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 Bring Crucial Relief in Latin America
The pandemic has left many families in Chile without work, and native Christian workers are distributing basic necessities and food to them. “Now we do it more frequently, twice a month,” the leader said.
Equip Workers for Gospel Outreach in Ecuador
Native Christian workers invited local men to the anniversary celebration of their men’s ministry, and several of them accepted Christ. Workers have established 20 home Bible groups of 10 to 15 people each where they explain the gospel and disciple new Christians.
Help Start Churches in Peru
A husband and wife with a native ministry walk many hours three times a week to help shepherd remote congregations and proclaim the message of eternal life, and they are winning souls to Christ. In another area, seven workers travel through the Andes, braving hunger and cold to bring the gospel to places inaccessible to most people.
Help Form and Strengthen New Christians in Peru
Local Christian workers praise God for opportunities to work among new tribal communities. Visiting homes and sending biblical messages to those they’ve met through WhatsApp, they have seen villagers begin to attend area churches with their families.
Support Native Missionaries’ Gospel Work in Argentina
A married mother of four children who had gone to church activities only as a child and never accepted Christ recently began attending worship services. “Listening to the gospel, she realized her need for forgiveness and salvation,” the ministry leader said.
Support the Spread of the Good News in Ecuador
The Lord penetrated the hearts of criminals as local Christian workers proclaimed the gospel in prison courtyards. “Several converted to the Lord and along with others attend the daily services,” the native ministry leader said.
