Arvin* and Cristina* are Colombians with a rich family heritage of Jesus followers. Arvin’s family met some of the first mission workers to come to Colombia. His grandma then dedicated her life to sharing God’s love with people living in the mountains. Arvin’s faith is deeply rooted through the evidence of his family’s generational living in the reality of Jesus.
Cristina came from a traditional Catholic family. At 13, she made a personal commitment to follow Jesus. A few years later, God told her He was going to send her to war-torn places: “but I didn’t understand then what that meant,” Christina says with a smile.
She and Arvin met at youth group. Their friendship continued to grow, even when, at the age of 21, Cristina went to work in Ecuador on a temporary contract. On a visit home, Arvin asked Cristina to marry him, and so they set up their first home (and business) together in Ecuador. They always knew one day God would ask them to work for Him overseas.
A year later, “We were in huge difficulties [financially],” Cristina explains. “Yet God told us not to go back to Colombia, but stay in Ecuador, because it was time for His plans to become full in us.”
As the couple prayed, God started to reveal the steps. Although they were Colombians in Ecuador, their local church partnered with them to send them to Kosovo in 2010 to join a small team. Several months later, all team members except one had finished their commitment and left, and Arvin and Cristina became team leaders. They launched a pioneering work amongst Muslims, setting up alongside a non-governmental agency.
“We served [the people] there for seven-and-a-half years. And we [came to] consider Kosovo our home,” reflects Cristina. “But after five years, I realised we are not maintainers but pioneers; we needed to hand over the work and move on. We had been praying for specific territories in the Greater Caucasus every week since 2013 with others over Skype; someone challenged us: ‘You have been praying; [now] you need to go and see!’”
In 2015, Arvin and Cristina did so. “It was really hard, but a great adventure as we walked the land,” they remember. God gave Arvin a dream during the trip: a two-storeyed house where people were moving from room to room and praying. “I understood this would be a house of prayer to mobilise prayer for the Balkans and the Caucasus.”
They then asked God to confirm that they should move on from Kosovo; they were willing but knew leaving would be painful. “Please, will You tell us at least three times through people that don't know us or … the options, so that we are clear what You are saying,” they prayed. God did exactly that, and they knew it was time to leave.
“So, we left in early 2018. It was so painful,” reflects Cristina. “But the only way to cope with all that grieving was knowing that God had prepared us for it. There was peace [in] knowing we were where He wanted us to be.” She found herself thinking back to God’s words years before about sending her to war-torn places to work for Him amidst conflict. The couple had been drawn to pray sensitively for such lands and the people: “even though I didn’t know these were [the] people who needed to hear about Jesus,” says Cristina.
Arvin agrees: “Kosovo was a fantastic time for us with the Lord. Then [there came] a kind of invitation from the Lord to the wilderness to know Him better. We talked together and agreed if God was inviting us, He would know why.”
Trusting God, they left Kosovo for Ecuador, eagerly anticipating a time of sharing with their church and preparing for the Caucasus. Once there, their daughter, Amira*, aged 15 months old, was diagnosed with eye cancer.
“That was something so difficult,” says Arvin. A month later, “the Lord opened doors for us to go to Barcelona to receive treatment. Six months later, we travelled back to Ecuador, the doctors said, ‘Your daughter now is doing well and has recovered.' A year later, in 2019, we began preparations to leave for the Caucasus, and in August, joined an OM team in Russia.”
However, within three months, Amira’s health began to deteriorate, and she needed surgery in Colombia, where the little family ended up in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The surgery was successful, but Colombia did not feel like home. “We had not lived there for 15 years, and our family was in another city,” reflects Cristina. Finally, in 2022, Arvin, Cristina and Amira were ready to return to Russia.
They began studying Russian at a university. Then, in the predominantly radical Muslim community where they lived before, they were invited to be regular Spanish teachers at the university, with a one-year visa to remain. On the first of August, the family moved to live amongst other university teachers, in readiness for the term starting in September.
“In the last days of August, the university called us to an interview,” explains Arvin. A few days later, they were told they had 15 days to leave Russia. Their visa to remain was revoked for 15 years.
Once again, Arvin, Cristina and Amira were on the move. They ended up in the South Caucasus, joining three other established families who were focused on the same people group. “We were desperate, and desolate, traumatised and grief-filled,” Cristina remembers.
As God took them through this period of mourning, unity formed as everyone prayed together. Healing came, not just in their hearts, but through being a House of Prayer with 18 others. The group is now over 70 believers strong and growing, including pastors, leaders, expatriates and children.
Two years of working with the local church has built unity amongst local and expatriate Jesus followers, and a depth of belief in the hope they have in God to sustain and care for them despite circumstances. They reach out to the 12 ethnic groups who live in the area, including Muslims, Orthodox believers and those with no faith.
“We are joining the disciple-making movement that God is preparing for this season for the Greater Caucasus to those who know and don’t yet know Him,” explains Cristina. They are starting a local hub that encourages local micro-enterprises, services and new business opportunities to enrich and transform the whole community for generations.
“We feel on the edge of a breakthrough moment that God is about to do,” rejoices Arvin. “We are living [in] the most exciting times in the Greater Caucasus. There is a [spiritual] famine in the integrated Caucasus. And we [believe] we are about to see even greater things happen.”
*name changed
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Arvin* and Cristina* are Colombians with a rich family heritage of Jesus followers. Starting married life in Ecuador, God then sent them to Kosovo, and subsequently to different parts of the Caucasus. No part of their painful, surprising, wonderful, prayer-rich experience has been wasted as they have trusted in God to reach out to others.
Geraldine invites readers to ask God this Lent: “Where might I serve our beloved Master next in reaching out to those who cannot help themselves?”
