Last week a team of almost 60 teenagers from Birmingham, Alabama came to the Gateway for their Spring Break. These young people could have spent this week at home, at the beach, or with family, but they chose to spend it ministering alongside a new church here in Matamoros. This group from Shades Mountain Baptist Church worked with the church Esperanza Viva in the colonia Juarez on the other side of Matamoros, with Pastor Francisco and his wife Maribel. For me, this was a week of training, as I am in the process of learning how to lead projects just like this one in various locations.
Francisco and Maribel have only been pastoring Esperanza Viva for five months. They had been praying for God to send them helpers, and God sent them 60! The team from Shades Mountain gave VBS classes four days last week, and each day the church filled up more and more with neighborhood children and their parents. On the last day the team put on a fiesta for the children, with music, hamburgers, different activities, and candy. The church was packed!
Esperanza Viva has already seen fruit from this week. They have so many new people that they don’t even fit in the few benches the church has! Please pray that God would continue to provide workers (and benches) for this new church. Whenever a youth group like this one comes to Matamoros, the church they work with is blessed by having extra laborers, just as we have seen in Esperanza Viva, but the youth are also blessed by having their eyes opened to see God move in mighty ways. On the last night of the trip, we held a debrief session for the team, and they shared things they had learned throughout the week and were going to take home with them. Many left with a greater passion to share Christ at home, a greater desire to seek Him, and a hunger for His voice and leading in their lives.
Thank you for your continued prayers! God bless!
