Derek left with Southwest Park Baptist Church on Tuesday, March 17th. He will be back on Saturday, March 20th. He called us when he arrived safely Tuesday evening. Please pray for him as he leads in VBS the next two days.
Mexico violence deters some, not all, mission trips
■ Travelers expect locals to help point out safe, unsafe areas
EMILY PETERS
peterse@reporternews.com / 325-676-6776
Beltway Park Baptist Church isn’t taking any more chances with the escalating violence in Mexico — at least for this spring break.
At Christmas time, Beltway’s high school aged youth were caught in crossfire during a mission trip to Reynosa, the border town near McAllen where the church has frequently sent teams to serve an orphanage in recent years.
As the Mexican military executed an ambush against drug lords in an open shopping area, “the youth had to take cover in a restaurant,” said Keith Roberson, pastor over Beltway’s university student ministries. “Everybody was OK and the Mexican military helped get them out of harm’s way. We hoped that might have been an isolated incident, but 2 to 3 weeks later we saw a couple more reports.”
That’s why in January, the church decided to change spring break plans to take a large number of university students to Reynosa.
Reynosa is listed in a warning released Monday by the U.S. State Department as one of the cities know to have “large firefights” between the military and drug cartels armed with automatic weapons and grenades.
“We had a lot of parents who were happy we changed those plans,” Roberson said.
Sunday, the U.S. State Department issued a new warning against travel in some border towns after three people with ties to the U.S. consulate were gunned down by drug lords while leaving a child’s birthday party in Juarez.
However, some Abilene churches are not concerned about their Mexico mission trips.
Today, about 50 members of Abilene’s Southwest Park Baptist Church will drive to Acuña, where the church has worked with a partner congregation for the past seven years. The church group includes members ranging from elementary students to those in the 70s who will help with construction, Bible school and big tent evangelistic services.
Acuña, located across from Del Rio, is not specifically listed as a dangerous city in the State Department’s warning, but it does mention parts of Acuña’s state of Coahuila.
Chris Raley, spiritual development and missions pastor at Southwest Park, said the church has been in contact with a local pastor and camp director in Acuña who say the violence is not escalating in their area.
“We don’t go to the unsafe places,” Raley said. “It’s just like in Abilene, where there are places you wouldn’t go at night. Our local friends help take care of us and let us know where we need to be.
The locals tend to know a lot about what’s going on.”
And while the church sent a team to Juarez last year, he said that trip won’t be repeated.
“That’s a dangerous place,” he said.
But the change in plans hasn’t hampered the spirit of Beltway’s spring break efforts. This week, two charter buses are taking about 90 college students all over Abilene to share their faith in apartment complexes and different neighborhoods.
“It has really been a blessing for us to realize our mission right here in Abilene,” Roberson said.
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