But Now Am Found

God calls people to a personal relationship by getting involved in their lives. Here are a few excerpts of God either orchestrating and/or allowing circumstances to happen.

Salvatore

As I took my pack off, I visually surveyed the place. Salvatore’s home was less than modest by our standards. Picture a thatched roof hut with a wooden floor, on stilts. The sides of the house were wooden slats that you could see through and did not go all the way to the roof. The stairs up to the raised floor was a split log with pieces of perpendicular wood for steps rising probably ten feet to the inside, if you can call it inside. Below was a dirt floor space, under the raised floor, that they evidently used to cook with an open fire and hang out. The locals started up a conversation with Salvatore and we met with the thirteen children.

Soon, someone said it was time to move on. However, Cam and Jorge asked me to stay behind and continue the discussion we had the night before during the church service with Salvatore. I agreed. While the rest of the gang left for Cuchigro, I remained with my Spanish interpreter, Mary, and Juan, a local who spoke Nobe. I asked Salvatore if I could talk to him about last night’s discussion. He agreed. Remember how stone faced he was? Well, he seemed to be more at ease talking about Jesus. I believe the Holy Spirit was working on him all night. I started by explaining to him that there was a sin problem between us and a holy God. We can never be good enough for Him to let us into Heaven. God expects a perfect sinless life to enter into Heaven. We can never achieve that. There must be punishment for the bad things we had done. God loved us so much that He sent His one and only son to live a perfect life and take the punishment we deserved. That is why Jesus came to live a perfect life and to die on the cross. Then God raised Jesus again on the third day.

Rebecca

After a fight with her dad, one day, she moved in with her boyfriend.

After the wedding she attended high school for a while but was distracted by her husband’s desire to do things and go places with her that drew her away from studying. Late night gigs and partying with friends was a distraction and caused her to miss many days of school. While Rebecca made good grades, she had missed so many days that the principle would not allow her to graduate with the rest of her class.

Marriage was good for Rebecca because she found someone that loved her for who she was. The next eight years of her life were secular and good in her estimation. Rebecca and her husband continued to play in their rock-n-roll band. She was the lead singer and he was lead guitarist. While partially employed by performing, their existence was night club life, parties, heavy drinking at times, and drugs. Rebecca had rock star status and loved every minute of it.

Kim

It was the summer between Kim’s junior and senior year in high school when she and Frank went across the border to Cornelius, GA, to obtain a marriage license. Then, on the next Sunday, the two took another drive to Georgia and were married by Mr. Strahan, the local magistrate. Mr. Strahan officiated the wedding and his wife witnessed it. After the wedding, Frank brought Kim home to her house and he went back to his. That’s right; they were married but separately living with their respective parents.

One night Frank came home drunk and physically beat Kim. This was rock bottom for her. Her oldest daughter went and urged a neighbor lady to come check on her. Frank was sitting silently on the couch while the neighbor came and led Kim out to see a doctor. The doctor could see that she was very emotionally distraught. After treating her bruises, the doctor sent her home with medication to calm her down.

Wilson

Wednesday afternoon we had some time after our morning activities and I asked an interpreter and another local to go with me to find Mr. Wilson. Getting direction in a jungle village is an interesting discussion. Everyone knew where Mr. Wilson lived. The instructions were simple to the locals, but to us it was a finger point in the general direction to follow a foot path.

Appearing out of the jungle came a small man that has every appearance of much suffering. As he walks up to our group I see an older man, no ears, with scars on his face and a large healed scar on his left leg. After reintroducing ourselves, I asked him, “Mr. Wilson, I can tell you have suffered much. Would you mind telling me what happened to you?” He agreed to share.

Jake

Jake knew that he was on the wrong road. Satan played with his mind. Lies entered his mind telling him, he was not saved and raising questions like, “How can you be this way?” He thought, “Hell is not worse than this.”

At the end of his rope, Jake was in his shop with a new handgun. He shot the pistol a few times to test it and decided to clean the gun and plan his suicide. The next day would be it; he was going to kill himself. Jake convinced himself that he, Stacy, and the girls would be better off if he was dead. No more drug or alcohol addictions, no more playing church, no more double life. The more he thought and planned the better he felt about suicide. As he says, “I was cool with it and started to get excited about it.” For once in his life he would be free, he wrongly thought.