Nine Teen Thugs and Two Fourteen-Year-Old Girls

Note: I do not owned this article nor i am not the author of this article, I just wanted to share this with you, you might learn something from it. I have read this article from the book entitled"30 Days to a More Powerful Prayer life" and yet a true life story!

"His powerful word is as sharp as surgeon's scalpel,cutting through everything....nothing and no one  is impervious to God's Word (Hebrew 4:12, 13, The message paraphrase)

          "Were going to kill you," a hooded teenager sneered as he stepped to the two girls that he and eight others had surrounded.

          The place: a dangerous dark neighborhood in Venezuala

          The Girls: Damaris Briceno and Inez Perz, two fourteen-year-old selling Adventist books and magazines to earn school tuition

          The Situation: At noon that day Inez had gone to a lady's house for a Bible study and found a note on the door asking her to return at 6:00 p. m. Damaris had another appointment, so Inez went alone to the study. The study lasted longer than expected, but finally Damaris rejoined Inez, and they started home. Before entering a particularly dangerous area, Inez and Damaris stopped to pray again and to claim this promise: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrew 13:5).

"Do it!"

          Suddenly a sense of danger sent a cold chill down their backs. "In the distance we saw something move," Inez said. "then we saw a several men coming toward us. Damaris clutched my hand in terror. Again we stopped and prayed.' When they opened their eyes, they were surrounded by nine teenage boys. "God is with us." Damaris whispered. Then they stood very quit.
       
          The oldest youth turned to a gang member said, "Do it!" The one spoken to held up a knife. "Drop the bag or we'll kill you." he snarled. Inez put her bag on the ground and told the boy, "God loves you." Startled, he just stood there. surprised and confused. "Get back in line."

          The leader shouted to the younger boy. "Damaris and I prayed silently that God would work a miracle to save us." Inez said. "Then i began to talk to them of Jesus' love. I told them that Jesus left His home in heaven to come here to die for them." "Why are you telling us this?" the leader demanded. "We came to rob you, not for sermon!" Inez answered, "Jesus came to save you and to change you from a sinner to one of His followers,

          And we must tell you that Jesus loves you and wants to change your life," Inez replied "You're crazy." the leader said as he lowered his gun from his belt and held it to her head. "If you keep talking. I'm going to kill you," he growled. Even if you kill me, I must tell you that Jesus loves you and wants to change your life," Inez replied. "You're crazy." the leader said as he lowered his gun and asked, "How does Jesus change people? What can he do for me?" "Jesus loves you." Inez continued, "the same as He loved those who crucified Him." The boys seemed surprised that the girls didn't fear for their lives.

"Aren't we going to kill them?"

          The leader asked. "How do we change?" "What's going on?" one youth demanded, " Aren't we going to kill them?" "I can't Kill these girls," the leader answered. "I'm getting a feeling I can't resist." Inez told him. "You are feeling God's love. He wants to change you."She had been hugging her Bible and held it out to the leader. Slowly he took it and said. "Thank you very much/" "Don't you remember that we came to kill these girls?" One boy asked, Inez turned to him and said, "Jesus wants to give you Hid very new life too." "You're crazy, "Jesus loves you, and He will love you no matter what you do."

          Damaris then spoke. "God has a purpose for your life." "I'd like to know what purpose God has for me," he said. "Maybe this will help you to understand," Damaris said as she handed him and each boy a magazine. Then she said, "God bless you. We're going now."
The boys parted and let them wak through the circle. Down the road the girls turned, waved and said, "Someday we will see you again. The Lord is going to bring us together."

"My Bible!"

          The girls continued to sell books and magazines. Five months later the sales director asked them to attend a training seminar at a small church two hours away by bus. After arrival, as they approached the church, they noticed a tall youth staring at them. Inez smiled and greeted him, "Good afternoon. My name is Inez." "And my name is Damaris," her companion said. The young man smiled and said, "I think we have met before. 'Yes," Inez responded, "You look familiar, but i do not know your name." The young man handed her a Bible and asked, "Do you recognized this?" "I caught my breath, "Inez said. "It was my old Bible---the one I'd given to the gang leader. I stared at him in amazement." "Do you remember when you gave me this Bible? and told me it would change my life? You were right. Jesus has worked a miracle in my life." The girls listened as Jose told how he begun to read that Bible, searching for the peace and love he saw in their lives. After they visited a few minutes. Jose asked, "Would you like to see the others who were there that night?" They entered the church and found eight young men sitting near the front on one side. As they talked, they learned that all nice boys had been baptized. They had heard about the seminar and had prayed that the girls would come.

Sixty-one new believers

          After the seminar the boys invited Inez and Damaris to visit their homes. Inez asked Jose, "How was your life before you were converted to Jesus?" With tears Jose told the girls that he had felt unloved and worthless.Those feelings had pulled him into a life of crime. "But," he added with a smile, "from the night i met you girls I realized that there was hope for me." The families of the boys greeted the girls with smiles and hugs. They said that the teenage toughs had returned home that night somehow changed. They no longer spent time terrorizing people. Instead, they spend hour studying the Bible and the magazines the girks had given them. At the time of this writing, five years later, they are leaders in their church and community. Their families, as they saw the changes in them, began to ask questions. Each of the nice young men has led his family along with friends, to accept Christ and be baptized, By 1995, fifty-two others also had been baptized.

As you seek to appy this story to your life:

• Compare the Bible statement at the start of this chapter with experience the chapter relates. What are your conclusions?
• Prayerfully ask yourself, "Am i experiencing the power found in God's Word?
• What changes would it take for me to get really excited about studying it?

What do you think is the moral of the story?What you have learn from it?Don't you think Jesus is amazing? He have shown so much love to us, and he is always willing to forgive us from our sin