MEXICO 2011 - Revival in the Streets

Cumuatillo, Mexico
Friday, September 30, 2011
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Revival in the Streets

Our team has just made it to an RV park an hour north of Mexico City. Jesse, Tanya, Zoe and I, along with a few other team members have decided to stay back with the vehicles while most of the team left on a bus this morning for a three day journey into Mexico City where they will minister in the slums, see the sights and attend a church service on Sunday morning. We have a rrived here after a long day's journey from the Guadalajara area where we experienced Holy Spirit parties and revival in the streets.

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Visiting the Mixteco People

While we were with Andy and Karyn Pricer from Fire Ministries in the Guadalajara area, our team was able to go with them to a part of town that only Mixteco people live. It was awesome visiting another indigenous people group. We went door to door just meeting the people, handing out CD's with the Bible and songs in their language on them. We prayed for the sick. One lady that Sarah, Jesse, Caitlin and I prayed for was completely paralized on one side of her body and received a complete healing and now has feeling on that side of her body once again. We shared the gospel with many and loved on the Mixteco people of that area.

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Revival in Cumuatillo

Two days ago we traveled a few hours south of Guadalajara towards Mexico City with our new friends where another couple from Fire Ministries are missionaries. We had an open air meeting in the street near a church that an awesome young man named, "Candy" is the pastor. I got a chance to help lead worship in Spanish. Then Ben shared what God had laid on his heart. Jesse gave his testimony. At least five people came forward to receive Christ. Then we asked people to come forward to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The streets were filled with revival as the Spirit of God fell upon everyone. Many spoke in new tongues. There were words of knowledge about people who were suffering with pain in different parts of their bodies. Those people also came forward to receive healing. The streets rejoiced at the testimonies of these healings. Our team continues to carry revival fire through Latin America!

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Christian Young

MEXICO 2011 - Guadalajara VIDEO

MEXICO 2011 - The Salvation of Almost an Entire Village of Unreached Cora People

El Cangrejo, Mexico

Friday, September 23, 2011
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The Salvation of Almost an Entire Village of Unreached Cora People

We headed south of Mazatlan toward Guadalajara and had scheduled a three-day outreach in the mountains of Nayarit among the unreached Cora people group. Pastor Hector from La Cruz as well as some others from that area and Culiacan accompanied us to Cofardia, at the base of the Nayarit mountains where we met up with Jay and his family. Jay is an American missionary with Alternative Missions and has been living here for sixteen years. After spending the night at their base camp, we unhitched the tent-trailers, left the RV’s and packed into our two 4X4 vehicles and a couple of other pickups heading four more hours east into the mountains to the unreached Cora village of El Cangrejo. It was an awesome drive with breath-taking views as we climbed from sea-level to nearly 7,000 feet. The last couple of hours were on really bad roads only passable by 4X4..

When we got the El Cangrejo, we met with a man of peace named, “Magdeleno” and his family, who Jay has begun to develop a relationship with over the past five or six years. The Cora people are the descendants of the ancient Aztec people and were the last people to be conquered in all of Mexico. Their facial features are strikingly indigenous, as are their clothes, culture and way of life. The Cora are animists, some of whom have mixed with Catholicism where it has been introduced. We heard that they were a very guarded people and resistant to the gospel, but we didn’t experience this in the village of El Cangrejo. In fact, the very first night we saw four young women give their lives to Christ at Magdeleno’s home…the very first converts in that Cora village! .

After spending the night in the village, we woke up, had breakfast and then hiked to the waterfall to have devotions. From there half of our team hiked further to the bottom of the waterfall while the other half went door to door, giving each of the forty families tickets that they could redeem later that evening when we were to show the Jesus film in the Cora language. The Mexican brothers who accompanied us had brought bags of food and clothing to distribute to each Cora family. We had interpreters with us as most of the Cora people don’t speak Spanish. I learned a few Cora phrases such as, “Aine pana,” which means, “Hello. How are you?” The Cora would giggle as I attempted to speak their language with them conversationally. We prayed for quite a few sick people as we visited the Cora in their homes.

