly the love of Christ was shown to them, and it affected them deeply.”

While they appreciated the offers of assistance and Christian love they received there, Ronald and Ismar quickly discovered that Chicago was not the safest place for their family. Once again, they uprooted their life on their continuous quest for a better one.

“The instability is hard on the children. They make friends and we meet people who care about us, and then we have to leave them to look for a safer place,” says Ismar. Yet in the midst of constant change, their perspective had also been transformed. “It’s because of God’s love that we’ve been able to adapt to each change,” Ismar says with confidence.

The grace of God followed them to New York City, where they found themselves at Sure Foundation in Queens. “They came into our church with both wounds and great joy,” says Tim Bourman, pastor at Sure Foundation. They were welcomed there with open arms and returned every Sunday. Ronald, Ismar, and Elliany were confirmed in the faith and became members. Santiago attended a bilingual confirmation class. In time, Sure Foundation became their church home.

As partners in ministry, all three of these churches and their pastors worked together to keep the family connected to Jesus. Tim Flunker, the Board for Home Missions’ Hispanic outreach coordinator, helped each pastor meet them and find ways to provide for them physically and care for them spiritually. “It was all because at each place there was someone who spoke Spanish and was willing to take the time,” Flunker says.

“God will move his elect across countries and continents in order to put them into contact with the gospel,” says Haakenson. “The fact that this one family ‘ran into’ so many different WELS pastors is evidence to me that God was directing their steps.”

Experiencing Christian community

God continued to direct them in even more unexpected ways.

Just as the family had begun to settle into life in New York City, Ronald accepted a job offer in Memphis, Tennessee. “They have gone through much, but their hope and courage continue on,” says Bourman.

And the grace of God went with them. They have now been connected to Gloria Dei, Memphis, as their new church. While this church does not have the resources to offer any Hispanic ministry, it joyfully offers Jesus’ love to all.

Evan Turriff, son of Gloria Dei’s pastor, Jim Turriff, is taking steps to build a relationship with the family and connect them to their congregation. “God’s love transcends language barriers,” says Evan, and it’s evident in the way he and other members of Gloria Dei have welcomed them with open arms. Members have taken the family in for holidays, helped to provide clothing and other necessities, and worked with WELS Christian Aid and Relief to purchase a reliable vehicle for the family.

In spite of the linguistic and cultural barriers, Ronald and Ismar and their family are building a life for themselves in Memphis and have once again found refuge in a strong Christian community that they are grateful to call their church home. “Saying that they are a family of faith is an understatement,” says Evan. “God’s church on earth has given them a level of providence, guidance, and respite that they are beyond thankful for.”

“These people have done great things for us without even knowing us, without regard for our clothing or the color of our skin or our language,” says Ismar. “They simply opened the doors of God’s love and showed us how great it is, how he does not discriminate, and how he loves all people equally.”

Showing God’s love

Every pastor Ronald and Ismar have met and every congregation they have been a part of throughout the journey have not only helped them with their immediate physical needs but also offered them the saving message of Jesus and a glimpse of his love. “When God opens your eyes to see how richly he’s blessed you and to see an incredible opportunity to share some of those blessings with someone in need, you can open your heart to them and trust God to figure out the rest,” says Jensen.

As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors whether they are recent immigrants or lifelong citizens, new acquaintances or old friends, visitors or church members, strangers or family, people who look like us or talk like us or think like us or not. “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:10). Whether it’s opening our homes to strangers or friends or simply building relationships with those around us, each one of us receives countless opportunities every day to do good.

The good things we do are so much more than mere acts of kindness. They are acts of service to our Savior, as Jesus will remind us on the Last Day, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). In all our acts of love, no matter how great or small, God’s grace works through us.

Threads of God’s grace are woven into this story beyond what we can see or understand, beautifully intertwined with acts of love on the part of his people. It was his grace that pursued this family relentlessly in the midst of every hardship. “God was always there for us, even when we felt lost,” says Ismar. “God always demonstrated his love for us, without a doubt. Even when we were sleeping on the streets, God was protecting us in every moment. He came to us through kind people who showed us his great love.”

Ronald and Ismar and their family traveled for weeks on foot through the jungles of South America searching for a better life in their promised land of the United States. God gave them so much more: the promised land of heaven and the lasting hope of salvation. This is what they needed most.

They also needed a safe place to stay, a full meal, and people who cared about them and loved them as Jesus does. God gave them families of faith in New Mexico, Illinois, New York, and now in Tennessee.

As Christians, we had the unique opportunity to offer both the saving gospel message and a helping hand. When we open our eyes to opportunities like these to do good and embrace those opportunities, God has a way of using us to do more good than we could even imagine—eternal good.

Author: Elena Jensen
Volume 112, Number 06
Issue: June 2025

Reflecting Christ’s love

WELS Christian Aid and Relief works closely with WELS congregations and missions to reflect Christ’s love and compassion in three main areas: disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and personal relief grants (like the one given to Gloria Dei, Memphis, Tenn., to help Ronald and Ismar). It also offers community care and compassion grants to encourage compassion ministry in a congregation’s community.

Learn more about how Christian Aid and Relief can work with congregations.