Hello my brothers, sisters, friends and family,
I hope and pray that this email finds you all doing well, both physically and spiritually. Sarita and I are doing great thanks to the grace and mercy of our dearest Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have been very busy as of late working with various churches, groups, and organizations on different projects but it seems to be our personal witness that God has particularly shined His face upon. I say this because God has opened several doors for me to personally share His word; especially at the beginning of this week. One particular experience that I want to share with you comes at the expense of a 45 year old man that has many troubles in his life.
Sarita and I were getting out of our truck this past Sunday afternoon after having gone to church and as I was just about to enter the house, a drunken man came stumbling up to me from the street. It was very strange because he was staggering down the street but when he saw me he took an immediate right and headed straight for me…maybe it was because I was a “Gringo” or maybe it was because I had on a tie, which are usually worn by religious people (i.e. pastors). Anyway, he walked up to me and started mumbling in his indigenous dialect (tribal language), which obviously I could not understand at all. At this point I had some mixed emotions because I really did not want to talk with this man because I was a little tired and a little hungry and I just wanted to go inside and have lunch and then take my customary Sunday afternoon nap. BUT I also knew that it was to the drunks of Teopisca that I have been wanting to witness to and have been praying to God that He might make this possible.
See, one day about two weeks ago as I was driving around town, I kept seeing all these drunk men stumbling down the street….during the middle of the day! This was nothing new because alcoholism is a major problem in this city and there are always men walking around in a drunken stupor. I have started relationships with several youth, meaning 15-18 year olds, that either have a problem with alcohol right now or have already been in and out of rehab. My heart breaks for these guys because in my past life (meaning before October 15, 2000 when the Lord saved me), I have known what it is like to stumble along trying to find my way home after drinking the night away, or the day away in this case. I know what bondage it is to not be able to put the bottle down and/or not be able to withstand popping another top. I know what it is like to wake up somewhere other than in your own bed…whether that be in your own car in front of your house, or sitting on the doorstep of your own house or worse…waking up and finding yourself lying in a public bathroom of a high rise office building in downtown Dallas with a security guard standing over you asking you what in the world you are doing in a “lock down” part of the building.
I say these men are in bondage (just as I once was), because that is how God describes their condition. Romans 6:16-17 says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”
Sin is bondage and that is exactly the status of these men…they are slaves to sin and in bondage to their own evil desires. And lest any of my readers are saying at this point…preach on brother because those drunk guys are really a problem and they sure are bad people…don’t be fooled because God also says in Galatians 5:16-21, “So I say, live by the Spirit [God’s Holy Spirit], and you will not gratify [fulfill] the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery [wild living] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
So before you go pointing fingers at anyone, I want you to answer this first…been envious or jealous of your buddy’s car, house, sound system, or lifestyle lately or maybe your best friends new pair of high heels; gotten real angry at your coworker or maybe even spouse lately; been harboring some real hatred for someone that you think has wronged you; had some ambitions for something that probably have the wrong motive (i.e. only for yourself), cursed at someone that just cut you off on the freeway lately or yelled at your kid because he or she did something wrong?????? Just wanted to ask you these questions before I continued with my little story because the things underlined in the verses above are in the same list with drunkenness!!! Know what I am saying?
OK, so I stood there listening to him for about a minute and a half as he switched between Spanish and Tzotzil (his native dialect). I only could make out about 20% of what he was saying but one thing was for sure…he had been drinking! I don’t know if any of you do this…I am sure that none of you do J…but as he was speaking I was kind of listening and kind of thinking how in the world I was going to get rid of him or at least get out of the conversation and go inside. Just then Sarita came back outside and I asked her to take all the things out of my hands and take them back inside with her. She took them and went back inside and then stuck her head back out the door and asked me if I wanted my bible. I said no…….and as the words were coming out of my mouth I caught myself having an internal conversation with myself that lasted for about 3 seconds in reality but seemed like 3 minutes. The conversation went something like this…no I don’t want my bible because I am going to spend as little amount of time with guy as possible.. BUT I am a missionary and I want to give the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people down here so why in the world did you say no…BUT this guy is drunk and he won’t be able to understand you and remember you anyway…BUT that’s not true because Lance, you yourself had 4 drugs and alcohol in your body the day that you were saved by the grace and mercy of our great God…BUT you can’t even speak Spanish enough to speak with a sober Mexican who tries to help you out with different words, much less this guy who obviously won’t be able to help you out with any words… BUT Lance, you have been praying to God for several weeks to make it possible to talk with the drunks of Teopisca and look what happens—God not only gives you an open door of opportunity, but Lance, He brings a drunk directly to your own door!!!!
Well, guess which side won this argument? Yep, you got it!
