Dear friends in the Homeland:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col. 1:13
I am so reminded of how great is the grace and mercy of our Lord each time I work with my secretary Sister Fatima. Many of you have heard me tell her story how she came from a dark sinful world...a world of drugs (her husband a type drug lord) a bandit to say the least. A woman that both a slave to man and to sin. I cannot ever tell some of the “dark” things she was involved in mostly by force but never the less entangled in a web that seemed impossible to break free.
A chain smoker, a nervous wreck raising her little son in almost a literal hell where there seemed no place and no way to ever be free. Often a fugitive, on the run from the federal police and on and on ....until the day her daughter and my son brought her to our home. She was broken by sin yet bound by it. Chained to a past that would always come back to haunt her.... the eyes of a trapped animal and a nervous wreck!
How can I describe the sadness, hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness. She displayed?
Escaping the dark world of sin can be very difficult. Fatima was deep into that world.
My heart ached for her and her little son. He was just 8 years old with no promising future except following his dad’s footsteps into a dark evil drug-dealing world.
Yes, of course I told my daughter in law she can stay here. We will feed her and her son and take care of her.
In time I saw hardness become sensitive to the spirit of God. I saw uncertainty become certain and weakness become strength. Slowly she was changing. No longer did she tremble when someone came to the door. As time passed I gave her little jobs to do and noticed that the cold hard look in eyes was no longer evident.
The day came when she stood in the presence of God and repented of her sins and asked to be baptized. I wept for joy. Only God could make a change like that.
It was not long until she was talking in other tongues and her life was changed forever. The chains of her past were broken and forgiven by the Creator. She was a new creature.
It has been 12 years now…Her son has grown up in our church. Both are trophies of the mercy of our Lord. Her son could have been in the world of drugs and the “fast lane”. However each church service he plays his guitar and testifies he is so thankful that God saved him and his mother from a horrible destiny.
Yes he could have had LOTS of money and all he would want but he could have never had the happiness he feels here.
He calls me his grandmother. He sat down and told me the other day if he would have went to live with his dad he could have had anything money could buy but never a real home and real love like he feels here. We are his family!
As we were talking, I asked him was there anything he really wanted and he said, you know I dream of having a Fender or Gibson guitar. Last night as I was praying I thought, maybe someone in the states has a Fender or Gibson that they would like to donate to him or maybe someone would feel to buy him one. He would never ask his real father for one since he wants nothing to do with the world his father lives in. His father could probably buy him the Fender factory! However I respect his desire to have nothing not even a gift from that dark world.
If perchance you would like to help Kelvin fulfill a dream to have a nice guitar…. you may do so by depositing in my PayPal
janalvear@AOL.com or by sending to South American Foreign Missions, PO Box 797, Jonesville, La. 71343. Please let me know you are sending or if you have a guitar to give him please send me an e mail at
Janalvear@aol.com…
May God bless each one of you all is my sincere prayer and hearts desire.
Sister Janice Alvear
Hybrid Mode
