June 3-7 Puebla, Mexico Trip

Armando's Summary of his most recent Mexico trip: Puebla and Mexico City.

Wednesday
I arrived in Mexico City in the afternoon and was scheduled to present the You Can Tell It seminar from EvanTell, to teach people how to present the gospel in a clear and simple way. Over 40 people from 3 different churches were in attendance. We had a great 3-hr session and during one of the breaks, one of the leaders came up to me and said that there were 2 non-believers in the crowd. It is my understanding that at the end of the session, one of them put their trust in Christ or at least understood what salvation was. I was supposed to only teach 3 sessions out the 8, but the people were so eager to learn that I made a decision to come back to MX City after my trip to Puebla to complete the seminar.

Thursday/Friday
I traveled to Puebla, Mexico, home of the Puebla Bible Seminary, to participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of the Seminary, where I manned a table to represent the EvanTell organization. I taught 5 workshops, one of them unscheduled. People were really open to learning what it means to trust Christ. Out of this conference, I was invited to give 3 seminars in other parts of Mexico; one of them has a confirmed date and time in the state of Michoacan, where drug dealers have a big presence. It will be in July, which will coincide perfectly since I will already be in Mexico (close to Michoacan) during that time.

Saturday
I was scheduled to be in Mexico City by 7:00 PM to complete the seminar started on Wednesday night. Around 1:00 PM, I received a call from the person who was supposed to drive me to Mexico City to tell me that his car had broken down. By now it was too late to even take the bus and make it to the conference on time, so the director of the seminary and other people tried to find someone to give me a ride, but were unsuccessful. As I was next to my EvanTell stand, I had one packet of evangelism tracts on my table left. One lady came up to the table and picked them up to look at and so I said, “If you want them, they’re yours.” It turns out her husband has been to Dallas to take the EvanTell training and uses those tracts, so she was very thankful to have more. It also turns out they live in Mexico City and had one space left in their minivan. We encountered a lot of construction traffic and an accident, but I made it a few minutes past 7:00.

To my surprise, we had more people on Saturday than we did on Wednesday, even though the Mexican Nat’l soccer team was playing a very important game and usually people would rather stay home to watch. This group in particular was very attentive (over 50 people from 3 different churches). One of the churches in attendance meets at a house in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Mexico City, named Tepito, in which one of the leader’s sons was killed (shot over 20 times). The pastor that invited me to present this seminar told me that these small churches are very evangelism-oriented, so they were very eager to learn. No one even flinched when they found out Mexico lost the game.

Sunday
On Sunday morning I had a pleasant surprise. Just before services, they had 2 groups in Sunday school and one of them had 3 non-believers and that morning they used what we taught them the night before to present the gospel to them and ALL three of them trusted Christ and they stayed for services and worshiped with us. As I was passing by where the other Sunday school group met, I very clearly heard how they wanted to start to pray for Laborers, Opportunities, Boldness, Success, Safety, and Salvation (LOBSSS, an acronym, which was part of the seminar) for their community. These 2 things completely made my day and my trip so worth while! The pastor wants me back in Mexico City to teach the seminar to five other churches he knows.

When I arrived at the Mexico City airport, I had an opportunity to present the gospel to one more person before I left. He didn’t clearly put his trust in Christ, but he does want to be at my next seminar in Mexico City and he wants to bring his wife. I thank God for allowing me the opportunity to at least plant a seed. I know He will do the rest! Thank you all for your prayers…it always makes a big difference!