From LA To Costa Rica, For Many, For One

A story from the field:

I was due to speak at the Discipleship Training School a couple of years ago down in San Jose, Costa Rica at the Youth With A Mission base there (www.ywamsj.org).  As the plane was preparing to take off in LA, I was settling in by the window.  I laid my head back, and prayed for the flight as I always do.  As I closed my eyes, I immediately sensed that God was trying to speak to me about someone.  As I prayed, I saw a picture of a young man's face, and I sensed that I was going to meet him.  The more I thought about him, the more I knew that God wanted to reach him, and to rescue him.  I looked around on the plane, but I had a strong impression that I was going to see this guy in Costa Rica.

5 days later, on the last day of my teaching there at the YWAM base, I was walking down the street to the cafeteria, and as I was crossing the intersection, I saw a man walking in front of me, from my left to my right.  Our eyes met, and then he kept walking.  It took me a few seconds to connect this man with the one I saw as I was praying on the plane back in LA.  I was so excited to see what was going to happen.  Well, nothing happened.  He kept walking down the street and took a left into an alley.  I asked God what to do, and I sensed Him telling me to just stand there.  In the middle of the intersection!  So, I did.  As I watched where the man had gone, I saw him reemerge from the alley.  He started running toward me.  I got a bit nervous, and wanted to get out of there, because I was in a high-crime area of San Jose.  But I felt this amazing grace with me to just stand there anyway.  He ran all the way right up to me, and then suddenly stopped and fell to his knees and began to weep.  Then he spoke to me and said "Yo veo tus angelos.  Tu eres un hombre de Dios.  Por favor!  Por favor! Ayudame!  Ayudame!"  Translated, "I see your angels.  You are a man of God.  Please! Please! Help me! Help me!" I definitely do not think of myself as a super spiritual guy, but this guy said that he saw angels standing beside me!  Are you serious???  I was so humbled.

I knew that God was using me in that moment, and I felt the story of His love welling up inside me to share with him.  I told this young man how God showed him to me while I was on the plane in Los Angeles, and how God had sent me from Los Angeles down to Costa Rica just so I could meet him.  I told him that I had been looking for him everywhere, and I was so excited to meet him.   I told him that God had a plan for his life, and He so loved him that He sent me to find him, to reach him, and to give him this news of this amazing love of the One who made him.  He sobbed, then reached into his pocket, and gave me a large zip-lok filled with all kinds of pills.  See, he was on his way to the alley to take all of them to kill himself at that moment.  Right there in the middle of the intersection, with cars driving by us, he gave his life to Jesus.