Since our “incident” with the Zetas (those fashionable guys who dress all in black), Kim has had a desire in the back of her mind which most people would consider absolutely crazy. God put on her heart the verse about loving your enemies (Matt. 5:44), and it inspired in her the desire to actually be able to lay hands on and pray for the Zetas. When God first gave her that desire, we couldn’t imagine any way in which it could possibly happen, but in His amazing way God has already made it come true.

The story has to do with a faithful woman from the Vineyard in Tierra Blanca called Lourdes. The problem was that her teenage son, Alfredo, was involved in small-time drug dealing there in the church neighborhood, as are many of the other gang members who hang out in Tierra Blanca. Now you remember that “los Zetas” is a military group associated with the Gulf coast drug mafia here. They want to dominate drug sales and have been working hard since they arrived to control the market in all the local neighborhoods. Their goal is to make sure that nobody sells drugs unless they agree to be affiliated with their particular ring. One day a truck full of the “Zetas” stopped Alfredo and informed him that he would now have to deal drugs in the Tierra Blanca area as part of their network or else they were going to kill him. Not having much choice in the matter, Alfredo consented to do ‘business’ under their direction and to meet them the following day at 9:00 p.m. When he told his mother, Lourdes, who actually lives two doors down from the church and is an increasingly faithful attender, she actually had a nervous breakdown and was taken to the emergency room for a few hours prior to her son’s departure for his ‘appointment’ that evening with the Zeta.

But Lourdes did not stay down for long. Even though her son had gone off to work with a militant terrorist group that evening with no hope or promise of return, she sought refuge in God and was the first person seated for the Wednesday night service the next day. There, we were able to pray with her and give her words of hope and encouragement, and during the ministry time we could see that God worked powerfully in her. He reminded her of a promise He had spoken to her recently, responding to years of heartfelt prayer on her part, that her family would come to Christ, but that they would first have to pass through a valley, and she took hope and comfort in knowing that her crisis situation was probably something God had allowed to happen as part of His divine plan to change her family. We (Larry and Kim) actually offered to spend the night with her that night, and she accepted, since it was her second night without Alfredo and her other son was away on an out-of-town visit. That night we were able to talk with her over dinner, and also with some other members of her family. Then we lied down to sleep, but not before seeing Lourdes sit down to read her Bible for a few minutes by her bedside.

The next morning, we offered to pray for Lourdes again before she went to work, since she was extremely tired, but did not feel she had the luxury of missing another day at the factory where she faithfully labors to support her family. So we sat her down on the bed and began to pray for her to receive strength for her first day back even after the tragedy of the day before. We could see that God was working powerfully once again in her during that prayer time, and so we wound up praying for about half an hour, but the most incredible thing of all was that the very instant she opened her eyes after the prayer we heard someone come through the door and suddenly there was Alfredo, standing right in front of her!

As for Larry and I, we could not believe how immediately God had answered our prayers, and we just stood there in utter shock, sort of feeling like we were imposing as we watched the two of them caught up in an embrace. Lourdes was crying like a baby, since it had been 36 hours since she had last seen her son and she’d had no idea when she was ever going to see him again. After a few minutes of hugging, Alfredo began to explain to his mom that he was going to be coming home days and only working for the Zetas at night. He tried to assure Lourdes that nothing would happen to her or to him as long as he complied with his responsabilities. At this point Larry and I entered back on to the scene, trying to encourage Alfredo to seek God and not to lose hope but to pray that God would provide him with a way out of this dangerous and seemingly hopeless situation. Alfredo said virtually nothing to us the whole time long, because of course he feels like there is no way out for him now and in fact it would technically be risking his life for him to even talk about betraying the Zetas with anybody. But he did consent for us to pray for him in accordance with his mother’s wishes, and when we did so saw the tears begin to flow from his eyes - for just a moment, that is, before he hardened himself once again.

…So our story, though touching, will have to end for now in a prayer request and be continued at some time in the future, whenever God moves powerfully once more, because for now Alfredo is staying home days and working very long nights with the Zetas. He has no human hope of ever getting out of this mafia alive, and probably can’t think about anything other than surviving and keeping his wife and son and the rest of his family from being hurt. But WE know God is big, and that He is bigger than our ‘earthly’ hopes. We know that He answers prayer - He has answered Kim’s prayers (that she would be able to pray for one of the Zetas) and the church’s prayers (for protection over Alfredo and that Lourdes would see him alive and well) and has promised that this whole situation is a part of his answer to Lourdes’s prayers for her family to come to Christ. So we ask YOU to pray with us - for Lourdes, for Alfredo, for his wife (Karla) and two year old son (Carlos). Pray also for the church, which is getting the attention of the neighborhood now that things are happening which truly drive people to seek God. May God move powerfully, may His Kingdom advance against the enemy, and may He be glorified as He deserves!

