San Jose, Guatemala
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
.
In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride
The
other day each member of our Iris Latin America team signed up for
different ministries that were on their hearts as we are encouraging
them to minister in the areas that they are passionate about. People signed up to minister in the prisons, in the hospitals, to the children, to
the women and in the churches. These are all awesome areas of ministry
and I know that I will join the team at various times in these areas of
ministry. But I signed up to minister in the villages, especially among
the unreached people groups. We have a week to be able to explore our
passions in missions while waiting here in Guatemala for our vehicle to be repaired.
.
I began to pull out my ethno-linguistic maps to see what people groups were in this area. I saw a large area
populated by the Kekchi as well as the Maya Mopan people, both of whom
we have ministered to in Belize. But then I spotted a people group
called the Maya Itza in the area north of Lake Peten, which is the lake
we are staying near. I began to research Joshua Project online to see if
the Itza people group was listed. The Itza people weren't listed under
Guatemala, but when I searched for them further on Joshua project, they
were listed as an extinct language. From there I went to Google and
found out more about the Maya Itza. I began to see some conflicting
information about how many people speaking the Itza language were
living...numbering from a handful to over 1,900. Historically the Itza
capital was on Flores island in Santa Elena. These people occupied land
here in Guatemala all the way to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. They
were conquered by the Spanish in the 1600's and are now located only
here in the Lake Peten area. As I researched further, I found that the
Maya Itza worshipped and sacrificed to the winged serpent, which I have
seen all over the artwork and carvings of this area. It was evident that
the Maya Itza were in dire need of the transforming power of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. I then looked on Google Earth to see what cities were north of Lake Peten. I saw that the cities of San Jose and San Andreas were in this area. Just to confirm that the Maya Itza lived in these two cities I asked the locals who
worked at the hotel. They also confirmed that the Maya Itza live in
those two cities.
.
As
my passion and desire is to carry God's love and glory to the remaining
unreached and less-reached people groups, I decided to rent a
motorcycle with Jesse and drive around Lake Peten to do a scouting trip
so that others could join us in visiting these Itza towns later in the
week. So this morning we got on the motorbike that we rented from some
German hippies and set off toward San Jose and San Andreas. We took the
road just north of us in El Remate which turned out to be an unpaved
road all the way to San Jose. We noticed that all the people in this
area looked very indigenous. Jesse spotted a big black snake slithering
into the jungle as a huge bird almost flew into my face. We swirved
around the rocks and through the mud and water on the road.
.
After
about an hour and a half we reached San Jose, where we asked many
people where we could find someone who speaks the Maya Itza language.
They told us to find a man named Rejenaldo who lived up a huge hill near
the center of San Jose. Jesse got off the motorbike to hike up the
steep hill as I drove up. We finally found Rejenaldo, who was a white
haired older Mayan man. He was very polite and welcoming of Jesse and I.
We began by simply asking questions about the Itza language and
culture. He was a bit guarded about sharing information as other
universities have come to him in order to gather information. Rejenaldo
is only one of twenty Itza speakers in San Jose and is the chairman of a
committee that is trying to keep the Maya Itza language and culture
alive. He informed us that in 1950 everyone in San Jose spoke Itza but
now the younger generations are taught only Spanish in school. It is
difficult to spark interest among the Itza youth to retain their
language and culture. After sharing that we were missionaries and not
university students, Rejenaldo began to teach us some of the nearly
extinct Maya Itza language. Here are some examples:
.
Hello - Bishabel
How are you? - Bishia ni lech
I'm fine - Hach malo
Jesus loves you - No hoch tu ka a nil u ka tech
Thank you - Yos bo tik
Your welcome - Mish ba a li i
.
Maya
Itza is a beautiful language. We told Rejenaldo how precious the Maya
Itza were to Jesus. In fact, we were able to share the gospel of Christ
with Rejenaldo in Spanish. He was open to our message, but said that
others had come with an agenda to try and convert him, his family and
his village, to no avail. We made it clear that we were simply there to
share the love of God. As we entered Rejenaldo's home there was a table
against the wall with all of these bowls containing food and candles
burning and a cross. We asked him if they were Catholic. He said they
weren't Catholic but followed the religion of that area. As he explained
the significance of these bowls and how they were offered to ancestors
and used for healing purposes of sick people in the village, Jesse and I
realized just how unreached and steeped in paganism and witchcraft the
Maya Itza people truly are.
.
Our
scouting trip today was a success as we were able to locate the almost
extinct Maya Itza people group and share the gospel and love of Jesus
with one of the last remaining Itza speakers. We informed Rejenaldo that
we would be bringing our team to San Jose later this week to minister
and love on the Maya Itza people. We then prayed with Rejenaldo; that
God would resurrect the Maya Itza language through him and that he would
feel the presence, love, peace and joy of Holy Spirit. I hope that
Rejenaldo will be home later this week when we return. There is such a
desire in the heart of God for His Maya Itza bride to be brought to the
wedding feast of the Lamb. We pray that the seeds planted today would
bear much fruit and that we will have the opportunity to lead many Maya
Itza to Christ. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer for this very
thing.
Jesse
and I finished our scouting trip by riding our motorbike around the
other side of Lake Peten and praying around the island of Flores. It
took us a total of around three hours total to ride around the entire
lake, which is Guatemala's second largest lake.
.
Christian Young
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