8 July 2021

 

Today we went to Santa Elena, a village that was new to me. I and a few of us took the 5 minute flight and many went on motorcycles. This is a quite little village and people come from around area to get chronic care and to bring their sick children among other things.

 

The interesting case of today sheds some light on the spiritual beliefs of many of the people here.

 

 

Under the pink sock, the end of the right pinky toe on this girl has died and is falling off. This history is unclear as to why this has happened. She was seen in previous weeks and treated with antibiotics and things seemed to be improving, but today things did not look so good. I will spare you the picture.

 

We told the mother that the child needs surgery. There is an orthopedic surgeon known to the ministry who lives in Guatemala City and will be visiting the hospital soon. We sent some pictures and later got confirmation that he would be willing to see her. The mother allowed us to pray for the child. As we continued to talk with her through a Quiché translator, the story got a little weirder. The mother said that she talked to a “prophet” who told her that this was happening as a result of witchcraft that someone had done to her. That could be consistent with biblical teaching. However, he also told her that he could heal her through some special flowers with which he would do a special healing ceremony. That is the best I could understand it. And it would only cost her about the equivalent of $40 from him to do this (which is a decent amount of money here). That’s where it got really weird.

 

Over the years, I have found it impossible to understand the spiritual beliefs here. I can say there is a lot of “Christianity” of different forms and much of which has been very distorted. And there is a lot of witchcraft and Mayan spiritual practices. And often times the two get mixed together. Unfortunately, this is the first we time we have heard of a “healer” that charges a significant sum of money for his services. But I had never heard one referred to as “prophet” before.

 

Thankfully, there are many wonderful true followers of Christ here. And we continue to pray for and share the gospel with many through the Word and hopefully, through the testimony of our lives, as well.