August 27, 2001
ALMOST HOME:
When God called, plans changed for Suras
__By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___SAN ANTONIO--Luis Sura left Mexico with a dream of making money and then returning home. He made the money in Tennessee, but he didn't go home.
___Instead, Sura gave up the money and moved to Texas. God changed Sura's plans,calling him to become a pastor and to study at Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio.
ANA AND LUIS SURA on the campus of Hispanic Baptist Theological School
___The school, affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is supported by the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program and the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___If not for these BGCT funds, "our students would pay twice as much" in tuition and housing, said President Albert Reyes. In fact, the whole mission of the school "would not be possible without the offering."
___The unique education offered at Hispanic Baptist Theological School, where instruction is offered in both Spanish and English for students who are not required to have a high school education, drew Sura and his wife, Ana, to Texas.
___As a result, a Texas Baptist church, Primera Iglesia Bautista in Comfort, now has a pastor and has more than quadrupled in worship attendance.
___The Suras' story starts in Mexico. He is from Durango, and she is from Coahuila. At age 16, in about 1980, he headed to Los Angeles with a dream of making money, buying a truck and then returning home.
___Life's course, however, eventually took the couple to Nashville, Tenn., where he began a pool and lawn service business.
___It was at a hospital in 1993 when Sura's life began to change. Seven months into Mrs. Sura's second pregnancy, a problem developed. The doctor at the emergency room told Sura it was going to be a matter of choosing between his wife and the baby.
___Sura wasn't the kind of person who went to church, but for two years his wife had attended Primera Iglesia Bautista in Nashville. Her pastor, Elib Saenz, came to the hospital and said, "Put it in the Lord's hands," Sura recalled.
___"I didn't even know what a prayer was," he recalled. But the two of them prayed.
___"Since then, the Lord has been touching me," Sura said. "He saved the entire family, and he's been saving souls since then."
___Mrs. Sura eventually gave birth to a healthy girl, Ingrid, now 7. The couple' son is now 11.
___Sura went to the Nashville church to thank them for their prayers and support, and "that is when I felt the Lord was calling me," he said. "He had something for me. It was something I never felt before."
___With newfound faith, Sura began attending Sunday School, and "the Lord told me I need to spend more time with him. I was searching for information everywhere. ... I was hungry for the Lord."
___His wife wasn't so hungry. She told Sura he had gone too far. "She was jealous of my growing," he said. "But it was too late."
___He was caught in the pull of God.
___Eventually, Mrs. Sura went to Sunday School, and the teacher handed her the list of members and named her class secretary. "She took it, but she wasn't happy with it," Sura said.
___His wife was gifted at organizing things, however.
___Soon she was saying, "I want to learn a little more," her husband said. And before long, "she was growing so fast that she became Sunday School director" for the 200-member church.
___What changed?
___"I saw the needs of the people," she said. "I wanted to help other people. I felt like God was working in families."
___God worked in the Suras' marriage, as well.
___"The Lord saved our marriage, and we felt like we ought to share this," he said. "Without the Lord, most marriages have trouble."
___In 1999, Nashville's Family and Children Services named the Suras one of five "Families of the Year," and the local newspaper featured them with a story and photos.
___Sura saw success not only in his marriage but also in his business and his church service. The business made possible the accumulation of things. The church work made possible the changing of lives.
___"I had everything I could ask for," Sura said.
___Then he was confronted by Luke 9:23 and its instruction to deny self and take up your cross. He asked God, "How can I take up my cross?" God impressed on Sura that "Sunday School is not enough for me to work for the Lord."
___But he wouldn't tell his wife. Two weeks later, he went back to the verse and back to prayer. "It came to my mind: Do I have to sell my house? Do I have to sell my business? Do I have to give up everything?"
___He finally told his wife that "the Lord wants me to go and study to be ready for ministry, to be a pastor."
___"No," she replied, "I don't want to be a pastor's wife."
___They had worked so hard establishing the business, and they had signed a contract tobuild a new house.
LUIS SURA
___Soon after, Mrs. Sura went away for a week at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in North Carolina. While she was away, the contractor came back to Sura with a demand for $10,000 more before starting the house. Sura balked, and the contract dissolved. When his wife returned home, she said, "You know, the Lord has called me as well."
___Their pastor, Saenz, had attended Hispanic Baptist Theological School. He recommended they do the same. They visited, and "right away I told her I think this is the place, and she agreed with me," Sura said.
___They virtually had to give away the business; and in August 2000, the couple and their two children moved to an apartment on campus at the San Antonio school. Both husband and wife enrolled in classes.
___Within a few months, Sura had been called as pastor of the Comfort congregation, a mission sponsored by First Baptist Church of Boerne and also supported by Comfort Baptist Church. They started with about 10 people in attendance, no Sunday School teachers and no Sunday School books; but they had "very good music," he said.
___Attendance has grown to 34 in Sunday School and 45 to 50 in worship in less than a year.
___"I fell in love with the whole people," Sura said. "I felt like I was connected with them" because of their mutual Mexican heritage.
___Near the church is a community populated almost entirely with people from Durango, Mexico, Sura's hometown.
___He left Mexico with a dream of making money and then returning home. He made the money and then gave it up. Now God has given him a piece of home in Texas.
___Whether he ever returns to Mexico "now depends on the Lord," Sura said. "If he wants me to go back, I will go back. If he wants me to stay here, I will stay."
___
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