The site where we are building a new church in Mazateca, Oaxaca
Dear Friends of Mexico Ministries:
The story of Ruth and Naomi has been one of my favorite Bible stories throughout my entire ministry. You probably know it but I want to recount the basics. There was a famine in Bethlehem and family of four left there and traveled to Moab in search of survival. After many years there tragedy struck and Naomi lost her husband and both married sons. She heard there was food in Judah and decided to return, but her two daughters-in-law had to decide their own future. Orpah chose to stay with her people, but Ruth went with Naomi. Imagine leaving everything you have known in life — food, culture, friends, traditions — and packing up for some place completely foreign. When Naomi tried to talk her out of it, Ruth famously replied, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” (Ruth 1.16f, KJV) Of course, the rest of the story is that Ruth married Boaz, became the great grandmother of King David, and the ancestor of our Lord Jesus.
I think this story sticks with me so strongly because for 50 of my 88 years on this earth I have gone to a place different from my own family, culture, food, and tradition. I have made the people of Mexico “my people,” and spent my life helping them. In a few weeks I will join a group of people from Louisiana (my roots) and go to Tuxtepec, Oaxaca where we will join people from various places in Mexico and complete a new church building there. This church will be in the mountain village of Mazateca, about 5 hours north of Tuxtepec.
Every church we build, whether in a large city or a small village, becomes part of the fabric of the hundreds of churches that have been raised up over the last 50 years. For us it is a fulfillment of God’s call and our ministry; for the people of Mazateca and other places like it, this will be a place for worship, for fellowship, for God’s people to be God’s people.
Unlike Ruth, I won’t be buried in a place that is not my home. But my heart will always be with the people of Mexico.
God bless you,
Larry