Taking On The Mayan Jungle
// SPECIAL REPORT: MISSIONS
James and Beverly Rackley know that God has a sense of humor. After graduating from Rhema Bible Training Center in 1976, James spent years ministering to the Indians and Eskimos in the arctic of northern Canada. At the coldest, temperatures there dropped to 77 below zero. When he married his wife, Beverly, a 1977 Rhema graduate, she joined him in his arctic missions. Five years after they married, God led them to the jungle of southern Mexico. “It was my faith that worked,” Beverly laughed.
From the start, the Rackleys’ ministry to Mayans and Mexicans in this remote jungle has been unique. It all began in 2000 when they sponsored a pastor to go out into the jungle villages and hold Vacation Bible Schools. “This pastor said there had never been any kind of spiritual activity for the jungle children,” James recalled. “He’d done his homework. He knew where to get curriculum and transportation, and he had a plan to teach the workers.”
|
FAST FACTS James and Beverly Rackley are 1976 and 1977 Rhema Bible Training Center graduates.
www.JamesRackley.com |
With tears running down his face, this man explained that the only thing he didn’t have was the money to fund this outreach. He needed about $700 in U.S. currency. Without hesitation, James and Beverly agreed to sponsor him, assuming it was a oneshot deal. When the report came back, this pastor had touched
15 villages. He unexpectedly brought notes from the children to the Rackleys, thanking them for their help and asking them to hold VBS again the next year.
“Of course, we said yes,” James exclaimed. “We’d been ministering in the villages and had noticed that 100 percent of the children would respond for salvation. This really boggled my mind until one pastor explained to us that they had never realized the importance of giving children an opportunity to accept Jesus. They thought the kids were OK because they attended church.”
This only added fuel to the Rackleys’ fire. The very next year they sponsored another jungle VBS. Only this time, they participated themselves to see what was happening. “We reached 32 villages that year,” James noted. “At that point I realized we had a tiger by the tail and that it was not a one-shot deal. We had to reevaluate what we had done and what we would do in the future.” That year was only the beginning. James and Beverly continued to bring in and train children’s workers from the jungle, teaching them how to do lessons, crafts, songs, and memoryverses. Before the start of VBS season in July, they’d provide each teacher with a resource package filled with basics like construction paper, coloring sheets, glue, and crayons. As Beverly explained, “If we ask you to do something but put no resources in your hand, it’s like we’re asking you to bake a cake with no ingredients. So we came up with the idea for the resource packages.
“That’s what Rhema taught us,” she continued. “We learned the Word and the Spirit, but we also learned not to be just hearers only. We learned to apply things to our lives. That’s what we’re teaching these teachers.”
More than 11 years after the Rackleys’ first VBS, their ministry is still going strong. In 2005 God provided them with property of their own in Bacalar, a city in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Dubbed the Oasis Center, the property houses dormitories, shower facilities, and a full kitchen and dining room—all of which were funded by Rhema churches and partners.
Teachers gather at the center several times annually to receive multiple days of training. The training—which includes housing, food, and classes—is provided at no cost to attendees, thanks to the Rackleys’ Adopt-a-Village program.
The results James and Beverly have seen speak for themselves. To date they have impacted the lives of more than 60,000 precious children in the Mayan jungle of southern Mexico and northern Belize. They have consistently seen 40 to 50 percent or more of those children accept Jesus, which adds up to 30,000 children being born again. And the numbers are growing. In 2011 alone, the Rackleys and their team of teachers reached more than 150 villages and 15,000 children.
At one VBS in the city of Valladolid, there was a lady who had her arm bandaged and tucked under her shirt. “You could see she was in pain,” Beverly recalled.
After they asked her what was wrong, the woman revealed a shocking sight. “There was a bone sticking out of her arm,” Beverly said. “We laid hands on her and the bone popped back in place—just like that. I thought, ‘Whoa, that really worked!’ ” Completely healed, this woman began to sling her arm around. And that afternoon she was one of the workers for the VBS.
“It’s really amazing how hungry the people are,” Beverly noted. “They’re taking what we’ve taught them to the parks and cities—not just to churches. One lady took what she learned to another state and taught 300 teachers. We give God all the glory.”
“The most exciting thing is to see the faces of thousands of children during VBS—to see tears flowing down those faces as hearts are opened to the Word of God,” James added. “Children are the world’s greatest natural resource, and we believe we can change a nation—one child at a time.”