By the fourth month, I was keenly aware of the isolation and the depleted pantry.  We had counted up our remaining canned meat and, even though we had been careful, we had only enough left for one meat-meal a week.  I only had two teaspoons left of my lactose-free powdered milk.  It had been five months since we had received mail from home.  We had exhausted the magazines and reading materials that we had brought with us.  And, twice, the rain had thwarted plans for friends to visit and bring us fresh supplies and mail.  We all needed a little lift for our spirits.

Our minds wandered as we talked and we wondered if the UIM plane was coming past our village any time soon.  We got a little list together just in case and called our coworkers in the city.  To our surprise they told us that the UIM plane was planning to come through on Sunday and that they had been planning to surprise us with an airdrop.  They cautioned us not to get our hopes up too much because it would depend on the weather. However, there was no room for cautious optimism because already I was EXCITED!

Saturday dawned beautifully with no clouds in the sky.  We wished the flight was coming that day and prayed, “Lord, please let tomorrow be like today.”  On Sunday, we woke up to drizzle.  It was later than I usually wake up because of the dark, overcast day.  I prayed, “Lord, please clear up this rain and clouds.”  We had church together and afterwards I went outside.  The rain had stopped and the clouds were beginning to clear up. Above, the sun was shining in clear blue skies.  We got a call from the city, “The plane is ready to take off and your packages are inside!”

We began the hike to the nearest legal airstrip. Although we have a beautiful airstrip next to our village, we are not able to use it as its registration had previously been revoked by the government. Please pray with us that new registration would be granted!  Once we came to the airstrip, we waited less than 5 minutes before we heard the drone of the airplane.  A few minutes later we saw it!  What a glorious sight.  Friends were inside that plane!  As soon as it was close enough, I began to wave.  Pilot David Wolf and his wife Olivia flew over the village and then lined up to drop our packages.  They made five passes in order to drop four boxes and some candy with a parachute.  I took a few pictures then put my camera down and watched the plane and my friends.  Tears came to my eyes as I waved.  My friends and fellow missionaries were so close that we could look each other in the eyes for a few seconds and wave, but yet so far away that we couldn’t chat or hug.  After the last package, Dave dipped the wings in a sort-of good-bye and they headed south to another town.

We gathered up our boxes and made our way back home.  We saw clouds developing into afternoon thunderstorms and in a few hours it was raining again.  God pushed away the rain and let the sun shine through at the perfect time!  One by one we opened the boxes.  It was like Christmas!  Magazines!  Mail from family and other missionaries!  Milk!  Candy bars!  And canned chicken!  We skipped lunch to read mail, opened a few Cokes to help celebrate, and ate chicken sandwiches for supper.  Thank you Lord and UIM- this was a good day.

Dr. Altamirano treats a Tarahumara woman

When was the last time you went to the dentist.  Have you ever had pain in your mouth or in a tooth?

If you seldom leave your village how do you get dental care?  UIM Aviation addresses these issues at tribal locations.  Would a tribal missionary be interested in us bringing dental care to their area?  The responses were overwhelmingly YES.

God provided a Mexican, Christian dentist who desires to bring dental care to tribal villages.  Gabriel desires to use his professional skills to help the people of his country.  These tribal peoples have had little or no dental attention.

Using the UIM airplane and portable dental equipment, Gabriel commits a Friday and Saturday each month to a tribal village.  Working these two days he provides healing dental care to the needy.  We fly him back early Sunday to be with his family in Chihuahua and attend church.

The airplane allows recurring visits so the villagers can have on-going dental care.  This physical healing opens doors for the tribal missionaries to provide spiritual healing.

Only through the use of the airplane has regular dental care been provided.  Praise the Lord.

Five-thirty Monday morning found me leaving the house for another day or two during my field checkout training on mountain airstrips. I gave my wife, Misty, a kiss and expected to see her and my son Benjamin the next evening.

As fellow pilots Dave Wolf, Wolfgang Grotendiek and I ascended from the Chihuahua airport, the day began with a few puffy clouds lingering in an otherwise clear blue sky. The forecasted thunderstorms due to Hurricane Paul had changed overnight to a mere 20% chance of scattered showers. Conditions were good for flying.

We landed around two o’clock in a local village called Samachique, home to a Tarahumara Indian mission hospital. Dave left us there and took off immediately for another village where two Tarahumara women waited to be flown to the hospital the next day for scheduled surgeries. As soon as Dave left, it began to rain and pounded down continually the rest of the day. Tuesday brought even more rain, so we helped dig and replace pipe for a well. Wednesday dawned with…you guessed it, more rain!! But our God controls the weather.

On Wednesday afternoon Dave took off in clear weather with his two passengers to Samachique, but the weather turned nastier and nastier the closer he got. Finally, just as he was about to turn back, the Lord opened up a just-right sized window in the clouds. The rains abruptly ceased for a moment. He was able to descend through a layer of thinning clouds and land the airplane. As he taxied up to the local hangar, the rains started up and visibility once again decreased to almost nothing.

Thursday morning, missionary doctor Mike Berkley, an Orthopedic Surgeon serving with Mexico Medical Mission, began preparing the women for surgery.  As he and I had already chatted about my medical background as a respiratory therapist, Dr. Berkley asked me to assist in the operations. Both women had suffered for years with dislocated thumbs: one for three years due to a fall, the other for seven due to an abusive husband. The surgeries took several hours while each thumb was fused back together with a metal rod.

