I just finished blessing two families and I am headed to pick up the 12 dozen burritos that my ladies have made for me. To this point God still hasn’t told me where to go so I started praying to him to show me where I should take these burritos. After I finish praying, God said, “Sonny, go to the park in Commerce City. The gangs will be there.”
I have been there many times before so I was curious to see who was there. When I arrived, there were three gangs already facing each other. These guys weren’t holding baseball bats or knives. They all had pistols drawn and were pointing them at each other. And they were having a shouting match, accusing each other of certain things. God said, “Sonny, drive your pickup on the grass now! Go right between all three gangs and separate them.”
I have learned that in this kind of a situation I don’t have to worry about anybody chasing me off the grass. It is amazing, when pistols are drawn there is no law enforcement of any kind present. So I immediately drove my pickup right between all three gangs. I was moving so fast that a few of them even had to move out of the way so they would not be hit. I caught them off-guard and they yelled, “What the hell are you doing?”
Now their pistols were pointed in my direction. Pablo was the leader of one of the gangs that I have been witnessing to for two years. Pablo knew me very well and he came up and said, “Sonny, what are you doing here man. You need to move your pickup out of the way. We are fixing to shoot everybody here. These guys were planning on shooting us so we are going to shoot back.”
I said, “No man! I can’t do that.” I looked at the other gangs and turned back to Pablo. I then said, “I have a gift for all of you.”
Soon the other leaders started moving in and began asking, “What is going on here? Who are you? You are in the way!”
I said, “I made a way. My King said to come here. That is why I am here.”
They were not sure what I was talking about. They then asked, “What do you want?”
I said, “I need some help to get this box out of my backseat.” One leader said, “All right, we will help you. I just cannot wait till we start shooting this pickup all up.”
I said, “It’s okay, but first let me give you your gift.”
That leader sent two of his men to get the box out of the back of my pickup. I had the box all covered with duct tape. I asked, “Do any of you guys have a knife?”
About 30 guys already had their knives open ready to have at the box. They started carefully opening the box with their knives. When they pulled the flap back, one man said, “It is full of Frisbees!”
I said, “Those are for you guys.”
I reached into the box and started throwing frisbees at all the guys. One of the men said, “Man, do you know how long it’s been since I’ve thrown a frisbee?”
Pretty soon there were frisbees flying everywhere. They were hitting my pickup and they were hitting other gang members. One guy was playing football. He would send a couple of guys out, then he would try making a pass. Those frisbees changed the whole atmosphere that day. When I got there, they were ready to shoot each other, now they’re playing frisbee with each other. You are probably wondering why I had frisbees in my pickup.
My King knew that there would be a solution to what was going on today. He had me go to Walmart earlier and pick up the frisbees. You are right, I was clueless on how this would unfold but my King already had an amazing plan in place. When I got there, the manager said, “I just put them all in the back because this time of year people don’t buy frisbees.”
I said, “I need all the frisbees that you have. If you have at least 30 that would be great but I will take more.”
We continued walking to the back of the store and started looking for the box. Then the manager said, “Let me look and see what’s in this box.” As he started messing with the box, he asked, “What are you doing with all these frisbees?”
I said, “God wants me to buy frisbees for the gangs I am meeting today. This will prevent them from killing each other.”
The manager then said, “Man, that is so super cool!” The manager then grabbed a marker and put “Rejects” on the box. He then looked at me and said, “Take them. I will walk you outside so you do not have to pay for them. That is the coolest idea I have ever heard of in my whole life. I want to be part of that blessing also.”
Going back to the park, all the gangs were continuing to have fun chucking frisbees. God then told me to get the coolers and food out. I placed all the food and the drinks out on the back of my pickup. Then I yelled, “Are you guys hungry?”
They yelled back, “We definitely are hungry!”
