For the past six years, through their work as literature evangelists, Angel and Graciella Chire have led 68 people to Christ and membership at the Las Vegas Maranatha Spanish Church.

“Angel is a blessing to our church. He is loyal, helpful and supportive, and all his baptismal candidates are very well prepared and knowledgeable of Bible truths and church doctrines,” explained Dr. Armando Juarez, senior pastor of the Las Vegas Maranatha church and the Hispanic Ministries coordinator for the Nevada-Utah Conference.

In the mountains of Peru, cattle ranching is one of the few occupations by which locals can support their families and, for a few, become successful and wealthy.

In a hospital bed, sick from pleurisy, Angel believes he saw a vision of a heavenly being holding his hands and telling him that he would be healed of his sickness, but that he must become a literature evangelist. So on Jan. 22, 1968, at age 35, Angel left his successful cattle ranching operation to become a full-time literature evangelist.

In his first year, Angel became the Southern Peruvian Conference "champion" (by selling the most books), and the next year he was the Union champion. For three years after that he was the Division champion. In 1975, Angel became the literature evangelism program director for the Southern Peruvian Conference.

Angel does his LE work in the same pattern he's always used. Because many people of hispanic or Latin American origins have a Catholic background, he uses the Catholic (Guadalupe) Bible as his main seller. Along with it, he offers a free Bible study. Angel has so many requests for Bible studies that he doesn’t have much time to sell his books.

With no time left for selling books, the Chires often struggle to pay their regular expenses, including food, electricity and other bills. When a few of the families the Chires brought into the church realized their mentor's plight, they pulled together to help. “They want the Chires to continue to help others like themselves come to know Jesus,” explains Juarez, “so they have given money and found ways, such as co-signing loans for lower interest rates and payments, to help the Chires.”

Angel has many stories of God’s miraculous answers to prayer. He encourages others: “Being a literature evangelist is not easy, but if you have made this commitment, do not be concerned with selling your literature, but be concerned with spreading the Word.”