God grabbed hold of Rami Rivas at a Christian Youth Camp in Guatemala on December 16, 2000, and Rami’s never looked back.
“When I was about 15,” shares Rami, “my parents got divorced. My four brothers went to be with my mom, and I stayed with my dad. We all got into drugs. I became a thief and spent some time in jail. When I got invited to the camp, I didn’t want to go. But somehow I went, and God changed my life. Two years later I was called to be an evangelist, and two years after that I got married. After that I got sent to different places to plant churches—and the rest is history!”
Rami and his wife Shirley were working with Débora Ramirez in Guatemala when all three met Bob Loker, then a seeJesus board member (now our Ministries Director). In 2011, Bob led a training in the Person of Jesus study for Deb, Rami, Shirley and others, and once again—there was no looking back.
Rami caught on quickly and brings seemingly unlimited energy into ministry. The beauty of Jesus crosses all kinds of cultural and economic differences.
After that training, Rami preached through all 46 lessons of the Person of Jesus study in his church, which met in a small garage in Zone 18, a notorious slum area in Guatemala City. “It really worked,” remembers Bob. “Rami caught on quickly and brings seemingly unlimited energy into ministry. The beauty of Jesus crosses all kinds of cultural and economic differences.”
Rami and Shirley became trainers with seeJesus in 2021, and joined staff part-time in 2022, training people in cities and rural communities to lead studies. Rami also serves as a pastor and shepherds and trains other pastors.
Shirley leading a lesson, writing participant answers on a board.
“What amazes me about Rami and Shirley is their faith and obedience,” shares Deb. “In 2022, when they sensed God calling them to Colombia after 20 years of ministry in Guatemala, they sold everything they had and moved their teenaged sons to a new country. They only brought four suitcases of belongings along—one for each member of the family!”
“Bob and I visited them shortly after they had relocated to Colombia,” Débora recalls. “Bob borrowed a spoon and then thought he’d lost it. When Cristian, their older son, heard the spoon was missing, he laughingly said, ‘Oh no! We’ve lost 50% of our spoon inventory!’ The spoon, thankfully, was found, but the family’s good humor in the face of a lifestyle so simple that one spoon affects the inventory gives you a sense of their faith and trust in the Lord.”
After several years in Colombia, God called the Rivas family back to minister in Guatemala City, where they continue to labor to help other people see Jesus and be changed by him. The never-turning-back transformation in his own life is one reason Rami loves passing along the Person of Jesus study. He sums it up, “All types of people understand it and, most importantly, it reaches their hearts and minds and everyone is transformed!”
