The Footrock Story
Stephanie and I had been serving in Lima, Peru for 10 years on the pastoral staff of Camino de Vida when our life quake hit.
We loved our life in Peru, our friends, and the opportunities we were given to serve the beautiful church community we called home. Then COVID hit and our unexpected life transitions were set into motion.
After living in Peru during the pandemic year of 2020, we decided to return to the U.S. in December of that year to visit family for Christmas. Stephanie, Madeline, Macy, and I each packed a single suitcase and came for what we believed would simply be a time to rest and recharge after the intensity of ministry demands during the pandemic. Little did we know when we boarded that plane, that we had moved.
As “COVID refugees” that had been unexpectedly and inadvertently displaced, we continued serving churches in Latin America via Zoom, just from Minnesota instead of Peru. As part of a team of church consultants that served a network of 1,300 churches in 9 Latin American countries called “Haciendo Iglesia,” we continued to be present in helping congregations pivot their strategies post-pandemic.
By June 2021, Stephanie and I began to notice a significant shift in what pastors and non-profit leaders wanted to discuss.
Where we once met and worked on troubleshooting challenges, discussing methodology, and reimagining church strategies, the conversations turned toward the deeply personal. We’d schedule times to talk about small groups or discipleship but quickly began talking about fears and doubts, marriages, and their families.
The pandemic had taken its toll on the souls of so many leaders who had courageously led during difficult times and emerged from the pandemic fog with empty reservoirs.
They were like Slinkies that had been overstretched and not allowed to return to themselves before taking their next step. What they wanted was not another conversation on church strategy, but a safe space to talk about all they have brewing in their hearts.
Pastoring has become a job with a huge occupational hazard. We’ve all seen and heard the plethora of men and women who have collapsed from the pressures of ministry, whether it be moral failings, harming others, physical and mental breakdowns, leaving the ministry (and sometimes, Christian faith) completely, and even taking their own lives.
Latin American and Spanish-speaking pastors are under the same pressures as U.S. or English-speaking pastors are under––sometimes even more, because of the precarious situations their countries are in economically or politically. The majority work a full-time job in addition to pastoring full-time.
However, there are very few resources or options for soul care available for Spanish speakers. We want to help change that.
Some of the Latin American pastors we were working with at that time recognized they needed even more than a phone conversation or Zoom. They needed face-to-face time with people who were safe. Who could hold space for the big and heavy things they were carrying. Who could invite them into rest. Who could gently invite them into joy again. Who could hope with them and pray for them. And one by one, they began asking if they could come up to Minnesota and stay with us for a few days to just talk.
From June 2021 to January 2022, seven pastors from South America flew up to see us. We were blown away. It was in those months that we recognized the opportunity to serve these brave leaders in a very different way, less with manuals and strategic propositions, and far more with refilling coffee mugs and sitting around breakfast, lunch, and dinner tables to simply hear their stories and hear their hearts.
When the seventh pastor left our home, Stephanie and I looked at one another and said, I think something significant is happening here. There is a holy pattern unfolding that we have a responsibility to recognize and do something about.
By November of 2022, we had received our pastor’s blessing to intentionally pursue this desire to create safe places for Spanish-speaking pastors, ministry leaders, and missionaries to come to rest and refresh and reconnect. Footrock was established as a registered and functioning 501c3.
Since then, 49 pastors from 29 different congregations in 6 different countries have experienced a Footrock retreat, whether that be a retreat for men, a retreat for women, a family intensive, a couple’s retreat, a missionary retreat, or a one-day event. It has been our honor to see the words from Psalm 40:1-3 play out right before our very eyes.
“I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.”
Through our own disorientation and finding new footings, God was able to lead us into a space of helping others find rest and resets. We are thankful for all of the encouragement and support we have received from others who see the value of loving and serving pastors and missionaries in these ways. We know the fruitfulness of it will be sensed by the congregations who are led by people who have rested and allowed God to restore their souls.
We invite you to join us in this beautiful work God has entrusted us with. Together, let’s refresh those who refresh others!
Danny & Stephanie Gutierrez
