Sitting at Starbucks surrounded by $6 cups of coffee was the last place I thought we’d find him…
Our team was chosen to work on AIM’s Unsung Hero Campaign while in Peru. The goal of the campaign is to find people who are working to further God’s kingdom and usually go unrecognized in their society, as well as to expand our contacts for the World Race. Sounds like good people right?
The team prayed into the situation, then got started emailing and calling contacts that other missionaries have shared with us. We knew what this unsung hero looked like: a pastor of a small church, other missionaries, and organizations well connected with US churches. Good people right?
We chased these people down with effort, but found that when we ask God for help some of the labor as taken off our hands, and left to him, and that is how a small conversation turned into something more:
Sitting at Starbucks for hours trying to make videos and frantically sending out emails to anyone who might know someone in Peru, my teammate Steve’s computer battery slowly worked its way down, and he turned to the guy sitting between him and the electrical socket. Now, Starbucks has this way of making you forget you’re in a foreign country for a bit (air conditioning!) and so Steve asked this gentleman for help in English, and got a response in English. Diego (name changed for safety reasons) asked what we were doing in Peru, and conversation short, turns out he is a pastor. So much for all that time writing emails when we should have been talking to the people around us.
Diego invited the team to his youth church service that weekend. It was a site to see!
He talked to the youth about things of this world; drugs and alcohol and how they don’t fulfill. He talked about the narrow path to Christ and if you’re not for Him, you’re against Him. It truly was a powerful service. I had never witnessed that age group so intent on anything other than video games. And Diego was just putting it out there like Christ was the only thing he knew to be true. The only reason he was living. Passionate about his job and the Lord would be cutting it short.
After the service we had a chance to talk to Diego more, and he told us his story. He was born and raised in Columbia. And life eventually found himself as the body guard for a well-known drug lord.
Imagine the lifestyle that goes behind that- bodyguard for a drug lord.
He did something that displeased his drug lord that found him out of favor with his employers to the point that they wanted him dead. He hopped a barge that took him to Aruba to escape. There he met missionaries, and more importantly a new Lord. One for whose favor he would never lose. One who offers life and not death.
Redeemed. Forgiven. Moved by a changed life, and several years in between, Diego grew in his faith and built a church in Peru. During service, his modest-sized church overflows with people: filling the courtyard, and even the upstairs where people watch a broadcast of his service downstairs. His church takes to the streets once a week to share the gospel. When he speaks people listen. A kingdom seeker. An unsung hero.
A drug lord’s bodyguard: sounds like a good person right?
