Our three-man evangelism team of Chayahuita natives is a blessing from the Lord. These extraordinary men sometimes hit the jungle trail for weeks at a time to visit remote native villages deep in the upper Amazon. With their Bibles, poster-size drawings, guitar and tambourines, this extraordinary band of brothers in Christ eagerly visit seven jungle villages that had never heard the name of Jesus before! The three men are intensely aware that if they don’t get to the villages with their Spirit-powered, life-saving message about Jesus Christ, countless natives will be lost forever.

Of course, Satan does not leave such zealous workers alone. He desires to destroy their witness of the Word and he knows where to attack. One of these men (I shall call him Juan) had to make a difficult choice.

Last month Juan found himself racing down the jungle trail from Parinari to Shucushuyacu as fast as he had ever run in his life. On his back he carried the limp body of his little son, Pedro, just bitten by a deadly Amazon snake. Juan had to run five miles to the mestizo village of Shucushuyacu with its medical outpost in time for an injection to save Pedro’s life. Get there too late and the boy would be dead.

(Now you might wonder, “Why weren’t a few syringes available in their villages?” Each syringe costs around $60 and the villages don’t deal much with cash. The missionaries are hoping that the Mission can buy a few syringes for each of the villages!)

Juan reached Shucushuyacu and nearly collapsed at the door of the medical outpost. The intern (a student trained in western medicine in Yurimaguas) took the unconscious boy off Juan’s sweat-drenched back. In explanation Juan yelled “snakebite, snakebite!” The intern instantly froze and then replied, “Has he been cursed?”

“What?” screamed Juan. “No, he hasn’t been cursed. Give him a shot!!”

“I can’t,” the terrorized intern shouted right back, “unless I’m sure he doesn’t have a curse on him. Otherwise the shot will kill him!” Juan then realized what had brought about the reaction of the intern. The intern would not give Pedro a shot until he was sure Pedro had not been cursed through witchcraft. The intern declared, “You’ve got to go to the shaman first.”

“I don’t believe in shamans, I’m a Christian, I don’t use that stuff! I can’t go there!” Juan cried, tears streaming down his cheeks as he cradled the helpless boy.

The intern yelled back: “If I give him a shot and he’s been cursed, the shot will kill him. I’ve killed three people giving them a shot when they had a curse on them! They all died instantly. I won’t do it again!” The intern was beyond reason.

What could an exhausted Juan do when the intern refused to help? The medical intern was refusing good medical attention because he believed in witchcraft and evil curses. With great tears Juan lifted up his boy and ran for the shaman’s house. It took less than a minute to reach the shaman’s house. The shaman was in. Juan explained to him that the intern needed to know if Pedro’s snakebite was the result of witchcraft. The shaman immediately quickly grabbed Pedro’s forearm and squeezed the boy’s wrist. He began a chant to call forth his spirit contact from the other world who would inform the shaman if an angry neighbor had paid the Parinari shaman to bring harm to Pedro and Juan, or if the snake attack had simply been a natural occurrence. Juan then realized that his precious dying boy was in the hands of an agent of Satan. When Juan started running he had no intention of going to the shaman, except that the intern demanded it.

After a few agonizing seconds, the shaman announced that the snake attack had been a natural occurrence and not witchcraft. Juan no doubt threw a couple coins down for the shaman’s services, then scooped up motionless Pedro and bolted out the door for the intern.

The intern was waiting with the syringe out. Juan shouted, “no curse, no curse,” as he got within earshot. When Juan came, the intern grabbed a limp arm and quickly drove the needle in. Agonizing moments later, Pedro began blinking his eyes and he regained consciousness. Three days later Pedro was strong enough to leave the cot in the medical outpost and walk home with his father. Despite all the confusion, Pedro is fine now.

However, the problem did not end with the boy’s recovery. For Juan was filled with remorse for taking his boy to a shaman.

When I [Missionary Terry Schultz] came to Tarapoto last month for Pastor Training classes Juan told the whole story. He was a crushed man. His self-respect and honor were gone. His anguish was real. The whole class tried to console him, assuring Juan of God’s love and complete forgiveness. But Juan continued to feel that he had failed God.

Now, each evening during the Pastor Training classes, the Tarapoto congregation held worship services. That night Juan sat in the third from the front pew, his eyes riveted on me. My sermon dealt with man’s sin and God’s grace. I spoke about Peter’s denial of Jesus and how Jesus forgave him and restored Peter as an apostle. I retold the parable of the Prodigal Son, in which the father gladly received his repentant son. I declared that all mankind’s sin (including Juan’s) has been removed “as far as east is from west” (Psalm 103:12) and that all the sins of mankind (including Juan’s) had been cleansed to leave them “as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). Through the Word the Holy Spirit worked mightily in the heart of Juan to remove his troubled conscience, leading him to believe that he had been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb.

The next morning Juan was a joyful person again. There were jungle evangelism trips to be planned and Juan wanted to go along. His guilt was gone. What Jesus did for Juan He has done for every Christian.

This event is a good reminder for all Christians. They may be carrying much guilt from sinful deeds of the past. The burden does not need to be carried because Jesus has paid for all sin by His sacrificial death on the cross. Through faith in Jesus, God regards believers as holy, wearing the white robes of righteousness that Jesus earned for them on the cross.

Terry Schultz is an ELS missionary living in Lima, Peru and working in the Amazon jungle.

Story adapted by the editor.