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Kingdom Progress

Venture to Batopilas, Chihuahua

No Longer Counting People's Sins Against Them

from Calvin

Choice greetings to all of you in the most precious of names, the name of our Lord, Jesus the Christ. I love His name. In Hebrew, His name means Savior, or the Lord saves.

In my imagination, I like to see our Heavenly Father visiting with His angels as they discuss all the beautiful names and their meanings. In the end, the name Jesus is chosen when our Father says, “You know fellows, above all else humanity needs to be saved, saved from Satan’s destructive curses and saved from themselves. I created them for My pleasure, and I refuse to lose them, so I’m going to send them a Savior."

As history moved along, we find Jesus offers Himself back to the Father as the supreme sacrifice and sheds His life’s blood to wipe away our sins, signing our pardon in His own blood; He ascends back into heaven and takes His place as King in His Father’s throne. Oh, hallelujah!

Then, He sends the very life force of our Creator, the Holy Spirit to live and minister through believers. As the word of the Savior and what He has done for us spreads across the land, an evil man named Saul has a divine encounter with Jesus. He then gets a complete makeover, complete with a name change. Now he becomes Paul the Apostle. Bold as a lion he dares to preach and publish the Good News Gospel.

In II Corinthians 5:19-21, he shatters the traditional religions of his day, when He declares: “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

Brothers and sisters, we have the Good News of the ages. May we always be faithful to proclaim it to our hurting world. Jesus, our Savior has come, receive your freedom by faith in Him, freedom from sin, guilt, and condemnation. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed!

Kingdom Progress

New Church in Guayparin, Sonora

Offerings continue to come in for Pastor Fermin’s new church building in Guayparin, Sonora. Thank you for responding. Continue to believe with us for the miracles to complete this project.

Christmas Programs - Set To Start in Less Than Two Months

Christmas offerings continue to come in. We now have all of the money for buying the toys for 12,000 children in the hands of the team leaders. Part of the money for candy has come in, but we still need $8,000 to finish purchasing the candy. It will be here just in time!

VBS Happening Now In Some Towns

Many of the small pueblos are just now having their VBS’s. The Coronavirus has put things a little out of sync, but the children are thrilled to receive the love and attention whenever it comes.

The material we use is amazing! It plants God’s word in the children’s hearts that stays with them throughout their lives.

Thank You, Jesus! 

Thank you, partners!

Venture to Batopilas, Chihuahua

Enjoy the following story from our history archive.

In February 1999 Calvin had a vision of a town deep in a canyon with mountains rising so steep and high that the sun was only visible from 10:00 AM to 3:00 P.M. He knew that someday we would be connected there. In December 2001, the Lord gave Maria De la Parra a vision of a town with a river running through the center of town. She felt compelled that we must find that town.

In February of 2002 Linda Stanley, a missionary serving in Mozambique, Africa called to tell us she had been praying for a town in Mexico named Batopila. She knew that it was at the bottom of a canyon with a river running through it and people living on both sides of the river.  She felt an urgency in prayer for it to be found. At the same time, she was living in a remote area taking care of an orphanage.  She had to walk for many hours and wade across a shoulder-deep river infested with hippos and alligators to get to a phone so she could call us.

In May 2002, the Lord impressed Calvin that soon we needed to make a prophetic prayer journey completing a circle through Sonora and Chihuahua. In July we decided to leave after church on Sunday and travel to Nacozari and invite Juan and Maria to go with us. We couldn’t call ahead as their phone was out. When we arrived Sunday PM we told them that we were going to Navojoa for two nights and then if there was a green light in our spirits we would travel to El Fuerte, Sinaloa and from there travel on dirt roads through the mountains to Batopilas. We invited them to go and they began to think about all of the things they had to do that week, but then said, “Give us 30 minutes to get our suitcase packed.”

As we were traveling to Navojoa, we decided to show Juan and Maria the lookout over the Sea of Cortez at San Carlos. When we stopped, there was a family wearing Batopilas tee shirts. They were raised in Batopilas and still had family living there. They did not know of the road into Batopilas from the south that we wanted to take but told us that this is a beautiful time to visit.

In Navojoa on Wednesday morning, we had a green light to go on to El Fuerte, Sinaloa. We arrived in El Fuerte at 10:00 AM and went to the city hall. No one there knew anything about the road. We were hungry, so we stopped at a little hole in the wall café. When the waitress came to the table, I asked if she knew the way to Batopilas.

She said she didn’t but her husband knew it. He is a dentist who had worked in the towns between El Fuerte and Morelos (south of Batopilas). Just then he happened to come into the café for lunch. He took half an hour to make a map, and to write down all the names of the towns and the names of people we could ask for help if we needed it. He also told us where to eat, sleep, and buy gas.

He said if we left immediately we could reach La Lajita, a little town where there is a small motel to spend the night, and we should be able to make it to Batopilas the next day. He told us to not drive on these roads at night as it is dangerous.

Well, here begins the adventurous trek. Leaving El Fuerte, the winding dirt road was lined with tropical vegetation. We continually climbed upward passing through many small towns. There were showers falling around us. After three hours, as we were trying to cross an arroyo, our Explorer got stuck in a Rancheria named Las Juantas. There were people gathered there to watch the water run. The teenagers watching us struggle thought it was incredibly funny. The more we tried to get out the worse it got and the more they laughed.

