Edgar Pizarro

In September 2010, I met Edgar Pizarro, a 25-year old Chilean exchange student. WVU was not a college of his choice when he applied to study abroad a year prior. But God’s plans are perfect. Edgar arrived in the fall and was instantly captivated by WVU college life. The loose culture indulged his senses and amplified his temptations. A slave to sin, God gave Edgar up to the lust of his heart, to impurity, and to the dishonoring of his body. Every day professors, text books, college clubs, other students and even trusted friends bombard college students with promises of joy and hope grounded in philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the eternal spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. After exploring many so-called promises, Edgar questioned, “Why am I so miserable?”

Week after week, a few friends and I would visit the WVU international dormitory to attend cultural presentations, befriend the 30+ diverse students, and visit before BCM on Tuesday nights. “You all were different,” Edgar would later recall.

On one of our many commutes to the tennis courts, Edgar expressed his curiosity – “You are always happy. Why?”

“It’s not that we are always happy. On the contrary, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted; but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Indeed, our lives are one with Christ; that immovable truth empowers us to live every day with joy.”
In October, Edgar attended BCM once and promised to return. By chance encounter, we also studied the Bible together one night. Despite incessant, tear-filled prayers, I rarely saw him for the remainder of the semester. He disappeared into Morgantown night life.


“God only ordains our deep disappointment and profound suffering for the sake of far greater joy in the glory he will reveal to us.” – Jon Bloom


To my surprise, Edgar contacted me shortly after Christmas. “I’m returning for spring semester!” he exclaimed over the long-distance call from South America.
“Can you pick me up at Pittsburgh airport?”

A week later, we sat together in a Ma & Pa Burger Restaurant. Me – intrigued by what God had up His sleeve. Edgar – exhausted from travelling and covered with a film of recirculated airplane air. “Nick, I have something I have to tell you,” Edgar stared at me through droopy, but alert eyes; this was a phrase I would become very familiar with. “On the airplane, I was reading Apocalipsis [Revelation] from the Bible you gave me and I know Jesus is coming back. He is going to judge everyone.”

“God Himself has revealed this to you,” I responded.

“Don’t forget about me. And search for me when I don’t call you,” Edgar said with fear cracking his voice.

For the next 3 months, our paths didn’t intersect. Occasional text messages and Facebook posts read, “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” I had my doubts. My suspicion was confirmed when Edgar called me one day late in March. “Can I sleep at your house?” he barely muttered through choked breaths. The lies that had promised Edgar joy and hope had been exposed, and God revealed to him the weight of their emptiness and malice. And the Most High, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made Edgar alive together with Christ. Indeed, by grace, Edgar was saved.

In the following months, Edgar discovered his newfound faith in Christ through study of Scripture, prayer, daily intercession, fasting, dreams, countless tears, trial after trial, falling back into sin, surrender, his BCM family, sermons, words of encouragement from brothers and sisters in the faith, song, rebuke, baptism, and trust in the One True God.

Today, Edgar is back in Antofagasta, Chile. He has a deep passion for reading God’s Word, his close friend has placed her faith in Christ, some of his family has started attending church with him, and he plans to help plant a church with the American missionary he has been meeting with weekly to study the Bible.

Edgar and I now sing together:

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,

and you have healed me.

O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol;

you restored me to life when I made my bed in Hell.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,

and give thanks to his holy name.

For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night

but joy comes with the morning.


Bible verse references:
Romans 1:24-25
Colossians 2:8
2 Corinthians 4:8
Ephesians 2:4-5
Psalms 30:2-5