Lupe as served as Minister, Pastor, and President of Grace Christian Center Inc. since August of 1988. In this position he is responsible for spiritual development, defining life skills and elements to successful living through traditional religious services and creative community programs; encouragement to explore faith and Biblical principles for experiencing life as designed by God. Continued research of trends and communication skills for means of relating to the curious and to the connected to the kingdom of God. Unleashing the innate gifts of God in the individual through identifying and the use of the same.

Grace Christian Center is the home of Grace Chapel, a non-denominational church, and Grace Christian Academy with grades K-3 through 12. The school environment is conducive to learning with families working together for the advancement of the children. Small classroom setting with tutoring built into their system. Diagnostics tests are administered for placement. Because of this approach, students regularly progress beyond their grade level while gaining confidence in learning difficult subjects. The staff consists of certified, experienced teachers. Since 2001, Lupe has also worked part time as a Humanities Instructor for Cochise College teaching the following classes: Introduction to Ethics and Philosophy, Religions of the World, and Eastern Philosophies / Islam.

Lupe spent his life growing up in old Bisbee as the oldest of four children. He married his high school sweet heart, Twinkie. He and Twinkie have three children, Dominic, Samantha and Jason (who awaits them in heaven). They are also blessed with seven grandchildren, Paul Tyler, Benjamin, Matthew, Isabel, Feliza, Mia and Zacheriah.

Ordained by Shiloh Christian Center in Sierra Vista, AZ, Lupe was called to Benson to pastor Grace Chapel in August 1988. Both he and his wife have raised their family and ministered in the Benson area since that time.

Lupe attended the School of Bible Theology from 1988-1992 earning a BA+ in Theology. He graduated from Bisbee High School in 1977.

Christine “Chrissi” Gold was born and raised in Pampa Texas. Chrissi moved to California when at 18 and worked in a Beatrice Cheese plant for 18 years serving five years as Quality Control Manager in the lab. When kidney cancer forced to quit Beatrice Cheese, she went to school for massage therapy for occupational injuries.

Later she met the cowboy of her dreams, Rocky Gold. Married in 2004, Rocky and Chrissi have a blended family with five children and 10 grandchildren.

The Gold’s came to Benson on their way to Tombstone for their honeymoon. They fell in love with the area and its history. In 2006 they purchased what they thought would be their retirement home on five acres, they came to Benson every chance they could to enjoy. When Rocky’s employer of 30 years, Ferguson Enterprise, found out he was wanting to move, they offered him the Ferguson store in Sierra Vista. The happy couple sold their California home and moved to Benson in 2009. They bought into the Arena Bar and Rodeo grounds in October of 2010 and later obtained full ownership on June 4, 2011.

Rocky and Chrissi love serving the local community and do so every chance they get.

Greg grew up in a tourist town in California. After graduation he found there were no paying jobs in the area so he moved to the Silicon Valley. He repaired cars for a number of years before he started working at a wafer fab equipment manufacturer. Greg first worked in final test being the last person to touch the equipment before it shipped to worldwide customers. He was then promoted to R&D where he built the first article of the Precision 9000, a revolutionary piece of equipment in wafer processing. That machine now resides in the Smithsonian.

For the last 20 years, Greg have been working for Apache Nitrogen Products. Operations, then QC, then Environmental, and now in process improvement.

When younger he raced motorcycles, both road race and enduros. Now Greg pleasure rides on his Goldwing or jis street legal dirt bike. Greg rode my dirt bike along the continental divide trail from Mexico to Canada. 2500 miles of trails and dirt roads in 11 days. He also play guitar in a band about once per month.

Greg's wife Kiri is a graduate of Benson High School. They are raising their niece who is a junior at Saint David High School. Go Tigers…er, uh, I mean Bobcats…

John Kelly hails originally from Lowell, Indiana, a small town in northwestern corner of the state. However he decided to make Arizona his home over 20 years ago. A very passionate business man, he thrives on transforming struggling businesses into abundantly prosperous, ethical establishments. This strong belief in building success is shared with all whom he can help. He enjoys greatly, collaboration with fellow business owners for business improvement for all. Transferred to Benson 3 years ago to rebuild a suffering audiology clinic, he has since managed to not only rebuild SoundPoint Audiology, but has also been given the opportunity to open a satellite clinic in Sierra Vista to accommodate the overwhelming response that SoundPoint Audiology's reputation has achieved. With an innate understanding of teamwork, further developed while playing baseball at Purdue University, his priority is uniting the local businesses in the warm welcoming community of Benson, Arizona.

Al Sacco, Mayor Designate
City of Benson

Email
Phone: (520) 586-2245