Three Lost Boys

By Andrew Mcchesney, Adventist Mission

Marta Aguirre, a nurse, and her physician husband, Luis Arboine, were enjoying Independence Day celebrations on the central square of the town of China, Mexico, when a former patient interrupted their conversation.

Image © Pacific Press

“Marta, I want to talk to you,” said the elderly woman, Grandmother Ana.

She explained that her son-in-law had died seven days earlier at age 33 after a heart attack. Her daughter had been in prison for the past eight years. That left her with three grandsons ages 10, 9, and 7. She wasn’t working, but she couldn’t take care of them. Moreover, the boys were sad and crying.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said.

Marta also wasn’t sure, and she spoke with the church pastor. He advised inviting the brothers to a special horse-themed children’s week of prayer. The program, called, “Jesus, Take the Rope of My Life,” would start in two weeks.

Grandmother Ana readily agreed to send her grandsons to the evening meetings. The elder grandson, 10-year-old Juan, initially didn’t want to go because he had never been inside a church. The middle grandson, 9-year-old Luis, had not heard about God before, and he wanted to learn more. He cried when he heard about Jesus dying for his sins. He remembered his own father’s death. The youngest boy, 7-year-old Francisco, slept a lot at first.

Soon the boys couldn’t wait to go to the meetings. Grandmother Ana saw the boys wearing new clothes from the church members, and she thought that they wanted to go to receive more gifts. To her surprise, she found out that they didn’t care about the clothes. They wanted to learn about Jesus.

The boys fell in love with Jesus during the week of prayer and attended church every Sabbath after it ended. Marta began to give children’s Bible studies to the boys every Sabbath afternoon.

Six months later, the pastor invited the boys to an Adventurers campout. The boys loved the morning and evening worships. At one worship, a 9-year-old disabled boy gave a personal testimony and announced that he wanted to be baptized. Luis was touched by the story and decided that he also wanted to give his heart to Jesus. When he told his brothers, they also declared that they wanted to be baptized. The church was packed for the special day.

Today the boys are 15, 13, and 12 and run the church’s audiovisual system on Sabbaths. Luis has preached six sermons and hopes to become a pastor. “The boys are totally different children than who they were when I asked for help on Independence Day five years ago,” Grandmother Ana said. “I thank Marta and her husband, Luis.”

Luis, however, said all credit goes to the Holy Spirit.

“It is the Holy Spirit who does the work,” he said.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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