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For almost 20 years I have been a missionary in Oaxaca, Mexico, with Foundation For His Ministry, an organization whose mission is to rescue, reach and restore. It started out over 60 years ago as a home for needy children who lived in situations of abuse, neglect and abandonment. Children were rescued from these situations and provided with relationships, opportunities and resources that have changed the course of their lives.
Children were in these situations because of parents and other adults in their lives who were lost spiritually. FFHM expanded its ministry to reach lost people with the hope of the gospel. People who have a relationship with Jesus encounter power that is able to change their lives, giving them the hope of eternity as well as flourishing lives on earth.
As FFHM grew it realized that it could come alongside broken people and help restore them. We desire to bring healing, hope and wholeness to vulnerable people who struggle with addictions or who are in prison. They have experienced challenges, difficulties and trauma in their lives and we are able to help restore them to be productive members of society and to thrive in the Kingdom of God.
I love being a part of this ministry for many reasons. One of those reasons is Rescuing, Reaching, and Restoring. I can take those things with me! I wrote in my last post about things we can take with us to the grave. About storing up treasures in heaven. Rescuing children, reaching the lost and restoring broken people is like money in the bank of heaven; like gold, silver and jewels in the celestial treasure chest.
Of course you don’t need to be a missionary in a foreign country to be involved in rescuing, reaching and restoring. In your local community there are children in the foster care system that need to be rescued. There are the spiritually dead that need to be reached with the life giving message of the Gospel. There are people broken by addictions and bad decisions who need to be restored. God wants all of us, wherever we live, to be his hands and feet in the divine process of rescuing children, reaching the lost and restoring the broken. The lives we touch with the message of hope will be filled with peace and joy and we will be making an investment in the kingdom of God that will last for eternity.
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God uses broken people like you and me to rescue broken people like you and me.
Open Doors recently published its annual report on Christian persecution around the world. According to this report, more than 365 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. One in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide. 4,998 Christians were murdered. 14,766 churches and Christian properties were attacked. For those who suffer because of their Christian faith, we lament.
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Oh, Lord of mercy, we raise our voices in lament, For persecuted Christians, their trials unbent. In lands where faith invites the wrath of hate, They endure the darkness, bearing a heavy weight.
Amidst the shadows of persecution’s grim decree, They stand as beacons of light, steadfast and free. Their voices silenced, their freedoms stripped away, Yet, in the face of adversity, they kneel and pray.
In the depths of suffering, they find their strength, Their faith unwavering, no matter the length. Through trials and tribulations, they cling to You, Oh, God of refuge, their hope renewed.
As tears fall like rain in the night’s embrace, Their cries ascend to Your throne, seeking grace. Grant them courage, Oh Lord, in their darkest hour, A shield of faith, a fortress of Your power.
For they are blessed, though persecuted they stand, Their inheritance secure in Your promised land. In the midst of anguish, let Your love shine bright, A beacon of hope in persecution’s blight.
Romans 8:35, 37-39 (NIV): “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Open Doors lists the 50 countries in the world where persecution of Christians is most prevalent. Mexico was 37th worst in the world. I have lived in Mexico for almost 19 years and have heard many stories of Christians being persecuted. A few years ago I met a young man who father was killed for preaching the gospel. The rest of the family had to flee their little village and their house and property was taken from them. According to the report the persecution primarily happens in remote, mountainous communities where people are reluctant to change their ancestral ways and hostile to missionaries who try to evangelize and to those who convert, and also in areas controlled by drug cartels.
Foundation For His Ministry supports missionaries who try to share the Gospel in these areas. One of those missionaries is Mabel. She ministers in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca. She recently told me about a plan to build a church in the small town of Tepanzacoalco. At first the community leaders were ok with it, but later told the small congregation that they could not construct a building and forbid Mabel to ever come back. She also told me about some believers in a little pueblo called Yagila, who had built a church, and that it had been burnt down by people opposed to Christianity.
Below is a prayer from Open Doors for persecuted Christians in Mexico.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the incredible courage of our family in Mexico who speak out against violence and promote peace. Protect them, we pray, and continue to embolden them in their ministries. May their words and lives touch the hearts of criminal leaders, so they turn from violence and hatred to follow You. Strengthen the faith of those living in indigenous communities; encourage them with your love and show them how You are powerfully at work in their neighborhoods. May our sisters and brothers in Mexico not be despondent as opposition increases, but may they be empowered to grow in their faith and witness. Bring peace, justice and wise governance to all areas of Mexico. Amen.
