“They’ll have to wheel me out of the church in a coffin!” 49-year-old Luis Cervantes chortles when I ask him if he ever wants to stop being a pastor. I could be forgiven for asking—the director of AIDIA juggles more roles than anyone I’ve ever met. 

Luis flies, boats, walks and drives all over Peru to visit translation projects; he maintains close partnerships with many missions organizations and churches (both local and overseas); he helps run a translation consultant training program; he established a successful private school whose tuition partially funds AIDIA’s work, and he plans to open a hotel to do the same; and he still hashes out the finer points of linguistics with translation teams. He’s a Renaissance man. 

But the fact that he has no plans to stop pastoring two congregations—one in Quechua, one in Spanish—speaks to his pastoral heart and the motivation behind the flurry of activity: Luis wants everyone to hear God’s Word in their own language. As we travelled across Peru together and I watched him preach, teach, research real estate, and greet dozens of people, I prayed that God would preserve his life. And that maybe he’d grab a nap once in a while.