CRM - Empowering Leaders

Stories of Life and Ministry

• Family Feud Holds Barrio San Pablito Captive
• Luis – More than a Running Partner
• Gonzalo Steps Out
• Jose, a demon-possessed man
• Elizabeth Steps Out
• Surprise Party

Family Feud Holds Barrio San Pablito Captive

Barrio San Pablito is the most notorious barrio in our area. When you meet street kids asking for bread or loose change, the assumption in people’s minds is that they come from San Pablito. The barrio’s infamy for crime and violence goes far beyond the actual facts.

Since July, 2002 Birgit, Lila, Steve and a supporting cast of three to six volunteers from our partnering local church, have made the steep and rather foreboding climb into San Pablito every Monday.

In December, 2004, a young man at church named José Ramon approached me after the service, saying in essence, “I’m very hungry to learn and grow. Can we get together?” José Ramon is from San Pablito. He was on drugs and lost his wife and daughter and nice home because his life was completely out of control. Maybe ten years ago he went into a Christian drug rehab program and got right with God. A few years later he backslid, eventually bringing another child into the world from another woman. About two years ago he got clean and started over again. He’s working a little bodega (neighborhood corner store) out of his mother’s home in San Pablito and trying to look after his two children.

In January we got together for a visit. On my second visit to José Ramon in San Pablito he took me to the rooftop of his mother’s home. We looked out across the hillside of redbrick homes (many of which are sophisticated shacks). “Do you see that yellow house over there?” There was only one house with any paint at all. “Yes, of course,” I replied. “That’s the home of the Lucero family…look over there, too.” He was pointing to the right. “That’s where the Viña family lives…I’m from the Sanchez family.” Now he was pointing to the cluster of homes in our immediate surroundings. “Since I was a little boy, our families have been feuding. They killed my uncle, my brother and a few others. Though I’ve never killed anyone, others from my family have – several of the Viña family, in fact.”

Since coming to this area, we knew that the community was neatly divided, though rather violently, by two rival gangs. Yet there it was in living color…from the horse’s mouth. The mysterious cycle of violence that has been terrorizing San Pablito for years was spelled out before me in the clearest of terms. The oft-referred to rival gangs of San Pablito…the line of demarcation that separates the two sides of San Pablito…the fear of crossing to the wrong side. It was crystal clear in that moment on the rooftop with José Ramon.

I immediately saw a vision…different pieces in the “kingdom puzzle” coming together in my mind’s eye. I could see a day coming when members from the Sanchez clan, the Lucero clan and the Viña clan stand together, publically and confidently, in the presence of pastors Simon, Dioscoro, Luis and Father Pablo (the leaders of the three churches that are working in San Pablito – two Protestant and one Catholic) to repent, forgive and seek reconciliation for the glory of God and the establishment of God’s kingdom in San Pablito.

This is not something that can be programmed. Nor is José Ramon at a point to seek this kind of God-thing in his community. Still, I cannot help but believe that God wants this kind of deep and genuine, community-transforming, reconciliation. Indeed, my rooftop experience felt much like one of those holy, whisper-in-your-ear moments that reminded me: I’ve heard your prayer.

What prayer? Just one week earlier I had penned the following in my prayer journal: “Show us the spiritual strongholds that keep San Pablito in its grip! Give us a clear line of action to take: That hearts might be released and free to receive your love and to shower that love on their community.”

Come, Lord Jesus, in the fullness of your kingdom!

– John Shorack, January 2005

Family Feud – Part Two

Last week I took Sue Lloyd, our InnerCHANGE director from the US, to visit my friend José Ramon in Barrio San Pablito. As you may recall, José Ramon is the one who took me up to his rooftop in San Pablito and pointed out the homes of three families (his included) that have been feuding very violently for years.

Standing there again, Sue asked more questions: What started the violence? That’s easy, José Ramon replied. It started when Nike shoes were introduced to the barrio. Then he quickly corrected himself. No, it was specifically when Air Jordan’s arrived. The Viña family killed my cousin for his shoes. We retaliated. It went back and forth. It started was I was 20 years old. I’m 33 years old now. If I made a list of my peers that have died because of this I’d have a solid list of 50 names. Only 10 from my generation are alive, and we’re marked men. Just 18 months ago they poisoned me with a drink. I should have died, but the Lord saved me.

Sue and I stood their stunned. A flood of emotions hit us as we sorted through José Ramon’s account of the violence in his community.

I shared with José Ramon that as a result of our earlier rooftop conversation I had approached three pastors to consider a collaborative action plan to seek reconciliation and healing in Barrio San Pablito. Though fearful, he was encouraged.

