When God calls His people to build, His favor makes the impossible possible. Three Texas pastors have vowed to fight and protect the innocence of our children. This article is a wake-up call about what children are exposed to in their schools. Let it inspire you to press on, intercede, and take action. This is their remarkable story of what God has done in less than five months.

You need to know about a ministry in my city that has been standing up at school boards and exposing explicit and pornographic literature in schools across the district. Pastor Mark Lugo of SA Impact Ministries was born into a ministry family. It was nothing new to him. However, he is now engaging in the culture war head-on.  

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His journey began in March when he received a phone call from Pastor Richard Vega, who wanted to meet with Pastor Lugo and his wife and discuss expanding ministry in San Antonio, Texas. Pastor Lugo said, “I had no idea what it would be about.” Before this meeting, God told Pastor Lugo that it would shift the trajectory of his ministry.

“I jumped on Facebook. It was a class, and I got on when it was ending. I was minding my business when a prophet called me out by name.” He said, ‘Mark Lugo,’ and then paused. ‘God is calling you into politics. He is calling you to the government and education mountain. You have a heart for justice. God is going to use you to write bills at the Capitol.’ I was blown away!” Pastor Lugo said.

Pastor Vega “spearheaded a movement training pastors to expose pervasively vulgar and sexually explicit content in ISDs across the nation,” Pastor Mark told IFA.  It is a team effort. They have researchers look into districts for explicit books. They compile lists of illegal books in the schools. Then, they meet with and read them before the school boards, raising awareness and demanding action.

God was leading him to take the education and governmental mountain as prophesied. A few weeks later, after meetings and training, he rallied other pastors to join the fight. On May 13, 2024, he was going to confront a district in his city for the first time, and he was apprehensive. Pastor Lugo said, “I’m confident as a speaker as a pastor, but this was something different. I felt nervous, and my heart was racing. The Lord told me, I’ve given you authority, step up.” As he read from the books in the chambers, he was told, “Don’t use language like that in here, or we’ll escort you out.” Mark said, “They don’t like it when we read from these books, but why should our children have to hear it?” 

Pastor Lugo has watched God do amazing things as he steps out in obedience. He connected with Keli Caraveo of Lock The Shields and has partnered with intercessors. At least 600 books have been removed from one San Antonio district. In just a few short months, the total number of books removed is 4,500. Praise Jesus that those books will not end up in children’s hands. Since stepping and speaking out, Pastor Lugo has also found favor with his state representative. On June 16, 2024, Father’s Day, Pastor Lugo and Pastor Vega were featured in the San Antonio Express-News. He thought he would be in the news; they made the front page. He sensed the Lord saying, “The men are rising.” 

Pastor Richard Vega leads At His Feet Ministries in Houston, Texas, which focuses on being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in all things. They care for people in need, missions, and the community and offer faith-based advocacy. This is where Pastor Vega connects with and equips pastors nationwide. They hold roundtable meetings and make resources available to help them know their rights should legal troubles arise. He is also the former State Director of the Texas Latino Conservative Pastors.

Pastor Vega has been very active in the governmental sphere for many years and entered the battle about school books in recent years. “I met with Bonnie Wallace, the head of research (at an independent school district). I knew these books were available, but I never knew it was this bad. Pastors, men, and women stood together to confront the evil; it was powerful. God was moving. Afterward, Judges and Commissioners asked for the list of books and began removing them the same night. Another district in Odessa (Midland) also asked for the list to remove the books. When I got on the plane to come home, the Holy Spirit said, this is the plan,” Pastor said.  

“My job is to travel to train, teach, and launch pastors and leaders to engage the culture. It’s not always easy. Evil will always present itself, but we have an obligation to rise and call out evil while standing for righteousness. We are called to be a voice for the voiceless. The culture is failing; when that happens, it’s the church’s fault. If pastors don’t show up to speak the truth on every issue, the people will never get set free. They will preach and pray but won’t speak out against gender mutilation, puberty blockers, or other evil going on. They’re too tired to attend school board meetings or too busy. I get it, but we’re all tired and busy. How much more of our freedoms will we have to lose? How much evil will our children face before we do something”? Pastor Vega said. 

Pastor Vega and his team have visited over 40 school districts in the last four months of the school year. At their last count, they testified at over 30 school board meetings and estimate that tens of thousands of books have been removed. One single district had 2,900 books removed: praise God!  “This is just the beginning. He said, “They need to understand that we are not backing down and not going away.”

Pastor Luis Cabrera is the National Director of the Latino Faith Remnant Alliance in the Rio Grande Valley in Harlingen, Texas. He and Pastor Vega had already worked together on the bill empowering school chaplains in Texas. They’ve also hosted pastor events and roundtables in Houston and the Rio Grande Valley.

In 2021, he started the Make America Godly Again movement. He encourages believers who feel called to run for office. He has helped other pastors run for office and win elections. He also helped someone flip a seat in his district. The Remnant Alliance provides a toolkit for Pastors to engage the culture. 

