Isthmus Conference

The Isthmus Conference is a part of the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference. It covers the southeast portions of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Territory and Statistics

The offices of Isthmus Conferenceare located at 42 Framboyanes Avenue, Reforma Colony, Heróica City of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2018 the Isthmus Conference had 168 churches, 19,220 members in the total population of 1,221,022.¹

The Isthmus Conference on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec covers the southeast portions of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a region of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz in Mexico. It is the narrowest area of land between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. It is located at the point at which the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Veracruz connect.² The isthmus is mountainous to the east with flat areas to the west and also on its coasts. The Valley of Tehuantepec shares borders with the Transverse Sierra and the mountains of Ixtaltepec to the north and a coastal belt to the south parallel to the Pacific Ocean.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a region rich in culture and traditions, resulting from the diverse ethnic groups in this area. The ethnic groups of the isthmus are the Huaves, Mixes, Zapotecs, Zoques, and Chontales. Each group has its own language.³ Although Spanish is the official language and almost all inhabitants speak it, various native tongues exist, such as Mixe, Zoque, and especially the language of the Zapotecs. Zapotec is a macrolanguage consisting of Zapotec dialects. There are 62 variants, 38 of which are not understandable to each other. If the 57 variants of the Mixe language and other indigenous languages spoken by the people of this state are taken into account, then Oaxaca is the most indigenous state in Mexico, as linguists have said.

John P. Schmal states that the topography of Oaxaca permits for many different native groups to live in the state. Oaxaca has many valleys that are separated by imposing mountains. Therefore, in valleys among the mountains, people speak languages that are not understood by those who live in valleys on the other side of the mountains, just a few kilometers away.⁴ Zapotec and Spanish are the main languages of the Isthmus Conference, but many monolingual members only speak a different native language.⁵ This characteristic gives the people of Oaxaca certain characteristics that appear in their lifestyle and, to an extent, their response to the gospel.

Institutions of Isthmus Conference

Isthmus School is located in Colonia Rincón Viejo, Santa María Petapa, Oaxaca. It started as an elementary school but grew with time and now offers three years of pre-school, six years of elementary, and all secondary and preparatory levels of education. The staff consists of 24 employees: 18 teachers and six in administration and services.

Benito Juárez School officially started as an elementary school in September 1994. It is located in Asunción Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca. It now offers three years of pre-school, six years of elementary, and all secondary and preparatory levels of education. It has 23 personnel: 17 teachers and six in administration and services.

El Porvenir Camp is located in El Porvenir, Oaxaca, on 10 hectares of land. It began operations on April 6, 2009. It has an auditorium, a kitchen, a gatehouse, and three bathroom installations, one for women with 20 toilets and 20 showers and two for men with 10 toilets and 10 showers in each.⁶

Beginnings of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Territory of Isthmus Conference

The Adventist church first appeared in the territory currently covered by the Isthmus Conference in 1905, in the city of Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca, when Juan and Aurelio Jiménez became interested in the message preached by the Adventist Church through the magazine, El Mensajero de la Verdad, edited by George W. Caviness.

One day, an uncle from Juchitlán, Oaxaca, gave the Jiménez brothers bread wrapped in several pages with print. When they arrived home, they gave the bread to their mother. Aurelio saw the text of Matthew 24:27 on one of the pages. Aurelio and Juan read the rest of those pages and became interested in the message but didn’t know how to find more pages of that magazine. For two years, they asked all the evangelical churches they knew of in the region but could not find the church that had published El Mensajero de la Verdad.

One day, the young men’s father, who had been a moderate drinker and became an alcoholic, suddenly fell ill. The young men placed a mail order for the medicine their doctor had prescribed. A few days later, the medicine arrived wrapped in the almost complete March and April 1907 issues of the magazine, El Mensajero de la Verdad. One of those issues covered the topic of Sabbath. The Jiménez brothers accepted this message and started a group of Sabbath keepers in Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca.⁷

In 1910, Pastor George W. Caviness, president of Mexican Mission, visited Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca, and organized the first Sabbath School in the territory of the current Isthmus Conference. In 1911, Pastor Caviness returned to Ixtaltepec and baptized the first Sabbath keepers, including Aurelio and Juan Jiménez and their families.⁸ In 1912, Pastor Caviness visited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec once again. This time, he carried out the organization of the first Adventist church in the south of Mexico, “the Church of the Sixth,” which still stands with that same name.⁹

In 1913, the members of the church began to extend their work beyond Ixtaltepec through the work of the Jiménez brothers: Aurelio, Juan, Catarino, and Emiliano. Little by little, they established churches and congregations in Ixtepec, El Espinal, Juchitán, Tehuantepec, Salina Cruz, Santo Domingo Ingenio, Los Limones, Matías Romero, and Pochutla, Oaxaca. Other important lay members arose from nearby places in the area. For example, Brother Antonio Sánchez, the man in charge of the group in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, moved to Puerto México (now Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz) to preach there. In this way, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was established in the south of Mexico.

