The Prayers that Reached Los Pepes
Los Pepes is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Mexico City and is run by a Mexican mafia. It and other neighborhoods like it, are where all the garbage of Mexico City is brought and sorted, daily.
Los Pepenedores are the men, women, and children who collect the garbage in trucks from throughout Mexico City, bring it to Los Pepes, and sort through everything, removing anything of value, including cardboard, glass, paper, plastics, etc. As you might imagine, this work brings with it lots of health risks.
Michael was one of those workers. When he was eight years old his stepdad moved the family to Santa Basurero (Saint Garbage Dump) and then at 15 years old, to Los Pepes (The Trash Men), along with Michael’s mom, Gloria. Five years after the move, Michael’s stepdad died of alcoholism—very common among Pepenedores, along with glue sniffing, and sometimes drug use.
Michael married his wife at 15. They met in Los Pepes. They raised two girls and a boy there. For 25 years they lived there together, though Michael became an alcoholic. Changes in the mafia of Los Pepes strangled the income of Michael and the other Pepenedores. At 40 years old, he turned to glue sniffing—the cheapest form of intoxication—for relief. He would often disappear from his family and the community for weeks during this time. It strained his marriage, his wife divorced him, and his children didn’t want anything to do with him. At that point, Michael said, “I wanted to end my life.”
After Mexico City’s last big earthquake in September 2017, pastor Misael and the La Zona Church gained access to Los Pepes, delivering food, clothes, water, giving tents, offering rides for showers at the La Zona church building, 10 minutes away. Michael’s mom, Gloria, came to know Jesus through that contact and ministry to her, and she began praying, along with La Zona church, for Michael.
Michael tried Alcoholics Anonymous on occasions but did not find “a higher power” to help him. He said, “It did not give me the way out.”
Things really started to change about nine months ago when he dreamed of many people praying for him. He said, “It was the voice of God.” People were praying for him.
The first time Michael attended church in La Zona he was drunk, but he felt accepted. At first, he quietly attended church, but began to share in the small group following the sermon, encouraged by the group leader, Alfonzo.
Michael had a slip up in April, but Alfonzo (also a former alcoholic) invited him back and encouraged him to return, telling him they missed him.
Michael returned, was baptized, and is now living a “transformed life”. He recently shared his testimony at the AA group in Xalatlaco, one of La Zona’s outreaches.
Michael was a key to the success of the Summer Club that La Zona Church held for 40+ children in Los Pepes. Michael knows those children and the challenges they face. He has reconciled with his children, and two of his grandchildren joined him at the Summer Club.
Michael credits his small group leader, Alfonzo, the Discovery Bible Study leader serving in Los Pepes, Jose Parrilla, and pastor Misael for showing him the way to Jesus; but most of all, the prayers of all who lifted him up to Jesus while he was still far from him.