Rehabilitation and Renewal

I'm gonna take a break from sharing about our students to give you an update on a young man named Alex.  Many of you have probably read about him in previous blog postings and some of you have most likely met him if you've spent some time down here in San Carlos with me.  I've shared over the past years a little about his history and testimony (which you can read about here), how he has been on his own since the age of 12.  After traveling around in a traveling circus for a number of years, he found his way into a Christian home, being taken in by a pastor couple and came to know the Lord.  However, he has battled many things in his life, among those the pull of a lifestyle of drugs.  Last year I shared how he had falled back into that lifestyle and to be honest, that's been a common theme in his life.  He'd just hang in there, coming clean for a bit, and then go back to his old "friends" and back into that lifestyle.  It seemed that he would say he wanted to change but in reality he never seemed to truly want to make that decision and turn his life around.  I remember having conversations with him about all of this but he never seem to be able to or willing to break out of that cycle. In fact, things seems to slowly get worse and I've really seen very little of him over the past number of months as he's isolated himself having been caught up more and more in that lifestyle.

This all began to change just over a week ago and as Alex shared with me yesterday, he started to realize the depths to which he had fallen.  He shared with me how one high was only leading to another and he had this sense that someone was coming after him, following him and he was living in fear.  He came to that point where he knew he needed to change and called up another good friend of mine (Juan Carlos).  They went to check out a local Christian drug rehabilitation center, my friend with the intention of leaving him there and Alex with the intention of just checking it out.  As they were there and talking with the director, he put the choice before Alex: "Are you going walk through those doors and make a choice to change your life or will you let the devil continue to have this foothold in your life?  My friend was afraid that he would turn and run but there on the spot Alex made the choice to stay.

Yesterday marked the 8th day of his time at the center and I have to say that I hardly recognized Alex!  I saw a sincerity and a brokeness in his life that I have never seen before!  He wept as he expressed sorrow for the ways he had treated so many people in the past, people who had only tried to help him.  He had actually been a student for a short while at the school I'm now at, four years ago, but for various reasons it had not worked out and Alex ended up leaving because he just wasn't showing any signs of truly wanting to grow or change at the time.  He expressed regret and sorrow for the way he had treated the staff at the school who had been their to encourage him and see him grow spiritually.  We had a very encouraging time and I was blown away to see how deeply God had touched his heart and truly changed him.  I've seen him making changes in his life in the past, only to turn back and fall back into the old lifestyle.  But this was one of those times where I truly believe that he will never go back.  I really believe that God has some huge plans in store for his life as he continues to surrender to Him.

That's not the only huge encouragement and blessing from yesterday.  I went to the rehabilitation center with several other guys, two of whom some of you may know as well.  There are two guys from Empalme, from the church that Pastor Omar and Cristina used to pastor.  One is a younger guy, father of a couple of children, and the other is a bit older with a family of his own.  These guys too had been involved in a lifestyle of drugs, something so common especially in that community in Empalme.  But they came to know the Lord and had left that behind.  However they too had fallen back into that lifestyle and for a number of years were really struggling, no longer going to church.  The younger guy had once been heavily involved in the youth program and in leading worship as well but he had left all of that behind and returned to drugs.   Their names are Rojo and Guadalupe; some of you might remember them from time spent down here.  God has done an amazing work in these guys as well, let me tell you!  They came to the rehabilitation center with us yesterday to share their testimonies and to encourage those who were in the center.  It was so awesome to see them minister in prayer and boldly sharing what God has done in their lives.

It's awesome to see what God does through people who have truly given their lives to the Lord!  It's too bad that for many of us it seems to take this rock bottom experience to truly get our attention but whatever the method God needs to use, He seems to do what He can to get us to truly turn our focus on Him.  And what a blessing when we do!  I know that many of you have offered up prayers for these young men, perhaps it's been a while since you've last done so but how about we offer up a prayer of thanksgiving together for God's powerful and gracious work that He's done in the lives of these men and in each one of our lives!  Amen!