July 30, 2001
A TEENAGER leads children in prayer Primera Iglesia Bautista de Zapotlanejo
GUADALAJARA:
Offering opens doors for partnership
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___GUADALAJARA--People walk along the roadside through the hills. They walk aloneand in small groups, and the human chain stretches for miles. They are on a pilgrimage to one of central Mexico's Catholic shrines.
THE DOOR stands open as Baptists from Texas and Mexico worship together on a weeknight at Primera Iglesia Bautista de Zapotlanejo. Stan Livingston (left) is speaking, while missionary Ken Baker interprets in Spanish. (Photo by Ferrell Foster)
___Catholicism stands at the core of the culture in and around Guadalajara.
___In the city itself, a sprawling metropolis of 7 million people, an estimated 2 percent of the population consider themselves evangelical Christians. In the smaller cities and rural areas around the city, that identity dips below 1 percent.
___To help evangelical Christians bolster their witness, Texas Baptists have formed an "informal partnership" with Baptists in that part of the world, said Don Sewell, director of Texas Partnerships for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It started two years ago and will continue indefinitely.
___The Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions provides funds to maintain this and other partnerships missions work done by Texas Baptists.
___Guadalajara is about an 11-hour drive from the Texas border. But Texas and central Mexico are worlds apart spiritually.
___Jalisco, the state of which Guadalajara is the capital, bears little resemblance to the border regions that so many Texans are familiar with, other than the language. There is more widespread prosperity and a heritage deeply rooted in hundreds of years of Spanish and Mexican history. Also, the percentage of evangelical Christians, mostly Baptists and Pentecostals, is much less than to the north.
___Becoming a born-again Christian in central Mexico almost always means leaving the Catholic church and being perceived as turning one's back on country and culture. Conversion often brings emotional pain and sometimes even physical harm.
___"This whole area is the most difficult part of Mexico to evangelize," said Omar Nicolas, a medical doctor and pastor of Tercera Iglesia Bautista de Guadalajara. "For someone to convert, they have to be very firm."
___So why have Texas Baptists chosen to partner with Baptists in one of the more difficultareas of the hemisphere?
LEE BAGGETT (left) and Raquel Morales treat patients at a clinic in a house.
___Sewell doesn't hesitate in his answer.
___"Guadalajara is the second-largest city in Mexico," he explained. "It has a small, hard-working but still struggling group of Baptist churches. ... We simply see the whole Jalisco state as a wonderful opportunity for Texas Baptists to share their gifts and see many won to Christ."
___Baptist work in the region revolves around a hospital founded by Southern Baptists in 1958, Hospital Mexico Americano. It is now owned by the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, and since 1970 it has received no financial support from either the Baptist convention or the Mexican government.
___"They do such a ministry that they offer free medical services to all Baptist pastors and their families in the country," Sewell said. "Amazingly, this hospital actually contributes" to the Baptist convention with a portion of its profits.
___Its influence, however, goes far beyond economics. The hospital has helped give birth to numerous Baptist congregations. It is a "perfect arm to reach people for the gospel," Sewell said.
___Lee Baggett, a missionary doctor with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, provides part of the connection between health care and church starting. Nicolasprovides the other. He is director general of the hospital, as well as being pastor of Tercera Bautista, which has started several congregations in the region.
FAUSTO JAUREGUI (left), pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Zapotlanejo, shows building plans to Stan Livingston, a member of First Baptist Church in San Marcos. A five-member team from San Marcos was one of several Texas groups that helped the church on its building project.
___On a recent morning, Baggett and physician Raquel Morales and dentist Reyna Garcia loaded their equipment into a white van and headed to Zapotlanejo, a town near Guadalajara. They set up a clinic in a home, all three doctors seeing patients in one large room.
___That evening, a number of the patients showed up at a worship service of the only Baptist congregation in town, Primera Iglesia Bautista. After several years without growth, the mission of Tercera Bautista has grown from four members to 40 in the past year and is constructing a 30,000-square-foot building with the help of Texas Baptist volunteers.
___Baggett and his team of doctors provide three clinics a week in communities where Baptists are trying to establish congregations. The clinics, an ongoing extension of the hospital, have helped start 14 churches in Guadalajara, he said. In the process, last year they provided medical care for 3,184 patients and recorded 117 professions of faith.
___The hospital is considered "one of the best hospitals west of Mexico City," Baggett said. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Guadalajara and has state of the art facilities, said Jose Gonzalez, a physician on the hospital staff.
___Several Texas Baptist hospitals have partnered with Hospital Mexico Americano by providing both equipment and training. Also, one Baptist individual, working through Texas Partnerships, provided a significant anonymous gift this year to help the hospital expand its services.
___Nicolas' vision for the Guadalajara hospital is to become a "third level" facility providing significant specialties, such as non-invasive cardiology. Also, he wants to see it grow from its current 80 beds to 120.
___Running parallel to Nicolas' vision for the hospital are his dreams for God's work through Tercera Bautista.
___Until 11 years ago, Nicolas never had preached. He was a deacon and Sunday School teacher at the church. The congregation asked him to consider becoming pastor. He prayed, and they prayed. He has been pastor ever since.
___The church has not grown into a large congregation, but it has reached hundreds of people.
___"We have six churches already started in 11 years," Nicolas explained. And seven missions are now being supported. At least 50 percent of the church's money is used for missions.
___Their efforts led to 40 baptisms last year.
___In Tamazula, a town whose economy is built around a sugar cane mill, most of the 40 members of the one Baptist congregation have been Christians for less than two years.They meet in a spacious rented structure but are not sure how long they can keep it. There is pressure to have the Baptists move.
DR. OMAR NICHOLAS (left) and Dr. Jose Gonzalez
___The church has acquired a tract of land on the edge of town valued at $80,000. A wealthy Mexican whose wife is a believer gave the land. The congregation is now looking to see how God will enable them to have their own building at a price they can afford and no longer have to worry about being evicted.
___Ocotlan is yet another town where Tercera Bautista is sponsoring a mission. In this city of more than 100,000 people, there are only 40 evangelical Christians, he said.
___Bernardo Requeson, pastor of Iglesia Bautista, envisions a day when there will be a strong church in Ocotlan, strong enough to provide leadership in reaching 10 cities in the area.
___"There is not one Christian church in these cities," he said.
___Gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering will enable Texas Partnerships to link with Mexican Baptists to reach these goals.
___The fact that the need is in Mexico heightens its importance, Sewell said.
___"Mexico is not going anywhere. We're always going to be neighbors, and we always need to work together with Mexican Baptists to address the challenges we face with winning Mexico to Christ."
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