Her Story

I wanted to share the story of the teenage girl that accepted Christ the last night of the campaña. I won't share a photo of her or her name, so I think it's ok. You can still pray for her and God will know who you are talking about!

I shared a little of this story in our monthly newsletter, but many of you do not receive that and I wanted to share more of the story here as well.

We met a teenage girl on our first day of visitation for the new church plant. She and her sisters live with her mom; their dad left years ago. They get odd jobs here and there to survive, among those jobs being prostitution. She was the only one home when we went by. She lives in a little wood house with a dirt floor at the very end of town, close to our house. I remember her because she was surprisingly articulate for a teen and very kind to us.

A couple weeks ago we found out that she had become very ill. Witch doctors are a big part of Kekchi culture. If you are sick you would consult a witch doctor before ever going to a medical doctor. You see everything as spiritual, therefore you are sick for a spiritual reason. Either you made a god upset and he put a curse on you or another person did. If someone gets bad news from a witch doctor they often never see a medical doctor; one, because they don't have the money for medicine; and two, they truly believe the witch doctor.

Well, a witch doctor went by her house. He gave her some weeds to chew on to relieve the pain. His prognosis was that she was going to die and there was nothing that could be done. Her ailment was that someone had put a curse on her. Then the witch doctor told this story: A man came by and propositioned her, and she must have refused and that is why he put a curse on her. He then stated that this man must be found and killed.

Well she went with this story and actually gave this man a name... she accused one of our friends. He is a Christian who HAD been by there, but it was to take food to their family since he knew they were struggling. We were very saddened to hear this, especially because Jimmy was the one who had to tell our friend about the lies that were being spread about him since his life may be in danger.

Jimmy immediately got in contact with a private hospital telling them he would cover all her bills if they would take her. Tutor #4 drove her and her mom there. She was in the hospital for 2 days and after a series of antibiotics, she completely recovered… so much for the witch doctor’s claims.

Helping this girl was honestly a struggle for me as we were helping someone whose lies were hurting our friend. That might sound cold, but that is how I felt. Yet, God was clearly directing Jimmy to help. I just sat back and watched. I wanted to see how the story would end. I knew it would help me understand more about His grace... He knows I am a visual learner!

She ended up attending all 3 of our weekend services and on the last night she accepted Christ! Her mom thanked us and said that no one has ever helped them like that before. Please pray for this girl and her family, that they will ALL come to know Him and that they will grow in their relationship with the Heavenly Father!

God loves even those who hurt his own.