Grace Prayer Bulletin # 18
Grace Prayer Bulletin #18
Dear Brethren,
Please let us know how we can pray for ant missions that your church is involved with or are aware of. We would like to let Reformed/Sovereign Grace Baptist and Bible Churches around the globe know what is going on. Please consider presenting your mission to us in the same mindset that Paul and Barnabus did in the book of Acts. We don't expect big stories of dramatic dramas. A short paragraph or a ten page letter, either way we will format it properly for a Grace Prayer Bulletin.
There is much out there that we all can learn about and need to know about. Please pray how you could come forward and be an encouragement to us all.
Yours,
Rob Gerard
Mexican-Indian Training Center
By Mark Webb
Of Grace Bible Church, Olive Branch, Mississippi
General Information
The Mexican-Indian Training Center is located in Cordoba, a city of some 200,000 people. By automobile, Cordoba is about an hour or so inland and almost due west of the city of Vera Cruz, located on the eastern coast of Mexico. It is in the mountainous and tropical section of Mexico.
The school exists for the purpose of training young men and women for Christian work. The school provides four years of instruction. The first three years involve an intense regimen of study at the school's facility in Cordoba. The fourth year involves practical ministry experience out on the field, usually under the direction of an established pastor or church.. After graduation, many of the young men will become pastors of new or existing church works. Many of the young women will go on to work with women and children in various local churches.
Rob,
I've been going down to MITC for almost 10 years now, teaching in their Dec. conference. It's a weeklong event for students, staff, and any alumni that can make it back. The first year, the fellow I was accompanying had to cancel because of health problems, and I went alone. They almost killed me! I preached 19 times in four days, sometimes on my feet preaching for over 8 hours a day. After that, I was asked to take charge of arranging this meeting, and, having learned my lesson, I've taken another man with me to help share the preaching load. For the past six years or so, Bro. Jim Gables, pastor of Oakland Baptist
Church in Birmingham and a dear friend, has been going with me. To give you an example, this past year he preached a series on Jonah and I did a survey of Hebrews. In the past, we've done topical studies on such
subjects as the Doctrines of Grace, the covenants, eschatology, etc.
About seven years ago, I began taking a work crew down from our church to work for a week during the summer. We generally have anywhere from 10 to 15 go. In the early years, we worked mainly on building a new girls dormitory.
We were usually one of about five workgroups that would come in the summer. That project is now complete, and we've now worked on other things, as there's always something needing work. Last year we had one crew doing nothing but painting in the dining hall, for instance. Further, my wife Linda has for several years spent the week developing lesson plans for the 2nd year students to use. These
students spend their summers working in teams in villages in the mountains. We collect materials, such as glue, paper, scissors, etc., for them to use with the children in their version of VBS. Then we each carry an extra suitcase into Mexico containing these items, as that's the easiest way to get it into the country. These things simply wouldn't be available to them any other way.
This year, our main workgroup worked at digging footings for a new home they're building for one of the local pastors, Moises Torres, who also teaches at the school. It was hard, hot, grueling work. About 8 were
involved in this, and just about every day at least two of them hit the dirt when the day was over, either suffering from the eat or stomach disorders. However, they bounced back and were usually ready to go the next day. They accomplished in about a week of digging with picks and shovels what a backhoe could do in about 3 hrs., but there was no backhoe to use!
My wife led another team that, again, worked with the 2nd year students, getting them ready for their work in the mountains. In addition, one of our members is an R.N., and she did some classes on CPR, 1st aid, and other such subjects. We also had a pastor's wife from Fremont, California go with us this year. She was born in Guatemala and speaks fluent Spanish, and she helped out immensely with the translating.
I took computer gear in with me and spent the week upgrading two of the office computers to Windows 95 capability. This kept me indoors, for which I was thankful. But, actually, the weather was hotter here in Memphis than down there, I think. The rains were late in coming this year, but they started just before we arrived and it rained in the afternoon almost every day we were there.
This year's trip was harder than most. We lost almost an entire day going down due to plane problems and missed connections. Bad enough when you're alone, but with a group of 14 it really causes problems. We also had more than the usual share of stomach problems. I think this was because we ate away from the school more than normal, as a couple of local churches fed us as we joined them for services. The cooks at the school are very knowledgeable about how to treat the water and cook the food, but in the local churches, who knows?
But, that's just the price you have to pay, and, believe me, it's nothing compared to the blessing received. It's always a most refreshing time spiritually. To see the dedication of the students there makes our whining and complaining seem so petty in comparison. We were able to be there for graduation this year. Nine men and ten women graduated. Most of the men were to leave immediately for places of
service, some into very difficult circumstances. Six of them were headed for the state of Guerrero where persecution has broken out against some of the evangelical churches there.
Well, that's a quick summary of our trip. Let me know what else you'd like to know and I'll try to fill in the details. We should have a Web site up and going with some photos from MITC very soon.
In Christ,
Mark Webb
I want to thank Mark for the extra work he put in getting this to us.
Rob
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