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We had invited the families to attend a children’s program we were to hold at 3pm. I believe that all of the children of that village came out. Our team sang songs with them, played games with them and then portrayed the heart of God through a skit. When Roberta and Guillo asked how many of them wanted to receive Christ, both children and quite a few adults raised their hands in response…about 40 in all. It was amazing to hear this once unreached people ask Jesus into their hearts! We gave out stickers to the boys and hair bands to the girls. Then we distributed the food and clothes to each of the families. They were so grateful to us. The Cora live very simply and don’t have the luxuries that even many others in Mexico have. We then attempted to show the Jesus film in the Cora language, but the DVD we were given to use seemed to be scratched pretty badly. So an awesome Mexican singer and songwriter named, “Aurelio,” sang some of his original worship songs and again preached the gospel. Almost all present received Jesus Christ publically. This is an incredible phenomenon! Almost the entire Cora village of El Cangrejo had given their lives to Christ within the two days that we were with them! Our team also prayed for the sick into the night. One man’s eye that was blurry for one year cleared up instantaneously.

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What our Iris Latin America team set out to do from the beginning is coming to pass. We are carrying the love and the glory of God to the darkest places and to the remaining unreached people groups of Central and South America, partnering with other churches and organizations who will continue to minister when we have gone.

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Christian Young

MEXICO 2011 - El Santuario and Ministry at the Labor Camps

La Cruz, Mexico
Monday, September 19, 2011
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El Santuario and Ministry at the Labor Camps

Our team had originally been scheduled to stay at the YWAM base in Mazatlan, but they recently let us know that they were not able to do any ministry with us. So we changed our plans and Maria scheduled us to stay at a place called, “El Santuario” right on the Pacific ocean just north of Mazatlan in a town called, “La Cruz.” It is a resort run by a doctor and his wife who are Seventh Day Adventists and naturalists. So we were all vegetarians for a couple of days. It was well worth it, though, as we were able to do laundry, swim at the pool and in the ocean and have team time as well. What a beautiful place to stay!

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While in La Cruz, our team split off into two teams to visit two separate labor camps; one that Maria has been ministering at for the past four years and another one that Pastor Hector ministers at every week. We had a great time. The team that I was on went with Pastor Hector. Our team was introduced, I led a song in Spanish, we shared some testimonies and then prayed for the sick. I believe that all who were prayed for received a healing..

Christian Young

MEXICO 2011 - Bad Boys, Bad Boys. Whatcha Gonna Do?

Culiacan, Mexico
Sunday, September 18, 2011
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Bad Boys, Bad Boys. Whatcha Gonna Do?

Had our first experience with the police in Mexico these last couple of days. First on the drive from Pesqueira to Culiacan one of our vehicles was stopped by the police as we were fueling up. Maria was driving and had a few of the other girls from our team with her. After the rest of our caravan had waited for ten minutes to see if the problem she was having with the police would just take care of itself, we got the call in on the walkie-talkie for either Jesse or I to come over and help out. I went over to talk to the police. They seemed friendly enough and I remained calm the entire time…but what they were trying to give Maria a citation for was in question…and they were holding her driver’s license and not giving it back to her. At first they wanted to see the registration and insurance for the Suburban and the trailer. Then they were saying that she drove illegally behind the gas station. They were asking Maria for a lot of money but when I asked them how much the ticket was they said about 250 pesos (or $25 U.S.). We asked them if we could pay them the fine right there and get a receipt, but they said that they couldn’t issue a receipt for the ticket right there. They said that they could take us to an office about five minutes from the gas station. I agreed and hopped into the back of their police car and asked Maria to accompany me and have one of the other vehicles follow us. As soon as they saw that we weren’t going to pay a bribe, they let us go.

