Richard Garcia looked out at the three dozen or so young faces staring straight at him while he explained the content of the “Four Spiritual Laws” booklet in his hand. His task was to lead them in a course on how to live like Jesus, but he shifted his focus to the basics of the Christian faith after discovering many of them didn’t fully comprehend the saving grace that Jesus offers.
When Richard reached the section on receiving Christ, Isaac abruptly stood up and moved with urgency to the instructor.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I see Isaac come walking toward me,” Richard said. “I’m thinking, wow, what is going on here? I thought, well, he’s either gonna say something or he’s gonna sock me.”
“I want to know!” Isaac, a 20-something, told a still-startled Richard.
‘I want to know!’
Richard, team director for the Inner City ministry of Cru® in Bakersfield, California, and his wife were at Faro Church (translates to Lighthouse Church) at the request of its pastor, who wanted the teens and young adults to gain a better understanding of how to live as Christ followers. But during their first meeting at the small church a week earlier, they made an interesting discovery.
“You can see that the kids are going, ‘I don’t know what that is. I don’t understand it.’ And my wife said to me, ‘I think you need to go back to the basics.’”
That’s why he was in the midst of sharing the Cru resource, the “Four Spiritual Laws,” a simple but effective evangelism tool, when Isaac spontaneously asked to know Jesus. Before Richard could respond, 17 others came forward.
“I walked through the entire booklet in the little over an hour that we had the time together, and as I got to the end, I was just following the book and kind of explaining things. I hadn’t even gotten to the prayer yet,” Richard said, then chuckled.
From the beginning, when the pastor asked for Richard’s help, the Cru ministry leader said he’s seen God’s hand at work.
“It’s a humorous story,” he said.
In making the pitch to Richard, the pastor originally anticipated 15 students for the course.
“I said, ‘OK, that’s great. That’s a perfect number,” he said. “I walked in there, and there’s 45 kids,” he said.
The next week, attendance fluctuated a bit, but remained in the high 30s as students began inviting their friends. In one instance, one student mentioned the class in passing to a group of three friends without extending an invitation. All three showed up on their own the next week.
During a follow-up lunch with Isaac not long after he accepted Christ, Richard asked the young adult what prompted him to come forward in that moment.
“I had been playing church, and I wanted to be sure,” Isaac told Richard. “He had confidence, and so that really kind of elevated it (for me) because sometimes they react out of emotion, but he was reacting more out of certainty. He wanted to know with certainty that eternity was his.”
‘I had been playing church, and I wanted to be sure.’
In the months since, Richard has been in consistent contact with Isaac, who is now leading a Bible study among his peers at the church, even as he prepares to enter the California Highway Patrol academy.
“He was the catalyst of this little thing here,” Richard said. “There’s just been little stories that pop out of the group, some of the kids (saying) ‘I’ve been going to that church since I was a little kid and now I know who Jesus is’ and stuff like that.”
Amid it, Richard has witnessed Isaac’s quiet leadership emerge.
“You can see a big difference in him after that day,” said Richard, adding that Isaac gave his testimony during Cru’s Vision Dinner in Bakersfield.
In a later text to Richard, Isaac expressed gratitude for Richard investing in his spiritual development.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak my testimony to the audience,” Isaac wrote. “I have never really thought about my testimony before.”
The 10 students from his church who attended the dinner to support Isaac were impacted by his witness
“They have told me they were so touched by what I said,” Isaac told Richard. “One of them is willing to walk his journey in Christ with me. Since then, I have shared my testimony to others outside of church, and I’m still sharing it. I thank God for the opportunity of using me for anything He calls me for. I thank God for introducing you to me. I pray that the gifts from everyone may multiply for your ministry, as well as other ministries.”
Recently, Richard asked Isaac how he could pray for the young man.
“I ask for your prayers about wisdom to use my gifts for God’s glory and edify the church, along with just learning more about who I am in Christ,” he wrote to Richard, who added, “He’s real quiet, but there’s something that you see him longing for. He’s an impressive young man.”
‘I ask for your prayers about wisdom to use my gifts for God’s glory and edify the church, along with just learning more about who I am in Christ.’
Even as Isaac expresses his gratitude to Richard, Richard is grateful to Jesus for the opportunity to serve his community through Cru in the inner city.
“It’s just been, like, wow, this was really a God thing, showing that He’s still at work,” he said.
