When I was a little girl my dad would often comment on the line in the Christmas story that says, “Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people.” Essentially the angels were announcing what missionaries would continue to proclaim thousands of years later. There is good news. When the message is received even heaven rejoices. It is for all the world’s people.
When I got back from spending Christmas with my family, Agustina came to visit me. You’ll remember from other blog posts that she has been studying the Bible with us for a while now. She told me that before she knew God she worried about dying all the time. She said, “I would wonder where I would go and what I would do. Now, I never think about that. When I die, well then, that’s it for me and I will go to a place that’s better than this. I will be with God and do you think I will be worried anymore? No!”
A few nights later as we continued to study, she told me that about a story she heard where a little boy drives back a witch by reading from some book, which she thought was the Bible. She said when the boy finished and said “Amen” the witch turned to dust and was gone. “I thought to myself, is this true or not?” she told me. “Then I realized what is true is that God is like the light and evil is the darkness. Before I lived in the darkness and now God brought me the light. Now I know the truth and I am not afraid. And I never want to go back to the way it was before.”
I know you will join me in rejoicing over what God has done for Agustina. Continue to pray for her as she faces questions and even censure and disapproval from her village. Pray that she will be part of bringing the good news of great joy to her own people.