Special Report: Viscaíno Distribution Trip, 2-11 June 2003

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"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." - Paul of Tarsus

This short-term mission experience was attended by several US staff members, about 10 Christian Mexican friends, and 14 youth and college students from Flagstaff (AZ) Christian Fellowship.

The trip took nine days and we went all the way to Viscaíno, which is located about halfway down the Baja California peninsula-500 miles on rough, Mexican-style roads. On the way down we did tape distribution outreaches in two different places-one in Maneadero, which is just South of Ensenada, and one in a small pueblo called Cataviña.

In Maneadero we found mainly Mixteco speakers, and in Cataviña almost all of them spoke a language called Zoque (SO-kay).

Here's a picture of the vehicles we took down. The big vehicle is a school bus that was converted into a traveling dormitory. We call it "The Ox".

When we got to Viscaíno we stayed there for five nights and did distribution outreaches to the migrant camps on each night except the last night. One of the camps had 8000 people in it-more than the entire population of Viscaíno. We did all the outreaches starting at around 5pm and finishing around 9:30pm.

We gave out over 800 cassettes. Only 125 of them were in Spanish, and the rest were in the languages of authentic, least-reached people groups. We gave out tapes in Zoque, Mixteco, Zapoteco, Nahuatl, Mixe, Huichol, Cora, Tarahumara, Spanish, Huave, Mazateco, Popoluca, Popoloca, Tlapaneco, Trique, and I think a couple more. (Some of these are language groups including many dialects, each having its own program of tapes.)

An amazing blessing to our team is that hardly anyone got real sick. A few had colds, including me, but no one got knocked out by any major sicknesses. Also, despite terrible road conditions the entire trip, even blowing out two tires at once, God kept us safe. The team worked great together, despite the fact that eight of the team members didn't speak English-they were Mexicans from Culiacán who joined up with us once we got into Mexico. It did take some extra work to keep the sense of unity alive, but we did well.

Special Opportunities in Cataviña

It's kind of amazing that we actually stayed in Cataviña on the way down because it wasn't part of our plan. It was about 5pm when we stopped to do our daily group devotional at this small village. Due to a misunderstanding in our team the devotional didn't get started until about 6:45pm.

But it all turned out for good because by the time we got done a good sized group of construction workers were listening in on our devotional, which was being translated into Spanish. These guys had been working on putting in underground telephone lines that run right through the desert along the road and had finished for the day. When they returned to the place where they were going to be sleeping that night (an old abandoned gas station) they found us doing our devotional, so quite a few of them tuned in. Seeing the opportunity, we chose to stay the evening there and show the Jesus video to the workers and give out tapes to anyone who spoke a foreign language. Most of them spoke Zoque.

The man from Cataviña has really bad eyesight and not too long before he fell into a ditch the telephone workers were digging because he couldn't see it. He hurt his ribs pretty bad. We gave him a hand wind tape player that requires no electricity and some Spanish tapes with Bible stories and songs on them. The man said that he always wanted to get a tape player but never was able to. That night and the next morning in Cataviña you could here the sound of those tapes being played on the player we had given him.

More chances to witness

A bunch of kids were following Nichole and I as we were going door-to-door asking people if they spoke a foreign language and wanted a free tape. If you receive updates via email, you know what I'm about to say. These kids stayed with us the whole time we were diagnosing languages. You might notice that the little girl who is holding my clipboard. They were really excited to carry ALL my stuff for me, so I let them.

There's something special about this group of kids though. As we were walking back to a missionary church that was on the camp grounds, the little girl who is holding Nichole's hand asked me out of the blue, "How do you stop swearing?"

That caught me by surprise! I mean, she must be about 6 or 7 and she's asking me how to stop sinning?! She had heard someone say that if you continue to swear God won't forgive you anymore, so she asked me about that, too. (The door doesn't open any further than this, folks!)

I asked her if she had a problem with swearing. She said, "Yes! Bad words just come out of my mouth when I get hurt or mad and I can't stop them!"

Immediately afterwards, about five other kids yelled out, "Me too! I swear too! I can't stop! How do I stop?"

I told them, "Only Christ can forgive you for your sin, and keep you from doing it again." I asked them if they had ever decided to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. They said they hadn't, but wanted to, so we prayed for forgiveness right then and there and then asked God to help them stop swearing. It was an unbelievable experience!

This picture is a cholo by the name of Noel. "Cholo" means gangster, and that's exactly what he claimed to be. Before the Jesus video had started at his camp he was sitting off to the side and watching the set-up crew do their thing. Nichole and I had finished early with our diagnostics so we just went over and sat down by where he was. There were a few other men just hanging out there too. I told him I liked to talk like the cholos and was learning new words. I rattled off a few of my phrases I had learned about 5 years ago and he chuckled, along with the other guys. But with him there was a special connection, since I was talking the way he liked to talk. We just hung out for about 30 minutes just chatting.

After the Jesus video I was given the opportunity to give the invitation for salvation. I jumped at the opportunity with a strange new boldness and mentioned in the talk that the gift is for everyone-grandparents, kids, and cholos too. After the talk the one I'd talked to earlier came up to me and, having rededicated his life to Christ, gave me his pencil drawing of Jesus which he had drawn just a week earlier on a piece of cardboard.

Va'a Sto'on Jushi! ("God is good!" in Mixteco:San Juan Mixtepec)

Timber

Here are more pictures...

This was taken in Catavina on the way down to Viscaíno. Zoque and Spanish speakers are getting cassettes, Bibles and other materials.

Here Rob and Grace are making fine adjustments to the video projector, which is extended out on a pole from the Ox. We use the projector to show the Jesus video.

Here the Ox is set up at a busy market. We played Christian music on the loud speakers and distributed cassettes to anyone who spoke an indigenous language.