Holy Week to me has unfortunately never meant much more than a few extra church services and Easter candy. Of course, it was a time of personal reflection on the sacrifices and power of Jesus, but I never really celebrated Holy Week persay.
Here in Guatemala that is about to change. Semana Santa (Holy Week in Spanish) is in full swing in Antigua and I have never seen anything like it. They tell us that upwards of a million people will flood the city in the next four days and celebrations go all night long.
Processionals go all day long, which are really like huge street festivals in which Jesus and Mary are carried through the streets on huge floats. Roads are closed, business shut down, pickpockets galore, and street food much like the Ohio State Fair everywhere you look.
It is easy to get swept up in the carnival atmosphere of things, but like everything else there is a sobering spiritual reality to be dealt with as well. The floats are carried by men and women who spend hard-earned money to walk with the floats and pay for their sins. They pay per block and believe that they must pay to cleanse their souls. Idol worship runs rampant here and we are constantly reminded of idol worship from places like Thailand and Cambodia. The spiritual climate is extremely heavy and oppression is everywhere you look. The religious burden these people carry every day is only magnified as they CARRY their floats through the streets.
Please pray for the people of Guatemala. Pray that they come to know the Jesus who came to carry their burdens for them. Pray they come to know the ONE who came to give abundant life. Pray that we would have opportunities to share with them, pray that we would have the words to reflect a life free from burdens.
We came across Jeremiah 10:3-17 this week as we prayed for this country and it so perfectly depicts our hearts for the people here.
For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good.”
No one is like you, O LORD;
you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.
Who should not revere you,
O King of the nations?
This is your due.
Among all the wise men of the nations 
and in all their kingdoms,
there is no one like you.
They are all senseless and foolish;
they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish
and gold from Uphaz.
What the craftsman and goldsmith have made
is then dressed in blue and purple—
all made by skilled workers.
But the LORD is the true God;
he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure his wrath.
“Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the
earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ” [a]
But God made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
His images are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things,
including Israel, the tribe of his inheritance—
the LORD Almighty is his name.
