This past Saturday night the team and I decided we desperately needed to get out of the house and do something fun so we headed to Sarita for some ice cream! 🙂
At the ice cream shop God intervened and introduced us to one of his precious son’s that needed to hear of his love and freedom that began in such a hilarious way. Our conversation began over a bloody pimple on one of my teammate’s necks. (Welcome to the WR, this is really my life…) He walked over, introduced himself in proficient English, asked how our ice cream was, and then asked if my bleeding teammate was alright. We stayed at the ice cream shop for nearly an hour and a half talking with this man named Edwardo. He told us about his life and his religion and we told him about ours. That night I had the opportunity to tell him the christian gospel and the freedom found in it.
Edwardo, like 95% of the people in Chichicastenango, is Mayan.
The indigenous Mayans here believe in a mixture of Catholicism and Mayan spirituality that relies greatly on sacrifices. Edwardo told me about all of the candles that he lights: white is for purification, red is for the power of the flesh (love, courage,vitality, etc), yellow candles represent wisdom, creativity, and concentration, green candles are for success and a plentiful harvest, and black represents health and the neutralizing of negative energies. People here offer God these candles as well as money, alcohol, and small animals such as chickens.
After our chat at the ice cream shop we invited him to join us at church the next morning. Unsure but hopeful that he would come we walked home.
The most disappointing part of my week was when we arrived at church last Sunday morning and he wasn’t there. I began to ask God why he wouldn’t lead him back to us and open up another opportunity for Edwardo to learn more about Christianity. Just a few minutes after my prayer of questioning and confusion I turned around to see Edwardo walking through the door and over to our bench. The best part of my week was this moment of an answered prayer. Like God was saying, “Look Kyndal, place your trust in me. I know what I’m doing!” Throughout the church service I prayed continuously that God would reveal his freedom and perfect love to my new friend and this is still my prayer.
After church Edwardo asked me the most striking question, “What will you do with the rest of your day? How many hours will you pray? This service was very short.” The concern in his voice left me feeling the bondage he had in his heart. He then asked if we could walk to his church with him so that he could pray- to which i joyfully said yes. We had a great conversation about Christianity as we weaved our way through the market venders, tourists, stray dogs, and even a local carrying a small pig. We finally arrived at the steps of the Catholic church, walked in, bowed and prayed at the pews, and then asked Edwardo more questions about his faith.
The experience I had was unexplainable but I will attempt to put into words the feeling I had as I left to walk home. I felt for the first time in two months a burning and undeniable passion to share the freedom found in the gospel to all of the people here that feel bound to sacrifices.
Hebrews 10:10 says, “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.” We are no longer bound to earthly sacrifices because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for ALL of us. The maker of the universe sacrificed his only perfect son so that we can live freely for eternity. Let this sink in and then GO and proclaim it!
