Sergio Oliden

Finds Freedom

By Richard Gammill

“Honey, you won't believe what happened to me!” Dana thought her husband had gone nuts until she heard his story! 

Perseverance flows deep in Sergio Olden’s blood. Growing up in Peru he faced many challenges with undaunted determination.

“I've always been able to achieve things through perseverance even at a young age. You know,  I would not get discouraged, I would just do what it took to get things done to come to the US.”

The youngest of four children, education was his father’s primary mission for the family.  Following his older brother’s lead, Sergio was determined to attend college in America. At an early age, he recalls pushing forward with the grit necessary to break down barriers and open doors. He filed the papers to come to America at the tender age of seventeen. 

Learning fluent English was his ticket out of Peru and into an American University. 

“I signed up for a very intense class in Hamlet University, St Paul Minnesota”  With dogged determination, he invested the next three months, six days a week,  eight-hour days to learn a second language. He never gave up. 

Math came easily to Sergio. His older brother was already in the US studying engineering.  “I didn't know anything about engineering but I figured Engineers use math so I guess I want to become an engineer.”  

Starting off in a small Minnesota college, he transferred to Morehead State University in North Dakota where he met his wife Dana.  “I joke around that I hit her so hard in the head with a snowball that I knocked the sense out of her and that's why she fell in love with me” They married on October 1, 1983, and both graduated from North Dakota State University two years later. Engineering Jobs were sparse due to a poor economy. 

Sergio moved to Guam working in construction for a year. Sergio’s brother was working in engineering in the rapidly growing city of Chandler, Arizona. Wanting to be closer to family, they relocated to Chandler. Sergio continued working in Construction for nearly fifteen years, specializing in heavy highway bridge construction. 

Sergio first encountered Christ in 1991. He and Dana had joined the Amway organization where they met contagiously joyful Christians.  Sergio grew to love these people and developed a thirst for what they had. 

One summer, while Dana and the kids were visiting family, he felt a strong urge to go to church. He called his neighbor who attended St Timothy's Catholic Church and asked if he could attend the service with him that Sunday afternoon. Twice a year, during the youth service, the priest held an altar call, inviting young people to receive Christ.

That particular Sunday was one of those occasions... With great trepidation,  Sergio went forward, inviting Jesus Christ into his heart. No wonder Dana was shocked when he called and shared his experience!

Growing up in Peru, the culture was primarily Catholic, but Sergio’s family did not practice the faith. His father lived a salacious and self-indulgent lifestyle. Although he never physically or verbally abused his children, his indifference was far more damaging to Sergio. They never had a close father-son relationship; Sergio was left feeling he was insignificant to his father. 

 “If he doesn't take care of me it must be that I am a bad kid with no worth or value“The only good thing is that it motivated me to show the world that I've got value.”

“I asked (my father), years later why he had done these things when he  knew they hurt me I hoped to hear him acknowledge the pain he had inflicted and apologize, but he never did.” When his father died in 2017, Sergio experienced a deep depression  that  he had never heard him say   “I love you.” For years Sergio couldn't talk about his father without weeping. 

Following his salvation, Sergio and his family began attending Dobson Ranch Nazarene Church in 1991. They fell in love with the church and the people. The church had just begun raising funds for construction on their new property. Sergio felt a call to begin tithing.  “Okay, that's what I need to do.”Sergio fondly recalls when Pastor Mark invited people in the church to share a testimony.  “ Sergio felt the Holy Spirit urging him to share. After everyone else finished, Sergio stood up in front of the whole church—this little kid who didn't have much value. He had nothing to say. He just stood there.  Pastor Mark encouraged him to share.  “Pastor,” he said,  I don't have anything specific to say, but the Holy Spirit asked me to stand up and overcome my fears and show I’ve got what it takes to have victory.”

God has blessed Sergio’s obedient heart. At only 30 years old, he became the general manager for a company doing about $15 million dollars of work a year. Highway bridges were his specialty. Throughout his career, he managed the development of approximately fifty-five bridge structures.  Sergio saw that many construction workers had a tendency to drink and party and had a lot of divorces. His health had suffered from severe headaches and stomach problems from the stress of his construction job. Sergio felt God was telling him to leave that work environment so his family could have a godly father and husband.

 Leaving the security of his construction job, he started a new career designing structures, dropping his salary by about 50%. Acting out of obedience to God he and Dana trusted God’s leading in their lives.  Within two months his headaches and stomach problems were gone. “I put God first in everything. Tithing is to me the most important thing I have to do. Everything belongs to Him and He has blessed us financially.” 

In 2010,  Sergio’s son Philip survived an accident.  God took care of him, sparing his life... God used that frightening experience to raise Sergio’s faith to a higher level. Feeling God’s urging to trust Him even more; “When are you going to put me first in your world? When are you going to make me the king of your life?” 

Dana had just become a teacher and Sergio thought he would start a company to create some revenue to supplement his main role of being some sort of pastor or something for God. But a friend said, “Sergio, I know what's in your heart, but when you design stuff you're actually being a servant to God by serving the people in your state using your talent to do great things for your society.” So he felt free to pursue what he loved doing: design construction and at the same time serve God. That was a major breakthrough in his understanding. On February 1st, 2012, Sergio launched Ethos Engineering, which means Eternally Trusting Him Over Self.”

Shortly after launching his new company, Sergio was struck with a brain tumor that almost killed him in August 2012. A non-cancerous, but life-threatening enlargement invaded one of his brain arteries and stopped the flow of blood to his brain. He survived surgery but has never been the same.  He continues to persevere despite chronic exhaustion, vision problems, noise sensitivity, and vertigo. “I just keep on living my life for God. Every day is a gift and once I put my mind to something I just do it, no matter how I feel. The doctor said the operation was going to be difficult and when I woke up from the nine-hour surgery I didn't know if I was making it or not. I opened my eyes and I saw my loved ones and a sign on the wall that said, ‘Congratulations Dad!’

“That day of my surgery I died to self-thinking. I was as good as gone but I survived and to bless me God brought two jobs that very day—my first two jobs with Ethos Engineering.”

Still, Sergio’s father wound was deep. In 2021 he attended a For Freedom Outreach camp with his son Philip to support his intentional efforts to draw closer to Christ. These were not like ordinary Sunday services. During an afternoon session, several model prayers were voiced that addressed deep painful issues in a man’s life. Sergio went forward to the prayer that pertained to his woundedness and he stood sobbing for ten minutes. Fervent prayer brought God’s healing to his broken heart, releasing him from bondage to the painful history with his father and transforming his life.

“Now I am free to be the real Christian man God expects me to be as a follower of Christ and I live my life for Him every day. We hear the message of justification when we receive the gospel and give our hearts to God. Right now it is sanctification on steroids as 100% of everything I do is for God.”

When Sergio sold the business in December 2023 there were about 15 full-time employees and two or three part-time people and the company was doing roughly $4 million net worth of work a year. The new owners are running the day-to-day operations and he works part-time until they find a structures manager.

 “By December 2024, Dana and I will be fully retired and by next spring we will be in our RV on our way to Alaska. Then what’s ahead for me? Dana and I want to help people live life to the max, a full life of Freedom dedicated to God because the bottom line is if you're not serving God you're serving the enemy. Either you're going to be a slave to sin or you're going to be a slave to God.”