Pablo and Liliana Kelleher met while students at the New Tribes Mission Bible Institute. Now married, they will continue to serve as missionaries in Mexico.

“Of the world’s 6,500 people groups, 2,500 of them are still unreached,” according to New Tribes Missions, an organization whose central focus is “to help local churches train, coordinate and send missionaries to these tribes.”

This would be an insurmountable task, except for the intricate ways in which God calls and guides His workers to the mission field. God’s call to tribal missions grew clear for Pablo (Paul) Kelleher, who grew up in the small town of Bennett in Northwestern Wisconsin.

A graduate of Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minn., Kelleher was working full time in construction in 2006. Getting comfortable in his career, he thought, “Before I get tied down, I should try being an associate missionary for a time and see where the Lord leads me.”

Kelleher had been to Mexico with NTM once before on a short-term trip as a teenager. Even then, seeing a glimpse of what missions entailed, he said the idea gave him “such a peace.” Now, he was delighted to discover that NTM needed two more construction workers as part of its team in Chihuahua City, Mexico. While working with that team in July 2006, God’s call was affirmed in Kelleher’s heart.

“I decided I wanted to go into tribal missions full time,” he said.

Kelleher enrolled in NTM Bible Institute there in Chihuahua, a city of more than 748,000 people where he would be totally immersed in the language and culture of Mexico. Kelleher said that taking classes entirely in Spanish has really helped him to be able to explain the Bible in that language. He joked that now he even dreams in Spanish.

Learning to teach the Bible — God’s character, nature, purposes — chronologically, he and other tribal missionaries will use those same lessons translated into the tribal languages, taking tribal cultural beliefs into account to help the people understand.

“If you don’t know what the different Bible stories are for, they just seem like interesting stories,” Kelleher said. “But if you know what their purpose is, they’re like puzzle pieces fitting together.”

NTM missionaries begin with teaching tribal people the Old Testament, and by the time they get to the Ten Commandments, people see that the Israelites couldn’t keep the law, but that they needed “a liberator.”    Kelleher said listeners begin to make the realization that “I am in that same situation. I’m lost. None of the tribal rituals will help me.”

The stories continue up to John the Baptist in the New Testament, always directing people to look toward “the liberator” who would come, not merely to cover their sins the way animal sacrifices had, but to actually take their sins away. Finally, they learn of Jesus, the liberator Who is still able to save them.

“The entire study,” Kelleher said, “prepares you for why Christ came: not to free you from problems, but to free you from the punishment of sin.”

While God was preparing Kelleher for the work of tribal missions, He also was preparing his future wife, Liliana, who is Mexican. Liliana said the Lord showed her His plans and purposes for her during time spent in Indiana in 2004.

“I realized the huge need in Mexico,” she said. “I knew the Lord wanted me to be a missionary.”

Returning to Chihuahua, she had no idea how to begin, but Kevin Gutwein, a field director for NTM in Mexico, introduced her to the NTM Bible Institute. She had no work or income, and her family was just getting by, but she started praying.

She said, “Here’s my life” and gave God her desires and plans.

Shortly thereafter, a fellow Christian provided her tuition, and she began studying at the institute.

“It is difficult to serve in tribal missions as a single woman,”

Liliana said, so she also began praying for a husband. Then, in 2006, she met Pablo when he and another trainee began buying Lily’s homemade burritos. Kelleher laughed when he explained how he thought they were helping her out, but that she was actually “losing (money) on that deal” in order to become acquainted with him!

Kelleher seemed to have the qualities Liliana desired in a mate, “but”, she said, “I didn’t want to feel anything special for him if it wasn’t from God.” Even the ladies in her church began to pray for God’s will concerning Liliana.

“On Oct. 27,” she said, “Pablo asked me to be his girlfriend.”

Blushing as she told that story, Lily added, “I was very surprised.”

“It was her relationship with the Lord that caught my attention,” Kelleher said. He had been praying for a Godly young woman to marry him, and as he got to know Liliana better he asked what her intentions would be after finishing her studies at the Bible institute. He knew that many students went on to work in missions all over the world. He was pretty taken aback when her answer was, “I am going to work here in Mexico as a tribal missionary.”

Liliana said that, for most Mexicans, their only concept of missions is of Americans coming to Mexico. Part of the NTM focus is to help Mexican Christians develop a vision for sending missionaries as well.

As a result of her brief time in the United States, Liliana said, “God showed me the work of missions. I saw how churches in America work to support missionaries, care for them in prayer and meet their needs.”

Married this past June, Pablo and Liliana currently are spending time in Wisconsin, but plan to return to Chihuahua to continue their studies. They will also have a tribal language to learn. Kelleher said that the tribal dialects in Mexico are all very difficult to learn. Whenever possible, tribal Christians will teach their languages to the missionaries.

Kelleher is encouraged by Philippians 2:10-11, which reminds him of the coming day when “... at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

In the meantime, the Kellehers ask for believers to pray:

• For the work that they will be doing, the completion of their current studies, the language and team training yet to come.

• For an increase of their support.

• For safety for all of the missionaries as they have seen an escalation in violence caused by the drug war in Mexico.

• For wisdom as they adjust to married life.

Gutwein told the Kellehers that in 10 years he hopes to see half of the tribal missionaries become Mexican nationals. He believes that Pablo and Liliana could be key to helping with that transitional process as they represent a union of both cultures.

“We can see how God’s hand has been leading us through all of this,” said Kelleher, whose story seems to be a perfect example of  Romans 8:28: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”