The Collins Family
Collins Special Prayer Request
Dear and good friends,
Warmest greetings to you from Lima. Nan and I are well.
We heard from a number of Comitecos today that our dear friend Pedro Temaj passed away last night. I am including some recent photos of Pedro taken by Karen Vaters who also knew him well.
Pedro was the first person to accept us in Comitancillo when we moved there in March, 1980. Elisa was five months old. Pedro passed the word around that Nancy and I were "OK." This opened up a space for us to live and to work, and I have always been grateful to God for him. Pedro was considered old when we met him. I figure that he was somewhere over 90 years old when he died, perhaps a considerable amount over 90.
I visited him last summer and he was as sharp as ever, asking about our children by name and assuring me of his prayers for us. He especially loved Nancy and encouraged many to see her about their health problems and concerns, which opened the door to us more widely still. Nan says that he would often drop by the clinic just to talk. I was thinking this afternoon of the words of David in 2 Samuel 3:38, when general Abner died: "Do you not realize that a prince and a great man in Israel has fallen?"
Pedro was indeed a prince and a great man. We have recorded texts of him talking about life and traditions from the old days as well as about the coming of the Gospel to his town and the nearby villages. His life was marked by faith and deep joy, despite rarely having more than a few centavos to rub together. The world would see him as anything but a prince and a great man, but God knows. And His is the only vote that counts. Pedro was wise and humble, strong and resourceful. He loved his language and his people, and he prayed and sang long hours daily in beautiful, earthy Mam.
He deeply loved God and I miss him already. Heaven is enriched and I am bereaved, yet full of the same hope as dear Pedro.
God's blessing to all.
Wes
