A Mexican Drug Dealer? Most Wouldn’t Expect This Surprising Outcome…
Kathy and I had no idea in 2005 that God would use us to change a man and his family in Mazatlan, Mexico. We flew to this beautiful seaside city on the Pacific side of Mexico in July of 2005, looking forward to a week of rest and fun as we thanked God for our first year of marriage.
Early in the week, I was sitting under a cabana on the beach reading my Bible when a young Mexican man approached me.
He asked me what I was reading and we began talking about the Word of God. He told me he had just attended church that past Sunday and was seeking to get his life right with God. Drugs and immorality had characterized his life and left him empty. He knew he needed Christ in his life.
That week, Kathy and I met with him on three occasions and on another occasion took his family out to dinner. Our relationship became very deep, very quick. Even after we left, we stayed in touch and marveled as he found a local church, was baptized, and began witnessing to friends and family members. Over the next two years he and his wife grew in Christ and then he felt compelled to be a pastor.
He attended All Nations Seminary in Juarez, Mexico where they lived for three years during the height of the violence in that city. Many times as he would drive to church in the city on a Sunday with his wife and children, he would tell them to close their eyes so they would not see dead bodies on the road. On another occasion the drug violence was headed in the direction of the seminary when the President gathered all the students in the chapel to pray. They prayed until 3:30am. No one ever set foot on seminary grounds to harm anyone. God protected the seminary and Antonio graduated from his class with highest honors.
After graduation, Jesus Antonio returned to his home church in Mazatlan, Mexico. He was officially ordained as a pastor. Now, instead of delivering drugs, he delivers the Word of God!
