Salvation of the Unreached Cora People

El Congrejo, Mexico

Friday, September 23, 2011
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The Salvation of Almost an Entire Village of Unreached Cora People

We headed south of Mazatlan toward Guadalajara and had scheduled a three-day outreach in the mountains of Nayarit among the unreached Cora people group. Pastor Hector from La Cruz as well as some others from that area and Culiacan accompanied us to Cofardia, at the base of the Nayarit mountains where we met up with Jay and his family. Jay is an American missionary with Alternative Missions and has been living here for sixteen years. After spending the night at their base camp, we unhitched the tent-trailers, left the RV’s and packed into our two 4X4 vehicles and a couple of other pickups heading four more hours east into the mountains to the unreached Cora village of El Congrejo. It was an awesome drive with breath-taking views as we climbed from sea-level to nearly 7,000 feet. The last couple of hours were on really bad roads only passable by 4X4.

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When we got the El Congrejo, we met with a man of peace named, “Magdeleno” and his family, who Jay has begun to develop a relationship with over the past five or six years. The Cora people are the descendants of the ancient Aztec people and were the last people to be conquered in all of Mexico. Their facial features are strikingly indigenous, as are their clothes, culture and way of life. The Cora are animists, some of whom have mixed with Catholicism where it has been introduced. We heard that they were a very guarded people and resistant to the gospel, but we didn’t experience this in the village of El Congrejo. In fact, the very first night we saw four young women give their lives to Christ at Magdeleno’s home…the very first converts in that Cora village!

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After spending the night in the village, we woke up, had breakfast and then hiked to the waterfall to have devotions. From there half of our team hiked further to the bottom of the waterfall while the other half went door to door, giving each of the forty families tickets that they could redeem later that evening when we were to show the Jesus film in the Cora language. The Mexican brothers who accompanied us had brought bags of food and clothing to distribute to each Cora family. We had interpreters with us as most of the Cora people don’t speak Spanish. I learned a few Cora phrases such as, “Aine pana,” which means, “Hello. How are you?” The Cora would giggle as I attempted to speak their language with them conversationally. We prayed for quite a few sick people as we visited the Cora in their homes.

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We had invited the families to attend a children’s program we were to hold at 3pm. I believe that all of the children of that village came out. Our team sang songs with them, played games with them and then portrayed the heart of God through a skit. When Roberta and Guillo asked how many of them wanted to receive Christ, both children and quite a few adults raised their hands in response…about 40 in all. It was amazing to hear this once unreached people ask Jesus into their hearts! We gave out stickers to the boys and hair bands to the girls. Then we distributed the food and clothes to each of the families. They were so grateful to us. The Cora live very simply and don’t have the luxuries that even many others in Mexico have. We then attempted to show the Jesus film in the Cora language, but the DVD we were given to use seemed to be scratched pretty badly. So an awesome Mexican singer and songwriter named, “Aurelio,” sang some of his original worship songs and again preached the gospel. Almost all present received Jesus Christ publically. This is an incredible phenomenon! Almost the entire Cora village of El Congrejo had given their lives to Christ within the two days that we were with them! Our team also prayed for the sick into the night. One man’s eye that was blurry for one year cleared up instantaneously.

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What our Iris Latin America team set out to do from the beginning is coming to pass. We are carrying the love and the glory of God to the darkest places and to the remaining unreached people groups of Central and South America, partnering with other churches and organizations who will continue to minister when we have gone.

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Christian Jung