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Crossing national, cultural and personal borders with the Good News of Jesus Christ"
Camp Dates for 2010
Monday, June 21 - Sunday, June 27, 2010
"Important! To travel into Mexico you must now have a passport or passport card. See details under the Travel link" |
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Safety concerns?? See updated info under the FAQ link
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Missionaries of the [Really] Good News
For the fourth year in a row (2009), Crossing Borders mission camp reached out across the Mexican border with the Good News of Jesus Christ. We’re grateful to see how amazingly God is working with this program (and many others) to accomplish His work in the lives of people of all cultures.
Missionaries of the [Really] Good News
With ongoing American news media reports of violence at the border and of swine flu, we did our homework in advance to make sure our attendees would be safe. We found that border violence in Nuevo Laredo (where we conduct our ministry work) had actually decreased by about 75% in the past couple of years (although other areas of the border have unfortunately seen an increase). Also there had been no confirmed cases of swine flu within 200 miles of our location. So we were glad to get the green light to proceed with the mission outreach camp. Unfortunately many other church-related groups cancelled their ministry work into all parts of Mexico for the summer, leaving a large hole in the physical and spiritual provisions for our across-the-border neighbors.
During the weeklong camp, we participated in a variety of ministry programs. One day we helped distribute bulk food supplies to about 60 pastors and ministry leaders to take back to their people. Later we handed out individual cooked meals and hygiene supplies to several dozen homeless people living behind garbage dumpsters, on street corners, in parks and under bridges.
One of the homeless was a woman who had formerly been the wife of a pastor. She had made some bad decisions and her life had slipped into immorality and addiction—now living alone on the streets. She felt totally separated from God, worthless and abandoned by her former friends. She insisted that God did not love her and would not listen to her anymore because of her actions. It broke our hearts as we tried to convey to her that God still loves her very much as His child, and He has never stopped loving her even for an instant. Unfortunately, so far her shame, guilt and performance-based religious teachings are blinding her to seeing God’s loving face and feeling His arms embracing her. During the camp, we became aware that many people are not assured of God’s love for them and how Jesus has included all in the love of God. They are missing out on the crux of the Gospel, so we tried to share the love of the Father in the Son through the Spirit with everyone we met.
Other activities included feedings of large numbers of people, helping with adult and children’s teaching services, praying with people, distributing gospel tracts, skits and music in the public parks, a construction project, and more. As a new activity this year, we added two afternoons of conducting a Vacation Bible School for the children of a very poverty-stricken “pallet city”—where the hundreds of small homes are made of refuse materials and there is no running water and no electricity. Consuelo and Pedro Orduño and Lucero Villarreal put together an excellent program and the children thoroughly enjoyed their Bible lessons, songs, games and snacks.
Although the temperatures were very hot and the conditions sometimes uncomfortable, our seventeen attendees came away with a new love for all of God’s created children and an increased appreciation for sharing God’s transformational truth of His love for everyone.
To find out more about next summer’s camp and our winter shoebox ministry, check out the links on this website.
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Hunger Rescue converted ambulance for feeding homeless – by Pedro Orduño (030)
- Some of our group pray with homeless man – by Pedro Orduño (043) click here to view
- Crossing Borders group photo – by Pedro Orduño (210)
- Consuelo Orduño and other helpers at children’s church service – by Rick Shallenberger (924)
- Congregation at outdoor church service at pallet city – by Lee Berger (674)
- Thomas and McCrerey with two new Mexican friends – by Lee Berger (730)
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