02/07/2025
We’re so blessed to be featured by our sending church, Gateway Church! 🌎💒 Great big HUG to back to Gateway Church! Thank you for featuring our story. Here at Gateway Gathering, Playa del Carmen, we’re reaching hearts, building community, and living out Isaiah 61.
“I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. From a young age, I was taught that my religion alone had the truth—but I always felt uneasy about it. I didn’t come to find Christ until my mid-30s—after months of Jesus quietly pursuing me, I finally had a moment completely alone in my room where Jesus showed me I could experience home with Him.
“I had moved to Playa del Carmen in Mexico, and during the pandemic, I started to host a small group in my home to watch Gateway services online. Around that time, I felt the Lord encourage me to apply to become an official Gateway Gathering.
“I had been through a lot up to that point—my home church was about to close its doors amidst so much turmoil. Personally, I was going through a painful end to a bad marriage, and I was so worried what I was going through would disqualify me from becoming an official Gateway Gathering.
“But Gateway Church was there for me. Pastor Joe and his team listened to my story with empathy and understanding and prayed over my church and small group. I felt Gateway’s covering extend over myself and what was left of our little church. It was as if we moved from laboring under the hot sun to ministering under the refreshing shade of proper covering.
“In just the two short years since officially becoming a Gateway Gathering, we have reached over 200 people in our own hometown—many of them are vacationers who encounter Christ for the first time and return home transformed with kingdom seeds planted in their hearts! In these two years, we’ve celebrated over 50 salvations and 40 baptisms! Though we’re still a relatively small group, the Lord is touching the lives of those who attend here, and now I am watching them be healed, set free, and transformed—with Gateway’s help.”
–Heather, part of the Gateway Gathering’s family 🌊