Mission Keyword: Encouragement

(Ed. – Here's how Texas Christians help their Mexican neighbors.)

Crossing Borders (CB) recently completed their 23rd mission trip into Mexico, June 17-25. Each trip is composed of a unique mix of activities and resources, depending on the needs of our Mexican ministry partners that we discuss with them in advance of the trip. We spent 8 full, long days building relationships with people, accomplishing tasks, and living and sharing the Good News.

When planning this trip, we were led to focus on “Encouragement” as our keyword. In our ongoing connections with our ministry partners, we were aware of a plethora of crises and stresses with which they were dealing at this time. One partner has been battling thyroid precancer, and her husband died quite unexpectedly in February from aggressive cancer. Another partner has had a kidney transplant, his wife has fought cancer twice, and they had a grandbaby die at birth. Some pastors are discouraged by decreasing numbers in church attendance, and others have dealt with defections from their leadership teams.

A director of one of the orphanages we visit has had ongoing thefts of anything “not nailed down” at their facility. Among other things, their water heater (located outside the building) has been stolen (twice!), so they get by with only cold water now. All our partners face extremely tight finances, the stresses caused by pervasive government corruption, and the threat of cartel and gang kidnapping and violence.

In our goal of encouragement, we spent extra one-on-one time with our partners, just listening to their stories and needs, letting them know we care, and praying with them. While Crossing Borders operates on a limited non-profit budget, donations from our U.S. mission supporters were used to provide some special financial or physical resources to our partners.

One of the pastor’s wives, Nora, had been saving small bits of money back for a long time, hoping to one day be able to cover their very humble home’s rough concrete floor with tile. She had finally accumulated enough money, but then her husband had opportunity to be able to make a trip to some very poor churches several hours farther into Mexico to deliver shoebox gifts to the children. Nora donated her floor tile savings so the children could receive the gifts. As it turns out, some CB supporters had donated some funds with the instruction to use them when a fitting opportunity arose – and this was the opportunity. We were able to replace Nora’s funds so she could tile her floor, and were also able to bless their church with some money for much-needed supplies.

In another instance, we became aware that Sister Juanita, the senior-citizen director of a children’s home that CB has “adopted,” had only one door on her 4-door car that would open from the inside (due to broken handles). She had to crawl over the front seat into the back seat, and then exit through the rear passenger door. Because of our donors, CB was able to provide her with resources to get new working handles.

We were also able to buy some needed supplies for the children’s home, and we took her on a shopping trip for some clothes and other personal items for herself (she never spends money on herself; always on the kids). In addition, we purchased and installed some new plumbing fixtures, three ceiling fans and three hi-velocity floor fans (there is no house air conditioning in the 100+ temperatures).

What activities did we do? We helped out at a “church in the park” for homeless people; painted walls and fences at a neighborhood Christian youth school; visited two children’s homes and spent several wonderful hours with the kids; purchased items for and distributed 50 grocery bags as part of a church outreach event; conducted a Vacation Bible School for 50 children; and lots more.

Finally, a highlight event was that we invited all our current Mexico ministry partners (15 of them) to a special 3-hour “encouragement luncheon” at a nice Italian restaurant. This is the first time we ever had all our ministry partners gather together, and the joy and friendship was amazing as the partners and CB missionaries shared life stories over the meal. We spoke two messages of encouragement to the group, and gave customized gift bags to each partner (photo books of printed photos from past years’ trips were a huge hit!).

Crossing Borders thanks all our supporters who make these trips possible. The love of God is being shared, the Gospel message is being lived and spoken, and lives are being positively transformed – lives of the CB missionaries and of those we go to serve.

Our next trip is a shorter version scheduled for December 8-11. Come on along! Info at www.cbmission.org or call 903-746-4463.

Ministry partner encouragement luncheon