Tell us about you.

My name is Rachel Vásquez, and I just turned 29 years old. I graduated from Southwest Baptist University with degrees in Spanish and Intercultural Studies, and I received a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am a freelancer and have a wide variety of jobs. I read and summarize Christian theology books, write theology, edit children’s books, and do medical translation.

My husband (who is from Guatemala) and I met in Kentucky while I was in seminary and have since moved to Oklahoma. Since moving here, we have adopted our dog, Migo, and the Lord has given us the opportunity to be a part of a Spanish-speaking church plant. My role as a church planter’s wife looks a little different than typical because we have partnered with an already established English-speaking church to start the Hispanic ministry. Currently, I help with live interpretation of the sermon into Spanish, teach ESL classes, and do women’s and children’s ministry. If the Lord allows, we are hoping to begin the fostering/adoption process very soon.

How were you first introduced to the Lord? How did you know you were lost, and what is your salvation story?

I had the privilege of growing up in church and witnessing the love of God and His people. My biological father abandoned my mom and me when I was a baby, and we were very poor. But the Lord was always faithful to demonstrate that He was our Provider. Three particular instances of His provision had a profound role in shaping my young mind. We ran out of food one time and had a box of food show up on the porch without having told anyone about the situation. We needed money to go on the toll road and found the exact amount of change lying right in front of the car door. And when I was five years old, my dad came into my life and adopted me, a beautiful picture of God’s adoption of us into His family through Jesus.

By this time, I had grown to understand the basic gospel story through the efforts of many individuals investing in me. My pastor took the time to come to my house and sit on the couch with me to talk with me about the gospel. He used a bracelet of colorful beads to guide the conversation. I recognized at this young age that my heart was black with sin and that despite my efforts to please everyone around me, I had failed to meet God’s standard. I knew that I had disobeyed and that I couldn’t make myself perfect. Only through the blood of Jesus could I receive salvation and be cleansed of my sin. I had the privilege of declaring my faith publicly through baptism and then growing in my faith ever since.

Tell us about the calling(s) God has placed in your path. How did you know you were being called to do those things?

At this current stage in my life, the Lord has called me to ministries of teaching and writing. I have a particular passion for training up others in good theology. I have always enjoyed teaching, and I believe that I have the gift of making hard concepts easier to understand and apply. I have taught children, youth, and women’s groups throughout the years, and I expect that God will continue to use me in that way. But when we moved to Oklahoma, it took me by surprise to find that God had plans to utilize my gift of writing for kingdom purposes. I was looking for an online job in Spanish translation, and I stumbled upon a random job that dealt with Christian theology. Now, two years into that job, I have discovered a passion for making good theology available for everyone.

The Lord has also allowed me to face suffering in order to help me grow closer to Him, deepen my faith, and sharpen my theology. I hope to help be a part of making it possible for my fellow Christians to build up their faith foundations in line with their Cornerstone before suffering comes. Along the same lines, I have noticed a trend in modern Bible teaching to intertwine biblical truth with dangerous lies. And I have felt a calling to train women up in discernment so that they don’t set themselves up for disappointment or even condemnation by allowing lies into their faith foundations. I am particularly excited about the opportunity I have to make good Bible resources available in Spanish because there is such a lack in good theology in the Hispanic world.

How have others responded to your calling(s)?

As my head and leader, my husband has been my greatest supporter. His role is to build me up and push me to be my best for the kingdom of God. My local church has supported my desire to serve, allowing me to fulfill my calling with the women and children around me. And my Bible “students” or disciples have affirmed my calling and challenged me to continue teaching and pushing them to grow in their faith.

How have you been changed through your calling(s)?

I have grown in my understanding of how important it is to be transformed rather than conformed to this world. Worldly thinking is so prevalent, but as Christians, we must prioritize our holiness. We can’t expect one hour at church a week and five minutes in the Word a day to counteract the remainder of our waking hours of immersion in worldliness. We must be intentional about bringing the gospel into our homes and our conversations. And we must reframe our minds to interpret the world around us through a biblical lens.

