After talking with Harvest’s Mexico City Senior Pastor Antonio Munoz, you’ll begin to see the significance of God’s perfect timing. Years before Harvest Mexico City was even a thought in anyone’s mind, God was laying a foundation for Antonio’s family as well as a trust in the Lord’s amazing timing. In 1989, Antonio was planning on becoming a Catholic priest, but just before he could start seminary, his brother invited him to a men's Bible study, and Antonio was saved. 

Years later, Antonio’s wife, Becky, was the only Spanish-speaking volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center in Dallas. In the summer of 2003, a young Hispanic woman came in who had saved just enough money to have an abortion. Becky explained that their center was not an abortion clinic and gave her encouragement and information on adoption, and then offered for the woman to have a sonogram. The young woman discovered that her baby was already 13 weeks along, and the type of abortion required at 13 weeks was more costly than what she had saved. She left with Becky’s information on adoption. Antonio and Becky prayed for several months that she would choose life and were surprised to hear from her again in January. With much praise to the Lord, Becky learned that this woman had not had an abortion! However, she also had not contacted an adoption agency, and her due date was less than two weeks away. Becky recalls, “At that moment, she asked a question that my heart will never forget, ‘Will you and your husband adopt my baby?”

Approval for adoption in Texas often takes three to five months, yet God's perfect timing and almighty hand was evident. “What usually takes months, took ten days,” Becky recalls, “And when our birth mom went into labor on February 4, 2004, I got to be in the delivery room, and we brought our sweet Jessica home two days later. Jessica means ‘God beholds.’ And we know God saw Jessica in the womb and knew our great desire to have a baby and set us apart for each other.”

After the adoption, the Lord drew Antonio and Becky’s hearts back to their hometown of Mexico City—thus beginning their path to Harvest. They moved back to Mexico to pastor a church that had recently endured a church split. After shepherding that church for six years, the group of people that had originally split from the church came to Antonio demanding the building back. While the courts could have settled it legally, Antonio and his church felt the high road was to give back the property and walk away. “We felt like the Lord was saying, ‘If someone asks for your tunic, give them your robe also,’” Antonio says. “We had invested a lot of money in that building, but we felt like God was saying, ‘Do not worry, I will take care of you, this is my church.’”

During that time, they were praying about establishing a church that looked like Harvest. Antonio was familiar with Harvest from his days at Moody Bible Institute, and Becky’s brother was on staff at Harvest. Unbeknownst to them, Becky’s brother had talked to Kirk Vanmaanen in the Fellowship about his brother-in-law’s situation, and Kirk asked if there would be any interest in them becoming a Harvest. Antonio was thrilled with the offer and again, in the Lord’s timing, just weeks after the decision was made, he left for Illinois to be a part of the training center.

After a few months of training, Antonio, Kirk, and John Cochran, an elder at Harvest Davenport (a HBF sending-base church that directly supports HBC Mexico City), went to Mexico to find a place for Antonio’s church to meet. There was an unattractive, old storefront that they were considering because the options and finances were limited, but in God’s perfect timing, that very week another church vacated it’s building and offered to rent their property. “It has two levels for ministry,” says Antonio, “and another level for parking, which is a miracle in Mexico City!”

Launching their church on September 4, 2011, Antonio had the privilege of baptizing 31 people three months later! They average 200 attendees on a given weekend. Regarding the challenge of planting the first Harvest in Latin America in one of the largest cities in the world, Antonio jokes, “There is a saying in Mexico, ‘Too much gravy for such a little turkey.’ I feel like that little turkey! But we look forward to seeing what the Lord will accomplish through us at Harvest Mexico City!”

Growing into adulthood with poor experiences in church after church, Jeff Schwarzentraub knew he didn’t want to pastor a church. But he had a deep desire to disciple men and grow them in leadership, so he thought he had found his niche as an itinerant preacher. His radio ministry, One Heartbeat, had a strong following and people were coming to Christ through his preaching. Yet frustration was growing in his heart as he saw many converts, yet never had a place to plug them in for consistent growth and discipleship over time.

Reaching out to a friend from Harvest Peoria, Jeff got connected with Harvest Bible Fellowship’s Executive Director, Kent Shaw. Kent asked Jeff if he had ever considered church planting. “Sure I have,” Jeff responded, “and let me tell you why I never will.” And after listing all his reasons, the Lord began to work in Jeff’s heart. After a long conversation, Jeff got off the phone, and through tears, told his wife, Kimberly, “We’re going to plant a Harvest Bible Chapel.”

Recalling how God moved, Jeff says, “I saw the church as a stale, dead, boring place where people weren’t accomplishing anything, and I didn’t want to be a part of that. But God was showing me, It’s not the church you’re frustrated with, I died for the church. You’re frustrated that people in the church aren’t taking my glory seriously enough, and I’ve given you a burden to lead a church the way I want it to be led.”

God took Jeff’s frustration and turned it into fuel for a new church that looked like God wanted it to look. Jeff recalls, “I realized it was time to spend my life investing in seeing Christ’s church magnified the way God wants it to be. God gave me a new compassion for churches that aren’t serious about His Word or making disciples. It’s one thing to sit on the sidelines and complain about what the church is doing wrong--it’s another thing to get in the game and do something about it.”

So in March 2010, after spending time at the Fellowship’s training center, Jeff and Kimberly got in the game and ended his traveling preaching circuit to find a permanent home at Harvest Denver with a core group of about 20. And through Jeff’s faithful preaching and discipleship as well as influence from his still-active radio ministry, the church grew from those 20 faithful people to 125 in just 13 weeks. “I recruited a good friend of mine of 30 years to join our core group,” Jeff says, “And he got saved at our very first service. What a privilege it was to baptize him this year!”

As the church grew, Jeff’s heart to disciple men to be leaders grew even stronger. “It was rare that I would walk into a church where men had stepped up to lead. So from the very beginning of Harvest Denver, we were going to call the men to lead. We don’t want people to come into our church and ask where the men’s ministry is; we want them to think where is it not? There are men in children’s ministry, set up ministry, small group ministry. It’s the men who need to lead the church. Our vision at Harvest Denver is to impact the nations of the world with the good news of Jesus Christ by making disciples right here in the greater Denver area. And I think God is just getting started!”