amuzgo

Friday night Duane asked if Matt and I would like to accompany him to the town of Amuzgo for the weekend. We accepted and headed out on Saturday morning. Along the way we stopped in Pueblo Nuevo to pray with Gerardo's mom. Gerardo is a student at the base. A few months ago a man with a machete mistakenly entered in their home, thinking it was someone else's home, and attacked their family. He wrestled Gerardo to the ground and swung the machete at his mom, cutting her head open. She was taken to a hospital and is recovering but there is still a large part of her skull missing, leaving her brain covered only by skin. She has to be extremely careful not to hit her head. Her memory and vision are coming back, but she has lost the ability to read. They can’t afford the $5,000 surgery to fix her skull. We prayed for God to heal her head and her heart. She still has strong faith and knows that God is good. She also completely forgives this man, who is in the local prison. Matt feels lead to go there and minister to him.

After we left Pueblo Nuevo we headed over to the church in Amuzgo. Duane's purpose in going was to see the progress that the church has made there. We ate lunch with the pastor, Alejandro, and his family. What an interesting man! He speaks Amuzgo, Spanish, and English! He lived in the States for 8 years and owned a landscape company. He became a Christian and left his comfortable life in the States to come tell his people about Jesus. Now he has a church of about 300 Amuzgans, the first ever to become Christians.



We stayed the night at our friend Soco's house. We love Soco very much. She will be coming to Tulsa in January to study English for a year. Her father has a similar story in that he also went to the States, became a Christian, and came home to tell his family about Jesus. His family, however, rejected him, when he came back. And it wasn't until years later, when Soco accepted Jesus at a youth conference at Roca Blanca, that his family understood and accepted his decision. There is a lot of witchcraft and idolatry in the mountains of Mexico. It’s real and scary. They cast spells and put curses on people. That’s why it is so incredibly important to be strong in Faith when you come here. Soco’s mom used to practice “healing” with potions and things until she became a Christian. Now people come to her for real, spiritual healing and prayer. Their family has opened an Internet café near their house where they minister to the local people. Matt and I learned how to do the embroidery that the women do on the hand made clothes in the mountains!

Church the next morning started at 7 and lasted until 11!! Duane spoke and the pastor had to translate from Spanish to Amuzgo. Everyone looked beautiful in their hand made embroidered clothes. The people are so passionate and excited. It was wonderful to be a part of it. Our purpose here really sunk in during this service. We saw these people as another tribe that has been reached: the first Amuzgos ever to enter the Kingdom. They are reached because of the work that Duane established at Roca and the pastor who has dedicated his life to missions. What an amazing feeling it is to play a small but vital role in such a beautiful movement. Thanks to all of our supporters who are making such an eternal difference.



After church, Soco cooked a wonderful lunch and we ate way too much. They just kept feeding us! Everyone was so generous. Soco’s mom gave be a beautiful shirt that she made and sent us home with some more food. We stopped again to pray for Gerardo’s mom on the way home and we also stopped to see Cata, a cute little old lady who has known Duane for 30 years. Cata and her husband were the first Christians that Duane and Sue met when they came to this area 32 years ago. She told us of a dream she had where she went to heaven and everyone was dressed in white robes, dancing. She asked if she could dance, too. They told her, “not yet, you’re not here yet, go back and you can dance when you get to heaven.” And she woke up. Precious.