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Raul Rodriguez used to believe there was no hope—until a children’s Bible lesson convinced him otherwise
It was a simple children’s Bible lesson that hit Raul Rodriguez with a truth that was as promising—and as incomprehensible—as anything he’d ever heard.
Rodriguez sat in silence as he listened to a pastor read 2 Corinthians 5:17 during a Backyard Bible Club lesson attended by his children in 2009: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
For a man as battle-weary as Rodriguez, it didn’t seem possible. He’d battled a fierce drug and alcohol addiction for years that, at one point, left him separated from his wife and children. A fog of depression gripped him in an overbearing, inescapable fist, leaving him feeling suffocated and hopeless for more years than he could remember.
Change didn’t seem possible.
Or did it?
“I hated the fact that I couldn’t change. The people that I loved the most were my wife and my kids, and not even their love could change me,” Rodriguez recalled. “I had tried to change so many times, but when I heard that [verse], I said, ‘God, if you can change me—if you really can change people—please change me.’ And that day I gave my life to Christ.”
"I said, ‘God, if you can change me— if you really can change people—please change me.’ And that day I gave my life to Christ.”
He soon began to experience victory over his addictions and healing in his relationships. With his lungs full of the fresh air of new life and wanting that for others, he almost immediately began telling anyone who would listen about Jesus. He eventually became an ordained minister and evangelist.
Rodriguez, a member of Sunnyvale First Baptist Church, said his faith has been deeply impacted by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s en Español ministry. This past February, Rodriguez led an evangelism workshop at Apoderados, a Spanish language event held in conjunction with the SBTC’s evangelism-focused Empower Conference each year.
Hombres de Impacto—a growing SBTC en Español men’s event that offers worship, fellowship, and equipping—has been particularly impactful on his life, he said. He attended his first one in 2010 and hasn’t missed one since.
“The room was full of like 500 men fully living for and worshiping Christ,” he said. “I had never seen that. I was used to men wanting to be tough and macho, but nothing like this. But this is what we were created for—to take care of our families and to be men who serve God.”
