Scout Repot

                Hey Everyone! The trip into the mountains was a success! We were able to map and scout out several areas that we had never been to before. A number of the communities were a considerable distance off the mapped road system. The roads leading to them were rough. One of the larger towns  we visited was 30 miles off of the mapped road system. The road its self was extremely rough, large bolders, lose rock, washouts and steep climbing up steep hillsides was the norm. Due to the rough terrain, any future attempts to show the film in this village will probably be done with ATVs rather than risking a vehicle.

We were able to meet several Christian brothers and sisters in various communities. Whenever we met a brother or sister, we would stop and visit them for a while. These visits are very encouraging as the Christian community in this part of the country is extremely small and often, they can feel forgotten by the rest of the Church. Being able to stop in and visit these people is proof to them that they are not alone and are not forgotten. Although many of the villages have only one or two Christians, in one village  we were excited to discover a pastor by the name of Juan. There were twelve members in his congregation. Besides working in his own area, he travels to many of the surrounding communities, including the towns and villages that we visited last month. As we sat and visited with him and his family he told us of even more communities that were in need of the Gospel but could only be reached by foot.

Although Spanish is the official language in Mexico, a number of these native villages are so far off of the beaten trail that some of them only speak their native language. On top of the language barrier, the natives are often closed to outsiders. Although Pastor Juan speaks very little of the native language, he is a member of the local tribe which means that he will be much better received than any one coming in from North America, or even other parts of Mexico. Finding him there was a huge blessing and encouragement.

Please pray for Pastor Juan as he pastors his small congregation and also as he reaches out to the surrounding communities. Pray for encouragement for him and that God would prepare hearts ahead of him to hear and to receive the truth that he brings. Pray that the Lord would raise up other Christian leaders in the Allimos region so that the Gospel would be clearly preached to people living there.

Although we were not able to do any evangelism work, we did hand out several hundred Bibles to the people that we met on the way. In many cases, simply having the Word of God available in their hands transforms lives. One story comes to mind where an illiterate woman fasted and prayed and at the end of her fast God had given her the ability to read her Bible. Please pray that the people who received those Bible would read and understand them and that they would respond to the Gospel Message.