1999 Luis

I met him in Ocotal and in the end we worked together for several weeks over a period of three years. Our friendship was true and he loved the Lord. I know the exact day that our ways parted and many times I have wondered if I did what was right…

Luis was the interpreter assigned to me on an Evangelical Crusade in Nicaragua. The first night was rough because the message was not filled with God. Luis watched me struggle, pray the next morning, throw out all the pre-prepared messages the next afternoon and seek God in the early evening over coffee.

The second night was filled with the message that God wanted those people to hear. It was short, to the point and not fancy or impressive. We prayed before we went out and then it happened. God connected us in His Spirit. Each inflection, tone and motion of mine was mimicked almost instantaneously by Luis. Our words were both filled with passion and power and our hearts were alive. So went the next few years of our friendship and that friendship grew deep. Luis moved to the United States over time and into our community. Our families got to know one another and we continued to work and travel together. Then came that day when our ways parted.

Luis called me aside two days before the end of a foreign mission trip to explain that he was worried about whether or not the Nicaraguan government would allow him to leave the country when he entered earlier in the week. His fear when we entered was that Nica Immigration would see that he had been in the States for months and would demand that he stay in Nicaragua. He had worried that they would seize his passport. In those days, this was a highly probable event.

Unknown to me, when our team entered the country, Luis had a friend who got him around local immigration without them seeing his passport. He was safe – or so he thought – until he realized that we were due to go home and that U.S. immigration would be looking for a stamp from somewhere before they would let him back in. He panicked and asked me to participate in a scheme to get his passport stamped. I hate to say scheme because it sounds so bad but really what he asked was wrong.

I told him that I could not lie nor risk getting in trouble with Immigration in Nica or the U.S. I had a family. Further, how could I be in missions and carry out a crime? He pleaded and explained that it was different in his culture – people did what they had to do to survive and stay free of the authorities. I understood this but had to question, “Does the morality of God change given an oppressive political environment?”

My answer to Luis was that I had to follow God and do what was right no matter the consequence. I explained to him that he should have been honest with his concerns in the first place and either stayed in the States or we could have found a better way. I could not help him. In the end, he stayed for a week or two to “fix” the papers and then he arrived in the U.S. He was apologetic (which was not necessary) and though he came to church for a short while, our relationship was never the same. He moved his family to another state and we never connected again.

I know that God does not change based on circumstance. I know that I did the right thing but I really miss Luis and hate that our friendship was affected. I learned most of all that it is better not to start a chain of events that will in the end demand compromise. I will be a great leader one day if I only put into practice this one principle.