It’s hard to believe, but we are almost half-way through our ministry here in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. For the first week we were visiting homes in Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas (we actually live just between the two port towns) helping with a radio marathon. Our main contact here in Puerto Barrios is through a radio station, Radio Shofar. Though there are several Christian radio stations in the area, it is the only one that is not supported by only one church, but many different churches.
One day Janina and I were visiting homes with one of our Guatemalan friends named Dennis. We came to a home where there was an elderly woman named Mari lying in the hammock out front. We spoke with her for a moment about the radio. Then we both felt a strong leading to pray for this woman. She said that she had chronic back pain and we could see that she had advanced cataracts in her eyes. She told us that she did not have the funds for all the medicine she needs. Janina and I prayed for her and we returned with the whole team later in the day. As our team prayed over Mari big tears began to flow from her eyes. Before we knew it she was hugging each one of us. We returned again this past Wednesday. We speak broken Spanish and understand about half of the many things Mari tries to share with us. But we love her, and we tell her that over and over in her native language.
Just yesterday we were in the market with loudspeakers. We shared testimonies from our year, sang some worship songs, and performed a drama that was coupled with a sharing of the gospel. After we were done sharing our messages the fifteen of us split up to speak with people and to pray with them. I met a man in a wheelchair name Marlo. He said he had a son who was fifteen who lived with him and a son who was nineteen who lived in Mexico. He has no wife. I talked to him for a long time about God and the Church. He said he believed in God, He believed Jesus was the son of God who brought salvation, and that he recognized the Holy Spirit. But he said he was not a Christian. He said he used to be evangelical. Between my broken Spanish and my ignorance of the social weight that terms like “Christian”, “Evangelical”, and “Catholic” carry here, it was difficult for me to fully understand his viewpoint.
In the end Marlo let me pray for him. The entire time that our team shared our stories and messages over the loudspeaker, Marlo was listening intently with a friend of his. I was reminded of a man in Africa earlier this year. Although his village of only a few hundred people had five churches, he said we brought a Gospel that he had never heard before. Ben also talked to a man in the market yesterday who said he believed in God but he did not go to church because the church expected money and big families.
Sometimes I take for granted that I was raised in a home where God is love. I was taught the reality of the Gospel: that we are saved by Grace for the sake of Freedom. I forget that when we enter an area and preach love, it might sound different than what people have heard before. Even though we are very comfortable walking door-to-door and praying for people, it still means much more to them to receive those prayers than it every will to us to offer them.
