Through the fire to God’s love

Pasquala López saw her family murdered for their faith

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas, Mexico — It has taken some time for Pasquala López Hernández to be able to say with meaning that “God protects his people”. It didn’t seem that way the night local thugs burned down the house she was living in and killed her sister and other family members. But in the years since, Mrs López has become an inspiration to Chamula Christians.

Pasquala López Hernández, after having suffered severe persecution for her faith, today teaches other women the Bible. Chiapas, Mexico. Photo: UBS/Larry Jerden (MEX01T-63)

Her own pilgrimage began in the town of San Juan Chamula, where her parents taught her to pray to both Christian saints and pagan gods.

“My parents died believing in different gods,” she remembers sadly, “but thanks to my sister, I became a Christian.”

After her parents died, the young Pasquala went to live with her older sister. The sister, having problems getting pregnant, went to a local witch doctor. To her surprise, she discovered that he had become a Christian.

When she took her new baby boy back to the same doctor, he told her that Jesus Christ could help the sick child. Her sister believed him, and when she returned home, her son was healed.

“After that, my sister told me that I needed to believe in Jesus because he is powerful,” Mrs López recalls. “That is the way I began to become a Christian.”
The two later began attending a church in San Cristóbal de las Casas, as there was no church in San Juan Chamula.

Only 13 years old at the time, Mrs López soon found that her new faith created conflict with some of her family, especially with an aunt who was a village witch doctor.

“When my sister and I became Christians, we no longer made offerings to the gods,” she explains. “My aunt was upset by this, so she told everyone that we were Christians, and that we were bad girls.”

An uncle warned her that someone had bought a gallon of petrol and was going to set her on fire. Soon after the warning, some people who opposed the Christians went to her sister’s home and put petrol all around it.

“I heard something and woke up,” Mrs López recalls. “There was a person in the doorway. I ran out. My older sister and two young children were also sleep in the house. I screamed for everyone to get out, but no one made it. Then the people who surrounded the house began to attack them. One man entered the house and started stabbing everyone, while the others set the house on fire. I ran out of the house and went into hiding.

“I had been shot several times, and there are still bullets in my body. I couldn’t do anything to help the others. Two of the men from the church later found me and drove me to San Cristóbal, but most of my family died in the house.”

When she was released from the hospital, Mrs López went to live with another sister. She stayed with her three years, never returning to Chamula.

“I was afraid that if I went back, someone would kill me,” she says.
She started doing domestic work. Later, she got married and was able to return to school for five months and learned to read and write.

“Thank God I can read,” Mrs López declares, “because this is what allows me to work with women in this area and teach them how to live the Christian life.
“I am excited about the new Chamula version because it is so important that the people be able to read God’s Word. And it is better to understand the truths of God in your own language.”