Mexico City

When we arrived in Mexico, our team of 13 was invited, not to the expected training evening (there wasn't one), but to a meeting with 15 pastors to 'decide what to do'!  Really, nothing had been prepared. But the pastors there (including some very senior figures in the church in Mexico) really loved the vision and immediately set about producing missions for the subsequent three days. So the next day, we were inviting people from the streets into a church, which happened to be the church where, in the nineteenth century, the Pentecostal movement of Mexico was born. There were probably 70 team members and we had only about 100 guests coming in – but the meal was prepared and the Mexican team members were wonderful; and an atmosphere of praise filled the hall. Nine people gave their lives to Christ and 24 filled in response cards – an excellent harvest. One English team member was astounded to look around the room and at one point see at least four Mexican men in tears: 'Mexican men don't cry', as it was later confirmed to us, and yet the anointing of the Holy Spirit was profound.

The next day, it was much much more the 'classic' On the Move, in a park in a not-too-crowded area, but about 350 were fed and we saw 15 conversions (and 34 response cards were filled in) – again all down to the Mexican team members, working 'one-to-one' at the tables. One man gave his life to Christ, and then returned with various witchcraft effects and asked the pastors to burn them - which they did. The third day was almost a joke, as the pastor who had promised to prepare things in a park in the city centre had done nothing (and failed even to turn up!), leaving 13 of us and about six Mexican pastors to wonder what to do. Determined to do something, I asked if we could buy some food somewhere; one of the pastors suggested doing a deal with a sausage vendor, which he then did (three for a Dollar!). So, the English group started worshipping and gradually food was distributed by the pastors to the 15 or so sitting on a stone semicircular bench opposite us, and next to the sausage cart. Then I preached to them (close up - no PA - but a lovely sense of oneness with them, which can only have been from the Holy Spirit) and Gina translated. We did this twice, to a total of about 25 people. The result?  Ten people gave their lives to Christ and 22 filled in response cards, and were virtually all individually prayed for - an extraordinary result, showing that God can do anything at any (or no) notice!

The best result of all was that, over lunch just after this, On the Move Mexico was born with a lovely team taking it forward, with the president of the national evangelism committee as its chairman. He was particularly thrilled that a third major 'type' of evangelism had been added to their repertoire, along with tracts/leaflets and cell church. It is sometimes (I find) in the weakest moments that local leaders are most impacted by what God actually does.

M.G. March 05