lenten journey, day 13 — a prayer for the quechua people

Has your heart ever skipped a beat when you saw or read about a particular people group? Kind of like love at first sight, only for about a million people all at once? You see their pictures or hear their stories and you just know that God has appointed them to be people-of-your-heart.

The Quechua people are the people of my son’s heart. And because he loves them so much, they’ve become very dear to me as well. The Quechua live in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. They are a beautiful people with weathered skin and inky black eyes and a penchant for mismatched, neon-colored clothing.

Like most native people groups, the Quechua have suffered some grave injustices throughout history. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish basically stole everything they had, and more recently the Quechua were terrorized by a Communist guerrilla group called the Shining Path. More than 20,000 Quechua people were killed by this group in the 1980s and 1990s.

Romulo Saune was a well known Quechuan Christian leader who was martyred by the Shining Path because of his efforts to share the Gospel among his people. As a boy, Romulo had looked after his family’s sheep, and when he came to know and follow Jesus his favorite verses in the Bible where ones that described Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Romulo translated the Bible into one of the Quechua dialects so that all Quechuans would have the opportunity to embrace the Good Shepherd as he had.

Romulo may have been killed, but the Quechuan wave of faith continues to grow 15 years after his death. Romulo’s widow teaches women so they can read the Bible for themselves, and entire mountain villages are coming to know Jesus. But what about the Shining Path? God in his mercy heard the prayers of Christians worldwide and restored peace to Peru. May those who would place God’s people in bondage never again rise up among the Quechua people.

Father, pour your lavish affection over every man, woman and child in the towns and villages of the Andes. You are the Good Shepherd; would you gather up these precious Quechuan lambs and carry them close to your heart? Thank you for striking down the Shining Path, which tried in vain to keep you away from the Quechuan people. May every day without conflict be a reminder that Jesus is the Prince of Peace as well as the Good Shepherd. God, please continue to multiply our family’s love for the people of Peru and forgive me for the days when these people-of-my-heart are the last thing on my mind. Yes, and amen.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” — John 10:14-15

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” — 2 Corinthians 4:8-9