Longview couple finds way to share church with members worldwide

LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) - A married couple in Longview has found a way to share their church with members around the world.

Virtual church services have become fairly common these days for obvious reasons. Back in 2019 there were not that many around, and a husband-and-wife team have created enough momentum in their ministry that members of their church built a house for a family in Ecuador, and more.

Christina and Francisco Rojas have been married for eight years. In 2019, they took their relationship one step further and became ordained ministers.

“Our mother church is New Beginnings Christian Center in Marshall, Texas. And we have our certificate of license through them,” Francisco Rojas said.

In 2019 they started their church, Volver a Empezar, meaning A New Beginning. They tried using a smaller building owned by New Beginnings, but it didn’t go well.

“We opened our door. We started going out to the street, to parks, trying to invite people. We did that for several months and nobody came,” Francisco Rojas said.

They kept doing it anyway, with no congregation, and eventually started doing Facebook streams.

“And we were noticing a lot of people were starting to join every single Sunday,” Francisco Rojas said.

Many of those people were unable to make the drive to Marshall; namely, family and friends in Ecuador.

“They had family members and friends in other countries, and it was just something that started to spread,” Francisco Rojas said.

That spreading lead to becoming organized enough to build a house for a family in need in Ecuador, and they decided to stream from their home instead of the building in Marshall.

“We were wasting electricity and nobody’s showing up,” Francisco Rojas said.

Their ministry in Ecuador has enrolled kids in school, along with other outreach opportunities.

“We’ve been able to do a lot of food drives. We’ve been able to provide school supplies,” Francisco said.

Now they’ve started a GoFundMe page for a boy named Angel. He has cerebral palsy, and an operation will help him walk.

“It’s valued at over ten thousand dollars, and they’re leaving it at 28 hundred,” Francisco said.

Christina Rojas thinks, compared to third-world countries, America is a land of plenty.

“It’s necessary that if we know how blessed we are, and so we can bless other people,” Christina said.

All this because no one showed up at their services and went virtual, or maybe it should be “church-ual”.

To visit the church’s Facebook page, click here.

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