CRWM Spotlight on Ministry - Latin America - Mexico

Four years ago Julio and Mari and their three boys - Angel, Auturo, and Brian - lived on the streets in Guadalajara. Surviving by begging and stealing, they spent nights sleeping in the park. Drug, alcohol, and other less desirable things were a part of their lives.

Julio and Mari’s lives began to change when they entered a Christian rehab center where they met Jesus and started reading the Bible.

Today, Julio and Mari are both working. Angel, Auturo, and Brian are top students in school. Julio and Mari lead a house church in their home which is a part of a model network of simple churches that CRWM is planting in Guadalajara. They have also started evangelical services at a drug rehab center downtown.

Julio and Mari’s story shows how the proclamation of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit transform lives. In just a few short years the lost were lifted out of the worst poverty to experience blessings and bear fruit in most areas of their lives.

CRWM Spotlight on Ministry - Africa - Nigeria

In the Eastern Kambari region of Nigeria, Luka Boka grew up in a large family that practiced Africa Traditional Religion when he and his siblings became Muslims. Luka was impressed by the truthful, patient-suffering Christians near him. When Luka stole his Christian friend’s wife, betraying their friendship, he was astonished that his friend continued to show kindness, gentleness and patience instead of anger. This convinced Luka that he, too, needed this kind of character.

When Luka became a Christian, changing his name from Musa to Luka, his family forced him to leave the family compound. Alone, Luka had to make his own bricks, build his own home, and clear his own farm land, working long days from dusk to dawn.

After learning about new farming practices from a CRWM missionary teaching at the EKA Bible School, Luka realized an increased rice harvest. Today, three years after that first agricultural class, Luka hires tractors to plow his farms, buys fertilizer, realizes abundant crops and pays for his own Bible School tuition.

Luka’s story shows how education is a powerful tool that plays a major role in breaking the cycles of poverty.

CRWM Spotlight on Ministry - Africa - Mali

In 1984 CRWM missionaries moved to Mali to bring the Good New of Jesus to the Muslim, semi-nomadic Fulani people. Arriving just after a period of drought and famine in which people had lost all or most of their livestock, women were digging up ant-hills to get the stored grass seed and millet to survive.

The missionaries noticed the beautiful crafts that the women in each Fulani clan made and offered to show these crafts to friends in Bamako. After selling the crafts and returning with the money, they were begged to take the money and use it to buy essential items the women desperately needed like buckets, tubs, and cooking pots the next time they were in Bamako.

The missionaries opened two rooms in their home in Bamako as a non-profit craft store to provide a market for the women to sell their handicrafts.

Today, 15 years later, the craft store sells goods from the Fulani people, distant areas of Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, and Guinea. Women are able to buy enameled dishes, bowls, goats, sheep and even cows.