HILMAR COVENANT MEXICO MISSION TRIP
June 21-28, 2008

I have to say that I really like my new mission responsibilities! Not only do I get to spend time reading and corresponding and keeping current with what’s happening in the exciting arena of both global and local missions, I also get to help people to go on mission trips--and to go more often myself! And I have to say, there is nothing like seeing firsthand what God is doing with “every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Rev. 7:9) right here--right now, not waiting until we all get to heaven!

Once again, I was blessed to be part of the Mexico mission team on its annual trip to Tijuana through YUGO Ministries. It was my ninth time going to Mexico with our youth, and our eleventh time at Iglesia Bautista Bethel, the little church in the colonia of Francisco Villa where we minister all week. In fact, because of our long term relationship--which continues to grow ever stronger as we return year after year--we consider ourselves “sister churches,” totally united and “one” in our work and ministry to spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. We are “hermanos y hermanas en Cristo;” brothers and sisters in Christ, one body, even though we happen to live on two sides of the border, speak different languages, and live in different cultures. It’s amazing how those little things fall away when Christ is the common bond drawing different people together. Of course, having an eleven year relationship helps too...

You would think that after going so many times to the same place and to the same people and doing essentially the same things year after year that the whole trip would simply become routine or boring or mechanical, like cruising on automatic pilot. Instead, all of the familiar aspects of our experience each year serve to free us up and get us more deeply connected to the people and community immediately, rather than having to deal with culture shock, getting oriented to a new place, beginning the long process of getting to know new people, and figuring out their preferences, schedules, habits, etc. Our team is able to dig into ministry immediately because of the familiarity we have with the church and the community and this makes culture shock all but irrelevant to us (except occasionally for first time participants).

Every year new things await us when we arrive at Francisco Villa too. One year the Bethel congregation had started construction on a new multipurpose room behind the church building so they would have room to expand and teach children and youth with better space and resources. This addition has been a boon to their ministry, and it facilitates ours as well. One year we discovered that more men had started coming to the church and getting involved in it--which was especially interesting because Pastora Delia is a woman! One year we connected with a local rehabilitation house for men with special needs, and ended up painting Scripture verses in Spanish on the steps of the many stairways that lead down into the canyon where our guys do their sports ministry at the soccer court. The house director, Juan, wanted to blanket the canyon with the truth and power of Scripture as a way to combat the darkness and evil that is so pervasive in that neighborhood. Those verses are still there, with not a speck of graffiti painted over them! One year we decided to surprise the Bethel congregation and show up for their Sunday morning service, a day before we usually arrive to start our week with them. We ended up being surprised instead, because that day they were dedicating their newly expanded sanctuary which had just been completed by a group of volunteers from the USA! The service became a three hour celebration time, with all of us coming together to thank God for the blessing of the new building and the relationships that had made it possible. And of course there was a wonderfully delicious Mexican food “smörgåsbord” for all of us to enjoy together following worship!

Rather than give a blow by blow account of this year’s trip to Mexico and our week there, I’d like to share instead the special highlight that we discovered at the church this year: an active and growing youth group that has sprung up in the church over this past year! It was started by a 20 year old young man who we’ve known for the past few years, named Oscar. After going through some rough times, personally and spiritually, God grabbed hold of him last fall--and things have not been the same for him, or for Iglesia Bautista Bethel, ever since. Oscar said that in November he felt God speaking to him to get a youth group going. He and his girlfriend, Amy, and each of their brothers began to meet on Monday nights at the church, and before long other young people began to show up. Word got around about the group, until nearly twenty people began to attend regularly! They would share testimonies, spend time in worship, pray for one another, and read the Bible. (I’m pretty sure that Oscar also did some teaching, after what we witnessed from him during our week in Francisco Villa.)As the group grew together, they began to do more things: camping trips, youth meetings with other church groups from around Baja, and a competition where each youth group chose a Bible story, created an artistic rendering of it, and then presented the story to the other groups. The Bethel team won first place! The group has also started reaching out in service to the community, going to the Tijuana dump and giving out toys, food, and clothing to the children who live there.

We learned all about this phenomenal group when we again crossed the border on Sunday morning to attend the Iglesia Bautista Bethel morning service. Here were all of these young people, eager and waiting to start worship! And did they ever add a lot of “life” to the morning service, sitting together and singing loudly, shaking tambourines and other percussion instruments, clapping and dancing and raising their hands, despite the unusual, incredible heat that had hit Tijuana.It certainly helped bring energy to the two hour service. During lunch, Oscar and Amy told us the story of how their group came together. Then they said they hoped we would stay after our evening worship on Monday night and be part of their youth service, because they had been looking forward to our Hilmar group coming to Mexico since January--and they had been billing this Monday night meeting as an “international youth service!” Of course, we said “Yes!”

