Back where his story began

Marco Cincar wasn’t an obvious candidate for youth leadership. He didn’t grow up in a Christian home, and the youth leaders at Gloucester Elim Church knew him as the cheeky one, the lad who was, in his own words, “not the most well behaved.” So when young Marco started telling them he wanted to be a youth leader himself one day, they laughed.

Today, Marco and his wife Esther lead that very youth group.

It was through this group, and a Limitless Festival, that Marco first encountered Jesus for himself. For Marco, it became the turning point of his story.

“It was a surreal moment,” he recalls. “I just knew there and then it was the right decision. I felt God calling me, and from that moment my life started to change.”

But the story didn’t run smoothly from there. Life took Marco away from church for a season, during a period of disruption that affected so many people’s routines and faith. Even so, something stayed with him.

“I always believed the Bible was true,” he says, “and that Jesus cared and died for me.”

God, Marco says, had a bigger plan. He messaged his old youth leader and asked if he could help out, and the response he got back was simple but life-changing: start attending church regularly and spend time in God’s Word.

“I took this advice seriously, and that was the best decision of my life,” Marco says. “Week after week, I was in church, trying to grow my faith, mostly out of pure curiosity, and falling in love with Jesus all over again.”

From there, doors kept opening. Marco was baptised, joined the youth team, and more recently he and Esther were entrusted with leading the youth group.

For Marco, the privilege isn’t just personal. It ripples outwards into the whole church family.

“One of my greatest encouragements is seeing young people love and worship Jesus,” he says. “Watching them encounter God reminds me of my testimony and why this ministry matters.”

There’s something fitting about it too. The youth group where Marco first encountered Jesus is now being shaped by a leader who knows exactly what it feels like to drift, return, and be welcomed home. It is a small but powerful picture of a church raising up its own.

Marco says there isn’t a day he questions whether this is what God has called him to do.

“Serving Him and investing in young people is such a blessing in my life,” he says. “I cannot wait to see what the Lord has got for me in the future. I have seen and known that God is faithful, and when we follow Him, learn and apply His Word to our lives, He can do more than we could ever have imagined.”

As Marco puts it himself: “Always remember to praise the One who set you free.”

And at Gloucester Elim, the freedom Marco found is now becoming part of the story he is helping others discover.

This article was first featured in the Your Elim newsletter. You can read the Your Elim newsletter here, and sign up to the newsletter here.