On opposite sides of the border, two cowboys heard God's whisper.

Down south in Agua Prieta, Mexico, it took a while for Andy Hill to figure out exactly what God was saying to him.

"I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer," jokes Andy, an International Mission Board missionary in this Mexican border town across from Douglas, Ariz.

When God started speaking to him about reaching "vaqueros" - Mexican cowboys - Andy tried to push the idea away at first. "I thought, 'Wait a minute. That sounds like too much fun,'" he says. "I was afraid it was too much my idea and not enough God's."

But Andy couldn't ignore what he and his wife, Lori, noticed about Mexican culture after they arrived in Agua Prieta as new missionaries four years ago. "Here in Mexico it's been said that all men are cowboys at heart," Andy relates. "Mexico has a very diverse population, but at the heart of this country are those roots that they've come from-that 'vaquero' culture."

He couldn't ignore, either, the fact that local believers weren't reaching the many "vaqueros" who live and work around Agua Prieta.

Among Christians, "there's been an attitude that once you become a believer, you have to leave anything they consider worldly behind. And that includes things you enjoy doing," Andy says. "So if a man is a "vaquero" - a cowboy - if he has horses or enjoys those sorts of things, he has to leave all that stuff, all his old friends, behind. He has to completely separate himself from that."

That attitude didn't sit well with Andy, who grew up around horses and cattle on a small farming and ranching operation near Haskell, Texas.

"We're told (in God's Word) to be in the world but not of the world. And you can't be in the world unless you're interacting with it," says Andy, a former police officer and Marine Corps sergeant. "You can't win the lost to Christ, you can't live your testimony in front of them, if you're living apart from them."

The more Andy lived around "vaqueros" in Agua Prieta, the more he realized God was up to something with them.

Then one day the phone rang. It was Allen Alexander, Andy's missionary supervisor.

"Andy, have you ever thought about starting 'vaquero' churches in your area - reaching out to the cowboys?" Allen asked.

"As a matter of fact, I have," Andy said. "But I keep pushin' back against it." He explained why.

"Well, I wish you'd see where God would take you with this," Allen replied.

Meanwhile, back in Andy's old stompin' grounds in West Texas, God was preparing to take horse whisperer Chip Sugar somewhere, too.

Chip was taming a wild horse in a round pen one day when "God just started laying Scripture out in front of me, showing me how the relationship I have with the horse is like the relationship He wants with me," Chips says. "He showed me how He's trying to get me to trust him more, just like I'm trying to get the horse to trust me."

From there God led Chip to start a part-time ministry of reaching lost people by reaching horses. Andy got wind of his work through a buddy at the Hills' home church in Texas.

Today in a round pen in Agua Prieta, Chip brushes a blanket across the back of an unbroken horse. He's showing the crowd the steps he takes to get this horse to trust him enough to saddle and ride him. Chip likens each step to the process of trusting Jesus Christ.

It's the first of Chip's regular volunteer trips to Mexico to help the Hills share the Gospel with "vaqueros." Andy translates Chip's presentation into Spanish. Onlookers watch, amazed, as Chip's teenage daughter rides the newly-tamed horse at the end of the show. For local "vaqueros" and their families, it's a powerful visual of what Christ wants to do in their lives.

It's a symbol, too, of what God's done with the Hills since they came to Agua Prieta as missionaries. They've struggled to figure out what God wanted to do through them, but they're finally seeing Him bring everything together.

Now seven "vaqueros" and their families study the Bible and worship regularly at the Hills' home in Agua Prieta. When weather permits, they meet at the local rodeo grounds. Andy believes it's "the beginning of a movement of 'vaquero' churches that have the potential to spread across all of Mexico."

"We're on the brink of a breakout of the Holy Spirit the likes of which hasn't been seen in these parts ever," Andy says. "And because of that the enemy is fighting us, every step of the way, fighting us tooth and nail, trying every tactic he can come up with. So it's been a battle."

But through the power of prayer, these Texas cowboys keep movin' on.

"God just keeps whispering in my ear, 'Trust me. Trust me,'" Andy says.

 

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