“Equipping and mentoring Kingdom
leaders to transform communities
with global impact.”
We are a missionary family...
With a passion for God, His Mission and His Church. Calling to serve the body of Christ, empowering and training locals for ministry and church planting with transforming and global impact.
In the last 15 years, we have given our gifts, talents and skills to serve the church in different areas of ministry. Every program, either training pastors and leaders, planting churches, working with the most vulnerable, preaching or teaching, is focused on accomplishing the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
We are from Venezuela, currently living in Ecuador and Brazil. And leading missional processes in 20 countries.
Xpan Global,
A GREAT COMMISSION ACCELERATOR.
We equip leaders with skills to make disciples and plant churches effectively. As well as provide a holistic mentoring process for pastors and leaders focused on spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health. With that, we promote expansive and healthy Churches while developing healthy pastors.
Since 2014, we have catalyzed the birth of 8,353 churches in Latin America, the USA, Africa, and Europe.
LEGACY
CHURCH MOVEMENT
We have developed a church network, pastoring a multisite-global church with a presence in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia.
We provide mentoring and support to be relevant in their context.
We are one church in different contexts
with one Purpose... Living Jesus's Legacy.
HELPING
THE MOST VULNERABLE
With four projects, two in Ecuador and two in Venezuela, we assist and support 379 Families and 1052 Children Month.
In those Centers, our team currently:
- Helping refugees with medical assistance, food bank clothes, and entrepreneurship tools to start their businesses.
- Caring for kids whose parents have migrated due to poverty and crisis. Leaving the children in the care of other relatives.
- Feeding the hunger with a discipleship focus and establishing transformational faith communities, especially where drugs and child trafficking abound.
MISSIONS IN
BRAZIL AND PORTUGAL
The family call extends to Brazil and Portugal through our daughter Sofía.
She currently serves in Braga, Portugal, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, helping to plant new churches, ministering in worship, teaching the youth, and working with the homeless. The mission focuses on the multiplication of disciples and new ways of doing church.
What we have done?
MINISTRY IMPACT IN NUMBERS
9 YEARS RESULTS (2014 - 2023)
Know the Updates
Download and discover our latest achievements, become a part of this great family.
Ministry Update
September - October 2023
As we approach the end of this year, we recognize with deep gratitude how the hand of God has been present in each of our projects and ministries.
Ministry Update
July - August 2023
In these last few months, we have experienced times of profound blessing, challenges that have driven us to grow, and remarkable
opportunities to advance the expansion of the Kingdom of God.
Pastoral Seminar
We are returning from Bolivia and it has been a wonderful experience to be able to share and minister to 193 pastors from all over the country in the National Seminar of the Church of God in this beautiful nation.
ABOUT US
Cruz and Keydi Paniagua met at engineering school and, after working for two years, resigned to the Oil Industry to serve in full-time ministry.
Throughout the years, the Lord has led them in different areas of influence, pastoring and planting Churches, serving as President and Founder of the COG Theological Seminary in Venezuela, and leading church planting networks in 19 countries of Latin America. Most recently, the impact of their ministry has been extended while leading the Global Alliance for Church multiplication in Latin America and serving in Africa, Asia, and Europe with Xpan Global.
Cruz is Ordained Bishop, and Keydi Ordained Minister in the Church of God, Cleveland, TN. They both have master's degrees in theological studies, and Cruz has a DMin while Keydi is also finishing her doctoral studies.
Their passion is to form leaders to transform communities!
They have three beautiful girls and a baby boy coming.
MEET THE FAMILY
If you want to know more about the family
I identify myself as a dreamer, disruptive leader, passionate about God and life. I'm a disciple of Jesus, and in that learning journey, I've dedicated a significant part of my life to ministry. As a missionary, pastor, church planter, theological educator, and denominational leader.
I was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in May 1985. After practicing spiritualism, in 2003, I had an encounter with the Bible that led me to an encounter with Jesus and a new life.
I graduated from university as a petroleum engineer, where I met Keydi. After working in the oil industry for a while, I received confirmation of my calling to ministry, and we made two of the most important decisions of our lives: to serve in ministry and to get married.
Since then, we've traveled a growing path, building the purpose of equipping and preparing others to reach their fullest potential in Christ. I've done this in Venezuela as an associate pastor in a local church (2011-2014), as the founder and president of the Church of God Theological Seminary in Venezuela in the role of National Director of Education (2014-2018), as a church planter, and as a pastor.
Since 2018, I've had the responsibility and privilege of founding CPX (Church of God Planting and Multiplication Center), a network of church planting operating in 19 Latin American countries, currently mobilizing an average of 1200 church planters per year. Simultaneously, I served as the director of the strategic area of the Great Commission for the Church of God in Latin America.
I currently serve as the Deputy Director for Latin America of the Multiplication Network and as the Latin American coordinator of the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX). Additionally, I'm the founder and CEO of Xpan Global, an organization dedicated to strengthening local churches and equipping leaders who transform their communities with the model of Jesus.
