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A story is told about a traveling Missionary priest who died at the turn of the 20th century. He was send from Europe to evangelize to the native populations and he worked tirelessly to bring Christ to the people. Each day, he got on his mule and rode through the mountains and villages. He slept on the ground and was bitten by Mosquitos, enduring hunger and thirst, nevertheless he continued on. When he arrived at the village, he would teach and preach the gospel all day long to anyone who would listen. But he was quite unsuccessful because there were too many different dialects and he remained unpopular and few ever embraced the Catholic faith or asked for baptism. One day the priest became quite ill and saw himself as a failure. He died shortly after.
About 40 years later, in another mountain village, there was a powerful chief who was laying in his but awaiting death. As he was laying there, he contemplated death. But he remembered as a little boy, he saw a white man dressed in black who visited his village and spoke of a powerful God named Jesus. Although this Jesus was killed, he had been risen from the dead. This man dressed in black said that if you believed him and receive the cleansing waters, you would live forever. The chief then sent runners to the nearest large cities with instructions to bring a man dressed in black. A priest arrived some days later, quickly gave instructions of the faith, baptized him and gave him holy communion. Then the chief died.
But this chief wasn't just one chief in the village but ten villages. The law of the land is that the religion of the people would always be the same religion as their chief, so more priests were requested to the villages. Thousands upon thousands of people accepted Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith, and also taught their children and grandchildren down through the generations. All because of one priest, who remained faithful but died thinking that he was a total failure.
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