Inside Story: Mexico
“I Want to Plant a Church”
By Andrew Mcchesney, Adventist Mission
Julio Ovalle was bursting with enthusiasm when he returned home from a Global Mission conference organized for church members across Mexico.
Image © Pacific Press
He excitedly told his wife, Maria Diaz, about what he had learned at the event in January 2017. “Now I want to plant a church,” he said.
Maria liked the idea. “Let’s do it!” she said.
But where to start? Julio wanted to reach out to a new neighborhood, and he thought a good way to start would be to teach people about essential health principles such as air, water, sunshine, and rest. Julio and Maria won support from the North Mexican Union to work as volunteer Global Mission pioneers, and their church pastor also backed the plans. But some church members remembered that a previous attempt to plant a church had failed.
“This plan will never work,” said one.
“You won’t get any good results,” said another.
Julio, Maria and their two adult daughters donned bright green T-shirts bearing the name of the health program, “I Want to Live Healthy,” and began to knock on people’s doors. At each house, they invited people to sign up for health courses at home and healthy cooking classes at church.
The family worked intensively for four weeks and finally signed up a first person, a 60-year-old man named Rogelio, for Bible studies.
When church members saw the family’s diligence and learned about Rogelio, a few donned bright-green T-shirts and joined them in going door-to-door. Before long, the group swelled to fifteen people.
The church members worked incessantly for six months. Seeing a growing number of people studying the Bible, Julio decided to form a small group to meet on Sabbath afternoons. He announced the plan to the church in February 2017 and invited more church members to join the effort. The church endorsed the small group, and ten members accepted the invitation to get involved. Moreover, a church member who rented out a hall for birthdays and weddings offered the place free of charge to the small group. Twenty-five Bible-study participants showed up for the small group’s first meeting.
Three months after being endorsed as a small group, the local conference recognized it as a branch Sabbath School. Seventeen months later, in September 2018, it became a church. Today, Puerta del Cielo (Door of Heaven) Seventh-day Adventist Church has 35 members, including 24 people baptized through Julio and Maria’s health classes. Sabbath attendance reaches 50 people. Plans are under way to construct a church building. “Our goal is to raise up the church and to raise up more souls for the kingdom,” said Julio, 46.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
My father was a builder. My sister asked him to build her home with a large family room. My dad asker her why she wanted a large family room. She responded that she was planning to invite her neighbor’s children for Sabbath afternoon Bible stories and Christian songs.
The house was built and her evangelistic plan worked well. The children came first, and then some of the parents soon joined them. The end result is that today there is an SDA church in that neighborhood.
I told this story before, but when I read today’s lesson, I could not resist the temptation to do this again. This happened seven decades ago in the country of Argentina. My sister was the neighborhood nurse, and she on many occasions did her work without pay, so it was easy for her to ask her neighbors to allow their children for an afternoon of stories and songs, and some cookies, or course.
Praise God for Kingdom builders!