On March 27/28 the churches HFC is working with in the Yucatan will be gathering in the village of Quintana to celebrate the choosing of a name for this church. Pastor Pablo Borges and the members of his church has selected Iglesia

Pastor Pablo Borges and family in Quintana.

Bautista IXOYE as their name and sister churches from Merida, Huhi, Felippe Carrillo Puerto and as far away as Chetumal will be joining them to celebrate.

Juan Tun, our Field Coordinator in the Yucatan, has been encouraging these pastors, helping them to work together and planting a vision for church multiplication that is now bearing fruit. The Yucatan Peninsula is a region lacking evangelical churches and facing a serious shortage of pastors to serve there.

Ricardo teaching in Yucatan.

Ricardo Ayala, Field Coordinator – Chicago, IL

It was a four day marathon in which God permitted me to see what he has been doing through his servants in this region in the Southeast of Mexico. From Tuesday the 2nd of February through Friday the 5th, Juan Tun and this servant, Ricardo Ayala, we traveled from one place to the other. From Huhi, outside Merida to Felippe Carrillo Puerto in the state of Quintana Roo. In each one of these places that we visited, the brothers received us with warth and humility, characteristics of the people of Yucatan. They enthusiastically reported to us how God powerfully working there.

One of our highlights was a visit to the prison in Felippe Carrillo Puerto. Pastors Sol and Fausto have been ministering there for the last year in spite of the difficulties they have encountered with the local authorities in obtaining permission to enter the detention center. There has already been much fruit from this ministry.

We arrived from Merida after a five hour trip, and after some mishaps, we were able to enter. In the end we were able to minister to more than 45 people. Pastor Sol and I had the opportunity to enter one of the modules, in which were 40 men between the ages of 17 and 32. We shared the love of Jesus with them and also brought snacks and drinks. While Pastor Sol and I were with these prisoners, Pastor Juan, accompanied by one of the sisters from the church, ministered to 8 older men and women in another module.

It was interesting to observe the attention the prisoners paid to us as we shared the Word. Some of them asked questions about our ministery in other places. Then, on the way home from the visit to the jail, Pastor Sol shared that 26 of the 40 prisoners we were ministering to had accepted Christ as their personal Savior, and that two of them were leading a prayer and Bible study meeting in that same jail. They are now exploring how they can baptize some of them in the jail.

This short visit was an enriching experience for me. It was encouraging to see the brothers pressing on, focused on kingdom work. I have no doubt that God has his hand resting on that region of Mexico and I know he is presenting many opportunities and opening doors for the church planters of Hispanics for Christ.

On a final note, we must not stop praying for these valiant servants of the Lord and to do all that is in our power to support them financially so they may enter these doors while they remain open. Jesus said…”The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Randy Schmor with Gateway Teams visited Merida recently with Juan Tun and Ricardo Ayala. They visited outlying villages where the team from Hillcrest Baptist Church will be working to plant new churches this summer. They have targeted Huhi and Quintana to do outreach as well as a neighborhood in the North part of Merida.

Texas has over 35% Hispanics…what a great opportunity to plant new Hispanic churches! This week we met with four churches in Central Texas to explore how we can begin a church planting movement among these churches. They have two existing congregations tranferring into NAB churches and one NAB church is calling a Hispanic pastor to begin a completely new work. After assessing their current opportunities we worked out a strategy to support this effort.

This is a great start to what we hope will be the beginning of a movement of multiplying churches throughout Texas and then following their natural family networks back into Latin America to plant new churches there also.

This month we have added a video that explains our ministry. Click the video page and watch and listen as Geoff Hartt and Tony Campos share about Hispanics for Christ from the field on a recent trip.