About Esther

Born into a Christian family in 1947 as Blanca Esther Welchez-Guerra, Esther lived most of her life in Copán Ruinas, Copán, Honduras. She spent much of her time as a child in the children’s class at her local church from 1950 to 1957, and once grown, she began training to be a teacher with the Assembly of God. She soon became Sunday school superintendent, secretary of the  Female Missionary Council, and vice president of the Ambassadors of Christ. In 1966 she was called to be a teacher at a small school in the village of Finca el Cisne, where she moved and met a man who would soon be her husband, Ernesto Castejon.

The couple was married in May of 1968, and within a few years they were complete with their family of six children: Ernesto II, Susie, Carlos, Marilú, Mario, and María Esther. Today that family has since grown more and more, and Esther sill lives in Finca el Cisne with Susie and her husband, Gregor, and their daughter. Though Esther’s husband, Ernesto, went to be with the Lord in 2020, Esther still acts in remembrance of him and in honor of Jesus Christ by continuing her mission and sharing the love of God with those around her.

In 1966, Esther came to Finca El Cisne as a school teacher. At the age of 19, she began her passion for evangelization and formed the first group of Christians in the area. That same year, she began a friendship and Christian brotherhood with the missionary Mario Fumero and with a man named Elder León, pastor of the church of God in Nueva Armenia.



Nueva Armenia in that time was the first Christian church in Honduras. Esther began to work with pastors in the rural communities, helping with bettering their lives and the church buildings. While working with the Church of God, she began repairing the houses of pastors that were living in extreme poverty; and, after asking for funding and being told no, the Church of God fired her after 30 years of ministry work for simply building houses for ministers.

Asking for help and inspiration, Esther prayed, begging God for direction. In that moment, the ministry Manos de Jesús was born. Its mission to take the good new of Christ to the villages of Honduras is still continuing today—25 years later.