A Teaching Mission to Piedras Negras
Our team arrived in Piedras Negras on June 9 to begin the leadership seminar, which was held for four consecutive evenings. Throughout the week, there were many testimonies of salvation and blessing as a result of the ministry of teaching and preaching that took place.
From June 9-12, Pastor Victor Stewart (Natchez-Parkway Church of God), Pastor Lee Miley (Bude-Praise Cathedral Church of God), James Byrd and I had the opportunity to teach in a leadership seminar and minister at the Frontera de Esperanza Church of God in Piedras Negras, Mexico, which is one of the cities on the Mexico/USA border, approximately 100 miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas.
The invitation to minister came from Pastors Marco and Linda Orta, who have spent many years in Christian ministry in the Piedras Negras region. They have followed God’s leading in planting a church with a strong outreach of social ministry to the different neighborhoods of Piedras Negras, a city with nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants. Their outreaches into the communities include a vibrant children’s feeding center, prayer meetings and cell groups in strategic areas of the city, a prison ministry, and a regional Bible institute for the training of other pastors and leaders. They are also planning to establish other new churches in the greater region along the border, and are training future pastors for that ministry.
Pastor Charles D. Finch and the Westhaven Blvd. Church of God, in Jackson, Miss., have become major partners in ministry with us and with the Ortas, and have provided resources for the construction of a new church facility, including the children’s feeding program. Through Pastor Finch’s vision, several mission trips have been taken to Piedras Negras with many other Mississippi pastors and medical personnel being involved in various outreaches.
Our team arrived in Piedras Negras on June 9 to begin the leadership seminar, which was held for four consecutive evenings. I began each evening session with a teaching series on the topic of “Vision and Mission: Salvation History in the Old and New Testaments.” Then in a second session, Pastors Victor Stewart and Lee Miley taught and ministered to the people around the topics of “Discipleship,” “Leadership,” “Prayer” and “Spirit Baptism.”
During the days, we were able to visit the children’s feeding center and a cell group meeting. We also participated in a worship service at the local prison, where Pastor Miley preached and ministered to those who responded to the invitation to seek God for salvation, healing, and Spirit baptism. Throughout the week, there were many testimonies of salvation and blessing as a result of the ministry of teaching and preaching that took place.
We left Piedras Negras on Friday morning with the sense that we had also been truly blessed by the privilege of meeting some choice servants of the Lord, in the persons of Pastors Marco and Linda Orta, of having fellowshipped with some of God’s special people, and of having participated, in a small way, in the ongoing upbuilding of the Body of Christ and in the expansion of the Kingdom of God.
Rick and Jan Waldrop, Missionary Educators, Project Number 0600046
(Source: Church of God World Missions)
