Gina In El Paso

I witnessed many unbelievable answers to prayer in my years with Bearing Precious Seed El Paso.  Most of the young people who came on those mission trips came because they wanted to help and learn about missions.  And I said “most” because not every kid (or parent) came for the right reasons.  Thus begins this story.

The Bearing Precious Seed El Paso ministry is a ministry of the First Baptist Church of Milford Ohio. During the previous year (2005) the church had hired a new assistant pastor. During the summer mission trips into Mexico, the new pastor mentioned to the Senior Pastor that he had never been on a mission trip to BPS El Paso. Since BPS El Paso was an important ministry of the church, the Pastor said he needed to go on one. I received a call from the church that informed me that the new assistant pastor of my church would be on one of our trips that summer. Every trip was a blessing, and I was happy he was coming. However, I remember praying and asking God that I wouldn’t have any “problem” teens (which were rare), on this particular trip. I wanted the assistant pastor’s first trip to BPS El Paso to be a good experience. We had about 60 people scheduled for that week in June 2006, from several different churches.
On Saturday night, the group’s first night there, we had a prayer meeting on the mountain to pray for Gods help during the week. This beautiful public park in El Paso over-looked Juarez. After the meeting a teen girl named Gina (not her real name – for privacy reasons) walked up to me and said, “While you were talking, you said God has everyone here for a reason.” I said, “Yes, that’s true”. She said, “My reason for being here is to be an example of what NOT to be for all the other young people”. And she walked away. I usually asked the group leaders who in their group we needed to pray for. Sometimes there was no need to ask. So we began praying for Gina.
Our meeting on Sunday afternoons was always orientation – where I talked about the rules and going into a foreign country. When the group came in the meeting room and sat down, the front half of the room was empty, and everyone was sitting in the back half of the room. I stood in front of them and repeated a dumb joke (kind of), “This isn’t Sunday morning church, so I would like everyone to please move forward”. So everyone moved forward. Except for three girls who continued to sit in the back row, with 5 now-empty rows between them and the rest of the group. I stood there for a moment, and when it was obvious they weren’t moving, I repeated, “I SAID, I would like everyone to move forward”. As some people turned to see who I was talking to, two of the girls became embarrassed and moved forward. The third girl (Gina) did not move and continued to ignore me as she was drawing something. So, with a little more emphasis on two particular words, I repeated a third time, “I SAID I would like EVERYONE to move forward”. She then looked up, slammed her pen down on the table and said, “I’m moving!” and stared at me. To which I replied (calmly), “If you were moving, I would be able to tell”. She huffed and stood up, walked quickly to the front, slammed her notebook on the table, and sat down. And I could see now that we needed to pray a lot!
The following day, prior to our first evangelistic trip into Mexico, the new assistant pastor was giving a message to the group – it was a great message. Gina was sitting in the front row about 10 feet from him. She was drawing something on paper (she was a gifted artist) and ignoring him. He came to a part of his message where he said how important it was. He looked at her while she was drawing and reiterated, “This is important to everyone!” She continued to ignore him. Then he said, as he looked at her, “This is important to you too! You, the girl who is drawing”. She looked up at him. “This is important to you! Would you please put your pencil down?” She slowly put her pencil down, folded her arms, and put her head down like she was sleeping. I thought, “Great – I was hoping we wouldn’t have any problem kids, and I end up with the worst one ever!” So much for trying to impress the new pastor!
I got back to my office and I said to myself, “There is no way I’m going to allow one girl to ruin this mission trip. I can take a check out of my desk right now, write it for $100 and change her plane ticket and have her out of El Paso and on her way home by sundown! Then The Lord spoke to me as these words came into my mind. “Okay Jack, we can see that you have a temper. But I didn’t bring her here for you, I brought her here for Me”. Oooh. Yeah. That was true – and the trip itself was powerful and many a teenager and adult were brought to their knees during the mission week. So I prayed for God’s help.
I found out that 17 year-old Gina (from Washington) was there with her mother and stepfather. Her mother was divorced and Gina didn’t like her stepfather. He told me he didn’t know what to do. Gina was yelling at her mother and he told her she was not going to talk to her mother like that. She defiantly looked him in the eye and said, “What are you going to do about it – hit me?” He felt helpless. Gina referred to herself as “the family slut”, and was into parties and bad friends.
On Monday, we left in the afternoon and went for our first meeting in Mexico. The Mexico meetings usually always had a powerful effect on problem teens (and everyone else). To see someone weeping, hearing for the first time, the wonderful message from God, that He loved them, and would give them this incredible GIFT of HEAVEN, just because He loved them! And all they had to do was BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ! Acts 16:30-31. And then, get a free copy of the love letter from God (we call the Bible), for the first time!
