The following story is written by an East-West short-term mission trip participant to Latin America.
On one of our ministry days, our plans were quickly changed. After two scheduled appointments were cancelled at the last minute, we knew God had a different path for us to walk that day. That’s when my translator and I met Ray, a Latin American man entrenched in Santeria—a belief system that involves animal sacrifices, idol worship and heresy mixed with Catholic saints and symbols.
As we got to know Ray, we soon learned that he was disappointed by his idols because they weren’t giving him the answers he wanted. My translator and I then shared that we are Christians. Ray responded with sneers of arrogance mixed with furtive glances.
It was clear he was disinterested in us and our faith, but out of courtesy allowed us to keep talking.
We carefully moved the conversation forward to the gospel, and I shared that before I came to Christ I too had followed false religions that were dark and empty. I referenced Ray’s devotion to his idols and explained the similarities I saw between my life and his.
He continued to show stubbornness and wasn’t interested in what we had to say.
As we got to the good news of Christ’s substitution and free gift of grace, Ray softly whispered under his breath. My translator encouraged me to continue the story. At the end, when asked whether there was anything to prevent him from accepting Christ, Ray simply said “no.”
To our great surprise, he prayed to accept Christ.
When I finished, my translator further engaged Ray in conversation. Ray confessed to him that he tried to confuse us and throw us off to avoid hearing the message we came to share. The soft whispers we’d heard were actually him praying to his idols to keep us from speaking.
It was clear a spiritual battle was at play during our time with Ray, but the schemes of the enemy could not overcome the Holy Spirit’s work in his heart, drawing Ray to forgo his idols to worship the one true God.