May 20, 2025 • 11 mins
What happens when a searching soul crosses paths with someone prepared to walk alongside them in their spiritual journey? This question lies at the heart of today's moving testimony from Javier, who shares the remarkable story of his friendship with Juan Carlos, a college freshman seeking answers about faith after hitting what he called a "rock bottom" moment in his life.
This episode serves as a powerful reminder that evangelization isn't primarily about having perfect answers, but about being ready to receive others with authenticity and patience. Listen to this inspiring testimony, and consider: Are you prepared for the moment when someone asks you about your faith? Subscribe to Unwritten for more powerful stories of how the Holy Spirit continues to move through ordinary people in extraordinary ways.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Unwritten, a podcast dedicated to sharing
the stories of the movement ofthe Holy Spirit in the world.
Today I'm your host, trevorBureka, and on today's episode
we're getting to hear fromJavier Lugo.
Okay, so I've checked thisresponse against other friends
and I think it's normal.
Okay, so I've checked thisresponse against other friends
and I think it's normal.
I've mentally walked throughyou know the imagine if someone
broke into your house scenario,how I would respond, thinking
(00:31):
through the different entrypoints the person could take,
what my plan of action would befor each point.
We like to be prepared for manythings in life, and particularly
those things that are importantto us, such as safety in the
example I just shared, which iswhy I ask you today if someone
came to you and said they wereinterested in learning more
about Jesus and the church, howwould you respond and are you
(00:51):
prepared?
And, more importantly than justhow you would respond in that
moment, how would you continueto share that with them over
time?
Today, we get one man'sresponse to that very invitation
.
Welcome to the show and listenin.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It was fall of 2022 in Miami, Florida, and me and my
team, as missionaries, werepreparing to go and reach out to
all of the students who markedthat they were interested in
attending a Bible study.
This is a very important timefor us because we are able to go
and reach out to these peopleand most of them actually say
(01:30):
yes and come join a Bible study.
So when I saw the name JuanCarlos on the list, I got
excited A fellow Latino wantingto grow in their faith and so I
reached out to him.
He very quickly responded andto my surprise, he did not look
like I thought he was going tolook like.
There was this very ripped andstrong man, very cool, looking,
(01:57):
very quiet, but very justinterested from the get-go.
So I got to know him a littlebit.
He was from Chicago and he wasnot raised Catholic.
He was raised somewhatChristian.
His family was not superpracticing, but he was a little
aware of what Christianitypreached about, and let's just
(02:21):
say that he had a prettytroublesome high school
experience and during the summerbefore he started as a freshman
that year at UM, he had hitsome type of rock bottom and so
he was asking a lot of questions.
He was very interested inreally learning what was a true
faith and what was his role init.
(02:43):
So he wanted to give theCatholic Church a try.
After some of his friends whowere actually Catholic told him
about it, so he reached out tous and that's how I got his
number.
He started coming to Bible studyevery single week.
He was participating a lot, hewas asking good questions, and
(03:05):
that's when I noticed that hedid not make the sign of the
cross whenever we would start inprayer.
And so you know, many times wedo have Protestants coming into
our Bible studies and that'stotally fine.
After a few weeks him and Istarted to grow in friendship
and we went out just for coffeefor me to get to know him better
.
And that's when I asked aquestion and I said hey, are you
(03:27):
Catholic, Are you Protestant?
What's your faith background?
That's when he shared with me alot about what he had
experienced in his childhoodwhen it comes to faith and he
explained how, right now, he wasnot practicing any faith in
particular, but was veryinterested in Catholicism.
So that's when my missionarybells started to ring and I just
(03:49):
really made myself available toanswer any questions that he
had at the moment.
So maybe that was aroundOctober of that year.
And so for almost a whole year,for the rest of his freshman
year, him and I were able tomeet up one-on-one.
He came up every time with alot of questions.
We started to read the book byDr Scott Hahn, Rome's Sweet Home
(04:11):
, and I think that book reallyopened his eyes to what
Catholicism was.
After that we started readingCase for Christ, and so that was
very, very helpful for him, ashe just started to again ask
these very deep existentialquestions.
(04:31):
The year passed and I waschallenging him a lot, saying,
hey, man, Catholicism may havethe answer to all these
questions that you have andCatholicism actually might be
the thing you want to actuallyexplore more seriously.
I didn't push too hard, I wasjust trying to be very welcoming
and he started to come to Mass.
(04:53):
He started to come to a lot ofother events and he was starting
to find friendship andcommunity within the Catholic
Church.
