Showdown in San Poco

On a sunny day at Odyssey Community Church, Lucia Ortega finds Pastor Wilson Knox digging in the flower bed. She has come to ask whether the church might help distribute MagiBoxes, gift boxes sent to children living in poverty around the world, but she is puzzled by what the pastor has beside him: a jar of dirt, mailed to him all the way from Guatemala. Wilson explains that it came from an old friend, Pastor Alejandro Murrieta, and settles in to tell Lucia the story behind it.

Years ago, in his days as a traveling motorcycle pastor, Wilson rode to San Poco, a tiny Guatemalan town, at Alejandro's written invitation. At a gas station along the way, he met three men on gleaming new motorcycles. Their leader warned Wilson that Alejandro was not as nice in person as in his letters, and told Wilson to mention his name in town: Joaquin. But when Wilson did, the villagers slammed their doors. Alejandro, once he realized who Wilson was, welcomed him warmly and explained why: Joaquin was the local cartel boss, feared and hated by everyone.

Wilson spent days ministering with Alejandro, leading Bible studies in the town cantina and visiting the sick. One afternoon on a ride through the countryside, Alejandro showed Wilson a beautiful spot where he dreamed of building a church and a whole community center, with classrooms, sports fields, food distribution, and medical care for the poor. The land belonged to a widow, Señora Elena Hernandez, but Alejandro had never dared ask her for it. Wilson insisted they go at once, reminding him of the scripture, "You do not have because you do not ask." To their amazement, Señora Hernandez refused their small offer of two thousand quetzals, because her conscience said it was too much. She offered the land for half, saying she was a Christian too.

But when the two pastors returned with the papers and the money, everything fell apart. The señora nervously refused to sign, and Joaquin swept in announcing he had made her a better offer. Alejandro fled without a word, taking Wilson's motorcycle, and the land went to Joaquin. Afterward, Señora Hernandez revealed the secret behind it all: Alejandro is Joaquin's older brother. The two grew up at an orphan ranch on her land, where missionaries once brought the children gift boxes. Joaquin's box held a toy harmonica that he played constantly and adored. Then the cartel raided the ranch to take children as workers. Alejandro hid in a tight crawl space under a porch, but, terrified, he would not let his little brother in with him, and Joaquin was carried away. Joaquin survived and clawed his way up to become the cartel's boss, while Alejandro was adopted by missionaries, grew up in Texas, and became a minister, forever haunted by guilt and fear. Joaquin had forced the señora's hand by threatening to do to the children of San Poco what was once done to him.

Then comes an alarming phone call. Alejandro has torn apart his room, hidden something in his coat that his landlord fears is a gun, and roared off on Wilson's motorcycle muttering about finding Joaquin. Wilson and Señora Hernandez race to Joaquin's mansion in her four-wheel-drive truck and arrive just as Alejandro confronts his brother. As everyone shouts for him to stop, Alejandro says, "I don't have a gun. I have a gift." From his coat he pulls the old toy harmonica, dropped by Joaquin on the day he was taken and kept all these years. Its engraving reads "Con el amor de Jesucristo," with the love of Jesus Christ. Alejandro confesses his cowardice, tells his brother that God's love has saved him and loves Joaquin too, and asks for the one thing he wants: forgiveness. Joaquin refuses to soften. He keeps the land and screams after them that there will be no peace.

Back in the present, Wilson reads the letter that came with the jar. Joaquin was later killed by a rival cartel, but in his will he left the land to Alejandro, along with money that he specifically ordered be used to build the church and community center. Alejandro wrestled with taking such money, but kept thinking of Joseph's words in Genesis: "What you meant for evil, God used for good." The jar holds dirt from the church's groundbreaking, along with seeds Alejandro wants planted in Odyssey while dirt and seeds from Odyssey are sent back to Guatemala, making the two congregations sister churches.

Lucia is overcome. She was on the missionary team that visited that orphan ranch long ago; she made the gift boxes herself, put the harmonica in Joaquin's box, and scratched the inscription into it with a safety pin. Marveling at how one small gift bore fruit across so many years of hurt, Wilson declares that MagiBoxes will become a ministry of Odyssey Community Church, with Lucia leading it, and together they kneel down to plant the seeds from their new sister church.