Christian 1
Christian I'm writing to inform you of the particulars concerning my latest trip to Mexico, of which I was accompanied by Gertrue & Bill Bowers. Concerning, Mexico as you know I have been there over 20 times in the last 17 years helping Eleazar with his 40 or so churches both as a speaker, and supplier of food, clothing, and finances for various building projects, and other needs. This last trip was unique from the other trips, because of an event that we witnessed and because of two extra ordinary families; that we met, one family in the north and the other in central Mexico.
The first family was a Pastor, his wife, and their 5 children. They are from the state of Tamaulipas which is in northern Mexico south of Texas. The man had been a welder with his business located next to his house. Five years ago he and his wife started a youth ministry in a town 30 minutes north of their home. It started growing and grew to the point that they started a church and also decided they should move there and live on the site of the church building, to be close to the people they were serving. When I saw the family on my trip last October the progress or state of affairs was as such:
a. The property of probably ¾ of an acre was fenced in and located in a modest but not poverty stricken residential neighborhood.
b. The church building was nice, mostly finished, cement floor, block walls, the usual small Mexican Pentecostal church building, with the exception that the Pastor had a small office. The building was painted and clean.
c. The Pastor's house right next to the church (closer than I thought was necessary), was not nearly finished ; it consisted of block walls with openings for windows and doors, without any windows or doors, no roof, no floor, just weeds where the floor will be someday.
After we saw the unfinished house we were shown where the family was currently living. They opened the door to a long narrow room attached to the back side of the church; I suppose it was built for the purpose of a Sunday school room for the future. But currently as we looked in through the open door we could see five beds, which took up over half of the available floor space. All the rest of the house hold necessities were in the remaining space. This hallway shaped room was the living quarters for this family of seven. Years ago I had seen the home that this family had lived in (He had done some welding for us) before he started his ministry; Christian I can tell you it was a palace compared to the one room hallway they are living in now.
But let me tell you the last part of the story; we know that God honors sacrifice, and this man and wife have sacrificed their will to the will of God, and already they are reaping the reward that God promises to those who put him first. The only person in the family that could speak English was the oldest child; a daughter of probably 13(and you know I can't speak Spanish) so our conversation was with this young girl as she took on the role of host and interpreter. I will never forget the light in her eyes and the joy in her face as she talked about the work that her family was doing and she said to me, "and we have another mission 20 Kilometers from here, and another 50 Kilometers away". It was obvious that she was both excited and in agreement with the importance of the work of telling other about Jesus Christ. As I looked her in the face and perceived her enthusiasm my first thought was how many parents are there in America who would give most anything to have a bond with and the respect from their children as this girl had for her parents. God honors sacrifice, this man and women gave up their home, job and security but they gained the respect of their daughter and the security that only god can give. Well Christian I hate to tell you that as impressed as I was with this family and the work they were doing for Christ and seeing their need to finish their house, I gave them no offering or help. I had given my last pesos away to Eleazar before we met this family, which was our last stop before we crossed back into Texas? I'm trusting that the day will come when I can be of help to them.
The second family that impressed me so much was a family we met in central Mexico in the city of Pachuca. We went to Pachuca to dedicate a new church building. This building was in the midst of the city on the side of the mountain. The building was right against the one on the left and the one on the right, no spaces in between. The front of the building came right up to the sidewalk, and across the street you could look down at the roofs of the house on the street below. It was a narrow two story building with the sanctuary on the second floor. The steps to the sanctuary took up a large portion of the ground floor. And the ground floor was not all the same level because of the mountain. There was one bathroom for everyone behind the church, no running water and a curtain for a door. When you were in the upstairs sanctuary there was a opening for a large window, that had a view of much of the city and beyond, it was a beautiful view.
The dedication service started as soon as we got there and the sanctuary was packed full of people with others standing around the stairway and down the steps. There was a great meeting and sermon which was delivered by Pastor Tommy Plunket from Baltimore MD. The sermon was interpreted in to Spanish by Pastor Eleazar Garza. After this the people had planned a time of fellowship and food, so the men started moving and stacking all the chairs and carrying folding tables up the steep steps. They carried the food up and placed the chairs around the tables and as soon as one table was ready they started to seat the people and feed them as they continued setting more tables and chairs. In a short time they had the entire sanctuary full of tables, chairs, and people sitting and eating. I was not seated close to the stairway and so I could not see but there must have been many people downstairs that could not have been seated for the meal. But of course the gracious Mexican people seated us first and treated us as special people. I have been treated special many times in many towns and cities across Mexico.
While I was eating I met a man by the name of Elias Gomez, a Mexican who could speak English. As we were speaking, I was full of questions, one was concerning persecution of Christians in this area which was further south than we had ever been in Mexico. As you know Christian we have been informed by both Open Doors & Voice of the Martyrs, of the persecution of Christians in the state of Chiapas and other areas of southern Mexico. Elias told me there was some persecution around the city of Pachuca, but most of the persecution existed further south. After a half hour of conversation at the table with Elias I was very impressed with the spirit of humility that flowed so easily from him. After that time of fellowship was over, Mr. & Mrs. Bowers and I were delighted to find out that Elias would be spending the rest of the day with us as guide and interpreter: and that we would be spending the night in the home of his Brother Benjamin and Sister Mary. We were about to meet another remarkable family; we met five brothers and one sister out of a family of seven brothers and two sisters. The most remarkable thing I learned was all seven of the brothers were starting churches.
