I miss my friend and humble Shepherd.

Don’t really remember how I met German.   I guess our Church had a partnership with his Church and so I volunteered to get involved. Seems like it was a work day at the Church he and Margaret, his wife, founded.

I was impressed by his gentle spirit right away.  

Always serving others.  

Always loving well.

It was evident to anyone who met German and Margaret that they deeply loved and cared for each other. It was also a blessing to see how he loved and cared for his son and daughter.  

A perfect picture of a gentle father who loves well.  A reminder to all of our Gentle Father in Heaven and His Great Love for us.

German and I had worked in different circles for years and didn’t have the opportunity to meet.  We both worked in International Companies that had a long standing relationship of commerce together.  It was his company PanAlpina that brought them to Nashville years before we eventually met.

German and Margaret had moved from Bogota Columbia where he was employed by PanAlpina.  He apparently had a good job with a measure of material success.  As a result, he and Margaret found themselves at home one day at the end of a gun due to a home invasion/robbery.  The thieves threatened to kill them if he didn’t go to an ATM with one of the robbers and empty out his bank account.  Only then would they set his wife free and unharmed.

After the robbery, he worked with PanAlpina to get transferred out of Bogota as it simply was no longer safe to live there.

Like the early Christians and the Diaspora from Jerusalem they found themselves in a foreign country.   They built a home and started a Sunday afternoon Outreach Church for Latinos in Nashville/Brentwood Tennessee.  Before long about 250 to 300 Latinos from multiple Latin and South American countries started attending.   

God was at work and He had taken something terribly wrong and transformed it for his Own Glory through German’s obedience to be faithful to his calling.  

To follow Jesus to the ends of the Earth.

To the best of my knowledge about 5 years passed and PanAlpina proposed that he take a transfer to Miami.  German told them he now had a Green Card and that he wanted to stay in Nashville and plant a Church.  To be a full time pastor serving this local community of Believers and New Believers.  To be faithful to His Calling and Shepherd his Flock. 

So he left his job

Followed Jesus

Left a legacy

At some point they were sent out from the Parent Church and Sunday afternoon worship times  to plant a new Church farther south meeting on Sunday mornings.  It was during this period of time that he and I met.

We lived in Nolensville not far from the church building which was actually a historic Baptist church building that had existed in one form or another since the CIvil War.  At one point it had been a battlefield hospital during the war.

I’d been thinking about trying to find a way to serve the Latino community in my area at the time and it just seemed right to find a way to partner with German.  So I got his phone number and decided to call and introduce myself and the idea.

I wanted to introduce Caucasian teens to Latino teens and build bridges to connect cross culturally.  So that both ethnicities could be encouraged by each other.  The bridge for the connection would be a mission trip to Honduras to work with orphans.  I’d been on a previous trip and knew the network and it seemed like a perfect fit.

Funny how God works….the day I called him to introduce myself German had received another call from a local African American female believer named Nikita who had expressed a desire to partner with his Church and take a mission trip.

So when I called and relayed the concept he told me about the call he’d had earlier in the day with Nikita who he’d never met and it must not be coincidence, but of the Lord.   Basically, he committed that very day to take his Church Youth Group to Honduras with me for their very first youth mission trip.  So we partnered together and started training the teens to go.  We ended up taking 18 Latino teenagers and adults plus 6 local Caucasians to Honduras.

For months we trained and at one point the Church decided to collect clothing, school supplies, etc…to send ahead of us.  To meet the physical needs of the locals we would be reaching out to and not just the Spiritual.   The Church collected something like 30 to 40 storage containers to ship to the partnering organization in Honduras.  So what started as an idea ended up involving the entire Church.

Through it all I witnessed the great humility of German and his leadership team.  I saw how they worshipped God wholeheartedly.  Holding nothing back.  They gave all they could to kids in another country they’d never met.

Finally, the time came to go.  I have been on more mission trips than I can almost remember, but this one topped them all.  Spanish was a struggle for me and my role ended up being a prayer support person and simply a witness to what God was up to.

I still look back on that trip as one of the finest experiences of my life.  Largely due to the humility of German, his great love for his wife and his flock and his passion for always helping someone who needed it.

We saw people come to faith in Jesus on that trip.  

I just watched in amazement as German’s youth group and ours prayed and witnessed to the kids and the local community in Honduras.   They worshiped with them in a small concrete cinder block chapel led by Margaret, their son David as well as my son Connor and Skyler Chilvers on guitars.  The Spanish speaking teens sang and led the worship.

The dream of seeing the cross cultural connection was there on the platform playing guitars and leading worship together.  It seemed the whole community had heard about the Latinos and Gringos from America who had come to serve them and they filled the building to hear about Jesus.  

The worship with these young kids and the youth groups, even though it was not my language, was sweet and soul nourishing.  I can still hear the voices of those kids worshiping God.  It left an indelible mark on the teens who went with us.  Changed forever having tasted the Goodness of God the Father in Heaven. Here’s a recorded session of one of those worship sessions.

Over the next couple of years German and I became brothers in Christ.  We would occasionally get together and talk about faith, family and dreams.

During those years, I went through a difficult divorce and German was there every step of the way.  Encouraging me to keep the faith.  I can still hear him say “Oh Man” that must be hard or hurt.   God is faithful, hang in there.   I had become one of his sheep even if I belonged to a different partnering Church.  He shepherded me through the storm.   

And then a couple of years later, when the storm had passed,  German would be the Pastor who would officiate my marriage to Angela.  He celebrated with me as I entered a new marriage and an expanded family.  

To this day there is a picture on my night stand of Angela and I saying our vows with German standing before us as he welcomed me to kiss my bride.  In the picture he is smiling ear to ear.  He knew the journey of my years and he welcomed me into this new passage.  Forever grateful I will always be.

German was always good about checking in from time to time just to see how I was doing.  Two years later he sent me a text wishing me Happy Bday.  I still have it on my phone “Happy birthday to you my friend.  May God bless you abundantly.  A big hug for you.”

That was German.  Always caring for others.  Shepherding the flock of which I now belonged.

A few weeks after that text German died.  Covid and congestive heart failure.  I couldn’t believe it.  He had so much more to live for. And yet God called him home.

He had run his race and he had finished well.  One of these days I’ll get to Heaven and I’m pretty sure I’ll see what I saw on any given Sunday at his Church.   There he will be faithfully singing and worshipping our God.  Leading a chorus of believers who beat me there.

He will welcome me with open arms and together we will worship our God who sits on His Throne in the Heavens.  People from every tribe, tongue and nation.

A gentle Giant.  Servant to all.  

A man faithful to His Calling and now rewarded.  

Well done oh good and faithful servant 🙂