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
Help Missionaries Build Relationships in Mexico
A native ministry trained its missionaries on practical ways to integrate with local communities and build relationships with the people. Now, those missionaries have begun to use that training to teach the people how to raise animals, vegetables, and micro crops. Missionaries are also teaching lessons on bread-making and textiles, as well as plumbing, electricity, carpentry, and blacksmithing.
Change Lives With The Gospel Message in Peru
A farmer addicted to alcohol and abusive toward his wife and children attended church with his family one Sunday at the invitation of his neighbor. When he heard the gospel preached that day, he and his wife accepted Jesus as Savior, and their life together was immediately changed.
Stand With Churches Through Challenging Times in Brazil
A native ministry received a letter—folded and smudged—with this message: “My brothers and sisters, covid came and we did not die. There is a lot of malaria in our region, but we are still alive. The illegal miners shot us, and we are still alive. The great famine came, and we are still standing. Foreign missionaries left because of the government ban, but we are still standing, and the church has been meeting all the time.
Community Service For The Sake Of The Gospel
Seventeen-year-old Mateo* hated his parents for the years of physical and verbal abuse he suffered at their hands. His resentment toward his family coupled with the constant peer pressure from his friends weighed heavy on his shoulders, and the burden grew more difficult to carry each day. But on the day that he met a native missionary in his rural community, his life changed in a way he never could have imagined.
The missionary told him about Jesus. About forgiveness and redemption and transformation. Mateo soaked up the truths the missionary taught him, and in return, the missionary listened to Mateo’s own troubling life story. Their conversation came exactly when Mateo needed it the most; and as the Holy Spirit moved, Mateo gave his life to Christ.
After he chose to follow Jesus, Mateo received a Bible that he read all the time, and he visited the missionary each day to discuss the stories he’d learned about in Scripture. He even forgave his parents, and with that forgiveness, the burden he’d struggled with for so long was lifted. Now, his once bleak outlook on life has dramatically shifted: he hopes to become a missionary, preaching among indigenous communities and helping change lives as his own was changed.
Reach Communities For Christ in Colombia
A man who struggled with suicidal thoughts attended an outreach event organized by a native ministry in an indigenous community, and God spoke directly into his heart. Not only did he choose to follow Jesus, but God also freed him of his desire to end his life.
Meet The Need For More Church Plants in Chile
A native ministry started a small congregation in a local man’s home, and now 10 adults and seven children worship together there every two weeks. This is just one example of the many church plants Christian workers have established, and the need for more churches continues to increase.