The First Contacts

Chapter 1

THE FIRST CONTACTS

“We are taking the gospel to various groups of Indians and we are preparing them to serve the Lord in the ministry. Your material, if you permit me to use it, will be of much usefulness. To reach them we have to walk on foot for 17 hours. The walk is very tiring, but it is a blessing to take them the Word. Never before have they heard the gospel and now I see that they have much hunger for God. It is our desire to train them so that they themselves share the Word. Waldo Castro.” (April 5, 2005)

With the Indians

“A widow in the church (Francisca Altmiran) was the one that opened the ministry to the Indians when she was 78 years old. She had known the Lord for only a few months. Now she is already 82. The Lord used her to bring them to Him, and then some Huichol Indians came to the church. After that we went with their families to the mountains. From there it all began. Waldo.” (November 7, 2005)

“The first Indians came to the church, then a group came down from the mountains, and among them, they brought Anselmo. The Lord raised up Anselmo (a Huichol Indian) in the first meeting that he came. Then we climbed to the towns that had in them their family members. All in that town surrendered themselves to the Lord and we planted the first mission. From there it has extended itself to many other places. Waldo.” (November 10, 2005)

“When we arrived with them (the Indians) for the first time, the Lord began to sprinkle many miracles over us. I myself remained surprised to see how God operated. When God healed a paralytic person, all the others began to believe and to receive. Then the chief of the tribe was healed in his spinal column and of a broken rib. Afterwards, all the women and all the people began to receive from the presence of God. When we came, the chief of the tribe stood up and told everyone in his dialect, ‘Our ancestors told us that when mixed blooded people would climb and speak to us of the Word of God, we should receive it, because when that happened, the end of the world would already be near. This is the first time that people have climbed to speak to us of this. I recommend to you that we obey what they tell us, and that we retain their teachings.’ When I heard those words, I cried with gratitude for being the first to arrive in their villages with the gospel, and that it was not some cult with a different gospel. Two entire villages surrendered to the Lord that day. Now that we are training them to serve God, in the same way, to carry the Word to those kinds of places. Waldo.” (April 7, 2005)

“The first time that I climbed, only Tony and I went. (Tony is the traditional Huichol governor, and a Christian). We walked one complete day to arrive in El Majahual, but we could not arrive that day. In a month and a half, we returned and went to La Ciénega. There we also established the church because all the village surrendered to the Lord. Tony could not accompany me this time. Then we returned in two months and spent a good time in the mountains carrying the gospel to new villages. Already the people knew of our visit and invited us to their communities to speak to them of the Word of God. When I walked among the mountains, I walked very great distances and climbed the highest mountains to take the gospel to two or three families. I slept where night caught up with me, and other times under the trees. I felt helpless to hear Tony tell me that hundreds of villages lack the Word and had never heard of Jesus Christ, and had waited desperately for the gospel. I never thought that God had prepared Jack and you because I did not know you, but God has all in control. The work of the missionary is very difficult. It is not only that the people need to receive Jesus Christ, but that we follow up discipling them. We have arrived at villages after walking for 13 hours without water and food, because we did not have resources. However, on arriving we have become aware that they do not speak the Spanish language, only their own dialect. But the anointing of the Lord is so great that at the moment of laying hands on them, they feel His presence and fall under conviction in their hearts, and they receive Him in their lives. Waldo.” October 31, 2006)

“The sound of the ram’s horn resounds through the mountains. When we go climbing, we blow it at strategic points. They know that it is the call of God to congregate and descend from their houses to the meetings. Waldo.” (September 8, 2005)

“The Indians, to whom we have arrived with the gospel, are the most distant that exist, for there is no access in a vehicle to be with them, except on foot or by burro. Here the government has some help for certain Indian villages, but where we are they never have received anything, for their villages don’t appear on any map. We have walked to arrive at some of the towns for 18 hours on foot. Waldo.” (August 11, 2005)

“Tomorrow, Wednesday, we are going to have a series of special meetings in the missions of the Sierra mountains, and there we will begin a school to prepare the Indian ministers for the ministry, using your material. (the Bible lessons by Joyce). We ask that you help us to pray for this trip for it is very tiring. The hours that we walk on foot are many and very tiring, but it is a great blessing and a great honor to take the Word to these very needy and hungry people. Each time more, there are people that ask us to come to their villages to speak to them of the Word. The people crowd around when we arrive and they ask us to pray for them. Also they live in extreme poverty, and it is painful to see their situation. I ask that you also help us pray because they have just finished making a road, and if we could achieve to secure a van or a pickup truck, we would save 14 hours of walking. This road ends at a river and in that place there is a village that has been requesting for four years that we please come and speak to them of the Word of God. If we secure the loan of a vehicle we would be able to arrive there. From that place it remains near the first mission. It is 5 hours distance on foot. Various villages meet there. Then we will walk around 8 hours more and arrive at another town. We will stay there for two days, because the people descend from different places to receive the message. There we will begin to train the people for ministry, like Anselmo and Angelina (an Indian couple). They were the first persons that knew the Lord and that the Lord used to carry His Word to the villages in the Sierra. They are in charge of a mission. He directs the praise in their dialect. Already they are ready to be trained with your material, and their desire is to serve God and give much fruit for Him. Don Lupe is the brother in charge of the missions in the Sierra. The Lord gave him a special love for all of them (the Indians). Already he is almost fluent in the Huichol dialect. His vision is to live permanently among them. Our resources enable us to go only some few times a year. He is already studying your material and preparing himself in this way to teach others. Waldo.” April 12, 2005)

