Hey all! A couple of my teammates this month have posted some great blogs with pictures on Holy Week, which is this week in Guatemala. It’s a really crazy week to be here. Read below to see what is going on right now…..
Courtney’s blog on Holy Week:
This week as most everyone knows is Holy Week and known in Guatemala (and probably the rest of the spanish speaking world) as Semana Santa. To say it is an event is an understatement! Thousands of people are flooding into the city everyday for the festivities. There are processionals – envision a street carnival with a parade where men in purple robes carry HUGE statues of Jesus and Mary and others. Those floats (that are carried by men in purple and women in black) are followed by a band. As they are standing still the floats sway back and forth under the weight of the statue. Crowds are everywhere during these processionals and crowding close to get a view of them. I now understand how a stampede could begin with this amount of people and the excitement that they feel. Thurday night the city is awake all night with reenactments of Jesus’ trial and in the morning crucifixion.
Jesus reenactment in park Palm Sunday
There will be 5 processionals on Friday as they reenact Jesus death on the cross. Sadly only 1 processional on Sunday in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. I think something is wrong there, what do you think?
Please pray for the people of Guatmela. There is a lot of what seems to be idol worship within this holiday. There is also a real heaviness and burden on the people because they believe that they must pay for their sins to be forgiven. We know that is not the truth! Christ died and was made the propitiation for our sins (Romans 3, Hebrews 2) and we can do nothing to earn salvation or forgiveness. Pray for opportunities for us to share the hope of salvation through Christ alone, through grace alone, by faith alone! (Ephesians 2) We are blessed to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior in this country. But we are saddened to know most do not understand what an all powerful God we serve that he would send His only son to die on the cross and overcome death by being raised on the 3rd day. My teammate Lauren Morris found this scripture this week and it is very eerily similar to what we are seeing in the city streets of Antigua. Please pray and I will keep you up to date of what the Lord does this week in Antigua.
Jeremiah 10 3-17
3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
5 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.”
6 No one is like you, O LORD;
you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.
7 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.
8 They are all senseless and foolish;
they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
9 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.
10 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.
11 “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ”
12 But God made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
13 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.
14 Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
His images are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
15 They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
16 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.
Allison’s blog on Holy Week
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.
