Encounter with Quetzalcoatl... the feathered serpent

Quetzalcoatl, feathered-serpent god.

In my previous blog I mentioned that I would be apart of a team of missionaries heading to the village, Xalitla (Sha-lit-la), in the state of Guerrero. It is a village that pertains to the Nahuatl indigenous group. The drive to reach this particular village is about 9 hours from the missionary base, Roca Blanca. The main industry or means of income of this town is the painting of ceramic pots or on amate (rustic parchment made from bark). Many of the paintings have depictments of the ancient Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered-serpent. Currently there is no established church in this particular village.

After the ardeous 9 hour drive, we alighted from our vehicles into the scorching heat of Xalitla. We were definitely not mentally prepared for the 110 degree weather that we encountered. I remember distinctly walking from the vehicle to the house we were to be staying at and thinking that heat was radianting up from the ground and it felt like we were walking around in an oven. The thought occured to me that we would easily convince the village of their need for salvation with the fact that hell was even hotter than Xalitla and the afterlife with out Jesus would be to suffer eternally in the heat of Hades. But as it turns out, the message of the Jesus' love and redemption was more than sufficient for the task at hand.

One of the things that I remember most about our arrival was that within twenty minutes on of the other missionaries had brought a guitar and proceeded to play several worship songs while the other missionaries joined in during the process of unpacking. From what we learned from the villagers, we might possibly have been the first group of foreign missionaries to have come to Xalitla. So how exciting it was to be counted among the first to offer up songs of praise and worship to the God of all creation in thi remote village.

During our time in this Nahuatl village, we broke up into pairs and went to do home visits and to invite children and their parents to the children's outreach we were organizing in the evening. The living condition of the villagers was considerably below the national poverty level of Mexico. The homes were were invited into were very humble. There were dirt floors, outside kitchen and bathroom facilities. But the generousity and hospitality that we encountered, made one think that we were being received into the greatest mansions and sitting rooms Mexico had to offer.

The pinnacle of our time in Xalitla, undoubtedly was in the afternoon during the children's event. Approximately 250-300 people were in attendance. The children's minister that organized and lead the outreach did a stellar job of presenting the gospel in a way that both child and adult alike were able to fully grasp and ultimately repond to. A vast majority of the children and several adults responded to the call of salvation and gave their lives to Jesus that day. After the teaching, craft time, and altar call, we were able to pass out approximately 200 giftboxes from the Samaritan's Purse organization. We are looking into sending a second time in the very near future. As the Lord brings to your mind this village please intercede that the town of Xalitla will continue to be open to the Gospel and that a church will be able to be planted there. Xatlitla is nestled in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico is essentially the doorway, we believe, that will lead us to even more remote Nahuatl villages.