Bethel Foreign Missions Foundation

Vicky Witt Ministries/Witt-Warren Ministries Foundation, Durango, Mexico          Jerry and Nola Witt started a mission in the mountains of Durango, Mexico in the early 60s.  Jerry would fly his Cessna aircraft into the villages of the mountains around Durango and deliver the gospel to those who had never heard the Word.  He literally gave his life delivering the Word of life to the Indians of central Mexico when his plane crashed in 1965.  Shortly after his death, Frank Warren married Nola and fathered her three boys and had twin daughters of their own, while continuing the work begun by her and Jerry.   Frank went home to be with the Lord ten years ago and now our beloved Sister Nola has joined him. The members of Nola's family continue the work of many ministries there in Durango. After over 40 years, the work continues to thrive with a Bible School, Youth Camp programs and ministries in twenty churches throughout Mexico. Vicky Witt, daughter-n-law to Nola, now heads this ministry in and around Durango. Naki Theo, Sister Nola's son-in-law, now heads up the Witt-Warren Missionary Foundation. "The violence that was happening as a result of the zetas and cartels hindered us from to traveling up the mountains with large groups as we had done for so many years. In the summer of 2006, as I was trying to understand how God could use me to continue serving the indigenous communities, three teenagers were sent to live me from the Cora tribe so I could send to school. So this doesn’t seem shocking or out of place, there is a story behind this happening. Ten years earlier, we had taken a brigade up to the Cora tribe in Gavilanes, which is in the state of Nayarit. There was a 5 yr old girl there named Ernestina who was the local pastor’s daughter. And I told her that when she was old enough, that she would come to my house to live with me and I was going to send her to high school. Well, I hadn’t forgotten the conversation but much had happened in the next 10 yrs. However, I received a call from the pastor in Gavilanes, saying that his daughter Ernestina, his nephew and another teenage girl were ready for me to take in so I could send them to high school, like I had promised. Before I knew it, I had all three of them living with me and enrolled in the local town’s school. The next school year, 4 more students arrived. 1 girl and 4 boys. By the third year I was housing 7 young men and 4 young women. As a single woman, handling young teenage boys that come from indigenous tribes is extremely difficult since, culturally, they have no regard or respect for a woman. I decided that I would continue to house only female students. Since then, I have been housing mainly Tepehuan girls and their ages have ranged from 9 yrs old to early 20’s. At some point, there were 10 of us living under the same roof. In 2016, the Lord provided for the purchase of a piece of land and we have been able to build a dining hall, a study hall and dorms to house up to 20 young girls at one time. During the global pandemic in 2020, schooling was switched to online and, as difficult as it was, we were able to continue helping these girls with their education. What we discovered during the lockdowns was that most of these girls that come to us are severely under- educated. We were unaware of the major struggle these young girls go through while in school. Not just culturally, but Spanish is their second language and some only came with almost no basic education at all. When local mandates were lifted, me and the team that works with me, which includes my niece and my nephew’s wife, decided that we needed to approach this in a different way. When my own children had finished their homeschooling studies under me, I never imagined I’d be doing it again. God provided a way for us to be able to homeschool these girls and their education be recognized by the government education department. Since homeschooling isn’t practiced in Mexico, there are very few programs that are recognized by the Education Department. But the Lord led us to a homeschool program that is! It has proven to be more expensive and definitely more challenging. However, the rewards are far greater. Being able to educate them one on one has changed their lives. This has also provided us with the valuable opportunity of not only presenting the Gospel to them, but to disciple them in the ways of Christ, which was something we hadn’t been able to really focus on before. As far as I know, the work that we’re doing is unprecedented and that means that we’re still learning and growing. We are currently in the beginning stages of building two classrooms that will provide the separation needed for different levels of learning. We are excited to see where God is leading us through this. Please visit their facebook page at www.facebook.com/vickywitt.ministries/ or contact Vicky via e-mail at witt.vicky@ymail.com   Click her to see her website at vickywittministries.org Click her to see an interview at Family Church in Houston on Vicky Witt's work in Durango.

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