On Easter Sunday, the LAC congregation witnessed the baptism of Christian Ricca. Christian is a devoted security guard at Lake Avenue Church. Over the course of this past year, Christ has been revealing himself to Christian in radical ways. These encounters with Christ have greatly impacted him and led him to develop a personal relationship with the Lord.
“I grew up in a Catholic home. My father is a big Roman Catholic. As for me, I did pretty well growing up as a Catholic, but I never really believed in anything. I believed there was a God, but I was always afraid of asking Him for help. My friends growing up were really into Scientology so I got into it for a while until I realized that it was very far from the truth and eventually distanced myself from it,” said Ricca.
At an early age, Christian decided that he was not interested in practicing religion. When members of his family would pray at the dinner table and then would walk out of the room. Although he dabbled in some religious communities such as Catholicism and Scientology, he hadn’t been convinced of their legitimacy.
Christian’s brother Daniel was one of the main influences that ultimately led him towards Christ. Every morning, Daniel would read a verse of Scripture to Christian, but Christian would toss and turn and tell him to go away.
“Eventually though, Daniel planted a seed in my heart that grew into the faith I have today,” said Ricca.
While the example of Christian’s older brother Daniel had a tremendous impact on his faith, Christian did not personally experience the presence of Christ until his youngest brother, Anthony underwent a traumatic injury. Anthony was a security officer at the Staples Center and while he was at work one day, a car hit him while on his motorcycle. He was severely injured and doctors doubted whether he would ever recover from the accident.
“When the doctor told my mother and me that my younger brother was never going to be the same and that chances were they would have to remove him from life support, I went into the chapel and I really questioned God and was very angry. I dropped to my knees, looked up to the sky, and said ‘God, my father, if you really do exist, don’t take my little brother away. If you do take him, tell me why.’ In that moment, the door opened up and a doctor came in and put his hand on my shoulder. He said Christian, ‘Why are you doing this? I will not take what you love. Your brother is fine. He has reacted to light, so his brain is going to be okay. Get up and go with him, be by his side.’ If it wasn’t Jesus who carried me through this river, I don’t know who it was,” said Ricca.
When recounting the details of this miraculous experience. Christian was very confident that he had encountered Christ on that day.
“For the first time in my life, I called out to my father, and He sent His Son to tell me that everything was going to be alright. From that day on, I knew there was something more for me. There is a God. He does listen to you. If he doesn’t answer you in that moment, He will answer at some point. All you have to do is what they say – keep the faith,” said Ricca.
This experience was followed by many others that challenged his faith and made him into the man of God that he is today. Over the course of this past year, Christian has faced many trials while protecting the LAC community and seeking to grow in his faith. Regardless of the varied circumstances that come up while he is on the job, Christian has commented that he feels at home in the LAC community.
A recent encounter on a Sunday morning ultimately solidified his desire to get baptized and fully commit his life to Christ. Christian was confronted by a man outside the Lake community who harshly questioned his faith by asking who he believed in more, God or Jesus. When Christian responded by saying, “I believe in Jesus because He gave his life for us, and believe in God as my Creator, so I believe in both of them,” the man just smiled and walked away. Christian has not seen this man since. “Being here on a Thursday night and hearing the voices of the choir echo through the hallways is a beautiful thing. Working at Lake and having all these chances to experience God helped continue to grow my faith,” said Ricca.
Christian, like all of us, is certainly not done growing in his walk with the Lord; there will always be new challenges and joys that will stretch us in our faith. Although his testimony is not complete, we can rejoice that our new brother is a fellow laborer in Christ who has surrendered himself to His service.