The True Source of Social Health

It is easy to look at the moral disintegration of our towns and nations and cry that we need a return to Biblical morality.  It is fairly clear that the health of our societies depends on the righteousness of our people.   As our nations turn away from God and reject His commandments and His righteousness, we see a slow descent into social chaos as the result.  However, without Christ, our good works are worth very little. Thank God that He is  still active today.  In those places around the world where a few obedient people are throwing themselves at His feet, God, through the power of His Spirit, is bringing health and salvation to entire communities.

The Motilones:

The Motilones were a secluded Colombian tribe known for their fierceness and willingness to murder intruders when the Gospel of Jesus Christ was brought to their part of the Amazon.   Living as hunters and gatherers in the forest, the Motilones were subject to disease and the whims of nature, living in fear and anger at the outside world.   When Bruce Olson, a young man from Minnesota, found his way into their Amazon world, they shot him and he nearly died from a combination of infection and dysentery.  After several years, Bruce was able to finally live with the Motilones and eventually share with them the message of the Gospel in their own language.  A significant number of people in the tribe gave their lives to Jesus Christ and a majority follow the trail of Jesus today. Christ's life in them has absolutely changed the lives of the Motilones both inside and out. 

Full of simple love and faith the Motilones started reaching out to the other tribes in the Amazon, with whom they were previously in constant battle, to tell them about the relationship they could have with God through Jesus Christ.  They learned agricultural principles and now raise livestock.  They have started schools and medical clinics, agricultural centers and trading posts. Their cooperative trading posts provide the economic base for 18 tribal peoples. And yet, the culture of the Motilone people has remained.  The children who are able to go outside the jungle for further education do not stay away for life in the city, but return to the jungle to bring their new knowledge back for the benefit of the tribe.  Instead of fear and sickness and poverty, the Motilones are a peaceful, happy, prosperous people who are able to offer help to their neighbors in Colombia and Venezuela.

Almolonga, Guatemala:

Thirty years ago, the town of Almolonga in Guatemala was a typical spiritually and economically depressed area.  Idolatry and poverty, alcoholism and violence were rampant.   A local idol named Maximon held control over the community but never provided freedom from the depression and sin that was destroying the people of the town.   When a group of people decided to gather to pray regularly and desperately for Almolonga, the spiritual cleansing of the town began.

Now, after decades of prayer and spiritual renewal, the town is a completely different place.  A majority of the townspeople consider themselves born-again Christians and the town itself has received a new life.  The crime rate has dropped so significantly that the four jails have been shut down.  Bars that had closed from lack of patronage have been converted into churches.  The vicious cycle of alcoholism and poverty has been broken and in its place the town is seeing both social and economic health. As the people turned to God and were healed of all kinds of anger and depression and addictions, their spiritual and emotional health improved. The violence and domestic abuse went out with the alcoholism, as did much of the sloth.  The fertile fields around their town are producing great amounts of vegetables and they boast of three harvests a year, exporting as many as 40 truckloads of produce a day during harvest times.  Almolonga is now a healthy, happy prosperous town.

Other towns around the world have experienced similar "revivals" – from Baffin Island in Canada to Kiambu, Kenya to even Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The power for change is not simply based in a set of rules or Biblical ethics persay, but in the very resurrection power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  The power of God to change human lives is still at work today, setting sinners free. May we keep pressing on and seeking Him and not give up until the reality of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is manifest in our own homes and churches, our towns and communities.