When we arrived at the meeting site, everyone got off the bus, except Gina and her two friends. They sat on the bus and talked. Normally, it was way too hot to sit on the bus when it was parked, but this late afternoon it happened to be cool. I thought, okay, I need to go on there and see if I can get her off the bus. Based on what she thought about me (the control freak alpha-male), this wasn’t going to be easy. I desperately tried to focus on PATIENCE!
I walked on the bus, and up to the three of them. I said, “Gina, would you please come off the bus and join the rest of us for the meeting?” She lifted up her chin, looked straight at me and said, “I don’t want to”. And looked back at her friends. And I said, “But why did you come?” She said, “I didn’t want to come. My grandmother made me come. She said it would be good for me. I don’t like missions and I don’t like missionaries”. Well, that answer was about as straight forward as you can get!
At this point, I sent up a silent flare-prayer. “God, please give me something to say!”
He did. I said, “Gina, do you know what I really like about you?” That really got her attention. She quickly looked at me incredulously and said, “What??” “You say what you think. You don’t beat around the bush. You know, right after my wife and I got married, my wife wanted me to go to church”. I told her, “I don’t want to go to church, they’re full of hypocrites!” “That’s what I think!” she blurted out. “I didn’t like hypocrites” I told her. I then proceeded to give her my testimony about my rebelliousness regarding God and His church. By the time I was done, she said, “You know, you’re not so bad”, and gave me a high-five. She and her friends came out of the bus. Her youth pastor had kept popping in the front of the bus, looking back at us while we were talking, and then leaving. He told me later he couldn’t understand how I could talk to her that long (about 20 minutes) without getting angry.
From that point on she remained relatively quiet, and participated in everything. She did a lot of writing in a journal that she carried with her. Whenever she passed me, she would raise her hand for a high-five and smile. We had a great week with the meetings, tracts, and bible distribution (we ALWAYS had great weeks with that). Since all the groups left Friday, on Thursday night we always had our testimony meeting. At this meeting I encouraged each person to get up and give a testimony about their take on the week. To get this going, I would set four chairs up on one side of the room. I would then ask for volunteers to fill the chairs. When we started, the first person would come to the microphone in the front of the room and give their testimony. When the first person got out of their chair, the second, third, and fourth person would get up and move to the next chair leaving the fourth open. Then anyone who wanted, could come and sit in the fourth chair. They all would move up when someone finished and the next got up to give their testimony. That process worked well.
When I asked for volunteers, Gina was the second person to raise her hand and sat in the second chair. Obviously, she had something to say. I admit, I was a little nervous. When someone stands up to a live microphone, they own the airwaves, and a person can say a lot before you can stop them. When it was her turn, she quietly walked up to the mike, and said, “I’m tired of the alcohol. I’m tired of the drugs. I’m tired of the men”. She opened her soul, and was talking to God. She continued in tears, “And I’m tired of fighting against Jesus”. I love my mother and I love my step-father”. At this incredible point, her mother and step-father couldn’t stand it any longer and jumped up and ran forward and they all hugged and cried. I am telling you, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room! Glory – God is SO good! He had just brought home the prodigal daughter! What a night!
I talked to Gina afterwards. I told her how much she blessed my heart. I also told her that with this change in her life, she needed to do something very important. She needed to tell her friends that she gave her life to The Lord and why she did it. Maybe some of her old friends would turn to the Lord too. But her job wasn’t to make sure they did, her job was to tell them. If they didn’t accept it, she needed to walk away from them. If they are conditional friends, they only love you when you agree with them. God is an unconditional friend. A TRUE friend will direct his friend to heaven…. Even if it means the temporary or permanent end of your friendship. Because NOTHING is more important for either of you than GOD.
I told her she had been through a lot. And maybe she wondered what she could possibly do for God. I told her the people with the greatest tragedies in life can be the greatest soul winners. I told her she wasn’t the only one in this world that went through what she did. There are thousands of young women she could reach that somebody like me couldn’t – they would say to me you have no idea what I went through – and they’d be right, I didn’t – but they would listen to you because you could say I was where you are, and there IS a way out. They would listen because you would know. You could give hope to thousands of young girls who feel there is no hope.
I told Gina she was a great artist. She ask me what she could draw for me. I said, “Draw me something you think I would like”. She drew me the picture you see with this story (in about 5 minutes with a ballpoint pen). It’s a “Lone Wolf”. And I still have it! I think of Gina and I pray I will get a chance to talk to her again before Glory, I don’t know where she is now. I hope God blesses her mightily as much as she blessed us!

Oh yes.  The assistant pastor.  And I was worried about him.  He came up to me at the end of the week and said, “This was the best mission trip ever!”  Ha ha!  Just shows you once again how God always knows what He is doing, regardless of what we think!

God brought this dear young girl to BPS El Paso whom He loved and who had lost her way.  Thankfully, He kept the local knucklehead missionary from messing up one of His perfect wonderful plans!  Glory!  God is SO good!