His Boss Cursed Him Out!!!

In this post, I am going to give you some background before I explain the title, so bear with me as I share this story with you.
Joseph is a young man who was incarcerated at the Correctional Facility where I volunteer. His childhood home is in San Antonio, however when he was released from the facility, he decided to go into independent living rather than return home. His reasons were because he wanted to change and he knew if he went home, he would either end up in jail again or dead.

His story goes something like this. By the time Joseph was twelve years old, he was a cocaine addict. He has no idea who his father is. He shared with me one day that his mom passes photos around of two different men and talks about how he looks like each of them. The pain is obviously there, I can see it in his eyes.

He remembers as a child going to church and always believing there was a God, but He felt God was not involved in personal lives of people. However there was seed planted in His heart at a very young age, but due to a lack of discipline and being left to himself to make his own decisions, he became more and more introverted until a friend introduced him to marijuana. He became so addicted to it, he couldn't function without it. He eventually experimented with other drugs and became addicted to heroin. He was in and out of trouble, finally landing himself a nine month sentence for Burglary of a Habitation, by this time he was eighteen.

Joseph rarely attended church during the two years he was incarcerated. He planned to go back home and go back to the Thug Life. He told me he never thought he would ever be free of drugs, he figured he would be just like the stepfathers he had growing up.

I remember one day Joseph came to church at the facility, he sat on the back row in the middle, he raised his hand to ask me a question, so I acknowledged he had his hand up. He said, "Miss, I don't want to go to hell." I wasn't expecting him to say that, but I told him to come up front and let us pray for him. Joseph accepted Christ that day. Afterwards he began to attend bible study and eventually was released into an apartment in the area with another young man from the facility. At first they both held each other accountable, until the other boy began to start drinking and not coming home. They both worked for the other boy's uncle. Then Joseph finally moved in with one of the other boys who was doing well and landed another job.

It seemed all was going well, he continued to come to the facilty to church, he stayed in contact, then slowly but surely he slid right back into the sinful life he once knew. A year passed, he continued to work, pay bills, but his free time was spent doing drugs and drinking. Here he was, in a new town, with a job, an apartment, but going back to the familar things in his life.

Then one day, his roommate decided he wanted to move out on his own. So Joseph was going to move in with another friend. Then our phone rang. It was him, he was asking if he could move in with us, he said he was tired of his life and he wanted to change. We prayed and talked, finally saying okay. That was six months ago.

Joseph is still working, he is doing very well. He attends bible studies on Wednesday nights, church services on Sunday and is totally drug free. He is running around with the boys he is involved with in Bible Study, they go play ping pong alot. He was telling me he had never played ping pong before, but the difference in his new friends were they were always talking about today and the future and his old friends only talked about the past and were always drinking, doing drugs. Already he is seeing a huge difference in the kinds of friends he chooses.

Another amazing thing is seeing God transform this young man. He has gone from wearing 36 inch waist baggy jeans with a 36 inch length to buying 32/30's. He quit wearing XL shirts and now wears shirts that fit him, he quit shaving his head and now goes to the barber. But the most amazing thing is not the outward change, it's the inward. He has called and witnessed to every one of his old friends. He has witnessed to his mother, brother, sister and even to his coworkers and supervisor. He led his first person to Christ last week. How amazing is that?

It is so exciting to see this young man growing in Christ. He listens to only Christian music because he said music is something that influences him and he doesn't want to give the devil a foothold in any area of his life.

So now I am going to go back to the title of this post. Today Joseph came home and said his boss had cursed him out like he had never been cursed out in his life. He was really down. This is not an unusual occurrance. Joseph works laying water line all day in heat, his job is trying, but his boss is very much of the world and is full of anger and unfortunately, one day he is tolerable and the next he is verbally abusive.

Joseph has very much of a servant's attitude. At home you never have to ask him to mow the lawn, weedeat, feed the dogs or anything, he does it all without having to be asked. He is always saying he can't wait to get home away from all the cursing and problems that go on there daily.

At work he endures racism, because he is the only hispanic working there, along with enduring an angry abusive supervisor. So I write this post to ask all of you to pray for Joseph. He loves the Lord so much and he wants to see his coworkers and supervisor come to know Christ. He has such a big heart. I know God hears and answers and if all of you would agree with me in prayer, I know God can move mountains and work miracles.

We were eating lunch after Church last week and one of our volunteers asked him if he liked his job. Joseph said no, he stated he has learned a great deal but he wanted to be involved in some type of inner city ministry and he wanted to go into the mission field. Again, I was amazed!!!

One more thing..... pray for Joseph's little boy. He has a son who is three years old. He pays child support and loves the boy dearly. His son lives with his baby's mother who is non christian, so lift her up if you would. Joseph recently told me that He told God that his son was the thing he loved the most on earth, but he was going to trust God to take care of him and he wasn't going home to San Antonio as often because the temptations were too great. This is a huge step for him because he has always gone home for his boy's birthday, all holidays, vacations, etc. The only thing is, he has always abused drugs while he was there. So this too is a big leap for him.

That pretty much sums up most of the story about Joseph. He was so down when he came home today. Please pray for him and his situation at work. Pray God uses him in an incredible way there. Thanks everyone, I so appreciate your prayers. I know God hears and answers!!