Here are a few photos:

On the days following this incident with Alfredo, the Vineyard in Tierra Blanca did a series of “peace marches” through the neighborhood to give hope to the community and to encourage them to seek God. As part of that they put up small posters with Bible verses throughout the neighborhood. Here Lourdes (on the right) and Lela are putting up one of the posters.

Each evening after the “peace march” they gathered at Lourdes’ house to worship and pray.

Click on the photos to see them larger at flickr!

Nina was like so many of the women we see here - broken, scarred, and all but undone from the injustices that many Mexican women continue to suffer.

She began attending church regularly about six months ago, invited by her family, namely her brothers, since she is the only sister of the now-familiar “Rivas” brothers (Fili, Beto, Juan and Cheche). Like her brothers, Nina became involved very quickly in the body of the church, with frequent comments that she had never before experienced anything like the love of God, and showing deep gratitude for the new meaning He’d brought to her life. She began serving in the kitchen at one of our children’s feeding programs and even acting as an encourager for other members of the church.

But even in all of Nina’s enthusiasm as she drew closer to God there continued to remain a huge dark spot on her horizon: Her violent, alcoholic and drug-addict husband.

Having married at the age of fifteen, Nina had been suffering in her marriage for about 20 years. On one occasion she even confessed to us that the only reason she did not leave “Tavo” (short for “Gustavo”) was because he had threatened that he would find her and kill her if she did so.

Certainly, the evidence of Tavo’s tyranny on Nina’s life was strong, since she could only attend church meetings in secret, and lived with constant fear in her eyes of getting home late and being discovered by him. Even when Nina would take refuge in her parent’s house to avoid Tavo’s violent reactions it was not uncommon for Tavo to stand outside the house, throwing things, or screaming obscenities and then trying to break down the door.

But even though Nina endured so much mistreatment from her husband it was not the only abuse that she received. As if matters could be any worse, she and Tavo were not living alone, but with his family - with his mother and father and brothers, who tended to order Nina around, paying no attention to her suffering and even defending Tavo in his actions. Even Nina’s own family would reject and criticize her at times for not deciding to leave Tavo. When we suggested going to visit Tavo and talk to him, we were met with comments on all sides that it would be “dangerous” to provoke him or risk making him mad about anything.

Nina, however, continued to remain undaunted about one thing: She knew that she had found something, and that that something was the true God. She knew that in Him was real meaning, even in suffering. So, even though we feel sure that she had seen the opportunity at various times to just get out and leave her husband even in spite of his threats, Nina chose to do something else. She chose to begin to talk to Tavo’s family about God.

The first one who listened to her was Tavo’s sister, “Perla,” who actually surprised everybody by starting to come to church! Then Nina began working on her mother-in-law, whom she had been trying to convince for several years to support her in having Tavo sent to a drug and alcohol recovery center, but this time the hard-hearted woman saw something different in Nina, since she was talking to her about a Christian recovery home, and by a miracle of God she agreed. Thus Tavo was sent to a Christian recovery center, but even this was only somewhat encouraging, since he was taken against his will (after throwing the television set and various other things across the living room).

But Nina remained firm in her convictions, and she and Perla started sharing with Perla’s husband, “Chino,” who had left Perla and was on the point of filing for divorce. And of course there were many other members of Tavo’s family whose lives were literally on the point of disaster.

So to make a long story short, just when we had resigned ourselves to the fact that even with the changes that were taking place in Tavo’s family there was nothing we ourselves could really do but pray, we got a phone call from Beto, which can roughly be translated like this: “Hey! You guys gotta get over here! Quick! Nina’s mother-in-law and Perla’s husband want us to do a home group session in their house tonight! They’re both asking for prayer!!”

Now: To this day, we still can’t figure out exactly what had happened there, or what exactly the events were that lead up to that phone call. The only thing we do know is that instead of scratching our heads and trying to figure it all out we just hopped in the car and started off to Nina’s house, (with a bit of fear since we had been warned “not” to go there,) but where we were met with a room full of Tavo’s family - all of whom received salvation, a powerful touch from the Spirit, and deliverance from demonic influences by the time that night was over!

“What?! Could you explain that last part, please?”

No, not really. It’s what you call a “God thing.”

And there’s more. For those of you who are still left wondering about Tavo, we’ll tell you about him in our next article. (Ha! ) For now, we’ll just remind you to praise God with us for His goodness, because, as we’ve demonstrated here, we certainly don’t understand or try to take any credit for the things that God’s doing here!

To close we’ll say that we’ve now been having home group in Nina’s house for more than a month, but only just the other night we saw something in her eyes that we hadn’t seen before - Instead of the fear that we had all gotten used to, we saw… hope. For the first time. And that is perhaps the greatest miracle of all… To see hope, in even Nina’s eyes, the kind of hope that only God can give.