Peter grew up in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, where the fastest way to get money was to take it. One night he tried to steal a car. It went wrong, and as he ran, the police opened fire and a bullet found him.
In that instant, with his life pouring out of him, an old memory surfaced. His mother had told him something years before. "My mother had always told me that even if it were the last minute of my life, if I repented, God would forgive me of my sins," he said. "And that time had come."
The last minute became the first So on the ground, bleeding, Peter repented. He did not die. He lived, and the man who got up was not the man who had gone down. The car thief became a follower of Jesus, then a husband, then a father, then a pastor in the same favela that had nearly buried him.
He is not an anomaly there. Across Rio's favelas, men and women who were written off by everyone are meeting Jesus and walking out of gangs, out of addiction, out of despair. Viviane, once trapped in prostitution, found the same freedom and was baptised into a new life.
The last minute of Peter's old life turned out to be the first minute of his real one. Whatever you think is too late, Jesus specialises in the last minute.
