Stories from our field
Marco Alvarado: “My dream is that GlobalRize Latin America will glorify God.”
Marco Alvarado from Chile will be the director of GlobalRize Latin America, a role that brings together many aspects of his life. With a background in electrical engineering and leadership experience, Marco has a strong passion for missions. “Serving the Lord through GlobalRize is like closing the loop.”
What motivates Marco to work for GlobalRize? Marco says, “At the beginning of the Covid pandemic I started to ask God what I could do to glorify His name while the entire world was going into quarantine. During this quest I discovered that Silvia – a person the Lord used to open my soul to missions 30 years ago together with her husband, pastor Ramon – was actively posting Bible messages designed by Globarlze on Facebook.”
Marco’s involvement with GlobalRize felt like a natural step. “I studied Electrical Engineering to help people through telecommunications. Then I worked developing residential access to the Internet. Now, I work in an Information Technology company and have served in various leadership roles. Looking back, it seems like the Lord has been training me to take on this new challenge.”
What are Marco’s dreams for GlobalRize Latin America? “I am convinced that human beings were created for the glory of God and, therefore, there is no greater happiness for man than to dedicate his life to that. That is the first and great dream I have for GlobalRize Latin America: that it glorifies God.
The second desire is closely linked to that: that GlobalRize Latin America helps to expand the kingdom of God on earth and that it is a ministry through which volunteers can serve the Lord.”
Remarkably, the new department already has more than seventy active volunteers. GlobalRize Latin America aims to focus on online Bible education, equipping untrained pastors, and connecting people to Bible-believing churches. Marco says, “I plan to appoint a country coordinator for each Spanish-speaking country to recruit volunteers and develop culturally appropriate strategies.”
Marco has come a long way to this new challenge. He grew up in a Christian family and was active in the church as a teenager, though he did not yet know Jesus personally. “I started to question about life purpose, being, knowledge and similar topics, which I tried to address from the Bible and philosophical texts.” At eighteen, while studying electrical engineering at university, Marco’s questions deepened. “That year, a day of June 1983, I was reading the Bible in my room, and I had the conviction that I was lost, needed salvation and that receiving Jesus Christ was the only way to be saved. I kneeled and prayed to ask Jesus Christ to come
to my life.”
Throughout his life, God has guided Marco in discovering His will. In 1992, a conference speaker advised him to read the Bible seriously to understand God’s will for missions. “I took this advice and six months later concluded that missions are indeed a crucial part of God’s message. Shortly after, I attended a missions conference in Argentina and dedicated my life to serving God in missions.” Marco’s church adopted an unreached people group in West Africa in 1995. “I volunteered for a scouting trip to Niger and Burkina Faso, which tested my faith and showed me how God provides in miraculous ways.”
Marco later met Alejandra, who also wanted to pursue missions. They married in 1998 and sought God’s plan for them. “In 1999 and 2000 we learned about the many difficulties that Chilean potential missionaries faced, and we wrote down some ideas of what was needed to solve them. In a meeting with an SIM missionary, he shared his ideas about what was needed in Chile about missions, and they were the same we had written. This was the beginning of ProVision, the first Chilean Christian missions’ organization, serving churches of every denomination.”
Marco and Alejandra have three children. Two of them, aged 21 and 19, have come to faith and been baptized. Marco shares his deepest desire for his eldest, 23, “My utmost desire and prayer are her salvation.”
Marco has experience in church youth leadership and has served as an elder. He is currently a member of the 9th Presbyterian Church of Santiago (IPCH), where he is active as a pianist in the worship team.