And that’s what we did, after our first day of ministry in Francisco Villa. We did our usual evening service for the church and community, which the youth also attended, again bringing energy and spirit to the worship. Afterwards, Oscar and Amy and their group took over. Oscar began by holding a huge link of chain and talking about all the things in our lives that keep us bound up, away from Christ.Then he asked if people had any testimonies to share. Oscar’s brother, Edgar, was one who talked about the things that had kept him in chains for a long time. But this past year he turned to Christ, and experienced release from the heavy load he had been carrying. With tears running down his cheeks, he thanked God for this freedom, and for the youth group that was so helpful and supportive to him. Then Tessa McCullough from our group shared about the sadness and struggles she has faced since her grandfather’s death. Taylor Genzoli also spoke from our team, affirming the new youth group by using the passage in Revelation 3 about the church in Laodicea. Taylor said how the youth group is a strong witness for the church, and what a positive thing this is, compared to places where churches are “neither cold nor hot.” Finally, I challenged Oscar and his group with the idea of coming to Hilmar and helping us as we are trying to strengthen and expand our Spanish-speaking ministry. This brought smiles and applause from everyone. It will be difficult for this to happen--finances, documents, travel restrictions, etc.--but I reminded everyone that God can do anything. We must pray and trust Him to bring this about.

Another amazing thing that happened is that the guys from the soccer court stayed for this youth meeting--after they had attended our regular evening service! This was incredible. These guys are a completely different group. They come from another part of the neighborhood. They never attend church--except when our team comes to Francisco Villa for the week. Last year, for the first time ever, they came to our evening services every night (which they did do again this year). It was wonderful to see them on our first night at the church, but for them to stay afterwards and be part of the youth service--yikes! This was too much to believe! As the week progressed, some of the youth group went down to the soccer court each afternoon too. They got involved playing soccer with the guys, and Oscar spoke out with his own challenge to the soccer guys after our Hilmar guys gave their daily lessons and testimonies. Because both the youth group and the soccer guys continued to come to church at night all week, more and more interaction took place with all these young people. What could this mean? What could God be doing, bringing together young people who normally don’t mix?

And to think this happened simply because our mission team returned for an eleventh year to the little church, Iglesia Bautista Bethel, in Francisco Villa. What a testimony to the working of God! It verifies for me the reality that I’ve read about, and often hear from mission organizations and missionaries: that it is imperative to build relationships within most cultures before the gospel can be shared effectively. This always takes TIME--even years. Our Hilmar mission team realizes this. Perhaps this is why so many of the ones from our group who returned yet again to Francisco Villa this year are not high school students anymore, nor even university students, but are post-college adults! Their commitment to this community, this church, these people did not end when they graduated from high school, but has continued to this amazing point where they are now seeing “spiritual dividends” from all the years they’ve invested there. I can hardly express what a blessing and privilege it is for me to be part of this annual mission experience, to share it with these “kids,” and just to be a part of their lives in such a significant way. Honestly, why wouldn’t any of you out there reading this blog NOT want to come along with us next year?!

Of course all of the regular things took place on our mission trip again this year too: the long drive to and from Tijuana (NO VAN BREAKDOWNS, praise God!), staying overnight at Claremont Covenant in San Diego, setting up our tents on the barren hillside of the YUGO campsite, our daily children’s, women’s, and sports ministries and evening services at Francisco Villa (including a taco feast at one of the local stands on Thursday night after worship!), morning preparations at the YUGO campsite, including a fantastic chapel speaker named Brad Buser, and all the other activities that YUGO provides the youth groups that are there for the week. I was particularly challenged by Brad’s presentations each day. As he warned us after the first morning he spoke, he “punched us in the face” for the rest of the week, boldly declaring what a real, true, full life with Jesus looks like compared to what most of the American Church settles for, and challenging the students to consider radical obedience to Christ, including leaving everyone and everything behind to go and share the gospel with one of the 4000 people groups--millions and millions of individuals in the world--who have never heard the name “Jesus” before. In my next blog, I will summarize what Brad had to say. It ties in well with the missional reality that churches in America need to recapture if they are going to be effective and viable in the years ahead.

So get ready for a few spiritual cuts and bruises after my next blog posting.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of our Hilmar Covenant mission team’s week in Mexico. Know that God was truly glorified in all we were and did and said.

Gloria a Dios!