When B and his wife took their first trip to Central Asia, it was like coming home.

“Everything felt familiar somehow,” B marveled. “Even though we did not understand the language, our hearts connected deeply with the people, the culture, the music. The Lord confirmed his call to us through brothers and sisters there, who kept repeating, ‘Yes! Come!’”

It would be four more years before B and C could return to Central Asia for their first term on mission. The waiting was hard. Then, in 2023, things finally fell into place: visas, budgets, a place to live. “We were so happy to be going back there!” B said. “But we wondered exactly what was ahead for us.” Not surprisingly, music has played a significant role in their mission.

Growing up, B’s passion for music led him to a professional career as an accomplished, secular recording artist with little time for anything other than rehearsals and road trips. Then he met and fell in love with C. 

“My musical career was taking off,” he recalled. “I had the opportunity to accompany different renowned artists playing in Hispanic countries all over the world, and I was also in one of the most popular rock bands in Colombia. But there came a moment when I realized that neither fame nor money could fill me completely. There was an emptiness. There I was, performing in a concert one minute—the center of attention, surrounded by fans—and an instant later I was in a hotel room, alone, away from my wife and son, empty. I realized that this was not the road I wanted to go down.”

C also recalls that season well. “It was a prosperous time for us! B’s band was in great demand, and I had done very well in my career and was able to step back to care for our son. In many ways, we were experiencing success.”

Success, however, was not enough. Both B and C began to hunger not for success, but fruitfulness.

“In Spanish, the word for ‘success’ is exito,” B explained. “It comes from the Latin exitus, meaning to exit, to finish, to leave something behind. This was what we wanted—to leave behind something meaningful, eternal, and to help others to do the same. But how to begin?”

They began with gratitude. 

“Everything was a gift from God,” C said. “We wanted to express our gratitude in tangible ways.” With that, the couple became involved in a local MB church, and experienced a genuine conversion.

Worship ministry seemed an obvious choice for B, and it was a joy for him to found musical groups that continue to this day. The couple was also invited to help with a new church plant, which resulted in a season of significant growth for them both, as they were stretched to serve outside of the familiar musical context. 

Challenging as this work was, the couple found that pouring themselves out for the sake of others strengthened them more than they expected. “It was as if God were teaching us that the pillar of life is sacrificial love,” B said. “There is no other strategy.”

A few years later, they attended a mission seminar and met Einer Zuluaga, Multiply missionary among the indigenous people groups of Panama. Their first encounter was confusing. 

“When Einer met us, he got a strange look on his face,” B recalled. “Then he just blurted out, ‘You are the ones!’”

Eventually Einer explained, by relating a hilarious story. Some years earlier, Einer had been returning from a trip to Thailand, and had a layover of several hours in a city in Central Asia. Exhausted, he fell asleep in the airport, so deeply that his companions were unable to rouse him to catch their next flight! The result was an inadvertent two-day cultural immersion in that city, much to his traveling companions’ consternation.

“Einer said that during those days he lost his heart to the Muslim people,” B relates. “So much so, that he began to pray, ‘God, I cannot go. Please send other Colombian missionaries to the Muslim people! Missionaries who will love them, who will embrace their culture and language and become like them, to bring them the Gospel!”

“So, when he saw us,” B concluded, “he sensed that we were the ones God wanted to send. It was mind-blowing! Suddenly we were thinking about cross-cultural mission to Central Asia.”

That next year was spent in earnest prayer, discerning with the leaders of their church how best to go forward in this calling. They began to learn more about the MB family of faith, and even had an opportunity to attend a gathering of the international MB family (ICOMB) in Paraguay, where they met other MB missionaries and global partners who affirmed their calling. 

“It was impossible to ignore the Lord’s leading!” B said. “Every encounter, every trip, every decision—they were like invitations from the Lord to leave behind everything that could represent security for us, and to place all our trust in him alone.”

Prepared to also leave his musical career behind, B was amazed to arrive in Central Asia only to find that God wanted him to use this gift in mission. “In the homes of the people we meet, there is always time for a song,” he said. “We see God using music to communicate his heart—even without words. It has become, for us, a powerful discipleship tool.”

“Music, love, a simple walk with Jesus—these are universal languages,” B reflected. “They flow transversally through cultures, inside and outside the church, in homes, in coffee shops, on the street, in daily life. To allow others to see Christ in us, in genuine friendship, means also allowing them to see our weaknesses. Then, they know that love is real—our love for them, Christ’s love for us all.”

Connecting with people looking to learn or improve their musical skills has resulted in opportunities for both B and C to share their own testimonies and encourage others to explore or deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ. Recently, B and a man he is discipling recorded a demo of their first worship song in Arabic. “My friend immediately went to play it for his mother in her kitchen,” B related. “She listened, but made no comment. Later, she asked to hear it again, then again. The song touched her heart deeply, and now she is coming with her son to church!

“These stories make us so grateful to be here,” B said. “Who knows for how long? Everything is uncertain; we could be deported at any moment. Will we one day look back, and say, ‘That was a success’? That depends on how we define success. For us, it will mean that we helped others to hear God’s voice, helped their voices to be heard, and helped them to connect their hearts to Jesus.”

“That is exitus.”

PRAY

For B, C, and their son to find workable strategies for a long-term visa in Central Asia. Pray also for their learning of the language and culture. To listen to their first recorded worship song in the local dialect, with lyrics written by a national believer click here.