Joel & Marilú Marsh

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Past Ministry

Joel and Marilú Marsh have been serving with BIMI for 41 years. God has been good to them with a fruitful ministry. They have 18 churches, 16 in the country of Guatemala and 2 in Honduras and all the churches are pastored by good national pastors that Joel has won to the Lord and trained. One of the national pastors, Brother Edwin Escobar has taken his family to Honduras and has started two strong and thriving churches. It is miraculous how Brother Edwin got saved from the depths of sin (alcoholism and adultery) and from a motorcycle gang. There is also a Bible institute called Hope Baptist Bible Institute in the capital of Guatemala where national pastors are prepared and trained.

The first church started and the main church (and sending church) Jesus Christ Saves Baptist Church is located in the slums (specifically called Zone 18) of Guatemala City. This area of the city is totally full of gang activity where people are constantly being shot and killed. This is one of the reasons for the church’s growth. The biggest Sunday ever in attendance of the church was 1,460 people with over 100 professions of faith in Jesus.

One man God is using in a great way in the main church is Brother Cesar Soto. His testimony is pretty amazing! He was the gang leader of the Barrio 18 gang and he violently killed many people. He was led to Jesus while in the hospital where he had surgery from a gunshot wound. When Brother Cesar started attending church, he was on fire for the Lord. On a trip from Guatemala to Soyapango, El Salvador, to attend a pastors’ conference, they reached the downtown plaza of Soyapango, and Brother Cesar asked to stop the car. He got out and targeted a group of the MS13 gang members. He proceeded to take his shirt off and showed the gang members his scars and tattoos and then with his New Testament won three of them to Jesus. That night he took all three of them to the church meeting and they made a public profession of faith in Jesus. Brother Cesar is still to this day on fire and is doing a wonderful job as the main pastor of Jesus Christ Saves Baptist Church.

Future Ministry

His ARM ministry will be threefold: 1) He will be preaching Spanish citywide crusades and revival conferences.
2) He will be filling the pulpit at his home church and other churches in the United States, in Central America, and in Mexico.
3) He will be teaching in a new Bible institute in Tampa, Florida, a ministry of his son’s church La Iglesia Bautista Redención (the Redemption Baptist Church). This institute is training young Hispanic men to go and start churches in the United States, Central America, and Mexico.

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