so...most close friends know i used to be a little thug. its been a long time, and the Lords brought me so far but nevertheless...its true.
i grew up in a town called nipomo, a super small town with nothing to do but get into trouble. i ran with a few guys some doing the same ol stuff, some of which now are dead, some gone from drugs, some in jail for drugs or in jail for murder. the lord brought me out it seems right before i could have ruined or ended my life forever.
the group i hung out with looked up to a lot of guys, one in particular named michael chavez. we looked up to him cause he was scared of no one. he could buy or get anything he wanted, sold drugs, had drugs and had a way with the ladies. the epitome of that lifestyle. when i left nipomo i would try to keep up with people to see where people were, what happened to so and so and what not, but i never knew what happened to michael chavez.
skip forward 10 years to about one week ago. i was working at my job and a couple walk in to ask about their cell phones. as i begin talking to them i find out they are from nipomo, and that their last name is chavez. his name is malachi. more questioning revealed he was cousins with michael chavez and his cousins were my good friends back in the day. as we continued talking he asked me if i have heard of reality carpinteria. come to find out him and his wife are christians and go to reality...our church! we hit it off and began talking alot about the lord, about nipomo and what not. as we said goodbye that night he told me..."man there is so much more to tell you." i was excited to have met someone from my town who was redeemed from that lifestyle, besides myself. i was ecstatic about my new friend.
last sunday i was dropping parker off in his sunday school class and i spot malachi dropping off one of his kids. we start rappin and i introduce him to jenn. as we begin to talk again he stops me and put his hand on my shoulder...he says "i have something to tell you". i said "oh yeah, whats up?" he looked at me dead in my eyes and with all glee he said..."i am michael chavez, i am michael chavez!" i could not believe it. i grabbed him squeezed him and told him over and over again that i had prayed for him. it was like a soap opera i mean...ridiculous.
turns out, he got saved about 8 years ago in san luis obispo, since then he has had some serious stuff go down but layer upon layer the lord has peeled off. somewhere along the line he felt like the lord wanted him to change his name, to be done with the old man and set aside the lifestyle and street acclaim the name michael chavez had accumulated. his name now malachi means message and if you meet him, he will tell you his message. his story is amazing and praise the lord he gets to tell it. i feel like i have a new brother over night.
we went out to pizza today with our families and we got to really hang out and let our families mingle. it was amazing. i plan on hanging out with them alot...it is such a blessing.
we will definitely be praying for nipomo and for the salvation of his family still there.
-chris
