I once heard a pastor giving his testimony. He told us he liked to think of life in terms of BC and AD, to underscore the dramatic change that took place in his life after Christ came in and cleaned him up. He went on to tell an amazing life story, but as is often the case, I only saw the AD part of the man. Here in Peru, I got to witness the whole transformation, first hand. Here is the story of the Villacorta family. I’ll start with the BC part, as told to me by the mother of the family.
Marlini and Luis grew up in the slums of Lima Peru. Their relationship, from the very beginning was marked by deception and control. Louis needed someone to care of his four children that he had from a previous relationship. Marlini, a single mom with three children of her own and desperate for any kind of work, answered the call. She got more than she bargained for. She tells me that after a few weeks of coming and taking care of the kids while Louis was at work, Louis basically sequestered her, forced her to live with him, and to perform all the duties of a wife. It’s hard to believe, but easier if you know how male dominated society is here, and how desperate Marlini was for financial support. And if there were in fact any romantic feelings between them at first, they were soon squelched by Louis’s treatment of his “wife.” Marlini tells me that Louis would not let her out of the house, and often give her and her children three soles a day to live on (Peruvian currency, three of them are one US dollar). Any extra money he made didn’t go to his family but to support the prostitutes of Lima. What really got to Marlini, was his treatment of her own children. When he wasn’t just completely ignoring them, she says, he was making fun of them.
After a year or so of living with this man, she had had enough. Marlini fled the house in Lima with her children and went to the jungle of Peru. She found a small shack next to a pond on the outskirts of Pucallpa. Surely she was free from the bondage that she had lived in for a year, or so she thought. She doesn’t know how, but after a time, Louis found her and followed her to Pucallpa. He promptly moved in. She tells me it was just as well, because in reality she had no work and her children were starving. Louis had found a decent job near Pucallpa that took him away from the home except for two days a month. She found the situation tolerable and they even had several children together, whom Louis loved. In fact, all seemed well until Louis was relieved of his duties at work for an unknown reason, and the family’s only source of income dried up. That was the first of January. I met them two days later.
I was walking down the dusty road in my section of town for soliciting bible studies. I had a Bible in my hand and trepidation in my heart, a normal symptom of the first time you randomly knock on doors asking people if they would like to study the Bible with you. It was at the end of the road that I stumbled upon the shack next to the pond. The Villacortas were all working in their garden. Barely had I had time to start my bible study spiel that I was enveloped in 6 children and their mother, Marlini, and whisked into their home, given a warm welcome by Louis, a hot drink and alligator chunks to eat. Goats and ducks wandered in and out of the home. Peruvian music blared from the television (their one luxury). I stuffed down the chunks while Louis peppered me with questions about politics and American culture, and the children with questions about why my hair and skin were so light. Maybe there was no sun in the US, a little one suggested. Before I escaped from the circus, I secured bible studies and promised I’d be back in a couple of days to start.
And start we did. Both parents were fairly eager to study with the blond American, and had many questions on my first visit. Marlini was a moderately devout Christian woman, but Louis, as I found out later, had never been interested. He was a man who was open to many ideas, so bible studies from a gringo was met with a, “why not.” The problem at the beginning was the studies seemed only a platform for him to discuss his own ideas. And I mean everything. I remember our first study ended up being a discussion on why he thought aliens built Macchu Picchu. He was an avid reader and would tell me about the ideas of Lenin and Marx. He brought up the Marx quote that says religion is the “opium of the people”, a thing that numbs people’s minds and pacifies them while other more enlightened folk take advantage
of the naïve Christians. I combated the idea as best I could in my less than perfect Spanish. He still seemed skeptical, but we continued the studies.
Marlini and Luis grew up in the slums of Lima Peru. Their relationship, from the very beginning was marked by deception and control. Louis needed someone to care of his four children that he had from a previous relationship. Marlini, a single mom with three children of her own and desperate for any kind of work, answered the call. She got more than she bargained for. She tells me that after a few weeks of coming and taking care of the kids while Louis was at work, Louis basically sequestered her, forced her to live with him, and to perform all the duties of a wife. It’s hard to believe, but easier if you know how male dominated society is here, and how desperate Marlini was for financial support. And if there were in fact any romantic feelings between them at first, they were soon squelched by Louis’s treatment of his “wife.” Marlini tells me that Louis would not let her out of the house, and often give her and her children three soles a day to live on (Peruvian currency, three of them are one US dollar). Any extra money he made didn’t go to his family but to support the prostitutes of Lima. What really got to Marlini, was his treatment of her own children. When he wasn’t just completely ignoring them, she says, he was making fun of them.
After a year or so of living with this man, she had had enough. Marlini fled the house in Lima with her children and went to the jungle of Peru. She found a small shack next to a pond on the outskirts of Pucallpa. Surely she was free from the bondage that she had lived in for a year, or so she thought. She doesn’t know how, but after a time, Louis found her and followed her to Pucallpa. He promptly moved in. She tells me it was just as well, because in reality she had no work and her children were starving. Louis had found a decent job near Pucallpa that took him away from the home except for two days a month. She found the situation tolerable and they even had several children together, whom Louis loved. In fact, all seemed well until Louis was relieved of his duties at work for an unknown reason, and the family’s only source of income dried up. That was the first of January. I met them two days later.
