{"id":5291,"date":"2013-11-05T14:12:42","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T20:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/?p=5291"},"modified":"2013-11-05T14:21:33","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T20:21:33","slug":"a-witness-in-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2013\/a-witness-in-the-darkness.html","title":{"rendered":"A Witness in the Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday night we hit the streets of Jes\u00c3\u00bas Mar\u00c3\u00ada &#8211; and you&#8217;ll never guess what we found there!<\/p>\n<p>Ok, well, if you read my post on <a href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2013\/halloween-in-mexico-like-never-before.html\">Hallowe&#8217;en In Mexico<\/a>, you may at least have a clue.<\/p>\n<p>The streets were packed &#8211; it was like a carnival. &nbsp;Families roamed with their kids &#8211; often all of them dressed up. &nbsp;Although people were mostly having fun, we could see the results of a generation brought up on horror movies. &nbsp;There weren&#8217;t a lot of super heroes or princesses &#8211; more witches and killers and skeletons.<\/p>\n<p>This was the evening of the 1st of November, right in the middle of the Days of the Dead.<\/p>\n<table width=\"260\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/images\/life-in-darkness.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Life in the Darkness\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Our friend Jos, accompanied by Tina and the youth of the church, led <b>the kids<\/b> from our congregation as they handed out flyers (written by our coworker Rod) explaining how Jesus has conquered death. &nbsp;They did a great job teaching the kids about the joys and challenges of sharing the Gospel.<\/p>\n<p>We as <b>adults <\/b>also handed out tracts and spoke to people. &nbsp;Shari and I had a very interesting conversation with an older man who felt he was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans%204:2-5&#038;version=ESV\">a very good person before God<\/a>. &nbsp;Do pray that he will understand his need. &nbsp;On the bright side, he was aware of the classes we give at the community centre.&nbsp;&nbsp;It was good to hear that we do have a good testimony before many in the community.<\/p>\n<p>Please pray as the believers here continue to share the Truth in their community.<\/p>\n<p>Some of our group peaked inside one of the tents that was set up on the street. &nbsp;Inside were probably dozens of images of Saint Death &#8211; the &#8220;woman&#8221; skeleton dressed in white, representing death, that many here worship.&nbsp;&nbsp;Offerings, candles and <a href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2009\/familiar-sight-on-the-days-of-the-dead.html\">orange marigolds<\/a> (the flower featured in the Day of Dead celebrations) were everywhere. &nbsp;They were encouraged to return for prayers at 8pm.&nbsp;&nbsp;But we don&#8217;t pray to death &#8211; we spent time that evening praying to Someone else &#8211; the Life.<\/p>\n<p>How difficult &#8211; and yet encouraging &#8211; to be a light in the darkness. &nbsp;We had fun, and made a few people smile, but we also encouraged people to think about what God really has to say about death and life.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for your prayers! &nbsp;God hears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday night we hit the streets of Jes\u00c3\u00bas Mar\u00c3\u00ada &#8211; and you&#8217;ll never guess what we found there! Ok, well, if you read my post on Hallowe&#8217;en In Mexico, you may at least have a clue. The streets were packed &#8211; it was like a carnival. &nbsp;Families roamed with their kids &#8211; often all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,18,1413],"tags":[39,1467,605,423],"class_list":["post-5291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mexico","category-ministry-glimpses","category-prayer-and-praise","category-st-highlight","tag-days-of-the-dead","tag-halloween","tag-iglesia-biblica-sendero-de-vida-jesus-maria","tag-jesus-maria","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Witness in the Darkness - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2013\/a-witness-in-the-darkness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Witness in the Darkness - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday night we hit the streets of Jes\u00c3\u00bas Mar\u00c3\u00ada &#8211; and you&#8217;ll never guess what we found there! 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