The Territory God Gives Us

Last Friday, January 20 I was working out in the field. I am a meter reader for TXU and while finishing my route my close friend and Coordinator for our office, Dallas Mayfield, called me and said "Hey Daniel, I need you in by 3". Now this was odd because you never leave a route unfinished under any circumstances and there was no possible way for me to finish and accomplish such. So immediately I knew something was wrong. Honestly I returned to the office a little hacked off and at the same time slightly concerned (thinking maybe we were all getting the pink slip, the corporate world holds no guarantees). When all my co-workers were back in the office we assembled in the conference room for a meeting where my Supervisor informed all of us that there had been a robbery-homocide and our co-worker, Angel Cabrera, Jr. was no longer with us. Angel had walked out of his apartment shortly after midnight and was confronted by two men who beat him, shot him and stole his truck. He died shortly after being taken to Methodist Hospital in Dallas. I had spent an extensive amount of time training Angel and taking him out on routes after his training was complete. He was always a hard worker and would constantly talk my head off. We'd talk about football, our girlfriends, life and even occasional about church/God.

One day while I was training Angel I had the opportunity to spend about 6 hours with him. We were walking through a furniture warehouse and a guy came up to us and point blank asked us if we knew where we were going when we died. We had a short conversation with this man who turned out to be a pastor at City Church in Dallas. Afterwords, Angel had a lot of questions about church and God. He occasionally attended a Catholic church but wasn't all that impressed seemingly because his church was always asking for money. I tried my best to tell Angel what God and Jesus meant in my life and why I tithed personally. I had no idea how important this conversation was at the time and wished I would have been more point blank with him, as the pastor was. I never asked Angel if he had or if he wanted to accept Christ and thats a painful regret to dwell upon. I had a chance to talk to our supervisor, hr rep and coordinator and the thing that echoed inside my mind and heart was the opportunity that was lost. Never will Angel have the opportunity to get married, have kids, grow old and watch his kids have kids. Personally it challenged me to live life with more effort knowing that I have this wonderful opportunity that someone like Angel no longer has.

I was reading a book in the week leading up to Angel's death called 'The Prayer of Jabez' by Bruce Wilkinson and found an interesting equation.

My willingness and my weakness
+ God's will and supernatural power=

My expanding territory

The opportunities of witness in our lives are God's way of expanding our territory. Sometimes we strive for a bigger audience when really all we need is more opportunity. God expanded my territory that afternoon with that conversation I held with Angel.

Challenge yourselves not to waste the territory God has given to you. Because you never know when God is going to take it away.



Angel Cabrera, Jr
(1985-2006)