Carlos became the Spanish voice of Visión Para Vivir in 2007. From country to country, from the pulpit to the studio, Carlos teaches God’s Word and trains church leaders as the lead pastor of Insight for Living’s Spanish ministry.

Insight for Living Spanish

Insight for Living ’s Spanish-language ministry, Visión Para Vivir (VPV), started broadcasting in 1988 through HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, and KHCB in Houston, Texas. Chilean pastor David Hormachea translated the broadcast and became Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s first voice in Spanish. The broadcast rapidly expanded to numerous stations.

Ken Grant joined VPVas manager in 2000, and for five years he used his radio experience to streamline operations and further expand the reach of VPV to more than 200 stations. In 2006, Carmen Montgomery became the new executive director when Ken transitioned to help IFL Portuguese, and, in 2007, Carlos Zazueta became the new pastor and voice of VPV. In 2020, Jorge Ponce stepped in to serve as IFL Spanish’s regional pastor in Guatemala, speaking at conferences and ministering to listeners across Central America. In 2021, IFL Spanish opened an office in Spain, currently under the leadership of Yohel Arce, to support Spanish-speaking listeners across Europe.

The VPV broadcast, featuring Carlos Zazueta’s translations of Pastor Chuck’s sermons, airs more than 1,600 times a day on more than 700 stations across the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Spain.

Carlos and Karla Zazueta

In 1998, while studying at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), Carlos met Pastor Chuck and expressed his desire to translate Chuck’s material into Spanish. Three years later, Chuck invited Carlos to start a Spanish-language Bible study at Stonebriar Community Church (SCC), which eventually turned into a vibrant Spanish-speaking congregation. After six years at SCC, Carlos became the pastor of VPV.

In 2018, Carlos stepped down from SCC to serve VPVfull-time and help pursue Vision 195 in the world’s twenty-two Spanish-speaking countries. With VPV, Carlos travels the world training pastors to use Pastor Chuck’s Bible-study methods and hosting leadership conferences, marriage and men’s retreats, revivals, and seminars. In 2021, Carlos helped establish the first multicultural campus for Grace Bible Church in Bryan, Texas. In 2024 Carlos again became part of the staff at Stonebriar Community Church as associate pastor for Stonebriar en Español.  Carlos holds a ThM and a doctorate in leadership from DTS, and Karla, his wife, has a master’s in leadership, also from DTS. Together, they share a passion for cross-cultural discipleship, beginning at home with their precious son whom they adopted from China in 2018.

Countries

• Cuba
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Mexico
• Spain

Language

• Spanish

Joining Insight for Living in 2020 after earning a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary, Subhadheer now spearheads the ministry’s work in the Telugu language as IFL’s pastor in India.

Insight for Living Telugu

Although Insight for Living (IFL) has performed translation work in multiple languages in India, it did not have a regional pastor until 2020 when Komal Subhadheer Vempati joined IFL our team as pastor of the Telugu language in India. A graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), his passion for reaching his people, combined with the passion for India and financial partnership of a generous American couple, brought this ministry into existence.

Jim and Kelley (avid listeners of the Insight for Living broadcast) had learned a lot about India through their adoption of a young Indian girl in 2004. Since then, God had been preparing their hearts to have a significant part in launching IFL’s outreach in India. They waited patiently for God to raise up the right pastor and translator to launch this ministry the right way. Now the ministry is launched, and the work of translation is in progress!

Currently, Subhadheer translates articles to place on the IFL Telugu website and is translating and recording Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s sermons to be made accessible via radio and web to Telugu-speaking people across the world. He is also beginning our efforts to lead pastor training in Telugu. 

Komal Subhadheer and Usha Vempati

Living in the most populous country on earth, Subhadheer daily sees an unending mass of humanity striving to find ultimate meaning in legalistic and oppressive religions. As much as this empty spirituality weighs heavily on the hearts of such a vibrant, colorful country, so Subhadheer’s passion for sharing the gospel of Christ weighs heavily on his heart.

Subhadheer carries this passion because he himself knew the emptiness of Hinduism, until the Lord began drawing his father and mother into faith in Christ. In 2001, Subhadheer, along with his parents and two younger brothers, were all baptized together in a river outside of Vijayawada, India. He has been regularly preaching and teaching God’s Word since 2004. His desire to minister effectively and correctly among his people led him to study at DTS. Subhadheer and his wife, Usha, are blessed with a beautiful daughter, Danya Carolyn. They, along with their parents live in Vijayawada, where he serves as a senior pastor of “The Grace Bible Church” which launched on January 7, 2024.  He is also the director of his father’s music ministry.

