Spiritual support before a ride

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 18th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: praying for cowboys.

We recently took you inside the world of freestyle bullfighting. Those fearless daredevils don’t just dodge bulls. They shield fallen cowboys from a pounding.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Todd Vician talked to one city slicker who saddles up to those cowboys with a bigger prize in mind: 8-seconds of fame here, and eternity beyond.

SOUND: [Sound of gate opening, bull riding until buzzer]

TODD VICIAN: When the rodeo’s in town, John Olivarez is there. But he’s not in the stands. Instead he’s making his way to the pens where cowboys strap themselves on top of a bull or a bronco for a short, violent ride.

OLIVAREZ: My first instance back here,I could feel somebody breathing on me. And so I look, and it was actually a bull. You actually do see steam come out of their nose. So that's just like, yeah, when the cartoons and it's coming out steam actually does come out of their nose.”

Olivarez is a “chute minister” at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. He joins a posse of Cowboy Church volunteers that spend about 3 hours each night surrounded by 6-foot high fencing holding back powerful animals. Olivarez has just a few seconds to pray with the men before they’re thrust into the spotlight.

OLIVAREZ: These cowboys come far from home. These cowboys are missing their families…and of course they’re ailing from injuries that they sustained. They’re just humble guys. They want to receive that blessing. No one ever turns down a blessing or a prayer. It's a dangerous sport.

Olivarez sports a clean-shaven head hidden by a crisp, black cowboy hat. He was raised on 40 acres, surrounded by animals, barns, and lots of dirt. It’s what he and many others at the stock show call the cowboy lifestyle. He watched his father minister at the rodeo for over 10 years and wanted to follow in his dad’s boot-steps. But like the Prodigal Son, Olivarez didn’t take the easy trail.

OLIVAREZ: I fell off my horse five years ago, where I was just going through a really bad time in my life, where, you know, I was trying to get my marriage together, because I was working out of town and things like that. So I ended up coming back home, and I ended up reuniting with my parents. My father and I have always had a good relationship but I think the Lord led me back home, because I just lost my father three years ago.

He began this Sunday by ushering at the Cowboy Church where bluejeans, boots, and big belt-buckles are in fashion…

MUSIC: It’s written he’ll come down riding on a big white stallion…

and the music, western.

MUSIC: …With a band of angels hot on his trail…

As the preacher sauntered up to the podium in the auction barn, Olivarez helped two late-comers find empty seats among the 300 worshipers in folding chairs and bleachers.

MUSIC: … just some good cowboys to save from a burnin’ hell.

After the service, Olivarez entered his arena.

OLIVAREZ: Down here you’ll have your Broncs. And, yeah, once they see these guys coming out, man, they get raged. They know what it’s time for.

At about 5 and ½ feet tall and slender, the 46-year old easily walks between the pens restraining dangerous animals. Like the preacher-turned-auctioneer he’s not tongue-tied.

OLIVAREZ: I just get straight to the point, you know, give them what they need to hear. And that's what we need to do. Just get straight to the point, you know, you know, straight to Jesus.”

Olivarez stops one of the cowboys tightening a rope for his horse before the Charraeda, a Mexican rodeo. He asks if he can pray for him, and word spreads quickly.

OLIVAREZ: My name is John.

Soon more than 20 chap-wearing cowboys are standing around him.

OLIVAREZ: And I just want to pray a blessing on y’all’s lives...Father, God, we come before you right now in your mighty name…

Olivarez prays with cowboys most nights in the nearly three week rough and tumble rodeo. Many participants thank him, especially when he prays over them while the medics tend to their injuries.

OLIVAREZ: I want to penetrate their minds and their hearts, because I want them to be able to be like, ‘You know what; he prayed for me. I don't know his name, but the little guy at the cowboy church at San Antonio. I hope he's there next year, because he prayed for me.’ And that's all I want.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician in San Antonio, Texas.

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