Home > About Us >

Meet the NLHM Missionaries

Juan & Dina Aguilar - Serving NLHM in Tieton

El Salvador is the home country of Juan and Dina Aguilar. Born into a Christian family in the State of Santa Ana, Juan personally received the gift of salvation at the age of nine. Baptized when he was 15 years old, he openly declared his commitment to serving God with his life. Juan was asked to preach his first sermon one week after his baptism and public declaration of his changed life. In the following years, he answered the call of God to become a missionary pastor. His testimony tells of an insatiable desire to serve God from that time on. He developed a strong passion for evangelism and sharing the gospel with others.

Juan’s family farmed the land. Their income was very limited. Financial resources were not available for schooling beyond the sixth grade. When Juan was 18 years old, the local evangelical pastor moved from his home town to lead another congregation in a different city. The church asked Juan to become their pastor. Inexperienced as a pastor, and continuing to work on the family farm, Juan embraced the church ministry. God produced much fruit through his work, which was a confirmation to him, and others, of God’s calling of Juan to a full-time ministry. During this time, Juan enrolled in Bible training through a course at The Regional Bible Institute.

In 1989, Juan moved to shepherd a church in the State of Libertad. It was here, he discovered Dina, the woman God chose for him as his wife and helpmate. Juan and Dina were married in 1990. They have three sons; Juan Jr., Henri, and Josue. In 1996, Juan was privileged to begin attending the Salvadoran Bible Institute. He graduated with degrees in Bible, Theology, and Ministry.

In February 2001, Juan was invited to preach in a church in Northern California. He received a visa for ministry in the United States, and accepted an opportunity to serve full-time in a church in the Sacramento Valley. After two years, the family returned to El Salvador due to health problems.

Judah and Alyssa Sali - Serving NLHM in Jalisco, Mexico

Judah, Alyssa, Lane and Benjamin Sali have been living, working and learning in Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico since September of 2007. Judah grew up in and around Yakima, Washington. Alyssa moved to the Northwest after meeting Judah during their studies at Wheaton College Graduate School. Alyssa graduated with an MA degree in Theology and Judah graduated with an MA degree in Missions and Intercultural Studies.

Soon after returning to Yakima, Judah and Alyssa became involved with an English as a Second Language classes program at West Side Baptist Church in Yakima, primarily teaching Spanish speakers. This was a good fit for Salis, especially for Judah, who had spent six months living in Mexico as a child and nine months living there as a teacher for the children of a missionary family. It was through the ESL classes that Judah and Alyssa met Elias Garcia and his family, while Elias was the pastor of Iglesia Bíblica Vida Nueva. Little did the Salis know how connected their lives would become!

Spring of 2003 marked a significant move for the Salis. They joined the Sun Valley Church plant in East Valley, thus uniting themselves with a group dedicated to the evangelistic mission of planting churches.
In February 2007, the Salis, now a family of four, were alerted to a new possibility for their lives. An old family friend, Steve Montgomery, had written a short piece in his newsletter announcing a new administrative position assisting church planters in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico by coordinating short-term missions groups. At this time, the Salis were not looking for a foreign missions position. In fact, when Judah's parents encouraged them to think and pray about the position, they found it a bit odd. But, after only a few short weeks, it became increasingly clear that their next move might be all the way to Mexico!

The next six months were filled with activity. After a NLHM Vision Trip with Elias Garcia, in April 2007, during which time the Salis had the opportunity to meet not only with Steve Montgomery but also with the various foreign and Mexican church planters in the area, the decision to apply for the position became certain. The Salis and NLHM decided to partner together in this work, along with West Side Baptist Church and Sun Valley Church, providing a Mexico base for the already existing NLHM short-term missions ministry. As the family sorted out their belongings and said their goodbyes, they were blessed by the support and enthusiasm of their friends and family.

Now settled in Arandas, Judah spends his days juggling two part-time jobs-software developer for a Yakima company and Coordinator of Short Term Missions in cooperation with NLHM and an association of local churches under the supervision of Steve Montgomery. During planning times (when teams are not there), Alyssa is homemaker and home school teacher (aka mom). When the teams arrive, the whole family gets involved - Judah as chauffeur, translator and guide, with Alyssa and the boys as additional translators and comic relief! American teams have assisted the church planters here in many ways by: hosting a leaders retreat, opening doors into new communities through service and construction projects, touring the unreached and just reached towns of the highlands offering prayers for and encouragement to local believers, funding and providing manpower for large scale outreaches such as health fairs and Bible Schools, projecting evangelistic films, and the list goes on.

