They Will Kill You!

What would you have done?
“They will kill you!!!”

This is a true story…

I was pastoring a Venezuelan church in the State of Delta Amacuro. It was 1993. Tough place, hard life…

The town was called Volcan, not far from Tucupita. It was at the end of the road. If you wanted to go further into the Delta, you would have to take a boat. One of our neighbors had small house about ten minutes down the river… He lived in town and they were nice people. When the German tourists would come in a bus, they would go down the river to his “River House”. He would strip his teenage daughters naked with some native trinkets tied around their waists and in their hair… The tourists would pay about $20 apiece to take pictures with the girls… It was that kind of place.

The first Sunday I preached there, I had a couple of topless native girls sitting in the front pew… Quite a distraction considering that it was my first try at preaching in Spanish!!!!

But it was a going church… nice building. We ran perhaps thirty on a good Sunday. The Gospel was being preached.

One day a man came to my door and asked me to come to his house and pray for a young man who was dying. I said yes, but when I told a couple of men from the church, they panicked. “If you go there and he dies, they will kill you!!!”

The house was a mansion (by local standards) and it belonged to a drug cartel. I was informed that the people who lived there were killers and they were armed to the teeth…

Somehow, I had no fear and I believed that God would have me go. When I got there, they let me in with a somber and heavy mood that was almost contagious.

Every table in the house was covered with guns and ammunition… from pistols to sub machineguns. There were a good number of AK47s on display… a bit unnerving to say the least!

They took me to a back room where a young man, likely in his twenties, lay dying. They had him dressed for his funeral. He made eye contact with me but could not speak. I prayed for him, asked him to give his life to Jesus and suggested what he might say to God at that point.

Long story short, he died and they did not kill me…

But my question is: What would you have done? Would you have gone or would you have stayed in the church and prayed for the rapture?

And yes, you can ask my wife… this is a true story.

PRAY-THINK-PRAY
And understand that Jesus said that they will turn you over to be killed….

David…