Jan 29, 2020 From bad boy to blessed boy

Karl was impressed with Mauricio. The young boy had been faithfully attending the meetings where Karl was speaking every night in Huaquillas, and was thoughtful and engaged. But then one night, Mauricio didn’t come and Karl began to worry and was on the lookout for him.

The next day, he ran into Mauricio. Karl let him know that he had been missed, and then asked about his absence. Mauricio said he lived with his grandmother. And she did not like him coming to the church.

Karl was surprisedÑMauricio was, after all, a student at the Adventist school. It bothered Karl, so he scheduled a time to visit Mauricio at home and meet his grandmother to find out why she didn’t like him coming. He hoped this would build some good will.

Karl invited the school’s principal to join him on the visit. Mauricio’s grandmother, Maria, began to share her story. Mauricio was a problem child and his mother had left for Europe. “I’m taking care of him but he kept getting in trouble at school and had really bad behavior. Finally, it got so bad that I to remove him from that school.” She told the group.

The Adventist school was a last ditch effort to save him from disaster. Maria shared that over that school year, as the students and teachers at the school included him and served as an example for him, she had seen a big change in Mauricio. “He is doing much better,” she said. “There’s definitely been a change in him, I know that, but it’s not complete.”

Maria shared that Mauricio had often lied about where he was going and would attend wild parties. That’s why, when he said he was going to the church every night that week, she just didn’t believe him. She stopped him from going because she couldn’t be sure.

Karl understood. He turned to Mauricio, and asked: “How does it make you feel that your grandmother doesn’t trust you?”

“Bad,” Mauricio said.

The group began to work together to come up with a plan for Mauricio to rebuild trust with his grandmother. “I want to be better,” said Mauricio.

Maria smiled. She was so happy that the group could actually reassure her that her grandson was actually going to church. While Maria is Catholic in name, she doesn’t really believe in religion. “I don’t go to church very often,” she says. “And it doesn’t mean that much to me.

Karl then turned his attention to Maria. He encouraged Maria to study the Bible for herself so that she could experience the same kind of change that had begun in Mauricio.

Mauricio is excited to rebuild his relationship with his grandmother, and to grow in his new walk with Jesus. And now he has the full support of his grandmother and his principal.

Today, Mauricio is sharing Jesus, not only with his classmates and teachers at the Adventist school, but with his grandmother as well. And Karl is grateful to be a part of watching God move the gospelÑhow He changes a bad boy to a blessed boy who can share that change with his beautiful grandmother.

Inspiration Moment: Heart Change

Despite man’s violent tendencies, Jesus changes lives even in the most difficult and heart-breaking environments.