Formative Events: Organization of Isthmus Conference

The Mexican Mission was established in 1903 with Pastor George M. Brown as president, Pastor George W. Caviness as treasurer, and Alfred Cooper as secretary. Its offices were located on 1599 Avenue 22, Tacubaya, Mexico.¹⁰

The pioneers who arrived to start the Mexican Mission decided to start a printing press in hopes of publishing magazines and books with which to preach the gospels. They were deeply convinced of the importance of editorial work. Mexican law also required that the printing and distribution of literature originate from an established legal entity. For this reason, they started a printing company called “The Truth Printing Association.”¹¹ Unfortunately, the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) caused a catastrophe that dragged the printing press, the Adventist school (Colegio Adventista Instituto Comercial Prosperidad), and almost all the church membership into darkness. In the darkest hour of the revolution, all the missionaries left Mexico as advised by their government except for Pastor Caviness and his wife, who remained in Mexico. In 1917-1920, to keep Mexican Mission alive, Pastor Caviness served as its president, secretary, and treasurer.¹²

From the start to 1917, Mexican Mission was under the direct administration of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. In 1918, North Latin-American Mission was organized, and Mexican Mission and the missions of Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Venezuela became parts of North Latin-American Mission.¹³ As part of the efforts to organize and serve this vast territory, a territorial adjustment was made. The Mexican-Central-American Mission was formed with territory that included British Honduras, the Republic of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and the western part of Nicaragua. This mission existed until 1923.¹⁴ On October 25, 1923, the board of the Inter-American Division took a vote to recommend to the boards of Mexican Mission and Central American Mission to adopt the name, “Aztec Union Mission.” The territory of the Aztec Union Mission would include the republic of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and British Honduras. It had 21 organized churches and 1,014 members. Its headquarters were located on 4th Querétaro Street, Number 74, Roma Colony, Mexico. Its president was D. A. Parsons.¹⁵ On May 21, 1924, the Aztec Union Mission held its first meeting in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and voted to organize five missions, one of which was Tehuantepec Mission, which eventually became Isthmus Conference.¹⁶

The vast area covered by the Aztec Union Mission was practically impossible to administer in those days because of slow communication. For this and other reasons, the Inter-American Division took a vote to change the name of the Aztec Union Mission to “Mexican Union Mission.”¹⁷ The vote included an adjustment of territory so that the Mexican Union Mission would cover the territory occupied by all of Mexico. The rest of the Aztec Union Mission’s territory became Central American Union Mission.¹⁸ The Mexican Union Mission was organized with 29 churches, 656 members, and offices located on 210 Jalapa St., Roma Colony, Mexico. It was organized with six missions, one of which was Tehuantepec Mission.

The territory of Tehuantepec Mission originally included the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Tabasco and the southern part of Veracruz.¹⁹ In 1933, Tehuantepec Mission acquired the states of Puebla, Yucatán, Campeche, and Tabasco and the territory of Quintana Roo.²⁰ In 1943, Yucatán Mission was formed with 12 churches, 1,030 members, and the territory that Tehuantepec Mission had acquired in 1933 with the exception of the state of Puebla. With these territorial adjustments, Tehuantepec Mission territory now included the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, the southern part of Veracruz, and the eastern part of Puebla.²¹

In 1944, Chiapas Mission was organized with 25 churches, 1,422 members, and the territory of the state of Chiapas. With this new territorial adjustment, Tehuantepec Mission was reduced to the state of Oaxaca, the southern part of Veracruz, and the eastern part of Puebla. Tehuantepec Mission had 21 churches and 1,237 members with headquarters located on 1701 West 9^th Street, Puebla, Puebla.²² In 1948, the territory was reorganized and renamed South Mexican Mission, also known as “The Corporation of the South” in Mexico, whose territory was the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. It had 33 churches and 2,215 members. The statistical report of 1949 says that South Mexican Mission had 37 churches and 2,761 members.²³ Its headquarters were now located on 58-A North 1st Avenue, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.²⁴ Tehuantepec Mission disappeared since its territory was a part of South Mexican Mission.

