Jhohan Ticona

Not Jhohan but a Jhohan like child.

My co-workers, James and Jenny Wolheter, had to change houses in Cochabamba on short notice. They knew that their house was sold and the new landlady had warned them that they would need to leave but probably not until October or so. But, while they were still in the States for General Conference they received word that the landlady wanted them out "yesterday." So, they made a mad search for a house when they returned, found one, and got moved. When you set up house keeping in a rented house in Bolivia there are generally things that you need to do, especially if "gringos" have not lived in the house before you. So they found themselves in need of a carpenter. They saw a sign on a shop not too far away form their new house so they spoke with the carpenter about coming to work. No problem. But after coming a time or two he didn't come back when he said he would. Now that is not too unusual for Bolivia but it is always a bit frustrating. So they tried calling him and somewhere in the process learned that his two year old son, Jhohan (pronounced Yohan) was in the hospital with a kidney stone (it turned out to be two of them, one about the size of an olive). The big problem was that the equipment needed to do the surgery was broken down. It was decided that Jhohan needed to be sent here to Santa Cruz to be treated. James and Jenny know a good christian surgeon  here in Santa Cruz and he readily agreed to do the surgery for free on this little boy but they would still need to pay for the hospital and medicines. It was decided that Jhohan should be flown down because of his condition.


To make a rather complicated story short the surgery went fine and the kidney stones were removed. But the doctor reported that Jhohan was extremely malnurished, which would (and did) affect his recovery. The doctor and his wife moved Jhohan, along with this mother, from the clinic into their home where they could take immediate care of them. Jhohan, being a normal two year old, did not like having things sticking out of him and at least once pulled his catheter out requiring more surgery.

Now to complicate matters, his mother was over eight months pregnant. During all this time with Jhohan, the time arrived for the new baby to be born. But that too proved to be a complication and she eventually had to have an emergency c-section as the cord was wraped around the baby's neck.

About this time it was learned that the mother's mother, Jhohan's grandmother, is a witch (bruja) and that she had said that Jhohan should die and that the new baby would hang itself. It seemed that more than just physical causes were involved in this case. At any rate, the mother was shaken enough that she left Jhohan in Santa Cruz and took the new baby by bus to Cochabamba to have herself healed and the baby blessed by either the grandmother or a different witch.

Finally, Jhohan was able to travel and was released from the doctor's care and is now back home in Cochabamba with his family.

During all this time, the mother was on the receiving end of love being shown by the doctor and his wife as well as by the different people who helped provide the money needed to pay for both Jhohan`s medical bills and the costs of the new baby's birth. At one point she indicated that she would look up Jenny's church when she gets back home.

Please pray for Jhohan and his parents, Iver and Alejandra that the power of evil will be broken in their lives and that they will come to seek him who by his death broke the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—  and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (See Hebrew 2:14-15). Pray for James and Jenny as they minister to this family.

Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day)

Yesterday (October 31), today and tomorrow are three days with important significance. Yesterday was Reformation Sunday, the commemoration of the day, when in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg chapel questioning the practice of indulgences in the Catholic Church. That little list inspired a lot a debate and angry responses and was the beginning of the Reformation and the Protestant Church. I give thinks to God for Martin Luther and his insistence on sola fide, sola gratia, sola Scriptura - only faith, only grace and only the Scriptures. I am blessed to stand as a part of that tradition today.

Today is Todos Santos (All Saints Day) and tomorrow is the Day of the Dead here in Bolivia. All Saints Day was originally appointed to be a day to officially remember all saints, known and unknown, as worthy of imitation and honor. In Bolivia the Catholic Day has become associated with pagan custom and has resulted in two days of celebrating the dead, two days in which fear is a prominent part of the celebration.

In the Aymara world view man is made up of both the physical and the spiritual. The physical is, of course, the body (janchi) and the spiritual part has several components including the soul (alma), ánimo, ajayu, coraje (valor) and jañayu. A person can temporarily lose the ajayu, the ánimo and coraje (valor) without suffering continuing damage, but if he loses his alma (soul) that results in death. When death occurs, the family must cry and weep, not only because of the loss, but also because, if they do not show sufficient sorrow, the alma of the dead can punish them out of revenge.

At noon on Todos Santos the souls of the dead return together to their homes in order to eat, drink and take with them the things that they need for life in the other world. The dead have become the sullca dioses (minor gods) and are to be feared. If the dead have recently died, they are especially to be feared and so the family must prepare the right things to satisfy its desires. This includes all kinds of fruit and small representations of the dead made out of bread dough. Everything that the dead one liked is to be prepared and waiting for his soul. At noon, when the soul arrives, the family must begin to eat the food in the name of the dead. What cannot be eaten must be taken home with them. Also prayers are to be said for the benefit of the dead one. This feasting and praying goes on throughout the first day and into the night. Finally, at noon on the second day (The Day of the Dead, November 2) the souls leave the house and the family must move everything that is left to the cemetery where the ceremony and eating must take place at the grave of the dead, on top of it if possible. Nothing must be left uneaten. If a family needs help there are always those who will willingly help pray for the dead loved one in exchange for food and drink.

Flowers are an important item inpreparing the grave for the visit of the dead.

Cemeteries, largely ignored the rest of the year, get a good cleaning for Todos Santos

When a family succeeds in carrying out this responsibility for three consecutive years they are then able to preform the cacharpaya (liberation from obligations) and the soul of the dead will remain in his own place and may possibly become an achachila o awicha (types of gods) who will protect their descendants. This completion of their obligations toward the dead is happily celebrated with dancing to a certain special type of music. If they have not pleased the dead they will be punished and experience many bad happenings in the family but if they have pleased the dead they can be rewarded by receiving many possessions and much prosperity.

Todo Santos and the following Day of the Dead illustrate the importance of the Christian gospel's message that we do not need to live in fear but that our Lord Jesus has experienced death for us so that we, who have lived in the fear of death all of our lives, can be free of fear and live in love and gratitude for what our Lord has done.