Twain Harte Bible Church - Ministry in Mexico

Ministry in Mexico

Missionary Family in Mexico and Central/South America

For over 10 years our church has supported a missionary couple serving primarily in Tijuana, but who’s reach extends into the inner most parts of Mexico, and Central and South America.

For security reasons, they cannot be named or their work identified here on this site – unfortunately they have had threats to their lives and their ministry and feel strongly that they not ever be found on the World Wide Web. But we think it is important for our body to know that they exist and are doing a mighty work in an extraordinarily challenging ministry.

In Tijuana, they work amongst the outcasts – those living in the dumps, barely eeking out an existence. Drug use and violence are rampant. Yet they are able to bring hope and light to this area filled with darkness – the hope found only in Christ Jesus. They have planted churches – and those churches have even sent some of their own as long-term missionaries to plant churches in inner Mexico.

In Central and South America, they provide encouragement to other missionaries in the field. They are also involved in creating “talking books” – special recordings of the Bible in tribal languages that are heard by tribal people who are often illiterate or who may not even have a written language.

Please include this couple in your prayers. For more specific information, please see Pastor Matt or Andrea Wells on the missions committee.

Short-Term Trips with Missions Ministries

In 2001, 2006 and 2008, THEFC sent teams to Juarez, Mexico, in partnership with Missions Ministries.

Missions Ministries is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, non-profit organization offering high quality short-term missions experiences designed to be of significant benefit to both American team members and the Mexican people they serve. They partner with evangelical pastors of small churches in the colonias of Juarez. Devaluation of the peso and disproportionate ratios of people to jobs make survival difficult. There is no government assistance. Many live in houses made of wooden pallets and cardboard. Many communities have no water or plumbing.

Over spring break 2008, our church sponsored a team of 28 people. Led by Kevin & Sharon Koskela, our team (ranging in age from 10 to 70) built a house for a family living in poverty in the “colonia’s” or ghettos approximately 45 minutes outside the city of Juarez. This home was 12’ x 36’ and was complete with concrete floor, 2x4 wall construction, 6 windows and a door, insulated walls and ceiling, rolled roofing materials and painted siding. It was a real joy to work alongside the family and the Mexican construction team as we joyfully became the hands and feet of Jesus, building a home for a family that previously lived in a dirt-floor one-room shack.

As part of our trip, we also held a food outreach and VBS program, led by our own Andrew Koskela as part of his senior project. I think his words convey that part of our trip the best:

My trip to Juarez was a test of strength leadership and dedication. In a foreign country nothing can be 100% planned. There has to be a plan A, B and C and sometimes those plans don't even work out. This was my third time taking a trip to Mexico and it was the trip that put me to the test. With the loving and amazing help of Stephanie Torok, I was able to plan and accomplish my senior project of putting on a Children’s VBS. This VBS took a large number of hours to plan and prepare for something in which we did not know what to expect. Would there be 10 or 100 people? Would they be 3, 7 or 13 years old? Or maybe all of the above. We wouldn't know until we arrived!

The outcome was amazing! About a hundred kids of all ages showed up at the small church and with a joint effort our team was able to show the love of God in a countless amount of ways. I was shaken with joy and overwhelmed with the smiles that came from the children's faces.

My part of the trip was finished off with a little twist that I threw into my journey. I re-choreographed a skit played to the Lifehouse song, “Everything!” The skit conveys the struggles a lot of teenage men go through during this era. Our team performed the skit for the church down in Juarez and the outcome brought tears to my eyes. Even though we don’t speak the same language, at the climax of the skit, the church burst into shouts of joy to the Lord, and the congregation was cheering and crying as, once again, God wins! I wouldn’t trade that moment of the trip for anything.

To see a video journal of the 2008 trip, click here

To see the Lifehouse Everything video we did on the trip and at Church after returning click here

To see more pictures of the 2008 and 2006 trips, click here

We also sent a team in 2006 – to see a video journal of that trip, click here

To see a “fast motion” video of the house building portion of the 2006 trip, click here