At the right is a picture of Ale, one of my translators, and Jorge, who accepted Christ while I was in Paraguay. Jorge taught me how bad I am at reading situations. On the first day that we were out doing evangelism, I (along with Rebe - another translator - and David) sat down with Andrea and her young son. It was almost the end of the day, and Andrea was sitting in front of one of the local stores. We weren’t sure whether we should talk to her or not, but David encouraged us to go ahead and talk with her.

Shortly after we got started, Jorge walked up and sat down. It was clear that he was with Andrea, and it seemed to me that he was coming to check out who was talking to her. We later learned that Jorge and Andrea are brother and sister, and that Jorge runs the store. As we presented the Gospel, I got the feeling that neither Jorge or Andrea were particularly engaged in the presentation. When they both prayed to accept Christ, I figured that they were being polite, or trying to get rid of us. They did make an appointment to meet with us the next day, but still didn’t seem excited.

The next day, we were late to meet with them. Very late. When we arrived at the store, Jorge was watching a soccer (futbol) game with several friends. I was sure that he would not want us to sit down then. Through Ale, who was translating for me that day, I apologized for being late, and offered to come back when it was more convenient. To my surprise, Jorge turned the volume off on the TV and pulled up a couple of chairs. We sat down and Ale did the discipleship study.

One of Jorge’s friends left fairly quickly, but the other two hung around. They alternated between watching the game, looking over Jorge’s shoulder as Ale talked through the Bible study, and looking at the Evangecube in my hands. (More on the evangecube in a future post.) When Ale and Jorge finished the study, I asked whether the friends wanted me to explain the evangecube, and we presented the Gospel to the two of them.

The next two days, we went back to do other discipleship lessons with Jorge. Each time, he was more engaged in studying what the Bible taught. By the end of the week, Ale and I agreed that he was one of the two people who we talked to who really seemed to understand the message of grace.

On the last night that we were in the barrio, Jorge had his wife watch the store so that he could come to most of the evening’s service. Ale and I wound up talking to Jorge in the back of the audience. He told us about his life, how he had previously used drugs and committed robbery, how he had straightened out his life after he had a son, and how thankful he was that we had come into the neighborhood, not asking for anything, but sharing a message of grace and forgiveness.

In the end, I clearly misread Jorge’s interest in the Gospel, and God changed a life and put a new Christian at a strategic location in that neighborhood. By the way, on the last night, one of the other team members was able to share the Gospel with Jorge’s wife and witness as she accepted Christ.