After an hour with several men digging, pushing, and pulling, we had to send for a tractor and pay them $25.00 to pull us out. Despite being wet and muddy, and wondering what lay ahead, the time we spent there turned out to be a delightful community event for the locals.

As we continued to climb the mountains, the tropical vegetation turned into pines. We passed many logging trucks coming out of the mountains. There was just enough room in some places to pass. The trucks would pass just a foot from our car with their loads twisting and their chains groaning. We sure prayed for the chains to hold. The climb was steep and treacherous. We hit slick, muddy places in the road where the inclines beside us dropped hundreds of feet. When we reached the top, we had climbed from an elevation of 239 ft. to 7,000 ft.

After reaching the top we realized that we were still hours from the motel and the sun was sinking fast. Besides sleeping in the car, our only other option was to continue to drive up and down and around the mountains on the narrow wet logging trail. At 10:30 PM we finally arrived in La Lajita. We had driven 70 miles in nine hours since El Fuerte. After much effort, we woke up the owner and she showed us to our rooms, 8’x8’ cubicles made out of slabs of wood. There was a bathroom outside with icy cold showers. Oh well, it was wonderful to have a bed with wool blankets, as it was quite cool.

The next morning we were told to go to a white house across the road and they would serve us breakfast. They sat us at a table in their dining room and brought us a feast of delicious homemade foods. Little did we know that we would not have another cooked meal until 10:30 that night.

After continuing to climb higher in the mountains to an elevation of 7,800 ft. we arrived at a mesa with a breathtaking view of immense canyons and mountains that lay before us. As we started down the thrilling descent, the wet mountains turned into semi-arid deserts. At the bottom, we went through the remote pueblo of Morales.

About noon, we started seeing Tarahumara Indian houses nestled high on the canyon walls and on high distant mesas. We spent the afternoon climbing mountains and then dropping into river valleys. Finally, we crossed the San Miguel River with an elevation of 1,973 ft. As we started to climb we left the semi-arid climate. The mountains were green and beautiful with picturesque waterfalls. We began to see more and more Tarahumara dwellings. These primitive people live on the top of the cool mountains in the summer and grow their corn and beans. One of the many interesting things about their farming is how they use all wooden plows pulled by whatever skinny animal they may have. A cow, a horse, or a burro. In the winter they move to the warm valleys where tropical fruit grows well.

As we continued to climb the mountain, the road became steeper and the hairpin curves sharper. Before we reached the summit at 8,400 ft. we were asking the Lord for His grace to live through us, as the thrill of the road far exceeded our expectations. We traveled for some time in the tops of the mountains enjoying the beautiful ranches, and little towns, but alas, what goes up must come down. We knew Batopilas’ elevation is 1,250 ft. so we were prepared for quite a drop, but again our expectations fell short of reality.

We didn’t start down the mountain until sunset so when we dropped below the timberline the breathtaking expanse of mountains and canyons before us were painted in gold. The sad part is that all of us were so engrossed in remembering to breathe that we forgot to take pictures. For a long way, the narrow road was cut into the side of an almost vertical descent. In some places, we could look down 5,000 ft. At one place the water had run across the road and someone had done basic repairs with a shovel. But it was still so narrow Calvin squeezed within an inch of the mountainside on the right and when he looked out the window on the left all he could see looking down was blue sky. We assume that there was dirt under the tire, but then again it might have been a strong angel. This area of Chihuahua has 5 canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon in AZ and we got to experience some of them personally.

Praise the Lord, finally, we arrived in Batopilas at 9:30 PM in the dark of night. The electricity was out because of the storms, so we knocked on doors until we could find our way to a local motel. We even found someone to fix us hamburgers by the light of a kerosene lamp. That night in our motel rooms, the storm still raged. There were mangos hitting the tin roof from the strong winds. It sounded like guns going off.  Every time we would almost fall asleep we would feel like we were about to fall off a cliff and nearly fall out of bed.

From the time we left the pavement at El Fuerte until we reached Batopilas was 189 miles, 21 hours of driving time. We passed through 30 towns and small villages and only found 2 Christian churches, one of them near El Furete.

Batopilas, home to 1,200 people, is nestled deep in the canyon, has red tile roofs, year-round flowers, and a lovely river running through the middle of town. It is one block wide and 3 miles long.

The next morning we went to the city offices. While there, we met the mother of the young man we had met in San Carlos and were able to tell her we had just met and visited with her son. This brought us instant favor in the city hall.

We asked them about the Christian pastors that are in town. They sent a young man with us to find them. The pastors had come to Batopilas almost 2 years prior. After much nudging from the Lord, they had purchased property and started the foundations for their church. They were meeting in the homes of one of their members. They were also ministering to the Tarahumara Indians.

We went to their church property where we prayed for the church and for them. Calvin shared a Word from the Lord with them. He showed them a glass of water. He then put salt into the water. He asked them if they could see the salt. Even though they couldn’t see the salt, the water was changed. The Lord said that’s the way it is with their presence in Batopilas. Even though they can’t see much change in the town, it is different because they are there. In Matthew 5:13 Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth.

We spent the entire day ministering to them. They were so discouraged and in fear they had decided the night before to leave and go back to Chihuahua. They really didn’t want to; they were just at the end of their rope. The Lord ministered to them mightily throughout the day enforcing their will to stay.

In the first 10 years, we made many trips to Batopilas and helped build 2 churches. We are now in our 18th year of sending ministry teams in with supplies to continue Christmas programs and VBS classes.

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