Honored Friends
By Cherissa Roebuck
January 15, 2025
During the Fall 2024 Commencement Ceremony, John Brown University awarded Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters degrees to Pastor Saul Pérez Esquivel and his wife, Dr. Layla Chanquin de Pérez, of Guatemala. The JBU honorary doctorate honors lifetime achievements in Christian service, professional accomplishment, distinguished public service, outstanding service, and support of JBU.
Esquivel pastors Iglesia Bautista Cristo es El Camino, a church near a large city garbage dump in Guatemala City, and leads a thriving ministry that offers youth education programs, weekly food distribution, day care services for working mothers, a clean water program, outreach to the homeless, church planting ministries, and drug rehab/recovery. Chanquin de Pérez, a medical doctor and surgeon, oversees Corazon de Amor Clinic, a medical clinic with a staff of 17 who meet the medical needs of thousands in the community. Together, Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez have committed their lives to sharing the gospel and serving their Guatemalan community.
JBU first connected with Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez in 2007 through a JBU Walton International Scholarship Program student who had grown up at the garbage dump and attended Iglesia Bautista Cristo es El Camino. Since then, about 30 JBU groups, totaling more than 350 students and 20 faculty and staff, have traveled to Guatemala to partner with Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez and their ministry. These groups have completed construction and water purification projects, medical missions, community feedings, study projects, and other special events. Through these JBU connections, other community ministries like Dustin’s Dream Foundation in Siloam Springs and Life of Hope Ministries in Joplin, Missouri, have partnered with Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez to support their work.
Joe Walenciak, Ph.D., distinguished professor of business at JBU, has led 14 spring break mission trips to Guatemala and traveled with JBU graduate counseling groups, nursing students, and water project groups. He has often seen Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez drop everything to help someone in need.
“I remember when a woman named Berta attended our clinic with a complicated problem,” Walenciak said. “She said she needed to leave, so she left. The medical staff came to me and said she would probably not survive the day without emergency surgery.
“I contacted Saul, and he stopped what he was doing, took me with him and went to the streets to find her. We found her and rushed her to a hospital for emergency surgery. She had an intestine that was about to burst, and the surgeon confirmed that she would not have survived the day.”
JBU President Chip Pollard said Esquivel and Chanquin de Pérez are shining examples of what it means to live out the gospel and JBU’s “Head, Heart, Hand” mission.
“I have been honored to know Pastor Saul and Dr. Layla for 15 years and have been so encouraged by the breadth and depth of their work for God’s kingdom,” Pollard said. “They preach the gospel in word — through their K-12 school and their church network — and in deed — through their clean water and healthy food distributions, their medical clinic, their construction projects, their job training, and so much more. They have graciously allowed many JBU faculty, staff, and students to partner with them in this work and receive the blessing of getting to know the people in their neighborhood in Guatemala City. I could not think of a better couple to receive honorary doctorates from JBU, and we will be proud to call them our alumni.”
