Cora Trip

I wanted to let everyone know a bit about this trip to survey the Cora tribe so that you can be in prayer for us. There are 5 of us going (well, 6 with the baby):

Ramon Murillo - his wife is Vanessa, she's not going because she's pregnant. They will be finishing mission training with NTM this summer.

Chava & Andrea Nuñez with baby, Abigail- They are also in mission training, but they have another year and a half left before they graduate.

Arehmi Barrera - She's a missionary with NTM here having finished the training last year. She & I are praying about partnering together. Our time with the Guarijio will be a time to see if we can work together.

And, myself, of course! :)

First, we will be driving south- an 8 hour trip! Please pray for safety in driving, sureness for the vehicle, and good attitudes being together for so long!

Then, the next morning we'll fly into the mountains to where the Cora live. There are 3 dialects. We'll be visiting 2 of them. The 3rd group is a little harder to get to. The two groups are both ethnically Cora, but linguistically are supposed to be distinct enough to warrant two missionary teams.

Our plan is to fly into a valley town, Polvoroso 1,200ft , which has an airstrip. We'll be there a few days, finding out about the Cora who live there and getting recordings of language. Then we will catch a bus to the other area which sits on a plateau, El Pino 7,200ft. It's a 7 hour trip and people who have been there before say that the buses are nothing to write home about. So, it will be an interesting trip! There is no way to know the bus schedule ahead of time. We will not know until we get there. So, please pray that a bus will run halfway during the trip. Or we will be all our time in one place!
Polvoroso is actually a mestizo town with the Cora living in a community adjacent to the town. We plan on staying in a small hotel there.
In El Pino, we'll find out about the people there, get language recordings, etc. A few years ago the government built cottages for tourists as a way for the Cora to make money. I don't know how many tourists make it up there in the middle nowhere, :) but, it will be a place where we should be able to stay! The pilot will pick us up there and fly us back to civilization. Then, we'll drive back up here.

--Pray that God might already be preparing the hearts of the Cora people for the True Gospel.
--Pray for unity as we travel together and work together.
--Pray that, we might be a good testimony of Jesus Christ, who these people will one day hear about in their own language. Pray that all our actions and what we say may glorify God.
--There are lots of unknowns and things that will come up that we are not yet aware of. Bus schedule. Please pray for wisdom.
--Pray for safety. We will be in a truck, a plane, a bus, and walking. All this will be in an unknown environment, at least for me.
--Pray for health. We'll be eating local food. Pray that the Lord would fortify our stomachs to withstand anything we might eat that might be unfriendly.

Well this is long, but I covet your prayers and wanted you to be able to pray specifically. Thanks for standing alongside us as we make this trip. It is the Lord who protects us and provides for us. You are vital. Thanks for standing in the gap. I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store on this trip!

Cora from El Pino

Cora child