I have lived and worked at a home for needy children for almost 19 years. For most of the kids, one of their greatest needs is for a father who loves them. For the last two years only one biological father has come to visit his children here on a regular basis. Every year we have a big party for young ladies who are celebrating their 15th birthday. Last year I noticed one birthday girl who didn’t seem to be enjoying herself so much. I asked her what was wrong. She told me she was sad because her father didn’t come. This lament is for all the children in the world whose fathers don’t show up.
In the sacred space of lament, my heart echoes the cries of fatherless children, In a world where innocence collides with the harshness of affliction. Orphaned souls wandering through the shadows, Their pain a silent symphony, a tale of unspoken sorrows.
Oh Lord, Creator of families, hear our plea, For the fatherless children, longing for love on bended knee. In the absence of earthly protection and care, Wrap them in Your arms, their burdens to bear.
Their journey marked by an ache, a void so deep, In the silence of the night, they often weep. Aching for a father’s guidance, a tender embrace, Yearning for love’s warmth, a comforting grace.
In this lament, we lift up the broken stories, Of children orphaned, their lives filled with worries. Facing a world that seems cold and unkind, In their struggles and pain, Your mercy, may they find.
May the Church rise with open arms wide, To embrace the fatherless, be a family by their side. A reflection of Your love, pure and divine, In the midst of brokenness, let Your light brightly shine.
As we ponder the depth of their despair, Let our hearts be moved to love and care. For in the arms of compassion, a healing balm, Fatherless children find solace, sweet and calm.
Psalm 68:5-6 (NIV):
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing.”
God in your mercy, hear our cry for children throughout the world who have no father, due to war, death from sickness, or abandonment. You are a compassionate heavenly Father who longs to embrace every child who lives day by day without tender, loving care from an earthly father. Thank you for ministries like Foundation For His Ministry who come alongside the fatherless to love them, meet their physical needs, and most importantly, show them Your love and invite them to trust You to heal their broken hearts and help them flourish by walking through life with You. Amen.
We went to prison yesterday. A bunch of us from the children’s home in Oaxaca, Mexico. Pablo is in charge of our prison and rehab center ministry and he set the whole thing up. His wife, Niche went. She has been a part of the children’s home since it started, over 20 years ago.
My wife, Anita, went. She teaches preschool here at the mission, but used to be the kitchen supervisor and makes a mean pot of spaghetti, which she did as part of a special meal that we gave to the prisoners.
David played his guitar, sang and preached. I think of him as the kid who went from worst to first. He spent many years at FFHM’s home for needy children, and was considered by all the staff as the worst kid here. Always misbehaving and getting into trouble. That was until the Lord got a hold of him and changed him completely. He has a gift for music and for sharing the Gospel, and was the first kid from here to go to a Bible college in the United States. He is now pastor of a church in Oaxaca and preached to the incarcerated men about the greatest gift to the world, Jesus.
Victor and his wife joined the group. Victor’s mom was a staff member for a few years, and him and his sister spent their formative years growing up here. He is involved with a church and led a few games which the prisoners enjoyed immensely.
The prisoners all have mental challenges and live in the psychiatric ward at the prison. Their families have abandoned them and they have no one who really cares about them except Pablo, who faithfully meets with them and ministers to them once a week. He also organizes outreaches like the one we all went to yesterday, which opens our minds and hearts to the tragic situation that these men, made in God’s image, find themselves in. Our team tried to help meet some of their physical, mental and spiritual needs by singing with them, feeding them a nice meal, playing games on the basketball court with them, giving them a gift bag with candy, socks and toiletries, and presenting them with the good news that God gave his only son for them. To love them, save them, bring the light to them and adopt them as his own.
When David was preaching, he mentioned the fact that there are a lot of people in the world who do not live behind bars, but yet are in prison. Prisons of addictions, greed, worry, stress, depression and anxiety. God loves everybody; those behind iron bars in a prison, and those living in emotional, psychological, and dependency prisons. He loves them and gave himself for them.
This Advent season, I think all Believers should visit someone in prison. It would be a real eye opener if all Christians could go and make a difference to an incarcerated man or women living behind concrete walls topped with razor wire. But most Jesus followers don’t really feel like they have the time or inclination or spiritual gift to do that. But all Jesus followers know someone living in a self imposed prison and wouldn’t it be nice to share the Good News with them that Jesus came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). We all can be God’s hands and feet and mouth, and by reaching out to those in “prison”, we will be doing it to Jesus.
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A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes…and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
God loves us and wants us to be happy. This is King David’s message to the people in Psalm 36. He writes in verse 5:
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
And in verse 7:
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Verse 10:
Continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart.
