Guillermo and Pedro

It all started with God telling me to "be ready to recieve." He also went on to tell me "be ready to recieve bad news, but venture forth with good news." So, that left me with a shaky assurance that God was going to do something. The good thing is that I was assured that that bad news was not that my family wasn't in trouble or something worse. 

So, my team and I went to the Santo Tomas market to pray for the bars, and the marred gentlemen who reside there. We walked to a very shady and dark bar that said something in Spanish. The men in the club across from the bar spotted us as gringos, but were much more attentive to the women in our group, but that does not ever stop us from loving them and for being stirred to pray for them as image-bearers of our Creator. 

So, I took my seat and began to soak in my surroundings, I didn't know my surroundings would soak me in.

That's when I met Guillermo, a somber-looking man with alcohol on his breath and eyes that screamed of shame and well-needed redemption. He began talking to me very slowly in Spanish, telling me hello and asking if we were missionaries.

Wanting to get to the point, I asked to pray for him (not out of wanting to shoo him away like a stray dog, but to draw him into the hope that I had for him to bask in). Guillermo declined and sat me down. He went on to tell me he was once an Evangelical Christian.

That is when things got tricky, luckily my friend Grace helped translate our round-a-bout conversation.

Guillermo believes he is a fallen angel and knows that he is doing what the enemy wants him to do, and it's destroying him. My heart began to break for this man (this is very foreign to me, for I have never felt so strongly about the brokenness of God's children).

He also had severe comparison problems. Guillermo's family are Evangelicals as he used to be, and they get up every morning at 4 to pray for an hour, and I commend them for their devoutness and their hope that they hopefully do have for Guillermo's redemption.

I tell you this because even Jesus speaks to devils, demons, and the fallen. This man has a name. This man is not defined by his drink, shame, or destructive behavior; he is a child of God, that His Father is eagerly expecting him to come home, for he has squandered this world for far too long. He is a gentle creature that has been marred by the fall as all of us have.

But, we are redeemed to bring redemption songs to the lost. This man was lost, but he definitely found me. And by God's hand, I recieved him as a brother. I will probably never see him again, but I will remember that he is Guillermo, a poor man, with a weighed down heart, but a heart all the same.

After Guillermo left, Pedro made his entrance…

Staggering out of the bar, he made it known to us that he was a heavy drinker, but one open to prayer. Us as men prayed for him, and he quickly lead us to his shop. 

I got an unbelievable picture of what the kingdom looks like. It looks like us as Christians following some drunk guy, listening to him slur in Spanish, and knowing that only God knows where we are going. Jesus would have followed this man to his shop, Jesus would have been patient and okay with him yelling friendly drunken words at him too.

So, we got to Pedro's shop, and his wife was not too keen to see her husband drunk again. She was a hard woman, that had love in her heart, but distance in her soul. Pedro put a child-like loving arm around her, but she neglected it with a hint of solemn disgust. We prayed for his business, and were rewarded with watermelon.

I tell you about these two men, because they are men. They have names and society doesn't want them to speak out. They have become products of their environment and circumstances. But, that in no way, shape or form means that we turn a very Pharisee-like eye to them. 

James 2:1 says "My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." I don't care if the men we met were billionaires or poor street rats. They are to be held as the same, for our God doesn't mind our faults, in fact I would go as far that He loves our faults because they show that we are broken people to be fixed.

So, my friends, please pray for these men, pray for me to be so broken that all I know is what Jesus can do and what I cannot do. Pray for these men to hate the world, but love Jesus. Pray. Pray. Pray. I plead that with you my friends.

With Love,
Graham Snuggs