Project Culiacán

In the area surrounding Culiacán (Sinaloa, Mexico) there are approximately 120 migrant work camps that range in size between 5,000-10,000 people.  One camp in Culiacán is bigger than all the people in the camps in the San Quintin Valley (Baja California) put together.  And while there are thousands and thousands of people to be ministered to, very few people take the time or the energy to do that.  Churches in Culiacán don’t do outreach even though the camps have thousands of people eight months out of the year.

Project Culiacán only lasts for the month of February; the majority of the time there is no one visiting or sharing the gospel with the migrant workers in that area.  During February, approximately 80 people work day and night sharing the gospel with these people, but the work that they are able to do is minimal because they are few.  

The people in Culiacán don’t have Bibles.  Most of them do not come from a Christian background.  One man was explaining that he was kicked out of his hometown in Oaxaca because he became a Christian.  Most of the communities in the mountain areas of Mexico are very closed minded and set in their traditions. But when people get to Culiacán, everything changes.   Outside of their comfort zone and away from their families they are more receptive; they are open to hearing the gospel and to making a decision to follow Christ.  Then when the time comes, they head back to their community to win more people for Christ.  The same man shared that a whole group of people from his community became Christians while living somewhere else; when they came back, they were quick to accept him back into the town because now there were a whole bunch of Christians. 

Reaching indigenous people in settings like the migrant camps in Culiacán is very effective.  Not only are they open to hearing the Gospel, but they are hungry for God.  Israel (a member of the Baja Outreach team that went to Culiacán for 2 weeks) explained it like this,  “Sometimes when you go fishing on the beach you can wait hours and hours and catch very few, if any fish at all.  On the other hand, there are times when you go out to the open sea to fish and 3 or 4 fish will be fighting to get your line all at the same time; you can fill ice chests full of fish in a short amount of time.  Culiacán is like fishing out at sea.  People are hungry to know the Lord.”  Israel told us that, as he shared the gospel with one young man, 30 or 40 other young men began to crowd around to listen to what he was saying.    Olga (another team member) shared that she was surprised because dozens of young men stayed to watch the movie one night and after the movie, every single one waited for someone to take the time to pray for them.  We don’t see that very often in Baja!  Sometimes we feel like we need to chase them to their houses to share the gospel with them after the movie!  In Culiacán, they chased after us.  Praise God.

Something exciting happened to Antonia (a child evangelism teacher at the mission in Baja); as she arrived at camp she noticed some orange blankets that said “Jesus te ama”(Jesus loves you) on them – the same blankets that we gave out a few years ago in Baja.  She went to find the owner of one of the blankets to see if she knew the person and sure enough the woman had lived in the area called Padre Kino, a small camp near town that we minister to weekly in Child Evangelism.  Turned out that not only was it one family from Padre Kino, but it was the whole camp!  Last year a bus came along and cleared out the whole camp to take them to Sinaloa.  It was really sad for us because we had gotten to know the families, but what a joy to find them again in Culiacán!  Not only was Antonia excited, but the families were as well. God is good!

Once again, we say thank you to everyone who made this trip possible.  Besides the encouragement that the team members received, they also explained that they felt refreshed and renewed after their experience.  It was a blessing to see how God ministered through all who went, whether they spoke Spanish, English or another dialect.  Glory be to God for all his works!  

We are grateful to all who pray for this ongoing work.