Leave the Ninety-Nine: How One Marine's Mission Became a Global Fight for the One

Pedro Vallejo was taking a lunch break nap when God interrupted his sleep. He bolted awake and ran to the living room to tell his wife what he'd just received. Before he could get the words out, she stopped him: "I have it too. You go first."

They both said the same thing. The parable of Luke 15:4—the shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that's lost. That moment of divine confirmation became the name and mission of their organization: For the One.

But the journey to that moment began years earlier, in the dust and chaos of Iraq.

When Faith Goes Silent

Pedro grew up Catholic in Milwaukee, the son of Mexican immigrants. Faith was part of the fabric of his childhood—until he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2007 and deployed to Iraq. There, surrounded by loss and violence, his faith didn't just waver. It collapsed.

"I turned my back," Pedro admits. "I said God's not real. I've lost brothers over here. Stuff shouldn't be happening like this."

For years after his deployment, Pedro carried that absence. He left the Marine Corps in 2013 and moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he worked at a bank and tried to rebuild a normal life. But something kept pulling him back—a quiet, persistent call he couldn't ignore.

He started looking for Catholic churches. There weren't many in Jacksonville. Then a customer at the bank invited him to her non-denominational church. He didn't go right away. It took two weeks. But when he finally walked through those doors on Easter Sunday, something shifted.

Two weeks later, Pedro gave his life back to Christ.

A Mission Bigger Than One Organization

By 2024, Pedro was working with another organization fighting human trafficking. During a trip to Ecuador, he sat alone in his hotel room, praying and meditating. That's when God spoke clearly: it was time to start his own organization.

There was a gap in the work being done—a critical void in aftercare and community support for survivors of exploitation. Pedro came home and told his wife. They prayed. She told him, "Not yet. I haven't received that release."

So they waited. And when the release finally came, they prayed again—this time for a name.

That's when Pedro took his lunch break nap. That's when God woke him. That's when he and his wife both received the same parable at the same time.

If a shepherd has 100 sheep and one goes missing, will he not leave the 99 on the hillside and go looking for the one that is lost?

"We didn't want to make this about us," Pedro explains. "I didn't want the organization to be about me. I wanted it to be about God and the mission He's sending us on."

Prayer Before Every Decision

For the One focuses primarily on international work—equipping law enforcement, supporting safe houses, and filling gaps in resources and training. The need is staggering. In 2024 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 546,000 reports concerning online enticement—a 192% increase from the previous year. And most of that content originates outside the U.S., in countries without the infrastructure to fight back.

Pedro's military training prepared him for the tactical side of the work. As a former Marine, he knows how to teach law enforcement units the skills they need to conduct rescues and protect themselves. One of his volunteers, a former Army medic, trains officers on how to stop bleeding and save lives in the field.

But before any of that happens, there's prayer.

"Our day starts out in prayer," Pedro says. "I still do my personal time. Then we start as a team in prayer. And once I've built relationships with the units we're working with, we'll have prayer there as well. Anytime we have a meal with the team or whomever, there's prayer involved."

Even the decision of where to deploy required extended prayer. Pedro thought he knew which country should be their pilot location. But as the timeline drew closer, God stirred something different in him.

"I want to say it was probably about three to four months of me arguing with God," Pedro admits. "Like, no, I think I want to go here. And then me finally submitting: Fine, yes, I will. This is your mission. This is what you set me on. I will do it as you say."

Ecuador became their pilot country—not because it made the most strategic sense to Pedro, but because God redirected him there.

Talent, Time, and Resources—All Submitted

Pedro sees his work through the lens of John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

For him, that love is inseparable from action. "We as Christians can't say, 'Oh, I'm Christian,' and not have a heart for other individuals, especially the vulnerable. It is a necessity for us to love others in every aspect, in every way, no matter who they are or where they come from."

He spends much of his time educating others about the realities of exploitation—because, as Hosea 4:6 warns, people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. His teaching gift extends from speaking engagements to hands-on tactical training in the field.

As for resources, For the One is still a grassroots nonprofit with a small budget. Every financial decision goes through prayer. "We can't help everybody," Pedro says. "I wish we could help every single person that comes to us with need or every safe house that sends a request. But unfortunately, at this point we can't. So it's all through prayer to make sure we align with what God is telling us to do."

Patience Is the Hardest Discipline

If there's one lesson Pedro wishes he'd learned earlier, it's patience.

"I am a person who by nature—you give me a mission and before you're even done explaining it, I'm already ready to go 100%," he says. "That happened with For the One as well. I was ready to jump headfirst, feet running, without fully understanding or without God fully giving me the entire mission."

There were speed bumps. Headaches. Mistakes born of moving too fast.

"I need to slow down," Pedro realized. "I need to let God finish telling me what He needs to tell me. Once I did that, I started seeing movements within the organization, and we were able to start helping individuals."

His advice to other Christian business leaders is simple: present everything to the Lord. Not just financial questions or employee issues—everything.

Ultimately, He gives and He takes from us what is necessary to help us grow. If we just present it to God and pray on it, He's going to give us the answer that is needed. Maybe not what is wanted, but what is needed.

The Shepherd Who Searches

Pedro and his wife married in 2021 during COVID—a long-distance relationship between Florida and Canada that defied the odds. "For those that say it can't work," Pedro says, "if you have Christ in you and you're intentional, it works."

Together, they're building something that refuses to look away from the one. The one child. The one woman. The one exploited, trafficked, forgotten.

Because the shepherd always leaves the ninety-nine to search for the one that's lost. And Pedro Vallejo is running into the hills, flashlight in hand, with a team of believers behind him and a God who never stops calling him forward.

If you've been waiting for permission to start the mission God placed on your heart, this is it. Present it to Him. Pray on it. Wait for the release. And when it comes—run.