Walking in Spiritual Darkness

My current Spanish teacher and I are taking one or two field trips a week during class so that I can have a break from classwork at the table and practice Spanish in different settings. Today we ventured a little further from home to a town called San Andres Itzapa, where many Mayan/indigenous people (among others) journey to visit the Temple of San Simon (also known as Maximon). Visiting this temple made me very sad, much in the way visiting Hindu temples in India made me sad. The people are praying to this statue, lighting candles, performing rituals, paying to be spiritually "cleansed" by the brujos (witchdoctors), etc. All I could see were people desperate for hope, for love, for a Savior but looking in the wrong direction.

At one point, one of the brujos was patting me on the back and saying something I couldn't understand, which compelled me to pray. I prayed not only for myself but also for the people in the temple who so desperately need to encounter Truth. Inside the temple, I saw a man carry his little baby up to the statue and allow a bruja to perform a cleansing ritual on both of them. Outside the temple, we watched as a brujo performed a ritual around a campfire of sorts to cleanse a woman. When the fire began blowing in the opposite direction from where she was standing, the brujo explained to her that the direction of the fire indicated that the bad spirits within her were so bad that it would require more money and a longer ritual to cleanse her. We watched as she paid him around $65 to continue.

Please pray for these people who are walking in spiritual darkness.

Obscured Vision

I think it was a month or so ago that I got a bad eye infection, and I described my adventure in seeking medical expertise in my entry Always An Adventure. After a week and a half of antibiotic eyedrops, my eyes seemed fine and I tried wearing contacts again. Within a couple of days the infection was back. I removed my contacts again and used the eyedrops for another week. Finally, I was able to wear contacts again. That lasted a week or two. Then Sunday I discovered that the infection had returned. This time I stopped wearing contacts but did not use any eyedrops. My eyes have cleared up again, but I think I should take the hint that I am not supposed to wear contacts right now. One teacher told me that doctors here usually don't advise people to wear contacts because there is so much dust (and ash) in the air. For over a month now, it has been windier than it was before, which stirs up more dust in this dry season. (Occassionally it blows so hard that I have to close my eyes.) Furthermore, there has been road construction in front of my house for over a month now. My current teacher Ana and I have formed a hypothesis that these factors combined are probably the source of my problem. Dust, etc. has probably been getting under the contacts and irritating my eyes.
Please pray that I won't have any more problems with my eyes and that no permanent damage has been done.

Yet Another New Teacher

I wasn't progressing with Sara, my 5th teacher, so after just 2 weeks (instead of the typical 4) I changed teachers. Teacher #6 is Ana. I have already learned far more in 3 days than I did in the last two weeks, and the situation right now is very good. She understands that after 18 weeks, 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, I need a break from the table/class setting. So, for tomorrow she has planned the first of several little field trips during class time: we are going to the market in Antigua. Lots of potential new vocabulary there! I am so grateful for Ana this week.

The Power of a Gentle Breeze

This morning in class my teacher Sara asked me to read a passage from the Bible aloud and then explain it to her to practice my Spanish. It is hard for me to choose a passage in a sudden, open-ended situation like this. I flipped through a bit, and, without knowing why, settled on the parable of the servant who was forgiven yet refused to forgive in Matthew 18. I read it, retold it in my own words, and then related it to us who, as sinners, have been forgiven by God and should therefore be willing to forgive others. She immediately gave a "what-if" situation where it is really hard to forgive an egregious trespass. We talked about how it isn't easy but that it is possible to forgive with the God's help, then she admitted that she was sharing her own real story and that she is wrestling internally with this inability to forgive this person.
I asked her a couple of questions. First, if I carry anger in my heart, who is hurt more by this anger, me or the person with whom I angry? Second, is it possible for anger with another person and the love/peace of God to co-exist in my heart?
As we talked, I kept trying to decide what scripture to share with her. Our classes are held outside in a garden, and about this time a breeze began to flip the pages of my Bible. I looked down to see that it had stopped on Matthew 22 where Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment. I read this to Sara and explained that if we truly love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we will certainly forgive them and even go a step further to be kind to them.
God's methods never cease to amaze me. He guided me through the power of the wind He created. I don't know if these deep conversations will continue, but please continue to pray for guidance for me and for Sara. Also, please pray for her to be able to forgive this person who caused such deep pain in her family.

Sara

This is my first week with my fifth teacher, Sara. During the first couple of days, she mentioned that part of her family is Catholic and part is Jehovah's Witness. She goes to a Catholic Church fairly often, but is not devout. She also has repeatedly told me how she thinks all religions are good and that all worship the same God. Today she was explaining to me one of the many Guatemalan Catholic holidays and mentioned that it is symbolic of when the mother of Jesus crushed the head of the snake. I paused and then very politely asked her where we could find that story in the Bible. She said that she didn't know exactly.
I opened my Bible and shared with her from Genesis 3 where God tells the serpent that the son of the woman will crush his head. Sara got a little excited and said that I was sharing the same story she had shared. I agreed that it was the same story but pointed out that there was one important difference; that it was the Son, not the mother, who would crush the head of the snake. Sara shrugged off this difference and said that it is basically the same thing.
I was grateful for the opportunity to share this through conversation but was saddened by her lack of understanding. A few minutes later our conversation led us to talk about the fact that God gave us freewill. She commented that she thinks freewill is bad because it has led to so much pain, suffering, evil, etc. in the world. I agreed with her that the sin in the world has horrible consequences, but I also went on to explain that the world is Satan's kingdom and that only through free will can our worship have meaning. She wasn't following my point on that last part, so I gave her the first analogy that "popped" in my head. I asked her to imagine a marriage that was arranged by someone else; she would have no choice in who she married, and the marriage would not be for love. Then I asked her to contrast that with a marriage with a husband that she had chosen to love. I told her that this is what I was trying to say aobut our worship of God. If He forced it, what meaning would it have? What joy would it produce? If we choose it, it is based on a loving relationship and has amazing results. She was very excited by this analogy and the image it painted in her mind. She explained to me the customs of arranged marriages that exist in nearby indigenous villages and how they are unhappy. I am in awe of God's faithfulness to provide the words that I did not know would make such an impact.
Please pray for Sara to see the Truth and for me to have the right words to say at the right opportunities. Also, please continue to pray for our weekly Bible study with some national friends, which now meets at 4:30 on Thursdays.