Arturo Munoz Bio
Bro. Arturo Munoz and his family have been missionaries in Mexico since 1999.
Bro. Munoz was born in Mexico City in 1974. God saved him at the age of eight in a Baptist church in Mexico and had the privilege to grow up in a Christian home. God called him to preach in 1992. God opened the doors for him to attend Oklahoma Baptist College under the direction of Dr. Jim Vineyard. In the summer of 1997, while in a youth camp, God put in his heart to go back to Mexico, specifically the city of Puebla, and reach his own people for Christ.
Bro. Munoz graduated from Oklahoma Baptist College in 1998. He and his wife Nicole left the US right after their wedding in 1999 and headed to Iguala, Guerrero, a town where the Mexican Flag was born, to help a church there while Nicole learned Spanish. While there, hey both helped teach in the Christian school. Bro. Munoz taught 10th grade, and his wife Nicole taught 3rd. They also started a bus route which had an average of 30 kids in attendance.
In 2001 they moved to the city of Puebla. Puebla is the 3rd largest city in the country of Mexico with over 2 million people.
Nicole Munoz Bio
Nicole was saved at the age of 15 in a liberal Bible church in Southern California. At age 17 by reading the Bible and praying, she felt that her church was not the church closest to the Bible and prayed and asked God to show her what church to attend. Two weeks later someone invited her to the only IFB church in her area. Nicole served in her home church West Coast Baptist Church in Oceanside, California with Pastor Phil Clark for one year before heading to Bible college at Fairhaven Baptist College in Chesterton, Indiana.
During her freshman year in Bible College Nicole surrendered to be a missionary to Mexico.
After graduating, Nicole headed back to her home church in California to teach in the Christian School. After a few years she met and married Brother Arturo and joyfully followed him to the mission field.
The Munoz Kids
We have 7 beautiful children that God has entrusted us to train and raise up to serve Him.
Arturo Japheth was born in 2001. He likes to read and play “sword fights” with his brother David. Japheth also helps with the sound system in the church and teaches the object lessons during Junior Church.
Rachel Nicole was born in 2002. Rachel often has the role of our church pianist! She has a love for music and is a natural leader. Rachel has run Sunday School classes when the teacher did not show up and has helped lead songs to groups of up to 80 kids in conferences and Vacation Bible Schools.
Sarah Joy was born in 2004. Sarah loves to sing songs to the Lord and use her voice to praise God in the church. She also is a great help in the nursery. Although she is never in “charge” of watching the little babies, if there is a crying baby or the nursery workers need an extra set of hands, she is always willing to jump in and play with the little ones!
David and Hannah are Twins! They joined our family in 2006 and it has never been the same since! David is full of life and loves anything to do with sports. Hannah is our creative and “distracted” one. She is always in her own world and doing her own thing her own way! (In a good way!)
Ashley Elizabeth was born in 2008. Ashley is our quiet but joyful one. It is always a blessing to see her first thing in the morning with wide eyes and a huge smile!
Caitlyn Grace was born in 2010. Caitlyn is only three but enjoys being in the “Big Kids Class” more than with the babies! She is our inquisitive one and already shows traits of being a “problem solver”. She is also a reminder to us to always have faith in God. Whenever Caitlyn might ask for some money and we tell her that we don’t have any money she will tell us: Just pray to God and He will give you some money! Then a few hours later she will ask us: Did God give you money yet?
Our Ministry
The ministry in Puebla has rapidly grown. The church in Puebla currently has 150 in attendance. You can watch our video presentation that shows how the work has grown since 2001 here: http://www.reachingpuebla.com/missionary-update/view-our-new-video-presentation/
The different ministries in the church include:
- Organized soul winning every Saturday
- Hospital soul winning and visitation every Thursday
- Street preaching, Bus preaching, and downtown preaching with students of the Bible Institute every Wednesday
- Bible Institute (We have 5 graduates)
- First Steps Bible Discipleship for new believers on Wednesday nights. (This is a different class besides the regular service.)
- Sunday School classes for Primaries, Juniors, Teen Girls, and Adults
- Church Services on Sunday Mornings, Sunday Nights, and Wednesday Nights
- Music Ministry to teach children an adults how to play the piano, guitar, and flute.
- Choir Ministry
- Teen Ministry that meets on Saturdays at 3:00
- In-Home Discipleship Ministry
- Annual Missions Conference (We currently support 19 missionaries)
- Annual Leadership Conference for Area Churches
- Monthly Pastors Fellowship for Area Pastors (Co-organizer with another pastor)
- Bi-monthly Ladies Meetings
- Bi-monthly Men’s Meetings
- Youth Camp
- Vacation Bible School
- Public School Outreaches
- 20,000 Tracts Distributed During 5th of May Parade
- 30,000 Tracts Distributed at the Cemeteries for Day of the Dead on November 2nd.
- And many, many more!
Our Vision
The Munoz family has also started a mission church in the south part of the city that God has blessed. This mission church now has 70 faithful people growing in the Lord every Sunday.
Bro. Munoz believes in reaching the lost with the Gospel. The church has an organized soul-winning program every Saturday morning where 40-50 church members consistently go out knocking on doors. The church also has a hospital outreach where ladies of the church visit patients and family members of patients in the hospital. Dozens get saved every Thursday. The Bible institute goes out to reach the souls of “Pueblans” every Wednesday. They preach inside buses, downtown, the jail and street corners.
Bro. Munoz strongly believes that the city can be reached with the Gospel. From the beginning of the church, members have traveled almost two hours to come to church every Sunday morning. Due to the time it takes to travel in public transportation, and the cost for some families, God has put in his heart the “20/20 outreach”. His vision is to start 20 churches in the next 20 years in the City of Puebla. His plan consists of:
- Training Nationals in the Bible college.
- Provide financial and other material support for the first 3 years for the salary of the pastor and the rent of the building.
- Send out soul-winning teams once a month from the main church in Puebla to help establish the new work.
- Send church members who live closer to the new work to join the new work so it has a solid base of believers to start with.
- Weekly accountability with the pastors of the new work through pastor’s meetings and fellowships.
It is Bro. Munoz’ vision that by dividing and multiplying, more Pueblans can be reached with the Gospel. The more local churches that are started all in a 45 minute to 60 minute public transportation driving radius of the main church, the more souls can be reached!