{"id":874,"date":"2016-09-15T14:06:27","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T18:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/?p=874"},"modified":"2016-09-29T16:58:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T20:58:21","slug":"counting-the-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/2016\/09\/15\/counting-the-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting the Cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h2>\n

by Pete Hypki<\/p>\n

Andrew is one of the good guys. At least, out here, he is. Andrew is our neighbor to the south, and a father of 11 kids. He\u2019s short, like most of the men out here, maybe 5\u20195,\u201d and stout, with a thin graying moustache. \u00a0 Two weeks after we moved into the village back in 2011, he disappeared. Rumors trickled into the community about him being seen in one village or another. They all claimed he seemed scared, like he was running from something.<\/p>\n

\"crop-of-curiel\"
Andrew, surrounded by his family, at his son’s graduation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His wife went looking for him, finally consulting a medium down on the coast who pointed her in the right direction. She found him in a village on the coast working in the orchards, but they didn\u2019t return as a family to the village until a few years later. \u00a0 Not until the threat on his life had ended. It turns out Andrew had run for his life \u2013 he\u2019d intervened on behalf of someone being threatened, and earned a target on his back for doing so. Not wanting to bring danger to his wife or family, he fled.\u00a0 Later, the men who threatened him were killed in a separate incident, and Andrew returned, presumably having learned a lesson:\u00a0 Sometimes doing the right thing is costly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"384295_10150409042357639_1104675079_n\"
Andrew’s kids hanging out at their home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday, Andrew’s wife was visiting with our teammate Rachel. She arrived just before a rainstorm hit; then, as people usually do here, she waited it out, about three hours before the storm subsided. \u00a0 As she visited, she told Rachel that she and her family want to believe like we do. She said they\u2019d gotten rid of their santos \u2013 small, wooden figurines of saints that they believe protect\u00a0their family from sickness and misfortune. She said her kids had read through the draft copy of Genesis that Rachel had given them three times already, cover to cover. She said they were all ready to leave behind their customs and believe what we did.<\/p>\n

\"img_2883\"<\/a>
Andrew’s wife and kids at graduation from literacy class. Both of the family’s teenagers are excellent readers and have read the translation of Genesis several times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All except for Andrew. He\u2019s learned before that doing the right thing doesn\u2019t come cheap. Like the wise man who counts the cost before building a tower in Luke 14, Andrew is recognizing that the cost of following Christ will be steep. For him, it will be. Aside from the stigma conversion will bring his family, there\u2019s a very real financial hit, because Andrew, like everyone in this village, provides for his family by growing and selling illegal drugs. He believes that if he chooses to follow Christ, he\u2019ll have to quit growing drugs too. He believes the choice is Christ, or life.<\/p>\n

\"shrine\"
A family’s shrine to some of the saints they worship and try to appease<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In some sense, he is so right. Following Christ will cost him his life. It will require that he die to self, die to the old ways, die to dependence on a death-ridden system to provide for his family. But the new life that comes, is everlasting life. And I don\u2019t believe it is only experienced when our bodies cease to breathe, but as soon as our hearts believe. There is grace and peace and rest and hope; and how we hope that Andrew believes, and how we pray that God reveals Himself \u2013 and that food on the table would be one of the smallest of ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Pete Hypki Andrew is one of the good guys. At least, out here, he is. Andrew is our neighbor to the south, and a father of 11 kids. He\u2019s short, like most of the men out here, maybe 5\u20195,\u201d and stout, with a thin graying moustache. \u00a0 Two weeks after we moved into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[125,448,6388,58,352,416],"class_list":{"0":"post-874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-culture","8":"tag-ethnos360","9":"tag-nahuatl-culture","10":"tag-prayer-requests","11":"tag-translation","12":"tag-village-life","13":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/katie-moore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}