While the Mesoamerica Global Mission Regional Coordinators recently meet, God planned something unexpected during the team’s free time. This is the beautiful testimony of what the Lord did in Daniel Cid’s life, a taxi driver who commonly works taking people to their destinations, not expecting to be the one, in this case, to be brought to a meeting he would never forget.
By: María Eugenia Rodríguez
What do the Global Mission coordinators do during their free time in a retreat?
Many times, churches are waiting for someone to arrive with a good strategy to evangelize. Ignoring that every day God gives us many opportunities to share the good news of salvation. The first time I got in the taxi that took us to the restaurant for dinner, I realized that there was an identification card hanging from the driver rearview mirror and I read the name, Daniel Cid. The biblical name and Spanish last name were the opportunity God gave me to establish communication with the driver. Thereafter, I let him know that I liked his name because it was biblical and also because his last name was the same as my father. Due to his Spanish accent, I was able to break the barrier and I decided to call him uncle, because of the colloquial form of treating each other, between Spaniards. After dinner, on the way to the hotel we asked Daniel about his religious beliefs; it surprised us the number of biblical passages that he knew by heart. Then we asked him whether he had been saved. By his answer, we realized that he wasn’t yet. We noticed that he had a misconception of baptism, saying that in the future he would make the decision to be baptized. After listening to him recite the word of God for a few minutes, we confronted him with the following questions, which he couldn’t answer. How long will it take you to make that decision? Who guaranteed that you would live tomorrow to make that decision? Why wait until tomorrow when you can do it today? Would you like to make a decision for Christ right now? He answered: “Yes, I would.”
We got to the hotel and right there without getting off the taxi, we did the prayer of faith, which he repeated with audible voice. We asked him where Jesus was and he confessed to have Him in his heart. Each of us embraced him and welcomed him to the family of Faith. The next day was our free morning; we invite Daniel to go with us on the beach to “praise the Lord together”. Daniel Cid came to the beach when we were in the water, we got out to say hello and noticed he was well dressed, with well-shined shoes and perfumed. We asked if he knew of any song, he reminded one, which we sang right then and there. We moved to the shade of a tree to continue praising the Lord as we had promised. Rev. Milton began to share about the story of the Philippian Jailer, and how believing in Jesus Christ saved him. In the same way, Daniel was saved and he could be used for his entire house to be saved as well. The jailer was baptized … What prevented Daniel from being baptized? There was plenty of water there! Daniel recalled the passage of Philip and the Ethiopian; we briefly reviewed it and made the invitation to be baptized. He accepted and said “let me just change my clothes, here in the van I have some”. We waited a few minutes for him. We had to do the baptism quickly because we had to return to Santo Domingo. Daniel returned ready to be baptized. Milton, Absolu and Daniel got in the sea. The waves were coming hard, but this did not stop Daniel from being baptized. We sang, “I’ve decided to follow Jesus” and each of us shared a text of hope, security and strength with Daniel. Daniel is now a new creature in Christ. Near where he lives, we have a Nazarene church and we have initiated the contact for him to continue his growth in Christ. It was the best resting day we have had in our lives. We had joy on earth and in heaven as well!
