History of the Aztec Ministry, from generation to generation to generation:
In 1961, Dick Beller (a graduate of Detroit Bible College) joined Wycliffe Bible Translators as a single missionary. He partnered with a fellow single missionary, Bill Sischo and lived among the Michoacan Aztecs beginning in 1962. Patricia Cowan Beller accepted Christ as her Savior after attending a Billy Graham Crusade
in Atlanta, GA. She graduated from Baylor University and joined Wycliffe in 1959. God called her to be a missionary and particularly focus on Bible translation through the deaths of Ecuadorian missionaries: Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian. See their story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Auca
Pat joined the Mexico Branch of WBT and was a single missionary for five years among the Otomis Indians and helped to finish the translation of the New Testament into the Otomi language. She then worked among the Mixtecos Indians and completed language analysis in Mixteco. Dick and Pat grew fond of each other while working in Tlalpan (a linguistics headquarters in Mexico City) in December of 1967 and were married in June of 1968. Together they were assigned to the Huasteca Nahuatl language and began to live among the people in the village of Cuatenahuatl, Hidalgo in 1969. This ended up being an Eastern dialect village (Huasteca Nahuatl Oriental). There they built a home and provided urgent medical care in a primitive clinic. Richard Beller, Michael Beller and Tami Beller Gaddis. Linguistically, they completed various publications (reading primers, cartillas, textos, etc…) and a popular two-volume language course called Curso del Nahuatl Moderno (printed in1979 and reprinted in 1982,1985). They completed the translation of the Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl New Testament in 1984. They soon discovered that the Huasteca region was really comprised of three main dialects: Eastern-nhe, Western-nhw, and Central-nch. They completed the Western New Testament in 1986, a bilingual hymnal in 1987 (213 hymns), a revision of the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs in Western Huasteca Nahuatl in 2000, and then three complete Bibles (Western-2004; Central-2005; Eastern-2005). During these years we also lip-synced the JESUS film into Eastern and Western Huasteca Nahuatl, as well as translated the movies Genesis (nhe, and nhw), Lucas (nhe, and nhw) and El Progreso del Peregrino (nhw) (Pilgrims Progress). We also have recorded the three New Testaments on audio and produced music CD’s. Pat Beller faced declining health in 2005 and a brain tumor was found in October of 2006. She passed away from brain cancer on June 21, 2007 (DIck and Pat Beller's 40th wedding anniversary). We raised $45,000 in her Memorial Fund and were able to prepare her final life’s work: a 768-page bilingual hymnal for publication. We published 8,000 copies of this Nahuatl hymnal in December of 2011. Dick Beller was living in Tucson supervising the translation of the Nahuatl dictionaries. He experienced chest pain following his daily walk and just days later, on March 5, 2012, died during the surgery to repair a ruptured aorta. We thank the Lord that he was spared a lengthy illness, but were shocked with this great loss. The NEW 8,000 Nahuatl Hymnals arrived in Mexico in April, 2012, just after his death. The torch was in our hands now as my brothers and I met together just after Dick Beller's passing and decided that this ministry to the Nahuas of the Huasteca was now our responsibility. We (each of the 3 married couples) committed ourselves and personal funds to keep reaching the Nahuas with the love of God. The Lord enflamed that generational torch once again and grew in us a renewed vision and fervent desire to reach the Nahua people with the love of God. We have an Aztec Ministry home in Huejutla de Reyes, Hidalgo, Mexico, from which we translate and distribute the various materials. But our primary offices are currently located in Tennessee. Currently, we have 4 language dictionaries in progress. These dictionaries were a primary passion of my father’s and he laid the foundation of all of this work. We have Cesar working on a Central (nch) /Spanish dictionary in FLEX with about 6,000 entries. Cirilo is working on a Western (nhw)/Spanish dictionary in FLEX also with over 6,000 entries. Here in our home in Tennessee we are faithfully working on completing and archiving Eastern (nhe) to ENGLISH words and have created a comparative dictionary. Since August of 2012 (when we began this project with a Moody Bible Linguistics student) we have archived approximately 3600 English entries with grammar rules, phrases and a large medical section etc… We have also created a short (so far 40 page) Nahuatl language course for English speakers. Since our father’s passing in March, 2012: we have daily overseen logistics at the home in Huejutla and language associates; we have printed a third edition of the Western Bible and just ordered a second edition of the Eastern Bible. We have also designed a website in Nahuatl. On this website, we are trailblazing a new avenue through which we can deliver the Bible in Nahuatl into the hands and hearts of the Nahua people. So there is much more work to do! We ask for your prayers and support as we seek to serve the Lord among the Nahuatl speakers of the Huasteca. Please contact us to share how you would like to be a part of this growing ministry.
