Get to Know the Diez Lourenzo Family

Ministry Description

Marcelo's Testimony:

On January 26, 1994, I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, into a Christian home where my parents served God full-time—and continue to do so to this day. When I was four years old, we moved to Guatemala City, where I spent most of my childhood and youth.

That same year, during one of the first Word of Life camps my parents led in Guatemala, I understood my condition as a sinner. I had stolen some food from a store and lied by saying that my parents would pay for it. My mother explained to me that I had lied and stolen, and because of that, I was a sinner. She showed me that my sin separated me from God and that I needed His forgiveness. I understood that only through Christ I could be saved. That day, I decided to accept Him as my personal Savior and repent of my sins.

During my teenage years, because my parents were missionaries and deeply involved in ministry, I lived an orderly life and always tried to maintain a good testimony. Growing up in ministry meant I was constantly serving God and staying active in different areas.

At the age of 18, God opened the door for me to study in the United States at Dallas Baptist University, so I moved to Dallas. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and another in Business Administration. During my college years, however, I realized my parents were no longer around me, and no one there knew them. Because of that, I began making choices that, now looking back, I know were not the right ones. I distanced myself from God and fell into different addictions.

After graduating, I decided to pursue the “American dream” and found a job in the corporate world. I thought I had everything in order and was following the path I wanted for my life. But after a year of working in Dallas, I found myself feeling completely alone, despite having many friends, and I fell into depression. I examined my life and realized that this was not what I wanted, and that God had a plan for me far better than the one I was trying to build.

I decided to restore my relationship with God and enrolled at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, New York, to study His Word. There, my faith grew deeper, and I regained my love for ministry. I came to understand that my purpose was not to lay up treasures on earth but to set my mind on things above (Colossians 3:2). It was also there that I met my wife, Teagan.

At the end of my second year, due to the pandemic, we moved to Florida, where we later got married. I began working for Word of Life as their Video Area Coordinator in the Marketing Department. My wife and I felt called to serve God in Latin America, and God opened many doors for us in the Dominican Republic. Today, we serve and support the ministry there.

God continues to write our story, and we are excited to see what He will do with our lives.

Teagan's Testimony:

I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in a large Christian family with eight siblings. My parents were committed to raising us with strong values, and for the first six years of my life, they brought us to church regularly. But with six children at the time, Sunday mornings became overwhelming, and they made the decision to begin having church at home. Around the same time, they also chose to homeschool us, and although their intentions were rooted in protecting and guiding us, that shift slowly led our family into an unhealthy kind of seclusion.

Between the ages of seven and twelve, my parents taught us theology with great passion. They encouraged us to read Scripture, to pray, and to pursue a relationship with Jesus. Looking back, I can see that they were sincere in their desire to follow God. But faith in our home slowly became centered on works—on performing, obeying, and striving—without a clear understanding of grace. I didn’t yet know what forgiveness truly meant, or what it looked like to rest in the completed work of Christ’s saving grace.

When I was eleven, an accident at the camp we were attending led my family to send us somewhere new the following summer: a Word of Life camp in New York. It was there that everything changed. I heard the gospel presented clearly—full of hope, full of grace—and I saw a joy in the counselors that flowed from knowing their sins were forgiven. They were not living in shame. They were walking in freedom, and I wanted that. At that camp, I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, finally understanding that He had paid for my sins completely, and that His grace was a gift I could never earn.

When I was thirteen, my oldest sister left for college, and during those years I also began recognizing the emotional and physical abuse that had existed within our home. I was young, hurting, and confused, and I began directing my pain toward God. I could not understand why He had allowed certain things to happen, and in my anger, I started pushing Him away.

But even in my anger, the Lord kept pursuing me. We still weren’t attending a local church, but through camp, youth group, and the faithful people God placed in my life, He began to soften my anger and draw my heart back to Him. A friend I had met at camp sent me a book about a missionary to India. I loved to read, so I opened it—and God opened something in me. I felt a fire for ministry and missions that I had never known before. At fifteen, I knew I wanted to serve Him by sharing the gospel with those who had never heard it, and later developed a strong passion for discipleship.

I homeschooled at an accelerated pace, determined to graduate early so I could attend the Word of Life Bible Institute and do their two year academic program and then their two year cross-cultural internship. That was my plan to get onto the mission field.

I finished high school at sixteen and began classes at Word of Life that fall. My parents initially supported me, but throughout my first year, they began adopting new and deeply unbiblical beliefs. By the time I asked to return for a second year, they believed that the sacrifice of Christ only remained valid if the Old Testament law was followed. Not only did they withdraw financial support—they became convinced that I was going to hell because I did not share their new beliefs.

Because I was still seventeen, they pulled me out of the Bible Institute entirely. The next three months were the hardest of my life. I was isolated, without a phone, car, or computer, and they were determined to convince me that Jesus was not the Messiah. I tried to honor them while holding onto my faith, but the isolation took a toll on my heart. When I turned eighteen in March, I made a plan to leave. I left home with $230 to my name and moved to New York by faith, staying with my former discipler. God provided a job at a restaurant and even a bike to get to work. By the end of the summer, I had saved enough to buy an old car.

Then God did what only He could do: He opened a position for me at the Word of Life campus coffee shop, and that following January, I met the man who would become my husband—Marcelo—by randomly sitting beside him at a missions conference. He shared my burden for ministry and a calling to serve globally. We married in September 2020, and I knew God had taken the very dreams I thought were lost and returned them to me in a way I had never expected: not alone, but with a husband and part of a ministry family.

My parents have since walked through many shifts in belief and now no longer claim any faith at all. Yet, God has been so gracious. Almost all of my siblings today profess Jesus Christ as their Savior, and we continue to love my parents, praying that the same grace that rescued me will rescue them.

I didn’t end up in missions the way I planned, but I am where God planned. The challenges I walked through did not destroy my faith—they refined it. Christ became not just the Savior I heard about as a child, but the One who carried me, provided for me, and called me by name.

My relationship with Him is no longer inherited, or borrowed, or defined by someone else’s doctrine. It is mine—because He held me through it all.

Psalm 91:1 — He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Ministry Responsibilities:

Marketing Coordinator
We are building and developing a marketing team focused on raising nationwide awareness of the ministry of Word of Life Dominican Republic. This includes creating and implementing strategic marketing plans for Camps, Local Church Ministry, Mission Teams, our Discipleship Training Program, and all ministry events. Our goal is to strengthen communication, expand our reach, and help more churches, families, and young people engage with the ministry and be impacted by the gospel.

Local Church Ministry
Word of Life Dominican Republic currently has more than 100 active Bible Clubs, and the ministry continues to grow. As it expands, Teagan and I will be helping to train and disciple the young leaders serving in each club, supporting churches in their efforts to reach the youth in their communities, and assisting in opening new clubs in strategic areas. Our desire is to see local churches equipped to evangelize, disciple, and strengthen the next generation across the Dominican Republic.

Learn more about the ministry in the Dominican Republic.

Colossians 3:2 - Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Contact Information

mediezlourenzo@wol.org
mediezlourenzo@wol.org
tdbennett@wol.org
+ 1-214-236-0353