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Two Men and a Vision
Eleven years ago, God gave Cecilio Ciguarista a vision to build a church in Chitré, Panama. By faith, he saw a large group of people worshiping in a huge church. As Cecilio and his wife, Mayssin, continued to pray and believe God for the vision, their congregation began meeting in his father’s carport and continued to grow through the years.
Little did Cecilio know, in the two years after his vision, God spoke to a man named Mike Simpson in Mayodan, North Carolina, about building some churches in Latin America. At the time, Hugh Hoyle was the conference Missions director for the Cornerstone Conference. Hoyle remembers when Mike came and shared his vision, and within that year, he built seven churches in various countries of Latin America. One of those was in Chitré, where he constructed a small building that would be the basement for the future church.
In the years that followed, the vision birthed in both Cecilio and Mike continued to grow. Cecilio continued to lead a growing congregation, and Mike continued building churches while he kept a business going at home. But Chitré had a place in Mike’s heart, and he returned there and to other churches in the area several times.
Now serving as a career missionary in Panama, Hugh Hoyle had a special opportunity to show Mike the new church when he returned in October 2007 to visit the Hoyles in Panama. Mike had not seen the new Chitré church, located in front of the original building, since it was a large concrete skeleton, two and a half years ago. Seeing what the local congregation had done to complete the building themselves, Mike stood in awe, wiping the tears. The new Chitré church, beautifully finished inside and out, even had air conditioning installed.
The congregation of over 200 now reaches out to other congregations in Panama, grateful to Mike and others for the boost that got them started. While Mike was in Panama, the pastor spoke emotionally of what it had meant for them to share a mutual vision and how much the Chitré church loved him. Their new vision for the church is to buy a lot for a parking area and to purchase and open a Christian school and biblical studies school next door.
—adapted from Hugh Hoyle’s
November 2007 newsletter
