Mission Trip to Mexico

I met Gabriel a year ago while we were driving trucks during fall harvest here in Idaho. Little did I know when I stopped to help this stranger whose truck had broken down, how much it would change my life and the way I look at my own relationship with Christ. My friend Gabriel lives in a small village in the State of Jalisco in south west Mexico, where jobs are hard to come by and even harder to keep, especially if you profess Evangelical Christianity. Although, Mexico is a secular state with freedom of religion, persecution of evangelicals occurs in certain parts of Mexico mainly the Southern states. Christians in these areas face prejudice, harassment, and expulsion from their villages, attacks against their churches and private property, threats of sexual assault, imprisonment and murder.

Gabriel while hauling molasses with his semi has been hijacked three times. This past June his semi was taken, and he was held at gunpoint in the back seat of a car for two hours, until finally being released in a secluded area. Gabriel and his Christian brothers and sisters are often singled out due to their refusal to participate in community religious events that blend Catholicism with pagan rituals, heavy drinking and the use of the drug peyote. The Evangelicals are seen as a threat to local political and religious leaders’ as they share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and others are converted.

So where do Trish and I fit into all of this? Over the past year I have been praying for Gabriel, his family, and their local church that God would strengthen them and give them encouragement to fight the good fight and keep the faith. Gabriel called me in July and with a heavy heart reported to me the discouragement the local church has been feeling due to the increased persecution of the members. Gabriel asked me to pray that someone would come and bring encouragement to him, and his Christian brothers and sisters. One day as I was praying, the Holy Spirit moved in me that Trish and I were to be the ones to go and hold revival for our Mexican brothers and sisters. It reminded me of Hebrews 11:8, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land.”

We are leaving on September 29^th and will minister for two weeks wherever God opens the door. When I told Gabriel of our plans to come he invited (insisted) Trish and I to stay with him and his family and that he will interpret for me when I preach. God is already preparing the hearts of the people to hear His word. I spoke with Gabriel the other day, and as the news of an “American Preacher” (his words not mine) is coming to bring the Gospel, he has been flooded with requests that we come to other villages while there.

Trish and I have done our best to raise our own funds; we are literally selling our earthly possessions to raise the money needed for this trip. This is the part where you come in! If you can please give, the funds raised are going to be used to give an honorarium to our host/translator, also to cover the travel costs while in the country. May God bless the gift and the giver.