That was very, very awesome tosee, but still he hadn't made
any particular decisions aboutwhat was coming next for him.
Fast forward to the summer ofthat year he reached out and we
were talking on the phone and hewas saying how going back home
(05:15):
was not good for him.
He was saying how he went backto old habits, he went back to
old vices and how he, in a way,had hit rock bottom again.
He was still struggling withsubstances, he was still
struggling with personal sin.
In one of those experiences hejust realized that he had to
make just the next step when itcame to his faith.
(05:38):
So he shared with me that hewas officially enrolling for
OCIA and I just could notbelieve that he was doing that
because I had been praying forthis particular moment for
almost a year at that point.
I had been praying for thisparticular moment for almost a
year at that point.
The next thing, when he askedme that if I wanted to be his
(06:00):
sponsor, really just broughttears to my eyes and with a lot
of excitement I said yes and webegan that particular spiritual
walk together.
As his parish companion, whichbasically the RCA program
assigns one to each catechumen.
We just went through a lot ofdifferent things together.
(06:23):
We prayed the rosary.
I taught him how to pray therosary, how to pray the Divine
Mercy Chaplet.
We went to adoration together.
We went to different parishevents.
We went to serve the poor.
Together, we sat down, we readthe catechism.
He had so many questions aboutMary, about the Pope, about the
different sacraments, and hejust continued to learn and
(06:43):
learn.
As the months passed, he wasgetting more and more excited
about getting baptized in theCatholic Church, becoming an
adoptive son of God, receivingthe sacrament of baptism, then
the sacrament of reconciliation,having his first communion and
also confirmation.
(07:04):
All on the same day, or I guessthe same night, during the
Easter vigil.
An hour or so before the vigil,me and him went to the chapel
and just prayed together.
The vigil, me and him went tothe chapel and just prayed
together, and it was a veryspecial moment in which just
both of us, on our knees ingratitude, just prayed to God,
(07:25):
just in thanksgiving for thisblessing that was about to
happen.
And I'm not going to lie, I wassuper nervous during the entire
Easter vigil when the priestcalled all of the catechumens to
come forward.
I, as his sponsor, came withhim and as we were walking just
towards the priest for JuanCarlos to be baptized, I had my
(07:48):
hand on his shoulder and I couldfeel just the insights of Juan
Carlos.
He just could not containhimself.
He started to weep and hiswhole body was just almost in
shock for what was about tohappen.
In that same moment I alsostarted to cry because I
(08:08):
realized just what a monumentalmoment I was about to see just
right in front of me happening.
The priest baptized him andthere was the catechumens.
We all came back to our seatsand still in tears, both of us,
he just gave me a big hug andjust said thank you, I love you,
man.
And yeah, that moment I thinkremains the peak of my
(08:32):
missionary career.
Just seeing the fruits of theHoly Spirit in that moment, the
fruits of my labor, the fruitsof my vocation at the time to
walk very intentionally with himand just bringing him to the
faith.
It was just such an incrediblegift.
Him and I remain very close,very good friends, and not too
(08:55):
long ago he came back to visitme here in Colorado.
We just spend hours talking andtalking and yeah, we just
remember my time back in Miamiand I know it's just very, very
precious to him and veryprecious to me.
A few days ago it was hisanniversary of coming into the
church and I gave him a call.
(09:16):
He did not answer, but I lefthim a voicemail and I just said
hey, man, congratulations, thisis your first year as a Catholic
and I just want to say thankyou for the ways that you've
said yes to God.
Later on the next day, hetexted me a very simple three
texts.
He said thank you for themessage, Javi, and for all you
have done for me in the walk offaith.
(09:36):
That moment that the Lordallowed me to experience with
Juan Carlos was definitely oneof the best moments on my
missionary career.
I don't think I had had theexperience to work with someone
from the very beginning, withall of the questions, having
(09:57):
such raw thoughts or experiences, and then really having such a
big part to play in his ownconversion, as I was just, you
know, trying to be his friend,trying to be his brother, trying
to answer the questions, andthen seeing Juan Carlos go from
a place of doubt into a place oftrust, going from so much
(10:20):
attachment to the world toalmost full abandonment to
Christ, was truly a big, big,big blessing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Amazing.
What an awesome story that was.
What gets me is that Javi'sreadiness to receive someone was
a lot more important in thisstory than having all of the
right questions or answers.
