[About the photos: Pastor Eliseo with his wife, his mother, and his new congregation and building]
Dear Friends of Mexico Ministries:
I have a wonderful and joyous story to share with you. 37 years ago a pastor from Tuxtepec, Oaxaca showed up at our Bible school in Atoyac, Guerrero. He had driven for over 12 hours across the mountains of southern Mexico (easier done now than back then, and still a tough trip) to bring a group of young people to enroll in our school, among whom was a 14 year old girl named Maria.
Last month I was in Tuxtepec, where we have built a major ministry center and several churches, working with a team to build a brand new mission church. Now, it’s important to understand that I knew nothing at all about this congregation (although our leaders in Mexico did), and I didn’t even know who was going to be the pastor. I was simply told by Pastor Cesar, one of our key leaders, that a church was needed.
I had the blessing of meeting young Pastor Eliseo and his mid-twenties pregnant wife, and was encouraged to see God raising up a future generation for ministry. We got the church built, and I was told the young pastor planned to build a small room off the church for he and his family to live in. I felt directed by God to instead commit to buying a lot near the church for them to build a proper house. But here is the amazing thing: when I was introduced to Pastor Eliseo, I also met his 51 year old mother, Maria. Yes — that Maria!
And here, 37 years later, God caused our paths to come together once again. The Bible is full of stories of God guiding and directing people on their journeys: Abraham leaving the land of his ancestors and going to the Promised Land; Jesus walking through Samaria to minister to the woman at the well; Philip ministering to the Ethiopian eunuch, “Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (Acts 8.26) God has his own Global Positioning System, and it works better than my phone’s! “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3.5f)
Thank you friends and supporters for walking this journey with me for all these decades. God’s Providential Strategy - his GPS - has never failed and never will.
Larry