Level 2 Training Testimonies

Cary

I am the oldest of ten brothers. For that reason I had to take care of my brothers. My Dad was a musician and an alcoholic. Everything that he did was for getting alcohol. My mother tried to care for him, but he would spend any money he would get and so we often went without food. Breakfast was regularly two eggs for the ten of us boys. When my dad would go missing which happened once or twice a year, as the eldest my mother would send me out to find him. The first time I did this I was eight years old. I'd always find him in bars in town and I'd have to pull and even drag him to get him home. One day a Jehovah's Witnesses came to our home and shared with my family. Then our family began to talk about God and I began to pray, "Jehovah, if you really exist, where are you?" During this time I learned that drinking and smoking were bad. We went to the JW church twice, but our Catholic friends and family told us to stop so we did. But this initially fostered thoughts of God in my heart and gave me hope for a better life.

When I was 13, my Dad taught me to play music. He was a musician and he favored the saxophone, so I did too. Though I did not trust my Dad, I loved music. My Dad played in a band that played in bars. Sometimes my Dad and I would be going somewhere and he'd pass out from the alcohol. A few times he collapsed on the dirt road and lay there all night, and so I'd stay with him, pulling him out of the way of traffic. There were a few times when we slept alongside the road when it rained all night.

At 14 I joined the military band. I wanted to get out of the house. In 1982 Salvador was at war with the guerillas. As part of the band, we'd go to villages and play music to cheer up the people and win their hearts so that they would not support the guerillas. In 1984 I went back to high school, and at that time I met a blanket seller in the market. He was a Christian. He shared his faith with me. I was ready, as I'd been praying and asking God about Himself. He brought me to a Baptist Church. On Sept 17 1984, I received Christ in that church. My wife was a member of that church and that is where we met. After dating for one and a half years, when we both were 18, we got married. And then we got more involved in the church. Our daughter Caroline was born the next year. I became the musical director of the church. At that time I attended a conference for pastors. The speaker, David White, asked for pastors to go to the mission field. I was the only one who went forward. Then all the pastors prayed for me. I was 19.

I continued to work at my music with the military, and I started classes at the seminary in the evenings too. After seminary, I moved to the capital, San Salvador, to lead worship in a church and join a band to support my family. While playing the saxophone in the band, a worker for Carnival Cruise Lines heard me play and invited me to play on the ship. I felt proud as I was part of the cruise band. We traveled and had a good life. Every five months I could go home for one month. I learned to play the guitar on the ship too. After about a year on the ship, as the workers heard me playing and worshipping, they asked me to preach and lead a service on the ship. The crew was of many nationalities and we'd meet and worship and pray each in our own language. I worked for Carnival for five years, but during the end of that time I knew I needed to do something else. During a stop in Miami, I went to the Resurrection Baptist Church there. The pastor was from Argentina, and he gave me tracts. Then the church invited me to work with them in Miami, so I moved to Florida to work in the church. In Florida I reached out to the Mexican field workers in south Florida. Then I started working as a cook in an Italian restaurant in Miami. During this time I drifted away from the Lord. I started playing cards and gambling.

Ultimately I lost my job and my apartment. I asked the church for help, but they said no, you have to change your life first. But a Christian family took me in. One day I took a walk. I started talking about my life to Jesus and what a mess I'd made of it. That night as I was praying, the room filled with light. I sensed the Lord pushing on me, yes,physically pushing me. He kept pushing on me till I was laying on the floor. Then I heard a voice saying to me, you have to humble yourself. And then later the voice told me to go back to Salvador. So I gave my car, my one possession, to the Christian family who took me in and I went home.

In 1998 I joined the Tabernacle Baptist Church. I also joined their seminary. My wife and I started teaching Sunday school, a junior high class. There were about 40 kids in the class. Then we moved to a daughter church. I became the pastor and my wife led the Sunday school classes. One day, walking home, I sensed the Lord saying that I should start a church in the village I was passing. So in Feb 2002 I got approval from the main church to start a church in that village. In the beginning we had twelve adults and six kids. In 2003 I attended another missions conference. There God spoke to me about going to the Muslim world, specifically Iraq. I continued with my studies at seminary. When I was at a conference in 2005 after finishing my studies, I was invited by the military to go as a pastor to Iraq. Salvador had volunteered to send a full battalion to Iraq, so they wanted a pastor and a priest. I'd already started studying about Muslims due to my earlier calling. My battalion had 380 soldiers. As I had been in the military as a musician I was made an officer. About 300 attended my services, while the priest only had about 20. Our country is 50% Catholic and 50% Protestant. So I had a lot of influence with our troops. In addition, I would visit local schools and villages to deliver aid, and any kind of help they requested. It was hard for me to see the oppression of the people that Islam keeps them under. Jesus enabled me to lead my two Muslim translators to Christ. At Easter we showed the Passion of Christ to the local people. In all 43 people prayed to receive Christ while I was working in the villages. A US Army Chaplain saw my outreach to the locals and sent me four boxes of Arabic Bibles to give these people. The day I left, I went into the desert and got down on the sand, and told the Lord, "Jesus, if you want me to come back, I am willing to come back."

When I returned to Salvador, I felt very unsettled. I felt I needed to go back to the Muslim world. When I heard about EVI, I knew this was God's provision for me. My message for you is, when God calls, God completes the call.

In our current church, our senior pastor is not very missions minded. But the assistant pastor and missions director gave us $500 to come here. We have a large church of over 5,000 people, but we've never sent a missionary outside of Salvador. Our whole focus is on ourselves—Salvador. We've started nearly 100 churches in the country, but we have yet to move further. Through EVI, I am able to challenge the church to think wider, to know God's plan for all peoples.