Working in Chiapas
"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58
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Warm Fall Greetings <<First Name>>
We hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving!
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A QUICK SUMMARY
We haved moved locations and are now in Chiapas, Mexico doing People Group Assesment with our teammates, the Ramírez family.
- Life Update: We are all settled in San Cristobal, Chiapas.
- Our Teammates: Jessica and Misael need more support.
- Ministry Update: We are investigating 4 different People Groups.
- Past Travels: In Oct & Nov we visited the Zoque and Tsotsil.
- Travel Plans: In December we have 3 trips planned.
- Our Thanksgiving: We had family friends come down to visit us!
- Los Niños: Isei turned 16 in October, Ayin turns 11 in December.
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LIFE UPDATE
We are all settled in San Cristobal, Chiapas. We arrived September 24th after driving 5 long days through México together with our teammates in caravan. There were many detours, closed roads, dangerous roads, moments where we couldn't even see the road through dense fog, and a car breakdown, but the Lord was faithful in bringing us to our destination safely. What a perfect analogy of our walk with Him in this work.
After looking at many houses and negotiating the rent way down the Lord has given us a beautiful home, with enough space to host guests and space to do homeschool. We give praise to our Provider, who answered our prayers for a home here in San Cristobal.
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OUR TEAMMATES
We have been very blessed and really enjoy time with our teammates Jessica, Misael and Felix. Recently Jessica went in for a scan and they found a mass.. After getting results from the biopsy, we are praising the Lord that it isn't cancer. However, she needs to take expensive medication to help her body heal, which will cost $450 in total. Their budget is very tight and they don't have extra to spend on that right now.
In addition to that one time cost, the Ramirez family needs more monthly financial support. They are about 80% funded right now. It would be such a blessing if you could help support them. If you feel led to, please do so here. Thank you!
Please join us in prayer that the Lord heals Jessica's body completely and that Lord provides for them 100%.
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MINISTRY UPDATE
We will be living in San Cristobal, Chiapas for at least 6 months doing People Group Assessment (PGA). PGA involves investigating the gospel presence among any given people group. In this case we are interested in 4 indigenous groups: Tsotsil, Zoque, Tojolabal, and Mam.
San Cristobal has a population that is 41% indigenous and is centrally located in Chiapas, making it an ideal place to make connections. We're making contacts with people who are willing to accompany us into the indigeous communities. Some connections are from past missionaries who lived here, and many are just by word of mouth. So far the Lord has opened doors for us into the Tsotsil, Zoque and Tojolabal communities.
 We've had several opportunities to visit surrounding Tsotsil communities. There are many different dialects (6 official but we've heard up to 14) but so far we've only discovered Bibles for two of them. While many Tsotsiles can read Spanish, there seem to be very few that can read Tsotsil. This unfortunately finds its way into the church where preaching may be in the local dialect but Bible passages are still read in Spanish, oftentimes untranslated. This deficiency affects all the local believers but can especially be felt by the women who may speak little to no Spanish. Although there are churches from many denominations in the areas we've visited, we have found that there is need everywhere.
During our travels we passed through a few communities that posted warnings about fines and jail time for anyone caught evangelizing. This is at least a big improvement to a decade ago when there was widespread and severe persecution involving murders, house burnings, and expulsion from the community. In fact, one of the communities we visted was made up of mostly persecuted believers that had been expelled from their original hometowns.
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PAST TRAVELS : TSOTSIL
Through our neighbor Antonia we met a pastor and his wife who were able to introduce us to Catalina (pictured below in black and yellow). She is a strong Tsotsil believer who has been persecuted and kicked out of her community. She and her family moved to a newer community which is full of other persecuted Christians. Please pray for her faith to continue to be strong and for her husband to believe.
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PAST TRAVELS : TSOTSIL
In November we visited the Tsotsil community of Las Maravillas, where there is a little church with no pastor of their own. When we arrived they hadn't had a pastor in 5 Sundays. Misa got to preach, with a Tsotsil man to translate. The church was mostly women, who spoke no Spanish. The sad thing was that they read the Bible in Spanish but they didn't translate any of it into Tsotsil. It's possible these ladies have ever heard the Word of God in their language.
