In 2022, Keiry Galindo, Betenbough Homes developer, and Ruben Morales, Betenbough Homes builder, built their dream home. It was a completely custom home with upgrades and luxuries that the couple worked hard for. They created this home exactly how they wanted it – dreaming up a future in it and having enough space to see those dreams realized! After about 10 months in their custom home, Ruben felt like they needed to downsize. He brought the idea to his wife, Keiry. “He asked me if we should buy a cottage and I just said ‘yes’ – with no inclination as to why,” Keiry said. She was on the exact same page as Ruben. “It didn’t even make sense to us,” Ruben said. “We made the home exactly how we wanted it but just felt like we needed to downsize.” Perhaps it was to save money to begin to grow their family, or perhaps it was for a new venture. Whatever it was, Ruben and Keiry put their faith behind it and made the decision to sell their custom home. They purchased one of the cottage floorplans that Betenbough Homes offers and made the move, downsizing their home by 50% in the summer of 2023.
Amid downsizing and moving, Keiry and Ruben were preparing to go on their first Vision Trip with a team from Betenbough Companies to Brazil. There they would work with Amazon Outreach — a ministry that takes Christians from every walk of life to the Amazon River to participate in eye care, dental care, medical care and evangelism for men, women, and kids across the Amazon River basin. “From the beginning, I knew we were going there,” Keiry said. “I didn’t know why; I just knew it had to be Brazil.”
While Keiry was certain of their top Vision Trip choice, Ruben felt differently. It was during a church service just before the trip was set to leave when Ruben decided to give his feelings of uneasiness about the trip to the Lord, asking Him to reveal why it is so important for the two of them to be on the Brazil trip. And the Lord answered. During the service, Ruben turned to his wife and said ‘I know why we’re going to Brazil.’” Ruben felt the Lord wanted to prepare him to join his father, a local Odessa pastor, in evangelical ministry one day. He felt the Lord would use Brazil to get him there.
In September 2023, Keiry, Ruben and eight others from Betenbough Companies made their way to South America’s largest river to begin their time serving with Amazon Outreach.
It was in Brazil that for the first time, Ruben experienced what door-to-door evangelism was like. He often felt unprepared and unsure of what to say, but each day, the Lord provided words and connections. Ruben, who not long before the trip heard the Lord tell him he would help his father in ministry one day, was getting to experience for himself what sharing the gospel would be like. “The Lord showed me I can’t do this by myself,” Ruben said.
Ruben also got to spend a lot of time on the boat with two missionaries, Ivan and Fabio, who work with Amazon Outreach. Both men gave their lives to the Lord at a young age and have since served the Lord in missions. In getting to know the two, Ruben learned that Ivan desired to attend dental school so he could perform dental work on people in the tribes and villages along the Amazon River basin. Fabio planned to be a traveling missionary.
Through the sharing of their testimonies, Ruben felt a connection with them both. “Seeing what Ivan and Fabio are doing out there, living day-by-day off the Lord’s sustenance inspires me a lot,” Ruben said. “They only worry about what they have for the day and trust the Lord to provide for tomorrow.”
After another day on the boat, Ruben felt the Lord speaking to him again – this time, the not-so-random decision to downsize their home a few months earlier finally started to make sense. Ruben heard the voice of the Lord say, “You will support these two men,” and that’s exactly what Ruben and Keiry did.
The couple now funds Ivan’s dental school and helps support Fabio’s mission work. If they were still in their custom home, they would not be in a place where they could offer this support so freely. The Lord, in His perfect timing, provided a reason as to why Keiry and Ruben sold their home and why Brazil was the trip for them.
Currently, Ivan is preparing to begin another semester of dental school after completing and passing his first. Fabio traveled to Switzerland for mission work and is now back at Amazon Outreach as a translator. And Ruben joined his father in ministry, just as the Lord told him he would, by serving with the youth ministry at his dad’s church.
“Even though we didn’t have a reason why, we were supposed to go to Brazil. We were supposed to sell our home,” Keiry said. And now, because of the couple’s obedience to the Lord, they know exactly why.
