New book tells of pastor’s faith-based life

What a gem! People of all ages and interests will enjoy reading this spiritual autobiography, In the Line of No Resistance: God’s Will, by Methodist minister Alberto Merubia.
The 360-page book, just published by John Wesley Press of San Antonio, is to be available for the first time during the June 1-4 Southwest Texas Annual Conference in Corpus Christi.
Merubia, a retired Southwest Texas Conference clergy member, takes his readers on a journey that moves across many landscapes and offers views of great beauty, adventure, humor, fear, decision and faith. He shares distinctive qualities of Christian life and faith that cross boundaries of time and culture.
Readers board trains, steamships, airplanes and bicycles from Cochabamba, Bolivia, to Evanston, Ill., from Ellis Island to Buenos Aires, from California in the ’20s to Austin in the ’60s, from Boston University to Kerrville.
In the opening pages, Merubia tells the story of his father, who would become a founder of the Methodist Church in Bolivia. As a teenage boy in the 1890s, Moises Merubia came across a school sponsored by Methodist missionaries in Chile.
Curious and independent in his thinking, he ventured into the school to learn what it was. He had never heard of Methodists.
He eventually matriculated at the school. His relationships with missionary teachers set him on a path that would give him and his children a life infused with faith, discipline, courage, humor and love.
Merubia, a master storyteller, chronicles his own life experiences, rich with meaning and hope. He places these experiences in cultural and historical context to which readers can relate: his childhood in California during the Great Depression, military service in the Bolivian jungle, education by important figures in Methodist missionary history, a speaking engagement in pre-Castro Cuba, immigration to the United States—to name a few.
Throughout the book, Merubia illustrates the influences of home and church that are the natural fabric out of which the life of faith appears and grows. The easy-to-read narratives are at once informative and entertaining. With a pastor’s touch, personal and theological insights are gently brought to bear on ordinary life experiences as well as on defining moments.
The subtitle of the book is aptly stated: “A candid life story through joy and sorrow.” Merubia shares with his readers a thoughtful recollection of God’s leading in his life across the years. In doing so, he lets readers know not only about Alberto Merubia and Methodism. Readers also find themselves reflecting on the trajectory of their lives and how events, people and God have all played a part in them. What a gift!
Proceeds from the sale of these memoirs will go toward modernizing the Biblioteca Moises Merubia at Instituto Americano in Cochabamba, Bolivia, a memorial honoring Merubia’s father as one of the founders of Methodism in Bolivia.