What advice would you give other women who want to do more to further God’s kingdom but may not know how to go about it?

First and foremost, following God’s will is about honoring Him in everything you do wherever you are. If you are a student, honor Him in your studies. If you are a worker, honor Him with your job. If you are single, honor Him with your friendships. If you are a wife or mother, honor Him as you relate to your husband and children.

First Timothy 4:7b reminds us to “discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness.” Simply put, be faithful. Don’t allow laziness to creep in, but obey Him in everything. Trust that if you are doing so, then you are already making an impact for the kingdom. And don’t be surprised to find that God Himself opens up more opportunities for you to serve Him as you prove your faithfulness with a little.

If you could describe your walk with God in 3 words, what would they be?

Rewarding, perseverance, discipline

What has been your biggest struggle in your walk with Christ, and how have you dealt with that?

I have had four miscarriages, which has been the greatest trial of my life by far. After my first two miscarriages, I fell into a deep depression with anger toward God, questioning why He would reward my faithfulness by taking my babies away. But over a period of about two years, God began working in my heart to reveal the fact that I had allowed the prosperity gospel into my faith foundation.

Though I never would have said it out loud, my practical theology proved to be a belief that God would bless me if I served Him. The Lord was faithful to correct me and develop in me a better understanding of affliction. The truth is that we live in a broken world of sin and suffering. But God is not the enemy. He is good, regardless of our circumstances. And He has used this circumstance to bring about deeper faith in me and greater opportunities to minister to others for His glory.

As a Christian woman, what has been your greatest accomplishment?

The Lord has allowed me to accomplish much in this life, but it is all in vain apart from the saving work of Jesus on the cross. Perhaps the accomplishment I am most proud of is really not yet even a complete work. But I am slowly learning how to be countercultural in embracing my biblical role as a woman and wife. There is immense joy in learning to enjoy being who God created me to be.

Is there a particular sin that is most difficult for you to overcome, and if so, how do you tackle that?

The sins of the heart have been particularly challenging for me to overcome: envy, bitterness, and jealousy. Most of this stems from the fact that I am so tempted to compare my life with others. I am tempted to believe that God is unfair because life is unfair. But it has been incredibly freeing to lean into the fact that God doesn’t ever promise us a fair life. Everyone suffers in their own way, and my life is going perfectly according to His good plan.

When I find myself coveting someone else’s life, I counter my sinful thoughts with truth from Scripture. And I remember that when I keep my eyes on my own path, I am far more likely to see and enjoy the many blessings He has bestowed on me.

What is your favorite verse or passage from the Bible and why?

Psalm 119:71: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” The culture teaches us that God exists to bless us. But God cares far more about our holiness than our comfort.

At 16 years old, I had worked hard and hit a hot streak with back-to-back homeruns on my select softball team right before the start of my junior year season. But in a freak accident, I tore my ACL and had to sit on the sidelines as everyone else got to play. In college, I had a shoulder injury that evaded diagnosis for years and left me in constant pain. After getting married, my husband and I entered into the immigration system that was far harder than we ever imagined. Financial, emotional, and sometimes even physical stress that is still ongoing.

But the greatest affliction of my life has come from the loss of our four babies in the womb. There are no words to explain the suffering and profound sorrow that I have experienced as a result. But undoubtedly, God has used the affliction in my life to bring about greater faith. And I have learned to treasure His statutes even more. He is good, even when life is unfair and doesn’t make sense.

Who is your favorite biblical woman and why?

Hannah is a woman who knew profound suffering. But she also knew how to take her grief to the Lord and entrust Him to work out His good plan. I admire her faithfulness to keep her vow to give her child back to God, despite how hard that must have been. Hannah’s story represents one of the greatest lessons of parenting that I have learned through my own experience with loss: the Lord is the Granter of life. Our kids are not ever ours; rather, they belong to Him. And we must trust that He loves and cares for them far more than we ever could.

