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Intrepid Pastor takes Bibles to cannibal warriors
Pastor Leilan Corani Alvarez overcomes distance, terrain, and distinctly unchristian traditions to reach people with the Gospel.
ORURO, Bolivia, April 17, 2002 — Distributing Scriptures in Bolivia is not always easy. In a country where topography ranges from the Amazon rainforest to the Andes mountains, just physically reaching the people is a challenge. Sometimes a team will be out for 15 or 18 days at a time struggling across some of the most rugged terrain on earth.
But Pastor Leilan Corani Alvarez takes great personal risks to show the Jesus film and to distribute Gospels to the Quechua people.
On one trip, Mr Corani, vice president of Iglesia Unión Evangélica (Evangelical Union Church) in Oruro, had agreed to take the video and Scriptures to a remote village - but he didn't have a vehicle. "Sometimes a brother in the church will lend us a car," he explained. "But this time there was no car. I told myself we had to do something, because there were people waiting for me.
"The treasurer of our congregation said we had US$100. So I called a car rental place and told them I needed a car for five days. They said it would cost US$450. With some money from my wife I got together US$300 and went back to the rental company."
"In the name of Jesus, rent me a car," he told the startled attendants.
"OK - you are a pastor, take one," came the reply. His team gratefully loaded the vehicle with the generator, the petrol, the television, the video, and the Gospels of Luke from the Bible Society and set off.
"We left Oruro at three in the afternoon, and arrived at a village at two the next morning," Mr Corani recalled. "After the sun came up we resumed driving until midday, until we came to the end of the road. Then we loaded all the material and equipment onto horses and mules."
UBS/Larry Jerden
People in remote villages like this young boy are the focus of a joint effort by United Bible Societies and Campus Crusade to provide Scriptures.
Many Quechua Never Seen a Television
They finally arrived at the village they were heading for at nine that night and found the Quechua people waiting for them. When the team showed the video, the people watching it began to cry. The reasons for this may have been tied up in their astonishment at the medium as much as in their reactions to what it was showing. "This was a place where many of the people had never seen a television," he explained. "In fact, they had never even seen a light bulb. They were amazed."
At a later point in the film, however, there was little doubt that it was the story which was stirring them.
"The most dramatic reaction was when Jesus died on the cross: they all started crying together. And at the scene of the resurrection, people started crying for happiness. It was a surprise to them: they had hope! We saw the whole community come close to Jesus. Jesus wanted everyone to be down on their knees." Afterwards came another surprise.
"They were so grateful when we started giving them the free Gospels of Luke!" Mr Corani remembered. "No-one had ever given them anything free before."
As a result of that showing, a joint effort by United Bible Societies and Campus Crusade, a new congregation was formed. Within a year, there were five congregations in the area totaling more than 800 people.
He is also certain that many people accepted Christ purely because of the video and the Gospels. When people do so, his team disciples them and most start coming to one of his congregations.
"Many of them come from nominally Catholic backgrounds," he said, "but many worshipped idols and pagan gods. In the area where I am working we are even seeing cannibalism. We see people killing other people just for tradition. It is very hard to reach people in that area, but the Bible says that God's Word will not come back empty."
Cannibalism Still Occurs
The cannibalism occurs among warring tribes with an ancient tradition of fighting each other, he explained. "If people from one tribe go into the other tribe's area, they are killed. They kill children, women -- it doesn't matter who. This is among the Quechua, but they're coming to Christ. They have to cleanse their minds of such traditions. We have a congregation of 150 people in this area. We think it will grow to over 250 this year.
"The government will not go in there because there is so much killing. It is a very difficult place for the soldiers to go, because the weather is so bad and the terrain so difficult. It is very high in the mountains, and in the winter the temperature goes to 10 degrees below zero Celsius and there is much snow. The government sends the soldiers in, but they quickly withdraw.
"To reach this area from La Paz requires 15 hours by car and one day on foot - sometimes two days. "But our people work there. Christ is with us." Said Mr Corani.
Source: Larry Jerden, United Bible Societies
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