I am an ordained Bishop of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). Besides being an engineer, I have a master's degree in theological studies and a doctorate in ministry. I love studying, so I'm a passionate learner of leadership and personal development. (I'm currently pursuing organizational leadership studies at Harvard Business School).
My passion lies in preaching, teaching, and developing leaders. I combine this passion with sports by participating in triathlons.
My life priority is my family. I'm very fortunate to have been building a home with Keydi for the last 15 years while learning to be parents to 4 beautiful children: Sofía, 22 years old, María Victoria, 5 years old, María Fernanda, 2 years old, and Juan David, who is on the way.
My life mission is to connect people with God.
I love listening to them and, with sensitivity, helping them discover their life's purpose and mission.
I'm a driven mentor passionate about emerging ministries and organic churches.
I am the anchor of my family, the wings of the plane to soar, where Cruz Mario is the engine, and with whom I happily share my life. Mother of 3 beautiful daughters, Sofía, María Victoria, María Fernanda, and 1 eagerly awaited boy, Juan David (on the way).
Petroleum Engineer and minister of the Church of God in Latin America. Since 2008, I have served in different areas of influence in ministry: pastoral, education, church planting, global ministries.
Master's in theological studies, currently in the second year of the Doctorate in Ministry at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Alongside Cruz, we founded the Theological Seminary of the Church of God in Venezuela. I served as the coordinator for the Multiplication Network in Venezuela, director of the Church Planting and Development Center for the Andean region of the Church of God, leading church planting processes in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, catalyzing the establishment of over 915 churches in the region in the last 4 years. I worked with various pro-ecclesial ministries to provide development tools to church leaders and planters.
Director of the "Semillas" Program, involving 708 women from Latin America intentionally mobilized for planting new groups and disciple multiplication, with outreach tools for non-believing women.
Currently, I am the Chief Operations Officer at Xpan Global, an organization dedicated to equipping and mentoring global leaders.
I identify myself as a follower of Jesus who, at every stage and place in life, seeks to serve God with passion, joy, and authenticity. Since the beginning of my life, ministry and music have become fundamental pillars of my being and doing, serving as a means to know Jesus and proclaim salvation to others.
I was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, on September 13, 2001, in a home that was undergoing restoration from witchcraft, division, and many other generational chains. My encounter with Jesus took a pivotal turn when, through prayer at just 9 years old, I witnessed my mother turning to Jesus. From that day on, I understood the importance of our relationship with Jesus and how God cares, protects, and listens to the smallest among us. This experience enveloped me with passion from a very young age for ministerial work and seeking God, with music and serving children in my local church ministry becoming a means to encounter Him and share Jesus with others.
At 8 years old, I moved to Ecuador where, with my parents, I experienced firsthand the meaning of dependence on Jesus as they served and prepared for full-time ministry. After a while, I returned to Venezuela, continuing my studies and service in the local church.
When I turned 15, I went to the United States to work with a Hispanic ministry of the Church of God, aiming to develop worship ministry and assist with the youth. During those two years, I witnessed God's care and confirmation of my calling as a missionary.
In 2019, I returned to Ecuador to further my ministerial preparation at the South American Seminary (Semisud), where I graduated with a bachelor's degree in theology and am currently finishing my master's.
In January 2021, I moved to Brazil to specialize in missiology at the Great Cultural Center of Missions, where I had the opportunity to learn another language and serve young children in the local church.
In 2022, I relocated to Teresópolis, where I taught English and Spanish to children while assisting in training leaders for youth ministries. Towards the end of 2022, I initiated the 'Esperança Fisher' project, a ministry for children in the landfill areas of Brazil, seeking to bring hope and the message of salvation to children born in favelas and challenging conditions in the region.
At the beginning of 2023, I spent three months in Portugal to assist in worship, youth, and children's ministries at the Church of Deus do Porto, which is being planted and raising leaders for the gospel's expansion in Europe.
Currently, I am in Brazil completing my master's degree, writing and producing music to spread the gospel in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I am also working on establishing a church for children in the landfill through the 'Esperança Fisher' project, preparing myself to return to Europe for missionary work.
My passion lies in serving God through music, missions, teaching, evangelizing communities of neglected children, learning different languages, and art in all its expressions, as a means to encounter and transmit God to my generation and the generations to come.
María Victoria arrived into the family miraculously after nearly 10 years of infertility. From a very young age, she has developed a sense of caring for the family and love for the most vulnerable.
At 5 years old, she expresses herself through singing, painting, dancing, and gymnastics as some of her passions. She says that when she grows up, she wants to become a doctor 'to heal people's hearts'."
María Fernanda, at almost 3 years old, is a manifestation of the Lord's care and love for the family. She came into our home amidst the pandemic and the pain of having lost her maternal grandfather.
She has taught us to value vulnerability. She was born with a cleft palate and has walked a path of new experiences filled with faith.
She's very independent. She loves to sing, jump, run, and be pampered.
Making a Difference in Brazil
CONTACT US
Thank you for visiting our website. If you would like to get in touch with us, here are our contact details
info@thepaniaguas.org
+593 5541146
Luxor #13. Los Gavilanes, Manta, Ecuador 130202
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