I arrived back in La Paz this morning at around 5am. My team and another team got a few taxi’s and made our way to our Scarlet Hostel.
We are very familiar with this hostel because we spent a few days here at the beginning of the month for LDW which stands for leadership development weekend.
Once we got to the hostel, we loaded our 90 pound bags into our rooms, just kidding, not that heavy, but think half that. Then my friend Allison, Donovan, Zack and I sat downstairs for a while and connected to the internet since it had been a month since any of has had talked to our families.
We sat there for a couple hours until 8:00am which is when they open the dining area and serve free breakfast, and when you hear the word free on the World Race you best believe you making a run for it.
Toward lunch time a group of us decided to go to this little plaza. On the bottom level they make delicious crepes and on the top level they make vegan food. I sat with the team while they ate their crepes then my sweet friend Allison agreed to come upstairs with me and sit with me while I ate my vegan food.
We snagged a table inside because we were baking in the hot sun outside. Come to find out a man had already saved that table by himself, but being that it was a small restaurant and it was a four person table we asked if he minded sharing the table with us.
We all sat there together and learned that our new friend Cyro, is Japanese but moved to Brazil when he was 10 years old with his parents as refugees. They ended up staying there till this day because the work and opportunity was far better. We told him about the journey we’re on with Jesus and he was very intrigued by the amount of traveling we had done.
My friend Allison asked him if he had a religion and he shared with us that he was Buddhist. Even more interesting, his father is Buddhist and his mother is Catholic. When he was a child, he attended Catholic church with his mother but after some time he decided to switch to Buddhism because, in his words, in the Catholic church they preached heavily on the law and all the things you need to do or not to, and to follow a certain guideline to be a good Christian. On the contrary, for Buddhism, he enjoys it much more because it is more about self discovery, meditation, and your own personal journey.
That’s when Allison shares with Cyro, “I used to be Buddhist as well, and my life has been completely changed ever since I surrendered it to Jesus.”
She stands up and says, “I’ll be right back!” She runs to the front, grabs a pen, grabs a napkin and just starts drawing out the Gospel message on this little white square napkin.
She starts with drawing two circles. Inside the one on the left it says “It was Good,” inside the circle on the right it describes the World and all the things within the world that separate us from the Lord. When God created the world He said, and it was good. He intended for all things to be perfect, but when sin entered the world it drove a wedge in between us and Him. She connects the two circles on the bottom with a line and writes “Jesus.” Gods one and only Son who gave His life for our sins and so we may come into perfect communion with the Father, and it is only through Jesus that we may access this level of intimacy and depth of relationship.
Allison then writes John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
Without Jesus we are living a life of death. It is until we make a conscious decision to surrender our life to Jesus do we enter into eternal life with our Creator.
Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Cyro, a child of God is lost. He’s turned away from Christ because he thinks in order to be a good person, or gain righteousness it is to be gained through the law. He doesn’t yet understand the gravity of what Jesus Christ did for him.
Allison and I sat there while she shared the Gospel in the most simplest form. She didn’t use big fancy words, she didn’t drop 45 different scriptures, she didn’t condemn him or judge him. She brought herself down to him, she showed love and compassion, she made it personal by sharing a part of her testimony and a personal story between her and the Father and the way He has radically changed her life.
Allison gave her life to Jesus 2 years ago, for that specific moment. To sit in a small vegan cafe in the middle of La Paz, Bolivia and share the gospel with a Japanese man named Cyro.
He said thank you, shook both of our hands, said it was a pleasure meeting us and left.