In 1951, the construction of Tuxtla Gutierrez Central Church was finished. It was built on 18 West 7^th Street, and its second and third floors were used as the offices of South Mexican Mission.²⁵ South Mexican Mission was in operation from 1948-1975, when it changed its status from a mission to a conference. By this time, South Mexican Conference had 60 churches and 28,295 members. Its president was Pastor Jacob Zaviñón with Sergio Mejía as secetary-treasurer.²⁶

In 1982, South Mexican Conference had 102 churches and 55,444 members.²⁷ This marked increase in membership made the creation of Isthmus Conference necessary. Isthmus Conference was organized with a territorial adjustment from Southeast Veracruz Conference, which gave it territory from the Papaloapan River to the border with the state of Tabasco in the southern part of Veracruz. Isthmus Conference had 70 churches and 23,562 members. Pastor Israel Guízar was its president with Arcadio González as secretary and Jesús Hernández Clemente as treasurer. The offices were located on 205 Amapolas St., Colonia Reforma, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, 68050, Mexico.²⁸

Due to the growth of Isthmus Conference, which by 1987 had 86 churches and 37,170 members, Oaxaca Mexican Mission was formed in 1988 with 23 churches and 13,361 members. Its territory included the state of Oaxaca. Pastor Samuel Guëzar Robles was its president, and its offices were on 525 Heróico Colegio Miliatar, Colonia Reforma, Oaxaca, Oaxaca.²⁹ In 2008, Oaxaca Mexican Mission already had 48 churches and 19,328 members. Due to this growth, there was another territorial adjustment, and Isthmus Mexican Mission was organized. Its territory included the southeast part of the state of Oaxaca, particularly the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and a small part of the southern part of Veracruz. It had 76 churches and 17,634 members. Its offices were established at 42 Framboyanes Street, Colonia Reforma, Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca.³⁰

In 2012, due to its rapid growth, the strength of its institutions, the development of its membership, and the strength of its finances, in a plenary session in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, on November 28, 2011, Isthmus Mexican Mission took a vote to request the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference to approve a change of status from a mission to a conference at their next quadrennial session in August 2012.³¹ In a meeting at Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, on December 19, 2011, the board of the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference voted to request the Inter-American Division to change the status of Isthmus Mexican Mission to Isthmus Conference.³² On March 22, 2012, in Miami, Florida, the board of the Inter-American Division voted to select people to study the viability of changing the status of Isthmus Mission to Isthmus Conference. Those people were Israel Leito, president of the Inter-American Division; Elie Henry, secretary of the Inter-American Division; Filiberto Verduzco; Abner de los Santos; Moisés Reina; Abraham Sandoval; Jairo Zavala; and a union department secretary.³³ The constituency meeting took place on August 27, 2012, in the auditorium of Catemaco Camp, Veracruz. There, 40 general delegates, 77 regular delegates, 18 delegates from the conference church, and 24 delegates from the new churches accepted the change, giving a total of 159 delegates who unanimously approved the change of status from Isthmus Mission to Isthmus Conference.³⁴ The first president of Isthmus Conference was Pastor Julián Gómez Morales.

Isthmus Conference tries to fulfill its mission by: (1) helping pastors and all members experience renewal and reform to receive the latter rain, which will give the necessary power to finish preaching the gospel; (2) inspiring, teaching, and equipping lay members to involve themselves in preaching the gospel; (3) implementing a plan for Bible workers that will designate a lay member or colporteur to a new territory with the purpose of evangelizing and establishing a new church; and (4) continuing the “Medical Mega Brigades,” which have a strong impact on the churches and communities and, thus, help the preaching of the gospel.

Recent Events that Isthmus Conference Experienced

The geography of Isthmus Conference makes it vulnerable to volcanic eruptions and especially earthquakes. It lies in the Ring of Fire of the Pacific Ocean, which is concentrated in Oaxaca’s Mixteco Knot, where two mountain ranges, East Sierra Madre and West Sierra Madre, connect. On September 7, 2017, an 8.2 Richter scale earthquake, the strongest in one hundred years, hit the area, gravely affecting the very heart of the Isthmus Conference territory. The city of Juchitán, Oaxaca, where the Isthmus Conference headquarters is located, was almost totally destroyed alongside cities in the conference. Thousands of families lost homes and means of living. To meet the humanitarian crisis, ADRA served meals to thousands of people and donated clothing and construction materials for houses for the disaster victims. All of the personnel of Isthmus Conference dedicated almost two months to the community through serving food, pitching tents for affected families, and other services. The church was severely shaken. A total of 50 Adventists churches were either totally destroyed or severely damaged. The conference helped these churches with 60 percent of the repair costs that were submitted. Far from being discouraged, members experienced renewal and an increase in the number of new converts. Financial income increased by four percent. Little by little, the wound is closing, and the church firmly continues in the struggle to fulfill its mission.³⁵

Isthmus Conference: Challenges Ahead

As the city of Juchitán, Oaxaca, where the offices of Isthmus Conference are currently located, is an unstable city, it has been decided to change the location of the conference headquarters to Matías Romero, Oaxaca, which seems to be a more stable place. A property in the city has been purchased, and it is expected to build the offices in this quadrennium.

