“The brethren are able to sell eggs to feed their families, keep roofs over their houses, and fix their vehicles. We as a church are deeply grateful.”
~ Johnathan and Martha Pinkham
What are the natives like?
We live among the Tarahumara people of Mexico. They are the most primitive of North American Indians, but they are also related to the pueblo peoples of New Mexico.
Tarahumaras are migratory, spending the summers in the mountains and the winters in the deep canyons of the Sierra Madre Mountains in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. They still speak their own native language and use very limited Spanish to do business with the outside world.
From the villages where we live, the nearest road is a 1 to 2 hour hike.
How did our ministry project begin?
Missionary work first started in February of 2001 in the villages of Coyachique and Wimybo, as well as 20 other villages.
In 2006, the first Anabaptist church started with the baptisms of three converts from the Batopilas Canyon. Over the next several years, four more souls were added.
In 2014, three more people were baptized, and a single sister left the church.
In 2015, two more souls were saved, bringing the total church membership to five complete families, a single sister, and two single brothers. An additional family was in instruction class. Albert Overholt and his family also came in 2015, to assist as minister in the church in Coyachique, and to evangelize the nearby town of Creel, out of which they work.
What do the natives face day by day?
In Coyachique, the Brotherhood in Christ Church has its own Christian day school, village clinic, and village store. The church operates to make money to hire the church members on community projects.
The remote location of our villages and the extreme ruggedness of the terrain leave few options to a Christian to make an honest living.
The drug cartels are the only existing economy. This problem of an honest income is our biggest struggle at the moment. Each of the brethren has a tiny plot of land that he inherited to plant corn and beans to subsist. But even with this plot to grow food, the church families still struggle with malnutrition in their children.
We as a church are deeply grateful for the financial help that Deed & Truth Ministries has been to us. They provided money to build our Christian day school and housing for our teachers. They supplied laying hens and coops for our church brethren. With this chicken project, the brethren are able to sell eggs to feed their families, keep roofs over their houses, and fix their vehicles.
