Increasingly, Baptists in the United States are volunteering to share the gospel and use their vocational skills to improve the lives of the people of Mexico.
The International Mission Board (IMB) said that through its Volunteers in Missions department, about 30,000 Baptist volunteers a year minister in countries around the world.
Based on a manual count of volunteers, the IMB places the number of Baptist volunteers annually from the United States in Mexico at 3,863. This figure may be higher and increasing, because of efforts to minister to the growing numbers of Mexicans coming closer to the border to try to find work, since some jobs are a little more plentiful there due to NAFTA’s (North American Free Trade Agreement) effect and the Mexican government’s subsidizing of new factories.
Volunteer opportunities are surfacing through Operation Go Mexico (OGM), a six-year gospel saturation project that kicked off January 2002.
“This will be accomplished through the extensive use of volunteers,” said Larry McCoy, OGM project coordinator. “We are to take the gospel to every home in Mexico and this means to every city, town and rural area.”
Volunteers will be giving out tracts and videos to individuals and families based on whether the people are lower class, middle class, upper class, indigenous groups or farmers.
Accomplishing goals
McCoy estimates that it will take about 40,000 volunteers on 4,000 gospel saturation teams, and six years to accomplish the goals of Operation Go Mexico.
McCoy says the goals of OGM are to:
1. Take the gospel to areas where there are not missionaries and Mexican Baptist churches.
2. Facilitate ongoing efforts to begin and nurture Church Planting Movements (rapid increases of Mexican Baptist churches).
3. Facilitate the growth and expansion of established Mexican Baptist churches.
The IMB says volunteers go to countries to carry out the work of evangelists, teachers, doctors, nurses, musicians, athletes, Vacation Bible School workers, agriculturists, construction workers, contractors and more.
Entry into Mexico for these volunteers is not as complicated as in other countries, since a passport and visa are not required of U.S. citizens for a tourist/transit stay up to 90 days. An immigration card is all volunteers need for visiting Mexico beyond the border cities, or for stays that last longer than 72 hours.
Mexico is popular among volunteers because of the country’s proximity to the United States. This makes a road trip across the Texas border a viable and oftentimes cheaper alternative to flying.
In February, Second Baptist Church, Semmes; Haven Woods Baptist, Semmes; and Orchard Baptist Church, Mobile, banded volunteers together to add to and build church buildings in the areas of Ciudad Juarez, Garcia and Monterrey.
Gerald Anderson, pastor of Second, Semmes, explained that it is in the sprawling communities of thousands of relatively poor people that churches are in such demand. One such community was Garcia, which has a population of about 3,000. Anderson’s group worked there to enlarge a second story of the Lamb of God Baptist Church.
“We’ll go down and help out yearly at missions points where they need buildings for worship. Like at this one, we did the walls, the columns, put the roof on, and then the missionary gets the local people involved and they do the plastering, painting and all of that,” Anderson said.
“We usually get the initial project started, so they can have a roof over their heads, then they pick it up from there and do the windows, the doors, electricity, restrooms and all the paint work.”
College students from Alabama are also going, hoping to spread the gospel and cross-cultural goodwill.
Seven adults and 94 students, primarily from The University of Alabama’s Baptist Campus Ministries (BCM); Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa; and First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa; spent spring break in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
“We worked with the Laredo Baptist Association and in conjunction with IMB missionaries,” said Matt Kerlin, BCM senior campus minister at the university.
He said they did construction work, Vacation Bible Schools, sports clinics for basketball and soccer and “lots of visitation.”
Describing the attraction of Mexico for college students, Kerlin said, “It’s cross-cultural, but you don’t have to fly to get there, and some of the students are interested in practicing their Spanish.”
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