What a beautiful sight it is
      to see messengers coming with good news!
   How beautiful to see them coming down from the mountains
      with a message about peace!
   How wonderful it is when they bring the good news
      that we are saved!
   How wonderful when they say to Zion,

      "Your God rules!" 

The mountains of Potosí are filled with those waiting to hear the good news, waiting to be told of the hope of Jesus Christ, of the salvation He offers.  As Christ followers, we are called to go and share the life-giving news we have with those who have not yet heard.  "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."   Matthew 28:19-20

 

 

 

The beginning of January, I took a trip with a local Bolivian outreach mission to rural Quechua villages in Southern Bolivia, Potosí.  We visited several villages, ending in a village named Kollpa.  Due to heavy rains the night before, the road to Kollpa was impassable and we set out on a 10 km hike to get there.  There was no set trail to the village, just footpaths winding thru local potato fields, open green meadows with streams bubbling thru, and rocky mountainsides to clamber up.

After hiking several hours into the afternoon, we finally stopped for a light lunch of a few potatoes, rice, and a fried egg before climbing up and over several more hills to the village.  Over 4 hours after beginning our trek, we finally arrived in Kollpa, footsore and exhausted.  As we walked among the silent adobe houses, the village appeared deserted.  I began to wonder if we'd come in vain.  Then I heard excited voices and a Quechua woman was kissing my hand and pulling me into a hearty embrace, her excitement and gratitude for our arrival radiating out of her very being.  

Kollpa

The woman was one of only a few families of believers in Kollpa and they had gathered for our arrival, despite the fact that the rest of the village was at a community celebration for King's Day and the appointing of the new community leaders for 2012.  Persecution is strong in Kollpa and the villagers risked rejection and ridicule for leaving the community party to come meet us.  

 After sitting on the handwoven blankets lovingly placed on the ground for us and drinking a homemade herb tea, we started our program.  Our team had prepared songs for the kids with a few interactive games, and a few local believers traveling with us had brought a charrango (traditional mandolin-like instrument) and handmade guitar to sing Quechua hymns.

I knew most of the songs the locals were singing in Quechua, so the group leader asked me to go up front with the other Quechua young women and sing with them to encourage the villagers.  It was a surreal experience, standing on the mountainside of the Andes, singing "Dios Tatayman Takisaj" (to my Father God I will sing), worshiping with believers half a world away from my own.

 After worship and a short message, we moved into a time of prayer with those gathered, praying for those with physical ailments, those who were just starting out in their walk with Christ and wanted to grow stronger in Him.  I was praying for the Condori family when I heard a loud commotion.

A drunk man from the village was waving his arms, yelling, and throwing football-size rocks at us, as the other believers scattered in all directions.  We finished praying quickly and hurried back down the trail before the man went to get his drunken friends to stop us.  The man followed us for about 20 minutes down the trail, screaming, yelling and continuing to insult us, telling us he didn't want us to share the gospel, that we weren't welcome, that Christians were a curse to the village...


People in the region believe that Christians, worshiping God instead of Pachamama (the earth goddess) bring natural disasters upon their crops.  In Kollpa, two years ago, a family converted and shortly after, a severe hailstorm destroyed the community's crops.  The family was banished from the village and Kollpa has continued to be hostile towards believers ever since.

The sun was sinking behind the green hills when we left Kollpa to hike 10km back to our bus, and the darkness overtook us.  We hiked back to the bus under the stars, our path only lit when the moon peeked out from behind the clouds.  The journey was worth it.  What a privilege to have the opportunity to share hope in such a dark place!  

 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14-15