One man’s call to the Maya is bringing light to unreached villages.
Deep in the jungle of Central Mexico, a music teacher-turned missionary labors faithfully.
Sometimes he has helpers, like busloads of excited Americans on a mission, ministering with The Message for Mayans team. Members dress up like clowns and hand out toothbrushes and shoes to the villagers.
Why? To bring spiritual freedom to villages that even Google Maps has yet to discover.
What’s his plan? Roll into town with a pastor from a nearby village, gather a crowd with clowns singing songs, give away helpful gifts and show JESUS.
His name is Gama. Jesus called him to love a people group (not even his own), the once-renowned and now often overlooked Maya people. Many Maya struggle with their identity and self-worth despite having a proud historical legacy.
Gama, who is native to Mexico City, left a life of convenience to follow the call to reach the last and the least. Living hours from his own city, he works to restore hope and self-confidence and to give the greatest gift of all––the gospel––to the dispersed Maya people, over 700,000 of them!
Jesus Film Project® has the privilege of joining Gama once a year on his mission. This year, over 90% of attendees in one village gave their lives to Jesus after watching JESUS!
A showing I attended a few years ago was accompanied by bizarre lights in the sky beyond the screen. I found the Mayan prayer team huddled together, praying in earnest.
“We don’t want to make our American guests uncomfortable,” they said, “but there is a gathering of witches in the next village. The lights are coming from them. …They don’t want us to be here.”
By God’s grace, dozens of people gave their lives to Jesus that night, including a taxi driver who stopped by to check out the showing.
Village by village, Gama and his team proclaim freedom to the Maya people. What a privilege for all of us to have just a small part in this journey of faithfulness!
Pastor Gama often sees firsthand how the gospel changes lives and enriches entire communities. He helped to record the Mayan version of The Story of Jesus for Children, one of the most widely used gospel tools in his community.
Hundreds came to understand the love of Jesus for the first time when Gama premiered the film. One woman cried, “This is unbelievable. Wow, Jesus speaks Mayan. Now I know He knows me and hears my prayers.”
Hear Gama’s full story on our podcast, The Unheard Story, on Apple Podcasts, PodBean, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Join Pastor Gama, executive team leader for The Message for Mayans, as he shares about the needs of the Mayan population and the powerful way in which Jesus is reaching people in the most remote villages of the Yucatán Peninsula.
