Lalo's Story

We took over the service at our church on June 22 to share some of the amazing stories we experienced in Mexico. The service was great and we will post the audio as soon as we can, but in addition to the service we are going to be posting stories here every day for the next few weeks!

Lalo getting ready to pray over a boy at one of the many colonias we visited.

Eduardo, nicknamed Lalo, was one of the amazing people we had the priveledge of working with to spread the Gospel on our trip. The following story was written out by Linda Nuss, and verified with Lalo for it's accuracy. Enjoy!
This is the story of Eduardo Larraga, aka Lalo. Lalo is a 31 year old, single young man, who is on fire for God! I think he touched all of us with his zeal and love for people and for His God. On the last day we were at the Institute, several of us were sanding boards that would be made into bunk beds for the men’s new dorm. I asked Lalo to tell us a little about himself and it was then that he relayed this story to us. We found out that 6 months after he had finished the University to become a lawyer, he fell in love with Jesus (his words). He was 24 years old. He practiced law for a while and then in 2011 he came to the Institute. He has been working as a co-pastor at the Institute for 2 years, as well as teaching English. He has served as a lawyer at the Institute for 1⁄2 year also. At the beginning of this year 2014, Lalo was in Ciudad Victoria, a town close to his home. Apparently at the time, he owned a pickup truck. Five men approached him from the Drug Cartel and told him to get into his truck at which time they car-jacked him. He told them just take my truck, my money, and my phone. But they insisted he get in and drove him outside the city at which time he was told to get out of his truck and to get on his knees because they were going to kill him. He said, “That’s okay...for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

One of the men aimed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. So he went behind Lalo this time and again said, “I’m going to kill you.” Once again Lalo hears the click of the trigger, but miraculously, nothing happens. A second time, the gun jams. One of the guys pulls out a knife at this point and Lalo sees that it doesn’t have a long blade, so he feels that it’s not going to kill him. The guy stabs him in the chest where he has a computer memory card for his phone in his pocket. Because of that, the knife does not penetrate his chest. By this time the driver said to them all, let him go. Everyone gets back into the truck and as they drove back into town, Lalo prayed for them all. They ended up taking all of Lalo’s belongings, but gave him back his truck. God saved Lalo that day and Lalo believes that God told him that the driver of the truck was a son of a pastor. It is clear that God has plans for Lalo’s life! In my eyes, Lalo is like a modern day Daniel who could not be killed because God saw his faith and honored it. These are the kind of men and women we were around for our stay at the Institute. How can you NOT be changed when you are challenged by their faith in a miracle working God? Gloria a Dios!

Our team uniting for a traditional "Go God" at the end of our colonia ministry time.

Lalo was just one of the many amazing students that we served with on this amazing trip! Hope you enjoyed Linda's story of Lalo! God is truly amazing!

Tune in tomorrow for more great stories and more pictures too!