Amalia and Marlon Caicedo serve in the marriage ministry at Iglesia del Nazareno Kadosh in Santa Clara, Ecuador, helping couples reconcile, heal, and strengthen their marriages through God’s Word.

The Caicedos have firsthand experience with many of the situations they now help other couples overcome.

“We had no peace,” Amalia said, bluntly describing the previous years of their marriage. “There was mistrust, arguments.”

Her husband, Marlon, was a professional soccer player in Ecuador for a decade. The fame and attention it brought him also attracted other things, including alcohol and even other women. 

“The fame kind of got to my head,” Marlon said.

After his playing career ended, he began studying as a head coach. That environment brought more distractions than before, and he wanted to leave his family at one point. Marlon remembered telling his wife once that he didn’t love her anymore. 

Four years ago, Marlon hit rock bottom. “I didn’t want to live anymore,” Marlon said. 

Amalia had met pastors Ricardo and Jenny Calles through a friend and began attending their church. Marlon started going to church simply to make Amalia happy but had no desire to get closer to God. However, Amalia had begun to grow in her relationship with Christ and began earnestly praying to heal her, Marlon, and their family.

“May he restore our home,” Amalia remembered praying. “May he put a new love in us, a different love where we love God first since that would allow us to be better spouses and parents at the same time.”

Marlon continued going to church, unwilling to budge from his ways, until he was in an automobile accident in 2021.

“It was bad enough that it could have taken my life,” Marlon said. “But I felt very clearly that God said to me that it was not my time and that he loved me. That is where I felt that there was a change in my life. I started to feel God in a very real way.”

Pastor Ricardo and Jenny began discipling Marlon and Amalia as they worked to reconcile their marriage. They created three spaces, one for each individual to seek the Lord and grow individually in Christ and a third space to seek the Lord as a couple and a family with their two children. 

“When God touched my husband’s heart, we prayed together,” Amalia said. “We asked him to give us spiritual discernment and wisdom to do the right things and not return to the past since we knew what living without God’s guidance was like. We do not want to go back there.”

Marlon coaches Nazareno Sporting Club, a local Nazarene ministry and professional soccer team. He says he now offers guidance and encouragement to many in his coaching community who face the same temptations and issues he did. 

“When I want to talk to them, sometimes they don’t want to listen,” Marlon said. “But neither did I when I was in that situation…I tell them what they’re doing right now is the worst mistake they can make.”

Marlon and Amalia serve in the marriage ministry with Ricardo and Jenny at Kadosh, offering guidance to those walking through similar struggles in their marriages.

“God put a new love in us,” Amalia said. “He put forgiveness in our hearts. He restored us completely.”