MexicoMinistry: Mellberg's Missionary Update: August 2026

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out… And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise. Hebrews 11:8, 9

If you visit Zapote de Picachos today, you will find a thriving church filled with joyful believers, children laughing and learning under the ramada, pastors gathering from across the Sierra Madre, and a generous congregation sacrificing to share the Good News with multiple communities who have yet to believe. But none of that was inevitable.

For the church family in the village, the living out of this faithful kind of life is not a story about land or buildings, it’s a story about authentic pilgrims. Years ago, God called them out of blinding darkness to Christ. They accepted His invitation and obeyed His call despite constant persecution. With great personal sacrifice, because their Savior had become the center of their lives, they built a place to congregate in the very center of their secluded village, accessible only on foot or by mule, high in the peaks of the Nayarit Sierra Madre.

Though they lost it all when they were forced to abandon their village and beautiful church building, they didn't lose their Center.

During that very same month, our Father chose to call Kirt home. There are far too many details to recount here, but on the very day Kirt had breathed his last earthly breath, I received a phone call from a friend in Phoenix who told me that he and his wife wanted to provide the funds to purchase the bricks and concrete for the believers in Zapote if they wanted to rebuild their little church in the new location; although they didn't yet have huts to live in!

When we went to share that news with them, they had already leveled a large piece of ground (in the very center of the new village, of course!), dug one-meter-deep footings, and hand-carried the huge rocks they would need from the surrounding hills of their new location.

Then Pastor Manuel repeated those unforgettable words: “We knew we could never afford to buy the materials, but we could begin by doing what we were perfectly able to do and trust God to provide the rest. Just like Joseph, ‘They meant this for evil, but God meant it for good.’” (How astonishing to remember that they didn't have the Old Testament in Huichol yet.)

They have since knocked out walls twice to enlarge the building! God has blessed them with a concrete multipurpose OANSA court, an enormous ramada that totally shades it, and enough joyful, hardworking, unified believers to keep everything bustling with life.

They trusted God instead of becoming overcome by bitterness, and He continues to multiply their commitment in the face of what appeared to be a tragedy. He receives the glory as they are determined to prepare the next generation to continue walking by faith.

Now that their sister church, IBBM-Tepic, has such a beautiful and practical Sunday school building with ample space for training the next generation of leaders, the church leaders in Zapote de Picachos concluded that, although they are content to meet under their somewhat precarious shelter or a local mango tree, if necessary, perhaps it is time to build a more permanent place for their own precious children, as well.

Without asking anyone for anything, they have pooled their meager resources, purchased the concrete block for the proposed project, transported it to the village by boat, burro, and on foot, and scheduled workdays when every single member of the church happily hikes to the riverside returning with sacks of sand to contribute toward the concrete they will soon mix by hand.

You can watch Braulio’s video of a workday a couple of weeks ago here! (Check out 1:23, Pastor Manuel’s grandson has taken his huaraches off to use as padding for the shoulder straps of his loaded sandbag. He prefers to hike bare-footed!) Joy and sacrifice are not opposites in the kingdom of God. Who wouldn't want to have a part in a project like that? Their faith doesn't wait until all the materials arrive. Their faith starts digging the footings.

Today, many of the children running through the village have never even seen the original mountain church. They know only the stories their parents tell: stories of hardship, God's love and provision, and His unwavering faithfulness to His Word. Those stories have become part of the spiritual inheritance that this generation is determined to pass to the next. The church that once learned to trust God with nothing in sight now teaches its children to do the same.