One brother named Abraham was a full time Pastor the others all had jobs and planted churches on the side. I was told that the sister Mary was the first one to start preaching. Moses deliberately picked the poorest neighborhood to start his church. We visited his church and saw the building partially done and already being used for services.
I started wondering how it came to pass that nine children were so committed to the work of the Lord. We were told the story of their father Eliud Gomez who became a welder, and worked for General Electric as a young man in Mexico City. Mr. Gomez was raised in a Catholic Family and was devoted to his faith. In his hometown he use to carry a big gold statue of Mary in a yearly holiday celebration in which he was in charge of all the preparations for this party which drew people from all over the country came to participate. One year he came home from his job in Mexico City and found all friends were drunk and the reason was, the priest of the Catholic Church would not let them have the large gold statue of Mary so the men became angry at the priest and got drunk on tequila. When Mr. Gomez arrived the men asked him to go talk to the priest and try to convince him to let them have the statue for the parade. The priest was polite to Mr. Gomez and asked him two questions: The first one was "Who would he like to please God or men?" The second one was "Who would you rather worship God or idols?" The priest kept on saying the choice is yours. Through this experience he gave his heart to Jesus and became a very committed Christian; and as a young Christian his faith was severally tested. He had inherited lands and property upon which he and his family were living, when suddenly one day some bad people who were opposed to his conversion, forced the door open and came into the house and began to hit Mr. Gomez and told him he had 24 hours for him and his family to leave the city, so in 24 hours he and his family left their house and property which was the most difficult thing his family ever had to endure. They went to a town they had never been to before where they rented property and lived for a year. The Lord spoke to Mr. Gomez and said go back to Pachuca He had plans for them in that city. So they went back to Pachuca where the family rented a place to live and work, during this time he also was continually preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During this time the family suffered because they were the only Christians in their area; however they opened their house to anyone who would come hear the gospel preached. As a token of his love for Christ, Mr. Gomez named all of his nine children after Bible Characters. As I thought about this I came to the conclusion that the commitment that I saw in all of these children (all in their late 30's to early 40's) was the result of witnessing the reality of a strong faith in Jesus Christ by their father. God honored the sacrifice and commitment of their father; He always honors those who honor Him. Again how many Christians in America would give almost anything to have their children committed to God's Kingdom like this man?
Elias told us "We lost our earthly heritage when we were forced to leave our property and home, but our father gave us a eternal heritage of faith in Christ. To God be the glory the Lord has given us many blessings. One of these blessings is a big house which took us 25 years to get, so that we would have a place for preachers and pastors of the gospels to stay in each time they had the opportunity to come to Pachuca. This is the wonderful home that I stayed in while I was in Pachuca.
Concerning witnessing the event that I spoke of earlier in this letter let me tell you that actually we saw the same event three different times; twice in one state and once in another. We were going through town in the right lane heading south to another town when a car came up in the left lane and was slowly passing us with a police car following with its lights flashing. I figure this guy is about to get a ticket but I noticed that he was not pulling over as you would expect; so I decided that the police car was not pulling him over but was trying to get around him which he could do once he passed us. But after the police car passed us it continued following the other car lights flashing but at a leisurely pace. This continued until they were lost to our view in city traffic. As I had said we saw this happen three times in our over 2,000 miles of traveling in Mexico on this trip. When in the state of San Luis Potosi we were told that what we had seen was police protection for drug deliveries; police protection from another drug cartel. We were told that all Governors, Mayors, Police, and the President of Mexico and most the Politicians were all involved in drugs. And we saw the morning paper with the picture of a dead man lying on the floor and the article said that he was the son of a mayor or governor, I can't remember which. We were told that the drug problem in Mexico is much worse now than it was even just five years ago. All governors and mayors are involved because the ones who were not have all been removed by threatening or killed. There are now only two drug cartels left and all political leaders are in one of the two.
The fighting in Mexico over drugs is not the Government fighting drug cartels it is the fighting between the two remaining cartels along with their respective police forces and politicians. We were told that President Calderon is the head of the one cartel and that he cannot lose, (he controls the army also) but still has not totally defeated the opposition. Some Governors and Mayors are in one cartel and the rest are in the other cartel. I need to point out that it is against the law for the Mexican People to own or possess a gun and cannot protect their homes from intrusion. Since the government controls the army, the police, and drug cartels; the only ones who have guns, it's easy to see that the average citizen is at the mercy of the circumstances. There is not much point in the Mexican people going to the poles to vote, they have already lost their country, and they lost it without a war; except a drug war. I remember a few years ago while in Mexico having a discussion at election time with some Mexican Christians and seen the excitement because they thought that Vicente Fox would make a big difference for Mexico. He has come and gone and he made no difference, probably the entrenchment of the drug problem throughout the Mexican society is the reason. Today there is little interest in politics; they see no hope.
The Mexican people have lost their country because of the corrupting influence over the illegal drug traffic. There are billions of dollars going across the boarders into Mexico corrupting everyone in its path. The problem is not the drugs; it's the money that's being made from the drugs as a result of it being illegal. The only hope that the people of Mexico have of getting their country back is for America to make drugs legal, or somehow prevent drugs from crossing the border. The money would dry up overnight so would the cartels and the crime. The vast amounts of money involved are the result of the illegality of drugs. I personally saw the police as I described earlier, the rest of the information is a result of conversation. Before anyone takes action of any kind the truth of the matter must be verified.
God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. Eccl: 12 14
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