How We Got Started: Mexico
The Birth of the Movement in Mexico
In 1951, the first missionaries representing Charis Alliance churches entered Mexico. At the time, the Mexican government restricted missionaries to tourist visas, allowing them to stay in Mexico for only six months at a time. As a result, our early missionaries did most of their work along the border between California and Baja California. They identified the larger border cities as strategic starting points due to their higher population density and close proximity to the United States.
Our first missionaries to Mexico were Walter & Alys Haag and Roy & Dorothy Howard. Their initial ministries were in San Ysidro, California with a host home in Tijuana. While they found success, the mission was aware of the immediate need to raise up Mexican leaders not limited by visa restrictions. As a result, the missionaries prioritized developing a Bible institute along with their home-based meetings. Focusing on establishing a Bible institute was timely since in 1953, the Haags were denied entry into Tijuana.
Having their visas denied was far from ideal, but our missionaries persisted and found a way to pivot. The Haags started partnering with the Red Cross, taking short-term trips into Tijuana to teach medical aid. While they were stateside, they regularly ministered to Mexicans detained at a local immigration facility. Meanwhile, the Howards moved to the majority-Mexican town of Calexico, California with the goal of developing Mexican leaders legally authorized to enter Mexico.
The Growth of the Movement in Mexico
It wasn’t long before God brought new teammates to help. Dorothy Robinson was a great addition, as she was a Spanish-speaking teacher who focused on empowering local leaders in mission work. God also added Sibley & Willadean Edminston, who lived in Laredo, Texas and frequently crossed the border to minister to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Eventually, God led the Edminstons to serve in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. While the work of these missionaries bore fruit, we continued praying for the mission to reach deeper into Mexico.
God answered those prayers by leading Phil & Amy Guerena to bring the Charis Alliance to Mexico City. God had perfectly equipped them for the task, as Phil was the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, and Amy was the daughter of US-based missionaries to Native Americans in Montana. God gave this couple a desire to serve in cross-cultural ministry, and their ministry focused on college students. That ministry continued beyond them through Sergio Lopez, who came to follow Jesus through their ministry.
The Call to Prayer and Support
Today, the Charis Alliance has 30 churches and 15 points of light in Mexico. Its national church is a charter member of the Charis Alliance. Here’s how you can pray for our churches in Mexico:
While our movement in Mexico is strong, our churches there often operate independently of one another. Ask God to help them work more interdependently with each other and with our Charis churches in other countries.
Pray for our churches in Mexico to function as a team of trainers and planters who financially cooperate to send missionaries nationally and internationally.
Thank you for celebrating all the amazing work God has been doing through us in Mexico for over 70 years!
