Mexico Support Letter

Here is the support letter that I am sending out. If you would like to contribute in any way, please send to:

Mission on The Move

PO Box 206

Springfield, GA 31329

======================


Dear family & friends,

God allowed me to join His work overseas in 2002. I went with Brio magazine and spent two weeks in Quito, Ecuador. Ever since then, God has continued to call me into short term missions. In 2003, I went back to Quito. In 2006, I traveled with the Georgia Southern University Wesley Foundation to Costa Rica. In 2007, I traveled with GSU Wesley to Honduras and went back with them in 2008 as well. Each time I leave the country and work with the people of Latin America, I see His work there. I don't know if God will ever call me into full time mission work; but, He's called me again to serve part time. 

I am preparing to travel to Mexico this summer, from May 9 - July 23, as an unpaid intern with Mission on The Move, a non-profit Christian organization based in Springfield, Georgia. They have ministry sites in Santa Elena, Honduras and Tapachula, Mexico. The main focus of their ministry in both countries is children and youth, yet they are also involved in medical and construction missions. In Tapachula, MOM provides housing and other basic amenities for children whose parents are incarcerated and cannot adequately care for them. You can read more about their ministry at www.missiononthemove.org. I will be living with these children and providing daily care, emotional support, spiritual guidance, and entertainment for those that are involved in this program, as well as assisting American mission teams who will be serving throughout the summer.

God has given me an opportunity to go meet the leadership and participants of this program and get to know them before I live there for the entire summer. March 12-19, I will be traveling with a GSU team to Tapachula for mission work for a week. We will be relieving the house parents who provide care for the children while they take a needed vacation. We will also be sharing the gospel through work, worship, song, and service throughout the city.

I am placing my full trust in God in meeting my financial needs through this venture. The internship is unpaid and I am responsible for airfare, lodging, food and health insurance, all totaling around $2,500. Would you prayerfully consider sponsorship? 

I believe it is so important to be united in the body of believers. Above all else, I am asking for your prayers. I will be out of the United States for over two months with limited contact. Enclosed in this envelope, you will find that I've attached a small card with my information on it. Please place it on the refrigerator, mirror, or somewhere you will see it daily and please pray for me. Pray for strength, safety, and perseverance as I am away. You may have helped me in the past on the previous mission trips, and words cannot express how grateful I am for you and your continuous support. Please consider joining me on this trip by contributing financially, but most importantly by committing to pray for me. 

Thank you for your time and your consideration. I pray that God will bless you and guide you in this decision. 

TAPACHULA MISSION

TAPACHULA, MEXICO

Rev. Ed Cadle, the Founder and Director Emeritus of Mission On The Move, went to Tapachula in 1985 to begin a ministry for the poor people of Mexico and Central America.  He started a refugee center, and he did not give up, and todayMission On The Move is reaping the harvest.

In the late 1980s, Mission On The Move's first team went to Tapachula to begin the construction of the refugee center called the Good Samaritan Home. It was used as a refugee center until 1996 when it was converted into a home for street children. The home was closed in 2001. The home was reopened as a home for boys when the first missionaries for MOM went to Tapachula in 2002 to run the ministry. This time, the home was not for street children, but for children who live in the prisons with their fathers. In 2004 the boys’ home was once again renovated to house 15 boys.

 

Because little girls also live in the prison with their fathers, a home for girls was opened in January 2003. This home was loaned to Mission On The Move at no charge. In 2005 a new girls’  home was completed.  

At the present time, there are 40 children living in the three homes, 16 girls and 24 boys. They are the sons and daughters of prostitutes, murderers, kidnappers, thieves, and drug dealers. 

When the children come to the homes from the prison it is not always easy for the staff or for them. They have lots of issues from physical and sexual abuse, like Glendi and her sister Mari and Janet, who were all abused by inmates in the prison.

Their spiritual growth and maturity is far beyond most children in the USA. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” This is a scripture that the missionaries and the staff try to live by and trust in the Lord each day for His guidance and direction of this ministry.

Through this ministry, the children are developing a hunger and desire for spiritual things, so they will hopefully want to follow God no matter what happens in the future.

Most of the children do really well in school. Many of them have never been to school or are behind their grade level when they come to live with in the homes because children do not go to school when they are living in the prison. 

Children don’t live in prisons just in Tapachula, many prisons in Mexico permit children to live with their fathers. When a man goes to prison, his wife and children can live with him if they do not have a home. When there is no one else to take care of the children, they live with their father in prison.  Only babies who are breast feeding are allowed to live in the women’s prison. The living conditions are horrible. The men don’t have cells like you see in the United States. It is a big commune of men, women and children living together: murderers, drug dealers, rapist, thieves, kidnappers, and the women and children.

Four to six men share a room and the children live in that room with the other men. When the wife of the prisoner lives with him, she shares that same room. The children sleep on the cold cement floors, and if they are lucky, they have a cardboard box to sleep on.

The men have conjugal visits from women outside the prison every Tuesday and Friday night. If their wife is in the women’s prison, she comes over to the men’s prison on those same nights. This is why we continue to have babies born in the prisons.

The children have no rights and the parents have total control of the children; regardless of what their parents have done and continue to do within the prison. 

Mission On The Move continues to try and remove the children from this situation but we cannot take a child from the prison without parental consent. 

Non-Mexico Related

To see what's going on besides Mexico updates, check out the blog I keep up with most often:

WORDPRESS

About Mexico

As many of you know, God has been calling me into missions for a long time. In 2002, I went on my first mission trip to Quito, Ecuador with Brio magazine. I loved the city and experience so much, that I returned in 2003. Once I started at Georgia Southern University and got involved in The Wesley Foundation, I went with them to Costa Rica in 2006 for a mission trip during Spring Break. In 2007 & 2008, I traveled with Wesley to Honduras. I have been out of the country 7 times, 5 of them being mission trips to central and south America. I have always felt a strong call to the people and culture of Latin America and know that it's not finished yet.


When we went to Honduras, we went with Mission On the Move, or MOM. I knew the missionaries who are living there, since they were our neighbors for years. I felt a connection with them and the work they were doing. As I was searching to find something to do for next summer, I felt a tug to ask about interning in Tapachula. I sent an email to Steve & Hope and they agreed to allow me to come be a part of their ministry for a summer!


On their website, they talk about what their mission and purpose is with Tapachula, Mexico.

My responsibilities with this program will have to do with cleaning the houses, doing the children's laundry, helping them with their homework, assisting teams that will come down in the summer, helping MaHopie (Hope) with the grocery shopping and cooking, and probably teaching a few music lessons. This is an unpaid internship that will last from MAY 9 until JULY 24. I will need to raise support to live down there. I am also traveling to Tapachula during the 2010 Spring Break with a GSU team to become familiar with the daily life of being there and getting to know the children beforehand. I am working on support letters to send out to friends and family. If you want one, please ask and let me know and I will get you one.


Please start praying for me. It will take months of preparation and prayer to get ready for this next journey God takes me on. I will update this website leading up to the trips and I hope to update weekly while I am there. Check back for news! Thank you so much!


In Him,
Rebecca