Mighty Warrior: Steadfastness

Nik is the guy in the white shirt and blue doo-rag

Nik’s story is almost too incredible to believe. Nik arrived at the house of Joe, one of our team leaders, he was wanting to participate in our upcoming training. He had been told about the training by Jose (one of the previous Mighty Warriors). So Nik was trained with a small group of other men who were preparing to be church planters. During training Nik was the glue of the group. He always had a good attitude and was filled with words of praise. When the team began training him in Chrononlogical Bible Storying he really excelled in the sharing of Gods word.

Towards the end of his training he was informed that he was supposed to present himself in court for a prior case against him. Long story short, before he had come to Christ he had been accused of a crime he did not commit. He was cleared of the charges after a trial. Soon thereafter he was introduced to Jesus. This changed his life forever. Unfortunately, double jeapordy does not exist in Peru. Time went by and they never found the person responsible for the crime, so they decided to retry Nik. There was no new evidence, and as our lawyers looked at the case they said it was a joke. After the trial was over and it was clear that he had not been proven guilty, we were all shocked when he was convicted! We did not understand, and we were told by a lawyer friend that she thinks he was convicted because he was dark skinned and they tend to blame everything on dark skinned people.

Nik’s response was inspirational. He basiclly said, I knew I was being trained to go to the mission field, It just so happens that my mission field is the Federal prison. In fact this prison has been written up many times as one of the worst prisons in the world. Some of his teammates went to visit him and found he was famous in the prison. He was known as the story man. He had been sharing the stories he had learned from Gods word in prison. He was in the process of planting a church there in prison. He did not complain or cry wo is me. He simply used his circumstances for the betterment of the kingdom. His wife abandoned him, he lost his son. But he just keeps his head up and served the Lord with gladness. Lord, please send us men like Nik, who are steadfast and willing to suffer anything for the name of Christ, men who do not look at their circumstances as something to complain about but rather to exploit for the kingdom.

Update: I have not heard an update on Nik since I left Peru. But I am sure your prayers for him are appreciated.