This tremendous love of God makes people happy. They feast on the abundance of God’s house. They drink from the river of God’s delights. They enjoy the fountain of life, and God’s light enables them to see the light (8,9).
For some people the greatest source of joy comes from taking refuge in the shadow of God’s wings. I think that is especially true for the girls and boys here at the children’s home in Oaxaca, Mexico. Many of the children who live here come from troubled, dysfunctional environments, where many times only one parent or a relative was around, and that “care giver” was many times abusive either emotionally, physically or sexually, and the children could run, but not hide. They had no place of refuge.
And then they come to FFHM’s home for needy children and find refuge; a place where they are safe and secure. Instead of being frightened of biological parents they are delighted with loving house parents and staff members who make sure that they are well cared for emotionally, physically, and most importantly, spiritually. They are introduced to our marvelous God who loves them, died for them, and is now on his throne watching over them and wants them to live lives of peace and joy.
They say that Christians are the hands and feet of God. That is true, but when I look around at my brothers and sisters in Christ, here at the mission, I see that we are also the wings of God. The wings of God where the children of mankind can take refuge.
The recent tropical storm Ramon caused a lot of damage to hundreds of towns in Mexico, and upset thousands of lives. One of the worst hit regions of Oaxaca, Mexico was San Juan Tepanzacoalco of San Pedro Yarani. The children’s home where my wife and I help care for dozens of kids, also has outreach programs and missionaries in different parts of Oaxaca. Tepanzacoalco is one of those areas.
The heavy rains and high winds caused a lot of mudslides in this mountainous region, which destroyed many homes and cause two deaths. People living in the hills had to move into downtown and live for awhile on the municipal basketball court, fearing that their house could be the next one washed down the mountain. These people needed food and blankets and our ministry, FFHM, was there to help. Our administrator, Johnny, and outreach directors, Yadira and Esteban, along with volunteers from the children’s home, drove six hours to deliver warm blankets and lots of food to all the people that were suffering in this community. They did good!
The apostle Peter writes about doing good:
“Repay evil with good, because to this you were called.” (3:9)
“Turn from evil and do good.” (3:11)
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?” (3:13)
“It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” (3:17)
“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” (4:19)
It’s obviously important to Peter’s way of thinking to do good. But what does he have in mind when he writes of “doing good”?
We get a good idea by reading the rest of his letter. He mentions doing the will of God in 4:2. He says, “love each other deeply” in 4:8. He tells his readers to “use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace” in 4:10, and “serve others with the with the strength God provides” in verse 11.
Doing good seems to be about loving and serving others. Helping those in need. Looking for those in need and asking ourselves how we can be the answer, or at least part of the answer to whatever problems they may be facing. Some need a hand out; others need a hand up. Some are close and others might be half a world a way. Some people may be suffering from a one time catastrophe, like 9/11 or hurricane Ida, and others from a life long addiction or malady. There are 101 ways we can do good today and this week. Sometimes it isn’t pleasant to good. We are not always “eager to do good”. Many times we need to go out of our way to help. It can cost us financially, emotionally or drain our time, but as another great apostle said once, “let us not grow weary in doing good.” (Galatians 6:9)
This week I am celebrating 16 years of building strong children at the FFHM Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico.
I am the gardener at a home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am just one cog in the engine that makes this place function. There are also house parents, cooks, maintenance people, a mechanic, an accountant, school teachers and administrators. We all work together to give the needy children who come here a life that they could not have otherwise imagined. A life where their physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs are met.
All of the staff members are dedicated Christians, both Mexicans and Americans. We all have our regular jobs at the mission. On top of those jobs, many of us serve God, or cooperate with God in building up the Kingdom, using our gifts to help people glorify God and enjoy him, outside of our children’s home job description. The maintenance guy and his wife, one of the cooks, minister weekly at a church they started a couple years ago. The kitchen supervisor, a couple of house parents, a school teacher and the administrator, make up the church band. Others teach Sunday School.
And then there is Pablo. He works in maintenance and helps me with the gardening. He also preaches and teaches during the week at five drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers throughout the Oaxaca Valley. He has a passion to help people struggling with addictions, because he, himself, overcame drug and alcohol addictions and found Christ in the process. After completing a rehabilitation program, he went on to graduate from a Bible institute operated by Foundation For His Ministry. The Bible Institute is free, but one requirement is that upon graduation, students volunteer to help at one of the ministries operated by FFHM, for a year, which is what brought Pablo to the Oaxaca home for needy children. After his one year of volunteering, he came on staff and has helped care for the children in many ways. He married another staff member four years ago, and they recently adopted three of the children from the mission.