Please pray with us at this critical stage. I’m putting together a meeting with Pastor Luis Segovia (Light of the World Pentecostal church), Dioscoro and Simon (To God Be the Glory Methodist Pentecostal church) and Father Pablo (Catholic Resurrection parish) for a TUESDAY AFTERNOON, either May 17th or 24th. This is not an easy meeting to arrange. Pray the Lord makes the way through various obstacles, both logistical and spiritual, as this represents a significant breakthrough in a place of great darkness.

Yours for the kingdom of Barrio San Pablito,

John Shorack

Luis – More than a Running Partner

A couple weeks ago I finally went jogging with a man from our hillside named Luis Rodriquez. Luis is two years younger than me (that means he’s 43 years old). In his late teens and early 20s he was a professional boxer, traveling the world (to Indonesia, Thailand, Norway, Germany, Greece, USA, most Latin American countries and more). He sparred with Sugar Ray Leonard (USA gold medalist in 1976 Olympic Games) and shook hands with the golden boy from East LA, Oscar de la Hoya.

Luis is also a baker. From his very humble, hillside “rancho” (the word for squatter homes), he bakes and sells bread for his neighbors from two home-made ovens that he converted from refrigerators. His bread is very good and affordable. Luis takes pride in providing this service to his community (his barrio is the only one I know of that actually has a bakery within the community, virtually everywhere else requires taking a jeep to the business district at the foot of the hillside to buy fresh baked breads.)

For those of you who know running, Luis has run a 2:40 marathon. Not bad for a 40 year old. He goes for an 8 mile run every morning at 5:30am (parenthetically, not unlike his home-made ovens, Luis’ running shoes look like they were converted from sandals). If you saw his body, you’d know what I mean when I say to myself, “So this is what a professional athlete’s body looks like.” I listen with genuine respect when he tells me, “I played baseball, too, but only Class A because the opportunities didn’t exist back them. Otherwise, who knows, I might have played in the majors.” He’s the kind of guy who can say that with credibility. His body speaks for itself.

It was 5:30am, the jeeps were making their early morning runs up and down the hill. I got to the factory entrance to wait for Luis. Suddenly he emerged from the dark and we were off. As it turned out, I didn’t have anything to worry about. Luis wasn’t interested in our pace. He wanted to talk. And talk we did. For an hour and a half. He didn’t waste anytime. As soon as we hit the flats at the bottom of the hill he jumped right in: What do you think of our government? The question caught me off guard a bit. I made a few safe, moderately positive remarks about the president, affirming what he is trying to do, while not wanting to get caught up in the personality cult that follows the president. As we ran through the streets together, oblivious to the physical exertion, Luis began sharing his ideals with me. Here are two remarks he made that I will never forget (I translate them as accurately as possible.):

“I want to see a president of your country be the first one to step forward and eliminate his own weapons of mass destruction.”

He went on to tell me:

“As long as injustices like Saddam Hussein’s get treated by further injustices, like those that George W. Bush is doing in Iraq, then we will have a world of injustices. Because those in power who could do justice have no incentive to do what’s right, since they see that solving problems with injustice gets rewarded.”

This was no ordinary jog in the park, was it? And Luis is no ordinary guy. I affirmed his instincts. That is no small thing that you’re saying, I replied, praying for the Lord to give me wisdom. In fact, I continued, you understand something about the gospel that I am trying to teach the Pentecostal pastors. That got his attention.

“I have no respect for religion. I believe in humans. Religion,” he went on, “is full of bad people who do bad things and just hide behind religion.”

You know, Luis, your vision for a US president that chooses to lay down his weapons of mass destruction as the first step toward peace, is only possible because we have a God who already did that very thing. The God I worship is a God who humbled himself. He didn’t insist on Lording over people. Instead he laid down his power and showed us the way of love and forgiveness. 

Needless to say, I got a lot more from my morning jog than I bargained for. Somehow, I have to believe, that Luis got more than he bargained for, too.

- John Shorack, January 2005

Gonzalo Steps Out 

Another young believer has stepped out recently in a bold way. Gonzalo is a rural man who found his way into the city, without the city making its way into him. He is very quiet, reserved, not given to expressiveness or drama – which is very unlike the urbane, Caribbean Venezuelans that dominate the country’s cultural image.

After realizing that I was pushing Gonzalo too much to get out and minister alongside his more committed wife, I stepped back. For various reasons I didn’t have much contact with Gonzalo for a month’s time. Then one day, his wife Luisa came by our house: “We took a group of at-risk adolescent boys to the beach on Sunday”. That’s interesting, I thought to myself. “Where did that idea come from?” I asked her. Gonzalo. “Gonzalo?” I couldn’t hide my surprise and pleasure. “Yes. He came up with the idea and went after the boys to invite them. We took five of them, the really bad ones who are terrorizing the neighborhood with crime.”

