Saturday night service at Salim Iglesia was ending, and I turned away from a conversation to glance at the corner where Mario, Stephanie and Natalie were standing. Mario was crying nearly uncontrollably. He didn’t know how to hide it–he kept shaking his head, quickly wiping his tears away, while more spilled over. But this crying seemed different, somehow…I couldn’t pinpoint it. After I gave him a hug, Natalie told me why the tears were running down his face.
She had just given him a Bible.
I don’t really understand why Mario’s story became a defining experience for my time here in Mexico. But I knew after our first night with him, sitting on the curb across the street from church, praying and listening and trying to understand…my spirit knew there was something going on.
The last time we saw him, he had a funny little smile on his face as he spun off on his bike. He had come to church completely sober, which was a true blessing. I “preached” in Spanish at church, and I couldn’t really see his reaction to my message, which was about being set free from sin, including guilt and shame from past sins. Natalie said he listened well and even “hmmm”-ed a few times. But whatever I said doesn’t matter….I am realizing that as much as we were able to share with Mario while we were here for only two weeks…it is only God who works in people’s hearts and causes them to turn to him.
“Therefore God says to Moses: ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ It does not depend, therefore, on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~Romans 9:15-17
God may have raised us up in Palenque to proclaim his name to Mario. But our desires or efforts aren’t what matters (thought I do believe our desires coincide with God’s desires for Mario–that he come to know Jesus). Now we leave Palenque and we trust that God has begun a good work in Mario and that he will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6). He has placed Salud and Ricardo as friends and brothers to minister to Mario. Whether I ever know if Mario gives his past, present and future to Christ, I trust that it is all a part of God’s plan.