Pablo has invited me to go to one or more of the rehabilitation centers and share the gospel a few times over the last few years. I always kinda wanted to go with him, but my Spanish is still a bit iffy, and I was busy with my own on-the-side ministry of teaching English at a prison across the highway from the children’s home. Covid shut down that teaching opportunity, so in January I took Pablo up on his offer to go and share the Word of God at a rehab center. I went with him to “Nueva Criatura” or New Creature, in the nearby town of Tlacolula and met a bunch of men of all ages and walks of life who live at the rehab center and have at least one thing in common – they need help to break free of their addictions.
I asked myself, and God, What could I possibly say to those men that could help them? Being a gardener, I thought of all the areas at the mission that were at one time just a wasteland filled with thorn bushes and thistles, and are now beautiful gardens. I heard one time that no one enters a rehab center unless they have hit rock bottom. One day they look at their lives honestly and simply see a wasted life filled with trash and rubble, weeds and stubble, pain and broken relationships. They desire a better life and they finally seek help.
My hope was (and is) to be an encouraging light in a hopeless darkness, one showing them how to turn their personal wasteland into a beautiful garden. I took a few basic garden principles, found spiritual parallels in the Bible, and encouraged the men to apply these principles to their lives. I talked about the first garden, the Garden of Eden, and how it was beautiful, abundant and ordered, and how God could take the disorder, chaos and ugliness of their lives and change it into a wonderful garden that would not only fill them with peace and joy, but also those around them, if they trust God, the Master Gardner, with their lives.
This is not a new message for them. The rehab center is run by Christians who give the men a healthy dose of the Gospel many times a day in many different ways. My voice is just one of many who hope and pray, preach and teach, at the center. Perhaps the fact that I come from a different country, background and culture gives them a different perspective and they see that the Good News about Jesus and his love is not only for the down and outers suffering from addiction withdrawal, but for all types of people from all over the world. Or perhaps they just see a gringo loco. Probably a little bit of both.
Encouraging the men at the rehab center.
I don’t know how successful I have been communicating with them, especially with my less than perfect Spanish. Some of the guys speak English and help me out when I stumble, and when I am finished talking, Pablo comes to the rescue and drives home whatever point I was trying to make.
Ever since that second week in January, I have continued to accompany Pablo to Nuevo Criatura, to share from my heart truths from God’s Word that have changed my life, and hopefully will make a difference in their lives. I pray that they not only become free of addictions, but come to believe and see that God loves them and wants them to be happy and follow him forever and ever, amen.
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When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for heaven on earth. We ask God that his holiness be revealed, his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Foundation For His Ministry is God’s hands and feet in Oaxaca, bringing a little bit of heaven down to earth in this southern Mexican state. God’s will is to make beauty, do good and to share truth. Those of us working here at the Home For Needy Children strive everyday, with God’s help, to do just that.
First, we love the children. I came to the children’s home in March of 2005, before there were any children here. They began arriving in July of that year and have been coming ever since. For 14 years I have seen them coming through our doors scared, confused, not knowing what to expect. Most of them have known little of beauty, goodness and truth. They are welcomed with open arms and bright smiles. They soon come to appreciate the beauty of the gardens, the art work all around and the architecture. From day one they experience the goodness of healthy food, clean clothes and a comfortable bed. (A ten year old girl recently came to live here and she was given some new clothes to replace her dirty, worn out clothes. She exclaimed that she had no money to pay for the clothes and couldn’t believe they were free, just a part of living at the Childrens Home.) Most importantly they hear the Gospel Truth about a God who loves them and gave himself for them. Their lives will never be the same, and I am filled with joy and gratitude to God that I get to be a part of that transformation. A day never goes by when I don’t look at one or more of the children and think of what misery their lives would have been without this place.
It also makes me happy to think about all the outreach that FFHM is doing in this poverty filled state (Oaxaca is the fourth poorest state in Mexico). We don’t want to be like the Dead Sea that only takes in and never gives out. It is our intention to be more like the Sea of Galilee that not only takes in the blessings of God, but is also giving out. We have missionaries living in remote mountain regions of Oaxaca, most experiencing persecution, like Modesto in Amoltepec, Maria Villa Pablo and Tere in Juxtlahuaca, Glenda and Manuel in Huajuapan. They are sharing the Gospel, and their lives with people who would otherwise not hear the Truth and be saved.
