Welcome to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, situated on a popular bay about 150 miles northwest of Acapulco. It’s part of Costa Grande, which includes the tourist resort “Ixtapa.” The first thing you need to do, however, try and pronounce its name in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs: “Zihuatanejo” [siwata’nexo].
Zihuatanejo (or Zihua, as the locals call it) was a sleepy fishing village until the government developed Ixtapa resort in the 1970s. It has since become Mexico’s third most-visited area after Cancún and Puerto Vallarta. It’s quickly grown from some 6,800 to today’s more than 124,000. For our movie buff readers, Zihuatanejo is the place where Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) escapes to after his prison break in the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption.
Meet Zihuatanejo resident Pastor Jorge Vicente Ramirez Torres. Jorge and his wife, Eugenia, have spent their entire 30-year married life in this beautiful place and have two adult children.
“I met the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 12 in a Pentecostal church where I grew up in Acapulco. As I grew older, I served as a youth leader, praise musician, usher, janitor, and anywhere else I could serve. We married when we were 21 years old and a year later, we moved to Zihuatanejo for work. We joined the Getsemani Presbyterian Church and, for over 14 years, I served in various capacities such as worship leader, Sunday School teacher for children, youth, and adults. I then became the church treasurer, secretary, and president of the church board. I have been co-pastor for the last three years.”
Jorge explains that in 2008, he became the pastor of a small church on the outskirts of Zihuatanejo, in the community of Las Pozas: the opposite of the resort city. “The community is low-income, with dirt roads and few public services,” Jorge explains. “There is a great struggle with gangs and violence in the community along with alcoholism and drugs.” With a sigh Jorge continues: “This community desperately needs the Lord. Very few go to church or know the Lord. We do not yet have our own property for a church, but we continue to do our best to proclaim the Gospel and carry out the great commission.”
He adds: “LOGOI has helped me so much in my pastoral development. I must study on-the-job and have limited finances. I try to take advantage of LOGOI’s free studies and courses for which I send a huge ‘thank you.’ I am now looking at LOGOI’s Bible resources to help train more workers in our church.”
Would you take a moment right now and pray for Jorge? Specifically, he asks that people grow in this community to love and worship God with all their hearts. He also asks for the blessing of having their own place for worship “so that more can discover God’s love and hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
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