Meet Teodoro Bernaldo Medranda Garía from Ecuador: A Man With An Amazing Story

…like a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53:2)

by Keith Elliot~

I want to introduce you to a man with a remarkable story, a man who has served as President of the Evangelical Missionary Church in Ecuador for the last fifteen years. Most people call him Teo, but his full name is Teodoro Bernaldo Medranda Garía. I will stick to Teo. He is our supervisor while we work on the Pastoral Care Project here in Ecuador.

Teo was the seventh of thirteen children, born in 1961 to his parents, Teodoro Medranda and Lucinda Garía. They lived on a small farm just outside the town of Calceta, in the province of Manabí in coastal Ecuador. A missionary couple, Charles and Laverne Glenn, began holding services in their large country house in 1972. His mother received the Lord first and later his father. Eventually all of the family members accepted the Lord as their Saviour. According to Teo, the Glenns were effective disciple-makers and taught them the truth of the Bible. Teo made his personal profession of faith in the Lord at age fourteen during a Vacation Bible School with Laverne Glenn.

Teo left home at age eighteen to study mechanics and lived with his mother´s family. God protected him from the rampant drug use in his extended family. During this time he stopped following the Lord for about ten years. He eventually moved to the capital city of Quito and landed a good job working in archival systems with a bank and university. He was earning a very good wage. Although he attended the Iñaquito church with some of his sisters who were living in Quito, he was not active in his Christian life.

His family sold the farm and bought another farm near the town of Quinindé, where they attended church. On a visit home in 1987 Teo saw a very attractive young lady and eventually met her. Raquel Rodriguez was active in the church at La Concordia, studying TEE (Theological Education by Extension) and planning to go to the Alliance Bible Seminary (Bible College) in the city of Guayaquil. Teo´s older brother, Bernardo, came to know the Lord and there was a dramatic change in his life. He became an elder in his local church in Quinindé, studied TEE, went to study at seminary in Guayaquil and became a pastor. The transformation that Teo saw in his father and brother made a lasting impact on him. He also saw the power of God to heal when a visiting pastor prayed for his father who was instantly healed of a serious skin disease. There was a growing love in his heart for Raquel. God used these influences to bring Teo back to Himself.

Nat Brown, missionary and pastor in La Concordia church, began to dialogue with Teo about his future. He asked what his plans were and Teo said that he wanted three things in life: to study to become a professional; to work hard and make lots of money; and to get married. Nat challenged him to give his life fully to the Lord and serve Him. Knowing that Raquel was serving the Lord, he told Teo that it would be a frustration in their marriage if he did not also serve the Lord fully. At 27 years old Teo returned to the faith of his adolescence and was baptised in the Iñaquito church.

Teo and Raquel were married in December 1988. They lived in Quito where he was working. She had finished one year of seminary. Nat challenged him to give the Lord one year of seminary. He was making good money at his job and the financial help that the church was offering them while they studied at seminary was only about one tenth of what he was earning. His family was not very supportive because they were concerned that he was not taking the things of the Lord seriously. His mother and older brother warned him about the seriousness of studying at seminary. He decided to put out a fleece and resign from his work just to see if they would accept it, because the project he was working on was only partially done. To his surprise, they accepted his resignation. Together they went to seminary in March 1988.

Life at seminary was not easy for Teo. He was not used to spiritual disciplines and he had not been active in a local church so he did not have any experience preparing lessons, teaching or preaching. His first experiences of preaching at his Christian service assignment were disastrous and discouraging. Three times during the first year he packed his suitcases to leave seminary and return to work in Quito, but he didn´t follow through. At the end of his first year he failed to complete two assignments, and he thought that this would mean that he could not continue studying. It was his way out. The Academic Dean called him into his office just before the start of the new school year. Teo was sure that he was going to be expelled from seminary, but instead the Academic Dean encouraged him not to drop out and to finish the assignments and turn them in, even though they were late. Teo took that as God´s direction, and he went back for a second year. Eventually he finished five years of studies and graduated in 1993. Two girls were born to them during the years they were studying in Guayaquil.

Their first pastorate was in the town of Villegas, close to Raquel´s home town of La Concordia. The congregation had about thirty or forty people. The pay was very little and the house they lived in was not in good shape. Raquel had a difficult pregnancy with their third child and she almost died of a heart attack during the delivery of their son. After a year he had had enough of toughing it out and he resigned from the church.

