In November 2004, the Missions board at Strathmore Alliance began to seriously consider the direction our church should go and the missionary endeavours we should pursue. We set the following guidelines as criteria in making such decisions:
To bring the Gospel to unreached groups of people,
To interact with the missionaries of the region and/or help the local people with hands-on building projects, and
To ensure that we are aligned with at least one of the four mandates of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Canada.
A project that came to our attention was referred to as the ‘Tarahumara Project’ in Mexico. It met all of the above criteria and falls under the ‘Caribbean Sun’ initiative of the C&MA missions mandate.
The Tarahumara are a secluded people group that are scattered around the Copper Canyon.
The Copper Canyon is in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. There are an estimated 70,000 native Tarahumara Indians in this region.
In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus commissioned the church to go and make disciples of all the nations. The only way our church can fulfill this mandate and spread the Gospel in tough areas like the Sierra Madre Mountains is to partner with “messengers” are essential. These are the messengers we partner with and lead this project:
Tomas Bencomo, pastor and missionary. Tomas ministers in four churches in the Juarez-Mexico/El Paso Texas area and heads up the project by taking food and medicine to the people in this area. Marie Bencomo, Thomas’s wife is a Bible Teacher at the Jaurez Alliance Bible College and she assists with purchasing decisions.
Brenda Granados, missionary to both the Tarahumara and the Pima Indians and key administrator of all operations. Our interaction and ongoing relationships with Thomas, Marie and Brenda have given us an understanding and appreciation of what missions work involves, and has opened the door for people in our congregation to participate in building projects in a third world country.
To read more about the Tarahumara people click here or type ‘Tarahumara Indians’ in your internet search engine and to learn more about the area. You can also search ‘Copper Canyon Mexico’.