Back in the 1990’s, Sicachique, a Tarahumara village up in the mountain range of Chihuahua, was a popular place for Servant Event teams to serve over the summer. One of the churches that was diligent in working with Pastor Martin Tovar Sr. and his wife, Blanquita, was South Shore Lutheran Church from White Bear Lake, MN.

“We came every summer and helped build fish hatcheries, chicken coops, rabbit enclosures,” Jon and Christine Drieling, both teenagers at that time, shared, “We learned how to make use with what we have to be able to accomplish what we needed.”

Pastor Tovar worked with these Servant Event teams, taking them up into the mountains in a van, the roads unpaved and somewhat treacherous.

“I remember looking out the window and seeing the drop…we were literally driving up the side of the mountain. It was a little scary, but it was trips like those that showed us the provision of God,” Jayne Kurpius, now a member of the Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) board, explained during one of many conversations after news of Pastor Tovar, and his wife’s, passing on to glory December of 2020.

For many, the loss of this ministry-driven couple was a painful experience. Pastor Tovar and Blanquita had dedicated most of their life, and marriage, to sharing the love of God to the people out in Chihuahua. Pastor Tovar shepherded three of YLM’s partnering mission-churches; Gloria Dei and Divino Salvador in Chihuahua, San Esteban Lutheran Church in San Lorenzo, and Nueva Esperanza Lutheran Church in Sicachique.

Nueva Esperanza, located in Sicachique, was a growing and thriving mission-church, reaching out to help the local government when they established a shelter and a school. With YLM’s help, Nueva Esperanza provided the school furniture needed to outfit the school. Indigenous children from Sicachique and other villages, received an education, spending the week at the shelter before walking the mountain roads to their homes for a weekend with their family.

“From 2009 to 2010, the cartel violence was so bad in Juarez and out in the Chihuahua mountains, we made the decision to facilitate mission opportunities stateside through our Servant Event ministry,” Rev. Dr. Karl Heimer, CEO of YLM, shared, “But we kept giving the resources these Chihuahua mission-churches needed.”

Pastor Misael Tovar, son to Pastor Martin Tovar Sr. and Blanquita, has stepped in to help continue the ministry work taking place through the Chihuahua missions. His desire is to be able to get back into Sicachique and re-start the ministry that was done through Nueva Esperanza.

“During those years when cartel violence increased, several of those cartels moved into the Chihuahua mountain villages. There’s very little law enforcement presence up there. It didn’t take long for them to claim Sicachique. Many of the families that lived there, and served in Nueva Esperanza, have since left, and not many of the families from surrounding villages, send their kids to the school anymore.”

Pastor Misael explained it would take several factors to be able to get back into Sicachique.

One, a sturdy 4-wheel drive JEEP. With the roads being unpaved and up the side of a mountain, his own little car or his parents’ mini-van, will not be able to make the trips to and from Siquechique for very long. The second factor is connecting with Federico, a Tarahumara local artist who lives in Rejogochi, a region closer to the highway, to have him come along. Pastor Misael shared his father had connections with some of the locals in Sicachique, which was how they were able to establish the mission-church, but many of those connections are no longer there.

“The cartel people will leave you alone as long as you have someone they recognize as being “local” and don’t intervene with their business,” Pastor Misael explained during his visit at YLM at the beginning of February this year, “So we just want to start paying visits there again, find out what happened to our mission-church, and with God’s help, open Nueva Esperanza once again.”

We ask you keep Pastor Misael in your prayers as he, along with his wife Erika and a deacon-student named Alfredo Alonso Holguin, work together to minister to the Gloria Dei and San Esteban communities, but also as they prayerfully prepare to return to Sicachique to help provide for it’s community with God’s love, mercy, and grace through His Word and many blessings.

If you would like to help towards funding the needed 4-wheel drive JEEP for Pastor Misael, you can donate to Chihuahua Missions or call (915) 858-2588 for more information on how you can help.