The Guzman’s Answering the Missional Call to Comerio, Puerto Rico.
First, let me say Thank you for taking the time to read this. I want to start by giving you a little background information about who we are as a family. In case you don’t know, I am Pastor Danny Guzman of Grace Seaford Church in Seaford Delaware. I am 44 years old and have been serving in ministry for about 20 years off and on. The last 10 years of my life I have been devoted to serving in Recovery ministries and family ministries. What led me to this path was a life full of dysfunctional behaviors including many years of addiction.
By the Grace of God I was able to find healing through the recovery process, which led me to a greater relationship with Jesus. It was only 3 years ago did I decide to answer the higher call on my life to become a Pastor when I landed at Grace Seaford Church. As I hit the full surrender to the Lord’s calling I realized that everything I had experienced in life has led me to this very moment, and often times I still say “ I can’t believe the Lord is using a guy like me.” Along side of me in this journey called life is my beautiful wife Jenna. We have been together for 14 years and married for the last 10 years. My wife has been, and continues to be my greatest supporter through all the ups and downs that life throws at us. She also continues to serve beside me in both Recovery and family ministries. To say this has impacted our marriage is an understatement. We have both been able to grow closer together with the Lord and each other. We have 3 beautiful children together. Our daughter Serenity is 13 and loves serving on the worship team and other community outreaches. Our daughter Izabella is 11 and loves serving in the children’s ministry holding babies in the nursery. Then we have our son Ezra who is 21 months, and just so full of life. We spent much of our time serving together in various areas of ministry. We are devoted as a family to loving each other and growing together in all areas of life. We make it a priority to spend our time making lasting memories and having impact on the world around us. This is just a glimpse of who we are, and as this journey continues we will be sharing more of who we are with you.Now that you know a little about us, let me tell you about the Call to Comerio, Puerto Rico. It all began in October of 2022 when our church went to serve on a missions trip in Comerio to assist our church partner One Church Comerio. This where I first met Pastor Jorge Santiago Reyes. We were there to assist with disaster relief efforts from the last hurricane that hit Puerto Rico. There was an instant connection for me with Pastor Jorge and the Church. The way he loved his community and the church really struck a cord for me. And the way his church and community responded back in love also had great impact on me. When we had left Comerio I had a greater desire to continue my relationship with Pastor Jorge and the church. I remember coming home so fired up and telling my wife about all the meaningful things that I had experienced while I was there.Yet I was internally baffled about one thing. How could people who had so much less be so much more content in their life. What I know is that God had lit a fire in my heart in those moments. It was so bright that shortly after being home I was eager to start planning our next mission trip to Comerio, which would only be a few months later. That second trip down actually occurred in March of this year, 2023. What was really cool is we were able to take a team consisting of 10 people “ including myself and our oldest daughter Serenity.” It was on this trip where God really pulled my heart strings. I was the team lead this time, which meant I got to spend more time with Pastor Jorge going around through the community and interacting with the people there. As we were going around to all the different places it started to stand out to me that not only was there a lack of resources, but there were many people who are stuck in addiction and alcoholism. I had the opportunity to engage many different people in these moments and I kept hearing God say to me “ If they had a way out, they would take it!” What I mean by that is, I felt that they are only stuck because they don’t know there are other options. This led me to talking with Pastor Jorge more about the recovery options in the area. I quickly learned from Pastor Jorge that Comerio doesn’t have many options at all. There are only a few places that people can turn to and none of them are actually in Comerio. I also learned that there are only a few options for Christ center recovery on the whole island. This burdened my heart deeply and I began to seek the Lord in prayer over this. It wasn’t until the third night we were there did I hear anything back. I had called home to check in with my wife that night and without any prompting the first thing she said to me was “ when are we moving.” This floored me! My wife isn’t one who normally would jump out with such a bold statement. That’s how I knew the Lord had spoke to her. My response was “we can talk more when I come home.” So, for the duration of that trip I continued to pray and engage the church and the community. The last night we were there, I spent some time with Pastor Jorge and his wife Rebecca talking about what the Lord had revealed to me. In this conversation they revealed to me their hearts and how they had been praying for God to provide the right person to bring a christ centered recovery program to Comerio. They had also expressed a greater vision of having a complete Christ center treatment facility for people to recover. Through this conversation I expressed the burden God had placed on my heart for the People and Area of Comerio. I told them that I would return home and have greater conversation with my wife in regards to this burden. When I returned home my wife was anxious to talk about the leading we had both sensed from the