Is there any other advice you would like to give to God’s feminine faithful?

Choose now, before suffering comes, to believe that God is good. Resolve to be faithful to Him in all circumstances. And cultivate a habit of reading the Word so that you will know the truth and be able to distinguish between truth and lies.

Check out more from Rachel!

I have written 4 books and have 2 more in progress. These are (or will be) available for purchase at Amazon.

The Goodness of God in the Midst of Suffering (available in English and Spanish): The Goodness of God in the Midst of Suffering addresses the popular question of: “How can God be good if there is suffering in the world?” Using a mix of personal testimony and biblical theology, it points readers to consider the truths of God’s Word and apply them to their lives. Though it may be a countercultural ideology to believe and put into practice, the undeniable reality is that God is abundantly good–even when it doesn’t feel like it.

The Truth LIES With Relativism (available in English and Spanish): Modern culture tells us that: All religions are true. All ideas are true. All paths to heaven are equally true. But…what if these truths conflict with each other? What if they lead to contradictory conclusions or destinations? What if believing one truth means going against another? One (or more) of the truths would have to be lying. And a lying truth simply isn’t true. The Truth LIES With Relativism compares a handful of the world’s popular religions to relativism and invites its readers to embark on a search for the Truth.

Boosted (available in English; I love dystopian fiction, but don’t like the sin that is usually weaved into the storyline. I wanted to write a fun dystopian fiction that would be appropriate for Christians to read): When the booster enters into a disease-ridden world facing great hardships and vast food shortages, it provides a glimmer of hope. By genetically altering people’s brains, it brings forth a generation with superior intelligence quotients, the Dexes. They irradicate most of the world’s problems and are catalysts to never-before-seen advancements in science and technology. But all of this comes at a cost–emotional health. The choice that emerges is between superior brain capacity or emotional stability, but the Dexes soon take the choice away. When remaining unboosted becomes illegal, the Dolts who do not comply are forced into a life of running and hiding. Isolation facilities, programming challenges, desert treks, surviving one day at a time, the near impossibility of distinguishing friend from foe. Will the Dolts stand a chance against the Dexes and their Bot army?

Learn to Discern (available in English, Spanish coming soon): Discernment. It’s a word we throw around a lot without actually knowing what it means. We think of ourselves as discerning, but we listen to false teachers without even realizing it. Hebrews 5:14 explains that discernment is a skill that is cultivated through effort: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” Thus, discernment doesn’t come naturally. If you haven’t practiced or trained to attain it, you probably don’t have it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get it. In Learn to Discern, you will learn the basic principles of discernment. And then you will have the opportunity to put those skills to work as you practice training your brain to recognize the lies that are posing as biblical truth.

Ministering to Women Under the Curse of 3:16a (coming soon): When Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she brought a curse upon herself and her posterity. According to the first half of Genesis 3:16, she (and all of her women descendants) were cursed with pain in childbirth and pain in bringing forth children–labor pains. Labor pains wouldn’t be such a terrible curse if they were confined to the labor room. But the Curse of 3:16a applies to way more than delivering babies. Ministering to Women Under the Curse of 3:16a analyzes 12 areas in which the curse penetrates women’s lives. Labor pains are a part of every age and every stage of a woman’s life. As Christians, we have a responsibility to combat the Curse of 3:16a with hope and compassion. The curse might cause tremendous pain and heartbreak, but Jesus offers a cure. He replaces the curse with a blessing, and He provides the framework for loving suffering women well.

Bested (sequel to Boosted, coming soon)

I also work for a company that is trying to make good theology more readily available to families. We have an app called “Holy Reads” that allows you to access summaries of popular Christian books (kind of like the Christian version of Spark Notes). It is available on the App Store.