Normally, the Tarahumara Indians do not express emotion; however, that day, one of the patients had tears in her eyes over the joy of regaining the ability to use her hand properly. The missionary from their village who accompanied them and spoke their tribal lan-guage shared with us that neither of the ladies were believers in Christ. These successful surgeries, she felt, had opened a door to building deeper relationships with them.  (Several months later, one woman did accept Christ and demonstrated a desire to learn more about God.)

Just after the surgeries were finished, the weather finally broke.  We packed up, resumed some training flights, and returned to Chihuahua. I certainly did not know what I was in for that Monday morning when I left, but I am thankful for those steps God put on my path. How good is our God who uses the skills and abilities He has given us to minister in different ways to others when we least expect it!

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About twenty years ago, a group of New Tribes missionaries came to the Guarijio village of Tojiachi. They began to learn local culture and language in order to, one day, present to the people a Bible in their native tongue. Building relationships with the Indians and gaining trust was a long, slow process. Such special events as medical and dental clinics helped prove that the missionaries came with a desire and a message to improve life. Over the years, UIM Aviation has been privileged to aid this effort by providing service for medical emergencies and transportation for clinic teams, their equipment, and various consultants.

In 2001, one such dental clinic  brought Santos Tigre and his family from the village of Chiltepín, six hours walk from Tojiachi. This was the first time the missionaries had heard about this Guarijio community. Santos told them that years before a traveling evangelist, whom UIM still flies monthly throughout the area, had shared the Gospel with them in Spanish.

During this same time, more and more Mexicans were moving to Tojiachi and dominating over the Guarijios.  Wishing to maintain their focus to reach native people groups, the missionaries surveyed the surrounding area for a new home base. Among other villages, their search took them to Santos and his family in Chiltepín. After a few years of monthly visitations as the Lord led, the missionaries pursued and received permission to build homes in this community of fifteen families.

Relationships developed and some of the Guarijios were asked to be language helpers. In April 2006, they helped the missionaries begin trans- lating over 1700 Scripture verses used in a chronological Bible study. A rough draft was completed seven months later. This draft must be checked for comprehension on separate occasions by at least two separate individuals who are completely unfamiliar with the information they will read. Santos’ father, Martimiano, was willing to help. He had heard the Gospel a number of times in Spanish and was eager to learn about God.  He did not, however, convey a true understanding of the significance of Christ. Martimiano’s review of these Scripture verses was the first time he had ever received God’s Word in his native language.

As they came to verses referring to Christ, the missionaries witnessed Martimiano link important concepts between the Old and New Testaments. He realized that Christ was God’s sacrificial Lamb to take away sin once, for all.
Through over 20 years, a change of location, and different teams of missionaries, God faithfully pursued the Guarijio people. That day, His Word penetrated a new heart. Martimiano’s knowledge became understanding.
“This Book,” Martimiano remarked, pointing to the Bible, “really opens our eyes and makes us start to think. It cuts off our burro ears.” (In Mexico, referring to someone as a burro means they are ignorant; Martimiano meant reading the Bible removes ignorance.)

“It is better that you tell us in Guarijio so we don’t forget,” he continued, “but there is no one to tell people in (the villages of) La Barranca and La Finca.  Who will tell them?”

Indeed, who will tell them?

Rounding the last cliff in the heart of a narrow Mexican valley on July 17, only two or three hundred feet off the ground, Wolfgang Grotendiek set the flaps and prepared to land. The airstrip, looking alarmingly narrow and short, came up at a rush, and the wheels crunched the ground with a jerk. Trees and shrubbery flew by, and just when it looked like the runway was running out, he crested a hill and rolled easily down the rest of the airstrip.

Stepping out of the aircraft at Palmarito is like going back in time. The mountains feel vast—and very, very quiet. Even a donkey’s bray, rooster’s crow or dog’s bark hardly penetrates the silence.

People quickly appeared on the airstrip to greet the missionaries. They greeted their host with the customary abrazo and followed him down the narrow path to the simple white-washed house where they had arranged for the evening’s meeting.

As they did so, Wolfgang took off to pick up a second group of Mexican missionaries and take them to Saucillo, where they would spend the week visiting and teaching in several surrounding communities. The same day a third group, led by Pastor Alfredo Marin from a Baptist Church near the Gulf of California, drove up to Mesa Colorado to minister to a group of 15. He baptized four new believers that week.

Job Sierra flies out to Guarijio villages in the UIM Aviation airplanes, visits the villagers, preaches and teaches all week, then reverses the journey for the trip home.

Who are these men and women who go from village to village preaching the Gospel every month? Years ago, Alfredo Marin was a Bible School student in Guaymas on the Gulf, and Ron Hamilton, an American from Arizona, was their teacher. Hamilton wanted his students to get practical missionary experience, so he began to fund flights to get them into the mountain villages where they could share God’s Word with love and power to people who had no clue of it.

Since that time, about a dozen men and women from various coastal churches have joined the monthly trek. At an age when most men are thinking of slowing down, Job Sierra, for instance, is still trucking six hours from his home up to the mountains every month.  He then flies out to Guarijio villages in the UIM airplanes, visits the villagers, preaches and teaches all week, then reverses the journey for the trip home.

In 25 years these Mexican missionaries have seen about 40 people a year come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, a considerable cadre of believers by now. But the cadre of believers is not intact. A great many have left their villages—including the best Church leadership potential—because they could not make a living and did not want to be involved in the illegal activities by which others prosper. Hamilton says the path to starting churches in these villages has been “difficult, difficult, difficult.” So, little bands of poor believers are left without leaders and that’s what keeps these committed Mexican missionaries going out. They will not leave the people God has given them as orphans.