Scarred by 'Scarface'

Why do I ever question my wife (Lisa) and her judgment? I am so silly.

I recall years ago ... but not too long, when Lisa and I both accepted Jesus and became Christ followers. Lisa made the complete overhaul in lifestyle, including a personal decision to not support or watch R-rated movies.

As much as I tried to bend her rule when a really good movie came out but was rated 'R,' Lisa held firm ... it was 'R' for a reason, she said, thus included some kind of content that was inappropriate, i.e. violence, sex, language. Yes, we're adults ... but she drew a line in the sand and I've come to realize she's the brains of the household ... and so much more.

A brief change of focus brings us to Day 2 in the mission field in Cali. Our team was greeted before we left our hotel with a new translator, Manuel, who is a 4o-ish native of Cali who moved to Brooklyn as a teen-ager and stayed in the United States until five years ago. His English is terrific and we became fast friends on the streets of our barrio.

Manuel dreamed of entering the U.S Navy after high school to sail on big ships, but fell just shy in an English qualifying test. He was left empty to mull over his future -- in an area of the States where for generations foreigners landed to chase the American dream.

Manuel found a dream to chase that summer thanks to a trip to the movies ... 'Scarface.' The 1983 film with Al Pacino tells the story of a Cuban refugee who arrived in Miami and became a kingpin in the cocaine drug empire in the city. In no time, Manuel drove down to Miami and began moving kilos of cocaine throughout the United States where he was paid $1,000 per kilo and often trasnsported 20 kilos from city-to-city. You do the math for 4 days of work for a young man with no idea how to earn a living.

Several years later, a sting operation outside the Miami airport landed Manuel in prison, where he served his full sentence of 14 years. He never ran into trouble behind bars, and like a handful of locals serving our cause in Colombia ... he accepted Christ while in prison.

I had to ask Manuel. "A movie changed the course of your life, really?"

"That was it. It showed me what I thought was the American dream. That was one of the biggest thing I heard in prison at the time ... all of us wanted to be the guy in 'Scarface,' " he said.

Manuel was expedited back to Colombia in 2006 after his release and makes a good living with a taxi he owns in Cali. Old friends tried luring him back into the drug trade, but his heart is on serving the Lord and living a renewed life that glorifies Him.

We spent a great deal of time around a corner market in our barrio today. Time and again after we visited with locals, Manuel was reaching into his pocket buying poor men and women he knew needed quenching a cold drink, or even lunch, from the market. It was never an attempt to win someone into choosing Jesus, just a real show of love for the downtrodden.

It's one of the best representations I saw of Jesus the entire day.

Manuel is pictured feeding a man with special needs, and playing with Camila, who followed us each day ... and I would love to take back to the States! Her parents are involved in the church we are working in because of her as Camila began dragging them through the doors -- at the age of 5.

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From Mayberry to Sanford & Son

The rugged neighborhood we expected to work in on Monday and Tuesday turned into Mayberry (The Andy Griffith Show) when our church pastor opted for us to work closer to his church than to cross into areas he thought might present an outside risk to our mission team. We definitely move into a poor section of Cali for Wednesday and Thursday, where offering hope in Jesus ... any hope ... should open doors all day.

Blessings,

Dave