04 Nov A Report from South of the Rio Grande

Gary Brooks (right), Retired UB Minister and Missionary
Sent November 4, 2011

Denis Casco and I were in Mexico for a Pastors’Training Seminar this week. I flew to Mexico City on Thursday, October 20, and was met by Denis Casco, Bishop of Mexico Conference of the United Brethren in Christ. After a bite to eat at the airport, we boarded a bus for the three-hour ride to Querétaro. Security was tight and efficient. Once passengers were seated, he went through the bus taking a photo of every passenger, just in case.

A couple hours after we checked into our hotel, Brother Guadalupe picked us up and took us to the site where the first session was about to begin. Denis preached on Thursday night. There were over 50 people in attendance.

The next morning, I began a series of messages from I and II Peter, and Jude, dealing with a pastor´s preparation to confront the false teachers who had secretly worked their way into the early Church.

Denis began teaching about the dangers of the G-twelve movement, many of whose false teachings have been embraced by evangelical pastors seeking fast numerical growth in their churches. This movement is very strong in Spanish charismatic churches. It was a subject that was very close to the participants in the seminar. Those who attended did not miss a single session. Our average attendance during the 2.5-day seminar held steadily at 25-30 church workers.

After the last session on Saturday afternoon, Denis and I returned to Mexico City. Sunday morning, we walked along the Avenida (Paseo) de La Reforma, the broadest avenue in the city. We never felt in danger at any time during the four hours we spent on the streets of this huge city. The government closes off the avenue to motorized traffic on Sunday mornings, leaving the length and breadth of the road open for pedestrian and bike traffic. We saw hundreds of entire families riding bikes along the way.

Eventually, we found ourselves surrounded by tens of thousands of pedestrians. Some of them formed into protest groups. Somehow, at one point we found ourselves surrounded by people carrying red banners, shouting out their demands. We talked to several people in these protest marches, only to discover that they had no idea what they were protesting against.

Nevertheless, the entire parade of protesters, bike riders, and pedestrians out for a Sunday stroll ended up in the Zócalo, a huge square bordered by the Municipal Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional. There, we found one woman dressed as a cardinal with a pig´s head mask, protesting child abuse and the subsequent cover-up by church officials. We also saw Mexico´s version of witchcraft being practiced just a few yards from the entrance to the Cathedral. People lined up for a ritual “cleansing” from curses that had been placed on them.

We toured the beautifully decorated National Palace, the seat of the Mexican government. After eating lunch at a nearby restaurant, we climbed to the top of the 44-story Torre Latinoamericana for a panoramic view of the city. As we walked back to our hotel, we enjoyed a variety of street entertainers. We even stopped to talk to and take pictures of policemen. In spite of their bulletproof jackets and weapons, they seemed to enjoy talking with us, and even allowed me to put on one of their helmets for a photo.

A great work is quietly being done in Mexico with very little support from the other side of the border. Are there dangers in Mexico? Yes, of course there are. Are things as bad as our news media claims? Not at all! The need is there. The Mexican people are religious, but lost without Christ.

We visited the construction site of a United Brethren church on the outskirts of Querétaro. The walls are up about 4 feet. Church members pledge to buy as many adobe blocks as they can at $1.20 per block. So far, 600 blocks have been collected, but double that amount is needed to finish the walls.

People save their centavitos to purchase steel rods to reinforce the walls. Little by little, the building is going up, but much more could be done with a helping hand from brethren living north of the border.

While we look across the Atlantic and Pacific for opportunities to minister, let us not forget the need across the Rio Grande. UB brothers and sisters live and work there. Call UB headquarters to find out what you can do to help!