Ryan Case
I was born in Los Angeles, California. After my parent’s divorce at the age of 5, I lived with either my father in California, or my mother in Oregon. At the age of 18. God moved my friend to invite me to church at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Santa Maria, California, and on hearing the gospel message for the first time there, I received Christ as my Savior. Three months later, our church held a mission’s conference, and God called me to the mission field. I was the personification of “zeal without knowledge”. I wanted to go right away! My pastor told me I needed to go to Bible College, so the next year, I started out as a freshman at West Coast Baptist College.
During my second year of school, God confirmed through prayer and His Word that the growing burden on heart for Mexico City was, in fact, a calling. From then on, I prepared for and prayed for this goal. I was engaged toward the end of my third year to Sarah Margerison, another sophomore at WCBC. We were married four days after graduation.
My wife and I started working in the church I was saved in, under the leadership of Jerry Scheidbach, teaching in the church school, and leading the youth group, and running a bus route. I was ordained there, and worked as an assistant pastor after ordination. I was in Santa Maria for two years before going out on deputation for Mexico City. We started studying Spanish after two and a half years of deputation in Tijuana, Mexico. While I was there, I was able to get dual Mexican/American citizenship. We were in Tijuana for three and a half years, learning Spanish and supporting various ministries there.
After our first furlough, God led us to begin church planting in Tizayuca, Mexico, with another Mexican missionary. We found God had prepared a group of people who needed a church. Through soulwinning, baptizing, and discipleship, God added to the church rapidly. After two years, there was a faithful group of 120 people, most of whom were involved in ministry, soulwinning, and giving to support the church. Seeing the church was well established with a prepared pastor who was supported by the church, I started looking to Mexico City, to find a good place to start.
I was led to Xochimilco, Mexico City. We started there, knocking doors and discipling believers. After a year, I was joined by a young couple I had discipled in Tizayuca, who were called to the ministry. I began institute classes with him, and he was ordained. The church grew out of the first place we lived, so we moved, and it has grown steadily since then.