When Missions in Mississippi and Mexico Work Together

Hang with me for this complete story about how domestic missions to the Hispanic community in Mississippi relates to foreign missions in Mexico.  Sarah and I met Kent in 2005 where he was serving as music leader at West Ellisville Baptist Church in Ellisville, Mississippi.  Once you meet Kent you’ll never forget him.  He had a ministry to the Hispanics in his area that he had started some time before we met him.  Kent knew no Spanish at the time (he doesn’t know a whole lot more today but he understands much more than he speaks).  But that didn’t stop him from communicating with them.  He would knock on the doors of Hispanic people and say, “You come with me and we’ll play volleyball and eat”.  And they would go with him!  He would load up the church bus with 30-40 people every Thursday evening and take them the church’s gym where he would have arranged for someone to preach to them in Spanish.  Many have been saved in the several years that Kent has had this ministry. 

The great part of the Hispanics in the Laurel/Ellisville area seems to be from southern Veracruz, Mexico; where we serve as missionaries.  Whenever we are at home in Mississippi we like to go and participate with them on Thursday nights.  We have gotten to know several of the men who have been saved and are growing in the Lord there.

  These pictures were taken Sept 2005 when Gaby and Kenny were very young.

This was taken November 2007.  It was Gaby’s fourth birthday.  Kent’s ministry had really grown by this time and finally had some members of the church helping him.

Kent and Scott (Youth Pastor) came down recently from the 19-26 of July, 2011.  They flew from Mississippi to Veracruz, Mexico.  Kent had booked the hotel room for us all to stay in that night while he was in Veracruz.  LESSON LEARNED #1: don’t believe the pictures on the internet promos for hotels (especially in Mexico)!  We shared our rooms and beds with a great host of “cucarachas” who taunted us unmercifully us and called us spoiled gringos!

Kent and Scott came prepared with around thirty file folders with Google map directions and pictures from those that he is working with in Laurel area of MS.  We had been asking him to come down for some time and finally came the opportunity.  We had VBS daily from 10 AM -2 PM and planned to visit in the afternoon and night the surrounding towns and villages where the families of those in MS lived.  It was a lot of work and was a very tiring schedule but it was so well worth it.  We were able to make contact with most of the families for which he had information.

Humble homes and hearths are common for the people in rural Veracruz.  This is where a family lives and cooks.  The best homemade frijoles and handmade tortillas you’ve ever put in your mouth are made on these stoves.

This family took a bus from two hours south of us to come and receive the pictures and things that Kent brought from their father/husband. The children sat at our table and wrote notes and drew pictures for their daddy in MS.  Pray that daddy will come home and take care of his sweet family.

This man’s two sons have received Christ in MS.  We witnessed to him. He has used this same stick to cut weeds and grass for eighteen years!

This couple’s two sons are now saved and one is very faithful while one still struggles in MS.  They were able to finally meet the man who has been such a blessing to their sons in the United States.  They KNOW that Kent sincerely loves their boys.  This is the bad news part.  This precious little boy has never met his daddy in person and his sister is in her preteen years without papa at home to protect her and love on her.  Pray that God moves on his heart to go back to his family where they need him more!

Thank you to White Sands Baptist and Union Baptist

We thank our Lord for being so good to us and we thank you all for praying for us and for sacrificing so that we can be here to, one by one, win the lost to Christ in Veracruz.  We thank you, Bro. Charles and Bro. David, Marsha and Heather for coming down to visit us and to participate a little in the work here in Jáltipan.  I am so sorry that you had such a rude welcoming to Mexico when robbed of your bags.  May God replace all things lost and then some!  Don’t let the devil get the victory and discourage you from missions or another trip to the mission field.  May God bless you and keep you all.

Manuel baptizes his daughter

On Saturday night we had our first ever men’s event for fathers.  It was mostly an evangelistic event rather than just for the fathers in the church.  We invited a whole bunch but only a few showed up.  It reminds me of the wedding feast that was prepared and none showed up but had a good excuse as to why. 

Bro. Charles has pastored for forty-two years!  I asked him to speak to our men’s Sunday morning class.  It was very edifying!  He then preached the first service.  It was my first ever to translate.

Mario and Manuel preached the evening service.  They are the two men in the church who are called to preach so I preach them.  After the service Manuel had the privilege and joy of baptizing his own daughter, Perla who had recently received Christ as her Savior. 

The well has been dug!!

I want to thank the Lord first and those that gave through White Sands Baptist Church for the $2200 that paid for the well, pressure tank, motor, UV light water filter and etc.  We weren’t able to completely bring in the well as some complications arose with the actual finishing of it due to the depth of the well.  In order to assure that we had adequate water pressure entering into our “artesian” well we had to take some extra measures that required more time.  I really wanted to be able to finish the well for Bro. Charles and his church back home so that they could return home with that “job accomplished” feeling.  We greatly appreciate their sacrifice for coming and that of those who gave for this project.  We will be finishing it ourselves as soon as we possibly can when we get back to Jáltipan.

Bright colors on the walls

Marsha Hayes and Heather Yates painted several walls.  Don’t hold them responsible for the color of the paint, for that matter, don’t blame me as well!  The paint sure looked different on the paper before it was mixed!  Could it have been mixed wrong?  Anyway, Mexicans like bright and loud colors so they shouldn’t mind it too much.  

Making the best of things

Because of the theft of Marsha’s and Heather’s passports a couple of days ago, we had to take a thirty hour trip by bus to Mexico City and back in order to obtain emergency passports at the U.S. Embassy.  That was a long trip and we were very tired afterwards!  While we were gone Bro. Charles and David built us some much needed screens for all of the windows in our church building and for one of the doors as well.  The rainy season is here and Dengue Fever gets to epidemic levels in the months to come so we really appreciate the screens. 