Country

• India

Language

• Telugu

In April 2013, Nathan’s love for Insight for Living, his calling to Australia, and his heart for teaching God’s Word merged when he became IFL Australia’s pastor. He oversees IFL’s Bible-teaching and pastoral presence in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific.

Insight for Living Australia

Insight for Living (IFL) Australia, our second regional office after Canada, opened in 1987, partnering with Trans World Radio to access the radio airwaves. The ministry first opened its office doors in Blackburn, Victoria. During the next two decades of growth, the office moved four times—all within the suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. In 1989, the ministry began using an Australian host to give the broadcast a more local, organic flare. God also raised up godly leaders at the right time, like Mac Hawkins and John Reeder, to serve on the ministry’s board and expand as well as enhance the ministry. In 2003, Peter Tyrell became the new executive director and served IFL Australia for ten years. He was followed by Chris Littlechild, who served as the executive director from 2013 to 2023. In 2013, Nathan Potts became IFL Australia’s regional pastor and continues to serve in that role today.

The IFL Australia broadcast ministers to people across Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific islands, airing on 100 stations more than 550 times a week.

Nathan and Julie Potts

Nathan and Julie are native New Zealanders who have spent more than two decades living and ministering in Australia. Nathan worked in the packing industry before entering ministry. He holds an MDiv from Multnomah Biblical Seminary and has served as the pastor of three churches. Julie serves as a surgical nurse. Nathan and Julie live in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. They have three grown children and a rambunctious border collie.

Nathan’s first encounter with Pastor Chuck Swindoll came through Pastor Chuck’s book, The Grace Awakening. He then started listening to the Insight for Living broadcast regularly. Nathan’s love for IFL and his calling to reach the people of Australia with the expositional teaching of God’s Word made him the perfect fit for serving as the pastor of IFL Australia and he also serves as chairman of the board of directors. Reaching people in that part of the world is becoming increasingly difficult as postmodernism grows and freedom of speech weakens. But Nathan assures, “Scripture tells us that the gospel is an afront to those who don’t believe. The culture here is very works-based. These are challenges only God’s Word and the power of the gospel can meet.”

Countries

• Australia
• New Zealand

Languages

• English

Jorge serves on our Spanish-language team through our Central America office in Guatemala. He provides Insight for Living’s pastoral presence and leads Visión Para Vivir training conferences throughout Central America. His love for God’s church and extensive ministry experience help him teach God’s people and train God’s shepherds.

Insight for Living Spanish—Central America

Insight for Living (IFL) Spanish-language ministry, Visión Para Vivir (VPV), started broadcasting in 1988 through HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, and KHCB in Houston, Texas. Chilean pastor David Hormachea translated the broadcast and became Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s first voice in Spanish. The broadcast rapidly expanded to numerous stations.

Ken Grant joined VPV as manager in 2000, and for five years he used his radio experience to streamline operations and further expand the reach of VPV to more than 200 stations. In 2006, Carmen Montgomery became the new executive director when Ken transitioned to help IFL Portuguese, and, in 2007, Carlos Zazueta became the new pastor and voice of VPV. In 2020, Jorge Ponce stepped in to serve as IFL Spanish’s regional pastor in Guatemala, speaking at conferences and ministering to listeners across Central America. In 2021, IFL Spanish opened an office in Spain, pastored by Pedro Sanjaime, to support Spanish-speaking listeners across Europe.

The VPV broadcast airs more than 1,600 times a day on more than 700 stations across the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Spain.

Jorge and Edna Ponce

As the teaching pastor for Central America’s arm of IFL Spanish’s Central America office, Jorge has many opportunities to represent the ministry throughout the region. Local pastors who listen to the broadcast reach out to Jorge for mentoring in church leadership, and Jorge teaches regularly at the Central American Theological Seminary (SETECA) and at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a regular speaker at conferences and provides biblical answers for listeners who contact IFL.

Edna serves as a biblical counselor for VPV. Her spiritual journey led her to attend SETECA in Guatemala City, which was the same seminary that Jorge attended. As they studied God’s Word together, they fell in love and followed God’s path into Christian ministry. Further study followed—Christian counseling for Edna and pastoral ministry through a doctorate from Dallas Theological Seminary for Jorge. God is using their partnership for growing Christ’s kingdom in Central America.