Lord. We both agreed to wait to talk in depth about it until we spent a 2 week season in prayer for more clarity. After the 2 weeks were up we came back together and had an exciting conversation. We had both heard God tell us to “GO.” Of coarse one of the things neither of us knew then or now is “how.” How will be able to make this move and how will we support our family. Full transparency, we’re not a wealthy family by no means. We are stable here and able to live comfortably , but our response to our question is “FAITH.” We both landed at the place that “God did not call us to comfortable” and if this is going to happen we will have to grow in faith and trust that if this is His calling He will provide. The part of the story that I haven’t shared yet is as a Pastor I was offered 2 opportunities locally that would have been real comfortable for me and my family to step into. The first was staying right here where we are and I could have eventually taken on a greater role with Grace Seaford. The second opportunity was to plant a church with full funding in my home town of Pasadena, MD. We prayed over both of these opportunities as they had risen, but neither of us heard God say yes. Instead, we heard God say sell it all and Go where “I am calling you to.” As we began to work through this decision we both agreed that we didn’t want to be a financial burden to One Church Comerio. There are not many resources in Comerio and the poverty levels of the area make it hard for the church to sustain already.So over the last few months we started to work out what it would exactly take for us to move to Comerio. As we were working on all this The Lord Blessed us in ways we didn’t see coming. We had received some financial blessings that allowed us to become completely debt free. These blessings also left us with about $20,000.00. We plan to invest this blessing back into this next journey of moving to Comerio. As of now we are sensing that this missional move will be for a 2 year period of time. While we are on this journey we will be starting the first ever Christ centered recovery program in Comerio at One Church Comerio. The goal is not for us to run it fully for the 2 years, but to be training up a team of leaders to continue the mission. The call is to equip the called in the local church, and at the end of our time there, turn it over to the team. As we are working this process we will also be assisting Pastor Jorge and the church to fulfill a greater vision of not only having a recovery program, but having a complete recovery facility. This means finding a location that we can build and turn into an actual place where people can go to be inpatient for treatment from substance abuse. If the Lord wills it, the facility will also host a pregnancy center. A place where new mothers can also get help with the challenges that a new baby brings. The dream is that this facility will be able to offer greater resources as a whole to the impoverished area. All of that to say as many of you may know it’s going to require the Lord’s blessing in many areas.Here’s where you come in! First and foremost, we are asking as many people as possible to commit to being in prayer with us over this missional call. Please pray that God would raise up the hearts in One Church Comerio. To raise up those who are called to serve in the recovery ministry. Also pray that God would soften the hearts in the community to receive the healing that is offered through Christ. Please pray for God’s provision and safety for our family as we embark on this call. Please pray for clarity, direction, and discernment each step of the way.
Earlier I had mentioned that we had figured up what the financial cost would be for us to answer this calling. We are looking at an $80,000.00 total cost for the 2 year period of time. This cost includes both moving to and back from Puerto Rico. It will also include housing for the 2 years and all the “normal” bills such as water, electric, groceries and all the things that normal life brings. We also plan to use these finances to secure the resources for the recovery ministry. I wish I could list out all those resources right now, but full disclosure we are still working on what that will look like. As the lord provides we will also be investing in the greater vision of the recovery facility. Not only with the financial component but also with my skills as a 30 year carpenter. If we meet this goal it would allow me and my family to be completely focused on the ministry calling while we are there. But, I’m also willing to work with my skills if necessary to provide , but the dream is to be able to have complete focus on the calling. So, if this has struck a cord in your heart and you feel led to contribute to this calling. There are several ways you can help support us. The first you already heard, which is prayer. If you feel led to support us financially it could be a one time gift, or it could be a monthly gift. Or maybe it’s a gift when you can give a gift, because we understand how life goes and some seasons are better than others. You can give on our Give Send Go campaign, or you can reach out directly to me for other ways to give at dguzman@graceseford.org. The link for the campaign will be tagged to this post. We know that this area very well could be an area where God will test our Faith , but none the less we will move forward at the end of April 2024. We have already visited Comerio as an entire family. While we were there we made 2 offers on homes. Now we are patiently awaiting the Lords leading on where we will land. We continue to talk with Pastor Jorge, not only building our relationship with him and the church but also preparing to answering this call. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about this new Exciting season of life we are entering into. Also, Thank you for any and all support of our family as we answer this call.
Be Blessed to be a Blessing,
Pastor Danny Guzman and Family.