In our second week of ministry our team worked with a man
named Pastor Armando. Pastor
Armando is an amazing man who has dedicated his life to helping young men, particularly those involved with drugs, violence, and gangs, and bringing them
to the Lord. He often uses soccer
as a gateway to reach them and get to know them, and he has some amazing
stories. We never know what we
could possibly be doing with Pastor Armando, so Tony told us to be prepared for
anything. He said to have a drama,
some music, and maybe a testimony prepared. Tony also told us that we would most likely be working with
some kids at school.
On our first day we got in the van to take us downtown to
where Pastor Armando and the school was.
The van dropped us off, Armando met us, and we walked into a building
with this sign on top:
At this point we were a little confused- is this just a building, or
is there possibly an alcoholics anonymous meeting that we are expected to be a
part of?
Well, as the morning unfolded, we found that
we were at a Christian rehabilitation center for men with drug and alcohol
problems. There was a meeting
going on that morning and the agenda looked something like this:
-The leader the meeting read the 10 ways of something and 12 paths
to success (or something along those lines.)
-We led some worship songs in Spanish. Good thing Hosanna grabbed her songbook
on the way out the door… unfortunately Casey’s guitar spring broke at the
beginning of the second song, so we had to sing a capella for the next 6 songs.
-Wes gave a bit of his testimony and how alcohol
has affected his life.
-Pastor Armando gave part of his testimony- how
alcohol had consumed his life for a time and how it tore his family apart.
Pastor Armando
-Pastor Armando prayed an INTENSE prayer for the
alcoholics, and let any of them who wished to allow God to change their ways
stand up. About half of them
did. It was powerful.
-We sang a few more songs a capella.
-We took a short tour of the building where the
men live. It was quite small, and
they stay for any amount of time from a few days to a few weeks.
When Wes walked up to give part of his testimony, Alys went
with him to translate. She could
do it, but not easily. After a couple minutes a man walked up
from the edge of the crowd and jumped in with pretty fluent English. His name was Jesús.
Wes and Jesús.
Pastor Armando said that he had made about 15 phone calls
within the past two days asking for a translator, but no one was
available. Out steps Jesús, who
was staying at the center because just a few weeks ago drugs and alcohol
consumed his life. He had
completely lost the trust of his mother, and she and his wife chose to put him
in the center. He was only 20
years old. He was very nice and
translated very well. It was
awesome how God used him to help and how obvious it was that he wanted to turn
his life around. He told us that he wanted to give his life to the Lord and to not be involved with bad stuff anymore. We saw Jesús two
more times, and he helped translate both times.
Jesús talking with Alys and Casey.
The next day we went to the school where we were supposedly
going the first day. It turned out
that the students were all studying for their exams, so we couldn’t hang out
with them. We did tour the school
though and hear some amazing stories from Pastor Armando.
Turns out USAid had donated either the money or the materials for a computer lab at the school.
One of the stories he told us was the reasoning behind the title of
his book, (of course he wrote a book), which is called A Bible, Three Tortillas, and a Little Bit
of Salt. It’s based on a story that a gang member who joined one of his soccer leagues told him.
They saw a man walking
down the street with a bag and told him to give them money. He said, “No, I don’t have any
money.� They told him again, give
us your money, and again the man said, “I don’t have any money.� They pulled out a knife and said, “If
you don’t give us your money, we will kill you.� He said to them, “Please, don’t kill me. I have three small children.� But
the men pulled out a knife and slit his stomach and killed him. When he had fallen to the ground, they
looked inside the bag, thinking they would find money. The first thing that they saw was a
Bible. They looked around at each
other and exclaimed, “Oh no! We
have killed a Christian!� They
continued to look through the bag and all they found was three tortillas and a
little bit of salt.
After this the men participated in Pastor Armando’s programs
and became Christians. It’s an
amazing story that shows how God uses terrible situations for his glory, and
also the cost that can come with being a Christian. Even though the man wasn’t directly killed for his faith, it
was obviously very important to him if he was carrying around his Bible. If all he was carrying was three
tortillas for food, he probably didn’t have much money. Despite he’s unfortunate death, I’m fairly certain that this
man will have riches in heaven.
The men waving goodbye to us.
