Oscar Bonilla

Oscar Bonilla has curly hair and a mustache, and wears Fila’s. He has two cell phones and really long fingernails, which I never asked him about. Oscar moved to Belize from his home in El Salvador 18 years ago when he was 20, and he is said to have the gift of helping. I spent only a few hours with him and could tell right away that he had a heart of gold. One of the first things I asked him as we started off to the mayan ruins west of town was “So Oscar, are you married?”. To which he replied “Yes, but….”. I could tell we just jumped into the deep end.

He went on to tell me a little history about his family, and about how 12 years ago his wife was asking all of her church family to pray for him that he would come to church, and how he met NT Dellinger (a missionary who’s been in and around Belize with his wife Joy for 47 years), and how NT consistently built a relationship with him and led him to knowing God.

Then we got deeper.

Oscar went on to tell me about how a few years ago he’d seen a man near his home living on the street without any shelter. Being the helpers heart that he was he invited the man in to live in his extra bedroom. After 8 months of the man living there, Oscar saw some things that made him question. The man and Oscars wife came to him and said that they were having an affair, and that his wife no longer wanted to be with Oscar.

Now, if this story was about me, this is the point were the man would be out on the floor and I would have a sore fist. Instead seeing how he couldn’t change her heart, a hurt and broken Oscar allowed his wife to stay in his house with his 3 kids and he moved in with his parents an hour away.

When I first sat down next to Oscar I felt a sense of Joy and Peace about him, not a sense resentment and bitterness. It truly is the hand of God that has made this man who has known such hurt into the servant that he is now. He now has a friendly relationship towards his wife, and sees his kids as often as he can. His story makes me groan, deep down. Not so much a groaning of agony, but a groaning of “God……….help….”. I don’t know the whole story, and I don’t know the end. But I have a faith for complete reconciliation and a rebuild of trust between him and his wife. Maybe that will never happen, maybe that’s not even the best thing that could happen, but I feel like the story of a good man like Oscar needs a happy ending. God’s got it.

I decided to do a little Oscar exposé. He didn’t know I was taking most of these shots, but would have laughed had he known.

[View with PicLens]

Popularity: 16% [?]