Another church in the city of Esmeraldas called him to be their pastor. At the Light and Liberty Church the pay was better and the living conditions were much better than before. He had a good group of leaders to work with, especially the women in leadership.

Raquel´s health continued to deteriorate and she dropped to a weight of 95 pounds. The cost of mediations and visits to the cardiologist in Quito were draining their finances and strength. One evening Raquel fainted and fell off the couch. Teo managed to catch her just before her face hit the floor. Raquel decided that she could not continue to stay in the ministry in her condition, but rather than quit she decided to stop taking her medications and depend on the Lord to heal her. That evening they prayed together for about two hours and God healed her. Since then she has not had any serious health problems and she successfully gave birth to their fourth child, a girl.

Teo was elected to serve on the National Church Board just after moving to Light and Liberty Church. However, it was a surprise when the leadership asked him to let his name stand in the election for President of the denomination. They prayed about it and then asked the local church leaders. Again, he was surprised when they gave him permission to do so. There were other candidates with more pastoral experience, so he was quite sure that he would not be elected. The Lord had other plans, and he was elected President of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Ecuador in August of 1996 at age 35.

He could have stayed on in the city of Esmeraldas and tat was an attractive option. He was expected to serve as Administrator of the Light and Liberty Educational Centre as well as serve as National Church President. The centre had about one thousand students in kindergarten, primary school and high school. He could have collected two salaries. However, he had seen how the center absorbed the time and attention of some of the previous presidents and he wanted to focus on leading the church. He asked the leadership to select an administrator for the educational centre so that he could focus his efforts on the growth and development of churches and the denomination.

There were serious challenges.

• An influential leader in the denomination was disciplined for mismanagement of funds and he vented his anger on Teo.

• Legally the denomination had disappeared from the radar and was no longer recognized by the government, so he had to work to correct this situation.

• Also, there had been a change in the name of the denomination and many church properties had to have their land titles corrected.

It was a very tense year and at the end of his first year as president he wrote out his letter of resignation, but he decided that it was best to wait and hear God´s voice first. As he prayed the only things that came to mind were the names of two of his teachers at seminary. He called them and asked them for help. They counselled him and encouraged him to continue.

Teo decided to move to a new city which would become the center of the work and ministry of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Ecuador. At that time the city of Santo Domingo was the fastest growing city in Ecuador and in all of Latin America. It was located centrally in the districts and would facilitate travel to the churches. There was a church planting team who had been working since 1997 to establish La Roca church so they moved to Santo Domingo at the end of 1998.

Teo developed a long-term mentoring relationship with Frank Hankins, a former professor, and one of the men he had called to help him. When Frank left Ecuador he had planted the vision for a network of church leaders across Latin America that would help each other to grow in the ministry, stay faithful in all areas of their lives and finish well in the ministry. The network was known in Spanish as NDLL—Nexo Para el Desarrollo de Líderes Latinos, which in English is Network for the Development of Latin Leaders. Eventually this ministry led to the development of the Pastoral Care Project in the Evangelical Missionary Church of Ecuador.

Teo has been re-elected seven times as President of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Ecuador. He has done many things well:

• advocated for better treatment of pastors—pay, living conditions and affiliation with the Social Security system;
• planned retreats for pastors and their wives that focus on mentoring and resourcing church leadership;
• fostered a church planting movement within the denomination.

One of his greatest challenges has been the loss of pastors. About one pastoral couple a year leaves the ministry due to problems: pressures, conflicts, immorality, burnout, etc. He has often felt powerless to intervene in a positive way to prevent some of these problems. For the last five years he has worked on putting together the Pastoral Care Project. The implementation began last year with retreats in the five zones of the denomination. The plan is that the Pastoral Care Project will provide preventative ministry, positive intervention and restoration for pastors and their families.

Teo is truly a servant leader, one of many who serve the Lord faithfully in Ecuador. It is a privilege to know him and to work with him, his leadership team and the couples in pastoral ministry and church leadership.

Keith and RuthAnn Elliott are currently serving as missionaries in Latin America and are involved in the training and care of Ecuadorian pastors. They have four children and eight grandchildren.