The Sali family sees their role as Short Term Missions Coordinators fulfilling two very important purposes for the advancement of the Kingdom of our merciful and awesome God: Stretching the hearts of the American short term missionaries to include a greater love for and understanding of their Mexican neighbors and furthering the work of the church planters who are boldly proclaiming a message of love and hope in the Highlands of Jalisco.

Elias and Arelis Garcia - Serving NLHM in Yakima

Elias Alberto Garcia was born in the city of Trujillo in Venezuela on June 4th of 1974. Born of Ernesto Garcia, a CPA and Carmen de Garcia, an elementary school teacher, Elias grew up in the town of Pampanito just 15 minutes from Trujillo. Raised Catholic je became actively involved in the Catholic Church as an altar boy and a member of the Sacred Sacrament Society at the age of ten. Elias became a Christian at the age of fifteen, through the testimony of relatives and the ministry of a youth group; facing the opposition of family members for his conversion.

Elias was discipled and developed his early Christian life at the First Baptist Church of Trujillo where he was baptized and started his teaching ministry as a Sunday School Teacher and occasional preacher. Elias graduated from high school in 1990 at the age of sixteen and then worked for a couple of years in different jobs. After meeting his wife-to-be, Arelis, nearly a year after high school; in 1993 Elias started college and became one of the founding members of the Missionary Baptist Church in his hometown of Pampanito where he worked with short term missions teams from the United States. In 1997 Elias graduated from college with a degree in Information Technology and married the love of his life, Arelis had been the guardian of her niece Genesis since she was 4 month old, whom the new couple adopted into their family.

In 1999 Elias and his family moved to Yakima, Washington sent by 14 Baptist churches of Trujillo State as a missionary family to the Hispanic community in Yakima. This work started with a door-to-door evangelism campaign with the participation of 20 Venezuelans and 3 local churches from the Yakima Valley. In December of 2000 the Garcia family was blessed with a new member, Elias Ernesto and in July of 2003 the newest member was born, Elisa Daniela.

The Garcia’s early ministry resulted in the planting of Iglesia Bíblica Vida Nueva (New Life Bible Church) in Yakima and in 2003 Elias became the General Director of the New Life Hispanic Ministries, an organization created as an outgrowth of the church planting efforts started in 1999. In 2004 Elias finished his Bachelor's Degree in Bible Studies through the extension program of the Christian Bible College and started his Master's in Cross Cultural Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. After serving as pastor of Iglesia Bíblica Vida Nueva from its inception, Elias moved on to be the full time General Director of New Life Hispanic Ministries in January of 2008 after the church called a new pastor. Now Elias is promoting, developing and coordinating the vision of the ministry God has given him and his family.

Testimony: Born and raised in a Catholic home with great parents and very few need materially speaking I was what many will call a “good kid”. I got good grades at school and never got in big trouble. It was easy for me to say that I did not need anything else, but deep inside me there was a void that I did not know how to fill. I was introduced to the Gospel through my uncle's family on my father's side. I went to live with them for some time and they were very involved in the Christian Church. They invited me to go with them and even though I resisted at first pretty soon I started attending church with them. For more than one year I asked a lot of questions and started reading the Bible. It was after all that time and back in my own city that I called a pastor out of the phonebook (because I did not know any believers in my hometown). After meeting with him, he invited me to a home Bible study. Before the Bible study started the pastor shared with me the plan of salvation and asked me if I wanted to trust Christ as my Savior and it was on November 17, 1989 that I accepted Jesus as my Personal Savior. After that, my life was transformed. Even though there was opposition from my family because of my decision, I continued on growing in the Lord. After becoming a member of the First Baptist Church in Trujillo, Venezuela when I was 16 years old, I began teaching Sunday School and preaching. I participated in various church planting projects in Venezuela and am now serving with my family as a full time missionary in the US, sent by Venezuelan Baptist Churches.