Grace Received, Grace Extended

As far as Clemencia was concerned, the marriage was over. Her husband, Fabio, had been cheating on her for twenty years. However, before filing for divorce and burying what she thought was dead, this broken woman went in search of help. That path led her to Phil and Deene Webb, then Fellowship missionaries in Colombia. As a result of that encounter Clemencia found something she didn’t know she was looking for; she found the Lord. But would the forgiveness she had received from Christ be extended to her wayward husband? That was the challenge that faced the Webbs.

Every journey begins somewhere and Fabio’s took a significant turn toward a new beginning when he agreed to come for counseling. During that process, he discovered a Saviour. That was 1995. Fabio left his mistress and Clemencia began the hard work of extending to him the grace of forgiveness. It took years but the marriage was saved, and Fabio and Clemencia began to grow in grace as a couple, and as part of the El Redil Poblado church. Two of their children also found Christ through the Poblado church.

In 2000, the company Fabio worked for transferred the family to Panama. Their son, Andrés, had heard the Gospel for the first time in a men’s meeting in Poblado, but it wasn’t until 2004, after the family had been transferred to Panama, that he too came to faith just two weeks after his wife, Diana, had accepted Christ as her Saviour.

Later, sensing the call of God on their lives, Andrés went to Africa on a short-term mission. He fell in love with the people to whom he was ministering. While he was away, Diana was praying, by name, for the people with whom Andrés was working. In 2009, the Gálvez family embarked for Guinea, Africa, under the New Tribes Mission. They have now completed four years among the Jahango tribe, learning the language in preparation for translating the Scriptures and doing evangelism.

But the connection with El Redil, Poblado, continues. The church has adopted the Jahango tribe and is supporting Andrés and Diana both in prayer and with their finances.

The grace of God that touched Clemencia and was extended to Fabio now has an impact as far away as Africa.

—Written by Lynda Schultz from a story shared by Fellowship International missionary, Phil Webb, and Carlos Mendivelso.