I immediately called back into the house and asked Sarita to bring me my bible. I spent the next 10 minutes standing in front of my house just talking with Juan about his condition and why it is that he thinks he needs to drink whiskey (he told me that it was whiskey that he had been drinking). I asked him many questions but received very few answers because as I said, he was jumbling the two languages. I then started talking to him about Jesus Christ and his need for forgiveness. I told him that God was not happy with him and that his heart was bad. He picked up on this and immediately started talking about how Diablo Rojo (meaning - red devil) was doing this to him and that Diablo was contrary to God. I of course agreed with him and started talking with him about his need to follow Christ instead of Diablo Rojo. After about 5 more minutes of talking about Diablo Rojo and talking about his need for God, Juan started crying and he just sat down on my small little front porch area (actually he simply fell down and then sat against the wall). So I sat down with him and it was then that I took my bible and just started reading him the word of God. I just flipped from passage to passage and I kept telling him to listen to the words I was reading as they were the words of God. He kept calling me his pastor and he continued to try and grab my bible to read it himself but I only let him do this a few times.
Well, I had been reading and talking with him for about an hour when Sarita came out and brought us lunch…some chicken strips in two paper bowls. Yum-Yum. We ate them together as we continued to talk about him being a “pecador” (sinner) and his need for Christ. One important passage that I read to him was Matthew 11:28-30 because I wanted to speak to him about his need to repent and turn from his current lifestyle but I also wanted him to know that there was One out there, namely Jesus Christ, that could…and would gladly…turn his life of turmoil, unrest and frustration into a life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. For Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
After about an hour and 15 minutes total, I told him that it was time for him to leave but that I would take him home (he had told me earlier that he just lived right down the road). He responded by telling me that he could not go home, as his wife did not want him there (by the way, he has 7 children—he is 45 years old). After a few more minutes of discussion I told him that I wanted to at least have him show me where he lived so that would know and could talk with him later. So we got up and got into my car and headed off down the street. We took the first right after we left my house and started going down this really bad gravel road that soon turned into a wet muddy grassy “road.”
We arrived at the last house and stopped, as we could not go any further because there was a big field of corn on the other side of this house. I say house but actually it was a little wooden structure (some, including me, would call it a shack). As we pulled up to the house, I saw a bunch of kids running around and playing but when they saw us, and in particular, their father, they ran into the house. I got out of the truck and told Juan to stay put and wait and I went to the door of the house to talk with his wife Maria. I talked with Maria for about 10 minutes and told her about our reading the bible and about Juan’s need to Jesus and about our conversations about his life. She told me that she was Catholic but that Juan didn’t really believe in anything and she said that she was glad that we talked but that he probably couldn’t understand anything that I had said because he was drunk. I asked her if I could come back and talk with Juan, and her as well, about the bible when he was not drunk and she said that would be good. Juan then got out of the truck and I asked her if it was a bad thing for him to be here and she said yes so I put my arm around Juan and took him back to the truck and told him that I was going to take him back to my house. We got back into the truck and I took him back to my house and told him that he had to leave but that anytime he wanted to talk, he could come back to my house and we could talk about his need for God in his life. He got out of my truck and thanked me… “thank you pastor”… and he headed off down the road and I did not see him any more that day.
But I would see him within the next 24 hours.
Juan returned to our house almost exactly 24 hours later…in the same condition and in the same clothes that he had been in when he left my truck the day before. Actually, he was a little more drunk on Monday than he was on Sunday. It “just so happens” that I had been inside (or outside in the back) working on some projects that Sarita has me doing…namely, making some side rails for our bed so that we can get it off the floor since we have been sleeping on the floor for the last 2 ½ months… BUT at just the right moment I opened up the door to get something out of the pickup and there was Juan walking by. He saw me and he immediately turned and came up to me and shook my hand. At this point you just need to hit the “replay” button because for the next hour I did the same thing with Juan. I read him many of the same Scriptures as before and I added new ones and we talked about his need for the only true and living God. But this time, we did not talk as long as I could see that he just needed to sleep as he was not listening to much of what I was saying as he kept nodding off during our conversation. So I propped him up against the wall and told him to go to sleep. Sarita got me thick sheet to put on him and for a little more than an hour and slept right there against the wall. He then stood up and handed me back my blanket and said goodbye to me and then headed off down the road again.
I have not seen Juan since yesterday, but more than likely I know what condition he is in at this very moment and I can probably guess what kind of condition he will be in when I see him next.
Please pray with me that the Lord will give me another opportunity to read the Holy Scriptures with Juan and that the eyes of Juan’s heart will be enlightened and he will see his need of a Savior.
Just thought I would let everyone know how it is going out here on the mission field.
Grace and Peace to you all,
Lance and Sarita
“But when He [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” Matthew 9:36-38
This is Juan and I on Sunday when he showed up after church.
And this is Juan and I having our conversation on Monday when he showed up in the same condition that he was in on Sunday.
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