I told them what I had in the coolers and mentioned that the burritos are spicy. So be careful so you don’t get the screamers. These are going to be the best burritos you probably have ever eaten. As they began to eat, they continued to throw frisbees. Everyone put their pistols away. I climbed up in the back of my pickup and started reading the Bible loudly. The men then asked, “Are you a preacher?”
I said, “Only when I’m awake but when I’m asleep I’ve got to have my rest.”
He smiled and then asked, “Is it true that Jesus came and died for us even though we weren’t even born yet?”
I said, “Yes, he knew you even before you were born. He knew that you would be standing right here today.”
Pablo came over and said, “Sonny, will tell you that Jesus loves you. I used to beat him up and he would still get up and say Jesus loves you and I forgive you.” He paused for a moment and then said, “Sonny, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I’ve been missing my family. I want to go back to them but I don’t know if they are going to accept me.”
I have been witnessing to this guy for over two years. Now today he’s ready to give his heart to Jesus Christ. Pablo then looked at his men and said, “I am done being a gangster. If you guys want to continue you can be gangsters but I’m finished. I am going home but first I am giving my heart to God.”
His men thought about what he just said. They all began to tell themselves they were missing their families also. The whole gang then gave their lives to Jesus Christ right in front of the other two gangs.
The other gangs then started asking questions. They looked at me and asked, “So you brought us frisbees and you brought us food just because Jesus loves us?”
I said, “Jesus loves you guys very much. He has a different purpose for your lives than what you are doing right now. He does not want you to shoot each other but he wants you to have fellowship with each other. You don’t have to fight each other. Just do what this other gang did.”
One of the leaders said, “We do a lot of trading with girls. God will never forgive that.”
I said, “Yes, he will. But you have to ask him first before he will forgive you.”
Pablo joined me and said, “God will forgive you. He will bring peace to your heart like he did to me today. Before I leave, I would love to pray for you guys right now.”
I said to myself, “This is amazing! He just became a Christian today and he’s already wanting to pray for the people he was about to shoot.”
Pablo continued to share with the other leaders. He said, “When Sonny first witnessed to us, we were extremely hard on him. We pushed him around. When we got bored with that we were ready to shoot him. But he said to me that he would love to pray for us first before we shot him. I then said to myself, “Why would a man who is about to be shot want to pray for me?” After this we could not shoot him. When he did that, things already started to change in my life. I realize today that would take a real Christian man to want to do something like that for me. That is a man of God standing there in front of you. So before you do anything to Sonny, he is going to ask you that question.”
The other gang leaders then said “Man, we want to know God like Sonny knows him.”
Then Pablo said “Let me pray for you guys.”
The other gang leader said “Pablo, I have known you longer than I have known Sonny. It would be great if you would pray for me.” Then Pablo prayed to God saying, “God, I have never prayed to you before. But could you bring peace to my enemies heart. His heart is broken just like mine was.”
He just prayed for the leader but not for the whole gang. After Pablo prayed for the leader, he asked Pablo to come back later this afternoon to talk some more.
That gang leader looked at me and said “You know we know Puablo. We want to talk to him alone because we know him. I will probably talk to you later.”
Then all the gangs asked what they should do with all these frisbees. I told the guys just to keep them. So all three gangs divided the frisbees amongst themselves. Pablo confided in me, “If you would not have showed up, a lot of us probably would be dead right now. Because we were here to shoot each other.”
Then he finished talking and every gang member left. The third gang stayed quiet but the Holy Spirit is tugging on their hearts. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing these other two gangs next week. The fact that the other two gangs got to see Pablo’s gang give their lives to Jesus Christ, it will have an impact on them. Even though they did not invite me to come back this afternoon, I know Pablo well enough. I’ve talked about Jesus with him so much, that I am sure everyone is going to bring up his name in their conversations this afternoon. This should further impact their hearts to coming to Jesus Christ. It was amazing to watch this man who just give his life to Jesus Christ and to immediately pray for a guy that was about to shoot him. Only God has this kind of power to change one’s heart in such a short time and give him the desire to do something like this.