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Then as we approached Culiacan, which we found out later is in the middle of a major drug war, we got lost. As Pastor Arnoldo from Rio de Dios tried to guide us in we noticed a fleet of Federal Police with guns drawn pass us on the main road. We were supposed to head straight but the Federal Police pulled into a parking lot just ahead of us with lights flashing and guns drawn. It looked like there was going to be a shoot-out. We quickly stopped and turned around on the main road. Just then, a man in a white vehicle tried to flag us down. I asked if he was the pastor and he said, “No,” but still tried to approach the vehicles. We rolled up the windows, locked the doors and kept going, as we were already shaken up a bit from seeing the Federal Police performing drug busts. It was a scary situation. Come to find out, the man answered correctly. He wasn’t the pastor, but the pastor was in the car with him. I had the team’s safety in mind and accidentally ditched the pastor and his staff in all of the craziness. They were so patient with us. We finally met up with them, apologized, had dinner with them and then were put up into a hotel owned by a believer who attended the church in Culiacan.

 

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Our team ministered during the church service the following day at Rio de Dios with Pastor Arnoldo. We gave testimonies and showed “The Road to Tanzania” video. After the service our team prayed for people who came forward. Our team had some prophetic words for the church and for the pastor and his wife. There were healings and impartations. It was an amazing time in spite of our near run-ins with the police!

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Christian Young

MEXICO 2011 - Mexican Independence Day

Pesqueira, Mexico
Friday, September 16, 2011
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Mexican Independence Day

Revival is breaking forth here at our first stop in Pesqueira, Mexico. After a few hang-ups at the border in Nogales, our Iris Latin America team finally arrived late in the evening on Wednesday. We were greeted by Dany and the beautiful Christ-followers at “Centro de Fe, Esperanza y Amor” with an awesome dinner of local-style tacos.

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We hit the ground running the following morning, which we were informed was Mexican Independence Day. The inhabitants of Pesqueira come from all over Mexico and are mostly indigenous speakers of Triqui, Zapoteca and other languages. The church here goes house to house using large mp3 players with the New Testament in the over 300 languages of Mexico to determine what language each family in this area speaks. After gathering this information from each family, Dany then duplicates CDs with the gospel in their indigenous language and brings it to them so that they can hear the story of Jesus and respond. Our team collected money to purchase 1,000 blank CDs for the ministry here. After a time of worship together as a team, we accompanied the local Christ-followers in going house to house to help with the survey in five separate groups. It was an amazing time! We also prayed for many people. We led one woman to Christ right there in her courtyard. We also prayed for the sick and saw them recover. One boy we prayed for had some form of conjunctivitis and his eyes were red and watering really badly. He was one of the cutest kids I have ever seen, with an amazing smile even in the midst of his eye irritation. Only five hours later we saw him at the revival meeting we held and his eyes were completely normal and had totally cleared up!

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We planned a revival meeting for 6pm at the church that we were going to invite all of the people who we visited house to house. We were told not to expect many to attend because it was Mexican Independence Day and they would be attending the fiestas instead. Six o’clock rolled around and against all odds the church building began to fill with hundreds of the people that we had invited from the surrounding area. Some of our team gathered all of the children that came with their families to play games outside. At the revival meeting there was a time of worship. Then Jesse and Ted gave some testimonies of God’s love and power. Then Jesse and I spoke words of knowledge about people who were feeling suicidal that very week and who had pain in their bodies. People responded to these words and we ministered the love and power of Jesus to them. After this Dany gave the gospel message. In response to the message 45 people came forward to pray and receive Jesus for the first time! The Holy Spirit party continued as they continued to bring the sick and diseased to us. Many people from our team prayed for those who came forward. I personally witnessed everyone that I prayed for receive a healing; from back and stomach pain to eyes being opened to see clearly! C’mon Jesus! Others wept profusely as we spoke Papa’s heart over them. It was truly Mexican Independence Day as the indigenous people of Pesqueira were set free body, soul and spirit!!!

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We had planned some other activities for today, but because of the amazing revival that God is bringing to our first stop here in Mexico, we are going to do the same thing today; going house to house in other surrounding areas that we didn’t get to yesterday and hold another revival meeting tonight. I can’t imagine a better start to our Iris Latin America outreach.

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Christian Young