New Church Specialties
Mexico Trip
August 2010
Larry Cook, Senior Consultant
It would be almost impossible to share all the wonderful experiences and the moving of God’s Spirit all week. However, let me try to give you a few highlights (Scroll down to see some picture of the trip).
- The travel to Mexico was uneventful …Portland, Maine to Atlanta to Monterrey, Mexico. The hardest part was to get up at 3AM to get to the airport…travel the almost 8 hours … arrive in the heat and then teach 3 hours that night in Monterrey.
- The Monterrey Hotel was a Mexican Hotel … no one really spoke English … I used a lot of hand signals and spoke loudly to be understood. Once we got the air conditioning up and working in the room, it was fine.
- The meals were good, as I carefully ordered a lot of bottled water and coke light in a bottle. Praise the Lord I did not get sick at all … just drained from the heat and sweating continuously …95-98 degrees with 90 degree humidity… in Monterrey.
- The first 2 days of training were held at the Monterrey First Church of the Nazarene. We had about 30 to 40 pastors and leaders. Some came from a long distance …from Nuevo Laredo … 2 hours north. The subjects included Effective Leadership and Conflict Resolution. They really enjoyed the teaching on Conflict in the church.
- The Host was Rev. David Diaz Castaneda, the District Superintendent for Northern Mexico ( 65 Churches). The Coordinator was Maru Rodriguez, the MAC Region, Northern Mexico Evangelism Coordinator. My translator for the week was Hilda Navarro, a very skilled translator and missions minded lay person. They were with me in every training session and every site.
- During the next day, I had a chance to see the city of Monterrey … museums and river boat tours. It was a welcome time of hot relaxation. The next day I flew to Tampico, a city on the Gulf of Mexico. Kind of a shore town. However, when I asked what Tampico meant, several leaders told me it means city of the “black fly ”. They were right … hot, humid, black flies biting… but guess what …the church was AIR CONDITIONED ! PTL !
- The Training in Tampico was Saturday from 2 pm to 6pm … then the preaching and Worship was at 7:30pm to ? . God really blessed us. Incidentally, some of the same pastors from Monterrey, along with other pastors and leaders ( about 50 in all) travelled by charter bus to Tampico for the week-end for the conference. It is 500 KM … 8 hour trip.
- On Sunday, I preached in the AM Worship on Acts 9: “Here’s The Way” . The response was very positive. We ate in the courtyard of the church and continued the workshops at 3pm, followed by the ending Worship Service. I felt led to end the preaching with a time of prayer and anointing with oil. WOW ! ALL HEAVEN BROKE LOOSE ! There have been few divine moments that I have experienced quite like it… commitments to God … reconciliation with pastors and leaders … re-commitments to pastoral leadership … and much more, yet to be shared with me. I was about at the end of my energy when God came through once again. By this time it was about 8pm.
- Then …we traveled by car back to Monterrey … 8 hours. The DS drove with Maru and Hilda in the back seat. We arrived in Monterrey safely, quickly rested and changed clothes for the trip home. The security / Federal Police had 3 or 4 stops along the way … they were checking trucks and cars with guns and dogs.
- I flew home … Monterrey to Detroit to Portland Maine … 12 hours with several delays in Detroit…what’s new !
So …thanks for praying … I was safe during the travel …there was no sickness – I loved the food ! … the coordinators were top notch, even though the DS spoke very little English and I speak less Spanish, we really loved each other and enjoyed our time together. And … most importantly, the Lord blessed us in the teaching and preaching times. I am anxious to return !
Special thanks to Bernie Slingerland, the MAC Region Coordinator, for the wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord in this way.
God bless
Larry Cook
