Tranquility hides fear
It was a beautiful day here, and a perfect afternoon for a visit in the village. I ended up at Catalina’s house.
Catalina’s children are all grown, and have children of their own, but some of the kids and grandkids are usually living with Catalina and her husband. This past year one of the daughters had twins. Since this daughter’s husband works outside of the community, she stays here with her mom. It works pretty well for them, because I think that the twins keep both the mom and grandma busy! It has been fun to see the baby boy and girl growing.
On this particular afternoon when I arrived at Catalina’s house, the twins had just been put in their hammocks for a nap. Catalina pulled close an upside-down bucket for me to sit on, and soon we were drinking tereré tea. From where I sat I could only see one of the hammocks. As we drank tereré Grandma Catalina diligently kept the hammock swinging by pulling on a rope that was attached to the hammock.
Soon the mother of the twins joined us. That’s when I realized where the other hammock was. It was just out of sight off to the side of the house. The mom had her rope too – a longer one, since the hammock she was swinging was further away. I couldn’t help but smile. The twins were sleeping peacefully, gently swinging in their hammocks.
The tranquility of the moment was amazing really, if you consider that we were sitting outside and there were at least four dogs that I counted in the yard, a number of chickens, and a parrot in the tree above. Before long, Catalina got up and brought me a still-warm sweet potato, done just right, and so very good. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit that afternoon. Spending time at Sanapaná homes is one of my favorite things to do.
Our Sanapaná friends are experts at the simple life. They make it look easy, when we know it is not. How we admire them for this!
But we wish that the tranquil snapshot of life that we have just shared with you was the whole story. The reality is that underneath it all runs a strong current of fear, distrust and unhappiness. The rivalry between them as a people often enters into the spirit realm, and they are genuinely and constantly afraid that something bad is going to happen to them as a result of this. Is true peace really possible?
We pray that someday these twins, as well as many other Sanapanás, will find the peace that comes from understanding and accepting the truth of God’s Word. That’s why John is translating God’s Word into their language. That’s why we continue to work at learning their culture and language.
We need and appreciate you who join us in praying for the Sanapaná people. Thank you so much!