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By Albert Zaragoza as told to Lisa Elliott
Why would anyone leave a happy, comfortable home for an evil life on the streets? The answer to such a foolish choice can be summed up in one word: REBELLION.
I was born into a middle-class working family in Spain. There was unity, love, affection and good communication in our family. Like the majority of Spanish people, we held to religious beliefs, but did not attend church. However, my parents were always good examples for us to follow. They sacrificed in order to give us the best to meet our needs. We were not educated in biblical teaching, but we were given a good education in private schools and were encouraged to study and to attend the university.
From the time I was a small child, I always wanted to do the opposite of what my parents told me to do. I was attracted by that which was not permitted. When I became a teenager, everything that was prohibited and everything that society condemned attracted me more and more. I saw my father as a dictator who was there only to tell me what I was not allowed to do. I didn't see that he was really looking out for my good. Eventually I looked on my father as my enemy.
At age 16, I decided to quit school. I found a job and I began to make a life for myself. I learned the painting trade and in just a few years, I prospered. However, at this time I began to try different kinds of drugs. When I tried heroin I thought, This is it! This is what I have been searching for.
After a time, the heroin was no longer something that was fun or attractive. It became a physical necessity; it became the center of my life. This need for a continual "fix" drove me to do things that I never thought of doing. I began to lie, cheat and rob. All this evil just so I could feel well, without pain, and so I could function somewhat normally.
While I was addicted to drugs and on the street, two people came and talked to me about God. Although I had been educated in a religious school, my idea of God was the church. I knew there were priests and nuns and a building of stone where people went Sunday mornings and where they were married. No one had ever explained to me what God had done in sending Jesus to die for us so that each human being could have a personal relationship with Him. Had I not been so rebellious, I could have heard the Good News before I tried drugs.
I recall one young man who came to the gym where I was learning karate. He was a believer in Christ and passed out tracts and tried to evangelize us. I thought he was crazy. I remember him taking me by the arm one day and saying, "Alberto, God has a plan for your life. You don't realize it right now, but one day you will understand."
While I was living on the streets, a Swiss couple were passing out the devotional calendar, Daily Bread. The man stopped, put his hand on my head and prayed in a spiritual language. Even though I didn't know them or share their beliefs, I stood silently out of respect to them. I was touched that he put his hand on my head and prayed for me.
Later a young woman witnessed to me. I went to a pharmacy to buy needles to inject myself with heroin. She got the needles, but just before she handed them to me, she pulled them back. She said, "Look, I know that I can't do anything right now to prevent you from taking drugs, but I want you to know there is a God Who is alive. There is something more than what we were taught as children. God is waiting for you to come to the point of making your own decision to change." To me it was just another conversation; I didn't think about it again.
My family, too, wanted to help me, even though they shut me out of the house when I began my journey into drugs. I went to them several times saying I wanted help to get off drugs. I tried several secular centers that used substances like methadone to wean addicts. I was helped only for a time because I didn't have a total commitment to leave drugs. The treatments were not solutions; the problems in my heart and mind were not treated. I kept going back into drugs.
At this time a friend of my mother's, a nun, influenced me a lot. She was committed to helping others 24 hours a day. She was someone in whom I saw the power and hand of God. She, along with my family, offered me an opportunity to go to a Christian center in another town. When she explained the rules to me, I quickly rejected her offer. That center was just too strict for me. I was never under this kind of regimen, so I decided that place wasn't for me. One of my excuses was that the center would not allow you to smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day!
Just 20 days later, I decided to enter another center, BETEL. The rules there were even stricter! It too was a Christian center and I was required to attend the meetings and worship services. The people at the center talked to me about God all the time. I respected them, but I did not respond. My plan was to get off drugs and continue with my life in a secular way. But at an annual retreat, God touched me and changed my life completely.
The speaker at the conference was a Mexican brother who served in Japan. Even though I had attended many services at BETEL for seven months, I sensed something special about this man. He preached that night on the prodigal son as recorded in Luke chapter 15. The prodigal had taken his share of his father's inheritance and had gone off to a far country. There he wasted his wealth in wild living. After a time a severe famine came upon the land and he was destitute. He found work feeding a local man's pigs and longed to fill his own stomach with the pig's food. There among the animals he came to his senses and remembered that his father's servants had plenty to eat and here he was, a son, starving to death. He decided he would go to his father and say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants" (Lk.15:18b-19).
But when the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son began to tell his father how unworthy he was, but the father turned to the servants and said, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found" (vs 22-24).
The preacher continued, "The only thing that is going to bring us to salvation is repentance and a total surrender to God the Father, recognizing our sins and our sinful nature before Him." Then he asked if anyone wanted to receive this salvation. I joined those who went forward for prayer. I wasn't much of a believer, but I prayed, "Lord, I don't know how far You can reach, but if all that I am hearing is true, then I want it to be real in my life. I want to be part of your people and someday be able to share in the blessings that You have for each person." After the he prayed for us, we were returning to our seats when he called us back and said, "Wait. I have a special word for you that God just gave me." He added, ŒThe Lord says, ŒI will make you fishers of men.' "
That service was the best one I had ever attended. It impacted my life and still encourages me to go forward with the Lord everyday.
Little by little, I began accepting correction from the BETEL staff and making the changes I needed to make. It was very difficult at first because I had never accepted correction and was rebellious at heart. One day I realized that these people were giving up their lives for me and I felt a special love for them. I thought such people couldn't be giving me bad advice. Through God and the pastors who were around me, I was able to change in every area of my life that needed changing and rejected other areas that needed to be rejected.
After I finished the program at BETEL, I had to make a choice of what to do with my life. I could return to my home and live a normal life of a rehabilitated person and become part of a local church or I could continue at BETEL. I decided that I could help other drug addicts because of my experience, and so I decided to join BETEL as a staff member.
After a while I felt the desire to work at a BETEL center in another country. The Lord opened the door for me to work in BETEL, New York City. I am now the leader in the men's home. It is a difficult life and often there is much opposition. I am living in a city that has one of the highest crime rates. Many of the neighborhoods we visit are dangerous places. But God always protects us; He promises to always be with us.
As I look back on my life, I see how the Lord protected me even while I was on drugs. I recall jumping out of a third floor window in an attempted robbery. Nothing happened to me except I was a little sore. Another time I traveled with some friends. Our group went in two cars. I went with first car and came back in the second one. The first car had an accident and all the passengers were killed. If I hadn't changed vehicles I would have died. Thank God He spared my life. He also kept me from being infected with HIV.
We all want a life of freedom. We think freedom is to live doing what we want‹when we want to. I can say that the only place I have found freedom is in God through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can break the bondages of sin that chain us. Through Jesus, I have found everything I need. He is the only one who has given me true peace and filled my heart with His love. He says, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6).
Had I listened the first time someone spoke to me about God, I would have avoided a life of suffering and evil. But thank God He reached me. Now I can help other people get out of their problems and help them move on with God.
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