“About Don Lupe, almost 11 years ago he arrived at the church to be with us. Here he met the Lord and had an encounter with Him. After a short time, Esther also arrived and each one of their children and grandchildren. Now all their family are Christian. Before coming to the Lord Don Lupe was an alcoholic. After he knew the Lord, he has been very helpful and consecrated. In three years of having arrived with the Indians, he was integrated into the working team and began to help me open new works with the Indians near Tepic. Little by little I left him in charge of the work in Jala and I felt that he had a call to the missionary ministry. In a few weeks he confirmed it to me, and we put him as the official pastor in Jala. The Lord began to sprinkle over him a strong love for all the Indians. Soon he learned their dialect and went to live for a time in the mountains. His visits to the mountains alone were temporary conforming to the resources that we had. The great grandfather of don Lupe was a Huichol Indian, and it is in this way that he did not battle much to adapt himself to them, and neither they with him. Actually he attends to around 24 communities between 5 and 9 hours of distance, each one on foot or on a burro, teaching the Huichols the Word of God. When he finds some free time, he takes advantage to look for new villages to take the good news of salvation. Before going to be the missionary in the mountains, he served faithfully in the mission in Jala and accompanied me to Buruato. Also he served in the prison ministry in the jail here in Tepic. His profession was a brick layer and kept one day a week, apart from Sundays, to serve the Lord. He is also a very good overseer and a person who has his personal life intact. The Lord gave me the blessing of bringing him to accept Christ in his heart and of giving him the first course in discipleship. He already has studied all of your lessons and of those that he has learned, he teaches others the Word of God. Waldo.” (March 29, 2007)

“Tuesday, May 10 (2005) we will celebrate a meeting in a village that for more than 4 years has been requesting that we go to speak to them of the gospel. Not until today were we able to go, and the people are very happy. In this town is a woman that is a witch and has much influence over that place and those surroundings. When they told her that we are going to go there, she said that if she saw the miracles that the people told her that God did, she would change her gods for our God. Never has the gospel arrived at that place. It is the first time that we are going to go. In that they do not know our God, I know that He is going to impact them. Our God is precious and glorious and His Name is over every other name. I know that He is going to touch all of them in this little village and all that village is going to know Him, for He loves them. Waldo.” (May 5, 2005)

“Already we returned from our missionary trip. The Lord blessed us much, and we could see His glory. We saw His powerful hand over us each step that we took. The trip was very tiring, but by the grace of God, we could climb the very high mountains where some villages were found that we could visit. Now we took the gospel to two new villages. To arrive at one little village that consisted of only one family, we had to walk for 3 hours through a very intense heat and a very strong thirst. The mountain was too tall and the road was very difficult, but on arriving and seeing all that we had climbed, we gave thanks to God, for He gave us the strength. On arriving with that family of Indians, the man of the house was very sick, but on speaking to him of the love of God, and when he told us that he wanted to receive Him in his heart, he remained totally healed. His wife and his daughter, on seeing the miracle, surrendered also to the Lord at that moment. They prayed yielding their lives to the Lord and yielding the authority over those mountains where there are still many more little villages that have not received the gospel. It is the first time in their life that this family had heard the Word of God. When I asked them if they knew about Jesus Christ, they answered me that they did not know who He was. We told them the story, and they received Him in their life. They remained very happy to feel His presence in their heart. Then we undertook our return trip. We did it in only two hours of walking back, but it was very difficult also for the road is too steep. I myself fell various times and my companions also. We wanted to visit other places, but the people began to walk from their villages to be present in the religious meetings. Some walked 3 hours and others 4 hours to be in the meetings, for there is much hunger that they have for God. It is surprising to see how much they walk. In one place where they walk 2 hours, we walk, in that same place, 7 hours. They are accustomed to climbing the mountains running and with children in their arms. The woman that was a witch also surrendered her life to Jesus Christ together with her brother. We were in the village where the center of witchcraft is located for various villages, and there we prayed and broke the curse in the Name of Jesus. The people there surrendered to the Lord and were baptized at that moment and spoke in new tongues. All the people that had not yet received the Lord in those places that we visited, surrendered to the Lord also. In one village, they gave us land to construct a church there. That town is the largest of all. Around 20 families live there. There is no way to arrive there other than by foot or by burro. Now I ask that you be in prayer so that the Lord will provide for us a missionary to live among them, for it is necessary to be permanently there. Even though every week some of them walk 14 hours to arrive at a town called Jala. There we have one of the missions and each week we celebrate services, but it would be better if they, way up there, had their own place to congregate. Waldo.” May 16, 2005)

A Divine Appointment

After two months of letters, at the end of the month of May 2005, I finally met Pastor Waldo Castro personally for the first time in a church in Santa Ana, California where he was speaking in a seminar. My husband and I with the Cacho family from Camarillo, California, drove two hours to Santa Ana. We thought that we would be able to enter the seminar silently without interrupting the meeting that was already in progress. When Pastor Waldo saw that I entered the church, he stopped his speech suddenly, shouted, “Joyce? Joyce! Joyce!” He ran the length of the church and gave us a strong hug. From that time God united the hearts of my family with the hearts of his family around the vision of taking the gospel to the Indians in the mountains. From that time, we were a family.

“What blessing having met you! I felt a happiness so beautiful in my life seeing you that when I went to my room I began to cry because I could not contain the joy and the gratitude to the Lord for this so precious an encounter. How good is our God! I am impressed with Him, because we are in His times, and I believe that this forms an important part in His plans for all of us. I thought that we were not going to see each other until we were in heaven with Him, but He permits us this blessing to accommodate us. Waldo.” June 22, 2005)