I was walking down the dusty road in my section of town for soliciting bible studies. I had a Bible in my hand and trepidation in my heart, a normal symptom of the first time you randomly knock on doors asking people if they would like to study the Bible with you. It was at the end of the road that I stumbled upon the shack next to the pond. The Villacortas were all working in their garden. Barely had I had time to start my bible study spiel that I was enveloped in 6 children and their mother, Marlini, and whisked into their home, given a warm welcome by Louis, a hot drink and alligator chunks to eat. Goats and ducks wandered in and out of the home. Peruvian music blared from the television (their one luxury). I stuffed down the chunks while Louis peppered me with questions about politics and American culture, and the children with questions about why my hair and skin were so light. Maybe there was no sun in the US, a little one suggested. Before I escaped from the circus, I secured bible studies and promised I’d be back in a couple of days to start.
And start we did. Both parents were fairly eager to study with the blond American, and had many questions on my first visit. Marlini was a moderately devout Christian woman, but Louis, as I found out later, had never been interested. He was a man who was open to many ideas, so bible studies from a gringo was met with a, “why not.” The problem at the beginning was the studies seemed only a platform for him to discuss his own ideas. And I mean everything. I remember our first study ended up being a discussion on why he thought aliens built Macchu Picchu. He was an avid reader and would tell me about the ideas of Lenin and Marx. He brought up the Marx quote that says religion is the “opium of the people”, a thing that numbs people’s minds and pacifies them while other more enlightened folk take advantage
of the naïve Christians. I combated the idea as best I could in my less than perfect Spanish. He still seemed skeptical, but we continued the studies.Many a Bible study over the next three months, I left wondering if I had communicated anything useful to get through to the complicated mind of Louis Villacorta. But I realize now it didn’t matter if I was communicating anything useful, the Holy spirit was working. How do I know? Because somewhere in between discussions on communism and aliens, Jesus Christ touched the heart of Louis Villacorta. Marlini told me so herself. After a couple of months of study, Marlini caught me outside of church to talk to me in private. She told me the story of how they met, and of how she had escaped to Pucallpa and how he followed her. She told me about the prostitutes and the bad treatment of her children. Then she told me how this man had begun to change. How since the studies, he had treated her children with love, and began to treat her more than just an object, but like a wife and even a lover.
I got to be a witness to the BC, AD change. I was there when, during one of our nightly meetings, Louis and Marlini stood together, hand in hand, to give their life to Christ. I was there when they decided to get married, to officially commit themselves to each other, so they could get baptized and commit themselves to God. And I was there the day of their baptism, where Louis, Marlini, and one of their sons were baptized. I was also there when Louis told me that he had been offered a job. He had looked everywhere for one during the past couple of months, but work was scarce in Pucallpa. The family was barely getting by on the produce they sold from their garden. Then, two days before his baptism, by chance he had run into another Seventh day Adventist Christian. They started talking, and the man said that he had a job opening at his food processing plant, would Louis happen to need a job? He wouldn’t have to work a single Sabbath.
Jesus says in Luke that his mission is to seek and save that which was lost. He will use any means necessary to seek. It may mean he sends an American kid with a stammering Spanish tongue to the jungle. It may mean he will fire someone from a job. You see, Louis would have never been able to receive studies from the American kid had he been employed by that job that took him away from home. God will find what he is looking for. And it doesn’t matter how broken a family is Before Christ is in it, After Divinity comes, it will make all the difference in the world. The Villacortas are proof of that.
I got to be a witness to the BC, AD change. I was there when, during one of our nightly meetings, Louis and Marlini stood together, hand in hand, to give their life to Christ. I was there when they decided to get married, to officially commit themselves to each other, so they could get baptized and commit themselves to God. And I was there the day of their baptism, where Louis, Marlini, and one of their sons were baptized. I was also there when Louis told me that he had been offered a job. He had looked everywhere for one during the past couple of months, but work was scarce in Pucallpa. The family was barely getting by on the produce they sold from their garden. Then, two days before his baptism, by chance he had run into another Seventh day Adventist Christian. They started talking, and the man said that he had a job opening at his food processing plant, would Louis happen to need a job? He wouldn’t have to work a single Sabbath.
Jesus says in Luke that his mission is to seek and save that which was lost. He will use any means necessary to seek. It may mean he sends an American kid with a stammering Spanish tongue to the jungle. It may mean he will fire someone from a job. You see, Louis would have never been able to receive studies from the American kid had he been employed by that job that took him away from home. God will find what he is looking for. And it doesn’t matter how broken a family is Before Christ is in it, After Divinity comes, it will make all the difference in the world. The Villacortas are proof of that.
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