Meet Mark and Annette Cintron.
Some missionaries wrestle for years before saying “yes” to God’s call on their lives. But not Mark and Annette. For the young couple from Miami, Fla., the wait time was just 30 days.
In fact, less than a month after returning from a Brethren in Christ World Missions (BICWM)–sponsored cross-cultural trip to London, Mark and Annette enrolled in BICWM’s Missionary Development Program (MDP).
The London visit provided the couple with an eye-opening glimpse at “the body of Christ at an international level,” Mark reports. “And we both thought, ‘Wow. I can’t believe I haven’t been a part of this my whole life.’”
This insight may sound odd when considering that the Cintron’s home congregation, Vida Abundante BIC Church, includes members from some 15 Latin American countries. Yet it was in London that Mark and Annette became “really, really sensitive toward the nations.”
Mark recalls, “It was incredible to sit next to a person from India, from Pakistan, from Zambia, from Japan—and then to realize, ‘This is what the body of Christ looks like.’”
Soon after returning home, the couple felt their hearts stirred for Spain, a place they’d visited several years earlier while on their honeymoon.
“When we were in Spain, we saw this entire generation of people that are living in such a dark world,” says Annette. “Our hearts were truly broken for them. We didn’t think at all, ‘Oh, I’ll come back here one day and be a missionary.’ But that brokenness stayed in the back of our minds.”
Now, just a little more than a year after starting the MDP, the Cintrons are halfway through the program and receiving a lot of support, most especially from the members of their home congregation.
“Since we’re the first missionaries from Miami to serve with BICWM, our congregation is really excited,” Mark states. “For a long time our church has had a heart for missions. Now that we’re going, they see us as the pioneers, opening the way for others to follow. We are all looking forward to great things.”
