Countries Where We
Assist Native Ministries
Overview
Latin America’s Protestant population is booming, yet the region is still home to high numbers of unreached people groups. Brazil tops the chart of Latin American countries with the most unreached people groups. Mexico is number two, followed by Peru and Colombia.
Mexico’s Oaxaca State, for instance, is the most ethnically diverse entity in the world. In one 36-square-mile area of the state, more than 200 languages and dialects are spoken. Peru is home to many “unengaged” tribes who live in the jungles of Amazonia, isolated from society.
In contrast, Peru’s evangelical population has dramatically increased from 1 percent in 1960 to 11.15 percent in 2017. However, Peruvian Christians suffer from a lack of trained leadership, leading to false teaching within some churches.
Poverty, gangs, and drug trafficking are some of the biggest challenges to the spread of the gospel in Latin America.
Many of the indigenous ministries we assist are addressing each of these challenges; for instance, in Ecuador, a ministry provides theological training to inmates at 12 prisons where they have planted churches. Former murderers and drug traffickers are now seminary students and leaders inside prison churches. Once they are released, they have an opportunity to learn a viable skill through the ministry’s rehabilitation program.
How You Can Make a Difference
Native missionaries in Latin America persevere in sharing the gospel in some of the world’s most dangerous mission fields—where gangs, drug traffickers, and hostile animist communities view them as a threat to their territories. They need your support to help them enter towns and villages through community engagement projects like small businesses and vocational training centers, which have proven effective in opening hearts to the gospel message.
Ways To Give
Evangelism & Discipleship
In Oaxaca State, Mexico, where over 200 languages and dialects are spoken, a ministry is training missionaries to reach the region’s many unreached people groups.
Community Engagement
In the slums of Guatemala City, an indigenous ministry provides more than 100 poverty-stricken children with afterschool recreation and discipleship in God’s Word.
Compassion
An indigenous ministry in the Peruvian Andes cares for poor children by providing them with nutritious meals, usually their only meal of the day, and tutoring.
Exclusive Stories from the Mission Field
Enable Evangelistic Outreach in Peru
A woman who accepted Christ at one of the churches of a native ministry shared the gospel with her husband for years, but he was not interested. Her death left the 60-year-old widower in a remote village in the Andes deeply anguished, and the gospel seed planted in him began to germinate.
Send the Message of Eternal Life in Mexico
An alcoholic who burglarized the home of a native Christian worker later threatened him so severely that he had to leave town with his family for a few days. The aggressor himself was later forced to leave the area because of his violent ways, and he became so emotionally distraught that he sought the worker’s help.
Provide Gospel Resources in Brazil
Tribal people have eagerly received solar audio Bibles in their native tongue and are growing closer to God. Local Christian workers are also distributing SD cards that contain the Jesus Film in the local language, as well as hymns and Bible study materials. These SD cards are placed in used cell phones collected in churches.
Equip Workers to Share the Gospel in Mexico
Through Bible studies, Sunday schools and other outreaches, native Christian workers are proclaiming the Good News. A 15-year-old girl at-risk from a troubled family came to a ministry’s orphanage and recently accepted Christ.
Help Send the Message of Redemption in Argentina
Native Christian workers are finding creative ways to bring the message of Christ’s salvation to women through such activities as conflict resolution workshops and breakfast meetings with non-Christians. One of the ministry’s congregations held a recent evangelistic event where 50 children and 20 adults heard the gospel and received biblical literature.
Help Provide Bibles and the Gospel in Mexico
Translators of the Bible into 26 indigenous languages also produce and distribute various materials to help build the kingdom. Workers at one ministry who translated all four Gospels into an indigenous language provided 1,000 copies to tribal people.