In the last two months violence has escalated in the border cities of Reynosa, and Juarez. The U.S. State Department reports that, “some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.” While we have watched closely the media coverage of the last few days, we have also made contact with our sources on the ground in Reynosa, Juarez, Mexico and McAllen, Texas to measure current events in Mexico as they relate to the safety of our upcoming spring and summer short term mission projects.
After calls to contacts on Thursday and Friday in these regions a meeting was called on Saturday with the Executive Team of Mission Discovery to report the data from these contacts along with current warnings from the U.S. State Department. It was the unanimous decision of the Mission Discovery Executive Team to:
1) Move all of our teams scheduled to serve in Reynosa, Mexico to service projects that will now be relocated to the U.S. side of the border in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, Texas. Hidalgo County, only 15 minutes from our camp, is the 22nd poorest county in the U.S. Cameron County is number 60. Teams will lead Vacation Bible School, evening “Jesus Film” outreaches in partnership with local churches and serve in vital community service projects such as building play grounds, renovation of homes of the poor, installing ramps for the disabled in partnerships with the cities of LaFera, Weslaco, Pharr, and McAllen.
2) Continue our work in Reynosa from this side of the border by sharing in building a complete home per week to be loaded and shipped with hand written notes, and household supplies to communicate that we will continue to remember the poor of Reynosa.
Mission Discovery has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the kinds of projects we are offering in Hildalgo and Cameron Counties. We have been invited to serve in these counties for many years, and consider this God’s direction, confident that every student and adult volunteer will walk away at the end of their week having seen our Great God do His awesome work! In conversations with the Hidalgo County Commission, they indicate that no one has ever offered to help the poor in their county in a service project of this scope and volume. They are excited about your arrival!
In every project location there are unforeseen dangers that teams may encounter. That is true with any international travel. However, the dangers to teams in Reynosa and Juarez, Mexico are evident to our Executive Team and it was these dangers that lead to our decision.
We will hold two conference calls on Thursday to explain our decision, explain the project changes and answer questions. One is scheduled for 10:00 AM Central Time and for those not able to call at that time the call will be repeated at 2:00 PM Central time that same day.
I deeply respect the decision-making ability of the Executive Team. Their travels to investigate potential Mission Discovery project locations have taken them to some of the most dangerous locations on the earth, where Mission Discovery teams would never travel, and give them a wealth of knowledge in evaluating project locations that provide a vital, and safe environments for serving with middle school and high school students.
In 1991 Mission Discovery began a partnership with pastors, missionaries and the Mayors of the cities of Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Mexico. Over 1300 homes have been built in Reynosa and Rio Bravo alone and many have responded to the Good News of Jesus presented by Mission Discovery adult, and student teams.
Our prayers go out to our partners in Mexico, Myrna Gomez President of Mission Discovery Mexico, summer staff members Valente and Grace Sobrevila and Juarez ministry partner, Carlos Galaviz. We also lift those who were to be the beneficiaries of the work of Mission Discovery in Reynosa and Juarez and ask that God would meet their needs for shelter and a quick end to the violence that troubles not only the nation of Mexico but also the small neighborhoods that many of you have served over the years.
In addition to building a house per week in the U.S. to be shipped to Mexico, an idea has surfaced to collect money from team members to bless the 70 of those families in Mexico who would have received homes. Each family would be given 50 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of beans to say in a small way that, “we are here, and we have not forgotten.” We would deliver the rice and beans in July or when conditions were safe to do so.
One piece of good news is that there has been no rise in violence in Tecate, Mexico. Mission Discovery projects will continue in Tecate. The only safety related change decided by the Executive Team for Tecate was to keep Mission Discovery’s day off event in Tecate rather than traveling to Rosarito Beach.
May God bless you in the communication of this information to your leadership and teams willing to serve God in Mexico with Mission Discovery.
