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Taking down the tallest fears

Elijah’s height provides him opportunities to gain insight into the Mbya culture and language.

The Mbya people call her husband Elias puku, or “Elijah the tall” and Moira Hall says that’s because he stands head and shoulders above many of the Mbya people so, “it’s easy to see why.”

The subject of Elijah’s height often crops up in conversation.

Like last week, for instance. The Hall family is building their tribal home so they can live among the Mbya people. Their friend, Juan*, recently stopped by to see the progress and chat for a while.

When the conversation came to a pause, he observed, looking up at Elijah, “You are very tall. Like Mala Vision.”

Moira and Elijah had already heard of Mala Vision, a cultural mythological figure. “We knew the name meant something like ‘Evil Vision,’ so Elijah paid close attention and asked questions to find out a little more of what was going on in Juan’s mind,” Moira explains.

Since Juan can speak some Spanish, he was able to express some of what he meant by the reference. “It was obvious that he believed in the existence of this spirit being and claimed all his neighbors do, too. He claimed they have seen evidences.”

Evidences, Juan told them, like cows killed a certain way that only Mala Vision kills them. “I’ve eaten a cow killed by him,” he shared.

Though they have been in preparation for this ministry since 2009, it is still early in the Halls’ friendship with the Mbya people. They just moved into the tribe early this year and their focus is on listening to and learning about tribal culture.

“We want to learn their ways from their own perspectives,” Moira writes. “Deep down are the fears and social controls they have passed on for generations. We want them to feel free to share those with us.”

But this study of culture is far more than just a pleasant social gesture on the part of Elijah and Moira. “We want the truth of God’s Word to enter their culture …. We want it to intersect and confront their beliefs,” Moira expresses.

The Mbya people are animists. They believe that spirits control everything and can be manipulated. Moira says that experiences like Juan’s help them individually develop their own individual brand of belief, often a dangerous mix of truth and untruth. “Contradictions from other beliefs don’t bother them because their own experience is what really matters to them,” Moira notes.

As Elijah and Moira watch the time approach to teach the Bible to the Mbya people, they pray for ways to strategically convey truth. Not information to be merely added to a convoluted system of animism, but truth that radically confronts and transforms confused and fearful hearts.

“The Mbya people are held captive by fear and deception,” Moira observes. “The change in thinking will have to come from the deepest level. Pray that God will open their hearts to see the Biblical revelation of our Creator being the Maker of all things, as well as being an intimately personal and caring God Who offers deliverance from sin and Satan’s grasp. This is what we want to communicate.”

Sometimes it’s a hard ministry task, Moira and Elijah admit. Sometimes it’s downright discouraging.

But Moira shares a favorite verse:

(God) Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.—2 Corinthians 1:4

As God has comforted and sustained their hearts in this remote tribal ministry, Moira says, she and Elijah long to share the comfort of the Good News about Jesus that will deliver Mbya hearts from the devastating fear and darkness that threatens them daily.

Please pray that God will work in this distant village where the Halls are building their home and investing their lives. Pray that He will powerfully prepare hearts to be opened to His message of freedom and hope in Christ and that His resulting comfort will take down even their tallest fears.

*Not his real name

Tags: Latin America, Mbya People, Mission News Paraguay,
POSTED ON Jun 24, 2014 by Cathy Drobnick