Zone 10:14 center sparks Mexican rapper’s life change

 

Misael Cruz, left, pastor of Maranatha Church, Mexico City, helped his friend Abraham Ortuno, right, make big changes in his life.

 

A young man and a friend were walking in their neighborhood, the Fuego Nuevo district of Mexico City, when they noticed a party going on in the Zone 10:14 Community Center.

Curious, Abraham Ortuno, a rapper and song-writer, went into the building and heard someone singing karaoke. He peeked into the room, where he was immediately greeted by “a man with a huge smile” who introduced himself as Pastor Misael Cruz, and invited Abraham and his friend to join the party.

This was the beginning of a great friendship between Abraham — a college drop-out who described himself as “immersed in a world of alcohol and marijuana addiction, public intoxication, and gangs” — and Misael Cruz, pastor of the Maranatha Church and a leader of the Zone 10:14 community center outreach.

Building trust

“Misael invited me to join him in the evenings to chat about the anger I felt against God,” said Abraham. “I soon began to love and trust him.”

Last summer, Misael invited Abraham to help out at a camp for young people who live in the Fuego Nuevo neighborhood, and it was there “that God opened my heart and mind and I accepted Christ as my Savior,” he said.

Now, Abraham has completely quit his addictions, stopped his involvement in gangs and street fights, and his frequent family conflicts have decreased.

 

Abraham Ortuno helps out with a painting project at the Zone 10:14 Community Center in Mexico City.

Transformation

Today the 22-year-old teaches classes at the community center on anger management and “regularization” (a class to help sixth-graders pass their tests to get into junior high), and volunteers at Maranatha church.

He has also begun composing music and rapping once again, inspired by the spiritual truths he has learned from Misael, and has resumed writing reflections, essays and poetry, activities he had given up when he was immersed in substance abuse.

“In the future, I see myself exercising the gifts that the Lord has given me, composing rap music, poems and essays that will reach the souls of others and introduce them to God,” said Abraham. “I plan to finish my undergraduate degree and hope to study in a seminary to be a pastor or missionary.”

Zone 10:14 is a community development center based at the Maranatha Church in the Fuego Nuevo district of Mexico City. Center leaders use the principles of Community Health Evangelism to help transform people and neighborhoods with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.