After several years of serving in a country in East Asia, we are thankful for the brothers and sisters who follow God with a devoted heart. By His grace and guidance, we led a short-term mission team to Mexico in January 2019.
We mainly worked with a local Chinese church in Mexico. The team organized an evangelical and praise event on a Saturday, as well as courtship and marriage enrichment workshops on Sunday afternoon. In addition, musical instrument training sessions and worship leading workshops were conducted. The team also visited many Chinese shops and restaurants during the week to outreach to Chinese migrants. Besides working with a local Chinese church, we are thankful that we got opportunities to visit a national compassion ministry that especially helps poor children, to visit the site of a church planting project, and to attend the Sunday worship service of a national church.
One day, we visited a church only about 100-square-meters large in a rural area. There are twenty volunteers taking turns to take care of 250 poor children whose ages range from three to eighteen years old. The church provides meals to them three times a week.
The following are some impressions and reflections of a team member:
Children are like sunshine and are the hope of the church. Children coming to the church brings opportunities for us to do something for their parents. The church takes initiative action, serves the society through providing help to children and sharing the Gospel. Some parents are prisoners, and some are drug addicts. Children are here to experience love and learn to forgive. And the most important thing is to know God at their childhood. They know that Jesus loves them and loves their parents too.
After lunch, the pastor brought us to see a piece of land at the top of the hill. There are innumerous people living along the hill. The pastor bought this land many years ago and wanted to build a church for accommodating around 500 people. There is lack of running water supply so it is necessary to build huge water tanks to store water delivered by water truck. The work stopped recently because of a lack of funds. The project is not an easy one. Nevertheless, the Almighty God lets me see that He is using a humble person to do His great work.
God, I have seen your work. I have seen you are working in the whole world. Even though I am in Mexico for less than two weeks, I have seen your work everywhere through events, workshops, visitations, passing out Gospel tracks, and children’s ministry. Lord, you are the living God. Thank you for your love. Please use me, let me get involved in your great work to bring more and more people to know you.
The following was expressed by another team member:
I never thought that there are so many Chinese residing in Mexico. They are too busy earning money, which occupies their hearts. This is my first time distributing Gospel tracks to people I do not know. It is amazing that I can do it freely in public, as it is illegal in my own country. I pray that God touches the hearts of people through the contents of Gospel tracks.
When I sang songs with children and hugged them at the church, I felt very thankful and grateful. The church is just like a home for those children, they are protected; children have freedom to read God’s word on their own. I am sad when I think of my country. Children are not allowed to go to church; they neither have opportunity to hear the Gospel nor the chance to receive the everlasting love from God. I pray that the Lord prepares a way for children so that they can know the Creator, be loved, and be healed by the Lord.
God is an awesome God! HE is the one who guides, provides, and protects. The Lord fully blessed and encouraged both the short-term mission team and the local churches. Two team members expressed in great joy that they never imagined the freedom to share the Gospel to others in public. The hearts of another two members were deeply touched and they are considering serving the Lord in full-time ministry. We encourage them to seek for God’s direction and to be equipped at seminary. Hosanna! Hosanna! Let God’s beautiful name be exalted! We praise our Lord that He made a restricted country to be a sending country in this short-term mission trip! Thank you for your prayers, which made this trip possible!