This is the story of a sequence of events that began in the Jalalpa community center in the second week of June. It's the story of how a joke played by a child resulted in a man coming into an Armonia Sunday service with the intention of killing a member of the congregation, and ends (the earthquake that hit Mexico City last Tuesday acting as a dramatic backdrop) with the same man facing the choice of resolving arguments the old way - by violence - or, the new way - with the love and forgiveness of God. To guard their privacy, the names of the parents involved have been changed.

Many of you will know of the 12-week Transformation Course that is approaching its end in Jalalpa (see Transformation Course for more details). All the students on the course are parents learning to understand the Word of God and apply it to all areas of their lives.

One of the mothers on the course - we'll call her Mary - brings her two young sons to the center. (Her husband does not come to Armonia, and disapproves of her being there.) Two Fridays ago, one of the sons was playing a game with a ball, throwing it hard against a wall in the center and catching it on the rebound. This boy (aged 10, although he's big for his age) is nice and friendly, but has a sense of humour that sometimes becomes unthinkingly malicious. He had realised that he could throw the ball and hit people walking past on the rebound, and this he was trying to do.

One of the fathers on the Transformation course (let's call him Pedro) happened to walk past, and - bullseye - the son hit him on the head with the ball. It was only a small ball, but he threw it hard, and it hurt.

Pedro flew into a rage. As the boy came to pick the ball up, Pedro struck him and pushed him over. The boy started crying, screaming almost, as though Pedro was trying to kill him. In a matter of seconds the situation had turned from a child's game into something very ugly.

Pedro then stormed up to Mary, loudly complaining about her son's behaviour, shouting that it could have been a child who had got in the way, and he didn't want his children hurt by the boy's antics.

Mary has a very violent background. Several years ago she stabbed another woman in an argument, and traditionally she hasn't had a problem in throwing her weight around when it's come to defending her family. The temptation to react in the same way in this instance must have been strong, but she didn't give in to it.

First she asked Pedro to calm down. When he had done so, she said, "I'm learning a new way - I'm learning about love and forgiveness. I want to live for the glory of God and not for my emotions any more. I'll forgive you if you see that you've done something wrong and need to be forgiven." Faced with this, Pedro apologised and asked her to forgive him.

Mary's son, however, reacted very differently. Being used to his mother defending him, with violence if necessary, he told her, "There's no problem - when I grow up, I'm going to kill him." Mary replied, "No - when you grow up, you'll learn Jesus Christ is the center of life. You'll learn to forgive." She then told him not to tell his father what had happened, knowing that if he did so things could start getting dangerously out of control.

And of course the boy did tell his father, and the stage was set for potential bloodshed, even murder. Hitting a child belonging to another family is one of the worst things to do in Mexican culture, especially in a poor community like Jalalpa. Family honour is something to be upheld at all costs, and in situations like these, arguments and counter-arguments have escalated until entire familes have erupted into violent vendettas against each other. By telling his father, Mary's son was setting in motion the age-old tradition of resolving conflict through violence.

And so two days later, at a packed Sunday afternoon service (at which the Armonia Board were present), Mary's husband came into the center with the purpose of finding Pedro to take him out into the road to kill him. He came in during the Bible study (being taught by two other members of the Transformation course), and possibly he was taken aback by the large number of people there.

Pilar saw him come in, and by the grace of God also noticed that Mary's son was looking very distressed. Pilar took the son to one side and asked what was going on, at which point the son started crying and told her everything that had happened. Pilar immediately went up to meet the husband and led him into the kitchen where she calmed him down and managed to make him stay for the rest of the service.

At the end of the service Mary's husband told Pilar he wouldn't kill Pedro inside the center because he could see that Armonia was doing something good and he respected that - he didn't want to damage it. However, he'd wait until he saw Pedro outside in the streets and then, when the time was right, he'd kill him.

In all this time, Saúl was totally unaware any of this was going on. He found out only later that Sunday when Pilar told him what had happened.

Early the next morning, after dropping the Board members off at the airport, Saúl drove to Jalalpa to meet with the Transformation Course parents and confront Pedro on his behaviour. He told Pedro that he was expelled from the course and had to leave there and then, and also that he had to go to Mary's husband and ask his forgiveness for hitting his son.

Pedro broke down in tears, but agreed that his actions were inexcusable for someone on the course. All the other parents were in agreement - all except Mary, who had also started to cry.

Turning to Saúl, she said, "I really respect you for everything you're teaching us - but please, I ask, give Pedro another chance. I've forgiven him with my whole heart and I want him to have another chance." She went on to say that her son was amazed at her refusal to get revenge, and that he now saw that his father's desire for revenge could end with him in jail - all because of a joke played with a ball.

When she had finished speaking, Pedro said he would go to Mary's house and ask her husband to forgive him for what he had done.

One of the other mothers on the course then said she would go to the house with him. She said Mary's husband would probably beat Pedro up, and he'd probably beat her up as well, but she'd still go with him. Then, one by one, all the parents there said they would go with Pedro - not to 'back him up' or to defend him, but simply to be with him as he made this tremendous, and potentially very risky, visit. They agreed that if the husband forgave Pedro, and that if he said Pedro could stay on the course, Pedro could stay and complete the last two weeks. That night, at half past nine, they made the visit.

Saúl arrived at Jalalpa the next day at lunchtime, to find Mary's husband waiting for him in the kitchen. He was obviously distraught and had been crying. Saúl, concerned, asked him how he was.

"I'm really ashamed," began the husband. "When Pedro turned up at my house last night - to ask me to forgive him - I saw how bad I am. I was acting out of pride, and I'm no better than he is. I've decided to follow Christ. I don't want to follow violence anymore. I told Pedro that my house is his, and I've asked Jesus to save me and forgive me for all my sins."

"Don't expel him", said the husband to Saúl. "Let him stay on the course."

At that moment, the earthquake hit. With increasing force the floor shook and quivered; some of the children cried out, but their mothers called to them to be calm. Then, as the strange sickening rumbling of the earth continued, the Transformation Course parents started singing "En Mi Vida".

En mi vida,
Gloria te doy,
Gloria te doy.
En mi vida,
Gloria te doy, Señor.

(In my life,
I give you glory,
I give you glory.
In my life,
I give you glory, My Lord.)

In the middle of the most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico City for nearly fifteen years, an even more powerful peace descended on the Jalalpa community center. Saúl said later he felt like two earthquakes had taken place - one physical, the other spiritual.

God wants us to grow a new humanity. God wants us to love and forgive each other, and to sustain each other. In His great love for us, he gives us everything we need for these miracles to take place, and these events last month are a glorious testimony that no matter how deep our sin, His love and forgiveness is deeper still.

Please continue to pray for the parents from the Transformation course, and pray especially for Mary's husband as he contemplates the implications of a radically different life following Christ. And praise God for His transforming love and power in this struggling community.

For more information on last month's earthquake, click here.