The Proyecto Pablo ministry this summer began in the mountains of Oaxaca, a state in Mexico. Sites for ministry are chosen by pastors and district superintendents.
Members of the Proyecto Pablo ministry team meet at 5:45 a.m. to discuss the Bible.
When 75 Mexican Nazarenes joined the Proyecto Pablo team for a weekend of intense outreach, they held a GOL 2010 soccer camp to reach youth with the Gospel.
During a vacation Bible school, the youth dressed as clowns, painted faces and used puppets to communicate the Gospel to children.
During vacation Bible schools and other outreaches, 60 children invited Christ into their lives.
The Proyecto Pablo ministry teams were joined by four American youth through the Youth In Mission program.
The second part of Proyecto Pablo took the team to Puebla, a city of 4 million people, in the state of Puebla.
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). It is in this where the challenge starts. "Go, and make disciples?” Two interesting things: Go. Where? Make disciples. How? Definitely we need You, Lord! And it is true, God provides us His Holy Spirit; He has commanded us to do it, but before that He has prepared the way: The Holy Spirit goes and speaks to the hearts of people, and we need to be ready to answer to His call, trusting on Him who has started the work.
Youth In Mission has given us a great opportunity to serve and share the amazing experience of cross-cultural ministry, sending a team of American students to the Mexico and Central America (MAC) Region, specifically Mexico, where we had an intense summer serving through different projects as part of Proyecto Pablo, which is focused on planting new churches in neighborhoods or villages where the Church of the Nazarene has not arrived.
The story began on June 1. Traveling from the airport to the mountains of Oaxaca was the first challenge for the American people. During a training week we spent time praying and learning together; the week ended with a good experience helping local vendors in a market at 6 a.m., carrying, cleaning and selling vegetables. Sarah Bean, Philip Merki, Nathaniel Leibel and Estela Reza were the volunteer missionaries from United States who joined Mexican teammates Obed, Josué, Dionicio, Alex, Alberto, and the leader of projects in Oaxaca, Claudia Cruz.
From the second to fourth weeks we developed Proyecto Pablo, having workshops about evangelism and discipleship, as well as holding a Maxima Mision, where 75 young people from across the district joined us during a weekend to reach out to three villages -- San Miguel, Guigovelaga and Villa Esperanza -- where around 500 to 1000 people live. There we used tools like JESUS Film, GOL 2010, the EvangeCube, puppet shows, vacation Bible school and basic discipleship lessons through house visits.
After Maxima Mision, the Proyecto Pablo volunteers separated into three teams of four people, integrating Mexican and American people, for the two following weeks. Their challenge was to start forming the new churches, teaching new believers to be the church through going to meetings, learning in discipleship visits, praying together and, why not?, evangelizing and teaching others!
The result of this work was around 100 new believers, including youth, adults and 60 children, starting new life in Christ, having discipleship and going to youth services and Sunday school.
Traveling eight more hours into the center of Mexico, we arrived at Puebla, a city where more than 4 million people live. There we had our second Proyecto Pablo, joined by a different Mexican team: Freya Galindo, Vanessa Maldonado, Heriberto Palacios, Febe Sánchez, Saraí Ramos, Miguel González, Dalia Lee and Amisadai López. We made two teams and went to a neighborhood named Rivera Anaya and Cholula. In these neighborhoods we have now about 100 new believers, including youth, adults and 60 children.
We spent our seventh week in the jungle of Tabasco (see map left), in two little towns called Miahuatlán and Humango. The weather was so hot and wet, but we had amazing experiences sharing the Gospel by wearing clown clothes, singing and dancing with children and adults. Also, we helped to build a house and paint a new church in Humango. In addition to our good time there, we tasted some exotic food from the jungle, which was challenging!
I have heard excellent things about all the places where we served during the last two months; people from church, leaders and pastors are working hard to continue discipling the new believers and forming new churches, developing new leaders to build His Kingdom for His glory. The people we met stay there in their towns, but we have a huge hope: to see them again in the eternal life, praising the Lord because of His salvation, singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" because they learned to live holy, Christlike lives here in the earth. And we came back to home with a different world vision, with a changed heart full of God's presence and willing to continue serving.
-- Maddai Gonzalez is mission coordinator for Central and South Mexico, and evangelism coordinator for her district.