BARBARA RUSS

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

Of the world's 6,500 people groups, 2,500 are still unreached. Ethnos 360 helps local churches train, coordinate, and send missionaries to these tribes.

Ethnos 360 is steadfast in its goal of reaching people who have no access to the Gospel. That was the vision for our ministry when we were founded in 1942, and it is our vision today. Ethnos 360 continues to trust God, and God continues to be glorified. Today more than 3,000 missionaries serve throughout the world, and training programs in more than a dozen countries prepare missionaries for service among the thousands of tribes who have yet to hear.

Ethnos 360: https://ethnos360.org/mission-videos-and-mission-photos/ethnos360-introduction

BARBARA'S MISSION

Barbara's main ministry in Chihuahua, Mexico, is to teach the children of the missionaries there. Each year is different, this year Barbara is teaching k - 2 at their MK (Missionaries' Kids) school.

Every Thursday afternoon after school, Barbara has a Kid's Club and a Women's group meet in her home. The National Missionary Training for NTM's Latinos is just a couple of miles away. They come and teach the children in her club. The women are taught by Betty Canez (an NTM missionary from Colombia whose husband teaches at the NTM Bible Institute.) Betty is joined by Lilly who graduated from the Bible Institute in co-teaching these ladies while their children are in the Kid's Club. They have an average of 21 children and 6 ladies. Lives are being changed.

THE AREA

The city of Chihuahua has a population of around 1,000,000 people. Four hundred years ago, Spain had the gold from Santa Fe north to gold mines south of Chihuahua sent to the Rio Grande on barges. The gold was sent to Spain on the big sailing ships. Now the town is not only the center of mining but of cattle as well.

Barbara lives outside of the city about five miles in a village called Ejido Sacramento. This is a small community of about 100 families. Over 60 years ago, one to two-acre plots were given to the poor families in the village down the road about five miles. They were to use the land for a livelihood. Many had dairy farms on these plots of land, others cattle, pigs, or just general farming. Some families are now second and third generations and are now working in other jobs and are no longer poor. While other families struggle but have inherited this land and live from one paycheck to the next. Homes vary from small one-room homes (the original adobe homes built on the land) to others living in regular homes with kitchens, front rooms, bedrooms, and baths. For the first fifty years, the lots were not to be sold outside the families. The past ten years, the land could be sold. This is when one of our NTM missionaries came into the Ejido (common land) and bought the property where Barbara now lives. She bought it off him a year and a half later. Because of the family networks within the village, Barbara has found that knowing a few people has opened up opportunities to know whole families. Most people are related in some way within the network of the community. This has helped in gradually building relationships in the community that allows the families to feel confident to allow their children to come to the club. Many of the families here are strong Catholics, so the resistance is strong. But the LORD is faithful to encourage the teachers to keep teaching when events keep the kids from coming. God is Faithful.

Pray for the men of these families to want to learn about Jesus. Here men think the Bible, church, etc is for women and children. Pray for this to change.

CONTACT INFO

Mailing Address:
10101 Dellwood Dr.
El Paso, TX 79924

Email: bruss1749@hotmail.com
Blog: https://blogs.ethnos360.org/barbara-russ/
Support can be sent through ethnos360.org/ or ethnos360.org/missionaries/barbara-russ
Facebook: facebook.com/barbara.russ1