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PAST TRAVELS : ZOQUE
In Novemeber we briefly visited two Zoque communities about 4 hours from San Cristobal. In the first one we were told that anyone under the age of 40 or so no longer speaks the language. In the next community, only a few minutes away, even the children were speaking Zoque. The difference was striking at such a short distance. These are small communities of about 200-450 people.
In the second community we were also invited into a Zoque home. The husband Oscar, having seen the drama between the local Catholic church and another denomination, expressed disdain for religion, but was still open to God's word. Pray that God would continue to tug at Oscar's heart and that a local believer would be willing to engage his family with the word. In conversation we learned that his wife's hometown still has no local believers. He expressed a willingness to accompany us on a trip there. We have a tentative trip planned in mid-December along with a pastor from the area and another local missionary.
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TRAVEL PLANS : TOJOLABAL
Last but not least, we made contact with a Tojolabal pastor about 3 hours from here. In talking to him over the phone he also mentioned the problem of severe monetary penalties for anyone converting to christianity, which has been a barrier to the gospel in his area. We plan to travel to meet him in the next few days and hopefully set up another trip where we can visit several Tojolabal communities.
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CLOSED DOOR : MAM
The fourth group we've set out to investigate are the Mam. They are primarily located in Guatemala but there are a few migrant communities on the Chiapas side of the border. As of now it is seeming too volatile of an area to safely investigate and may remain that way for the duration of our time here in Chiapas. Please pray for wisdom and clarity in regards to further investigation of the Mam people group.
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OUR THANKSGIVING
We had our family friends, the Goveas, come down to visit us for Thanksgiving. It was such a blessing to have them here, especially for Isei to have his best friend stay with us for a whole week. We found a turkey at Sam's Club and we lacked nothing.
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LOS NIÑOS
Isei turned 16 in October. Jessi and Misa got him this delicious tres leches oreo cake. They wrote on it, "Happy Birthday Isei, We love you" in Spanish, which was so sweet! We went out to Indian food and enjoyed each other's company. He is in 11th grade this year and is struggling to feel excited about being down here. Please pray for his heart to be filled with joy and for friends.
Ayin will turn 11 in December and is in 5th grade. We have yet to find any friends for her either. She loves practicing gymnastics, writing stories, playing mystery games, and spending with our dog Chulita. Please pray for the Lord to provide friends for her.
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PRAISES
- We made it safely down to Chiapas
- We found a great furnished house to rent
- There have been many open doors into the communities
- We have had a great start in our PGA
- The tumor found in Jessi is not cancer
PRAYER REQUESTS
- For the Lord to provide the needed funds for the Ramirez family
- For more contacts into the indigenous groups we are investigating
- For continued open doors into the Tsotsil, Zoque and Tojolabal communities
- For wisdom on how to handle investigating the Mam
- For the Lord to continue to guide us and protect us in Chiapas
- For homeschool to be less challenging for the kids
- For friends for our kids
DO YOU NEED PRAYER?
<<First Name>> - thank you so much for praying for us. We are so thankful for you. We would love to pray for you too. Please email us your prayer requests by replying to this email, or text Rebecca at: (805) 452-5449
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OUR CONTACT INFO
Our mailing address is:
Gamaiel and Rebecca Zavala, 10101 Dellwood Dr. El Paso, TX 79924
Text us on Signal, or normal text anytime:
Gamaiel +1 (805) 570-9728 | Rebecca +1 (805) 452-5449
We changed our WhatsApp to our new Mexican numbers
Gamaiel + 52 (961) 621-000 | Rebecca +52 (967) 680-0681
Instagram:
Rebecca posts on Instagram, so follow us there:
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Would You Like to Join Us?
Do you want to be involved in God's mission but don't know how?
Become part of our stateside team to help us reach the unreached of Mexico.
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