A dark wind blowing

SOLOLÁ — Tomorrow may well be a momentous day for this town.

It’s prophesied that God will burn the earth on the Last Day (II Peter 3:12), and we may get a preview tomorrow. Townspeople here are agitated over recent kidnappings and the seemingly complacent government response.

Sometime in the past weeks, a kidnapped person escaped his or her captors and then announced to the town who the culprits were. Their names are now spray-painted around town as a “band of kidnappers.”

At 8 a.m. tomorrow, townspeople are planning to gather at the soccer field, supposedly to find solutions. The rumor, however, is that they may well burn the homes of the alleged kidnappers and a local attorney who is accused of being linked to them.

Locals tell me the alleged kidnappers run a brothel on the hill above town, and the attorney lives outside town toward the lake. The market, which is normally a beehive of activity, will be closed.

Merchants and vendors — apparently most of the town — have agreed not to open for business. Those who don’t close up for business or who don’t want to join the rally are fearful their homes could be in danger. The house I’m living in sits along the road to the attorney’s house, should the crowd head that way.

The trouble has stirred up some racist feelings as well between the local “Ladino” (or mixed) race who tends to live in town and the local Mayan Kakchiquels, who tend to live outside the city. I’ve heard the statement repeated, “You’re either with us or against us.”

Please pray for peace in Sololá. This town has much evidence of religion — a number of evangelical/pentecostal churches in addition to a large Catholic church in the town center. Yet it lacks true peace.

As the Babylonians carried most of Israel away captive from Jerusalem, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Israelites:

“Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. ... And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart.”

Later, after pronouncing a curse on false, adulterous prophets, God says, “Indeed, I know, and am a witness, says the Lord.” — Jer. 29:5,7, 11-13, 23.

It’s reassuring to realize nothing happens away from the eyes of God. He caused Israel to be carried away captive, and he caused the police to capture the kidnappers last Saturday. Please pray the body of Christ will stand for peace and not join in the violence, however justified it may appear to this frustrated town. May God use these events to grant true peace to this city.