Witchcraft 101 and some other stuff 10/9/10
When we arrived Pastor Ben told us of all the challenges we would face in Panajachel. For two hours he shared stories of a community broken by addiction, incest, poverty, unbelief, witchcraft and, oppressive churches where a pastor was “anointing� the female congregants breasts and upper thighs for “blessings�. We heard about fathers and grandfathers who came home so drunk they couldn’t tell their sons or daughters apart from their wives and in some cases fathered children with their own family members. I felt discouraged being presented with all that we were up against but decided to see it as more of an opportunity to rely on my Father for strength and to see him glorified in even greater ways than I had imagined. I had no idea that this is the kind of warfare we will be fighting. I have always thought of spiritual warfare as battling unbelief, I never even considered people who make deals with the devil or find it perfectly normal to incorporate witchcraft in their worship of Jesus, that is how distorted their understanding of the Gospel is. My understanding is that the witchcraft here is similar to voodoo or Santeria with varying levels of occult involvement. I guess these are all forms of unbelief but I just didn’t realize where God was leading us, but I now see why we are here, cause of such a great need for Him. We saw people walking around town holding a large crucifix and asking for money; Ben told us that they would beg for money all day and use the proceeds to fund their rituals in the evening. I now realize how important it is to know what we are sowing into, to not only be led by the spirit but to seek his guidance in things even as simple as dropping change into a beggars cup. Knowing myself I might freak out and stop giving all together afraid I’ll fund satan worshiping cannibals but I am reminded that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind� 2Tim 1:7 And we are not asked by Jesus to give to those who seem reputable or trustworthy, we are simply asked to give, “Give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.� Matt 5:42
My heart is breaking for this community, for children who hustle all day for just a few dollars. As I started talking to Jose, a little boy trying to sell me head bands I thought about his boldness. He, a defenseless child, walks up to strangers every day, over and over again trying to sell what he has. He gets rejected time and time again but just keeps going even when people ignore his very presence.
Our circumstances and quite different, mine and Jose’s but I sometimes forget that I have the greatest gift of all to offer. If I were handing out free candy or pizza I would have a huge smile on my face thinking about how I get to brighten every ones day, but when I think of sharing the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ I get shy and assume that I am bothering people with something they don’t want to hear. That may be the case sometimes but it doesn’t change the fact that I do carry the truth with me and that is the very reason I’m here. I thank my squad mates for reminding me of this in a short video they made, I hate Coke but the message is still true. You can see the video here http://october2010.theworldrace.org/?filename=this-is-what-it-looks-like-by-team-lionheart
Despite how all this sounds I have been very happy and so thankful, reveling in the blessing that God handpicked me to follow and learn from him this year. I feel like I won the lottery! And perhaps an equally terrifying thing is that I have no doubt He will answer every prayer I’ve got: to be stripped of my petty desires, to die to myself and be more like Him, to be bold enough to go wherever He will lead me and to prefer Him above all others. This of course means I’ll have to learn to go without, be broken so He can build me up like him, walking into the unknown by faith, and to offend people with the truth which is Jesus Christ.
