Armor of Hope Ministries

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The Evil Eye

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 of the 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 mommy 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.  

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 not powers of protection or healing.  Finally after a short
discussion I told them it came down to this; Who do you put your
trust in, God or a red cord?  You cannot have it both ways.

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 of
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!