God knows I needed this lesson for my own learning, that I can trust the Holy Spirit to inspire people and guide people in how they “love God and love their neighbor”. Instead of pointing people to my visions and plans for them, I am learning to point people to God.

Jose, A Demon-Possessed Man 

It’s not every day that I come upon a demon-possessed person. But this was one such day. My neighbor sent a child to find me: “Señor Juan, Blanca and Luis need your help, their nephew has a demon.” This was not part of the program. We were at day 4 of an eight-day missionary training event in the hillside slums of Caracas that our team calls home. Things were going quite well. It was 9:00pm and I was looking forward to relaxing with our Venezuelan missionary candidates at the end of a very stimulating day.

I took one of the Venezuelan sisters with me and went immediately to Blanca and Luis’ little one-room house that they build in the already tiny back patio of the house that my family rents from Luis’ grandmother. Alejandro, the Cuban doctor assigned to serve our community was just leaving as we arrived. He had determined that the 16 year old young man was not drunk. Since he was not sick either, there was nothing the doctor could do for him.

As soon as I walked in, I realized that first of all, Luis and his uncle Nestor fully expected me, the resident “man of God”, to be able to take care of the situation. I also realized with one look at the young man that I had never encountered a full blown case of demon possession like this.

The young man, José, had arrived the night before to visit Blanca and Luis. Without any warning José began violently shaking on the bed (which occupies half of the one-room house). He was frothing at the mouth, with his pupils turned upward and out of sight. At times he was calm and then suddenly he would be physically shaking about, visibly agitated.

Nestor and Luis were out of their minds – yelling at each other, yelling at José, frantically sitting on top of José doing everything within their physical strength to subdue him. They slapped him in the face, shook him, and literally threw themselves upon him to somehow, if possible, wake him up or calm him down.

In the name of Jesus, my teammate Steve and Viviana, the leader from the Venezuelan local church, were able to quiet the demon, for the demon had been controlling José voice. Then, with some effort, they got José’s attention. They invited him to exercise his will in an act of renouncing the demon and receiving Christ into his life. This he did. God’s peace reigned and the dark episode was over.

Elizabeth Steps Out

One year ago we started exploring scripture with Elizabeth and Tati, a family from whom one of our team members was renting an apartment. During a scripture reflection on John the Baptist’s message of repentance to the multitudes, Elizabeth spoke up and publicly identified with those who were repenting and following Christ.

Shortly after this, she asked if she could join our team in another barrio (one that she considers much needier than her own) where we do a kids club. Over the course of several months she came along, bringing her two boys, too. When the summer months were approaching she told us she wanted to do a kids club for the kids in her own part of the barrio.

It is very encouraging for us to see a young believer like Elizabeth that is so actively watching and learning and taking her own bold leadership steps. The six-week kids club in her neighborhood was a big hit. Between 20-30 kids came each Friday. Elizabeth led the bible story time each week and organized a small group of the neighborhood moms to help her with the organization of the event. She then had a time of sharing with the moms at the conclusion of each Friday’s club.

Surprise Party

Our teammate Lyndy informed my wife and I in no uncertain terms: Don’t schedule anything for Saturday evening. In fact, you can’t be in the team office from 3pm – 6pm on Saturday.

Indirectly, with a knowing smile on her fact, she was letting us know that something was cooking. But what? We love surprises.

Saturday rolled around and we willingly complied with Lyndy’s instructions. At 6:30pm we showed up at the team office. We opened the door: SURPRISE!!! A crowd of about 20 neighbors screamed and laughed as the lights came on. A night of gratitude and recognition for me and my family. This kind of event usually only happens when someone moves away, right? Not this time.

In actuality, we had moved away. The week before the surprise party, my family and I moved into another house in the barrio, just a short (but steep) walk away. Even so, the move meant a loss of spontaneous contact with dear friends that we’d made during the three years of renting in that part of the barrio.

Near the end of the party, the biggest surprise of all surfaced. Our teammate Lyndy had NOT planned the party. Elizabeth, our neighbor, planned it. It had been her idea. She invited the other neighbors (most of whom have participated in scripture groups with us). She organized the food and everything. She facilitated a little program for people to share a personal word of thanks and recognition for the Shorack family. Incredible! We were so encouraged.

When it was our chance to share, I shared a brief word from John 13 where Jesus did the completely unexpected thing in taking a servant’s role and washing his disciples feet. Then he called his disciples to make love the defining trait of their life together as a witness to the watching world. I told Elizabeth that she had done the completely unexpected thing in organizing the surprise party for us and that it’s this kind of love so dramatically lived that will point this whole community to the Lord. It was also a foretaste of the house churches that we hope will emerge.