Countries

• Cuba
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Mexico
• Spain

Language

• Spanish

Ben and Anda, his wife, launched Insight for Living Romania in Bucharest after attending Dallas Theological Seminary and interning at the Insight for Living home office. He now serves as IFL Romania’s pastor and voice, and she serves as IFL Romania’s executive director.

Insight for Living Romania

After Ben and Anda graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) in 2010, they returned to Bucharest, Romania, to plant a grace-oriented church. In this city of two million, only half a percent claim to be evangelical Christians, and even fewer truly understand God’s grace. Most Romanians believe salvation can come only through belonging to the Orthodox Church—or they’ve rejected any semblance of religion altogether!

In 2011, IFL asked Ben to translate Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s messages into Romanian. Together, Ben and Anda established IFL Romania. The office opened in 2015 and now runs under Ben’s leadership as pastor and under Anda’s leadership as executive director. The IFL Romania broadcast airs on radio stations throughout Romania and in the United Kingdom. IFL Romania provides a voice of grace seldom heard elsewhere in this language and culture.

Ben and Anda Mogos

Ben and Anda were born in communist Romania and grew up hundreds of miles apart—Ben on a farm with parents who risked their lives to share the gospel and Anda in poverty in the home of an atheist father committed to the communist army. After the revolution, Anda’s father became a believer and eventually the first evangelical chaplain of the Romanian army! Ben and Anda entered vocational ministry after marrying, which led them to DTS and IFL.

Upon their return to Romania in 2010, the Lord gave Ben and Anda a vision to plant a church and launch IFL Romania. Ben now shepherds Agape Church alongside serving as IFL Romania’s pastor, and Anda leads a counseling practice and speaking ministry alongside serving as IFL Romania’s executive director. They adore their two children.

Country

• Romania

Language

• Romanian

Zygmunt launched Insight for Living Poland (IFL Polska) in 2009, which aired its first broadcast in 2011. His experience as a pastor and seminary president makes him the perfect leader of IFL Polska. In addition to serving as the voice and pastor of IFL Polska, he spearheads our pastor-training efforts in the Polish language.

Insight for Living Poland

In 2008, Zygmunt Karel met Pastor Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Shortly thereafter, Insight for Living (IFL) Poland was born. He immediately started translating Pastor Chuck’s sermons into Polish, and by 2009, the office was open. Then, in 2011, Pelnia Zycia aired, being the first Polish Bible-teaching radio program broadcast from within Poland. In 2013, Jakub Cieslar became executive director of IFL Poland to handle office logistics, freeing Zygmunt to translate Pastor Chuck’s messages and prepare for Searching the Scriptures pastor-training sessions. In 2021, Zygmunt’s son, Marcin, was handed the baton of executive director, building on the foundation that Jakub laid.

More than 41 million people from 46 different countries speak Polish as their primary language. But wherever they live, they can receive solid, practical Bible teaching in their heart language through IFL Poland’s media channels.

Zygmunt and Maria Karel

Zygmunt, who at age five witnessed communists beat his father for preaching the gospel in Poland, will never forget gathering with his family afterward and lifting their voices in prayer for their persecutors. His father’s inextinguishable faith remains aflame in Zygmunt. He has pastored churches since 1971 and holds multiple advanced degrees in theology.

In 1990, while Poland was still under communism, he helped establish Biblical Theological Seminary in Wrocław with Mark Young. Zygmunt served as the seminary’s president until 2005. Today, Biblical Theological Seminary is the only fully accredited evangelical, interdenominational seminary in Poland. After a stint pastoring Polish speakers in Brooklyn, New York, Zygmunt returned to Poland to found IFL Poland, and considers it a privilege to introduce Polish-speakers to God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

Zygmunt and his wife, Maria, have been married more than fifty years. They relish time with their children and grandchildren. He says of IFL Poland: “We exist for one reason: we want people to get to know the Bible and, through the Bible, to get to know Christ.”

Charlie has translated and recorded Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s sermons in the Arabic language for more than twenty-five years. He leads our Arabic team, strategically located in Lebanon, as they harness media to reach the world’s 400 million Arabic speakers with the good news of God’s grace in Christ.

