wind’s journey with Jorai Bible Institute

By Rich Rice, March 2020

Jorai was founded by a church in El Salvador. A team of missionaries came to Cotzal and established the Institute, purchased the property and built the building. Using curriculum mostly created by those early missionaries from El Salvador, Jorai began teaching the Bible to people in the community.

Myrna Gutierrez was one of those missionaries. As a doctor she established a medical clinic and started treating community members with a variety of ailments. She even had a small pharmacy of donated medicine.

Fresh out of school, Tabita Toma de la Cruz established and created a large library. To this day, it is the largest library in all of Cotzal.

At some point the missionaries departed the area. The church in El Salvador pulled out physically and financially. Even Myrna and Tabita left the Institute. Myrna went to the country of Cameroon to serve as a doctor. What began with a strong vision, the well-staffed and well-funded Institute unfortunately came to an end. Jorai began to flounder without trained leadership.

Fast forward to 2007. Maurina and I were on a “vision” trip to Cotzal (prior to founding WIND) and found ourselves at Jorai. Gathered in a small circle of chairs in the middle of a sparse room, we met with the remaining board members of the Bible Institute – four of them, four of us, and our translator (a Peace Corps worker).

The board members told us the history and purpose of the Bible Institute. They also explained to us that the Institute was down to five students who were not able to pay their own tuition. The Bible Institute had zero funding, and the directors were no longer able to keep it going. They prayed and felt they needed to close the school.

Later the board members found us in Cotzal at a church service. Since we did not have a place to sleep that night, they invited us back to the Bible Institute to spend the night. It was very run down and dirty, but they had a few bunk beds upstairs they welcomed us to use. There were some sheets and blankets piled in the corner. The stairs to the second floor were made of wood which were broken in several places. The only bathroom was an outhouse out back, filled with spider webs, and precariously leaning back on the hillside it was perched on. The entire facility was in disrepair due to the lack of funding.

I think back now as I write this and remember how strongly we felt that the Holy Spirit had connected us. And it was the Holy Spirit who provided us a place to stay. We had no plan, and yet we were moving forward in faith. The fact we decided to bunk at the Bible Institute was a total God thing. I start to itch just thinking about those conditions, but I would not change a thing.

As we sat in that circle we knew the Lord had led us to this place. None of us had been there before, and we did not know anyone associated with Jorai. But there we sat as Juan Rodriguez, the president of the Jorai board said, “Then we heard about you and that you were in Cotzal, and we knew it was an answer to our prayers.” We prayed together as darkness settled across the valley beyond.

We stayed a week at the Bible Institute. We prayed a lot and sought the Lord’s direction. On the last day, we again sat in the circle of faith with them and told them that we were being led to help by providing 28 scholarships for people in Cotzal to attend the Bible Institute and paying the full $100 yearly tuition for each of the students. (We later revised that policy and no longer pay 100% of anything. We believe that those whom you serve need to have a vested interest in their own development. Skin in the game, so to speak.) When we returned to the US, we set out to find 28 sponsors for each of those Bible students. Our initial budget was $2800. And from that humble beginning, WIND of God (now known as WIND) was born.

God has used this initial step of obedience to glorify and expand His kingdom in the community of Cotzal and throughout the entire Ixil region.

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