Ramos’ journey serves as true inspiration | | hccommunityjournal.com – Community journal

Nick Ramos, currently owner of an electrical company in Kerrville and pastor of a local Spanish Baptist Church, took a long and winding road from the mountains of Mexico into the United States and to his current home in Kerrville.

He was a teenaged resident of a village in the mountains of Oaxaca, 300 miles south of Mexico City, when he decided he had to come to the U.S. to have a future, he said.

I left when I was 14 years old to come to the United States with a friend and a relative, in the late 1970s, and we crossed into California as illegals, he said.

Ramos said they traveled together for a while, seeking work in various places along the way, but Ramos eventually made his way through Oregon and into Washington state before moving to San Antonio and finally to Kerrville.

I was too old to go to school by then, but too young to work regularly, and still an illegal; and my life had no meaning or purpose, he said. I was working some, but I was basically a vagabond with no direction in life. But I was blessed to have heard about the Gospel from people I met.

He said one place was in Washington in the snow up to here, he said, gesturing hip-deep where he'd found an orchard operation that included small cabins the workers could stay in. And one day some men in front of the local post office invited him to a home for coffee with a kind Hispanic family.

They fed me, and gave me advice; and the husband told his own story about God changing his life. They invited me to church, but I said no.

But that contact led to a job offer on a ranch in eastern Washington, which he said he started to refuse, but finally said yes. It was while he was working on that ranch that he began to read the Bible, he said.

And God changed my life, he said. Looking back now, God was working in me all along. I got a hunger for learning more, and in the mid-1980s my pastor suggested I go to a theological school.

Ramos said yes, and worked for another year before traveling to school in San Antonio. He graduated from that training in 1987.

The connection to Kerrville happened when a Kerrville pastor visited his theological school to lecture the students. Ramos said he kept a note about that pastors name and home church, and when Ramos graduated, he called that pastor and asked him for work, to gain some experience in his new field of endeavor. That was at the Maranantha Christian Center open here in the 1980s.

I met my wife Margarita there, Ramos said. Shes the hero in my life.

Ramos said about the same time he approached John Miller, then-owner of National Car Sales, a person Ramos said God put alongside him on his path.

Miller hired Ramos, who at the time had no training or experience in repairing, maintaining or selling cars. He hired Ramos to detail and drive the cars Miller bought and sold.

But Miller also offered added training, he said; and Ramos said he started at a $5 per hour salary, already higher than previous jobs offered.

Then he taught me how to rent cars, buy them at auction and sell the vehicles. He was my mentor.

Miller was the one who asked Ramos to learn to speak and read English. And Miller requested Ramos listen to San Antonio radio station WOAI to help his "language" lessons.

Ministry

"Looking back now, over the years, God was working in me, and on me, the whole time. And I got a hunger for learning more," Ramos said. "And I also always have had a desire to do more. And after Margarita and I married in 1990, I got an opportunity to be the pastor of a church in Oklahoma. And when our first child was two years old, we moved up there. Oklahoma was a whole new world, but we stayed a couple years up there."

He said in the mid-1990s, they decided to move back to Texas; and Nick decided to learn another "more practical kind of work to do in addition to ministry."

"I went back to selling cars, before I was hired by a local tradesman doing electrical work. And I fell in love with the work," he said. "As a new electrician, it was low pay for a while and we lived with my in-laws. And in 2000, I started working on my masters' electrician license."

He said while he was getting that license, he continued "side jobs" as an electrician; and that all turned into Ramos Electric. Now his 29-year-old son Nicholas Jr. and 25-year-old daughter Genesis help run that business.

He also continued in ministry, he said, at Calvary Temple Church, and with Pastor Matias Rodriguez, and it was through that connection that he met now-retired Baptist Pastor Bill Blackburn.

In 2004-05, Ramos was invited by Blackburn and others to join the discussions about Christian Men's Job Corps, "again, a wonderful ministry, and I was an initial board member, and now I am again. I also was doing a jail ministry at the Kerr County Jail."

Since then he studied online with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, for a master's degree, graduating again in 2019.

Now he's a student again, enrolled in a doctoral program for another master's degree with Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

And about four and a half years ago, Nick and Margarita opened Mission Route 66 Church in Kerrville, starting in people's homes and rented spaces, now located at 425 McFarland St., Kerrville.

"We are targeting people who don't normally go to a church. Sometimes we have 55 or 60 but under COVID, we have rectangular tables each with two or three chairs. We meet at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, and have a coffee bar and a juice bar for a healthy option," he said.

"I had cancer a few years ago, and my doctor and my wife recommended those healthier options," he said. "We also offer Wednesday night Bible studies right now, online and health classes at the church sometimes. I'm just a beggar telling other beggars where to find bread."

He said there are 10 Spanish Baptist churches in this multi-county area; and every three months all the congregations gather in one place.

He said his wife is his hero, and got him into natural things, and 10 years later, his medical scans are clear.

Ramos can be contacted by email at mission.route66@gmail.com or through its website at http://www.missionroute66.org. Ramos holds services Sunday at 10:30 a.m.; and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; and has Instagram and Facebook, too.

Electrical trade

Ramos Electric has a home office at 1105 Ranchero Rd., and can do general maintenance work to custom homes, including lighting controls, heated flooring and specialty lighting.

He can be contacted at Ramoselectrickerrville@gmail.com.

Im home now, and along the way I became a permanent U.S. resident, and then a U.S. citizen five years ago.

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Ramos' journey serves as true inspiration | | hccommunityjournal.com - Community journal