The joy of leading others tofaith in the Lord is so rich,
and I love that Javi pushed hisfriend not too strongly but just
enough that he would takeseriously the invitation he was
(10:55):
making that ultimately, throughthe Lord's grace, led to him
coming to experience andencounter the Lord in such a
more full and rich way by cominginto the church.
Thank you so much for listeningto this week's episode of
Unwritten.
We hope to see you next week.
Welcome to Unwritten, a podcast dedicated to sharing
the stories of the movement ofthe Holy Spirit in the world.
Today I'm your host, trevorBureka, and on today's episode
we're getting to hear fromJavier Lugo.
Okay, so I've checked thisresponse against other friends
and I think it's normal.
Okay, so I've checked thisresponse against other friends
and I think it's normal.
I've mentally walked throughyou know the imagine if someone
broke into your house scenario,how I would respond, thinking
(00:31):
through the different entrypoints the person could take,
what my plan of action would befor each point.
We like to be prepared for manythings in life, and particularly
those things that are importantto us, such as safety in the
example I just shared, which iswhy I ask you today if someone
came to you and said they wereinterested in learning more
about Jesus and the church, howwould you respond and are you
(00:51):
prepared?
And, more importantly than justhow you would respond in that
moment, how would you continueto share that with them over
time?
Today, we get one man'sresponse to that very invitation
.
Welcome to the show and listenin.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It was fall of 2022 in Miami, Florida, and me and my
team, as missionaries, werepreparing to go and reach out to
all of the students who markedthat they were interested in
attending a Bible study.
This is a very important timefor us because we are able to go
and reach out to these peopleand most of them actually say
(01:30):
yes and come join a Bible study.
So when I saw the name JuanCarlos on the list, I got
excited A fellow Latino wantingto grow in their faith and so I
reached out to him.
He very quickly responded andto my surprise, he did not look
like I thought he was going tolook like.
There was this very ripped andstrong man, very cool, looking,
(01:57):
very quiet, but very justinterested from the get-go.
So I got to know him a littlebit.
He was from Chicago and he wasnot raised Catholic.
He was raised somewhatChristian.
His family was not superpracticing, but he was a little
aware of what Christianitypreached about, and let's just
(02:21):
say that he had a prettytroublesome high school
experience and during the summerbefore he started as a freshman
that year at UM, he had hitsome type of rock bottom and so
he was asking a lot of questions.
He was very interested inreally learning what was a true
faith and what was his role init.
(02:43):
So he wanted to give theCatholic Church a try.
After some of his friends whowere actually Catholic told him
about it, so he reached out tous and that's how I got his
number.
He started coming to Bible studyevery single week.
He was participating a lot, hewas asking good questions, and
(03:05):
that's when I noticed that hedid not make the sign of the
cross whenever we would start inprayer.
And so you know, many times wedo have Protestants coming into
our Bible studies and that'stotally fine.
After a few weeks him and Istarted to grow in friendship
and we went out just for coffeefor me to get to know him better
.
And that's when I asked aquestion and I said hey, are you
(03:27):
Catholic, Are you Protestant?
What's your faith background?
That's when he shared with me alot about what he had
experienced in his childhoodwhen it comes to faith and he
explained how, right now, he wasnot practicing any faith in
particular, but was veryinterested in Catholicism.
So that's when my missionarybells started to ring and I just
(03:49):
really made myself available toanswer any questions that he
had at the moment.
So maybe that was aroundOctober of that year.
And so for almost a whole year,for the rest of his freshman
year, him and I were able tomeet up one-on-one.
He came up every time with alot of questions.
We started to read the book byDr Scott Hahn, Rome's Sweet Home
(04:11):
, and I think that book reallyopened his eyes to what
Catholicism was.
After that we started readingCase for Christ, and so that was
very, very helpful for him, ashe just started to again ask
these very deep existentialquestions.
(04:31):
The year passed and I waschallenging him a lot, saying,
hey, man, Catholicism may havethe answer to all these
questions that you have andCatholicism actually might be
the thing you want to actuallyexplore more seriously.
I didn't push too hard, I wasjust trying to be very welcoming
and he started to come to Mass.
(04:53):
He started to come to a lot ofother events and he was starting
to find friendship andcommunity within the Catholic
Church.
That was very, very awesome tosee, but still he hadn't made
any particular decisions aboutwhat was coming next for him.
Fast forward to the summer ofthat year he reached out and we
were talking on the phone and hewas saying how going back home
(05:15):
was not good for him.
