Participants: Pr. John Carter
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001505A
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00:08 The Carter Report presents,
00:10 "The Living Word" around the world. 00:16 Hello, friend, I'm John Carter. 00:19 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 00:21 The topic today is, "The Little Pastor." 00:25 I'm going to tell you the story, 00:27 an amazing story of a man from El Salvador. 00:31 Pastor Pacheco. 00:33 We have a great Pastor with us also today 00:36 and that is the senior pastor 00:37 of the Spanish American Adventist Church 00:40 in Los Angeles. 00:41 And we want to welcome today also, Pastor Acosta. 00:46 This is going to be a great program. 00:48 Welcome to the Carter Report. 00:53 Hi, I'm John Carter. 00:55 My wife Beverly and I were watching television 00:57 the other night watching the news, 00:59 American News. 01:00 They told us that the church in North America 01:02 is actually shrinking. 01:05 They said that atheism is the fastest growing 01:07 religious movement today in North America. 01:10 And people are saying what on earth can we do 01:12 to save the church. 01:14 Well, of course, Christ died for the church, 01:15 he saved the church. 01:17 But what they mean is how can we keep the church 01:20 as a vibrant force in the world today, in Australia, 01:23 in America and in Europe and in rest of the world. 01:26 Let me tell you a little story. 01:28 John Wesley was one of the greatest preachers 01:30 of the English speaking world has ever heard. 01:33 John Wesley came upon the scene of the church in England 01:37 a few hundred years ago when the church was dying. 01:40 Like the church today it was a shrinking church. 01:43 But the people in the church were in a state of denial. 01:46 They refused to accept the reality 01:48 that the church was dying. 01:50 John Wesley did something that other people said 01:53 couldn't be done. 01:54 He revived the church through public evangelism. 01:57 Did you hear that? 01:59 He started to preach Christ, he preached the Bible 02:02 and he preached out of doors and indoors. 02:04 And the church was saved. 02:07 Not only did he save a lot of souls, 02:09 the souls of sinners, 02:11 he saved the souls of the saints. 02:15 Please join me, my friend in evangelism. 02:20 It's what Jesus did. 02:22 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 02:26 Thousand Oaks, California. 02:28 In Australia, write to me at the address on the screen 02:32 at Terrigal, in New South Wales. 02:35 Join me, my friend, in preaching Christ. 02:39 Join me in public evangelism around the world. 02:44 Thank you in Jesus' name. 02:54 Welcome today to the Carter Report. 02:56 We're talking today to a man whom I consider, 03:00 is a real Christian hero and he comes from El Salvador. 03:05 Pastor Pacheco. 03:07 Welcome today, Pastor Pacheco. Gracias. 03:10 And also we have with us a very distinguished pastor, 03:14 Pastor Acosta, who is the senior pastor 03:17 of the Spanish American Adventist Church 03:20 in Los Angeles. 03:21 Thank you. 03:23 And we're glad to have you both with us today. 03:25 Now before we start the story, because we're going to tell 03:28 the story of the Little Pastor, 03:32 I just want to give a little preamble here. 03:35 El Salvador, I want the audience to know 03:38 a little bit about El Salvador. 03:39 It's a Roman Catholic country in Central America. 03:43 It is a population of just over six million. 03:48 It is a land, my friend, 03:50 that has seen tremendous bloodshed 03:53 between the militia and gangs, 03:56 some 75,000 people murdered on the streets 04:01 of the cities of El Salvador and Pastor Pacheco 04:06 was right in the midst of it. 04:07 That's the story he is going to tell today. 04:10 It is a land that is seen also terrible devastation 04:15 from hurricanes and earthquakes and droughts. 04:20 I've never heard anything 04:22 quite like it outside of the Bible. 04:24 70,000 gang members live in El Salvador, 04:28 with 9,000 gang members in prison. 04:33 My friends, the Carter Report conducted meetings 04:36 in El Salvador just a few months ago. 04:38 We had the privilege of hiring the National Football Stadium, 04:43 the biggest football stadium in Central America. 04:47 We had tremendous success 04:51 because we had the tremendous blessing of God. 04:54 We saw just on 5,000 people baptized in one day. 04:58 The person who put it together 05:02 was the hero of our program today. 05:05 And that's Pastor Pacheco. 05:08 And we welcome him today 05:11 and we welcome Pastor Acosta to the Carter Report. 05:14 Welcome, gentlemen. 05:16 Thank you, sir, happy to be here. 05:17 So glad to have you here, pastor. 05:19 Thank you. 05:20 You've come a long way today 05:22 and we're glad that you're with us. 05:26 The first question goes to you, Pastor Pacheco. 05:32 We know that El Salvador has seen a lot of bloodshed. 