A Ministry for the Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst the Indigenous Maya of the Guatemalan Interior
A Ministry for the Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst the Indigenous Maya of the Guatemalan Interior
We first learned of the conditions of Guatemala on a trip in February, 2006, while serving alongside a missionary couple working among the Mayan Kekchi in the northern highlands.
Our first visit came on the heels of the nine year anniversary marking the nine short years that had passed since the peace accords were signed in December, 1996, marking an official end to Guatemala's 36 year civil war that had begun in 1960 - a war that deeply affected the soul of the nation and all its inhabitants, especially the indigenous population - an event that virtually eliminated the middle class and plunged the indigenous population further into inescapable poverty and broken families. By the early 80s, the Guatemalan government had adopted a scorched-earth policy against the Mayan indigenous and the Guatemalan genocide had begun. By 1983, over 620 massacres had been conducted throughout rural Guatemala. Figures vary, but it is conservatively estimated that over 200,000 people were killed, over 40,000 people were "disappeared", with 85% of the total casualties being Mayan. Sadly, the Guatemalan Civil War has gone down in history as the longest and bloodiest civil war in Latin-American history.
Guatemala has been steeped in both animism and Roman Catholicism - the former since it's inception and the latter since the Spanish Conquest began in 1521. If a new believer in Guatemala were to ask an American, “How long has your country known the biblical Gospel?” Sadly, they would be obligated to tell them the truth..."we have known it for hundreds of years now..."
One day, a 4 1/2 year old boy in the U.S. asked the question, “What if nobody who speaks Kekchi will want to become a Christian?” Someone responded, "Well, nobody wants to become a Christian until God changes their heart.” And this is what our confidence is in...He who changes the heart!