PASTOR SANTOS

The first time we met Pastor Santos Abelino Pan from Guatemala, we were touched by his humble spirit. He understands no English, and we cannot speak his Mayan language, “Ketchie.” However, our spirits understand each other perfectly. We first met him when he came to our front gate one morning. The first time we met him, he had left his village of San Luis Pete’n on the Guatemala-Belize border at 2:00 in the morning and walked two hours, through the jungle to the Belize border, to reach the Southern Highway. From there, he took a bus to Savannah Forest. He then walked five miles east to the Caribbean Sea where he caught a boat to Palencia. From Palencia, he walked three more miles to reach our house. He didn't even know if we would see him when he arrived. Pastor Santos later told us he just knew he had to come because he heard about the missionaries who would help.

That morning we invited Santos inside to talk. The only way we could speak to him was through an interpreter. It was a very hot morning and he appeared to be tired and hungry. We gave him something cold to drink and a snack. As we talked, morning turned into afternoon. Santos ate lunch with us and it was apparent he was very hungry. At the end of our visit, we made plans to visit Pastor Santos’ village the next week. As he left that day, he told us no one had ever been so kind to make food for him and make him comfortable. He said, “I feel God’s spirit with you!”

The next week we went to his village. We left home at 6:00 that morning and drove for hours and hours to the border of Belize. We had a couple with us from the states that day, and what an experience it turned out to be for all of us. The only way to reach Pastor Santos is by horseback, riding one hour over the mountains of Guatemala. We rented four horses at the border. The horses we rode were not riding horses, but pack horses with homemade wooden saddles. Once we reached his village, he showed us where he is now holding his church services – four wooden posts in the ground with a rusted tin roof and a dirt floor. He said other missionaries had been there about two years earlier, but they never came back. He told us that he and his wife had been praying for God to send missionaries to help. He was not asking for personal help. He only wanted help to build a church for his village. He said, “I want nothing for myself, only for my church.” When we left that day, we prayed over the dirt floor of his church, and we all wept at the presence of The Holy Spirit there with us. Pastor Santos is such a humble, anointed man, with such a meek spirit. We left him that day, feeling excited to meet such a humble brother in Christ, but asking the Lord what can we possibly
do for him?

Since that time, we have had the privilege of visiting with Pastor Santos on other occasions and, just recently, again at our home. Our prayer for Pastor Santos Abelino Pan is that God will strengthen him in his service and his commitment to his Lord Jesus, and that we, as his missionaries, would be willing vessels used by God to do HIS will.