05:39 What was it like growing up as a boy in El Salvador? 05:48 It was very, it was quite difficult, Pastor. 05:55 But in the middle of it all, 05:56 we always had God's protection. 06:02 And in the middle of all these crisis 06:03 and that bloodshed... 06:10 One, as a young person, had to decide 06:11 whether be faithful to Him or not. 06:15 A young man of 14 years of age... 06:19 His faith being tested... 06:23 Whether to serve the Lord. 06:26 I've seen a movie on El Salvador. 06:30 It told about both sides. 06:34 The militia that was backed by the right-wing government. 06:40 And then you had the rebels or the gangs. 06:45 And so you really had two armies. 06:48 And tens of thousands of people lost their lives. 06:53 Did you as a boy... 06:56 growing up in El Salvador. 06:59 Did you actually see violence and bloodshed? 07:04 Yes, I did. 07:07 As a young person, we were preaching the gospel. 07:11 You were preaching the gospel as a young person? 07:16 Yes, sir. 07:18 And how old were you 07:19 when you are preaching the gospel? 07:22 I was preaching at 10 years old. 07:24 And you were preaching the Bible? 07:30 Giving Bible studies, visiting homes... 07:35 Bombs would explode, you know, in our travels... 07:38 They were gun fights... 07:40 We had to hide... 07:43 And then when all that was over with... 07:47 We kept on preaching. 07:48 We're talking about a boy of 10 years of age. 07:54 And this is a boy who has seen violence. 07:58 There 75,000 people were murdered... 08:03 by the government, militia, 08:06 and by the gang members. 08:11 And you saw the blood. 08:13 Tell me how could you ever as a boy of 10. 08:21 How could you preach the Bible? 08:30 Being in the church... 08:34 we were instructed by the church elders... 08:40 I was born in a Seventh Day Adventist home... 08:44 My parents were already members of the church... 08:48 And they would take us 08:50 with them to give Bible studies. 08:54 And they thought me how to relate to the people... 08:58 to sing, to pray... 09:02 And that helped me as a young person... 09:06 to give my life and risk it even for the Lord... 09:10 I was baptized at 10 years old... 09:16 And right after my baptism at that age, 09:18 I started to preach. 09:21 My Pastor... Yes. 09:25 would give me his sermons... 09:28 and he would say, "Now it's your turn to preach 09:29 at the church." 09:31 And I would preach. 09:34 And I would travel with some elders of the church... 09:38 We gave Bible studies. 09:40 How many people were in the church when you preached? 09:49 About 100 or 150 people. 09:51 And so they called you, the Little Pastor. 09:59 When they began to call me the Little Pastor... 10:04 Yes, the members began to call me like that... 10:09 My model was my father... 10:13 He would wear his ties... 10:17 And many times I did not own a tie... 10:21 I would grab my parent, my dad's long socks. 10:25 You wore a sock. 10:27 And I would put it on as a tie. 10:34 So in the neighborhood, I was growing up in... 10:37 I would gather all the children... 10:40 And I would tell them, "I'm your Pastor." 10:44 And I would preach to them... 10:49 And so in the town square, I used to sell... 10:55 I used to sell bread 10:56 and I used to sell used clothes... 11:01 And the ladies 11:03 in the town square of the little shops... 11:08 I would go and pray for each little shop there... 11:13 As a little boy? 11:16 Those were people who were not Adventist 11:19 and at the marketplace, I would go and pray for them. 11:23 How dangerous was it there in El Salvador at this time? 11:29 When you were preaching... 11:31 When you were visiting and praying with people, 11:34 how dangerous was it? 11:37 The war was right, it was right in the middle of the war... 11:42 And the two armies were in the middle, 11:45 you know, one side and the other. 11:46 And so the guns were firing? 11:57 So I was caught up many times in the middle of a gun fight... 12:05 Did you see people killed? 12:09 Yes, I did. 12:11 Many people? 12:13 Many. 12:14 Were you afraid in your own heart? 12:17 He's a little boy and he's caught up in a bloodbath, 12:22 fighting on both sides... 12:26 And he's out preaching the word. 12:29 I was scared, 12:31 I used to cry... 12:35 But I also knew what the word said... 12:41 of the wars that would happen, 12:43 the signs of... 12:45 And that it was a sign of a prophecy being fulfilled... 12:50 Even at that age that I have... 12:55 my trust was deposited more on God. 12:57 This is quite amazing. 13:00 Let me ask you this. 13:03 Did you see people actually come to Christ 13:05 through your ministry? 13:11 Yes, I did. 13:14 Many people... 13:18 even though in the marketplace 13:19 where I would sell in the town square... 13:25 the same people that the owners... 13:30 One day in the middle of it the army came 13:34 and they snatched me away... 13:39 And I was put on a truck of the armies. 