I remember telling Brian that there was something special about this mission trip and he said that he felt it too. He told me that for the past several weeks he felt the Lord preparing him for something crazy. I don't think even he realized how crazy it would truly get.
It was Sunday night and the guys started telling how they met and proposed to their wives... some of the stories were really sweet and others picked up their wives with the romantic phrase: 'Hey girl where you going? I'm going wich you.' Needless, this is where I began to piece together a little about how God brought them to the places they were at. I remember very clearly the Lord telling me to ask Brian the rest of his story.
So the next night Page, Britney, Elaine, Brian and I were sitting at dinner and I asked to hear how the Lord got ahold of his life. As he finished, I told him that I would love to add him to my book of people's lives and he gave his permissions, so here it is:
He became a Christian when he was a young kid, but as soon as he got to college, he decided it was time to experiment. After a while, he and his band started touring around, playing (I have to add here that Brian is an amazing drummer) and doing a lot of drugs. One night they were at a friends house smoking some marijuana when Brian just started flipping out... it was laced with PCP. He told me, "Everyone's faces looked like demons. And the more they tried to help me, the more freaked out I became. I mean, think about it, if you have a whole bunch of demons grabbing for you, you're not just going to let them!" So they called the cops and when the cops showed up, they too looked like demons and so Brian grabbed a knife from the kitchen to fend them off.
At this point during the story, Brian said, "I know that even at this point the Lord had his hand on me... just a week before the cops had shot a guy for doing exactly the same thing." He was convinced to put down the knife and they strapped him in for the ride to the hospital. Brian said as he laid in that ambulance a peace came over him. And that by the time he got to the hospital and thrown into a completely padded room, he had calmed down.
The cops wanted to make sure he didn't have a record, so they asked for his name and he gave it to them. Here's the kicker, believe it or not, there is another guy with Brian's exact name who is a felon and has a rap sheet 10 miles long. So they ask him for his social security number and he refuses to give it to them (and began to freak out again). "No man, I'm not giving you my social security number?!"
I find it amazing how even in these places the Lord has us in his hands... at just that moment a hospital worker walked through the doors and instead of the face of a demon, he had the face of an angel. For some reason, Brian knew that he could trust him. He walked straight up to Brian, put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Just give us your social." Brian told me, "For some reason I knew in my soul that I could trust this guy, so I gave him my number and as the guy turned to leave, I saw a cross around his neck and he said, 'You're gonna be ok.' And I said, 'Yeah I know.'"
He got out that night and instead of going home with the people that he'd been with, he went to his sister's house. That night the Lord spoke to him in an almost audible voice, "I have never left you. I love you and I forgive you."
When Brian finished telling me his story, we all had tears in our eyes. He told me that he'd never really told anyone his story before... two days later he stood up in El Sendero and shared his story with everyone who was there. This is a man who has seen grace and will never be the same because of it.
Brian, be strong and courageous. The Lord will be with you wherever you go. Thanks for sharing your life with me.
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