“I never did finish school,” she confessed, “and I cannot read well. But I have discovered something called audio books. Have you,” she asked, her face lighting up, “ever listened to someone named A.W. Tozer?”
Juanita is a remarkable woman. Born into a subsistence level of poverty on a small ranch outside of Colima, Mexico, her entire life has been one of hard physical labor. At age sixty, and standing just under five feet tall, she has all the poise and tough, quiet confidence of a survivor.
I met Juanita on the day of her baptism. Watching from the shore and waiting his turn, her husband Florentino looked solemn. Over the years, his chronic alcohol abuse had led to violent outbursts and mental illness, to the point where Juanita had sent their children away to another city for their own protection. At one point, faced with her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior, she even called in the local witch doctor.
“I thought, ‘Why not?’” she explained. “I needed to fix my husband’s problem, and I had tried everything else. Including God!”
Juanita had always felt an urge to explore spirituality. Her search for God had led to years of immersion with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, then back to her Catholic roots, and even a brief stint with a Pentecostal church. “They were a little crazy,” she commented.
The ritual performed by the witch doctor worked. “The demons were cast out,” Juanita said, “which still surprises me! But it did not fix Florentino completely, and he kept drinking.”
One day, a man from the government’s Department of Agriculture came to their village, sent to conduct workshops on sustainable farming. “I was curious,” Juanita said, “to see what he could teach us. After all, we have no other jobs, no other income. We only eat what we produce ourselves.”
The agronomist shared that he attended Pan de Vida MB church in Colima, and Juanita was intrigued. “That Sunday, we tried to make the one-hour drive to church,” she remembered, “but our truck kept breaking down.” She shrugged. “We don’t drive it very often.” They were sad not to make it to church.
So the church came to them. To their surprise, the pastor began coming to their ranch himself to disciple them in the words and ways of Jesus. Before long, the couple had committed their lives to God. Florentino stopped drinking, begged his wife’s forgiveness, and was restored to his right mind. One year later, here they were–ready to be baptized.
Today,” Juanita said, standing waist deep in the river with her head held high, “I no longer need to fix anything. Today I testify that Jesus is the one who fixes everything.”
