Mission trip to Mexico

Recently at CTI we announced confirmation of our short-term ministry locations for this summer - one of which is to Guadalajara, Mexico, in partnership with Youth With a Mission there. This particular program has a special place in my heart since I led our pioneer team there in 2003.

I shared the following thoughts with our staff and team members when I announced confirmation of our 2007 team:

Mexico is pretty much the "given" field for American youth ministry abroad. As a California kid, I made several trips across the border to orphanages or church plants with my home congregation. So many youth groups take such trips that it's become almost cliché. (In 1999, the ska group "Bunch Of Believers" released a tune called "Mission Trip to Mexico." It's either disturbingly shallow, or an attempt to make light of the cliché. I don't know which.)

Anyway, in such a climate, the thought of a CTI tour to Mexico often strikes disappointment in the hearts of recruits who get assigned there instead of, say, the glamorous mission fields of Africa. This was true in 2003 when I led our first team to work with YWAM GDL. I've heard similar stories since.

It's important to clarify that we're not making an over-the-border hop here into communities where American youth groups keep the Mexican tourism industry alive. Though border towns are frequented by U.S. youth in search of a missions experience, Mexico remains the 2nd least evangelized Latin American country. The Mexican state of Jalisco (where the YWAM base near Guadalajara is located) is the least evangelized state in all of Mexico. There is therefore good reason to believe that our ministry partners in this environment are working among some of the least evangelized people in all of Latin America.

In 2003, our ministry in GDL included spending time with the poorest of the poor, giving presentations at the equivalent of U.S. "soup kitchens" where people come for rations of food and messages of hope. YWAM works with a ministry that also has a significant presence in the prison system, as well as a continuing outreach to the homeless "street children" of Guadalajara. This partnership in particular is a quintessential manifestation of our ability to help bring notoriety to a ministry organization that works the same fields day in and day out. There are few places I'd rather send a team.

Our first team to GDL spent an unsettling mid-day among the trash heaps of a vacant lot while our ministry partners served lunch to a community of homeless people who were addicted to huffing paint fumes. The indelible impact this experience had on the team members is incalculable. In 2005, a CTI team visited a town that had been "closed" to the Gospel for years. YWAM had spent years gently trying to establish a presence there. That CTI team was the first visiting ministry team to be taken into that town. Team members did mostly one-on-one relational ministry with the locals there, using acoustic music more as a casual bridge-builder than a large-scale attention grabber. These are the sorts of things that happen in Mexico.

I'm excited about continuing this partnership. YWAM is excited about having us back. I hope our recruits will be excited for this opportunity as well.