Editor’s note: During a visit in 2024 to a retired missionary to Guatemala who is now in his nineties, he related the following remarkable experience, which was one among many while sharing the gospel in a pioneering mission field in that country.
I don’t remember how it was that we were invited to go for a service in El Pedregal (The Stony Place), a village a number of miles beyond San Manuel Chaparron. It could have resulted because of some believers in Chaparron. It could have been through the family of “Samuel”, or the influence of the Martinez family. I just don’t remember.
At any rate, 6 or 7 of us were on our way there in a Land Rover. Only two of the fellows knew the route to take so I relied on their directions. Some stretches were completely without markings of any kind to indicate where the road was. At one place, we had to cross an old volcanic lava run which was so rough that we could barely crawl along. Finally we got to the house where we were to have the service that night. There was a lot of tension in the air about us being there. When a person lives in these surroundings, he is able to sense the tension.
The day ended, darkness came, and it was time to start the service. Now I think it would have been better, perhaps, to have had the service in the early evening, before dark. But then some people would not have been able to come because of their work in the fields, chores, etc. During the service, our apprehension increased when rocks started crashing through the clay tile roof. We knew that the message was “We don’t want you here.”
But this wasn’t the first time for such actions, and we trusted the Lord as we did our best to preach the Gospel to those in need, at every opportunity that arose. We finished the service and got ready to leave. The man of the house, who had invited us, said that he was afraid that some of the men of the village would try to harm us on our way out, and that he would go with us for a distance. We answered that if he did that, he would then have to come back by himself and would be in grave danger. We said that we would trust the Lord to protect us, and we would go by ourselves.
Almost as soon as we started, I remember telling those traveling with me, “If you will tell me ahead of each turn which way to go, I will drive as fast as I can and try to get out of here.” We hadn’t gone too far when I thought that the fellows had not told me to turn. Then I realized that the road was completely blocked off with cut trees woven together. I pulled up close to the trees and stopped. Two men in the back of the Land Rover jumped out, ran up to the trees and began pulling the biggest ones out. I soon felt that I could get through the remaining trees, tooted the horn for them to get back in, and we started on. Not too much further on was a second roadblock. I knew that if the perpetrators had taken the time to build a second one, they were desperate, so I didn’t stop, but plowed on through the woven trees and limbs. In the light of the headlights, I could see a third roadblock ahead and I began to be afraid.
I remembered that the old lava run was not too far beyond this third roadblock. I also knew that these men were desperate and determined to get us. I remembered experiences at other roadblocks and the attempts to kill us. I began to pray, and I’m sure that everyone else in the Land Rover was also praying.
All of a sudden, a tropical burst of heavy rain started. It was really raining hard. Then I began to wonder how we would get through some mud holes I remembered were ahead of us. I wasn’t about to stop, so I kept going, through the branches again. This third roadblock was not nearly as heavy and thick as the first two had been. Either they ran out of trees or out of time. I went bouncing across the lava run, too fast for comfort, but we weren’t looking for comfort! We came to the mud holes and made it through them.
Then we all realized that we had probably passed through the danger, and we breathed a sigh of relief and prayed, thanking the Lord for protecting us again. For 15 years I thought that we had been delivered by that heavy rain, that the men hadn’t been able to do whatever they planned because of the downpour. Then Heber Martinez told me of his experience.
Heber was visiting in that general area some 10 years after our visit that night. He came to one house, visited with the man, told him about the Lord Jesus and salvation. As he got ready to leave, he said that he wanted to pray and to leave a tract with the man. The man said that he couldn’t read, but that his little boy could, and he would read to him. Then Heber, said, without knowing why, “You need to give your heart to the Lord, ask Him to forgive you your sins, because He will forgive you, and protect you from your enemies.” The man answered, “Yes, I know that is right, because one time I saw God protect some believers when I and some others intended to kill them.”
Heber was interested, and the man told him the following story. About 10 years before, he said, one night some believers had come to the village of El Pedregal for a church service. He and a number of others were convinced that these believers were from the devil and were not a good thing for the people of his village. During the service he and his friends had made three roadblocks of trees. When the missionaries were leaving after the service, and came to the first roadblock, they all lifted their rifles to shoot at the Jeep (as he called it). But suddenly they all got so weak that they couldn’t pull the triggers. They went running up to the second roadblock and again lifted their rifles. One man said, “Come on fellows. We can do it. We’ve done this before. Be strong and pull the triggers.” Once again, they got so weak that they couldn’t pull the triggers.
Now they were more angry than ever, and went running to the third roadblock, both blaming and encouraging each other. When the “Jeep” came near this time, they got so weak that not one of them could even lift his rifle to his shoulder! “So,” he said, “I know that God protects the believers.” Heber felt goose bumps, and said, “Yes, I know, because I was with that group that night. I was one of the ones who got out and ran to pull away the trees and branches. Yes, God protected us!” Not too long afterward, that man, too, accepted Christ as his Savior.
“The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).
Paul Reiff
Overland Park, Kansas
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