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 Disciple Tribal Believers in Brazil
A village recently obtained online access that cleared the way for workers to create a WhatsApp group to discuss the Bible with tribal people. Workers also sent solar Bibles and used cell phones with SD cards containing the Jesus Film, Bible studies and praise songs, including material in their native language.
Help Bring Relief to Refugees in Europe
Refugees from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine and other areas of military conflict and danger risk their lives to flee and provide hope of survival for their children. The cost is high as they arrive in Europe traumatized and in deep physical need. Native Christian workers are often the only ones who help them with food, clothing, shelter and assistance in finding medical and legal help.
Transform Lives with the Gospel in Peru
A rural villager who belonged to a sect opposed the gospel, saying only members of his religion would be saved. When he fell ill, he accepted a worker’s invitation to attend a church service, where he responded to the gospel with tears and gave his life to Christ.
Partner in Leading People to Christ in Uruguay
More young people are coming to Christ in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A native worker and his wife shared the gospel with a young woman who was suffering severe depression, and she put her faith in Christ. “The Lord saved her, and she found a new hope in Jesus,” the ministry leader said.
Send the Gospel to the Unreached in Argentina
A tribal group in a remote jungle village heard the gospel for the first time when native Christian workers recently visited them. After three days, 25 villagers accepted Christ. The team appointed one of the tribal converts to lead the new group.
People in Mexico Hear Gospel for the First Time
Two indigenous families in rural Mexico had no inkling of God’s existence until they heard audio recordings of the Gospel of Mark in their tribal language. “When listening to our audios in their language, something changed in them,” the leader of a native ministry said. “These families have changed their way of being and thinking.” The two families recently put their faith in Christ and have begun attending church services.