Day two of visiting San Lucito, my team had just finished meeting with our new hosts, Veronica and Horjah. We decided for the latter half of the day that we were going to walk around and pray and see what happens.
So we started walking. We walked up and down a few streets until we came to this one door. The door was open and in it we could see a man and woman standing at the entrance and a few other people inside. We walked up to the door and started talking with them, well May, our translator, did. After a few minutes of talking he apologizes and invites us in his home. He let’s us in and explains that his father passed away two days prior so his entire family were visiting his home for nine days to mourn. They set up chairs and offered us agua (aka coke). They tell us all about their Myan heritage, the history of Guatemala and a little bit about their lives. At the end of our time with them, the man tells us how his father would always welcome in missionaries because they were bringing the Word of God and he wanted to do the same. We prayed for them and then left. Before we left, they welcomed us to come back any time once their nine days of mourning are over.
This experience reminded me of a story in the Bible. In Matthew 14, Jesus has just found out that John the Baptist has passed away. When Jesus hears of this He retreats to a place by Himself, but a crowd follows Him. Instead of turning the crowd away, Jesus choses to love the people and heal them. At the end of the day, His disciples tell Jesus to turn all the people away because they have no food to feed them, but Jesus tells His disciples to let them stay. Jesus then preforms a miracle and feeds ALL the people. All 5,000!
The man who opened his house to us after his father had passed away really showed us the love and hospitality of Jesus. He reminded my team and I how we should live, even in our darkest days, with arms and hearts open.