Setback for our visitors

Pastor Charles Burnham and David Lee from White Sands Baptist of New Hebron, MS and Marsha Hayes and Heather Yates from Union Baptist of Raleigh, MS visited to help with the well project.  Within the first few hours of Marsha’s and Heather’s arrival, they were robbed while we were at dinner.  While we were eating, some professionals literally popped the lock out of the door of the van, entered, and stole four backpacks.  The contents were two passports and newly obtained Mexican tourist visas, a laptop, I-phone, two cameras, around $700 USD, and some prescription meds.  This happened around 11:00 PM.  We had to go to the Justice Department to fill out a report and a warrant in order for Marsha and Heather to have some type of documentation in hand as to why they no longer possessed a passport or visa.  We finally arrived at our home in Jáltipan around 5:30 Wednesday morning.

               

This set us back on the whole agenda for the trip but we still got a lot done and the group was a real help to us.  The ladies scraped and painted some walls and were able to put on a program telling the story of Genesis with balloons in the afternoon Bible club that we have recently started in our garage.  The kids really had a good time!

Pictured here are:

David Lee from White Sands Baptist, Marsha Hayes from Union Baptist, Pastor Charles Burnham from White Sands Baptist, and Heather Yates from Union Baptist

Plans to dig a well

A group from my home area in Mississippi will be here the 14-21 of this month to do some work with us.  We decided about two weeks ago to dig a well ourselves.  The holding capacity that I added last year just isn’t enough for our family, church, garden, and critters.  From the time that we first mentioned this to the group and how much it would take to put in the well it wasn’t very long at all until God had raised the $2200 needed for everything to do with the well.  God is good!  We are also hoping to put in a drop ceiling in the building that we use for our services.  When we stepped out on faith almost two years ago to remodel and extent this building God moved in a big way and brought in all of the needed funds.  We will be using it like a multipurpose building (minus the basketball court) and we’ll have church services, English classes for two groups of thirty people each, and the classes for the Bible Institute.  The last two weeks have been in the 100’s in the shade.  The roof is a laminated asbestos and it gets really hot, like and oven inside especially when you have lots of people.  The drop roof estimate for materials is around $1300-$1400.  This is an area 7x15 meters plus the bathroom.  It is very easy to put up and we can do it easily while the group is here if we have the funds.  If anyone would be interested please give me a call on my Vonage phone 601-724-5155 and it will reach me here in Mexico.  

God is looking for you!

On Sunday, May 29, around 3:00 PM another man knocked at the door.  Twenty-five year old Roberto from Costa Rica was passing through and looking for some help along the way and knocked on our door.  He had spent five years in the U.S. as a young teen and spoke English really well.  I was blown away.  I really didn't know what to think.  I didn't believe his story and I told him so.  I told him that I didn't know what to think but as I went inside the house for a moment I asked God to guide me and take control of the situation.  I didn't necessarily believe his story but I knew that since God brought him here that He wanted me to witness to him.  So another three hours and another person ready to be saved that got saved.  It was truly amazing.  As I told both of them, “You can knock on probably every door here in Jáltipan and you won't hear what you just heard at this door, God is looking for you".  He stayed all week and worked with us on the well.  I downloaded some really good sermons off of sermonaudio.com and he heard some good preaching all week long while we worked.  We baptized him Sunday evening and he left on his way yesterday.  God is good!

God sends the harvest to our door!

Today a Catholic missionary studying in Acayucan at the Catholic Seminary knocked on my door.  He came inside the garage and we started talking.  He was convinced that God doesn't condemn the sinner and that one had to have good works along with his faith in Jesus to be saved.  Starting in Genesis and going on to Revelation he came to understand differently; he was really open to what the Scriptures had to say.  He readily confessed that according to God's Word he was going to an eternal Hell for his sin.  Then further along it clicked with him that the Bible speaks of the Biblical salvation as a free gift based solely on the Person and work of Jesus Christ.  After about three hours he asked Jesus to save him!  He actually sighed two big sighs after praying.  Talk about resting from your labors.

Preaching in La Isla

Today I preached the two Sunday services for a national pastor in La Isla, a town about an hour away.  He has been there about a year and a half.  He left from Isla fifteen years ago and worked in Washington State the whole time.  He got saved and was trained up under a good Hispanic ministry and came back down to southern Veracruz to bring the Gospel to his people.  I am so encouraged in this.  God has been bringing in national pastors to this area over the last three to five years.

Almost everyone in the ministry here in Mexico understands the lack of Bible preaching churches in southern Veracruz and some have been sending pastors here.  I had previously met another national pastor in Minatitlan who has been there for almost six years.  God is moving and bringing people in to an area where they are really needed! 

We were talking along these same lines about four weeks ago.  I came here to Veracruz with a burden for the southern half of the state, roughly four million people.   There is just a small handful of Bible preaching, doctrinally sound, soul winning churches.  I can’t reach four million people but I can train up men and women who can and help send them out to establish local churches here in this state.  We decided to step out on faith and start a Bible Institute that would commence with classes in August.  We have several here in the church who would attend, and talking to the few national pastors around, they would send their students here as well.  We will also, Lord willing, start beginner and intermediate English classes on the same three days when we have institute classes.  This alone would bring in sixty plus people each week to hear the Gospel.  I believe that God has already begun to bless as we head toward this goal of August to start the school.