Discovering the only real comfort
Leyo doesn’t live a life of ease. She lives in a little house with about two dozen family members. She works beside her husband planting and harvesting six large cornfields. She also gardens, cooks and cleans for her children and grandchildren.
Leyo worries about being able to feed and clothe her family. She fears the evil spirits and feels certain they come around to terrorize her at night in the frequent lightning and thunderstorms of this rainy season. Leyo is anxious, too, about being cursed by her neighbor or tormented by dreaded territorial spirits.
Recently Leyo and missionary Rachel Chapman were visiting over coffee and Rachel saw a great opportunity to ask a language question she had been wondering about.
“I asked her to explain a new word, kochishti,” says Rachel.
Leyo took a deep breath and started to explain. According to tribal traditions, kochishti is a tiny animal that only tribal people can get inside them. It is a very dangerous thing and can cause you to die. It invades little babies soon after they are born and keeps growing as they grow. And Leyo said that the kochishti must be removed by a witchdoctor or it would cause great harm.
Then Leyo looked at Rachel longingly. “You live so comfortably. You don’t have this sickness and you don’t need witchdoctors,” she expressed.
Rachel thought for a moment then replied, “That is because I know God. God is big—bigger than the saints; bigger than the evil spirits; bigger than anything. He has so much power and He is good and takes care of me. That is why I live comfortably.”
Rachel’s heart is heavy for her friend, Leyo. She remembers another conversation that she and Leyo had several months ago. She remembers reading to her from the Spanish Bible about the flood that once covered the world. That day Rachel told her, “These are God’s words. Someday, when I know your language better, I will write God’s words in Nahuatl so that the Nahuatl people can know God, too.”
Rachel rejoices to think that this day is growing closer. By God’s grace, very soon Rachel and her co-worker, Katie Moore, will have reached a level in Nahuatl culture and language study that will allow them to teach literacy and write books for the Nahuatl people.
And it is Rachel’s fond hope that God’s Word will capture Leyo’s heart and increasingly teach her to lay down her fears and dread and draw her to great hope in God’s provision of a Savior and Redeemer.
Rachel hopes and prays toward the day when her friend, Leyo, will live in the deep comfort of knowing Christ, too.
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