Benny's Story

Last week I was able to take in a little bit of a change of pace and scenery.  I spent Monday to Friday in a small town called Arizpe, about four hours northeast from San Carlos, heading up into the mountains where the mission that I'm with has several church plants.  Recently, the pastor couple in charge at that particular church plant had resigned and I went up there to take care of some maintenance at the facilities there.

Arizpe, being up in the mountains, is at a higher elevation, a little under 3000 feet.  They tend to receive more rainfall there than we do here and as a result it was wonderfully green and lush as you can see in the picture below.  A nice change from the relatively dry and dusty San Carlos!

The town of Arizpe

I went up with Benny, a student from two years ago whom I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the course of the past year.  He's a few years older than I am, in his mid 30's, but in comparison to what I've gone through in my life, he's got quite a story to tell!  For much of his life he was involved with the drug cartels in Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora and was actually an assassin for hire.  For years he lived this lifestyle, controlling the drug trade in his particular community, and "taking care" of those whom the higher-ups told him to take care of.  This lifestyle eventually landed him in jail and it was there that he found the Lord, and his life was completely changed.  He shared how along the way, God kept putting people in his path, sharing the Gospel with him, telling him that Jesus loved him. He also shared how his mother was constantly praying for him for years and believed that one day he would come to know the Lord.  And it happened one day as he was in jail serving out his sentence.  He cried out to the Lord and promised that if He would get him out of jail, he would serve the Lord for the rest of his life.

It actually happened, not long after that, that a judge whom he knew came by the prison where he was at and noticed him there.  She asked him what he was doing there and before she left, she told him that she would get the paperwork in order to get him released.  To his surprise it wasn't long after that that everything was in fact arranged for his release and he walked out a free man; God had miraculously set him free and he has indeed never been the same since!

Benny has such a desire to serve the Lord in whatever way he can and it is contagious being around him!  It's refreshing to hear his perspective of things, as someone who didn't grow up "in the church".  He has such a simple yet passionate grasp of what the Gospel message is and his desire more than anything is to share that with everyone around him.  As someone who has grown up in the church, I find that sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in "playing church" if you know what I mean.  We can get stuck in the ruts of rules and traditions, sometimes simply going through the motions, that we forget how simple the Gospel is and how powerfully transforming and life-changing it ought to be, not only in us, but in the people around us!  Instead of getting caught up in worship styles, we ought to be caught up in worship of the Creator Himself!  Instead of worrying about programs and activities, we ought to be caught up in the needs and concerns of our neighbours, both physical and especially spiritual!

Having come from a life of drugs, his particular passion is to reach those who are caught up in drug and alcohol addictions.  His dream is to open a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and he is praying for the opportunity to do so and more specifically, a place to use.

Currently, Benny has been given the opportunity to work in several of the prisons in Hermosillo, doing Bible studies several days a week with the inmates.  He's also been doing some sharing at an existing rehabilitation center.  You can keep him in your prayers, that God would provide a place for him to be able to open his own rehabilitation center.

It's always an encouragement to see how God can and does work so powerfully in our lives.  And it's so important to share this with others, isn't it?  Psalm 96:3 says,

Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

God bless and I hope Benny's story has been an encouragement to you!

Enlarged by Thee

"The house of my soul is too narrow for Thee to come into me; let it be enlarged by Thee." 

Words written by Augustine somewhere around the year 400 and for whatever reason they struck me this evening as I was reading them. Over the past couple of weeks I've been helping out at the San Carlos Community Church as we are in a time of transition, looking for a new pastor. It's fallen on a few of us who remain for the summer months to cover things like preaching, worship, etc. The last couple of Sundays were "my turn" to preach and I've been speaking from Paul's verses in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

"16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 

What started out as a passage for one message in early July ended up becoming several messages...and there's still more to talk about! A look at Paul's life and his words is always a humbling one, considering he was probably one of the greatest missionaries/church planters of all time. It's not even so much all that God accomplished through him that is so incredible, though this is quite something to think about as well! It's also the way in which he lived his life, in complete surrender to Jesus, no matter what it cost him. He so lived this attitude out that he seemed to have little use for this life itself other than to do what he could to "take as many people with him" to eternity as possible.

And so this particular passage seems to capture a sense of his viewpoint, living not for this life here and now but living for what's coming. It's pretty humbling to think about, especially knowing how easy it is to get caught up in this life and living as though this life is all I've got. I kind of agree with Augustine when he says, "The house of my soul is too narrow for Thee to come into me; let it be enlarged by Thee." Let my heart, mind, all that I am, be enlarged to somehow be able to capture or contain more of this amazing and awesome God that loves us so deeply!

Newsletter July 2013

Greetings to all!  Instead of a regular blog posting I've put together a more indepth update to let you know what's going on these days.  Click here or on the image below to view my latest update online. God bless!