bring hope to mexico

We spent the sabbath in Altar at the men's shelter run by our friend Francisco. I met Francisco in April but this was my first look at the ministry "Christian Mission of Hope".


Each morning the men have a service. They had already begun when we arrived so we all piled in and joined the worship.
James shared a simple but inspiring message regarding the Holy Spirit while Marcus gave an equally lively translation. After some testimonies we prayed for the men.
After the service Francisco and his men served a meal they had prepared for us.
It is humbling to be served food by people whom you know rarely eat as well as the meal they put in front of you.
When the meal was done the neighborhood dogs dined in style on the soup bones.
The facilities at the mission are rather crude. Above is the kitchen sink attached to the restrooms pictured in the photo below. However, we were able to see the hope for the future when we looked at the concrete block wall structure that will be their new dormitory.
After the meal we had an no-holds-barred worship session. Gary began by leading us into the throne room with beautiful music on his wooden flute.
There was drumming...
And dancing....The children quickly joined in when we brought out the flags we had made.
As the men from the mission joined in the dance they broke through in the spiritual realm, reclaiming the land that had been taken from them and declaring victory through spiritual warfare.

It was a joyful time of abandoned worship.
Marcus played an important role by being the first of the men from the mission to break out and dance.
All our drumming and dancing drew out the women in the neighborhood, whom we then had a chance to pray with. One of the women asked us to visit her house down the road where her young son was confined to bed with kidney problems. A request we were happy to oblige.As the afternoon came to a close I noticed that the men had initiated a car wash service. Each of our vehicles was dust free before we left. This simple act of service communicated their gratefulness in way that did not need translation.
Inside the small building that serves as bedroom, office, chapel and indoor kitchen I noticed this plaque with the first verse of Psalm 23. In such humble surrounding the verse took on new meaning for me...The Lord is my Shepperd, I shall not want.
Before leaving we took up an offering for the mission. When we arrived back in Arizona we received a message from Francisco letting us know that the roofing materials that they were able to purchase with our offering had just been delivered and they were going to start putting the roof on the new dormitory the following day.
The five days of meetings in the baseball stadium had been billed as "A festival of Healing and Hope". This trip to Mexico was truly full of Esperanza from start to finish, from our visit to Christian Mission of Hope to the salivations and healings that took place in the stadium.

On the afternoon we visited the plaza that was our first encounter with the city of Caborca, we were delighted to find that someone had left a message in the form of a large sidewalk chalk drawing; the symbol of the fish with the word, ESPERANZA written in huge letters.

May Yahweh pour out his Esperanza on Mexico!