Ministry runs in the family of German Castro.
A new generation of Castros, including his two grown children, led the worship service at his bilingual funeral last month. It was held virtually from El Shaddai Christian Church in Nolensville because of the recent outbreak that sickened the pastor.
Julian Castro says he recalls seeing his uncle playing guitar and singing when he was little.
“I would say, ‘I want to be like him,’” he said in Spanish.
German Castro went on to seminary to become a preacher after he and his family fled the violence in Colombia. They had been robbed and briefly held hostage in their own home.
He started El Shaddai 15 years ago while also working a corporate job.
“He worked like a little ant,” says his wife of 30 years, Margarita Castro.
She says he was tireless but tender. Children were drawn to him. Some had nicknames for him. They’d call him “Amen,” since he said the word so often from the pulpit.
At German Castro’s funeral, member Rachel Vasquez compared him to the prophets of the Bible.
“God gave us a leader modeled after Moses,” she said.
And Margarita Castro sees another connection to Moses, who led the Israelites through the desert for 40 years. The El Shaddai church struggled to bounce back from the flood of 2010. German even had to be rescued from the swollen creek that inundated their building.
It took more than a decade to raise all the money. And the repairs are, just now, almost done.
“He didn’t get to go to the Promised Land,” Margarita said in an interview.
When German fell ill along with 20 members, he was hospitalized within days. Prayers poured in from around the world.
“He believed he was going to get out of it because we have been through so much so much and God would always bring us out in victory,” she says. “So we just thought this was one more time.”
At his funeral, Margarita consoled the congregation with words her husband quoted from the Book of Job many times before from the same pulpit: “God gives. God takes. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
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