Another one for the Kingdom!

Andrés gave his life to Christ tonight.

At nights I haven’t been sleeping well , so I crave my seista time in the afternoon. Well, I haven’t been resting well during those, either. Am I getting old, or what? Moving right along...

Andrés woke me up from a light sleep this afternoon, asking me if he could have some skittles. I told him no, mostly because I was so upset that he had awakened me. Soon after I got up and found him in the kitchen snacking on…you guessed it, skittles. So down the hall to his bedroom we headed.

After a quite stern talking and a lot of tears, he told me, “I deserve to die.” Lately that’s been a theme in his talk, and I don’t like it. He talks about wishing he was dead or that he deserves to die, how terrible of a person he is. So today I told him that, yes, he does because he is a sinner (didn’t quite say it as bluntly as that…yeah, kid, you’re horrible, you do deserve to die!), but that God provided a way for him to live forever.

He said that he was scared, that if he asked Jesus into his heart, that he would leave him. So I explained that God would never leave his children, that he was eager and wanting to live with Andrés and that would make him God’s child forever. I also tried another tactic, that what we’re asking is that when we die, that we will go and live with God forever, in heaven, rather than be separated from God forever. He understood that concept better.

We talked about what it means to be a sinner, why we’re born into sin, and what God did so that we can be forgiven from our sins and live with him in heaven. I asked him if he wanted to pray and he said yes, that he would repeat my words. I asked him what he wanted me to say, but he began praying himself.

“Dear God, please forgive me of my sins.”
(me) What did he provide for you?
“Thank you that Jesus died for my sins.”
(me) And what do you want him to do for you?
“I don’t want to sin anymore.”
(me) What about living with him?
“I want to live with you forever. Amen.”

He was sincere, and happy afterwards. It was a wonderful experience to have the privilege to pray with him, to explain to him what it’s all about, and know that he is a believer. Awana has made such a difference this year, memorizing the verses and listening to the messages.