The Baptist Seminary of Mexico opened its first regional center in Chiapas, the Mayan Intercultural Seminary, to put it to the service of the native Tzotziles and Tzeltales Mayan people and of the evangelical world in general. Professors Doris and Ricardo serve as leaders of this project.

 They write: Tropical storm Matthew severely affected many indigenous communities and cities in the southern states of Mexico. After more than 30 hours of rain along the mountain range in the evening of September 25, the Chulhá River, which runs through the center of the city of Yajalón, overflowed its banks and grew to two meters high leaving a trail of destruction and death in its path.

Visit to Yajalón

On Thursday, September 30, we went to Yajalón with the supportive donation from Salomón and Consuelo, from Marianne of INESIN, from Jaime Patricio and from us, the Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM). Pedro Aurelio, student from the seminary and Pastor Humberto de Zapata, accompanied me on this trip. We arrived at the home of Pastor José Sánchez. His daughter, Cristabel was waiting for us together with some people from the church. With devotion and hope, we unloaded the cargo and prepared 80 individual packages of food supplies. We filled the truck up with these supplies and we delivered them to the homes most affected by the rains. This journey allowed us to see and hear from this broken town.

Anguish and Solidarity

Walking through the village, the people told us that on the day of the tragedy they were holding a prayer vigil. It rained with such a terrifying force from 5:00 in the afternoon. The vigil was close to the children’s park. This was the first place where the river crosses the city that it overflowed. Upon leaving the vigil, they saw that the homes had almost two meters of water in them and the force was so strong that it had taken all the belongings from the homes. Upon seeing what was happening the people started to rescue persons from their rooftops and their homes and to seal, tearfully, the doors of the homes in order to save the few or many belongings from the hands of petty thieves who took advantage of the state of shock of those affected in order to ransack their homes. We had arrived at this area without realizing it. We took out packages of supplies and started distributing them. A Tseltal woman and her daughter showed me where they lived and how they had nothing left. A young Zapata woman told me that in her community, a hill came down and flattened her house and that Yajalón where she rents and works on the river had taken everything.

[Read more of the Mayols’ report at http://www.internationalministries.org/read/27280 ]

• Pray for the people in the Southern States of Mexico impacted by hurricane Matthew.
• Pray for Doris and Ricardo and the many who are bringing help in the name of Jesus