Doctor Turned Preacher

Gilberto Velez met his future wife, Zulma, when he led the study group at the medical school they both attended. Gilberto had converted to Christianity two years earlier, and he made a practice of beginning each study session with a five-minute devotional based on Scripture.

The routine didn’t sit well with Zulma, who embraced militant atheist and socialist ideologies at the time. She had dedicated herself to participating in events, marches, and protests, both on and off campus.

“At first this habit to begin sessions with a devotional annoyed me greatly,” Zulma recalls. “Still, his persistence and steadfastness began to sink in, to the point where I started questioning my own ideologies.”

The couple, both Puerto Rican natives, became friends. At Gilberto’s invitation, Zulma agreed to attend church and at a Sunday service she asked Gilberto to accompany her to the altar, where she accepted Jesus as Savior. The transformation proved immediate, as Zulma became a fervent gospel evangelist on campus.

Once married, the pair moved to the U.S. mainland to continue their medical education. Gilberto’s parents and brothers already lived in San Antonio, and that became Gilberto’s destination to study public health preventative medicine. He began attending El Sendero Assemblies of God, then the largest church in the AG’s Texas Gulf Latin District. There, Velez got involved in volunteer ministry. Two years later, at the request of pastor Raul C. Garcia, Velez became associate pastor. The decision seemed natural, because Velez had sensed a calling to ministry at age 19 while a premed student at the University of Puerto Rico.

But ever since his parents bought him a toy doctor’s kit as a child, Velez also desired a career in medicine, with aspirations to dedicate the final part of his service to advancing mental health in his community. For 15 years, Velez worked bivocationally as a pastor and a physician, specializing in psychiatry.

MOVE TO LAREDO

In 1994, Velez moved to Laredo, a city of 261,000 residents on the Texas-Mexican border, where he became director of clinical services and medical services director at a hospital specifically treating major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Zulma, who initially worked as a pharmacist, also worked as a doctor at the hospital.

A family that had been commuting from Laredo to San Antonio for services at El Sendero asked Velez to start a Bible study in their home. The gathering began with 15 adults and a few children and quickly moved to a rented storefront in 1995, becoming Iglesia Cristiana Misericordia (ICM) Assemblies of God (Mercy of God Church in English).

Even though nearly everyone in the congregation was Mexican, they related well to the Puerto Rican founding pastors.

“We needed to adopt the Mexican culture and to consider ourselves Mexican,” Gilberto says. “I joined the culture; I didn’t try to change the culture.”

More and more people flocked to services, responding to scriptural teaching. Velez believes opening a free everyday counseling service based on biblical values served as a key to the church multiplying. The church flourished so much Velez realized he had to relinquish his medical career of 15 years to devote full-time energies to ministry.

Today, ICM has over 2,500 attendees, four other full-time pastors, English and Spanish-language services, plus three other campuses, in Zapata and El Cenizo, Texas, as well as across the Mexican border in Nuevo Laredo. Engineer Miguel Valenzuela started ICM Nuevo Laredo as a 13-week Bible study focused on marriage fidelity. Valenzuela became pastor and now there are three services, with the Catholic diocese in the city using ICM’s Marriage Forever materials to train their leaders.

While Gilberto has focused on preaching and counseling, Zulma has concentrated on ministry to women and children. Through conferences, workshops, and retreats, ICM has inspired women to look beyond cultural and social stigmas, helping them cultivate a sense of self-worth and to nurture a healthy approach to marriage and family life.

MULTIPLE MIRACLES

Gilberto and Zulma wanted to raise a family, but doctors determined after medical testing that he could never have children. Then pastor Garcia prayed for them, and Zulma conceived, twice. Zulma quit her career to raise their two sons. Samuel, 36, is in the process of transitioning to lead pastor of ICM, succeeding his 68-year-old father. Andrew, 35, is a doctor.

“Despite all my years of study and the potential for a materially prosperous life, I did not have to think twice about the priority of dedicating my life to the true miracle of my existence: my children,” Zulma says.

Zulma has repeatedly been able to overcome debilitating health woes with the Lord’s help. In 2012, she received a diagnosis of stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. The highly aggressive cancer forced Zulma to endure the ravages of chemotherapy, radiation, and a radical mastectomy.

Nevertheless the couple determined to trust God.

“We prayed and then told the oncologist we believed God would prosper the medicine in her body,” Gilberto recalls. “He looked at us like we were weirdos.”

Within a year, no trace of cancer could be found. The oncologist turned pale upon delivering the results, saying he couldn’t believe that the tumor had inexplicably shrunk in a woman who shouldn’t still be alive. Zulma has been in remission ever since.

Zulma’s near-death experiences continued in 2015. During open heart surgery, she went into cardiac arrest three times, the final time in which the heart stopped for almost 10 minutes. The surgeon prepared to pronounce her dead, but then said he sensed a voice saying, Do not stop. I am going to bring her back. He kept working on Zulma, who indeed soon began breathing again.

Also in 2015, doctors discovered Zulma had five brain tumors. They surgically removed two, but she still lives with three, although they don’t impair her daily life.

“Despite living with several other medical conditions, God has continued to renew my strength,” Zulma says. “I remain active in church and in this new chapter of my life as a grandmother to three grandchildren.”

Gilberto is a board member of the AG’s Northpoint Bible College and Seminary in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The school has opened an extension site at ICM. Velez serves as an executive presbyter with the AG’s Texas Gulf Hispanic District.

Maricela H. Hernández, an AG national executive presbyter and secretary/treasurer of the Texas Gulf Hispanic District, has known Velez for two decades.

Hernández says Velez, whose church has a $200,000 monthly operational budget, has provided wise counsel and expertise about finances to the district. She also appreciates that ICM has made a licensed counselor available to district ministers going through the restoration process.

Furthermore, Hernández says Velez through his Northpoint connections has invested in young ministers who need to be trained to lead congregations in the district. She says he sets an example by hiring young pastoral staff.

Even though there is widespread poverty in Laredo and ICM has ongoing ministries to the homeless, prisoners, the food insecure, and immigrants, Hernández believes ICM has expanded by reaching another demographic.

“Laredo is a large city that attracts a lot of professionals,” says Hernández, 57. “ICM is a place where professionals feel they will be fed by pastor Gilberto’s enriched preaching.”

John W. Kennedy

John W. Kennedy served as news editor of AG News from its internet inception in 2014 until retiring in 2023. He previously spent 15 years as news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel and seven years as news editor at Christianity Today.