‘The spirit of God is with me now’

PARAGUAY — Alfredho Altamirano, Communications Director of the Paraguayan Bible Society, tells how an Indian Chief’s life changed through hearing the Word of God in his heart language.

“There was an Indian chief who came to a Mennonite hospital in the city of Los Cordearas. He was very, very sick, bleeding, and dying. The chaplains tried to explain to him that he had to leave the things in his life, change his life and read the Bible. His answer was: ‘Your book has nothing for me. This doesn’t mean anything to me’. So one of the pastors brought him the Nivaclé audio New Testament. The pastor took the Chief into his room, sat close to him and said, ‘I want you to hear the voice of God coming through these tapes. The spirit of God will talk to you’.

“When the Chief heard the words, the voice of God, the spirit of God, he thought, ‘This is something I am interested in, something that I want to hear’. The pastor left him one cassette. A few hours later the Chief called to the pastor, ‘Do you have more? I want more’. He continued listening to the tapes one by one. The pastor started to speak to him, explaining the Scriptures. Three months later he was ready to go back home, and said, ‘The spirit of God that lives in those cassettes is with me now. I want to go back to my people because I know I was wrong. I left all my old teachings and everything that I was and I want to go back to my people and teach them the truth and the life that I have found here’.”

This report refers to project 50638. (WR 402/13 - 06.06)