Another testimony was shared last Friday night by a new comer
to our group. His name is Mark Ortiz. Mark is Spanish, that is,
he was born here and not in Mexico. Mark is 39 years old,
married, and has two little girls. Sixteen years ago, he was not
only a drug addict, but he had worked out a smuggling routine with
the Mexican Mafia. this group is known as M13 now and they are
very very dangerous people.
Mark was on a seven day crack cocaine binge. At the end of
the week, he decided his life was worthless and wasn't worth
living. He loaded his hand gun with six hollow point bullets and
pressed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The hammer
fell but nothing happened. For some reason, he walked to the
television set in his room and turned it on. A Christian show was
just closing and he saw and heard the preachers last words before
the program went off the air. "Jesus can meet your need wherever
you are at any time." Mark turned off the TV and said, "Lord, if
you are real and if you can rescue me like the man said, you can
have my life." suddenly, a bright figure stood in the room. Mark
was shaking but Jesus touched him physically and said how much He
loved Mark and that He had heard his prayer. The figure
disappeared and Mark said something indescribable suddenly changed
inside of him.
As Mark thought about all this, a dark figure walked into the
room, sat down in a nearby chair, and struck up a cigarette.
Satan said, "I told you, when you were a little boy, your life
belonged to me. So you won't get out of this." Mark told him to
get out of his room because he belong to Jesus now because Jesus
said so. Mark was shaking and pleading for the blood of Jesus to
protect him. The dark figure left through the door.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Mark opened it and
it was a drug friend. "I came over to get high, man," he said.
Mark told us that the Mexican mafia often just gave them extra
drugs to sell for themselves, or to use for themselves, so he had
an apartment full of dope. He invited the man in but before they
could do anything, there came another knock at the door. Mark
opened it and to his surprise, it was his mother. She was not a
Christian at this time. She is now. Mark asked her what she was
doing over at his house this late at night. She said, "I heard a
voice a few minutes ago tell me that if I didn't get over to your
apartment to see you right away, I would never see you again. So
what is going on." Mark said, "Mom, I just tried to kill myself,"
he was still holding the gun, "but it wouldn't fire." He told her
he had just asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. The other man
in the room said, "Hey, I came to get high." Mark said, "Get out,
man. I don't do dope any more." The guy said, "I ain't leaving
until I get high." Mark pointed the loaded gun at the man and
said, "Get out now." He left. His mom about had a heart attack
when her son pointed the gun at his friend. Mark said, "Mom, you
don't understand. That's the only way you can deal with those
types of people."
No sooner had his mom left to go home, than Mark heard the
squealing of tires. Worried his mom had just gotten into a wreck,
he looked out the window and down on the street. His sister, who
he guaranteed us, was the meanest Mexican woman in Denver, came
screaming down the street in her sports car, slammed on the
breaks, bumped over the curb into the grass in front of the
apartment building, threw open her car door, and came pounding up
the steps to his apartment. She literally, he said, kicked open
his door and stomped into the room. "What is going on up here?"
she demanded. Mark said, "What do you mean?" She said, "A few
moments ago, I heard this voice in my head say, Get right over to
see your brother or you will never see him again. So what is
going on?" she demanded again. Mark told her the story. All of
Mark's family is saved now.
There is a lot more detail to this story he told us but next
time I will record it because we are going to have Mark and Troy
tell their stories again.
Phil.
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