At 14, he made $1000 a week stealing cars, then Jesus stole his heart

At 14, he made $1000 a week stealing cars, then Jesus stole his heart

By Mark Ellis and Michael Ashcraft, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - June 24, 2015) -- By age 14, Rosario “Chayo” Perez was stealing pickup trucks from Tucson and bringing them across the border, where mafiosos paid him $1,000 each.

“When you’re 14, and you’re making $1,000 a week, that’s good money,” he says. He dropped out of school after finishing the 6th grade. “I figured, ‘Why would I need school?’”

When Chayo was 16, his best friend was murdered at his house on Christmas day. The killer was looking for Chayo to avenge some wrong. “But my friend took the hit and got killed,” he remarks grimly.

Once a group of fellow hoodlums, seeking revenge, left a man bloodied and nearly dead.“Life was such a haze,” he recalls. “You’re high so much, drunk so much, that the reality of death doesn’t hit you.”

“I reached a point where I was sick and tired,” Chayo said. “I was living like an animal – just partying, drinking, using drugs and fighting.”

Then his older brother, Alex, got saved at a church that street-preached and evangelized earnestly.

“He would come witness to me while I was partying with my buddies,” Chayo said. “I started to get sick of him. I kept telling him to leave me alone.”

Photo caption: Pastor Rosario “Chayo” Perez with his wife and two of his four children at Bible conference in Tucson.

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com,  a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.

** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories wtih attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)  

 

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Leading cannibals, polygamists, and naked people to Jesus

Leading cannibals, polygamists, and naked people to Jesus
By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - June 24, 2015) -- Bayani Leyson, a native ministry leader in the Philippines, ministers to some of the most unusual people on earth, including Islamic terrorists, members of a communist guerrilla group, as well as headhunters and cannibalistic tribes who live in the jungle, according to a report by Christian Aid Mission.
The Aeta tribe still uses bows and arrows to hunt people, whom they eat. With courage supplied by God, Leyson planted a church among this people group. “We’re teaching them how to grow vegetables and how to fish,” Leyson said. That way, they won’t eat human organs.”
He didn’t reprimand them for eating other humans, but by discipling them in God’s Word, real change began. He showed them the Scripture that says, “thou shalt not kill,” which speaks to these concerns.
The Aeta tribe is gradually making a shift from their old way to a new way, he tells Christian Aid Mission.
Leyson displayed a photo of himself holding a medieval-looking sword that a Muslim village chief gave him after he led the chief to Christ.
Some of the people Leyson ministers to do not wear clothes. He tried to offer clothes to the members of one of the tribal churches he planted, but they were slow to catch on. He got them to put on clothes for one recent church service. But after the service ended, he watched as they immediately stripped down, waving the shirts above their heads like lassos and dragged their pants on the ground behind them, he reported to Christian Aid mission.
Many of the native missionaries helped by Christian Aid Mission work among cultures where polygamy is an accepted practice.
“I never force anyone to give up their wives after they become a Christian,” says James Cuffee, a native ministry leader in Liberia. “I teach them gently with Scripture. God will show them.”
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About the writer: Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories wtih attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)