Alliance international workers continually seek creative ways to share their faith and connect with neighbors—sometimes referred to as “contacts” in missions terminology. But first termers Noe and Keila Hernandez in Paraguay found that evangelism often happens by accident.
One day while making a wrong turn in his car, Noe discovered a CrossFit® gym, and the two chose to join.
“I had decided this was going to be my ‘me’ space—that the people I met there were not my contacts and would just be my friends,” Keila says. “I wasn’t even going to think about what I was ‘supposed’ to do as a good missionary.”
Seeing a couple of foreigners in their fitness class every day, gym members started asking Noe and Keila why they were in Paraguay.
“We told them we’re working with an evangelical organization and that Noe is a pastor at a church,” says Keila. This opened the door for more questions.
Purpose-Driven Life
A fitness coach asked Noe, “Since you’re a pastor, can you tell me how to know I’m doing God’s will?” Noe took the opportunity to offer to study The Purpose-Driven Life with her. Other gym members were nearby and overheard. “We will go to that,” someone said. “Can we all do that?” Noe and Keila began meeting regularly with several gym mates to read and discuss the book.
Keila also got to know CrossFit’s® receptionist, Emilia*.
One day, the 27-year-old approached Keila and said, “OK, your husband is a pastor—I need to ask some questions.” Emilia shared that she had grown up as a nonpracticing Catholic and had considered various spiritual paths. But recently, she said, “I started reading my Bible because I want to know what’s true.”
“She would bring lists of questions for me and Noe, including some I had absolutely no idea how to answer,” Keila recalls. “So, I said, ‘I’ll look into that and get back to you, because I really don’t know.’” In time, Noe and Keila started meeting with the receptionist in their home to study the Bible.
After Emilia had begun casually attending an evangelical congregation, she asked Keila and Noe about the meaning of a new phrase she had heard in church that week: the prayer for salvation.
They explained about the need to be saved from the consequences of sin and that the prayer was basically accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for us. “Is that something you want to do?” Keila asked.
“Well, yes! Obviously,” Emilia answered.
Steps of Faith
As the couple led her in the prayer to receive Christ, Keila wondered if her friend really understood what it meant. But over the next few months, she and Noe noticed a striking transformation in Emilia, who had previously struggled with fear. “She was afraid of so many different things—she was afraid of life,” observes Keila.
“We watched her and saw how God was working in her, how she was growing and taking steps of faith.” She would post Scriptures on Facebook daily and share the gospel with her friends. “They all think I’m weird,” Emilia has said.
Shortly before leaving for home assignment, the couple got to see their friend baptized. Later, she came to their home to pray for them before they left. “It was the most encouraging way for us to end our term,” Keila says.
Creating Community
In Emilia’s faith journey, Noe and Keila observe, “We didn’t plant the seed but got to see it come to fruition.” Noe also notes how God used something ordinary in significant ways. “If not for this gym, we’d be with church people all the time,” he says. “God used CrossFit® to help us create a community with unbelievers.
“We all have hobbies, things we do for fun. Most of us just need to be more intentional in showing people who we are. When we do, they will see there is something different about us and ask why. Whatever you like to do, invite people into it. Let them see who you are in Christ.”
*Name changed