Armor of Hope Ministries

They call it, "mal de ojo", or "the evil eye."  It is the belief that someone has the ability to cause sickness, tiredness or a curse to fall upon a baby simply by looking at them in a certain way.  Commonly it is believed that it is people with lighter shades of eyes that have this power. 

Mothers combat the evil eye by putting red beads or cords on the wrist of their newborn babies.  The superstitions of the evil eye and red beads protecting from the evil eye are strong throughout Honduras.

We see this as an opportunity to teach about God and his great power over everything.  When young moms come to us with sick infants who have a red cord on their wrists, we use this time to teach them that the cord has not protected the baby from this illness, but we know of something more powerful to protect their baby.  At this point they are all ears.

The receptivity of the message is high when a momma is holding a sick baby.  We tell them that God is more powerful than the red cord and that he will reward them if they believe He can protect their babies.  We take the cords off the babies arms and pray with the moms over their babies.  They hear us asking God to protect and heal their babies and they know who healed their babies once health returns.

This is simple faith, the kind God rewards.  We have had a 100% success rate at removing the cords from sick babies arms in these situations.  We do not have success removing cords from the arms of babies who are not sick.  It is amazing how a sick child can lead a mother to belief in the power of God, but how strong and ingrained these beliefs are.

Now the rest of the story...

Many of our readers know team member Yul Brinner.  You may also know he is one of the ministers at the church in El Sauce.  Yul is married to Chely.  When Chely was expecting their son I asked Yul and Chely what their intentions were concerning using a red cord with their baby.  Yul quickly deferred to Chely.  It was obvious both of them were nervous about making a decision concerning this.  While Yul had taught others to pitch the red cord in favor of accepting the power of God, he was now faced with the decision himself.  Its different when its your own child.

They questioned me to verify that I truly believed this red cord had no powers of protection or healing.  Finally after a short discussion I told them it came down to this; In whom do you put your trust, God or a red cord?  You cannot have it both ways.

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That was all it took.  They agreed they would not put the red cord on their baby.   It was a step of faith for them, a huge step as it had been for every parent before them.  What made them different was that their baby was not born yet and they were not facing a health crisis with their child.  Acceptance of God's power to protect their baby also meant they could stand as an example in the church and in the community as believers in God's power even over "the evil eye".

Jonaton Yul Rivera Lomas was born healthy and has had not health problems since his birth.  The example this family has set has since cause two young mothers to make decisions for God's power over the power of the red cord.  One mother never put the red cord on her baby boy, while the other removed the cord from her infant son.  The knowledge of the power of God is growing through the faith of young moms and their babies who God is protecting.  Praise Him through whom all power originates!