Faithful to All Generations

By Keren Delgado

When my roommate prayed for me about sharing my testimony, she prayed I would be able to express what God has done in a way that will encourage and comfort those who hear it. This is my prayer as well, that these few minutes you are encouraged and comforted by God’s faithfulness to all generations.

I am Keren Delgado. I was born in Cuba, and my father was a Free Will Baptist pastor in Pinar del Río, Cuba. He is the fruit of the labor of missionaries like Pop Willey, who went to Cuba. These missionaries not only brought the gospel to my father and grandparents but also taught my father what it meant to follow God’s will and reach the ends of the world with the gospel and a servant's heart.

Because of the impact of Free Will Baptist missionaries and God’s calling, my family moved to Panama to serve as missionaries ourselves. I grew up in Panama as we lived and served in that country ten years. Though we thought we would work there longer, God had other plans. He brought us to the United States, to Arkansas, to work with the Hispanic community and to plant churches.

Long ago, my family surrendered to Christ and His will. He has been faithful to us since the beginning—faithful in bringing the gospel to Cuba, and faithful in guiding us step by step to serve Him. Most recently, God brought me to Welch College, where I spent four years studying and growing.

God is faithful. Not just because of my testimony, but according to His Word. Psalm 119 says He is faithful to all generations. He has been faithful in meeting every need. During four years in college, I had many needs. I experienced physical needs. I was sick, unable to walk once, and struggled through a disease. Yet, God provided me with healing and endurance in His time.

He also provided financially through the obedience of those who generously give to Welch, again in His way and in His time. His faithfulness is even more remarkable because He provided in a way that was more glorifying to Him and conformed me more to His Son, Christ.

God also has been faithful to give me His Word constantly. I am so glad God opened the door for me to study at Welch, but beyond the many good reasons I could express, I want to testify it was because He desired for me to mature in my relationship with Him through chapel, classes, and campus church. He was faithful to bring me to a place where sound doctrine is taught. Without sound doctrine, I could not grow in my spiritual life. I have learned sound doctrine and truth from the Word of God, the only thing that can satisfy us and make us thirst no more.

Just as God was faithful to provide living water to the Samaritan woman, He was faithful when teachers at Welch cared for us as students and men and women in need of God. They did not just teach lessons but testified to God’s truth and taught godly counsel with their words and lives. Through Bible conferences and missions conferences, my heart was convicted, transformed, refreshed, and challenged.

Bible studies led by Mrs. Pinson and wives of staff and faculty members opened my eyes to understand that as a woman, I have eternal value. I am able to show the world the gospel if I am obedient to His design for me.

God also was faithful in providing a community. Proverbs 17 says one in isolation follows his own desires. But God has given me a community where I don’t have to live in isolation and bondage to my own desires. In this community, I have learned real love is not only toward those who are lovable and can do something for me, but also toward my enemy—the one who talks behind my back and never apologizes, or even a stranger who is so different from me.

Thank you, God, and thanks to the Welch faculty and staff for obeying God’s mission for your life. Thank you to all the people who give faithfully to the school. Thanks to Mrs. Alicia Celorio and the Do Unto Others Trust in Miami, Florida, for providing scholarship funds. Thanks to the ladies of WNAC. Thanks to the churches that gave so I could get more than a degree, that I could gain eternal treasures such as sound doctrine, spiritual growth, and a loving community.

Thank you to my parents and grandparents for constant prayer and support. Thank you to the student body of Welch College for being the community God provided for me these four years. As a foreigner, I thought it would be hard having an accent and coming from another culture, but I was glad to learn we have Christ in common.

I learned all these things at Welch because God is faithful, and He will continue to be faithful after graduation. As I go and serve as a missionary to Bulgaria, He will continue providing needs, healing, endurance, peace, a community, and living water. I encourage you to see God’s faithfulness above all, in all, and everywhere around you. Please, constantly counsel your heart with God’s Word that “He is faithful to all generations.”

Adapted from Keren’s senior testimony shared at Welch College commencement, May 10, 2019, with her parents and grandparents present.

About the Writer: Keren Delgado, a 2019 Welch graduate, received the Miley International Student Scholarship sponsored by WNAC during all four years of her studies. In April 2019, the board of IM, Inc., approved Keren to a two-year term in Bulgaria. She is currently raising her support. Learn more: iminc.org/missionaries/kdelgado