He was saying how he went backto old habits, he went back to
old vices and how he, in a way,had hit rock bottom again.
He was still struggling withsubstances, he was still
struggling with personal sin.
In one of those experiences hejust realized that he had to
make just the next step when itcame to his faith.
(05:38):
So he shared with me that hewas officially enrolling for
OCIA and I just could notbelieve that he was doing that
because I had been praying forthis particular moment for
almost a year at that point.
I had been praying for thisparticular moment for almost a
year at that point.
The next thing, when he askedme that if I wanted to be his
(06:00):
sponsor, really just broughttears to my eyes and with a lot
of excitement I said yes and webegan that particular spiritual
walk together.
As his parish companion, whichbasically the RCA program
assigns one to each catechumen.
We just went through a lot ofdifferent things together.
(06:23):
We prayed the rosary.
I taught him how to pray therosary, how to pray the Divine
Mercy Chaplet.
We went to adoration together.
We went to different parishevents.
We went to serve the poor.
Together, we sat down, we readthe catechism.
He had so many questions aboutMary, about the Pope, about the
different sacraments, and hejust continued to learn and
(06:43):
learn.
As the months passed, he wasgetting more and more excited
about getting baptized in theCatholic Church, becoming an
adoptive son of God, receivingthe sacrament of baptism, then
the sacrament of reconciliation,having his first communion and
also confirmation.
(07:04):
All on the same day, or I guessthe same night, during the
Easter vigil.
An hour or so before the vigil,me and him went to the chapel
and just prayed together.
The vigil, me and him went tothe chapel and just prayed
together, and it was a veryspecial moment in which just
both of us, on our knees ingratitude, just prayed to God,
(07:25):
just in thanksgiving for thisblessing that was about to
happen.
And I'm not going to lie, I wassuper nervous during the entire
Easter vigil when the priestcalled all of the catechumens to
come forward.
I, as his sponsor, came withhim and as we were walking just
towards the priest for JuanCarlos to be baptized, I had my
(07:48):
hand on his shoulder and I couldfeel just the insights of Juan
Carlos.
He just could not containhimself.
He started to weep and hiswhole body was just almost in
shock for what was about tohappen.
In that same moment I alsostarted to cry because I
(08:08):
realized just what a monumentalmoment I was about to see just
right in front of me happening.
The priest baptized him andthere was the catechumens.
We all came back to our seatsand still in tears, both of us,
he just gave me a big hug andjust said thank you, I love you,
man.
And yeah, that moment I thinkremains the peak of my
(08:32):
missionary career.
Just seeing the fruits of theHoly Spirit in that moment, the
fruits of my labor, the fruitsof my vocation at the time to
walk very intentionally with himand just bringing him to the
faith.
It was just such an incrediblegift.
Him and I remain very close,very good friends, and not too
(08:55):
long ago he came back to visitme here in Colorado.
We just spend hours talking andtalking and yeah, we just
remember my time back in Miamiand I know it's just very, very
precious to him and veryprecious to me.
A few days ago it was hisanniversary of coming into the
church and I gave him a call.
(09:16):
He did not answer, but I lefthim a voicemail and I just said
hey, man, congratulations, thisis your first year as a Catholic
and I just want to say thankyou for the ways that you've
said yes to God.
Later on the next day, hetexted me a very simple three
texts.
He said thank you for themessage, Javi, and for all you
have done for me in the walk offaith.
(09:36):
That moment that the Lordallowed me to experience with
Juan Carlos was definitely oneof the best moments on my
missionary career.
I don't think I had had theexperience to work with someone
from the very beginning, withall of the questions, having
(09:57):
such raw thoughts or experiences, and then really having such a
big part to play in his ownconversion, as I was just, you
know, trying to be his friend,trying to be his brother, trying
to answer the questions, andthen seeing Juan Carlos go from
a place of doubt into a place oftrust, going from so much
(10:20):
attachment to the world toalmost full abandonment to
Christ, was truly a big, big,big blessing.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Amazing.
What an awesome story that was.
What gets me is that Javi'sreadiness to receive someone was
a lot more important in thisstory than having all of the
right questions or answers.
The joy of leading others tofaith in the Lord is so rich,
and I love that Javi pushed hisfriend not too strongly but just
enough that he would takeseriously the invitation he was
(10:55):
making that ultimately, throughthe Lord's grace, led to him
coming to experience andencounter the Lord in such a
more full and rich way by cominginto the church.
Thank you so much for listeningto this week's episode of
Unwritten.
We hope to see you next week.
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