Pepe 1 (or the first Pepe to start coming to Horizonte) began attending in the following way...
Lalo (a Christian guy at Horizonte) randomly saw Pepe one day by his house. Lalo and Pepe had been best friends in their childhood. Pepe was unemployed, and frequently high or drunk or both. He started talking to Lalo about how messed up his life was, and Lalo was on his way to church to help out on a saturday. Pepe ended up coming to church with Lalo the next day.
Over the course of a few weeks, Pepe found that people actually liked him and cared about him at Horizonte! He began working part time with Lalo in the electrical business, and began coming early on sundays to help set up the audio and video equipment.
Horizonte contracted Lalo to install the new electical system in the auditorium (we previously had 3 fuses and 4 electrical outlets for the entire auditorium, and were running 4 speakers, 3 guitars, 5 microphones, a video projector, two computers, a sound board, a video camera, and all the lights, snd sometimes 4 fans, off those 3 fuses! Talk about NOT OSHA approved!! We now have 17 fuses, and like 25 outlets. Lalo installed 3/4 of a MILE of wiring in the auditorium!!) Anyhow, Pepe began to come during the week to help Lalo. One morning he came in really drunk. He had been sober for several weeks, then one day not. He didn't want to come work at the church because he thought that Lalo and Martin (the pastor) would kick him out. But he came, and instead of working on the wiring, Martin and Lalo took some time with Pepe to let him know that God forgives, and that they forgive too. Martin and Lalo offered to help Pepe with accountability with alcohol, and life went on with a sober Pepe, who now comes to church on saturdays to read the Bible with Juan, another guy at Horizonte.
Pepe 2
This Pepe had been to an evangelical church before, and didn't particularly like it. His wife, Ana, was very interested in attending an Evangelical church, and one day, after inviting Pepe many times to various churches, they came to Horizonte. Pepe actually liked it and felt welcomed, and they even started going to a beginners Bible study that day!
Pepe is a welder. Just use your imagination here as to what the lifestyle of a lot of welders are like in Mexico. Yeah, he went out to drink every night with his other welder friends, and if anyone messed with them, they'd pull out their guns. (imagine hick people getting mad in the States)
Anyhow, Horizonte needed bars put on the windows and doors for security, to be able to leave all that electronic equipment set up over night. Juan (full time maintenance at Horizonte) is a welder, so he began the huge project of making bars for 6 large windows and 3 sliding glass doors. Pepe heard about this, and decided to actually take time away from his welding shop to spend three weeks working with Juan on the window bars. This was without pay!! During this time, Pepe and Juan had a LOT of time (like 12 hours some days!) to work and talk together. Pepe had accepted Christ, but still had (has) a lot of questions, some of which were answered simply by watching Juan's lifestyle, others through asking questions.
One day, just like the other Pepe, Pepe 2 came one morning really drunk. He too was afraid that he'd be rejected by Juan and Martin. Again, they sat down to talk with him about God's grace and forgiveness, and helped him get into a recovery program for alcoholics.
Both Pepes are regular attenders at Horizonte, are enthusiastic about knowing God more, and readinig the Bible, and also use some of their free time to help out in various tasks at church. BOTH Pepes have invited other non-Christian friends to Horizonte!
Lots of good stuff going on that God is doing!!
Below: Martin, Pepe 2, Pepe 1, Ricardo, and Kurt (from NPCC) hoisting a set of bars for a sliding glass door.
Pepe 1 and Lalo working on the electrical system:
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