I was born in La Paz, Bolivia.

My father was very rich, and my mother was a hippie (in a good way). My mother always loved Jesus and me with all her heart. She wasn’t married to my father. Here in Bolivia, it is a bad thing have children outside of marriage, so after I was born, my mother, my half-sister, and I ended up in an apartment with $300 to live on, pay for school and all other expenses.



By the time I was 19 years old, I had been through six schools, and I hadn’t read a single book in my life. I lived with “innocent” things: alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana.

My mother met her husband on the internet when I was 16. He lived in Sweden so she moved there to live with him. Three years later, I went to Sweden to visit her. When I saw the restoration that God had worked in her life and the love from God in her heart, I was touched.

A pastor invited us to a church, but it was three hours from my mother’s house. I went once, but it was too far and not my type of faith, so I stayed at home.

I had nothing else to do, so I read my Bible, a new and old thing that I knew but did not really understand. I read and read for two months, and it was all about God and his kingdom and grace. I love him with all my heart, because he let me know and love him back.

So I came back to Bolivia and went to college. I studied culinary arts and served in my church. A lot of doors were opened for me in economic and spiritual ways. I had a lot of opportunities to help others and study the Bible, and I got to go to seminary for a year.

Now I am finishing my culinary arts degree and serving God with what he is doing here in Bolivia. I have a community group of almost 70 people, and we serve God together as well.

I am thinking of going to Rio Grande Bible Institute in Texas to study theology. I want to come back to Bolivia after I graduate, if that is God’s plan for me, and spread the Gospel here.

My story is that Jesus owns my life. I hope to visit Mars Hill one day, because from the podcasts it seems that Pastor Mark speaks what is already in my heart (with a little more words, of course!)

God bless, and keep loving people,

Jose David