We also go to local prisons. David and Louis go to preach and teach the Good News to the least and the lost. I give English classes to those behind bars who want to prepare for a better life when they get out. Edgar and the kids distribute hygienic materials to those in the psychiatric ward who never receive visitors, to those who no one seems to care about. We care.
Pablo cares a lot about people going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation and ministers frequently in centers for rehabilitation.
The teenage boys and Ceferino, from the mission, go to the local hospital Tuesday evenings with fresh pastries, hot coffee, a warm smile, and an encouraging word- doing good to those who wait anxiously while family members are being given medical care. The youth group partners with other local youth groups to celebrate Christ in word and song, bringing the message of hope to disillusioned and troubled teens.
Christian and his wife Yazmin, the maintenance man and a cook at the mission, started a church in a community that had no evangelical presence. He tends to his little flock on his days off.
God is using FFHM to bring light and life to a dark Oaxaca that is dead in trespasses and sin. It is doing good to the downcast, oppressed and fatherless. It is sharing truth with those deceived by the world, the flesh and the devil. It is a beautiful thing.
We rejoice and are glad that God is using us to bring a little bit of heaven to earth, in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am thankful that I get to be a part of that.
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Next week, Foundation For His Ministry’s Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico, will celebrate twenty years of existence. Twenty years of helping the poorest of the poor. Two decades of making disciples, of meeting the physical, emotional and educational needs of children who have been abandoned, abused and neglected. Casa Hogar (as it is called in Spanish) has been following God’s call and God’s example of making beauty, sharing truth and doing good.
Twenty years ago this 14 acre plot of land in the Tlacolula Valley was nothing but a half finished building and a lot of big thorn bushes. Now it is a place of beauty, with many gardens and wonderful architecture.
Twenty years ago leaders of Foundation For His Ministry began sharing truth with people of the region. The indigenous people like the Zapotecs, Mixes, Mixtecs, as well as native Mexicans heard the Good News that God loves them and wants them to be happy; that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; that through Jesus they can have peace with God and live an abundant, eternal life. Oaxacans from pre-school age to old age heard the truth about life and death; good and bad; heaven and hell. Pastors and missionaries went into area prisons and remote mountain villages preaching hope, restoration and renewal to those who felt hopeless, helpless and lost. Children from the Home learned and continue to be taught the truth of God and his Word in morning devotions, Sunday School, church services and youth conferences. They learn the truth of God’s World in our primary school called Oasis. They also hear and apply truths at special events like swim camps and at mountain retreats.
Twenty years ago, missionaries from FFHM came to Oaxaca with a vision of doing good. A vision of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick and taking in the stranger. For two decades servants of Christ have been cooperating with God, FFHM, local and regional authorities to make a difference in the Kingdom of God and Oaxaca’s seven regions. Doing good by meeting felt needs, and more importantly, meeting the deep spiritual needs of people in southern Mexico who are walking in darkness. FFHM has been bringing the Light of Life to thousands of lost souls for these last twenty years, and, God willing, for the next 20 years and more.
Sometimes I wonder if people read accounts like this and think that we must be some sort of Super Hero Christian Saints. We are not super hero Christian saints. We are just ordinary people doing ordinary things following an extraordinary God as best we can. God has opened our eyes to certain needs and we clumsily walk along the path that God has put before us to travel. We are sinners who have been forgiven. We are beggars who have found some bread and share with other beggars. We do the best we can to love God with all our being and love our neighbors as ourselves, and we fail mightily everyday. We hope to find God’s strength in our weakness. We pray for grace in our times of need, which are often. We could all easily pray the prayer of Saint Thomas A Kempis in his classic book The Imitation of Christ –
O God,
Deal with us according to your loving-kindness,
not according to our wickedness and iniquity.
We offer unto you all our goodness,
though it is exceedingly little and imperfect,
that you may mend and sanctify it,
that you may make it well pleasing and acceptable in your sight,
and ever draw it on towards perfection;
and furthermore bring us safely,
slothful and useless poor creatures that we are,
to a happy and blessed end.
May we feel ourselves assisted by your grace, enriched by consolation,
protected from dangers, freed from pains;
and that being delivered from all evils
we may joyfully give you exceeding thanks.
Pardon our sins and mutual offenses.
Take away, O Lord, from our hearts all suspicion,
indignation, anger, and contention,
and whatsoever is able to injure charity and diminish brotherly love.
Give grace to the needy,
and make us such that we may be worthy to enjoy your grace,
and go forward to the life eternal.
Amen.
To Enjoy God 