Samuel Caraballo

Samuel L. Caraballo is a husband, father, evangelical minister, and musician committed to the 'Great Commission' of Jesus Christ to take the gospel to every creature everywhere. Samuel is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He currently resides in the state of Massachusetts with his wife and three children. For more information about his ministerial plans and projects, you can visit his personal blog www.samuelcaraballo.com

Samuel is a graduate of Yale University Divinity School. He holds a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters in Public Health from Boston University. He is also President and Founder of All Ability, Inc., a ministry initiative that promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in the communities of faith.

An autobiographical essay by Samuel Caraballo: Could Something Good Come Out of Villa Prades?

In the 4th precinct of Río Piedras, Puerto Rico there is a small community called Villa Prades. That's where I grew up! It all began with a ministerial assignment from my father in 1983. At the age of 30, my father became the Pastor of the United Evangelical Church of that community. For twelve years we lived in a simple urbanization, without access control and without opulence. In Villa Prades I grew up surrounded by people with a high sense of dignity. People with their own dreams and stories. Unfortunately, the 1990s was a very bloody era for Villa Prades because there was also a small group of people dedicated to criminal activities. The drug wiped out many of the young people my age. Crack was in full swing and competition between the various drug spots [1] in the area was fierce. Such was the magnitude of the problem that several nights my family and I had to sleep on the floor (having a bed) because of the hail of bullets that came every time there was "war" between enemy "points." I still remember that Wednesday night where I couldn't attend the prayer service because of my homework. That night hitmen executed a young man whom I did not know in front of the pastoral house where I lived. The ruthless left the body right in front of the entrance of my house. The scariest thing was to see how 3 minutes later my dad returned from the prayer service. If he had arrived 3 minutes earlier, he would surely have met with execution. Those of us who lived there knew that hit men rarely left witnesses alive.

It is there in Villa Prades that I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior at the age of 10 on April 19, 1989 in a bell by Evangelista Alberto Motessi. I was baptized in the United Evangelical Church of Villa Prades on November 10, 1991. It was in the midst of problems, violence, and lack of resources that the Holy Spirit touched me and revealed to me the Only Begotten Son of God. It was the Holy Spirit and its manifestation on a small community of faith, who forged in me a vision of life very different from the chaos of my neighborhood. And when I say it was "The Holy Spirit" I don't mean an act of "magic" disconnected from reality. Rather, I refer to the transforming work of said Spirit in the lives of those who were in charge of caring for and forming me; my parents, my sister, my uncles, grandparents, the elders of the church, the Sunday school teachers, the counselors, and many others. In other words, The Holy Spirit is not a ghost that gravitates in outer space. The Holy Spirit is God himself who seeks to cover our corporeality and our social context with his supernatural essence pointing to the incarnation of God the Father in the person of Jesus Christ. This is how fallible people, with various limitations, were "empowered" by God to create opportunities for many young people like me. These spaces were opened not only in the spiritual sphere but also in the contextual sphere; in academics, in sports, in the arts, and in culture.

This spiritual move leads us to reevaluate the essence of "Pentecost" presented in Acts chapter two. In this story we see the Holy Spirit breaking into the social context of the disciples of Jesus. As a result of the powerful manifestation of the Spirit, the 120 cease to be the "invisible" and become "the Galileans". [“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (vv.7)] This is a statement loaded with contextual meaning. The Galileans carried a negative social reputation, (John 1:46, 7:52). Nothing good came out of Galilee! Ironically, the Holy Spirit puts the marginalized at the epicenter of the second most powerful divine manifestation in human history, (Jesus' birth being the first). Said demonstration of power had a confrontational character, both physiological (Glosolalia exceeding the cognitive limits of the human being) and sociocultural (the Galileans becoming the spokespersons for the new divine order on earth). Therefore, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is confrontational by nature.

In the case of Villa Prades, the work of the Holy Spirit was to impregnate the life of the church with the supernatural force of the Father and the Son in such a way that they could open alternative spaces in the midst of the chaos that prevails in society. And while the spectators wondered: "can something good come out of Villa Prades?" the Holy Spirit moved people like my mother to confront the inappropriate school system for children. That Spirit led my father to confront the criminals who plagued the community. This divine force inspired our missionary Zaida Aquino to become certified as a registered nurse to serve the sick in the community. This natural force inspired Edwin Montalvo to form the “Un Diamante para Cristo” children's club. The power of the Spirit moved Ramona Lebour and Amada Rivera to intercede and work in the hamlets of the area. That same Spirit led the United Evangelical Church of Villa Prades to create the Association of Family and Friends with AIDS Patients (AFAPS) in a historical moment where "HIV" was a taboo in our society.

Can something good come out of Villa Prades? Today, after many years of struggle, that same Holy Spirit that moved in Villa Prades allows me to graduate from Yale University. But what the people of Yale and those outside must understand is that the space and the opportunity to be here was not given to me, nor was it given to me by any other created being; but rather the supernatural "empowerment" of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the humble and simple people who shaped my life in my years in Villa Prades. I am just one of the many beneficiaries of this miraculous move.

Today, a new generation of Christians yearn for substantial changes in our communities. However, the materialization of change cannot take place unless a supernatural force “empowers” us again and gives us a new alternative vision of life that confronts the social structures that keep our people submerged in fatalism and pessimism. A vision that does not monopolize spirituality on the academic, cultural, sports, and social transformation that our peoples so need.

Prayer: We praise you Holy Spirit because you are God and in your strength is our hope and our salvation. Keep synchronizing our lives to your divine frequency.

[1] "point" is the term used to refer to the geographical place where the transactions for the sale and distribution of illicit drugs of a certain narco-gang are carried out.