Approximately, a third of the conference territory is still unreached. The coastal area of the state of Oaxaca is the most difficult area to reach because of its deeply-rooted religious traditions. Isthmus Conference takes such challenges into consideration and plans to complete its mission in its region.

List of Presidents

Julián Gómez Morales (2008-2016); Javier Temich Aten (2016- ).

Sources

Cortés, Félix A., and Velino Escarpulli Salazar. Esforzados y Valientes. Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México: Editorial Perspectiva y Análisis, 2015.

Eighty-seventh Annual Statistical Report of Seventh-day Adventists 1949. Accessed February 20, 2019. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR1949.pdf.

“Idiomas y dialectos de Oaxaca, México.” FamilySearch. Accessed 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/es/Idiomas_y_dialectos_de_Oaxaca,_México.

IMER: Instituto Mexicano de la Radio. Accessed 2019. https://www.imer.mx/.

Inter-American Division Committee minutes. October 23, 1923. 1. Accessed February 17, 2019. Inter-American Division archives.

Inter-American Division minutes. 2012. 12-009. Accessed February 19, 2019. Inter-American Division archives.

Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference minutes. 2011. 4311. Accessed February 19, 2019. Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference archives.

“Istmo de Tehuantepec.” Wikipedia: La enciclopedia libre. Accessed 2019. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istmo_de_Tehuantepec.

Isthmus Conference minutes. 2011. 648. Accessed February 19, 2019. Isthmus Conference archives.

Salazar Escarpulli, Velino. Cien años de Adventismo en México. Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México: Centro de Producción Unión Mexicana del Norte, 1997.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Various years. Accessed February 20, 2019. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Other Sources

Amundsen, Wesley. The Advent Message in Inter-America. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1947.

Greenleaf, Floyd. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Berrien Springs, Michigan: Andrews University Press. 1992.

Sepúlveda, Ciro. Nace un Movimiento. Montemorelos, México: Publicaciones Interamericanas, 1983.

Notes

1. “Isthmus Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed January 19, 2020, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=31722&highlight=Isthmus|Conference.↩

2. “Istmo de Tehuantepec,” Wikipedia: La enciclopedia libre, accessed 2019, https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istmo_de_Tehuantepec.↩

3. IMER: Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, accessed 2019, https://www.imer.mx/.↩

4. “Idiomas y dialectos de Oaxaca, México,” FamilySearch, accessed 2019, https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/es/Idiomas_y_dialectos_de_Oaxaca,_México.↩

5. IMER: Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, accessed 2019, https://www.imer.mx/.↩

6. Antonio José Derwis, email to author, February 19, 2019.↩

7. Félix Cortés A. and Velino Salazar Escarpulli, Esforzados y Valientes (Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México: Editorial Perspectiva y Análisis, 2015), 64-66.↩

8. Ibid.↩

9. Ibid., 66-68.↩

10. Velino Salazar Escarpulli, Cien años de Adventismo en México (Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México: Centro de Producción Unión Mexicana del Norte, 1977), 47; and “Mexican Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1904.pdf.↩

11. Félix Cortés A. and Velino Salazar Escarpulli, Esforzados y Valientes (Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México: Editorial Perspectiva y Análisis, 2015), 44.↩

12. “Mexican Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1918.pdf.↩

13. “North Latin-American Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1919.pdf.↩

14. “Mexican and Central American Missions,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1921.pdf.↩

15. “Aztec Union Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1924.pdf.↩

16. Ibid.↩

17. Inter-American Division Committee, October 23, 1923, 1, accessed February 17, 2019, Inter-American Division archives.↩

18. “Central American Union Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1927.pdf.↩

19. “Mexican Union Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1927.pdf.↩

20. “Tehuantepec Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1934.pdf.↩

21. “Yucatan Mission, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1944.pdf.↩

22. “Tehuantepec Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1945.pdf.↩

23. Eighty-seventh Annual Statistical Report of Seventh-day Adventists 1949, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR1949.pdf.↩

24. “Tehuantepec Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1945.pdf.↩

25. “South Mexican Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1951.pdf.↩

26. “South Mexican Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1976.pdf.↩

27. “South Mexican Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1983.pdf.↩

28. “Isthmus Mexican Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1983.pdf.↩

29. “Oaxaca Mexican Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1989.pdf.↩

30. “Isthmus Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, accessed February 20, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB2009.pdf.↩

31. Isthmus Conference, 2011, 648, accessed February 19, 2019, Isthmus Conference archives.↩

32. Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference, 2011, 4311, accessed February 19, 2019, Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union Conference archives.↩

33. Inter-American Division, 2012, 12-009, accessed February 19, 2019, Inter-American Division archives.↩

34. Antonio José Derwis, email to author, February 21, 2019.↩

35. Ibid.↩