Volunteers (l-r) Sue Maness, Javier Jacobo and Johnny Thompson pose with one Rio Grande Valley residents who made a profession of faith in Christ during the Texans on Mission Disaster Relief response to flooding.
'I'd like to get involved in that’
Javier Jacobo is new to Texans on Mission Disaster Relief. Now, six people living in the Rio Grande Valley are new followers of Christ thanks to Jacobo and others' efforts after spring flooding.
The Midlothian resident trained in Weatherford one weekend, then headed to the Valley early the next week where he was assigned to the Waco Box Unit.
When Jacobo first heard about box unit ministry during orientation, he said, “I was like, who the heck needs empty boxes in the middle of a disaster.” He learned that boxes become highly valuable when a person’s life has been disrupted.
“I think people who haven't been involved in disasters don't realize how much of a ministry that is,” he said regarding box units.
As Jacobo went with the team to houses in the Valley, he learned that virtually everyone needed boxes. They brought them boxes, but they brought them more — their faith. And Jacobo became amazed at how open people were to following Christ.
They delivered boxes to 40-50 people and had six people profess faith in Christ. Four came to faith in Christ after conversing in Spanish with Jacobo, two in English.
The home inspector is a member of First Baptist Church in Dallas and teaches English as a Second Language classes. His ability to speak Spanish was “a big part” of why Jim Lawton, incident commander, asked Jacobo to be part of the Valley response.
Lawton and Jacobo have known each other for years but had lost touch. Then, earlier this year, they reconnected at a funeral for “one of the pillars” of their former church, First Church of God in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas.
Jacobo asked Lawton what he was doing, “and I told him I volunteered for Texas Baptist Men,” which is the historic name of Texans on Mission. “He said, ‘Oh, I'd like to get involved in that.’ And I said, ‘If you're serious, I can help you do it.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I'm serious.’”
Lawton connected Jacobo with the March 28-29 “yellow cap” training in Weatherford and the young man traveled the 60 miles to be trained.
After the training, Lawton said he knew Javier was “young and strong and speaks Spanish,” and Lawton realized he would be a “real asset” in the Valley.
On the deployment, Jacobo said he found in the flooding aftermath an “openness of the people down there to receive Christ. I was just surprised about that,” he said. “I think it's a spiritual thing happening where people are more open to spiritual conversations. They're more in touch with their mortality, I think.
Conversations came easily, he said. Jacobo makes a habit of talking with people about faith, but he doesn’t have a set approach; he just takes people where they are, listens and talks.
And, referring to his Valley experience, one phrase surfaced regularly — “divine appointment.”
For instance, “the first person we ministered to received Christ,” he said. And Jacobo said God orchestrated the encounter.
On the way to a specific house, the GPS map sent the Box Unit in the wrong direction. They had to “double back” and “that's where we met a guy named Tommy,” who was helping a friend.
After talking for a while, Jacobo asked them a question he often asks: Have you ever received Christ in your heart? Jacobo said he often gets a “yes” answer to that question because “everybody says yes to get me off their back.” But Tommy “just looked at me straight” and said “no.”
Then came a second question: Would you like to receive Christ today as your personal savior right now? “That's the harder part for people to answer ‘yes’ to,” Jacobo said. “But then this guy just said, ‘Yeah, absolutely. I'll accept Christ today.’
“And he's just, you know, a big old dude, ... blue-collar worker kind of guy. … He just gave his heart to Christ right there,” the TXM volunteer said. “Oh man, that was a neat experience.” And it was especially so because the team would not have met Tommy if the GPS had not sent them in the wrong direction.
Jacobo saw God at work in all of his conversations, telling each story about how God brought about encounters that led to new faith. It all happened in the context of delivering boxes as part of a broader disaster relief effort.
“Texans on Mission volunteers love to physically help people, and they are always looking for the Lord to open the door to share the gospel,” said David Wells, TXM Disaster Relief director. “This is the whole purpose for being there, to bring help, hope, and healing to a hurting world.
“If we can make an eternal difference in someone's life, that is victory,” Wells said. “By the end of this deployment 22 people came to know the Lord, and I do not think He is done yet.
Jacobo, on his first TXM Disaster Relief callout, was taken with the “really great camaraderie” among the volunteers. “They were seeing the same faces (from past deployments); they were seeing the same friends.” And “everything was very well orchestrated.
“It was pretty neat to have that,” he continued about the efficiency of the effort. The experienced volunteers said, “Everybody knew what they were doing.”
And that was how Jacobo got connected with the Waco Box Unit. Lawton connected the young man with Johnny Thompson because he’s a “real good guy” and “really excited about box ministry. … As you can tell they did a great job.”