Drake recently returned from a long journey into Guerrero state where he worked with indigenous believers from various Me’phaa Indian tribes who are training to become missionaries to their own people as well as to other tribes over a very large region. Before setting out, Drake published a series of maps of the Me’phaa region on which the Me’phaa Indians could identify their own village locations and where the gospel is presently available, specifically in their own language. In the process they identified many places that do not have acces to the gospel, as well as places where Christians are still systematically persecuted for their faith. The result was an effective evangelism plan in the form of a map with lots of circles and notes, revisions that Drake is now incorporating into a new set of maps that these Me’phaa men and women can use as a ministry tool to help accomplish their church planting vision for the region.
Me’phaa is a language divided into various dialects spoken in several regions of Guerrero state. Native speakers, who are themselves indigenous Indians of Mexico, identify themselves by their specific dialect. Unlike many other language families in Mexico, the Me’phaa dialects are fairly mutually intelligible – meaning a speaker of one dialect can understand most of what a speaker of another dialect is saying. It would be similar to an American speaking to a Scotsman with not only a very strong Scottish accent, but a great many words not used by most speakers of American English.