Pastor Cabrera believes the lack of engagement from pastors in the political sphere is why we are weakened. “We (church pastors) have believed that great lie of the separation of church and state, and as a nation, we have declined and seen the evil prosper. The elections are changed by the elect.”  He believes if leaders were more involved outside the four walls of the church, we could turn this nation around. “We must see more believers rise and be hands, feet, salt, and light. We need pastors to wake up and take their place. We are the answer to the wickedness around us. Pastors don’t know how to engage the culture, and that’s a problem,” he said. 

Pastor Cabrera agreed to partner with Pastor Vega to raise awareness about explicit books and demand accountability before school boards.  “I was shocked when the research was done. We are in a very conservative part of South Texas. Our towns are 98% Hispanic and have high family values. I was shocked when I found so many of these types of books in my city’s districts.”

“As a pastor and parent, I could not stay silent.” 

“We email school districts the lists of books, share who we are and what we do, and want to protect children’s hearts and minds. Then, we reach out to meet in person,” he said.

“I hit the ground running. I contacted 25 other pastors, but sadly, only one showed up at the school board meeting. When I read publicly, they were completely silent. I said, Help me, Jesus. These books were disgusting, and here I am reading them. But I said I will use my mouth as a weapon to expose evil.” Afterward, one of his church members who attended the meeting told Pastor Cabrera he was bothered by hearing him read the book full of profanity and vulgarity. Another parent said she felt dirty after hearing what was read, but these books are available to children of all ages. 

A parent from Houston has joined the team. He has gone to school board meetings in Austin and San Antonio. He was once a convicted felon, now reformed. When he saw the list of inappropriate books, he was shocked. He told the pastors that prisons have banned books and wondered if the same books are in school libraries. These books are sexually explicit and pornographic. He told the pastor that these books wouldn’t even be allowed in prisons.  Isn’t this disturbing? People in prisons aren’t allowed to read these books, but our children can. 

“It’s our job to protect children because that is God’s heart,” Pastor Luis said (see Matthew 18:6, Matthew 19:14).

Since visiting several districts, some school boards could not explain how these books got into libraries, but thankfully, they agreed to remove them. One official from the school district messaged Pastor Cabrera privately through Facebook and thanked him for standing up for the children. They requested that the list of banned books be removed from shelves. “Once a district is exposed, the word gets out. Soon, school districts began contacting me through Facebook, asking for the lists of books to be removed. They don’t want to deal with public meetings and school boards. I’m not backing down, and I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

Pastor Cabrera will work with state legislators in November. He wants to see pastors engage the government. “We are called to be ambassadors who represent Christ. We are not only to represent him in church but wherever we go. Our faith was never meant to be compartmentalized to a Sunday morning. If the church is to be the salt of the earth, it will eventually have to leave the saltshaker,” he said. “We need more Christians and Pastors to join the fight. We can train them and help them. There’s a lot of work to be done, and if we want to take our communities back for God, we must be willing to step out.”

“If the church is to be the salt of the earth, it will eventually have to leave the saltshaker.”

Pastor Lugo, Paster Vega, Pastor Cabrera, and Pastor Lugo are just a few men rising and joining the fight. They are thankful for intercessors who cover them before they go into meetings. However, all agree that prayers without action will not strike the mark. The culmination of prayer and engagement can turn this nation back to God and reclaim the territory we have given the enemy.

Here are some specific ways to pray for the Pastors and their ministries.

• Many Pastors refuse to cross their denominational lines and work together. Pray for unity (see 1 Corinthians 1:10, Psalm 133:1,2). 
• These Pastors have lost friends for their bold stance and have been slandered, ridiculed, and threatened for engaging the government. It’s difficult, but they have counted the cost and will continue fighting. Pray for protection for these pastors and their families (See Isaiah 54:17, Psalm 34:17, Ecclesiastes 4:12). 
• There is opposition to the good work. In one case, a librarian stashed books instead of removing them, violating the law. Pray for justice and accountability for those who resist removing the books (see Amos 5:24, Luke 18:7-8).
• Traveling and equipping costs money. Pray for the windows of heaven to open over SA Impact, Remnant Alliance, and At His Feet Ministries so that God’s work will not be hindered (see Philippians 4:19, Psalm 34:10, Malachi 3:10). 
• The goal is to become nationwide and train pastors in all 50 states. Pray for pastors to be bold, stand for righteousness, be salt and light, and equip the church to do the same (see Hebrews 13:6,  Proverbs 28:1, Deuteronomy 32:30).

You can visit the links or follow their social media pages for more information. Share this article with someone you know who may be interested. Mention it to someone in school, church, or even your pastors. Let’s raise awareness and believe that God will do mighty work in our schools and nation. Keep pressing and praying for awakening in America. 

But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits (Daniel 11:32b).

You can access a list of objectionable books at BookLooks.org.  

Are you encouraged by these bold pastors? Please share this article!

IFA contributing writer Gloria Robles is a passionate intercessor with a prophetic voice for today. For more from Gloria, go to Spotify or Anchor and listen to her podcast, Something To Share. Photo credits: Pastor Richard Vega.