Spanish-speaking church group finds home in Crossroads Wesleyan

In May of 2022 a Spanish church family sought to establish a church home in Imperial.
The small group of believers began meeting and preaching the word of God to the Spanish-speaking community with a goal of growing their church family and sharing the gospel with anyone who preferred to receive God’s word in their native Spanish language.
Services are open to bilingual church-goers as well who would like to attend services and have it translated into English. All are welcome to come and be a part of this ministry.
The church is called Nuevo Cántico (New Song ministry), a Wesleyan denomination. The church services are held at 2:30 p.m. on Sundays in the sanctuary of Crossroads Wesleyan Church, located at 220 W. 17th St, Imperial. Prayer meetings are held in the same location on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to attend these two gatherings.
There’s more to this church’s journey than meets the eye.
God’s plan, the long journey
Olga and Cesar Garcia Sr and son, Cesar Jr (CJ) are the founders of Nuevo Cántico church, but that’s not where the story begins.
Olga and Cesar grew up in Mexico, each attending their own family churches. Olga attended a Free Will Baptist Church surrounded by a family of pastors, she said. Cesar attended a non-denominational church.
“I prayed to God to bring me a good husband, but I asked Him to just not make me a pastor’s wife,” Olga laughed. “I grew up as a pastor’s daughter, and watched my mother as a pastor’s wife. I knew it was not an easy life.”
But God had other plans for Olga.
Olga and Cesar met at a church service, and as young single adults, eventually became involved in a large children’s ministry in Mexico--working together with around 80 youths.
After the couple married and CJ was born, they expanded their ministry activities. When CJ was 3-years-old, they began visiting prisons, preaching and handing out tracts in which CJ helped by giving out tracts, too. Cesar usually had his guitar by his side to include music with their ministry.
Cesar also offered his services by translating for English-speaking missionary groups that visited the country.
In 1997, they had a clear calling from God to leave their homeland and bring their family of two sons and a daughter to America to start a ministry. Olga said she asked God why He wanted them to leave their families and come to a new country, but they followed God’s instruction.
“We were nervous about coming to another country where the culture, customs and language was so different from what we knew, but God had a plan for us,” Olga said.
When the young family of four first arrived in the U.S., they spent their first six months in San Antonio, Texas, a city the size they were used to. They then moved to Imperial. The first thing Olga asked was, “Where’s the Walmart?”
After settling in Imperial and waiting for the next step in their calling, they attended a church in McCook for seven years and began building their first ministry. During this time, CJ was also called to ministry where he pastored in McCook.
During these years, CJ and both parents became ordained ministers, Cesar said. Ten years ago, the family and their following members became involved with the Family Christian Camp in Amherst, Colorado during the summers and still remain involved today.
In 2022, they felt God prompting them to move their ministry to Imperial, led by Pastor CJ.
The family held church meetings in different locations around the community while searching for a permanent home to grow their ministry.
In May of last year, they met Pastor Brian and Amber Boisselle of Crossroads Wesleyan Church, and a discussion took place to establish their ministry at CWC as part of the church family but with their own Spanish-speaking services.
“We were so blessed Brian and Amber offered open doors and open arms to grow our church at this location,” Olga said.
Testimony of God’s healing
Not long after the church began services, Pastor CJ suffered a devastating stroke. Cesar said the doctors told them CJ only had a 5% chance of survival. He lost much of his memory, all his speech and was paralyzed on his entire right side.
Surprisingly, he began to improve and was sent home to recover. Over the next few months, CJ suffered three more strokes which required brain surgery to remove blood clots. Once his healing had progressed enough, he began therapy. Over the next several weeks, CJ began improving so quickly, the doctors were amazed at the speed of his recovery.
Today, Pastor CJ has regained his speech ability, his memory is improving, and most of the use of his right side has returned. He still has a little way to go.
“God has given me a miracle, and I want to share my testimony of what God has done,” CJ said.
During his recovery, CJ has received a new calling for when his healing is more complete. “I feel I’m being called to go into evangelistic ministry internationally and share my testimony of God’s love,” he said. “I have turned over the local ministry to my parents to lead.”
Pastor CJ is currently involved with music ministry and leads the Tuesday night prayer meeting while he improves enough to follow his new calling. His parents both take turns leading Sunday services.
The vision
The mission of Nuevo Cántico is to bring people to Christ in the Spanish and Anglo English community, said Cesar.
“We also want to reach out to the Spanish-speaking seasonal workers that come to town and invite them to our services. We also feel called to assist seasonal workers with transportation to appointments and grocery shopping,” he said.
As their ministry grows, the Garcias hope to start a youth ministry in the future.
“We are working together with Pastor Brian and Amber to eventually have a youth program with activities that will include both Hispanic speaking and Anglo children from both church families and the community,” Cesar explained.
For further information about Nuevo Cántico ministry, contact Cesar Sr at 308-883-1164 or Olga at 308-883-0081.