Miguel Pérez

At KingsWay we celebrate the gift of grace that is local church membership and the unity, service, and commitment that it entails. As covenant members together, we uphold the public worship of God, the proclamation of His Word, and the grace of His lavished love. Below, KingsWay member Miguel Pérez shares how the Lord confirmed for him and his family that KingsWay was the local congregation He had prepared for them.

My heart is full of joy this morning to be able to share with you part of what God has done in our lives these months since we have been in KingsWay.

So that you can understand better, I must take a few seconds to tell you our story:

As most of you know, my family and I came from Chile almost a year ago. We arrived in Orlando, and after a couple of months there, the Lord used (KingsWay members and our friends) Mario and Amy to bring us here. They knew it; we didn't imagine it, but God already had it planned.

We arrived in KingsWay in June last year, but Christ had already made us his children when my wife and I were still teenagers.

Carolina and I met at church when we were 17 years old. We got married at 21, and the Lord gave us the beautiful family that you know: Martín, Michelle and Matias.

We have always congregated and worked with all our might in every local church we attended. But when we arrived at KingsWay we knew immediately that this was our home, and not because we liked it at first sight, everything was different: the language, the building, the music, the way of singing, of teaching, everything was different. But I can assure you that from day one, our Lord showed us his care and love for us.

That day, at the end of the service, the first to come up and say hello were Mike and Candy Sullivan, who made us feel loved, cared for, and more than welcome. Then many others, who without knowing it were used by God to let us know that we are in his hand.

Our third Sunday we witnessed the baptism of Jonah and Elizabeth Davis and their confessions of faith. The following week we saw them receive their covenant membership and witnessed their commitment to the local church and the church's commitment to them.

We found the ceremony beautiful, solemn, but what we liked most was seeing Christ at the center of the life of the local church.

That was the day I knew that’s what I wanted for my life and for my family. I looked at my wife and I could see in her eyes that she felt the same as me.

From that day on, becoming a member of KingsWay became our strongest desire.

We had to wait a few months for last fall's new membership class to start.

The wait seemed eternal, but while we waited we fell more and more in love with this community. Those classes were a great blessing. As the weeks passed, we learned more about KingsWay, and we delved into the study of the Word of God while learning the doctrines of our church. At the same time, God confirmed to us that this was our home and you were our family.

Finally, November 12 was our covenant membership day and from that moment on our lives changed. 

After so many years as Christians, we can say today that our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ grew and with it every aspect of our lives changed: our family relationships, among brothers, friends, our faith grew and today we can be firm in the sovereign grace and will of our Father.

These months we have known the Lord much more than in any other season of our lives. We have experienced the care, concern and love of our Lord, through each of you, our beautiful pastoral team and with every greeting, smile and conversation with each of you.

With our family and friends thousands of miles away, you became our new beautiful and beloved family.

We have met in this place the most gentle and lovely people of our entire lives, but what we value most is knowing and enjoying the assurance of the Lord's sovereign grace over our lives.

Now our greatest joy is knowing that all this is just the beginning of our new story.
I would like to leave two reflections before finishing:
The first is for those who are members of this church: As Mike and Candy did with us, please never stop greeting, smiling and welcoming those you meet in this place. We never know what circumstances that person is experiencing and how much a hug and greeting can mean at that moment. We show Christ and his love when we love others.

The second message is for those who may be here for the first time or recently and are looking for a local church to attend or trying to decide whether or not to take the next membership class. Let me tell you that for us it was a tremendous blessing, that we understood the covenant and commitment of this local church with each of its members and through this community we have delighted in the fatherly love of the washed and redeemed of the Lord.

God continue to bless you, KingsWay.

Miguel Pérez