Planting a multi-ethnic church
New Tribes Mission’s emphasis on church planting is broadening the view of the missionary team in a Nahuatl village.
“One thing that has been heavy on the hearts of our team is the Spanish-speaking individuals in this village,” wrote Katie Moore, a member of the team. “We have couples who have intermarried from several tribal groups, families that speak only Spanish in the home, and … government workers who make their home here.”
This means that although the team is focused on learning the culture and language of the Nahuatl people, they see current needs around them and they know that any church in the village will need to be multi-ethnic.
“Right before Christmas break, the Mexican teachers expressed an interest in doing a Bible study,” Katie wrote. “They said that they understood that we had studied ‘that sort of thing’ in college and asked if we would like to teach them some.”
Soon afterward, and before the team could provide an answer, a Nahuatl man named Hermilo came to them to ask for a Bible in Spanish. Hermilo does not speak Nahuatl, but speaks and reads Spanish. After he received the Bible he asked, “This is the real Bible, isn’t it? It’s not one of those that people added a bunch of extra stuff to, right?”
“We don’t know Hermilo’s background,” Katie wrote, “but we imagine that he must have had conversations with a believer at some point in his life. We praise God for whomever planted the seeds of interest and pray that the Holy Spirit will bring about belief and fruit because of it.”
The missionary team is hoping to begin a Spanish-language Bible study this month.
Please pray that God uses this study in the hearts of people who attend. “Pray that we wisely balance our time between community service, construction, language learning, and Spanish evangelism,” Katie wrote.