13:41 Just a moment, we're going to have a little pause 13:44 and then we are going to just have a little message 13:48 and then you are going to tell the story 13:50 how you were snatched by the army. 13:56 You're watching The Carter Report 13:58 and our guest is Pastor Pacheco, 14:00 who is the leader of the Adventist church 14:02 in El Salvador. 14:04 Don't go away, we'll be back after this message. 14:10 God has His time and His place for everything. 14:15 And the time and the place now 14:18 is Latin America, including Cuba. 14:23 Time Magazine talks about 14:25 the Second Protestant Reformation 14:28 and describes how hundreds of thousands, 14:31 even millions of Latinos are coming to the gospel of Christ. 14:38 I'm not an armchair theologian. 14:40 I'm speaking according to experience. 14:43 I've seen it with my own eyes. 14:46 Recently, we went down to El Salvador. 14:51 There I spoke in the largest football stadium 14:54 in Central America with the biggest crowd 14:57 that that football stadium had ever, ever seen. 15:01 They came not to see a football match, 15:04 but to hear about the blood of Christ. 15:07 Millions are coming to a knowledge of God 15:11 in Latin America. 15:13 Doors are opening in Cuba. 15:16 Who knows, we may be going to Cuba soon. 15:20 As the doors open by the grace of God, 15:23 we are going to step through those doors. 15:27 And we want you to step through those doors with us 15:31 and be part of our team for such a time as this. 15:35 Please write to me, friend. 15:37 Don't put it off. 15:38 Write to me, John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 15:43 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 15:47 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal, New South Wales. 15:52 Be part of the Second Reformation, 15:56 join us and see the miracles of God. 16:00 Amen. 16:11 Welcome back to the Carter Report. 16:13 My special guest today is a hero 16:15 from El Salvador, Pastor Pacheco 16:18 and our great translator is Pastor Acosta, 16:22 who is the senior pastor 16:23 of the Spanish American Adventist Church 16:26 in Los Angeles. 16:28 Pastor Pacheco, 16:29 you were brought up in El Salvador... 16:33 in the midst of a civil war... 16:35 You saw people being killed all around you... 16:40 Some nights you had to go to the mountains... 16:45 Why did you flee to the mountains? 16:54 Simply because I did not want to belong to either side 16:57 that was fighting with each other... 17:00 Because I was a son of God... 17:03 I was a Seventh Day Adventist... 17:06 And somehow I knew that God had a purpose for me. 17:09 And as a little boy, just listen to this, my friend. 17:13 'Cause this is sort of amazing. 17:15 As a little boy of 10 17:17 you were out preaching in churches 17:20 and giving Bible studies? 17:35 Not only in my local church, 17:36 but in my neighborhood and at the marketplace, 17:40 where I used to work. 17:41 And so I understand 17:43 you would go to the little shops in the marketplace 17:46 and you would pray for the people 17:47 who had their little businesses there? 17:54 And I've been told 17:56 and you can confirm, can confirm this... 18:00 that they called you the Little Pastor. 18:04 And you were a Seventh-day Adventist Christian... 18:10 And you saw people being killed all around you... 18:15 And then one day 18:17 they came to steal you away... 18:23 Tell us the story. 18:29 When I was working at the marketplace... 18:35 And I was praying for each little shop... 18:43 People would call me 18:45 so that I can sing and pray and bless their shop... 18:53 So they began to call me their Little Pastor... 18:59 And that moment, as I was doing my duty... 19:05 many times the army, the government army 19:07 would come and recruit young people... 19:10 for the army. 19:12 Just little boys? 19:17 10, 11, 12, 15... 19:18 So when they came to get you, 19:19 steal you away, how old were you then? 19:25 I was about 14 years of age. Okay. 19:31 And I remember, they snatched me, 19:32 they took me to the bus... 19:36 And they began to cut my hair to bald me... 19:39 Oh. 19:42 When the shop owners, especially ladies, 19:45 they came over to the truck, the government truck... 19:49 and the colonel was there... 19:51 with the soldiers, they were protecting or covering them... 19:58 These ladies, they began to pull me from them... 20:04 and they said, "This is our little pastor, 20:06 you cannot take him away." 20:13 And these ladies were not from the church 20:15 but God used them to protect me to save my life... 20:22 And the way I had related to them 20:24 by singing and praying... 20:27 by giving them a Spanish magazine, 20:29 they're called "Herald, El Centinela Magazine"... 20:32 Opening the Scriptures... 20:35 That impressed many of these ladies... 20:39 And they were always protecting me. 20:41 So the ladies saved you? 20:45 When they came to take you away 20:46 and make you into one of their soldiers... 