NEWPORT — Though a native of Venezuela and now a pastor in Sugar Land, Texas, Ender Palencia was more than eager to accept an invitation to preach during the All Nations Worship Celebration held Nov. 12 on the opening night of The Summit in Chattanooga.
In a sense, he was returning to his spiritual roots.
And, it probably didn’t hurt that the service was being held at Red Bank Baptist Church where his wife, Andrea, grew up and her dad (Jaime Betancourt) is pastor of Red Bank’s Hispanic congregation.
As a young man growing up in Venezuela, Palencia knew about Jesus because his mother was a Christian and taught him about Jesus and shared the gospel with him, he said.
“But when I was a teenager, I decided that I would do my own thing,” he recalled.
Palencia admits today that he drifted completely away from God, from church and basically everything. As a young man he found his way to Memphis and began trying to “live the American dream.
“I came here with a blue suitcase and $120 in my pocket. I was very young. I didn’t have family (in the United States). I didn’t speak the language.”
The American dream was nice for a couple of weeks, but then he began to feel lonely. “I missed my family. I missed my country, my food, my culture.
“I didn’t know what the future held or what I was going to do. I was running out of money and I was desperate,” he recalled.
He finally called his mother in Venezuela but when she answered the phone, all that either of them could do was to cry. “I cried for about 10 to 15 minutes on the phone and she cried on the other end. That was the conversation,” Palencia said.
“But God used that in a mighty way,” he continued. The next day he received a phone call on his friend’s cell phone from a pastor in Tennessee.
His mother had contacted Maria Burton, a friend from Venezuela who married a Southern Baptist missionary and had moved to Tennessee.
Palencia said his mother didn’t know “Memphis from Knoxville but she had been praying and knew I needed help.”
The pastor who called was William Burton, then pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Gran Comision in Morristown. Burton now serves as ethnic church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and coordinator of the All Nations Worship Celebration.
Palencia, who knew of Burton, remembered he was “gracious” on the phone. Burton told him, “Man, I believe God has a plan for your life. If He brought you here, it’s for a reason. And so we’d love to be a part of that.”
Burton bought Palencia a bus ticket and brought him to Morristown.
Palencia accepted the offer but went with the expectation that he would be judged and condemned for his lifestyle. “But it was the opposite of that. He opened his house, gave me a room and showed me where the pantry was.”
Palencia recalled that Burton would make him breakfast every morning and they would just talk.
“He never condemned me. He asked questions about me, about my future and what I wanted to do. After breakfast, we would go and do ministry because he was planting a Hispanic church in rural East Tennessee,” Palencia said.
He went to the fields and talked with the workers and shared the love of Jesus with them and then he would go to the hospital or courthouse and translate for anyone who needed it, Palencia added.
“That kind of generosity and love really impacted me,” he recalled. “They were helping me and other people. I had never seen anything like it,”
Palencia finally asked Burton why he was helping him and the other families because it did not make sense to him. He told Burton, “I can’t repay you for everything you’re doing for me.”
He acknowledged he will never forget Burton’s response because “it changed my life forever.”
Burton told him, “I’m not doing this because I am expecting you to pay me for anything. I am doing this because Jesus paid for my sins. He gave me a hope, and He gave me a future. I think He wants you to know that He did the same thing for you. He wants to give you hope. He wants to give you a future.”
“The gospel of Jesus Christ became real to me for the first time in East Tennessee. I had lived in a way that was not pleasing to God. I knew I was a sinner, but also I had experienced the love of God in a tangible way,” Palencia said.
Palencia gave his life over to God and “He began to work in me and bless me in ways that I had never experienced before.”
God provided him funds to attend Carson-Newman University where two major events happened in his life — God called him into the ministry and he met his future wife, Andrea. After accepting the call into ministry, Palencia served with Burton at La Gran Comision, first as youth pastor and then as associate pastor.
In 2010, God called Palencia to pursue a seminary degree and he went with the support of churches in Nolachucky Baptist Association. “They supported us financially … and they were super generous,” he recalled.
While at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Palencia served as a campus pastor for a multi-site church in Arlington and eventually oversaw all the campuses and then became executive pastor. Two years ago, he moved to Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas, as executive pastor of missions and mobilization for a congregation of 13,000 members.
His role is to equip and mobilize the church to fulfill the Great Commission. The church has 47 mission partners, both locally and internationally.
Yet he has not lost sight of his spiritual roots. “I thank the Lord for the gospel and the Great Commission focus of those Tennessee Baptist churches and the people in Tennessee that helped me see the gospel.”
He is especially grateful for Burton who he describes as a “friend and mentor. Over the last couple of years, we’ve grown even closer, more as peers now, and I’m grateful for that level of friendship. The Lord has used him in a mighty way,” Palencia affirmed.
“I am so proud of Ender. As a pastor we invest in so many people’s lives because that’s what God has called us to do,” Burton said. “He allows us sometimes the opportunity to see the return on the investment (many times not). It has been an incredible joy to see God’s hand on Ender’s life,” he added.
Burton noted there “are days when we may want to throw in the towel, but God gives us the Timothys to remind us to keep investing in others, keep serving the Savior and keep preaching the gospel.” B&R