Crossing Borders

To all Crossing Borders alumni, those signed up for 2009, and other interested folks,

Let me start out by saying:  We are definitely on GO for Crossing Borders camp June 22-28 this summer!  We’re looking forward to a transformational time together in mission ministry work.  We hope many of you (and your friends) can join us.

As you know, there have been some challenges facing Crossing Borders mission camp for this summer.  The national economy, the media reports of border violence, and the outbreak of swine flu.  I’ve met with officials (my bosses) of the Generations Ministry programs (including our camp) and, while they are aware of the challenges and exhort us to focus on safety, they have given us their blessing to go ahead with camp.

I don’t want to bombard you with too much info about the border of Mexico, but you might want to read the information about current conditions that our base camp has gathered together onto their website.  Go to www.laredosteppingstone.com and it should bring you directly to a page that has passport info at the top of the page.  Scroll on down for info about border violence conditions and swine flu.  Here are personal comments from Rick and Kim Hall (our base camp hosts), paragraphs quoted from their local area newspapers, info about U.S. State Department advisories, etc.  I believe this provides a proper balance of the risks, the problems, the improvements and the opportunities.

A short summary:  According to the local Laredo TV stations and radio, there are NO confirmed cases of swine flu in either Laredo or Nuevo Laredo.  The schools were closed for two weeks as a precaution to decrease the chance that the flu could show up and/or spread.  But so far, they are free from the disease in that part of Mexico.  So at this point, we’re keeping our ears open regarding any changes in the situation, but it seems the swine flu is not a relevant risk for our camp.
Also, border violence in the Nuevo Laredo area is down at least 75% from what it was 3 years ago.  Unfortunately the violence has shown up in force in other Mexican cities (such as Juarez, Tijuana and others).  But Nuevo Laredo is relatively safe right now.  Also, we make it a point at CB to stay out of any areas of town that are known to be risky.  CB’s mission does not include going into dangerous areas trying to convert drug lords; we can accomplish our mission by staying in the safer areas.

As you’re aware, out-of-country mission work has its own unique set of challenges—but it also has unique benefits.  So we’re always trying to balance the risks with the benefits—which are many.  I want all our camp attendees to be fully aware of the situation on the border in reference to CB.  We’ll continue to keep in close touch with our local contacts on the Laredo border and, if the situation changes, we’ll be in touch with you.  For now, we are on GO and excited about the work God will do through us in the short week in June.
Lee B

P.S.  Remember, you’ll NEED a passport or passport card to cross the border into Mexico.  It takes up to three weeks to get them, so apply NOW.  (See details on www.cbmission.org under the Travel button).

Crossing Borders alumni and supporters, Shoebox trip attendees, Attached is an article about our recent amazing shoebox missionary trip into Mexico.  God did a wonderful work (as He always does) with and for those of us who “just showed up” for the occasion. Remember we have a full week of summer missions camp coming up June 22-28, 2009. 

We hope to see many of you then, and please pass the invitation on to others you know who might benefit from the experience of deepening their spiritual walk in Christ by sharing their life with God’s children in another country and culture.  As many of you know, we dedicate ourselves at camp to serving those less fortunate, and God has a miraculous way of transforming our lives in a fresh way through the experience.

Shoebox Ministry to Mexico Is Growing

For the third year in a row, WCG (through its Generations Ministry camp program) has sponsored a cross-border winter ministry trip into Mexico.  The December program originated as a follow-up to our weeklong summer missionary hands-on training camp.  In the summer camp program we share in outreach with a variety of native ministries in Mexico, and the winter trip helps us reconnect with fresh support for some of those ministries.

For our winter trip we collect shoeboxes packed with gifts for children and we hand-deliver them to children in Mexico across the border from Texas.  Last year we had 10 people go along on the weekend trip to deliver 150 shoeboxes, and this year we grew to 28 missionaries sharing 350 shoeboxes full of gifts.  Shoeboxes came to us from twelve church congregations and school groups (some shipped in from other states), and attendees came from as far away as Maryland.  We are very excited about the growth God is giving this ministry opportunity.

Eight of the missionaries on this trip were alumni of our summer camp program, and they provided the backbone for the trip.  But twenty of the attendees of this “micro mission” trip (48 hours duration) were new to the cross-cultural missionary experience.  Ages ranged from pre-teens to septuagenarians, and it was especially exciting to see multiple generations of some families sharing in ministry together.

There is an axiom that says there are three critical keys to keep in mind in ministry work (especially in international missions).  Those keys are Flexibility, Flexibility and Flexibility.  For instance, we expected it would take no more than an hour to cross the Mexican border (based on our past experience).  But we were surprised with being stuck in a five-hour traffic jam just to get to the border crossing point.  Everyone on the road seemed to take this situation in stride, with lots of folks visiting back and forth between vehicles, some people peddling ice cream and soft drinks to the stranded motorists, and a general tone of a giant “tailgate party” while we literally inched our way toward the border.

Of course we had to radically rearrange our plans for the day.  At our first stop, a local church had planned to have a crowd gathered for us to share various activities and give shoeboxes to the children.  But by the time we finally got to their location (several hours late), the crowd was gone and dusk was fast approaching.  We broke into three groups and went door-to-door to the neighborhood (an extremely poverty-stricken pallet village) inviting families to come to the local church location to receive shoebox gifts.  Within a half-hour we had a happy, expectant crowd assembled, and we gave away shoebox gifts in the name of Jesus to 300 grateful, smiling children.  What a blessing it was to our group to see the love of Jesus flowing out to these families.

Our second stop was at a children’s foster home with which we’ve worked for several years.  We were eight hours late in arriving at their location, but they greeted us with joyful smiles.  We brought food with us to serve them lunch, but now the food was for supper instead.  Since it was now nighttime, we lit a campfire in their courtyard and broke into a spontaneous praise & worship sing-along.   We had a relaxing evening of talking and playing with the kids, and we were inspired by hearing the personal testimony of the director of the foster home—of the miraculous calling and change of heart God accomplished in her life as He brought her from a non-Christian dissipate life in the Bronx of New York to caring for 25 foster children with the love of Jesus in a border town in Mexico.  We gave shoebox gifts to the children in the foster home, and we were able to leave extra shoeboxes of gifts for them to take with them on an evangelism trip into interior Mexico—for them to share with other kids even poorer than themselves.

In many ways the plans for this trip did not go at all as we had planned, but God gave us ample opportunity to share His love with hundreds of children and their families in another country and culture.  We were reminded that our plans are not always God’s plans, but if we surrender ourselves to share His Good News, He will accomplish His purposes through our efforts (Isaiah 55).

Maybe you’d like to test the waters and see if God has given you a heart and gifts for cross-border missionary work.  If so, there might be a missions group in your local area with which you could participate.  Or you might want to come to our weeklong summer camp on the Mexican border (June 22-28, 2009) or next winter’s shoebox trip.  For more info on the WCG mission trips, go to www.cbmission.org or call 903-653-0992.
Written by:  Lee Berger, director of Crossing Borders mission ministry

Photos:
100-1989 sm – shoeboxes on their way to Mexico
100-1992 sm – Barbara Miller and Zach Dobbs pose while wrapping shoebox gifts
100-1994 sm – Leif Van Acker, Consuelo Orduno, Torney Van Acker and Erica Dobbs enjoy preparing the shoeboxes
100-2025 sm – Nathaly  Ortega presents a gift to new Mexican friend
100-2033 sm – Mexican girls smiling with their shoeboxes of gifts
2008_018 sm – part of the Crossing Borders mission group with 350 shoeboxes of love