20:51 Do you remember what you were thinking? 20:56 Yes, I do. 20:59 I was telling myself at that moment... 21:05 that somehow I knew that 21:06 God was going to save me from this situation... 21:10 Because I knew that God had a purpose for my life... 21:14 Not to be in the army or with another faction... 21:20 but I knew that somehow I belong to the Lord's army. 21:24 Were many young men and boys killed in this war? 21:33 Yes. 21:34 So if you'd gone, quite likely you would've been killed. 21:46 Yes, because many times they recruited 21:47 from one faction or the other... 21:52 There were moments 21:54 were they would confront each other... 21:57 and gun fights... 22:01 And between each other, the bullets... 22:06 Many of my friends were recruited... 22:10 They would lose their lives. 22:11 So the ladies came and protected you? 22:16 What did the colonel say? 22:20 He could not stand against them. 22:22 The colonel couldn't stand against the ladies. 22:25 He could not. 22:26 Because God is protecting you. 22:30 Did you sense the presence of God on that occasion? 22:41 You know, I didn't see 22:43 how they were protecting me but I saw something else. 22:53 I saw the presence of God in the middle of all this. 22:56 How did you see the presence of God? 23:00 In the midst of this terrible situation? 23:05 In their intervention... 23:11 somehow they knew and they would tell me 23:13 because they tried to recruit me 23:15 many other times... 23:18 Maybe I was at home. 23:19 So many other times, this was not the only time? 23:24 Many times... 23:27 I was at school... 23:30 They would send me notes... 23:33 "Be careful, don't come 23:35 because they are going to recruit today." 23:38 When I would go to church... 23:43 they would travel and they would be my bodyguards 23:45 and go with me to church. 23:51 And many times they would, 23:53 I had to run and they would hold them back 23:56 physically hold them back. 23:57 This is quite astounding. 23:59 So it didn't happen once, it happened many times? 24:08 And not only with the army, 24:10 the government army but also with the Gorillas. 24:12 So you were caught up 24:13 in the battle between the left and the right? 24:20 Now we know today 24:22 and we think these statistics probably accurate... 24:28 about 75,000 people from El Salvador were murdered. 24:35 And you could have been one of those people 24:37 who was killed. 24:43 Did you in your heart on this occasion 24:47 believe that God had something great in mind for you? 24:53 Did you believe that God had a purpose for your life? 25:00 Yes, sir. 25:02 Why do you believe that God had a purpose for your life? 25:12 Because when I saw a lot of people dying... 25:18 when the same people would let me know ahead of time... 25:26 One night, for example, the Gorillas, 25:28 they came and they recruited at night time. 25:33 They had around 40 young kids with them. 25:36 40 kids? 40 kids. 25:38 And they were after you also? 25:43 I was walking among those 40 that were recruited already. 25:48 They would recruit at night. 25:57 And they would take us 25:59 from this city to another one as we were traveling... 26:04 to a place called Tierra Blanca. 26:09 There was a helicopter waiting there... 26:13 to take us to Nicaragua... 26:16 and from there to Cuba. 26:18 Goodness! 26:21 To Cuba? 26:22 There would train these children... 26:26 to come then and fight in El Salvador 26:29 against the government forces. 26:34 And they were two other Adventists... 26:38 As we were walking nearing the helicopter... 26:42 we were praying... 26:46 and we told ourselves, 26:47 we are not going to jump on that helicopter. 26:54 They said, "If you don't go on it, 26:56 we are going to kill you." 27:01 And as we had decided then, not to jump on this... 27:05 The army then comes... 27:08 Oh. 27:10 And so here the two factions are now facing each other... 27:14 and now the gun fight begins. 27:19 And the 40 kids, we all just dropped to the floor... 27:23 and we were praying to God. 27:29 Around 10 or 12 of them got killed. 27:34 But those who are Adventists, the ones who were praying... 27:39 one way or another, the Lord protected us 27:40 in a very special way... 27:42 And I'm here by God's grace. 27:44 So we believe that God had His hand over you. 27:48 And God had in mind something great for you. 27:52 And we saw that when we went to El Salvador. 27:56 My friends, you are watching The Carter Report. 28:00 Our guest today is Pastor Pacheco, 28:02 a man who has been called by God 28:05 and preserved by God. 28:07 And we've been listening also to Pastor Acosta. 28:10 Please write to me John Carter, Post Office Box 1900, 28:14 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 28:17 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal. 28:20 The story today tells us that God is alive 28:24 and God has a plan for your life. 28:26 He cares for you. 28:27 Until next time, God bless you. |
Revised 2015-08-20