Friends,
Greetings from cold and gray Lima.
I got a quick request for prayer from Ismael, a former student. You may remember that Nan and I were in Guatemala from October of last year until March. I taught several courses to native speakers of Indian languages from several different countries in the Americas. One of my students from that course is a university student in Bogota, Colombia. He is headed back to his home village during these days between semesters. He is one of just a very few Christians in his entire language group. He has heard that village elders have looked on his conversion to Christianity as a very bad thing and that they plan to reign him in and force him to return to the religion of his ancestors. He says that he is willing to die for his faith.
His situation is quite delicate. The Colombian constitution supports and respects as personal the decision to follow any religion that a citizen would want to pursue. But it also gives Indian groups a lot of leeway to regulate their own tribal affairs. This puts Ismael right in the middle. As a Colombian citizen he has freedom of faith. As a Wiwa Indian, the government takes a "hands-off" approach to affairs internal to the tribe.
As you might assume, tribal affairs are not all that "internal." It's clear that tribal leaders do very well financially when they have their people under their control. Tribal solidarity also attracts development money from North America and Europe. Many people believe that believers among the Wiwa and other tribal groups come to faith simply because Christianity is offered by powerful voices of people with strong economic leverage. The facts are that people from every tribe and tongue are coming to faith because they find in it something "home grown" and sensible and powerful and helpful. This is the faith that Ismael vows not to abandon.
Interestingly, one of the reasons Ismael is going home for the break is to talk to local leaders and teachers about his helping to teach reading and writing in the native language to Wiwa school kids. These are things that he learned in Guatemala this past year. Ismael feels that this will promote unity and opportunities for his people. So there are two view of solidarity: The first is that keeping people mired in the past will force them to stay unified. The other view is that as people learn about the world and other cultures they will see the beauty of their own language and values which will build solidarity from within.
Ismael is a real Christian. Although he dresses every waking moment in pure white, and he speaks a language very different from anything you've ever heard, and he has a pony tail to his waist, he loves Jesus and deserves the protection of his right to follow Him. Would you pray for him?
Thanks and God's best to you all.
Wes
