Hunger was his constant companion, in one form or another. There was a haunting sense that something was missing, an emptiness that bread did not fill.
And bread was always scarce. After his father was assassinated during the revolution, Mairon had to work hard to help his mother to meet the basic needs of their family. He was only six years old. They lived in a small indigenous community called Rama Cay, an island on the east coast of Nicaragua.
Many in their community served the church, as they had done for over one hundred and eighty years, ever since European Christians had come to their shores. But there was little comfort there for Mairon, only traditions and rituals and promises and threats of eternal damnation. Fear was his daily bread.
At twenty-two Mairon left the church and the island. Why not? Caught between alcohol and women and rebellion, he was already condemned, and so he thought - why not enjoy it? Mairon married, but drank to the point of endangering his own life and the lives of his wife and child. Restless, he moved his family to yet another city. There he found new friends who claimed to be Christians, but Mairon soon found that he had escaped legalism only to exchange it for a more sophisticated form of manipulation.
His new friends taught strange doctrines and demanded his money, until the family was in crisis. Bitter and angry, Mairon took his family back to Rama Cay, where he resigned himself to the emptiness. Then everything changed.
On the island, Mairon met two missionaries. At first he was suspicious, but as these men began to explain the scriptures he found that everything he had ever been taught was being challenged, disturbing the foundation of his soul. Their words ministered to his deep longing for truth and meaning, leaving him hungry for more. They invited Mairon into a discipleship program in Panama, and he and his family decided to accept. There, a global worker named Einer Zuluaga became his mentor and friend, and over a few months his life was transformed.
Pray for Mairon, completing training in a Biblical institute in Mexico and preparing to return to his island to share God’s Word with the Rama people group. Fear is no longer his daily bread, but Truth. And Mairon is determined that no one should go hungry.
