2024 Mexico Mission Trip Recap
First of all, a heartfelt thank you for your generous financial support of God’s work in Mexico. More importantly, thank you for praying over this trip as God did so much to minister to us and our brothers and sisters in Mexico. I received text messages and a couple of phone calls during the week from friends to let me know that they were continuing to cover us in prayer.
There were 4 of us heading to Mexico this year. Rob Kern, Elias Fentanes, and myself from Fair Oaks Church and Pastor Emilio Garcia from Refuge Church, also in Concord. Pastor Emilio did street ministry with 100 Spanish language Bibles (provided thru generous giving) and spoke to many people about the love of Jesus while Elias, Rob, and myself did some construction work in the Comunidad Conexion (Community Connection) church near the mission where we stayed. We built 70ft of 10’ high wall, power outlets in the wall, sheet rocked on both sides, finished and textured and painted. We were able to interact with the staff who helped with our construction so a special thanks to Samuel, Ciro, Lester, and Pastor Turi.
During the week that we were in Tijuana there were 2 other groups working to build a house and a church in the area. We all stayed in the mission and got to spend quality time together at meals and in the evenings. They were The Father’s House (Concord satellite church), led by Pastor Russ Belmont, and Pathway church high school youth group from Redding, CA.
Wednesday evening we got to enjoy a mid-week time of worship at the Conexion Church led by Pastor Turi and his dad Pastor Daniel (founder of Kingdom Builders ministry whom we were partnering with for this trip). Pastor Daniel did the message and Pastor Turi interpreted in English. I was invited to speak so I talked about the work that we were doing at the church as well as what Pastor Emilio was doing in the streets of Tijuana and how precious it was to me to reconnect with Pastor Russ and interact with the Pathway Church folks. One of the things that we did was to build a coffee bar. The project started with 2 slabs of black granite and a couple of shelf heights and we built the bar. When Pastor Turi’s wife Nallely saw the bar she said “I love it”. It was a vision of hers that we were able to make a reality, once again thanks to prayer and financial support from you. Turi and Nallely and the church do a ton of outreach in the Tijuana area.
Thursday evening we went to the church that I worked on last year for their mid-week worship. We worshipped in the recently completed second story room that we built last year. Pastor Emilio was asked to say a few words and he wound up doing the evening message. The Mexican believers are very expressive in their worship and it was a pleasure to worship with them. I got to reconnect with about a dozen friends including Pastor Beto and his wife Faby. We anointed him and Faby as they are going to plant a new church soon in a nearby neighborhood. We also anointed the incoming Pastor and his wife, a beautiful time of prayer. I was also asked to speak so I thanked the congregation for their love and friendship among other things in Spanish. Wonderful evening. At the end of the evening I resolved to return to Tijuana in July to help build the new church for my friend Pastor Beto. When I talked to Pastor Turi about this he said he would cover my expenses at the mission for room and board.
Thanks to Bob Nass for letting us use his van again this year. We also took with us a collection of soccer balls, cleats, baseball equipment, and kids clothing that we gave to the mission.
In His Love,
Chris Halvorson