Insight for Living Arabic

In 1998, Pastor Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll invited Charlie Costa to serve as Insight for Living  (IFL) Arabic’s pastor and radio voice. The next year, our Arabic-language program, Nafitha Ala l’Hayat, “Window to Life” in English, launched into the airwaves through Trans World Radio. The broadcast is now available to listeners all across the world through digital media. It has the potential to reach more than 400 million Arabic-speaking people around the world. Remarkably, several churches of new believers have even sprung up in the Middle East because of the broadcast! Christians living in countries closed to the gospel thrive on biblical resources they can find via IFL Arabic. Many listeners contact the ministry with follow-up questions via IFL Arabic’s mobile app and social media.

Because of recent economic hardships in Lebanon and the influx of 2.5 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees, IFL Arabic has unprecedented opportunities to share the gospel and offer biblical counseling.

Charlie and Mona Costa

As a prominent Arabic-speaking evangelical leader who comes from a family with a strong legacy in ministry, Charlie Costa already had a heart and vision for reaching Arabic-speakers with God’s Word. That’s why he jumped at the opportunity to join IFL Arabic when Pastor Chuck and Cynthia invited him to record the program and establish an office in Lebanon. For decades, Charlie had served as pastor for a local church in Beirut, in addition to leading IFL Arabic, but, in 2022, he stepped aside to focus more on IFL Arabic. He continues to preside as judge of the Family Court for the Evangelical Community in Lebanon. He served for several years as the chairman of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary and worked to train leaders and plant churches throughout the Middle East. Furthermore, Charlie mentors pastors and utilizes the Arabic version of the Searching the Scriptures pastor-training curriculum. Charlie’s wife, Mona, has served for many years with a ministry to abused girls.

Grace is often a foreign concept to Muslims who make up the majority of Arabic speakers across the world, so it is IFL Arabic’s passion to help them find truth and internal peace through Christ, despite the external tumult of the world.

Country

• Lebanon

Language

• Arabic

For decades, Fernando has translated and recorded Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s sermons for Portuguese-speakers worldwide. He also trains pastors throughout Brazil—including church leaders in the Amazon—as well as other Portuguese-speaking countries. Ieda, his wife and ministry partner, serves as the executive director of Insight for Living Portuguese.

Insight for Living Brazil

Insight for Living’s Portuguese-language ministry, Razão Para Viver (RPV), started broadcasting in 1988 through Trans World Radio. Today, twenty-two radio stations across Brazil carry the RPV broadcast to a potential audience of 210 million Portuguese speakers. Additional stations reach Portuguese speakers in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, France, Portugal, and the US. RPV partners with missionaries in the Amazon who sometimes use solar-powered radios to reach riverside communities throughout the vast rainforest.

The RPV team has translated more than twenty biblical resources, launched a Portuguese-language website, connects with people through social media, and partners with local ministries to provide in-person teaching and Bible-study materials. In 2021, RPV completed the Portuguese translation of IFL’s Searching the Scriptures pastor-training curriculum. Church leaders from sprawling cities to rural towns are benefiting from this valuable training. In 2024, the team traveled to Angola and Mozambique to teach approximately 200 pastors the Searching the Scriptures curriculum. The team recently relocated RPV’s headquarters from São Paulo to Jundiai to expand and enhance its global ministry initiatives in pursuit of IFL’s Vision 195.

Fernando and Ieda Bochio

Fernando Bochio became pastor and the Portuguese voice of Pastor Chuck Swindoll for IFL Portuguese in 2002 while continuing to pastor a church, teach at a university, and consult. Throughout the years, he has since stepped away from these other roles and responsibilities in order to focus full-time on IFL Portuguese. With a passion for mentoring, Fernando helps train pastors all over the Portuguese-speaking world to use Pastor Chuck’s Searching the Scriptures Bible-study methods. In 2022, Fernando completed his doctorate degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. Ieda serves as executive director of the ministry, carefully overseeing its operations and connecting with listeners. She holds five advanced degrees in health care and science. The Bochios have a vision for reaching the ten main countries in which Portuguese is spoken!

Fernando and Ieda have been married more than forty years and love spending time with their children and grandchildren. Fernando enjoys adventures, nature, and his motorbike. Ieda enjoys gardening, cooking, and baking. Both love to welcome visitors into their home and can’t resist dancing together when the right music comes on. They’re committed to pursuing the Great Commission—whether at home or braving the snakes and piranhas of the Amazon River!