Future Dreams:
(not in any particular order, God's timing is perfect)
1. GO TO THE PEOPLE -- The long-term vision for the Aztec Ministry is to focus on getting the Word into the hands of the Nahua people. Remember there are 1,200,000 speakers of our Nahuatl languages (that is equal to the population census of Dallas, Texas) and yet we have sold or distributed only 29,500 Bibles. Now 29,500 is a lot, and we thank the Lord for each and every one; but there is much distribution work to be undertaken and many people yet to be reached. Many of our speakers live in remote villages high in the mountains and they will likely never come down to the big city where we have our Aztec Center bookstore to purchase a complete Bible, hymnal or now a colorful Children’s Bible, so we have a heavy burden to begin a distribution circuit and GO TO THE PEOPLE! We are asking the Lord to allow us to have a mobile bookstore that would regularly travel to villages, marketplaces and churches. We just lack the “mobile” aspect--a designated four-wheel-drive vehicle. We are asking the Lord to provide a used vehicle or the funds of $8,000-$10,000 to purchase a used vehicle and import that into Mexico. Praise the Lord, He has already gone before us and we have a Christian contact, a Mexican border official, who will process the vehicle importation for us.
2. Radio Station: We would love to expand our weekly radio program ministry and establish a whole evangelical radio station in Nahuatl that would run all week long in the Huasteca. Distribute radios to remote villages. Enable "live" Internet streaming. We will need to: identify transformer location(s) in the mountains, get radio frequency permissions and other legal in-country aspects, purchase recording equipment, request and obtain a mechanical license for the hymns with copyright restrictions, prepare many hours of content an programming (such as: messages, audio dramas, Scripture, music etc...).
3. Sunday School to Sunday School Sponsorship: (SS/SS)
The village churches are very primitive. Some still have no electricity. We have seen churches in the U.S. that have closets full of "old" style Sunday School materials such as felt/flannel graph boards and Bible story felt characters that are no longer in use. Anything that depicts the Bible in pictures without a lot of distracting language text can be redistributed in the Huasteca Nahuatl churches. Imagine the excitement of the Nahua children to have a Bible story presented in Nahuatl using felt sets, such as the ones by Betty Lukens. See:
http://www.bettylukens.com/collections/bible-sets-1/products/deluxe-bible-set
This is not an expensive project! We would not have to purchase all the felt sets brand new; there are churches that could ship their dormant kits to our Aztec Ministry center in Mexico via UPS! Then we could pair up Sunday Schools in the U.S. with Sunday Schools in the villages! (see also GPS Mapping Project) Each U.S. church would only donate their selected materials and a one-time gift that would be covering their box's shipping expense! We could layer other areas of ministry through these SS/SS relationships as the Lord directs. Together we can reach Nahua children with the love of God while they are young!
Who wants to spear-head this project from the U.S. for us?
4. Church Congregation to Church Church Congregation Sponsorship: (CC/CC) This program would pair up Church Congregations in the U.S. with Church "Congregations" in the villages. This would provide primarily an opportunity for a U.S. church to provide prayer coverage for the village church. Christians in our Huasteca region are persecuted simply for their faith. Christians have been imprisoned in 2013 in our area.
(Dick and Pat knew a village pastor that was badly beaten and the conflict escalated until the crowd attempted to bury him alive. This attack, although years ago, broke his faith and he and his family members are still troubled and lack peace. Please pray for him, "Pastor P", for I have just heard that he is newly seeking God again! Praise the Lord!)
5. Bible School and Pastor's Training Center in Nahuatl:
We have dreams of having a training school in Nahuatl where men would come in from their villages and receive training in organizing small group Bible studies, preparing messages, and leading a congregation.
6. Record the Nahuatl Old Testaments: Distribute CDs and upload on the Internet.
7. Calendars: Years ago we prepared colorful calendars with Scripture passages and sold them in village markets. They were very popular. Today we have software that will prepare a calendar booklet like the size of a check-book in our three dialects. The best feature is that there are weekly suggested passages for people to read in their Bibles! These would be easy to print and distribute. But our time is running out to get calendars printed for 2016. Please pray that God would strengthen us to tackle this project.
8. Literacy Training: We do have a significant portion of our village populations that are illiterate. We would like to structure a literacy program that ministers to these individuals. We have the tools ready (Reading primers and writing primers are in all three dialects.)
9. "The Book of Acts" - Movie Project
10. Medical/Dental Care - Short term and Long Term
11. Cultural Handicrafts: We would like to be able to equip Nahua women to create handicrafts that would help spread the Gospel message. The Catholic Church has many symbols and crafts that emphasize aspects of Catholicism, but the Nahua evangelicals have very little access to creative or artistic avenues through which they can celebrate their faith in Jesus Christ. The Nahuas are such a colorful and artistic language group. God created them with unique artistic perspectives to share with one another. Wouldn't it be wonderful for there to be a way they could express their love of God and create and then sell a handicraft in the local marketplaces?
